Old Media/Old News...A Reiteration

Among the things you were not reading over at the NY or LA Times was a small matter of the courage that is possible when the individual -- and you may trust that this applicable only to "the individual" -- when the individual overcomes dread fears.

But a file story, even upon the same langauge, does not have the punch of full color and round substance.

I bother because I am moved by not only what was achieved but how it was accomplished. And, Oh yes - how it was (How was it?) so little reported.

Just yesterday

Not so very long ago I was twenty-something and struck down by Love -- yes, the capital L version -- having dabbled about a little in it, being inevitably struck down in it by the backhanded repercussions of my sentimental ownership/s of those mere pretty object/s so desired, so half-malleable, so wrong; and it happened when I was looking in the other, another direction and empathetically considering the painful sorrow mixed with patent pride of two parents for their daughter-child who were, all three, standing before me, pleading to look further into the on-the-brink life of that daughter who was, for all practical purposes, being put into the hands of the likes of me.

Years later, I have asked such questions of myself, my wife, and of God and eternity as I was asked that day, to the bulk of which I was required to say "un-huh, I understand how you feel..." (I did not) and in the end to which I had to say, "No," upon which they unrelentingly repeated their appeal/s.

That is the teaser: I am going to let it rest for the moment (I have my reasons) and go on to point out that that is what is so refreshing about love -- that it moves from self-love to other-love to full bloom: join my in sorrow for ... whether yourself or not ... for those who get stuck somewhere nearer the start or the middle of the painful progress and make the perilous leap from that too-early stage into the permanence of marriage, which may be and I think is the major fault line leading to the only-too-common big crack-ups that end in too frequent divorce.

Love is painful, love is sweet, love is ... just across the street: a major eight-lane highway clogged with rushing traffic across which one must risk one's beating heart to reach the smallest great island of Love whereupon itself is embedded, rooted, convicted, and most of all committed to permanence against all winds and tides and the intermittent traffic spotted by the naturally wandering eye.

Here is a little something (under the title "Long and boring, and written very long ago.") 'written' on May 14, 2005, for mp3 that belongs on permanent wax-sans-digital, which cries out beyond the mere recording and throughout the sole soul of the artist -- and artist he is -- striving to arrive at resolution of his mixed motivations that, as I was saying at the first, probably, then, should be kept on hold while he runs out and makes a committment of himself to his blooming talents and skills before getting waylaid, so to speak, by the way ... on which he is wending.

Just yesterday I was in love when I suddenly, unexpectedly, at a glance, fell into Love from which I have never relented; but I ... I may not be now or may not then have been so talented as is this artist dangling amidst the struggle while rolling in the first fruits of love.

When We Do Not Take Care We Have to Hustle

For some years now the state of New York at the level of agaency responsiblities, real and fiduciary, has been aware of and purportedly alert to the dangers of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) as a result of apparent "outbreaks" in the Mid- and Ultra-mountaine West. The main responsiblity in NY is that of the Dept. of Agriculture & Markets with particularized responsiblity falling to the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). With the discovery of one and further inspired finding of another six whitetails with CWD in NY, A&M and DEC have jumped into action to ... catch up ... with their neglected responsibilities and clean up ... (choose one: the mess/the evidence). For myself, I am going to be characteristically willful and suppose that the neglect was innocent oversight, the catch up is dutiful, and the clean up is responsible; but one just cannot keep from wondering:

In NY, since the unseemly marriage of the former Dept. of Conservation with certain expensive and ill-afforded Dept of Health offices to create the DEC -- on the basis of creating a protected Conservation Fund presumable protected against raid/s and from leakage to cover costs outside Fish & Wildlife (F&W) -- the conservation side has been neglected, the numbers of enviro-technologists without the slightest interest in hunting and fishing hired under F&W, the firearms sports have been addressed as if the province of hooded terrorists rather than decent citizens pursuing traditonal outdoors acitivties, and not surprisingly the number of hunting and fishing licences has steadily, progressively fallen-- without enjoying the significant and enlightened response to be expected of a state department of natural resources: the Conservation Fund has both suffered as a result and is said to have been demonstrably "raided" and seems to have leaked. [Stats -- and especially staisticians -- do not tell the story.]

This is sticky business! Where are
• all those licensees we might have prepared by establishing fishing schools on site at the many excellent hatcheries (and elsewhere) in NYS?
• those marvelous shooting ranges at which we might have educated, prepared, and trained youth, developed a "family culture," and aggresively encouraged better marksmanship among ordinary shooters, plinkers, hunters -- the non-competitive shooter who might be the bread-and-butter of the sport?
• those education programs by which we might have educated the mothers of single-parent families to understand both guns and their gun-interested children better, while also providing them with NRA/Women on Target and other programs?
• those "Those? -- we don't have the time or money for those."

The answers are difficult, but among them the "...but we were scared of offending the anti-gun/animal-rights/environmentally loud factions that threaten our state politics..." excuse is a) characteristically unheard and b) reverberating loudly. That would take guts. Which, in NY, we do not have.

THAT is our mad cowed disease.

NOW then! -- with the sudden need to get on the ball and chase down and clean up CWD the Conservation Fund is found to be inadequate to meet the need AND all those Pitman-Robertson funds have been burned up in support of the (ahem, ahem) remarkably expensive hunter education training course. What does one do?

One jumps on the wagon and puts in place another revenue stream:

For Release: IMMEDIATE
Friday, May 13, 2005

DEC ANNOUNCES NEW "CONSERVE HABITAT" LICENSE PLATE
New Offering Will Help Raise Funding For, Bring Awareness To Habitat Preservation

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Acting Commissioner Denise M. Sheehan today announced that the new "Conserve Habitat" custom license plates are now available for purchase from the State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The revenue from the sale of these license plates will be used to improve habitat and increase habitat access throughout the State.

"DEC is committed to working with our partners to ensure that our natural resources continue to be protected, as well as to restore habitat that benefits our fish and wildlife populations and preserves our natural heritage," Acting Commissioner Sheehan said. "This new license plate provides another innovative way for New Yorkers to support the protection and restoration of habitat and I encourage all those interested to invest in a plate today."

New York State encompasses more than 47,000 square miles, including mountains, plains, valleys, and seashores. Four-fifths of our State's uplands consist of farmland or woodland. Our abundant water resources include four million acres of freshwater lakes and ponds, 70,000 miles of rivers and streams and more than 200 miles of marine coastline.

Loss of habitat is a real concern in New York State. Legislation signed by Governor Pataki created the "Conserve Habitat" plate and provided that $25 of the annual renewal fee will support the protection and management of State fish and wildlife, overseen by DEC. Revenues will be deposited in a special account within the Conservation Fund. The habitat account is used solely to protect, restore, and manage habitat, and to develop public access for fish and wildlife-related recreation and study.

A ruffed grouse in flight was selected to illustrate the "Conserve Habitat" plate. Ruffed grouse is a forest species widely distributed across New York State. They prefer younger-aged forest habitats, which are declining as New York State's forests grow older and changes occur in land use. Ruffed grouse numbers have been decreasing since the 1960s, making it an excellent choice to illustrate the importance of conserving habitat. The artwork for the license plate was provided by Albany-area artist and DEC wildlife biologist Jean Gawalt.

DMV Commissioner Raymond Martinez said, "The Conserve Habitat Plate is a great way for New Yorkers to demonstrate their commitment to protecting our environment. By purchasing the plate, they are also helping to keep New York beautiful so that New Yorkers for generations to come can enjoy our state's great landscape and wonderful wildlife."

Howard Cushing Jr., President of the New York State Conservation Council, Inc. (NYSCC) said, "Our organization supports initiatives that can improve habitat for New York State's wildlife, and the 'Conserve Habitat' license plates and Habitat/Access Stamps will further our goals. NYSCC worked hard for passage of the legislation creating the plate and purchases of the plates, as well as the federal matching funds available, will be a great boost for habitat in the State."

The initial cost for the "Conserve Habitat" license plate with a number assigned by the DMV is $43 with an annual renewal fee of $25. A personalized version with the motorist's choice of two to six characters, including spaces, is available for $68, with an annual renewal fee of $50.

This plate is available to anyone who has a passenger or commercial vehicle registered in New York State. To order your "Conserve Habitat " license plate, visit any DMV issuing office, DMV's website at www.nysdmv.com or call the DMV Custom Plates office at 518-402-4838, Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Other license plates available through the DMV to support environmental protection include the Bluebird Plate, which helps support the State's Environmental Protection Fund and the Marine and Coastal District of New York plate, which helps support the Conservation, Education, and Research Fund of the Marine and Coastal District of New York.

DEC also offers Habitat/Access Stamps to help further contribute to additional habitat preservation efforts. The voluntary sale of the $5 Habitat/Access Stamp is sold by hunting and fishing license sales agents throughout New York. Legislation signed by Governor Pataki created the Habitat/Access Stamp to support DEC's efforts to conserve habitat and increase public access for fish and wildlife related recreation. In April 2005, Commissioner Sheehan announced nearly $100,000 for habitat management projects and the improvement of public access as part of the first group of grants supported by sales of the Stamp. For more information about the stamp and the programs it helps fund, go to www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/license/habstamp.html on DEC's website.

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MIT/EC TTC

That is not "My Tech Time Traveller Convention" but close: MIT, East Campus -- where Amal Dorai succumbed with elegance to the latest already done from where I usually am writing you, and the place from which I do a regularly scheduled and occasionally unscheduled TT-shuffle to parts researched and known and parts unknown, the former being the most trying.

It appears from my readings among the variously interconnected MIT-related b-logs that at least one other entity has the shuffle rating/s to drop in and out of the two places abroad at the same moment, although occupying the same space by past\future strianeum capitation.

Works for me...now, and then.

Meanwhile, I am faced with several competing simultaneous deadliners that must be addressed...before I become unglued.