OACC

Yesterday I attended the Ozark Area Community Congress, a meeting of bioregionalists that has been held annually for the last 35 years. The Ozarks is a distinct bioregion, of which my own area of Northwest Arkansas is part. Attending the conference to make a presentation on our AEP/SWEPCO debacle required 6 1/2 hours on the road, driving to and from the meeting. It might have been much less stressful to stay home and make boxes, but I am always grateful to connect with others who have less selfish concerns.

Some of the features of the Ozarks bioregion includes similar flora and fauna, forested karst terrain, clear streams (that appear clean and may not be), and poverty. In fact there is an interesting connection between karst topography and poverty. When nationally known geologist Tom Aley, began his lifelong interest in the peculiarities of karst, he looked for a map of the US that would identify areas of karst terrain. He found no such map, but did find a map of poverty, and soon discovered that there is a strong connection between poverty and karst. Maps of karst and maps of poverty are a near perfect overlay. Tom's article The Karst Environment and Rural Poverty will help my readers better understand both.

In the meantime, Parade Magazine published a short article on the loss of cursive writing in schools. We've known for some time that cursive is going away as kids poke iPads, iPhones, and other digital devices instead of writing with pencil or pen, and that kids are being left unable to even read handwriting. The article points out that "adults write better and longer prose when they are faster at writing by hand, and we may process what we write by hand more deeply." In conclusion, the article notes that students may be better off with a composition pad than a keyboard.

Make, fix and create...