May 04, 2021

When I was out looking for a place to fish on Saturday, I drove by the Aux Arc Campground.  This is a Corps of Engineers park associated with a hydro plant along the Arkansas River.  I almost drove by, but I have found potential fishing holes at the Ellis hydro plant near Fort Smith.  I pulled in at the last minute to see what the park was like.  I entered the park and drove slowly (truck in front going 5 miles per hour) by a continuous series of campsites.  It was a weekend but still I was amazed to see nearly every spot filled with an RV and usually an additional tent.  The playground had nearly twenty children and their parents, and a birthday party for forty was taking place in the shelter.  There must have been over 300 people crammed along the narrow bank of the river.  This was one of the many parks and campsites that were closed this time last year.  We seem to be back open in full swing.

The Ozark hydroelectric plant is one of six plants along the Arkansas River in our state.  There are an additional five Hydro plants on the White River and a total of 19 plant throughout the state. These are operated by six different power agencies.  In 2018, Arkansas’ electricity-generating facilities had a summer capacity of 14,763 megawatts, and a net generation of 67,999 gigawatt-hours.  The Hydro plant at Ozark was completed in 1973.  It has five turbines that produce a net generation of 89,547 megawatts of power.  In 2020, Arkansas’ electrical power generation mix was 39% coal, 28% natural gas, 22% nuclear, 8% hydroelectric and 3% renewables.  We are still a long way from clean renewable energy.

The Ozark hydro plant marks the beginning of the Ozark Lake.  The associated park created by the Corps is named Aux Arc based on the name given to the area by the early French explorers who mapped the territory.  “Aux Arc” means “the big bend” in French and described the bend in the Arkansas River noted by the mappers.  Over time, the name was simplified to “Ozark,” thus the name for Ozark Lake and the town located nearby.  Some suggest the whole area was called the big bend by the French, and the later English explorers applied the name to the nearby mountains as well.  The Ozark Mountains cover a significant portion of northern Arkansas and most of the southern half of Missouri.  This is a big bend.

Thoughts:  Hydro was once the main source to power for early industry of America.  Most mills and factories were located along rivers or streams that used the flowing water to turn the machines that drove early industry.  It was not until September 30, 1882, that the world’s first hydroelectric power plant began operation in Appleton, Wisconsin.  The plant was initiated by Appleton paper manufacturer H.J. Rogers and was inspired by Thomas Edison’s plans for an electricity-producing station in New York.  Hydro is one of several non-carbon renewable sources available to produce the electricity needed to drive today’s manufacturing and light our nation’s cities.  While the dams associated with the plants often serve as flood control, they can also block the migration and spawn of species of fish.  We cannot choose human needs over nature’s but need to find a way to allow both to thrive.  Otherwise, nature will win.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

May 03, 2021

Saturday Melissa’s sister and niece came to visit, and I took some time to go for a drive and get in some fishing.  I had been given directions for a guaranteed fishin’ hole several months ago by a friend but had not yet been able to check it out.  I was not sure this was where I was going to go, but as I drove the car took me in that direction, so I followed along (even without AI).  The route took me across the river and then east along the interstate.  The further I drove the more I realized these were directions from his house up north.  A closer route would have been to head east from my town and then bend slightly north.  I was out to get away and the drive was through some beautiful scenery, so I did not mind.  While I was on my way back home, I passed the (locally) famous Budweiser Silo outside of Lavaca.

When I worked for the Kansas State Forestry Department in the 1970’s (yes, a real thing) we took care of the trees and grounds of the state park areas at two of the local reservoirs.  We mostly planted trees, pruned, and cut grass to keep the areas looking nice.  A couple of years earlier the high-water level from rains had resulted in the loss of trees along the reservoir, and that meant we also cut up the wood and transported it to a ground silo located on the other side of the lake.  The ground silo was previously used by the rancher who owned the land around the river the dam had transformed into a reservoir.  They would store silage as feed for their cattle.  Since it now belonged to the State, we filled it with limbs.

The silo I passed Saturday was located on a ranch that raised Certified Angus Beef.  They used this upright silo to store grain they used to feed the cattle during the lean winter months.  It seems the original owner was also the local beer distributor.  He had painted the Budweiser logo replica on the silo years ago, but it had faded over time.   After he died, his daughters ran the beer distributor business, along with the ranch.  They met artist Troy Freeman of Freesky Studios when he was painting a logo on their barn for Certified Angus Beef.  Since the original paint on the silo required frequent touching up, they hired Freeman in 2018 to redo the silo with a more durable paint.  Freeman located a beer can from the 1974-78 era, completely sandblasted the silo, and recreated the original to exact scale and specs.  The interesting part is the silo sits in a dry county.

Thoughts:  I remember one day when another worker and I brought limbs to the ground silo in Kansas.   I backed the truck up to the edge and got out to push the limbs into the slit.  My co-worker decided I was not close enough and got in to move the truck closer.  Every time he put his foot on the clutch it inched closer to the silo.  Finally, he revved the engine and threw it into gear.  Regrettably, it was in reverse.  The truck unloaded all right, but it now sat in the bottom of the silo.  Life can often be like unloading our truck into the silo.  We can try and tweak what we are doing to make everything perfect before we start.  When things get off kilter, we can become frustrate and just throw it in gear and hit the gas.  Often this causes us to end up in the bottom of the silo.  Sometimes it is better to accept that even though things are not perfect we will never make any progress until we start.  Perfection will never be achieved without first beginning the work.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

May 1, 2021

The nightly news yesterday reported that 90 people had been found crammed into a single two-story house in a Houston neighborhood in an apparent incident of human trafficking.  Assistant Chief Daryn Edwards of the Houston PD said Investigators had worked overnight to track down the location in southwest Houston after receiving a call about a potential kidnapping late Thursday.  The police were investigating the reported kidnapping Friday when they came upon the alleged smugglers’ house holding the 90 migrants.  None of the people were in particularly ill health, but they remained inside the two-story home Friday because some showed signs of COVID-19.  They will all be tested for the virus.

The US has created a lucrative trade for smugglers of both drugs and humans by declaring war on both. Unfortunately, those being smuggled are at risk for engagement with law enforcement.  Whether it is through prostitution, illicit drugs, or illegal immigration, these individuals are on the law enforcement’s radar.  In most cases, the aim of law enforcement is to protect the trafficked individual while targeting the traffickers.  While the prosecutors are not targeting them, these vulnerable people are still at significant risk for deportation if they are retained and undocumented.

The threat of deportation has substantial consequences for victims of trafficking.  It can be a deterrent to victims reporting their traffickers, making them even more reliant on their captors for perceived protection.  Many traffickers use the threat of deportation to control their victims, and the widespread enforcement of immigration policy reinforces that fear.  There is also the fear of retaliation, as the traffickers threaten to harm victims and their families to maintain control.  It is not yet clear who was behind the alleged smuggling operation in Houston, and no one had been arrested.  The youngest in the group was in his early 20’s and many appeared to be in their 30’s.  Only five were women.

Thoughts:  There are an estimated 57,000 people believed to be victims of human trafficking in the US. Woman account for about 80 percent of individuals involved in sex-trafficking, with some estimates stating that a quarter of these cases involve minor children.  What Houston illuminates is the growing number of immigrants who are being brought into the country and forced into unpaid labor.  Many of the trafficking victims are lured into the system with the promise of legitimate jobs, while others are kidnapped or entrapped in a myriad of ways, only to be enslaved and faced with violence and torture, including threats of death.  Their lives are then bought and sold as a commodity.  We need to be less concerned with punishing immigrants and more with protecting them.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

April 30, 2021

Yesterday I harvested the first of what I hope to be a long season of strawberries from the bed along my back patio.  I mentioned how the plants only produced three or four berries last year and the birds got to them before I could.  I had dozens of flowers and even unripe berries before the hard freeze a couple of weeks ago.  That was followed by the torrential rains we got this week that completely flooded the bed and left the plants in standing water.  While near perfect conditions last year failed to provide a crop, the terrible conditions this year are (so far) creating an abundance.  Go figure.

When I purchased the plants last year, I knew there were two basic types of berries, June-bearing, and ever-bearing.  I went with the ever-bearing hopping to have strawberries throughout the summer.  When I looked online, I found that these types are just the beginning of the varieties of berries.  There are a lot of different climates and growing conditions, and each state has its own unique general soil composition, rainfall, and weather patterns.  That means different varieties do better in one region than in another.  While some can adapt to a variety of environments, others have been bred to be highly productive in a relatively narrow climate range.  The recommended varieties for Arkansas are Cardinal, Camarosa, Chandler, Delmarvel, Earliglow, Lateglow, Noreaster, Sweet Charlie, Tribute, and Tristar.  Being naive, I just got what was at the store, Ozark Beauty (Fragaria x ananassa).  They seem to work.

I noticed yesterday that several of my berries were getting ripe, and that others had already become bird food and were going bad.  I decided it was time to pick the ripe ones, as the birds already get enough from my feeders.  The water had subsided and the straw I had covered the plants with last year was still in place.  I gave no second thought as I stepped into the bed to get at several berries in the back.  My foot immediately sunk four inches into the mud, causing me to lurch forward into the house, breaking several nails and cutting my hand on the bricks.  Since that was not going to get me to the back of the bed, I leaned against the house and used a pair of scissors to cut the berries off the plant.  Even given the bird depredation, I still reaped a dozen berries.  I am hopping for a good year.

Thoughts:  My berries reminded me how nature can be both fragile and resilient.  The fragility was displayed last year as the plants needed time to adapt to new conditions before being able to produce berries.  The resilience is evident in the ability to thrive over winter, and then withstand both the freeze and the torrential rains.  It hammered home the point that conditions do not have to be perfect to produce a good result.  Stepping into the bed also reminded me that you need to be aware of context as well as present conditions.  The bed looked fine, but the recent rain meant the soil beneath the straw was mud.  American society can be viewed through a similar understanding.  We are both resilient and fragile and must understand context as well as present conditions.  The decade of the 2020’s will be shaped by the past 500 years of colonial and American expansion.  These conditions have been far from perfect, but that does not mean we cannot have good results.  It is time to put away our fragility and embrace our resilience.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

April 29, 2021

I signed up for weather alerts on my phone and email.  Frankly, this was more because I thought I “should” than wanting to be in the know.  I have found what the weather service calls a severe storm is rarely what I consider to be one.  I realize lightning strikes can cause damage but knowing there was a strike 12 miles away does not go high on my severe list.  We were watching the Royals last night and my phone began to ping a severe weather emergency.  I ignored the ping and continued watching.  Five minutes later I got another ping which I also ignored.  Then the tornado sirens went off.  While I do not pay much attention to the alerts, I take notice when the sirens sound.  Melissa decided to switch to a local channel (the Royals broadcast out of KC) to see what was happening.

Several days ago, I saw a feature on our local channel about how advanced weather forecasting has become since our last tornado.  On April 21, 1996, a severe weather outbreak stretched from Northwest Texas to the River Valley.  The F3 rated tornado was estimated to be about half a mile wide with a ten-mile-long path.  Two people died and multiple others were injured.  People have formally attempted to predict the weather since the 19th century.  These forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere at a given place and using meteorology to project how the atmosphere will change.  Weather forecasting now relies on computer-based models that take many atmospheric factors into account, but human input is still required to pick the best forecast model to base the forecast on.  Weather forecasting is also big business.  In 2009, the US spent approximately $5.1 billion on weather forecasting.  That amount has risen over the last 12 years.

The rotating funnel clouds do not become a tornado until they touch down.  While we did not get a tornado last night, we did have back-to-back warnings as two rotating cloud systems swept over our town.  When I lived in Kansas the tornado sirens and the severe weather that prompted them were common.  I have even experienced several tornados.  The most severe took place when I was very young and even killed a friend of my sister’s.  I only remember that storm from family stories.  The severe tornado I really remember was on my grandfather’s farm.  This storm went right by the house with grandma and us kids down in the basement.  It was severe enough to flatten every building on the property, except the house where we were hiding.  

Thoughts:  What fascinates me about severe storms is the amazing power they release.  When I lived in Kansas I loved to watch as the storms rolled across the flat prairie and then crashed over my location.  When I lived in California I would try to come back to Kansas around the 4^th of July.  Most times I would be welcomed by a severe thunderstorm.  The last one came as I was leaving the airport in my rental car just before sunset.  I pulled into a stop and watched the storm’s power until the sun went down.  While weather forecasting cannot mitigate severe storms and the damage they produce, it can make people aware of the danger and allow time to respond and save lives.  The same might be said for the recommendations of the CDC.  Despite changes to the recommendations over the past year, the severe result of not paying attention have been proven.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

April 28, 2021

I have mentioned how the pool in our backyard was left to sit for several years before we arrived in Arkansas.  Since we returned, we have yet to repair the pool.  This was supposed to be the summer when it was repaired but when the heater and air conditioner units went out last winter, we put our pool money toward replacement.  This is a saltwater pool and we rarely had trouble with critters.  It has since become more like a freshwater pond.  We are next to a low-lying lot and have always been blessed with bullfrogs.  Several have decided that our pond is the perfect place for courtship.  They have been kind enough to serenade us well into the night since we have returned.

The American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) is a large true frog native to eastern North America.  It typically inhabits large permanent water bodies such as swamps, ponds, and lakes.  Bullfrogs can also be found in manmade habitats such as pools (like mine), koi ponds, canals, ditches, and culverts.  The bullfrog gets its name from the sound the male makes during the breeding season, which sounds like a bull bellowing.  The bullfrog is large and is commonly eaten throughout its range, especially in the southern United States.  As a food source, they have been distributed outside their normal range, and are found in the Western US, South America, Western Europe, China, Japan, and southeast Asia.  By transplanting the bullfrogs, they are invasive species.  The have a voracious appetite and produce a lot of eggs, negatively effecting native amphibians and other fauna.  Humans never seem to learn.

Aside from food, the other use for bullfrogs is for dissection in science class.  I remember doing this when I was in High School.  The bullfrog is first pithed to prevent pain to the animal yet keep it immobile while the organs still work.  This is the method of inserting a sharp probe quickly through the base of the frog’s skull, into its brain and dispatching the frog without damaging any of the organs a biology student would be learning to identify.  If done correctly, pithing is the fastest and least painful death for the frog.  Pithing a frog is not something most people are good at the first time, and many instructors prefer to use frogs preserved in formalin rather than live ones for dissection.

Thoughts:  I always felt bad for the bullfrogs in my pool.  Every year I scoop several out of the water after I find them belly up in the water.  The water level fluctuates with the rains and I did not think they had a way to get out over the tall sides of the pool.  That was until I saw the two frogs sitting at the side of the pool this morning.  They had obviously got on the lower step and then jumped to the next and then out of the pool.  They were waiting patiently, but ever ready to jump back into the water.  While these two bullfrogs had escaped the pool trap, they were reluctant to leave and even willing to jump back in.  Humans seem to do the same thing in our lives.  We get in harmful situations and work hard to get out.  Then at the first sign of trial we jump back into the trap we just escaped.  The number of cases, hospitalizations, and death toll from the virus began to decline.  That is when we loosened restrictions and jumped back into the pool.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

April 27, 2021

Melissa was one of the lucky ones who was hired during the start of the pandemic.  Her job site was an hour and a half away but at least it was mostly an interstate drive.  We had my Jeep and the convertible so she felt the drive would be fine.  Within the first two weeks the semi-trucks that drove the highway threw rocks cracking the convertible’s low-lying windshield, and its replacement.  That was when she decided it was time to get a bigger vehicle that could withstand the daily trips north.  A friend told her how much she liked her own car.  This was an all-wheel drive that also let her combat the occasional snow going over the pass into northwest Arkansas.  Another feature of the car is driver assist powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology.  We found a similar used vehicle and purchased it.

The AI feature of the car is in the front windshield and includes an automatic braking system.  That means when you are in cruise control if you get too close to the car in front of you it automatically brakes.  The other AI is in the lane assist feature that helps keep you from drifting as you speed down the highway.  Since this was Melissa’s car, I had little reason to drive it.  We usually took my jeep when we went together and if we took her car, I always let her drive.  I had driven the car several times, but I found the AI technology (particularly the cruise control) was not self-intuitive (at least for me).  Shortly after purchasing the car the pandemic caused most of the workers, and Melissa, to begin working from home.  With her health condition lately, she has not been going on side trips.  That meant the car has not been driven much lately.  It was easier for me to take my jeep.

I knew you needed to drive any car (at least occasionally) to keep the battery changed and the engine lubricated.  I hopped into the car on Sunday and took off for work.  I quickly remembered that I did not know how to operate the cruise control.   I pulled to the side of the road and took out the manual but did not find what I needed.  I called Melissa and she walked me through the AI to operate the car.   She also warned me, the braking system would not tell me when it slowed down for the car in front of me.  I began driving, set the cruise with the new information, and went north.  I admit, it took a while to get a feel for the AI technology.  I did not like the distractions it caused at first (Slow down! Lane drift!), but I gradually became used to it.  Once I understood, AI made the trip easier.

Thoughts:  The industrial revolution dramatically changed the way people work (John Henry drove piles for the railroad but was replaced by a steam driven pile driver).  Ford’s assembly line stripped craftsmanship from most manufacturing and production.  Now the information revolution is changing lives as AI changes the way we work.  Some are worried the advancing AI technology will create a loss of human jobs (news flash, it will).  I have seen ads this week about Pizza Hut delivering pizza with a self-driving car.  Shelves are being stocked and orders filled by robots at Amazon warehouses.  While AI replaces repetitive human jobs, it also frees time for other tasks (making pizza) and creates jobs that did not previously exist (robot overseer).  AI is neither a pariah nor savior, it is just another way to get things done.  The trick is to understand and innovate to find ways for humans to have meaningful work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

April 26, 2021

While watching the news on Saturday they aired a segment on the “Cow Release” that happens annually in Nordic countries.  The cows have been held indoors for the past four months and they literally jump with joy when they are finally released to the fields.  Sweden’s traditional ‘cow release’ attracts thousands of visitors annually to dairy farms all over the country, but coronavirus restrictions moved the event online last year (for humans).  This opportunity to release has long been a tradition among farmers in the Nordic region and more and more farms are opening and hosting events to give city dwellers the chance to see the animals their milk comes from up close.  The dairy company Arla broadcast this year’s first event live when a farmer released his 250 dairy cows into his fields after a long, dark winter indoors.  Online viewers saw jumps of bovine joy as the herd left the barn bounding into a green field they have not seen for months.  

Each cow on average releases between 70 and 120 kg of Methane per year.  Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide (CO2).  The negative effect on the climate of CH4 is 23 times higher than the effect of CO2.  Therefore, the release of about 100 kg CH4 per year for each cow is equivalent to about 2’300 kg CO2 per year.  When we compare the value of 2’300 kg CO2, the same amount of CO2 is generated by burning 1,000 liters of gas.  With a car using 8 liters of gas per 100 kilometers, you could drive 7,800 miles per year (12,500 km per year) to release the same amount of gas as one cow.  World-wide, there are about 1.5 billion cows and bulls.  All ruminants (animals which regurgitate food and re-chews it) in the world emit about two billion metric tons of CO2-equivalents per year.  In addition, clearing of tropical forests and rain forests to get more grazing land and farmland is responsible for an extra 2.8 billion metric tons of CO2 emission per year.  That is a lot of carbon.

I spent a Christmas vacation in Wisconsin on a dairy farm.  The nighttime temperature was always below freezing and like the Nordic cows, these cows spent the winter in their stalls in the barn.  While there I helped the farmer with his chores.  Since these cows lived in the barn, they were milked, fed, and “released” all in the same stall.  One of the chores I helped with was cleaning out the barn.  The barn had an automatic system to remove the waste.  You hosed down the floor and the runoff went into a trough that went around the inside of the barn.  My job during the cleaning was to stand outside and make sure everything went well.  I can still recall the smell as I watched the waste release into the open holding tank.  I got my fill of methane that day.

Thoughts:  I had previously worked for four months on a dairy farm in Kansas, so I was accustomed to the sights and smells that come with cows.  The Kansas cows stayed outside and only came to the parlor barn to be milked.  While some would invariably release during milking this generally took place in the field.  While these cows did not jump for joy when leaving the barn, they all dutifully walked to the barn when it was time to milk.  The cows all knew going to the barn meant good food (oats) and release of the milk that collected in their stomachs.  Humans have been offered a similar opportunity to find release with the vaccine, masks, and social distancing.  It seems some are reluctant to come to the barn.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

April 24, 2021

I had an interesting experience when I tried to log on to my personal network at my house this week.  My computer refused to recognize the house network and instead attempted to connect to one of the recognized networks in my area.  This did not surprise me because it has happened before.  It tends to do this after I have been asked to take one of the mandatory updates to my operating system.  After the update, I am usually required to go back and reset my defaults to the changes I had previously made.  One of the options is always to connect to the house system we had abandoned when we moved in three years ago.  The network no longer exists, but I am still given the option of connection.

What made this time different was that one of the network options was “FBI Surveillance”.  Being a bit of a wag, I decided to try and connect to the FBI network.  I located the network with no problem, but I was then asked the killer question, “enter the network security key.”   I not only did not have the FBI security key, but I am also smart enough to realize that trying to hack the FBI would result in one of two things.  I would either be frustrated and not be able to get in, or I would get in.  Either way, that probably meant a knock at the door to see what I was doing.   I decided to leave the FBI alone.

Even though I did not try and hack the FBI network, I wondered why it was operating surveillance within the range of my laptop.  When I tried to go online and see why the FBI was doing surveillance in my town, I opened one of the suggested pages.  The request came back with only one word on a gray screen, “Forbidden”.  Now if I were a conspiracy theorist, things would have been heating up.  Since I am not, I let it pass.  As my house network still refused to be identified, I turned off and reset the modem.  This time it came up and I was back online.

Thoughts:  When I looked up the FBI online, I found that they have an entire army of people whose sole job is to do surveillance (not a surprise).  Whether they are tracking a terrorist suspect, a mobster, or potential spy, the secret is not about being a master of disguise, it is about blending in.  Todd Letcher is Special Agent-in-Charge of the Special Operations Division of the FBI in New York.  He says if his team is doing the job right, you will not even know they are there.  “When a target comes out of the bodega with a cup of coffee, they don’t see where we are, or they don’t see our people.”  Most people spend their lives trying to get noticed.  We do odd things to get our “15 minutes of fame”.  Being ordinary is not a bad thing.  You just need to learn to do it well.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

April 23, 2021

While I was worried about my vegetables and Melissa’s succulents, I did not take much thought for the other species planted in our yard.  Most had been planted by Melissa’s mom and had been surviving on their own for the last five years at least.  They had done well to tolerate their neglect.  I realize I need to begin to take care of them or they will get to the point where I will need to treat them like the front rose bushes and tear them out.  When I came out the morning after the refreeze, I was surprised to see the flowers on the Clematis were in full bloom.  Melissa tells me there are some species that need a frost to shock them into blooming.  This appears to be one.

The two clematis which had bloomed were both the Clematis President variety.  The genus name Clematis is from the Ancient Greek klematis, (“a climbing plant”) and is also translated as “twig, sprout, or tendril”.  Over 250 species and cultivars are known, often named for their originators or by a particular characteristic of the plant.  Clematis is a genus of about 300 species within the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae).  The Clematis genus are mainly of Chinese and Japanese origin.  The garden hybrids have been popular among gardeners since 1862.  This began with the Clematis jackmanii, and more hybrid cultivars are constantly being produced.  Their popularity comes from their ability to tolerate a variety of weather and soil conditions.

In Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he presented a four box matrix of how people allot time to the projects in their life.  The matrix included categories of important, unimportant, urgent, and non-urgent.  What he found was most spend 80% of their time on things that are not urgent and not important (the 80/20 Rule), making them the opposite of highly effective.  The reason for this comes from the fact that this is the easy stuff, and they perceive they are “getting things done.”  The hard stuff is often things that are urgent and important.  Covey’s suggestion is to put most of your time on things that are non-urgent and important.   Many would rather tolerate the specter of failure rather than do what needs to be done.

Thoughts:  I have been putting off my projects to rebuild my planters on the back patio (important and non-urgent).  Now it needs to happen before I can plant the rest of my vegetables and the status has shifted (important and urgent).  I could have done this over the four months when I had time, but I choose to tolerate the jumbled mess I left on the patio.  We are in the same situation in our country.  We had over 400 years to make the changes that were important concerning race, but they were not seen to be urgent.  We need to identify anti-racism as important and urgent, and then do what needs to be done to make a difference.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.