The 8th Annual Thank The Lake Day

    Joseph FireCrow

Thank The Lake Day is an annual event that takes place at Sears Park in EastHampton every third Sunday in May to give thanks to Lake Pocotopaug. “It’s about raising awareness, we need to pay attention to our planet,” explained Priscilla Connors producer and founder of Thank The Lake Day. Connors is a dynamic and creative women. She is owner of Positively Clean, a unique cleaning service company out of East Hampton, who offers nontoxic organic cleaners and sacred space clearings. Sacred space clearing is a way of using energy to clear a home, building, or natural landscape of negative energies. With a variety of techniques Priscilla clears the land’s energy, and then cleans the home or business with organic nontoxic supplies that she makes with pure essential oils. “If you know about Reiki, this is the easiest way to explain it. It’s Reiki for the land, using symbols and co-creating, by working with the land and the earth’s magnetic grids to bring your property to it’s highest frequency and vibration,” explained Priscilla. Encouraged by her husband to write down her cleaning recipes and sacred space clearing techniques she wrote a book, The Field Guide To Vibrational Cleaning. “Positively Clean addresses the self, the home, the community, and our sacred Earth.” PositivelyClean.com

 

When Priscilla and her family brought a home on Lake Pocotopaug she fell in love with the lake and it’s natural beauty. Lake Pocotopaug whose name was derived from the Pequot Indians is a 512 acre natural lake. Back in the early part of the 20th century Lake Pocotopaug was a resort community that attracted hundreds of tourists during the summer season. Unfortunately the lake has seen better days. Each year there are large algae blooms. According to Wikipedia,“In recent years the lake has become a place of ecological study due to the large scale algae blooms that resulted in 2000. Tests have shown that longstanding shoreline development and fertilizer use are causing increasing issues.” In the early spring and summer the lake is clear. From the beginning of July to the end of the season the lake is green with algae, “ The algae blooms because of the phosphor. It’s like a green infection,” explained Connors. The phosphor comes from water runoff. Lake Pocotopaug is in a watershed and whenever people use toxic chemicals there is runoff into the lake. Gas powered motor boats add to the problem as well. The algae was so bad one year that there was a large fish die off. In an effort to help clean the lake and educate the community, Priscilla put her space clearing techniques to work and produced Thank The Lake Day, now in it’s 8th consecutive year. The first year of Thank the Lake Day Priscilla did a sacred space clearing of Sears Park. The following year Sears Park was awarded a large grant to improve the park. “Ever since then, every year, there’s always something a little bit more done to the park to improve it. That’s what happens with sacred space clearing, it may happen right away, or it may take a few years, but there’s always positive change.” 

When the idea to produce Thank The Lake Day came to Priscilla, she reached out to Joseph FireCrow. FireCrow is a renowned Native American flute player, he won a Grammy as guest artist on David Darling’s “Prayer For Compassion”, as well as seven Native American Music Awards. Connors met FireCrow while attending various Native American Pow Wows. A Pow Wow is a gathering of North America’s Native people.  Priscilla explained, “When I got the idea for Thank The Lake Day, Joseph FireCrow immediately came to my mind. I contacted him and I said, our lake is in peril, we need to bring awareness to the people about it, and educate them on the watershed and better ways to maintain it organically, and he said, “Absolutely!” Now eight years later Joseph FireCrow still comes to share his flute, drum and stories to raise awareness about the importance of the planet’s health. For FireCrow, caring for our community goes beyond our backyard, and this caring is essential for our environment today. So many people are detached from the earth. Using his flute and drum Joseph shares stories and songs from his ancestors. “The Flutes that I play evoke strong emotions and thought.” He went on to describe how music can be a means to open people up, to connect them to each other, and the planet. “ The drum represents the heartbeat of grandmother earth. The heart beat of our people. When we drum we are the earth,”  he said. Since the first Thank the Lake Day eight years ago Joseph and Priscilla have seen the water change on Lake Pocotopaug, the return of wildlife, and more people coming each year. “ I would not imagine it would be where it is today. The involvement from the community all the artists and artisans that want to be there to share in our humanity, and how we connect with our grandmother earth, and with all the animals. I am simply amazed!”

Festivities begin at 1PM with local music, yoga, and vendors. There will be food for sale by Higher Grounds. Stop and Shop donates flower petals to spread on the lake. Also, Positively Clean will be hosting a soap drive to benefit East Hampton’s Food Bank. For more information visit Thank The Lake Day on FB, or visit positivelyclean.com

Parenting In The Age Of Social Media

Parenting in the digital age is no easy task. The internet is full of wonder, social expression, and information. Unfortunately the internet is also full of predators, bullying, violence, and pornography. As parents we need to be educated about our child's online life. What is safe? What is not?  Social media is very popular with both adults and teens. Via social media we are connected to each other like never before. Sharing ideas, photos, and information, the possibilities are excitingly limitless. We cannot ban children from the internet and social media, this is their world. They need to know how to use the it, and use it safely. Let's use common sense and follow simple rules.

All social media apps come with terms of usage. Before allowing your child to download any app it is wise to go over the terms of usage with them. This teaches them to be aware of what the rules are, and what they are signing onto. and it keeps you as the parent abreast of what they are doing. Instagram's first term states,"You must be 13 years or older to use this site." Then why do some parents knowingly allow their underage child to download the app and violate the terms? I have seen underage children online act dangerously foolish via social media. I have seen underage children post inappropriate photos, use bad language, bully others, and in some extreme cases met predators in person.  Children must be mature enough to use social media. Would you drop your child off in a city alone without supervision? Any sane parent would say, No Way! Then why allow a young child to have social networking apps before they are ready? 

When a child does reach 13, and you allow them to use social media, it is your responsibility to check on them and know what they are up to. You won't know everything, but keep a pulse on your kids, and teach them to be Internet smart. With the Internet comes responsibility for both teens and parents. There is a reason for terms of usage. If you give your child access online too soon you are opening Pandora's box. Let a child be a child. Educate yourself and follow your child's activity. Don't fall into the nagging and begging... So and so has it. You as the parent must be strong. You purchased that smart phone, so be smart and teach your child to be Internet safe! http://www.netsmartz.org/InternetSafety

Kids Are Not Standard

Common Core is the demise of education. Standardization is what it sounds like, standard, but children don't come standardized. When you peel the layers away from standardized testing and see it for what is, you realize education has become a commodity. Standardized testing is a billion dollar industry that operates in private. As a parent you can't even see the test your child is taking. Why? Because the test is PRIVATE INTELECTUAL PROPERTY!

Gone are the days of creative freedom in the classroom. Gone are the days of just plain PE in grammar school. Now PE is health too and you take a test about playing basketball instead of actually playing basketball. Gone are lunch periods where children can eat. What, you say? They still have lunch period, right? They have about 15 minutes to eat! My children often bring home half their lunch because they did not have time to eat! Gone are the days of hands on art projects, creative thinking, reading for fun, games, poetry, and music. Yes, you'll see buzzwords about these subjects around school, and your kids may have art, and they may bring home a project here and there, but the focus is the test! Test, test, test!

Chew on this for one brief moment. Wealthy students in private schools are not tested like this! The policymakers who signed the deal with the McGraw Hill et el to produce the PRIVATE SBAC tests have kids in private schools! Yes, money buys education in more ways than one. Public education has become a new market for money and our kids are for sale. Did you know your children's data is mined via the school to corporations? Did you know your Blue Ribbon School is not about merit per say, it's about business! The business of testing, and lots of money is being made!

There is a price on our children's heads and advertisers have a direct link into their young minds via school. This is not what public education is suppose to be. What happened? What happened to local towns controlling what students learn? Parental input, teacher creativity. Test proponents will argue standardized testing ensures everyone is learning the same thing. How about this, homogenized people don't make for strong and active communities. We're not robots!

Torture and The NDAA

What shocks me most about the release of the CIA torture report is how accepting the American public is in regards to it. Where's the outrage? Instead a lot of people seem okay with torture. That truly surprises me. Holding officials accountable for crimes against humanity in no way supports acts of terror. You can punish terrorists with law. What happened to liberty and justice for all? We have bombed Iraq, Afghanistan, killed Saddam and Osama; our drones kill daily on foreign soil. Our bombs kill innocent people in our war on terror all over the world. There has got to be a better way! Since when do two wrongs make a right? Isn't that what we teach our children? Isn't that why we have a court of law? Isn't that what makes us a great country, the blind eyes of justice, a fair trial? Law does not act based on emotions or retaliation. Law acts on the facts. Our system is not perfect. But isn't brutality worse? How is torture ever justified?  An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Mahatma Gandhi,

Here is something to ponder. When we allow for this egregious abuse of power, for crimes of terror and torture to be committed in secrecy by public officials, behind closed doors, we are no longer the democratic society we claim to be. We have become the culture of see something say something, fear and paranoia. I see something, and I am saying something. Torture is wrong. I see a democracy headed to ruin, to be ruled by a violent oligarch. Are you aware of the National Defense Association Act aka the NDAA? Do you know what secret policies mean for democracy, the rules of law, and our fundamental rights as a free and civilized society? The NDAA strips all Americans of their constitutional rights protected under law, Habeas Corpus, due process, Miranda rights, and privacy.

Here's the part where you should be really concerned. I know you have nothing to hide you're not a terrorist. You feel good knowing the government's got your back. Well think again. Terror is loosely defined in the NDAA and suspicion alone is cause to strip you of your rights. Just being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, could send you away. You could be online researching terror and inadvertently raise a red flag to one of the Internet spies, or you and could just be accused by someone who doesn't like you, or maybe you're a reporter covering a controversial story and your interviewee is a suspected terrorist. You no longer have rights under the NDAA, they have been stripped as though we had no Constitution or Bill of Rights. Not only that, the NDAA can claim any land or property it wants. You could be scooped up and NO ONE in your immediate circle will know what happened to you. Under the NDAA you have no right to a phone call, a lawyer, NOTHING! You could be shipped to a secret prison overseas. Left to languish in a cell... I know you’re not a terrorist, so why should you care? Because we have a Constitution, a Bill of Rights, and laws to combat terror. We do not need a government who uses torture as a means to justice with the right to lock us up indefinitely while committing crimes against humanity behind closed doors to have this kind of power!!! Please see articles bellow. And remember, if we turn a blind eye to the persecution of others thinking they deserve it for whatever reason and that torture trumps law, we have slumped into the darkest of ages.

Here's link to an article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/national-defense-authorization-act/

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/itemchris_hedges_responds_to_ndaa_defeat_20130717