Not so Easy, Breezy or Beautiful! Did you know that Cover Girl cosmetics is part of Proctor & Gamble? Torturing animals is too high a price to pay for beauty. We're not buying it. There are many beauty companies that no longer test on animals.

Soft skin without the cruelty.
Avon does not do animal testing.
Does your cosmetic company?

Support your local farmers markets and sustainable and cruelty-free businesses like those in our Solar Village, Natural Health & Beauty page.

Why would Mitsubishi build a salt factory in the planet's LAST unspoiled gray whale sanctuary? 
The fate of our planet's last pristine gray whale nursery -- Laguna San Ignacio in Mexico -- could hinge on the outcome of a fact-finding mission to the nursery that the United Nations World Heritage Committee will undertake this year.

Please join my mailing list and let me know how you found this page.

Ban Landmines!
Antipersonnel landmines kill or maim several thousand people each month

Are we a civilized people if we continue to sanction such brutality? So far, an overwhelming majority of countries in the UN have signed a treaty to ban the use of landmines, but the U.S. has not. The United States continues to resist calls to ban antipersonnel landmines by signing the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty now.

As a parent, I think it's unfathomable that we should look the other way. I want to work towards making this world a little saner for not only my child, but all people.

It will only take a moment to email or call your governmental representatives to let them know that you want the U.S. to sign the treaty to ban the use of landmines NOW. If this prevents just one child from being maimed or killed, it will have been worth the effort!

If you live in the United States, you can write a short letter to the
President, Secretary of Defense, First Lady, the Secretary of State or your Congressional representative to let them know how you feel about antipersonnel landmines, and the refusal by the U.S. to sign the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

For more information on landmines, their history, effects, and U.S. companies involvement in the production, see Human Rights Watch Reports on Landmines and the United States Campaign to Ban Landmines

 
In case you're wondering why I call this the "soap box". Well, what I've heard is that in parks in Britain, people would stand up on a box to voice their opinions. Sometimes people listened, sometimes they didn't, but this was a way for the common man to make a difference.

This is my Internet Soap Box.

It's for family and friends that I've lost and who have suffered from the violence of war, the madness of our society, of hate, prejudice, and discrimination. It's for my son, in hope that he will live to see a brighter future world. And it's for you, hoping that you and your family will know peace and true freedom.

One transgression against humanity hurts us all. --Susan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Every 22 minutes another man, woman or child somewhere in the world will
become the victim of a landmine. There will be 70 casualties today, 500 this week, more than 2,000 this month and over 26,000 this year.

These victims, overwhelmingly civilian, will be casualties of a peace that these weapons do not recognize. United States Campaign to Ban Landmines
 
 

The list of countries that has signed  the treaty to ban the use of antipersonnel mines goes on and on...but the U.S. continues to resist calls to ban them.
 
 

Nobel Peace Prize
Awarded to the International Campaign To Ban Land Mines and its Coordinator Jody Williams

The White Rose resistence began at a university of Munich, Germany in the time of the Third Reich. This book is by Inge Scholl, sister of Sophie Scholl and Hans Scholl, brother and sister executed by the Nazi regime. Do we know what it is like to live under utter tyranny? We find out what it is like through the White Rose. Their great sacrifice and idealism in the midst of darkness shines a light for all time.

I first learned of the White Rose as an exchange student in Germany. I thought it was incredulous that we had not learned about them in history classes in America. Their story affected me so deeply, and when I learned that few knew of them in America, I knew I must tell their story lest their courage and sacrifice be lost and in vain. Please see our previous page for an overview.

Die Weisse Rose Und Ihre Flugblatter : Dokumente, Texte, Lebensbilder, Erlauterungen, German (Deutsch).

VHS, in German with English subtitles by directory Michael Verhoeven, in color, collector's edition.

Spirituality and Interesting Reading
tThe life and work of the sage Lao-Tse in ancient China.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is considered by many to be the best novel ever written. An immersing tale of 19th century Russia.

The story of Joan of Arc, illustrated for children.

All Quiet on the Western Front is powerful and important reading. All Quiet on the Western Front is a heart wrenching story about the nature of war from a young soldier's perspective. I've read it with my child and highly recommend it for mature children and adults.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

It would never happen in America...
Farewell to Manazanar is the true story of a young girl in a Japanese internment camp in America during WWII. Please tell me that you know about the U.S.'s internment of Japanese-American citizens!? (Don't you remember Tule Lake?) Many Japanese-Americans lost their farms and homes in this forced relocation that many Americans say is not so unlike that of the forced relocation of Jewish Germans. Thousands of American citizens, men, women and children!, of Japanese ancestry were forced into camps behind barbed wire and armed guard towers. I read this book as a child and discussed it with my TEACHERS, some of them knew nothing about this! The Japanese American community has fought long and hard to get a well deserved appology from the U.S. government and finally succeeded about 50 years after the internment camps.

I once told a co-worker about this. She didn't believe it saying it would never happen in America.

War and Peace by Tolstoy
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Faust by Goethe
Thus Spake Zarathustra by Walter Kaufmann (Translator), Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
My Century by Gunther Grass
 

Peace in our time?

Bookmark this page to return easily: Ctrl, D