In the first 10 minutes, Craig O’Neill, one of 3 partners of Treecycle, talks about their origins starting the arbor business on bicycle. They expanded and bought a truck, and now have just bought a bike trailer instead of a second truck (which would’ve cost 80 times more, if new).

For the bulk of the show, live guest Eli Damon and I, with support from Andy Singer’s book “Why We Drive: the past, present, and future of automobiles in America”, talk about bikes and cars, how to bike more safely (www.cyclingsavvy.org), and some history of how automobiles have shaped our culture.

It’s dry.  According to a sign I read on the street, a vegan diet’s “water footprint” is 400 gallons per day!  Wow!  But zowzie, a “traditional diet” uses 1000 gallons of water per day!  source: http://www.truthordrought.com/#!National-Geographic-A-Vegan-Diet-Saves-600-Gallons-of-Water-Per-Day/cjds/54c51c600cf2fadc224fdad2

Russ Masse, a co-worker who also works as a bartender sometimes, says that in bars, at the end of the day, they pour the leftover ice in the sink and gush the hot water on it while they go about their business cleaning up, til all the ice is melted.  Russ shares stories about talking to friends and coworkers about water conservation.

I came across Blanche Derby straddling her bicycle eating raspberries.  Even the raspberries are dry and withered this year.   Blanche knows all about what to eat in Northampton:  https://www.youtube.com/user/thederb720

The bulk of the show is speeches from the AFSC/BLM event on the steps of City Hall the previous evening.  The week before,  graphic videos of police murders of two black men were played around the world (Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castille in St. Paul).  They were only two of at least 5 black people killed by law enforcement in the US that week, but these two were recorded by non-police, and the videos were made public, leading to another swelling of awareness among white people about how black people are not safe or valued in this country.

Some speakers include Zion Barbour, of the Northampton High School Students of Color Associaton; Alisa Klein, Northampton City Councilor; AfroPanther, Z, Izzy, residents; Misha from SURJ, and Jossie Valentin, Holyoke City Councilor.

On July 4th, 51 new U.S. citizens were sworn in on the steps of the Northampton courthouse.  What does it mean to be a citizen of the U.S.?  There are some clips from the joyous celebration, including comments from Vira Douangmany Cage, who is running for State Rep to replace the retiring Ellen Story in the Amherst area.

Nao Sakurai, long-time resident of the US but citizen of Japan, talks about her hesitancies to become a US citizen, and desires to be a global citizen.

A friend who was staying at our house, Pablo, explains how he is a US and French citizen tho he was born in Mexico and lives in Germany, and feels like a citizen of the western world.  Annie Doran, my housemate, shares about feeling US privilege for the first time on a high school trip to Brazil.   More recently she lived in Lewiston, Maine, and witnessed incredible generosity and forgiveness in the refugee community she was involved with there.

Duane talks about his adopt-a-trail work, mowing and trimming along the rail trail from North St to Taco Bell.

Some people at the Tuesday farmers’ market who were demonstrating a solar grill describe their project.  (Even Larsen from SolSource https://www.oneearthdesigns.com/)

And there are clips from the June 12 Race Amity Day event in Amherst.  Voices include Amilcar Shabazz, Ray Elliot, Ellen Story.

This show is recordings of speeches given on the steps of Northampton’s City Hall on June 17, 2016, several days after 50 people died in a massacre at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, FL.  Speakers talk about the importance of nightclubs as a safe, or supposed to be safe, gathering space for LGBTQ people, a place for people to be accepted and to thrive.  The speeches are a call to action given in sorrow and love.

link problems, try https://www.weatherbeard.com/outtherearchive/Ep067 – Letters from a sex offender2016-6-8.mp3

People who commit sex crimes and do sexually inappropriate things are our neighbors and family. How do we support people to get the help they need before someone is hurt? A friend who I’ve been corresponding with for the past year, who has been locked up at Bridgewater “Treatment Center” in Eastern Mass for the past 12 years, shares what was going through his mind and what was going on in his life when he abused his teenage stepsons. He also talks a little about Civil Commitments. (He has been locked up for 12 years at Bridgewater even after he completed his short sentence in county jail.)

Contrary to common stereotypes, people who have committed sex crimes can do well with adequate support, and, according to Justice Dept research, sex offenders are less likely to reoffend for the same category of crime than most other offenders.

Call them car crashes, not “accidents.”   The vast majority are human error in judgement, like choosing distracted driving.  Did you know that according to the PVTA website, taking the bus is something like 160 times safer than driving?

The second part of the show is an interview with my friend David Perez from Chicago.  David spent 28 years in state prison on a murder charge.  He talks about his involvement with gangs at a young age, and personal changes.

clips and interviews from downtown Northampton’s annual bike commute breakfast.
Murtaza talking about bike the (pipe)line
Lisa Bertoldi, of Weft, a weaver of local fabric

Late April/early May is time to collect pokeweed and make poke sallet and the like. (COOK IT FIRST!)  I was in KY in April/May and interviewed some neighbors about collecting and preparing pokeweed.
Also, Clifford Maiden talks about being an underground coal miner for 30 years, and his thoughts on the current state of coal.

Unfortunately this show didn’t record, so it’s just the edited clips stuck together, no songs or intros.

Duane Ranney rejoins the show today to share stories of hauling a bike trash trailer in Monday’s snowstorm. He also adds his humor in other pieces of today’s show, like my talking about eating everything (mid-show), and towards the end of the show, anecdotes about needing and sharing quarters around town.

Karl Meyer, who I met on the pipeline walk a couple weeks ago, talks about the Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station, which was built to utilize unused nuclear power to pump the CT River up the mountain, when electricity demand is low, and then release the water at other times of day when demand/price is higher. Now that the nuclear plants are closed, the river is being pumped up with fossil fuels, sometimes reversing the current from as far as 1.5 miles downstream at the French King Bridge! Karl talks about how draining and releasing the river wreaks havoc on the water ecosystem. (karlmeyerwriting.com/blog)