Mick Fisch

I've heard an acopcryphal story about a guy who made long trips pretty often he rigged up an extension to his tail pipe that sat on his rear bumper (i envision a pick-em-up-truck).  The hot pipe would would slow cook his food, so after a few hours you had a hot meal.  I assume he insulated the cooking box.

When I was a kid we ate a lot of roadkill rabbit.  When a cottontail ran across the road my dad would try to go over it without hitting it with the tires (no wild swerving, but little turns).  Then we would stop and check it out.  If it was beat up too bad, we left it.  Often though the damage wasn't bad (rabbit got hit in the head) and we'ld take it home and eat it.  My mom usually would use it as flavoring, mixed with potatos, onions (make gravy, make a stew, pie, etc.).  

When I lived in Alaska, roadkill moose was seen as a huge windfall.  You called the troopers and got you name on the rotating list and they would call whoever was on the top of the list if a moose got hit.  If you answered and could come, it was your moose.  You were responsible for making sure the offal (guts, etc) didn't get left on the side of the road (it attracts bears).  There was a spot at the dump to take the waste.  In Anchorage area it was so popular that they restricted it to charities.  My church was on the list and I helped harvest a lot of moose.  Anyone who we knew was in need got meat.  Anyone who went out got meat.  The troopers kept a list of charities and a few times I had strangers call and come by for meat.  

When a moose was hit by a car, usually one quarter was bloodshot and ruined.  That still left 3/4 of a moose.  A couple of times we got called when a semi hit a moose and once when a train hit a moose.  In those cases, the moose died so quickly that there was no bruising, although some of the guts ended up in strange places, pretty much all the meat was salvageable.  Even the bloodshot quarter might be good for dogfood, although it won't keep that long.

I won't touch road kill that I don't know how long it's been lying there, but a fresh animal is nothing to turn your nose up at.

interesting little movie.  Lots of room for thought.  How small changes make major changes.  go to      

I think most of the time people look at the options represented by the people around them and assume those are the only options.  

We are in the middle of selling our house and the real estate agent told us that in his experience, most people lack imagination.  They have a hard time imagining the house in front of them with a good cleaning or a coat of paint or even with the outlet covers replaced.  How much harder to imagine a way of life you havent seen?

One of the problems is that we all are dealt a different hand in life.  Some are smart, good looking, tall, (fill in the blank), some are dealt a much poorer hand.  Some are born into a strong, supportive family, some not.  

Some work really hard, others just drift.  

I don't know how to fix this inequity and I don't think anyone does.

We have reached a point in western society where we try to provide a safety net where people can live in conditions that would have seemed wealthy a couple hundred years ago.  The problem is, we compare our situation with others doing better and realize we are poor and disadvantaged.  (If you were living in some 3rd world country you might feel rich, it's comparitive).

Maybe someone smarter than me has a better answer, but most of what I see is nothing new.  I think the besy answer is to change the mindset of the people.  Hard to do.

On acting in anger.  Several years ago I got a pretty bad concussion from getting hit by a tree.  I was pretty squirrely for at least 6 months.  (My wife said I was hilarious, because every guy has a monkey and an old man in his head.  The monkey was running the show for several months.)

I knew I wasn't really in my right mind and I had a bit of a temper.  I was very concerned about damaging relationships with my wife and kids, so l made it a point to stop and consider for a few seconds before acting.  I did this consistantly for months and it became something of a habit.  I'd stop and think "is this going to help, is it a proper response".

I had heard the count to ten thing for years but had really never tried it until my injury kind of forced it on me.  It is hard initially, bu it works!  It doesn't keep me from acting, but it helps me to act on my higher self and avoid doing the stupid things my inner monkey sometimes urges

As a side note,my older kids say I got more lenient and spoiled the younger ones, although I think every older kid thinks the younger ones have it easy.  (The sibling equivalent of walking 10 miles to school each day, uphill!  Both ways!)  My wife says I have become calmer.  (If you spouse is hot headed, I don't advocate hitting them with a tree, but.....)

Elle said,

Minorities look for organizations where they can share their experiences and try to collectively bring about change. Without getting my post flagged I'd wager to say it's unlikely a lot of the white people in the world have needed that. When white people want change, they just do it because they're in power.

.  White people and white men, just like everyone else find themselves in vastly different situations in life.  A few have power, most don't.  To group them all together is an example of exactly the kind of thinking this discussion is about.  

I worked with a guy a while back.  He also had a vastly overrated opinion of a 'power' of a working class or poor white person.  One day he remarked "If I was a white, I would be president of this country."  He made more money than me, he had a higher position than me.  My thought, although I didn't say it to him because I liked him and didn't want to hurt his feelings was "you're kind of an idiot, being white wouldn't change that".  The very rich are the ones with all the power.  Most of the very rich in this country are white, although by no means are they all anglo.  As a white man, that does me no more good than if I tried to draw money out of their bank account.  If you think they are looking out for my benefit, your wrong.  If anything, a lot of time their so busy pandering to the various other groups, they forget or ignore working class whites.

They have power.  I don't.  I have one vote, just like every other person.  

Windy,

How tall are your trees now?  If they are 3 ft tall I would be comfortable putting chickens in among them.  Maybe a bit smaller for banties.   Sounds to me like you need to have 2 fences, so you can have the critters (whatever type you choose) in 1, set up the 2nd, move the chicken over, and then roll up and relocate the first.

Everyone has categories in their head for identifying things around them.  It's how we organize the world.  We also do that with people.  Whether it's good or bad, I think it's how we do things.  When I was young I lived on a big reservation.  Not everyone there like white guys, and they sometimes made it known.  One day I was walking through a store and there was an older man walking towards me.  When he notice me he got the stone face.  As we approached I heard 'Daddy" and one of my kids ran past the man, up to me.  The stone face instantly went away and the man smiled.  Thinking about it, I realized the approach of my kid shifted me in his head from "white guy"  to "family man".  

I've noticed in myself, the big difference in my reactions to people of other groups depends largely in what 'group' I drop them into in my head.  I do this automatically, within probably less than a second, without realizing it.  I have a 'military' category, a 'redneck' category, a 'yuppy' category, a 'black guy' category, a 'church person' category, that actually has several categories under that, including an 'Amish' category.  I've had good and bad experiences with people in the various categories and I automatically view them with a certain slant, positive or negative.  If I can move them to a different category, they automatically shift points.  Sometimes this happens by accident. I see a guy who otherwise might drop into a more negative category with his little kid and he shifts into the 'daddy' category.  Sometimes I 'trick' myself by purposely noticing something that will shift the person.  I'm married and faithful to my wife.  I find, when I meet an attractive gal I can conciously shift her from the 'good looking gal' category her into some other category that she could also fit into.  It's a weird mental trick, but it actually changes how I see them.

I think it's pretty normal to make projections from the people you meet to the larger group.  If I've only met 5 redheads, and all 5 were wonderful, I will be disposed positively towards redheads.  If they were all awful people, I will be negatively biased.  I will probably not even be aware of this.  If I meet 4 ok people and 1 enormous A-Hole, my experiance may be disproportionately effected by the jerk.  If I meet many, many redheads, the individual effects will tend to balance out towards the average for redheads, which will probably be about neutral.  People who live in homogeneous areas may have few exposures to other groups, therefore those exposures matter.  Media becomes more important then.  I think the Cosby show (back before he was outed as a creeper) probably did more to shift white attitudes than any amount of rioting, because it gave a picture of good people who happened to be another color.  I had a friend that told me he was 12 before he saw a white person in real life.  His attitude was formed partly from what he saw on TV.  When he talked it was apparent his vision of white people had them all living in large houses with cool jobs, no money worries and usually a maid.  (Not anywhere near how any of the people I knew lived).  

I have prejudices.  I am aware of some of them.  I am biased towards some people  and against some others.
Deciding I'm not going to be prejudiced against people is about as effective as deciding I won't like ice cream.  I can quit eating ice cream, i can say I hate ice cream, but I still like it.  If I'm around ice cream, someone might see that I am drawn to it.  I can try to not show prejudiced behavior, but it will still probably sneak out around the edges.  

I have a niece who has had some terrible experiences with cops.  She really dislikes cops.  I can't blame her, but isn't that also a prejudice?  Based on her experience, they are jerks, but is every cop a jerk?