Last Saturday I was in charge of snacks for Charlie Mac's football team called the Cowboys. Big Charlie and I had a major discussion about what to serve.

"I'm bringing orange slices and Capri Suns," I insisted.

"I don't think the kids will eat orange slices." Big Charlie announced and then suggested, "How about rice crispy treats and Gatorade instead?"

"I will think about it," I told him knowing that I was going to bring orange slices. I had dreamed of this day for a very long day. When I was a kid, the cool soccer moms brought orange slices and Capri Suns. Someday I was going to be a cool soccer mom!

And that day finally came. I was skipping through the grocery store delighted to be snack mom! Why? Because it wasn't that long ago that the "specialists" said that he probably wouldn't be able to play organized sports. Luckily, no body told him that. He loves playing football.

I brought the oranges and Capri Suns. As I was cutting them into slices, Charlie Mac comes running up, shouting, "Did you see me, Mom? I scored a touchdown!"

OMG! No, I didn't see him. I was too busy cutting the damn orange slices and being cool. I give him the biggest hug ever. This moment in our lives just happens to be a really big deal and I missed it. So much for being the cool soccer mom.

I have a feeling that our Charlie Mac is going to be doing a whole bunch of new and exciting things that will amaze us and that's the cool part.

Way to go, Charlie Mac!!!!

Hello!

I want to share with you my letter that I wrote to Governor Jan Brewer about paying of Arizona's deficit. Here it is:

Dear Governor Brewer:

Hello! My name is Sara Enochs and I am a mom who is interested in paying off Arizona's deficit. No, I don't have $1.6 billion dollars, but I do have an idea that would raise $340 dollars per resident over the next 24 months, that would be $14 dollars a month per person. There are 6,500,180 residents of Arizona and I believe that we all want to help Arizona. Here's my idea.

I would contact Arizona companies such as Shamrock, Peter Piper Pizza, Cold Stone Creamery, Harkins Theatres, and ask them to participate in a fundraiser by putting a sticker of Arizona's flag on one of their more popular items and increase the price of that product by one dollar. Each month I would invite our residents to buy these products and encourage them to spend $14 each month to help Arizona.

I want to start the fundraiser sooner than later. So, I was thinking that for the first three months, I would place $1, $2, and $5 dollar coupons near the cash registers at grocery stores, banks, or post offices. When our residents visit these places, they can choose to contribute to pay off the deficit.

I would explain to Arizona that we need to raise $14 dollars per person per month. My family is a party of six, so that would be $8 dollars, more or less per month. Yes, that's a lot to ask of some families. Hopefully, our residents will come up with their own fund raising ideas such as walk for Arizona, golf tournaments, raffles, pie contests at the State Fair, hot air balloon race, fishing tournaments, rubber duck races, an Arizona chili bake off, or black tie affairs, (we can advertise in our Arizona magazines and newspapers) ...to give back to the State of ARizona what we as residents have received for free such as fire and police protection, education, health care, and roads, etc. The intent is truly trying to drive this down to the grass-roots level and let people get much more excited about a "fundraiser" vs. a new "tax".

Once our Arizona companies have participated in the program, then I would as our national companies to participate such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Frito-Lay, etc. My ultimate goal is to have all 50 states do this kind of fundraiser. After two years, all of the State deficits would be paid and then we could start paying off the US deficit in the same manner from 2012 to 2016.

I think this program would do a few things. One, it would help American owned companies. Two, it would allow the citizens of the United States to do something to help America. Three, maybe if we knew how much it takes to run government programs, we wouldn't ask government to spend so much money on us.

Believe it or not, we want to help. We want our streets to continue to be free of crime. We want our kids to continue to obtain a quality education. We want our residents to continue to be employed.

In closing, I have two sons with autism. Merrinda Trindle, our caseworker at the Division of Developmental Disabilites, has made sure that we get the help my boys need. Now, I want to make sure Arizona gets the help it needs. We do need to be reminded what the State of Arizona has done for us, so that we can help too.

I am American. I can pay off the deficit!

Hope to speak to you soon,

Sara Enochs

So, I haven't heard back. I sent the same letter to Senator John McCain and President Clinton.

Are you having a hard time picturing it? Think of Susan. G. Komen's foundation to eradicate breast cancer. Why can't we eradicate the deficit the same exact way?

What do you think? Should we raise taxes or do a fundraiser? Are there other options?

For a list of major budget cuts proposed to children and families in Arizona, visit the Children's Action Alliance webpage at www.azchildren.org.

Well, I haven't received any comments back on my last blog about paying off the US deficit. So, I decided to go ask my neighbors what they thought. 

Neighbor 1: "That's a bad idea. No way would I write our government a check," he looks a little pissed off.

"How come?" I ask.

"Besides you aren't going to make enough money to pay the US deficit off by selling baked goods." He sounds skeptical. "Just give capitalism a chance and it will all work out."

"But that's what I thought I was suggesting." I say in defense. "I was going to sell American made products with the US flag on them. You wouldn't pay a quarter more for a candy bar to help our country get out of debt?"

"Nope. We need jobs."

"Well, I thought my idea would create more jobs." I repond.

"You know our kids won't have options when they get older because they won't have any descretionary money to spend," he says frowning.

"So, why don't we do something today to fix it? Why do we want to saddle our children with this burden when we can do something about it?" I asked somewhat confused.

"Your idea won't work. We need jobs." 

"Okay, yes I agree. We need jobs." We leave agreeing upon one thing.

Neighbor 2: "Did you read my blog about paying off the US deficit?"

"No," she responds. "It's been a little bit busy with home schooling and all."

"Do you think we should pay off the US deficit or concern ourselves with such matters?" 

"Yes, but what can I do about it?" She looks pissed off too. "I can only take care of my family right now."

"Would you buy products that were slightly more expensive if it went toward paying off the US deficit?"

"No. I don't trust the government. The money would never get there. They would just keep on spending. 'They would just say, Oh look, more money for us to spend'." 

"I suppose you are right. But, I want to believe that we could bond together as American citizens and get it done so that the next generation won't be burden with our debt."

"Perhaps," she says. "Maybe there are enough good people out there that still believe in America."

"I think so." I tell her that I am going to write Jan Brewer, the Governor of Arizona. "I think we should start small on the state level. My goal is to pay off all of the states deficits before 2012 and then start working on the US deficit from 2012 to 2016."

She laughs. "In 2016, your oldest son will be 16 and wanting to learn how to drive. Personally, I would worry about getting your kids through high school first. Then if you still want to pay off the deficit, be my guest."

"But, do you know how much the deficit would be by 2016 if we don't start paying down on it now?"

"No." 

"I don't know either. Let's not find out."

Here is a good website to check out. www.deficitfree.com. They want to pay it off by 2016 as well. Perhaps I'm not the only crazy one!

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Here is the Grand Plan!
Do you know what the next big boom is going to be? Hydrogen!

First of all, we need to change our way of thinking … we need to know and believe that saving the environment is the key to helping future generations have the economic development necessary to “get ahead in a healthy economy.” It is a virtue -- like eating fruits and vegetables to ward off cancer. Americans want to be optimistic as we proceed into the future. We must adopt policies that allow us to be healthy and productive.

But it is futile to allow our economy to remain dependent upon diminishing fossil and radioactive fuels. Continued dependence upon fossil and radioactive fuels will require higher taxes and more federal debt to pay the costs including subsidies that these fuels receive. Even so energy, healthcare, education, and food costs are rising, and we are left with less power to “get ahead” by investing for “progress.”

My Dad keeps reminding me that I and every other person on Earth has a mission and that Civilization must have a Grand Plan to unite us in a cause to achieve Sustainable Prosperity. He has a plan for every community of the world to achieve sustainable prosperity. According to him, every person on Earth has a job to accomplish sustainable prosperity and to do less is a form of self-destruction.

The one thing that is a common denominator to all aspects of life on Earth particularly including our economy is energy. It is imperative that far larger, more distributed, and sustainable supplies of solar, wind, wave, falling water, geothermal, and biomass resources replace present dependency on diminishing supplies of fossil resources.

Shifting to full employment to overcome our dependence upon fossil and radioactive fuels can actually produce anti-inflationary benefits. It will allow us to overcome our guilt for literally robbing fossil resources and polluting the Earth.

Not to get off course, but going to war with Iraq, has caused great damage to our economy and our self-esteem. The US didn’t want to increase taxes to fight that war … so we borrowed that money. As Alan Greenspan admitted, we paid the military costs for going after Iraq’s oil reserves of 112 billion barrels, because we are addicted to oil, and because the oil lobby wanted the U.S. military might to secure these resources so oil companies could set new records for profits.

But notice that every barrel of oil from Iraq has cost more than $111 per barrel in military expenses plus interest on borrowed funds, plus additional untold costs for environmental degradation and health care for pollution-induced diseases along with the market price of another $100 for the ill-gotten barrel of oil.

The harsh reality is that oil dependence is killing our environment, our economy, and our self-esteem.

They already pull strings to direct the most powerful military on the planet and some day soon, the fossil and radioactive fuel industries will have the industrial military complex try to completely take over. Our recent monetary crises pale in comparison to this potential demise of democracy. My Mom talks about it and it shakes me to the core. I often wonder if my family is the only one that talks about this looming problem, because it’s really hard to find anyone that cares. We have become so accustomed to our prolonged addiction to the oil economy that it hard to imagine the “pushers” kicking us out of our homes and cars. Just think about everything you do and how it takes oil to do it. Now imagine your life without oil …. Farms could not produce. Trucks could not move food and fiber to market. We would not have food on our tables or clothes to wear.

What we have today is a wealth-depletion economy. The harder we work, the less oil we have, and the further we go in debt because we are dependent upon a finite source. We and every other community must urgently develop sustainable energy supplies.

Do you remember the TV show called The Six Million Dollar Man with Lee Majors playing Steve Austin as the astronaut that needed to be re-built after his craft crashed? "Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."

Ladies and Gentlemen, we can rebuild the economy. We have the technology. We have the capability to build a worldwide solar hydrogen economy. It will take everybody. It will be better than before. Better, cleaner, sustainable.

My Dad, Roy McAlister, wrote a book called The Solar Hydrogen Civilization. It’s a great book about being civilized and uniting to save Civilization by devoting our minds and might to development of worldwide prosperity. You should read it, because it is my hope that we can, and our children and all the children of the world can work together to achieve such a Grand Plan.

It is far better to direct our hearts and minds to creating sustainable prosperity than processing poppies, brewing methamphetamines, remaining hooked on oil, or expanding prisons and sending armies to keep hooked.

Suppose we all try and only achieve sustainable economic development and fall short of prosperity but we have clean air and water, food to eat, and the feeling of, at least, that much accomplishment.

Suppose succeeding generations build on our example and continue the effort to achieve prosperity. Isn’t that far better than expanding our prisons and waging wars for the diminishing oil reserves?

Maybe it's time for the US Government to have a bake sale.

Sara Sue’s Big Bake Sale

Do you remember that old bumper sticker that said, “It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need, and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber?”

I can’t remember how old I was the first time I read that bumper sticker, but it must be pretty old, because I’ve been thinking about it for a very long time now. What kind of bake sale would the government have to have to make enough money to pay for all the stuff they buy?

Last Friday, the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill was approved and I’m thinking its time for our government to have a big bake sale!

I was going to wait to unveil my plans to pay down the deficit when I run for the Presidency, but since that’s at least four years out, I might as well give away my secret plot to save the US economy. Hee, hee, I’m joking here, well sort of.

But seriously, why can’t the government put on a bake sale?

My family plays this game called, “Do you wish you could have given the sermon or directed the movie or answered one of the questions from the Presidential Debates?” We play this game every Sunday after church or after date night when we’ve seen a movie. It’s a chance to express your opinion. Everyone takes a turn saying how he or she would have changed the outcome. It’s a great game to play if you like to debate issues.

So, last Friday, September 26th, 2008, after watching the United States presidential election debates that were moderated by Jim Lehrer our family played the game. I asked my parents if they wished they could have answered Mr. Lehrer’s questions regarding the on going financial crisis.

Big Charlie was in Maine fishing with his Dad, brother, and cousin. My parents were helping me take care of our four kids.

My Dad said, “Yes, I wish I could have answered all of the debate questions.” Between you and me, I think he daydreams of being the President of the United States too.

Of course, I won’t bore you with my Dad’s answers, but I will tell you how I would have answered Mr. Lehrer’s financial questions. Two words… bake sale.

Yes, a good old fashion bake sale, just a tad bigger, and a bake sale sounds a whole lot better than more taxes!

Here is what I would do. Look, Americans love to go shopping. I, myself, shop at four different grocery stores every week. Don’t tell my husband. I just got the, “we need to crack down on spending,” lecture and the grocery bill was one of them.

What did President Bush say after 9/11? Go shopping. Well, at least, that is what I heard. And apparently, so did the rest of America because household debt rose from about 50% of GDP, (gross domestic product) in 1980 to 100% in 2006. Americans love to go shopping!
So, why not have them buy down the debt by giving them goods and services to buy? Or said another way, Americans can pay down the deficit by consuming items they already spend money on like Starbucks.

If I were the President of the United States, I would go to Hersey's and ask them to make a special chocolate bar celebrating the United States of America and when we, the consumer, buy that chocolate bar, a portion of the money goes to pay off the deficiet. Then I would go to the next “All American Company” and ask the same thing. I would ask all of the companies from home building to the automakers to create a special product for Americans to buy. We could actually buy down the deficit. Businesses can sell more stuff and the US Government can pay down the deficit. It would be awesome!

Let’s do the math! For this calculation I’m going use rough estimates. Let’s assume that there are 300 million US citizens and the US deficit is $10 trillion. That means every American would need to buy $33,333.33 worth of product! I think some people are going to have buy more than others.

If you divide the $33,333 by four years, you get $8,333 and that's how much every American would have to spend during one Presidential administration. Reality Check... in my household there are 6 members, that means we would pay about $50K per year and that's a whole lot of money to spend, even if it's on items that we already spend money on. The bake sale would need to be spread out over several years during many administrations and its something we should get started on sooner than later.

Think Susan G. Koman for the Cure, only bigger. Sprinkle in  Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and make the golden ticket worth 33,333. Whoever finds the ticket will then have the opportunity to keep the money or give it Uncle Sam and be done with his or her patriotic pledge to help America in her greatest time of need. Now that's what I call a patriotic dilemma!

Are you buying it? What do you think? Should we get started?

Hello Friends!

It's been months since I last blogged and I apologize for the delay. But, I've been thinking. I call it daydreaming. I love to daydream. Do you daydream?

So, what have I been daydreaming about? Lots of things, but mostly the US Deficit. Yes, the deficit. I don't know why I am so obsessed with it, but I am. I spend my days trying to figure out how to pay it off in total. Do you spend your day trying to figure out what to do about the US deficit?

I blogged about this subject a year ago when the deficit was $10 trillion dollars. Today it is roughly $12 trillion. So what's the big deal? It's gone up by two trillion. That's $3.92 billion per day since September of 28, 2007.

Those numbers make me so-o nervous! See, I believe I can pay this sucker off, but with each day that goes by, my project just gets bigger and bigger. See my blog called Sara Sue's Big Bake Sale for details on how I am going to pay off the deficit.

Which brings me to the real point. How do you make your dreams come true? I am just a house wife in sunny Arizona, daydreaming about paying off the US deficit. Who is going to take me seriously?

See, in my mind everything is way perfect! I have it all worked out. Here is how my daydream goes. I make an announcement that I would like to be your running mate. I'll be your Vice President and you can be the President of the United States. I will do the job of V.P. plus pay of the deficit in four years. It doesn't matter if you are Democrat of Republican or with the Green Party, female or male. I can get along with anyone for four years! I just want to pay off the deficit. And, viola! In my dreams, I become your partner and together we turn America around.

First, we get everyone employed by creating a solar hydrogen economy and making other diversified jobs. For more info on that visit www.onedollarhydrogen.com. Then, I would ask for a debt reprieve by stopping the interest charge on the debt, which is $383 billion dollars a year. Next, I would I would assign a number to each American,1- 307,646,503. Then I would spend my days earning $39,956.49 for each number and I would encourage each and every American to do the same. $40K over four years would be $10K a year. We can do it. But we have to get started soon. That number is just going to go up and up.

The last time I blogged, that number was 33, 333.00. It just keeps going up and that's why I am so-o nervous about the deficit. I debate in my head over and over if we, as a nation, can pay it off. Does anyone else see it as their responsibility? Do you know what happens if we don't pay it off? Go to www.greatreality.com. This website explains it pretty well without freaking you out. This is really serious.

So, back to making dreams come true. Maybe I should start on the State level instead of the National. Arizona's deficit is only $1.68 billion. With a population of 6,500,180 we could pay that off quickly. Plus, Arizona needs jobs and they are committed to a solar economy. After all, we are the sunshine state! So, how would I go about petitioning for that job? We could have our own little bake sale right here in the State of Arizona and then other states could copy our idea. That would go a long ways in helping the national debt, too.

Let me know your thoughts. Leave me a comment.

Help me get the word out ...

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS
Contact: AnnMarie Petitto
Annmarie.petitto@iuniverse.com
267-436-3154

How Do You Save the World?
You Dare to Daydream

AUTHOR REVEALS HOW DAYDREAMING ABOUT THE PAST
CREATES A BETTER FUTURE…
FOR ALL OF US

Sara Enochs is a dreamer. But she’s also a doer. She has big dreams for leaving a healthy and safe legacy for our kids.

After the birth of her first child, Enochs, author of The Code of Destiny, had a tough time transitioning into the role of being a mom.

“Motherhood is not easy – it doesn’t always come naturally, says Enochs. “I had so much going on in my life that slowing down was difficult for me. I was dealing with my brother’s drug-related death and trying to find a way to fit my environmental work in and still raise well-adjusted kids. I couldn’t get a foothold.”

Enochs discovered that by daydreaming about her goals she was able to create a mental ‘to do’ list.

“I realized that by daydreaming I gave myself the creative authority and the strength to ‘see’ a successful outcome to all the goals I wanted to accomplish. I believe that mothers ‘need’ projects outside of raising their children.”

Now the mother of 4, Enochs is aiming for some pretty big goals.

Concerned about the ‘health’ of our world, she’s working with her father, renowned scientist Roy McAlister, to create the Solar Hydrogen Campaign to raise environmental awareness on the need to use hydrogen to clean up our environment.

Enochs explains, “In our economic downturn solar hydrogen is the way to make a difference cost- and efficiency-wise – we need to leave our kids a cleaner world.”

Devastated by the death of brother, Enochs is also working with parents to prepare them for their kid’s teen years and the potential danger of drug use. She began writing shortly after her brother died, but had a hard time trying to describe this horrific event.

‘Now that I’m a parent, I see things in a different light. I wanted other parents see the warning signs and nip any potential problem in the bud.”

She delivers a timely message as she offers first-hand insight into:

• Juggling personal goals with motherhood
• How women can have – and do – it all
• How daydreaming can help prioritize your goals
• Helping our children live in a clean, drug-free society
• The importance of working with alternative fuel sources
• The amazing role our children play in our environment

Enochs’ goal is to let people know that all it takes are a few quiet minutes to ‘daydream’ and understand a whole new world of possibilities.

“I want to guide others through difficult times in their lives and to prove that if you dream it you can do it. My hope is that I can evoke dreams to flow within your head and heart so that together we can change the world,” adds Enochs.

About the Author
Sara Enochs graduated from Arizona State University earning two degrees, majoring in Biology and Spanish. She continued her studies at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the University of California, Berkeley. She has a heart for kids, moms, women’s health, and the environment.

Aside from Code of Destiny, Sara is in the process of publishing the remaining two books in the Code series: The Code of Dignity and The Code of Deliverance.

She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband, Charlie and four children, Charlie, James, Ben and Ava.

Please visit Sara online at: www.saraenochs.com to learn more about her Solar Hydrogen Project.

The Code of Destiny is available at: www.Amazon.com

Review Copies Available

Let's eradicate AIDS!

For a long time now, I have wanted to end the AIDS pandemic, Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) caused by the HIV virus, human immunodeficiency virus, which has killed 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children. It’s estimated that 33 million people live with the disease worldwide.

There is not a day that goes by that I don’t daydream about ending disease, not just AIDS, although that’s my favorite to end, but all of them. Do I know how to eradicate aids? No, but in my head, I’m brilliant and can do anything. In real life, though, I’m not so brilliant. I get nervous, which brings me to Valentine’s Day, 2009 and going to Napa, California.

I have always been what you would call a cautious traveler. And, as time goes by, I have become even more apprehensive about traveling. Maybe it’s due to 9/11, but I have become somewhat of a fearful traveler. I really think it has more to do with having children, because now I just want to stay home and protect them from the world. Not just my children, but all children, which is probably the reason why I love to daydream.

This is what happens, though, on all of our trips …I somehow ruin it with feeling guilty about leaving our four kids with my parents to watch. See, I can’t wait to get out of Dodge and then I get on the plane and I can’t wait to get home to my babies. One year, on our trip to Hawaii, I cried the entire flight over the Pacific. Yeah, I’m a joy to travel with!

Daydreaming is my ticket to ride. I can escape the moment and dream of a different world, one without disease. Have you ever done that? Take a moment and daydream about the world and what it would feel like if disease were eradicated?

Now, come back from daydreaming and let’s go to Napa for Valentine’s Day. That’s what my husband proposed several weeks ago. I was very excited by the notion of getting away and seeing something new. I love to eat and hangout with Charlie. I knew it was going to be a lot of fun.

So this time, I promise myself, that I’m not going to ruin the trip. I’m going to throw caution to the wind. I’m going to live in the moment and love my husband without the guilt of leaving our kids behind.

Guess what? I gained 7 pounds in four days. We ate our way through Napa! We went to a place called Redd and then another spot called Auberge du Soleil. We laughed and then we ate some more cheese and desserts. It was lovely. It reminded me of Italy where I gained 30 pounds in 5 weeks. When I got off the plane, my own dad didn’t even recognize me. I threw caution to the wind and enjoyed myself.

So, what does all of this have to do with AIDS? We get so busy living our everyday lives that we soon forget to see the bigger picture. Guilt or some other crazy emotion settles in and we become stuck in our own routines. We become fearful and don’t believe that we can eradicate a pandemic like AIDS.

In fact, when was the last time you read about AIDS and what it does to a family? Have you looked at the pictures of devastation? I would guess that it has been awhile because you have your own problems to tackle right now. Perhaps you might even say that the world could use a few less people to take care of …it’s hard enough just taking care of my family let alone 33 million sick people.

Maybe it was the rows of vines all perfectly lined out that got me thinking. The farmers of Napa have wine making down to a science. We went to several wineries and each one had their own way of making wine … all very elaborate, scientific and mathematical in nature. They are concerned about the environment and keeping their vines healthy. They want to make the best product possible. They talk about what food to pair their wine with and, through this whole process, they instill within you to live better.

Does that make sense? They are farmers, but it’s more than farming. There is a beauty to Napa that makes you want to be more from within. We visited Joseph Phelps, Pride Mountain, Barnett, Saddleback, Rudd, Groth, Silver Oak, and Hall Rutherford. Somewhere along the way, I could feel my confidence grow as I saw what they made of their land …the houses they made and the caves they used to store their wine. I don’t know if any of this makes sense, but I do know that I left thinking that it’s time to eradicate AIDS. If we can bring such beauty and perfection to something as simple as wine ...we can eradicate AIDS.

So, how are we going to do it? Do you see the word WE? We can do it!

Did you know that there is a mathematical model to eradicate AIDS?
This is what I found in my research from R and D magazine:

Based on mathematical models performed by scientists at the World Health Organization, once implemented, a new strategy could reduce HIV cases by 95% within 10 years and reduce the prevalence of HIV to less than 1% within 50 years. This strategy involves testing everyone 15 years and older for HIV every year and starting people on antiretroviral therapy (ART) immediately after they are diagnosed HIV+. This means not waiting until their immune systems are depressed, which is the current line of therapy. The cost of implementing such a strategy will be high, but researchers note that by 2032 its cost will be less than that of conventional treatment strategies.

While there are obvious obstacles to implementing this plan, such as persuading people to be tested each year and convincing those HIV+ patients with no symptoms to start an ART regimen, the results of this study are compelling. While HIV is now a manageable condition for many, this new approach combined with prevention strategies could potentially eradicate HIV and AIDS, as we know it.

So how much would it cost to implement this program? I’m still trying to find out. I’m also trying to find a company that would accept donations to make this happen.

Here’s the WE part. WE could all donate a dollar and end this disease!

Would you be interested in eradicating AIDS with me? Do you want to throw caution to the wind and become a part of something much bigger?

Did you know that each year over 1 billion wine bottles are made? What if we set up a program to voluntarily donate a dollar each time we buy a bottle of wine? I wonder whom I would talk to about that …

I think it’s a good thing to get out of our element and wake up our senses. There is an amazing world out there for our children to see … all of our children.

January 20, 2009
I’m smiling from ear to ear. You can’t see me, but today is a major milestone in my life, and I’m ecstatic. A dream has come true …one that I’ve been dreaming about for over twenty years.

What does ecstatic look like? Well, I jumped up and down. Sent a text message to my husband and lots of kudos came back. Beyond that, it’s business as usual.

The boys went to school. Charlie Mac is giving a two-minute speech on George Washington. Ava is running around learning new stuff as fast as she can.

The world is watching the Inauguration hoping for change. I’m hoping for change too. I’m hoping that the “Code” series of books will bring about change for kids, moms, women’s health, and the environment, especially the environment. I have to try ...

Today is a good day! Change is a coming.

OIL AND GAS WARS

By Roy McAlister

Various “Gas Wars” have provided interesting milestones of the Industrial Revolution. In 1792, William Murdock launched what became known as “town gas” as a clean-coal fuel that was ash and soot free. Towngas was a pipeline-delivered mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in a “gas war” that competed successfully with direct combustion of coal, coal oil, whale oil, and candles made of animal-fat.

World War I was largely fueled by gas and oil to manufacture and power the tools of hell that replaced horse-drawn weapons, some of which had 100 horsepower propellers and enabled dogfights. From about 1300 to the end of WW I, the Ottoman Empire controlled much of North Africa, adjoining areas of Asia, and at times considerable portions of Europe. Germany was after oil throughout the declining horse-drawn Ottoman Empire and armed the Ottomans and then tribal warlords to oppose colonial efforts of England, France, and others that were competing with German expansion. Following WWI, mandates by the League of Nations dismantled the Ottoman Empire and Winston Churchill managed to successfully lobby for award what became Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait to the United Kingdom. The French received Lebanon and Syria. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was insistently informed by an isolationist congress that the U.S. had plenty of oil and thus declined to join the League of Nations. Adolph Hitler re-armed Germany and launched WWII as another oil-powered and oil-grasping war to secure petroleum in Russia and areas now known as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iran.

Franklin Roosevelt subsidized natural gas in a gas war to deliver price-controlled natural gas that was being flared in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas to densely populated areas of eastern states. This gas war provided a federal price ceiling and replacement of virtually all of the town gas in U.S. pipelines with natural gas.

Another style of oil and gas war was developed and waged by “service station” competitors in the U.S. in which the local price of gasoline would be lowered as much as required to put upstarts out of business before they could expand sufficiently to transfer profits from “price fixed” areas to survive a gas war. Variations of this type of price war and successful lobbying by fossil fuel purveyors stymied renewable energy upstarts in the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s 1990’s and please notice it again in 2008 in a gas war to undermine support for president-elect Obama’s suggestions for renewable energy independence.

To the dismay of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Libya, the U.S supported the Israeli military during the Yom Kippur War and the growing balance of trade deficit caused by our demand for foreign oil caused the U.S. to stop paying for imported oil with gold. In response, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) stopped exporting oil to the U.S. and the 1973 OIL CRISIS started on October 15, 1973. On November 7, 1973, President Richard Nixon said “Let us set our national goal, in the spirit of Apollo, with the determination of the Manhattan Project, that by the end of this decade we will have developed the potential to meet our own energy needs without depending on any foreign energy source.” However, oil interests prevailed against President Nixon’s national goal and U.S. subsidies to oil and coal companies were increased along with profits for depletion of these finite resources.

As it became apparent in 1991 that U.S. oil reserves were being rapidly expended, the U.S. launched the “Persian Gulf War” and subsequently has built fortresses to occupy Kuwait and Iraq -- at least until their oil reserves are controllably exported. It is indeed interesting that in 1922 Winston Churchill said, “When Iraq becomes strong enough in our opinion to stand alone, we shall be in a position to state that our task has been fulfilled, and that Iraq is an independent sovereign state. But this cannot be said while we are forced year after year to spend very large sums of money on helping the Iraqi government to defend itself and maintain order.”

Will T. Boon Pickens successfully launch another gas war to compete natural gas with oil? It could be a good start at overcoming our present economy of thieves that derives over 100 billion dollars per year as subsidies for depletable fuels and refuses to pay the replacement cost of energy. Or will the U.S. decide to lead the world with military expenses, more oil wars, and ultimately pay much more dearly in terms of economic inflation due to finite resource depletion, pollution-induced health costs, global climate changes, and protection against terrorism along with moral decay, loss of civil liberties and self respect?

The decisive U.S. gas war could use plentiful natural gas, biomethane, and methane hydrates as energy spring boards and carbon sources for reinforcing equipment to harness solar, wind, moving water, geothermal, and biomass resources in the Sustainable Prosperity Revolution to enable virtually full employment with out inflation as it provides a unifying purpose for every family and community on Earth.

Do you see a connection between war and oil? Tell us what you know.

American made hydrogen will provide the jobs Americans need and the confidence to buy American made cars and trucks that clean the air and last longer. It will inspire our government to print currency to buy hydrogen from farmers and other entrepreneurs and store it in depleted oil and natural gas formations and then resell it to distribution and retail entrepreneurs at a margin that supplies enough income to allow income taxes to be abolished.

But first, let me tell you how we got to this conclusion ….

About a month ago, I called my Dad and told him my latest idea about buying an auto dealership that had unexpectedly closed their doors. The dealership was big and they were closing thirteen car dealerships across the nation due to "adverse economic conditions, high gasoline prices and their traditional product mix.”

I told him that the dealership would be perfect. We could convert cars to run on hydrogen and sell hydrogen fuel at dealership stations right off the freeways.

To my surprise, I actually heard my Dad laugh out loud at my idea. It was one of those …. good to hear your idea laughs, but I wish he would have said Right On. Now, I’ve been telling him ideas on how to fund the Solar Hydrogen Economy since I was in third grade and I’ve never heard him outright laugh at one of them. He is usually much more polite. But I suppose I’m due, because I’ve been known to laugh at his ideas.

Take the time he answered my question about why the Big Three automakers hadn’t accepted his proposals to manufacture cars that use hydrogen. His answer was, “Well, we can buy their stocks and go to our board meeting and convince them that converting to hydrogen is what they should do. And if they resist we will ask other stock holders to give us proxies to vote out the board and bring in one that will earn more profits by making cars that can interchangeably use renewable hydrogen, methane, fuel alcohols, or conventional fossil fuel.”

I nervously laughed out loud at the idea, because we don’t have enough money to buy stock and hire the public relations firms to convince other stock holders to change management. And that’s probably the reason why my Dad traded me a laugh at the notion of buying a bunch of auto dealerships.

“Besides,” my Dad went on to say, “You would probably have to become a qualified owner/dealer-operator of a Chevrolet “franchise" by applying to General Motors and that would take a lot of money.”

“Well, why would that be so bad?” I asked naively. “Isn’t that the same thing as getting proxies to elect a new board? Wouldn’t we be able to tell them that we would like to sell hydrogen cars?”

And this, my friends, led me to think about how Chevrolet, Ford, and GM can get out of financial trouble. Instead of asking for bailout money or going bankrupt, they should be asking for Green money ….to build green dealerships that would convert already sold vehicles to run on hydrogen at their dealerships by their qualified mechanics.

And when we take our cars into the green dealerships to be converted to run on hydrogen, they can fix all of our other issues that might be wrong with the car, and if the customer doesn’t have the money, they can finance the conversion, perhaps even get a tax write off. Or perhaps be convinced to buy a brand new hydrogen car!

It’s time to save our auto makers and dealerships by offering what the public wants. New and used vehicles that clean the air by using American made hydrogen and other clean renewable fuels. The auto industry doesn't need a bailout, they need help building the cars of the future!

Dad says the best thing Americans can do to get started is to lease a car that can use hydrogen interchangeably with the original fuel as suggested by the American Hydrogen Association request for citizen action to Help Achieve American Energy Independence. And that's what I'm trying to do ... laugh all you want!

No .... it's not!

IS WAR FOR OIL NATION BUILDING?

Based upon the work of Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the first four years of the military occupation and war in Iraq cost American tax payers about $1 trillion dollars. This is $720 million per day or $500,000 each minute. Untold additional costs are incurred for pollution-induced health care and subsidies to assure fossil and radioactive energy preeminence over renewable energy options.

As admitted by economist Alan Greenspan and encouraged by influential war activists including Max Boot, William Krystol, and Ted Koppel, the US occupation of Iraq is to insure “democracy” with rules that enable oil companies to produce Iraq’s oil at low taking costs and export it for production of gasoline and diesel fuel that retail at prices controlled by oil companies. In other words American taxpayers sent troops to provide for record profits that are taken by oil companies and wealth was and will continue to be transferred from the earnings of the middle class to the rich.

It is a well proven formula for taking oil at the cost of pumping it from the ground, paying a royalty on the minimum cost of removal, refusing to consider or provide for the replacement cost, and selling refinery-controlled octane- or cetane-rated fuels to captive markets because engines are designed to be limited to operation on such narrowly specified refinery fuels.

Transportation markets are assured by an ever increasing demand to fuel octane- or cetane-dedicated engines but if another provider attempts to share this market, “gas-wars” are waged in which the price of gasoline (and/or diesel fuel) is lowered as needed to put alternate fuel providers out of business. Oil companies taking record profits have no trouble dropping the price of gasoline to put upstart competitors out of business.

WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED?

• Over 500,000 Iraqi and American lives were lost.
• Iraq’s education and health-care systems were destroyed.
• Every barrel of oil that has come to Americans from Iraq has about $115 in war costs before the market price of oil was added.
• Exxon, other oil companies, and speculators have admitted a series of record-breaking profits.
• A civil war has developed in Iraq to magnify the cost of American imperialism.

You can be sure that war for oil is not nation building. It is destructive to our nation and it harms every portion of the precious planet that all life depends upon.

DEFENSE OF THE PLANET – BUILDING GOOD WILL, HOPE, AND UNIFYING COMMITMENT TO HARD WORK FOR SUSTAINABLE PROSPERITY

After inauguration, President Obama could provide for much greater returns on American defense expenditures by utilizing the world’s mightiest military to launch training programs (that are easily justified as recruitment inducements) for safer and more efficient utilization of alternative fuels particularly including American made renewable fuels.

American manufacturers can truly become essential technology provider s for communities throughout the world that aspire to replace fear, apathy, and anger with the resolve to participate in a worldwide economy that provides opportunities for eventual achievement of sustainable prosperity.

By the way, Roy wrote this letter to President Obama. He is a writing machine!

Change is in the air…

All day I had a sense that change was coming with the election of a new president. I could feel it. In fact, I was so overwhelmed by it that I literally crashed in my bed and took a nap … something that I hardly do these days.

Or perhaps it was a bad case of writer’s block. November is Writing a Book month. I’ve read all about how it’s possible to write an entire book in just one month.

See, I was supposed to start my second book, The Code of Dignity, on November 1st. The kids got the stomach flu and I didn’t get the start I wanted. But, truly, how do you write a book in just one month when my first book took four years? And, in all honesty, I started writing my first book in 1987 after my brother died, but I just couldn’t find the right words to say. This brings me back to the point about change comin’ …

My first book, The Code of Destiny, will be published in about two weeks and I’m sweating it. I think I’m on the verge of an ulcer from all of the anxiety. How do I really, truly convey my story so that others will understand what I’ve been through? I can’t tell you how many times I have called the publisher to cancel the entire project.

Putting myself out there has been harder than I thought it was going to be. I have an important message to tell, but what if it isn’t received well? I know there will be critics and I’m all right with that, but what if nobody reads my book or worse, nobody gets my message? The what ifs are killing me. Lately, my mantra has been: You won’t know unless you try.

I wonder if Barak Obama feels overwhelmed today after winning the election. I wonder if he is sweating it because there are some mighty big mountains that he needs to climb over the next four years.

Since things are changing, maybe it’s a good time for the nation to make a change and climb that mountain we’ve always dreamed of. That’s my advice to myself … it’s good advice, I think. Why not finish a book in a month and get my message out there? I won’t know unless I try … we all won’t know unless we try.

AKA the “No action at home proposition!”

My husband Charlie has worked in the homebuilding industry for almost 15 years and he loves it. Recently, with the current housing crisis, he has been like a cat holding on to a wall …he’s holding with all of his might trying to keep from falling. You can almost picture the scratch marks from him digging his claws into the wall.

The reason why he loves the industry is that there is a lot to learn. Every day he comes home and tells me something new. It’s actually pretty amazing that after all of these years, he hasn’t grown tired of building houses and everything that comes with it. He is an enthusiastic learner.

I keep telling him to hold on and learn as much as he can during this time so that when it gets good again, he’ll remember the tough times and work to make his company safe from the ups and down of the housing market … sort of like a boat weathering a storm. Next time, he will know how to weatherproof the boat a little bit better, hopefully.

For those of you who don’t know Charlie, he is fighter, but he’s a careful one. Picture him fighting in a ring … he would be the one saying sorry and making sure his opponent was all right. Having said that, though, he is highly competitive. So, when Prop 201 came about, he came out swinging, because it isn’t good for the home building industry and he’s not about to let something hurt what he has grown to love.

Swinging … maybe I should clarify swinging. He dared his staff to raise enough money to tell others about Prop 201 by saying he would grow a mustache if they raised a certain amount of money. Now, I don’t know how to put this nicely, but my Charlie is a little bit hair challenged … okay, he’s a lot challenged. He’s got hair, but it’s all in the wrong places!

Needless to say, his colleagues raised the money within an hour. I’m not sure what Charlie was thinking, because for one, he’s super sensitive about his hair issues, and two, he’s always trying to get lucky with me, which ain’t been happening since he sprouted a new cactus patch on his face. I never knew how prickly a mustache could be.

Now we fondly refer to 201 as the “No action at home proposition,” and I fear that no one has heard much about the pros and cons of Prop 201, but rather how much action Charlie is getting at home. Even his daughter runs away when Charlie leans down to kiss her.

So, as a good wife, we can’t allow this moment in time to be wasted. I will tell you why Prop 201 isn’t good for the homebuilding industry.

First of all you should know who designed Prop 201 … a union did. The name of this union is the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, with support from the AFL-CIO and they want to unionize the homebuilding industry.

Now Arizona is a right-to-work state and I’m very proud of that fact. I was born and raised in Arizona and I like its independent nature, which says that a person can work even if they don’t belong to a union. The union’s motivation in pushing this initiative is to increase employment opportunities for its members and to strengthen organized labor in right-to-work Arizona.

Next, if 201 was adopted, it would establish a minimum 10-year warranty on new homes (materials and workmanship), which I have to admit sounds pretty good, because it seems like the minute the warranty runs out, everything goes kaput! Yeah, I would like someone else to pick up the tab and guarantee me a perfect home for ten years.

But, wait a minute … try applying that to your own home. Let’s say you built a home or that you are trying to sell your home to a new homeowner.

Proposition 201 would also require every seller of a dwelling to include a 10-year warranty in the purchase price. In addition, the warranty applies to the original owner and all subsequent owners within 10 years of the original purchase. Further, the 100-day money-back provision also would apply to re-sales by owner-occupants.

So, let’s say you sell your home and you throw in the washer and dryer, the refrigerator, and all of the other appliances. You would have to provide a warranty on those appliances for ten years. What about the carpet? It’s always been assumed that the new owner would have to take responsibility of the home. What would be the incentive for the new owner to take care of anything that has a warranty for 10 years?

It’s good when someone else has to pick up the bill, but when you’re the one; it’s not so good. In fact, it would be really expensive. What it comes down to is responsibility. Who should be responsible for what?

Seems to me that we should keep things the way they are. The homebuilding industry is in trouble and we don’t need to add another hole to their all ready sinking boat. Perhaps in the future, when things are good again, this subject can be revisited. But, now is not the time to add more costs and lawsuits to the homebuilding industry.

If you look around, many of our builders have already gone out of business. I am very thankful for the roof over my head that was built by workers that live in a right to work state. Before we make it harder for builders, which would happen if you vote “yes” for Prop 201, think about all they have done for Arizona.

Prop 201 is an unnecessary initiative that will encourage litigation and increase costs for both consumers and homebuilders. Current law already provides a process for homeowners and homebuilders to resolve construction related disputes prior to filing any lawsuits. These laws have been in place for years and have resulted in increased consumer satisfaction, reduced litigation costs, and lower insurance premiums for homebuilders and homeowners alike. Prop 201 is a boon for trial lawyers, and does little to aid homebuyers or the construction industry.

Help things return back to normal by voting no to Prop 201 and maybe my husband will finally get lucky!

UPDATE: Two million people voted "no" for Prop 201!

My husband Charlie was invited to go on an “all guys weekend” to Rocky Point, Mexico by our neighbors. So, one of the wife’s of this group of neighbors decided that the women left behind should go to the movies, call it a mini-girl’s night out.

The trouble with this particular neighbor is that she has this uncanny ability to pick really sad movies. The last time I went with her, we saw Reign Over Me with Adam Sandler. I thought I was going to a comedy and ended up crying for a week. I came home in tears and my poor husband said, “I really wanted you to have a good time.” Between the sobs, I replied, “Oh, but I did.”

Reign Over Me is about a man who lost his family in the 9/11 attacks on New York City and is working through his grief issues; he lost his wife and three daughters. It’s one of those movies that opens up your wounds and makes you feel his loss.

My neighbor, that invites me to see these sad movies, also has this bizarre sense of timing. Right when I’m holding my breath, trying not to fully sob and draw attention to myself… see leans forward in her seat and looks down the aisle to see who can’t keep it together. She’ll make eye contact with you and then nod and smile, as if to say, I knew you would be the one that would cry hard in movies. It’s like you are totally busted!

So, when my neighbor asked me if I wanted to go see a movie while the guys were out of town, I said, “Sure, but it has to be funny.” I didn’t tell her why; I just said that we needed to go see a comedy, nothing sad.

She totally baited and switched on me and we ended up seeing The Duchess. Of course, I cried when Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire gives her baby to the family of Earl Grey, because that’s the decision the Duke makes. And that’s exactly the time my neighbor looks down the aisle to see who is crying. I got the smile and nod.

It’s a good thing my husband was far away fishing with the men after seeing The Duchess. It brought up so many women issues and how unfair women were treated in the late 18th century, when Georgiana lived. If I had been Georgiana, I would have poisoned the Duke or something. I would never allow a man to make that kind of decision on my behalf.

After the movie let out, we discussed the movie briefly, because we were all tired and we knew the kids would be up at the crack of dawn, 5:45 AM to be exact. I tell the group of women, who all have children, how I feel … that I would never let a man come between my children, and me no matter who the father was.

And the same neighbor says, “Nothing has changed over all of these years. Men are still making the decisions.”

Not much was said after that. I’ve been thinking about what the neighbor said and the movie all day. It might not be a baby, but as a mom and a wife, I can admit that I have given up things that were important to me, but so has my husband. Being in relationships and knowing when to compromise is difficult. Even harder, though, is standing up for your rights or what you believe in.

I love when a movie makes you stop and think. And, I really don’t mind that my neighbor knows that I cry. In fact, I believe I saw tears flowing down her cheeks as well.

The real problem is that we should have started renewable energy a long time ago.

The problem is that we did not make a plan to overcome the problems that are caused by large-scale use of fossil and radioactive fuels. We should have invested in large-scale renewable energy projects a long time ago.

The argument that is made to continue with our current nuclear program goes something like this. Nuclear energy currently supplies the United States with 20% of its electrical energy. They say that renewable energy like solar, wind, and hydroelectric farms aren’t up to speed to cover that 20%. So, if we got rid of nuclear power plants, then coal, gas, and oil plants would have to increase their supplies to cover the 20%, which would create more sulfur dioxide, mercury, and nitrogen oxide and everyone knows that adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is bad news.

So, why didn’t we build adequate renewable energy projects way back when before the first nuclear power plant was built fifty years ago? Why did the government choose to subsidize for nuclear programs over renewable energy? Why is more than $100 billion per year provided in government benefits for coal, oil, natural gas and radioactive fuels but there isn’t enough money for making America energy independent with renewable energy? Why do political candidates and business leaders advocate policies for increased dependence upon annually burning fossil coal, oil, and natural gas that required more than a million years to accumulate? Follow the money to answer these questions.

For that 20% of energy that the nuclear power plants provide us, we now get to store the nuclear waste, which will cost us more by far than that 20% of energy that we received. What will happen to the 132 million pounds of radioactive waste that is currently being stored in temporary facilities among 121 sites across thirty-nine states? Nobody wants to permentally store nuclear waste in his or her state, especially not Nevada, where it was designed to go. The government has already spent $10 billion dollars in developmental costs to make Yucca Mountain in Nevada the home to this waste … waste that is growing by 2,000 metric tons per year. And here is another problem … even if Yucca Mountain accepted the waste, by the year 2012; there won’t be any more room to accept more nuclear waste.

It’s not too late to get renewable energy up to speed. In fact, we have to make it work. See, the American people don’t want to build any more nuclear power plants, which is a good thing. But, our current nuclear power plants are becoming old and we certainly don’t want to renew their licenses and allow them to operate beyond their intended life expectancy. Nor do we want to increase our dependence on fossil fuels. Everyday our energy needs expand. We should have developed renewable energy a long time ago. We cannot wait any longer. I urge you to learn about the Solar Hydrogen Economy.

Coal burning by power plants is the largest contributor of greenhouse gases. During the last 100 years “killer fog” and “smog deaths” have been documented in Asian, European, and North American cities from coal burning. Mercury and other heavy metal poisoning of fisheries and other food supplies now causes pregnant mothers to avoid tuna and other predatory fish high enough in the food chain to receive more concentrated doses of what their prey accumulates.

Do you want to hear something really silly? Several nuclear companies have sued the federal government. They want to be paid for the cost of storing their own waste. Millions of dollars have already been rewarded in settlement fees. And over the next decade, it’s expected that more nuclear companies are going to sue the federal government for hundreds of millions of dollars. Do you know who pays for that? You do. I do. Our kids will. We have already paid for Yucca Mountain, which isn’t being used and now you are paying again. It is particularly exasperating to notice how nuclear-power advocates somehow fail to report that a new nuclear power plant requires enormous amounts of coal, oil, and natural gas to mine, calcine, refine, transport, construct, and operate nuclear power plants.

Nuclear and coal power plants transfer wealth from middleclass electricity users to power plant owners but cause the middleclass large untold ongoing costs due to health problems and climate changes along with inflation due to the depletion of finite resources. We should have advanced large-scale renewable energy plants a long time ago to produce electricity and/or hydrogen without pollution or such economic inflation.

Here is some good news: Arizona could be creating far more wealth than Saudi Arabia by harnessing abundant solar energy. A relatively small portion of Arizona between Phoenix, Yuma, and Tucson could be supplying more electricity and hydrogen than all the fossil and nuclear energy now used in Mexico, USA, and Canada but the government advocates increased dependence upon coal and nuclear power plants. Similar renewable solar and/or wind energy opportunities exist in Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, California, Alaska, and the plains of North America so why are we building more coal and nuclear power plants?

We are about to pay again for more nuclear power plants as Congress assures the American people that they are concerned about global warming and dwindling natural gas supplies and for those reasons they want to build 34 new nuclear reactors at 23 sites. But, there's no money for large-scale renewable energy.


Why do you think we haven't switch to renewable energy? Or said another way, why aren't we doing renewable energy on a much larger scale?
Here is a video from the Sierra Club about coal. You have got to watch this one! It is so awesome ...

Go to www.CoalIsNotTheAnswer.org to learn the truth.

Here is the first half of my Dad's response to this question.
Last night we played, “I wish I could have answered the Presidential debate questions,” and guess what? My Dad had a lot to say.

Here is my Dad, Roy McAlister’s, answer:

What would you do within the first two years as President on the environment?

Attention presidential candidates seen and unseen,

The "economy" is what Civilization does with energy and the environment. Energy is required to accomplish all phases of the economy including food production, mining, manufacturing, construction, transportation, communication, healthcare, entertainment, home making, etc. The “environment” is where the economy occurs and what the economy uses. The environment provides indispensable support and facilitates the economy with light, air, water, food, and every organic and inorganic material substance that the economy utilizes. The environment is used and may be abused by the economy.

The economy is not what "Wall Street" or "Washington" has built. It is what Wall Street and Washington benefit from when and if energy is abundant -- but both of these institutions have acted in various ways to hamper the economy.

It is a very big mistake to harm the environment with fossil fuel combustion products that cause environmental pollution, greenhouse warming, and sacrifice of the best use of carbon as a constituent of durable goods. America leads the world in manifesting this mistake. This mistake is causing extremely expensive harm to the environment, the health of all living things, and drives up Americans' costs for health care.

Inflation, hardships, conflicts and extremely expensive wars are caused by Civilization's dependence upon burning over one million years' of fossil accumulations each year.

Although it is often touted as being inexpensive or pollution free it is neither. Nuclear power is the most expensive energy because of the enormous government subsidies it has received and will continue to require and because of the enormous eventual costs of decommissioning the sites and plants that produce, refine and utilize radioactive fuels. Radioactive wastes must be contained and protected from causing contamination of the environment by human errors, natural disasters, and terrorists. Before any electricity is produced by a nuclear power plant, enormous amounts of fossil coal, oil and natural gas fuels are burned to produce pollution and greenhouse gases. Nuclear power plants and the radioactive fuels they use are produced from finite mineral resources that are mined, refined, manufactured, transported, and assembled. Each step requires large expenditures of fossil fuels.

The Industrial Revolution has been based on “accounting” that neglects the replacement cost of energy produced by burning fossil fuels that were deposited hundreds of millions of years ago. Neglecting to account for the replacement cost is also what a thief does when something is stolen. In both instances it is harmful to refuse or neglect to account for the replacement cost! But in both instances the takers deny the need for recognizing or paying the replacement cost or the costs of environmental degradation and health care expenses due to their actions.

The least expensive and most environmentally beneficial energy is solar energy and derivatives of solar energy including wind, moving water, and biomass wastes. The cost of such renewable energy is the replacement cost. Comparing the cost of solar energy to burning a fossil fuel contrasts the replacement cost of renewable energy to the cost of depleting a finite resource. If the replacement cost of fossil fuel is compared to solar energy it becomes even more evident that burning fossil substances is actually a very expensive mistake.

Geothermal energy is also vast and in many areas can be harnessed with minimal environmental impact.

Harnessing renewable resources will employ far more people and facilitate far more economic development than continued dependence upon fossil and radioactive fuels.
What would you do? Do you have an opinion? Please add to the discussion.

Here are some answers to most frequently asked questions.

Where will my dollar donation go?
All donations go to the American Hydrogen Association, a 501 (C) -3 non-profit organization and donations to AHA are tax-deductable.

What is the mission of the American Hydrogen Association?
Our mission is to test and report technologies that can help Civilization overcome dependence upon burning over one million years' of fossil coal, oil, and natural gas accumulations each year.

The mission of AHA is to facilitate achievements of prosperity without pollution and to close the information gap between researchers, industry and the public, drawing on world-wide developments concerning hydrogen, solar, wind, hydro, ocean and biomass resource materials, energy conversion, wealth-addition economics, and the environment.

What is the goal of the American Hydrogen Association?
The goal of AHA is to stimulate interest and help establish the renewable hydrogen energy economy by the year 2010. To achieve this goal, the American Hydrogen Association is working in cooperation with organizations such as the IAHE, NHA, NASA, environmental groups and industry, community, and schools to promote understanding of hydrogen technology, and help create a marketplace for pollution-free hydrogen energy.

For more information regarding the American Hydrogen Association, please visit www.clean-air.org.

What if I don’t feel comfortable donating over the Internet?

I have added a physical address that accepts donations. That address is:

Sara Enochs
20701 N. Scottsdale Road
Suite 107-405
Scottsdale, Arizona 85255

What if I want to talk to Sara Enochs or e-mail her?

You can contact me, Sara Enochs, at 602-920-7914 or e-mail me at sara@saraenochs.com.

What other questions would you like to have answered?

My first radio interview!

I conducted my first radio interview with Larry Shannon of KMA radio from Iowa.

Help stop carbon pollution.

President Obama's budget plan would cap carbon pollution, make the big polluters pay $650 billion over 10 years, and reinvest this money in our families and our future.

The president needs you, me and thousands of people like us to help overcome the lobbyists from Big Oil and King Coal, and unleash the power of a clean energy economy.

Add your name to our petition.

Check out this page at the Environment Arizona Web site:

http://www.environmentarizona.org/action/global-warming/stop-carbon-lobby?id4=tafsent

Thanks.

The Code of Destiny, a novel by Sara Enochs!

The Code of Destiny
By Sara Enochs
GIFTED AUTHOR SHARES REAL-LIFE STORY OF HOW DAYDREAMING ABOUT THE PAST WILL HELP US UNDERSTAND THE FUTURE…
…AND REVEALS HOW WE CAN MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE FOR OUR CHILDREN

How do you save a world in trouble? Escape reality, and get thrown into the realm of daydreams, then simply share the revelations and ideas that you encountered along the way! Using this amazing tool, we can all work to save ourselves, and each other, by accepting a whole new world of possibilities.

Daydreamer and author, Sara Enochs, has big dreams for making our world a better place for future generations, and she wrote The Code of Destiny to show a struggling society the way…

Written with heartfelt expression, The Code of Destiny, tells Enochs’s own unique story through the eyes of a beautifully developed character, Ava Ballantyne, a first-time mother having a hard time juggling a new baby, the stress of her brother’s death, and the goals that she has yet to accomplish in her own life.

“Like me,” Enochs shares, “Ava had a lot going on in her world, and was finding that motherhood is not only a demanding, around the clock occupation, but that mothering skills don’t always come naturally.”

Hoping to awaken the nurturing instincts inside her, the plot takes us on a road trip with Ava, her mother and her newborn son, where we discover that the solitude of the backseat allows her to perpetuate elaborate daydreams that actually help prioritize her plans for the future.

Enochs says, “When someone daydreams, they have creative authority to change whatever they’re not comfortable with in their life. So, Ava reinvents who she is and in the process discovers her own true destiny.”
And what a destiny it is! Ava begins working with her father, a world-renowned scientist, developing ways to raise money for his plan to convert the world’s primary energy to solar hydrogen instead of fossil fuels. With his daughter’s help, they’ll create a unique campaign to finally put this project in motion.

Beyond the simple fact that Enochs spins a wonderfully compelling tale, The Code of Destiny also delivers valuable insight into:

The pure power of daydreaming, and the benefits of following those dreams, the importance of helping those who have given so selflessly of themselves to help us all in times of need, and finally how to juggle personal goals with motherhood in a busy world filled with interruptions.

“I wrote The Code of Destiny to not only tell a story, but to serve as a roadmap to assist others through the inevitable difficult times in their lives and to prove that if you dream it you can do it. My hope is that I can evoke dreams to flow within your hearts and heads so that together we can change the world,” explains Enochs.



About the Author
Sara Enochs graduated from Arizona State University earning two degrees, majoring in Biology and Spanish. She continued her studies at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the University of California, Berkeley. She has a warm place in her heart for kids, moms, women’s health, and the environment.

Aside from Code of Destiny, Sara is in the process of publishing the remaining two books in the Code series: The Code of Dignity and The Code of Deliverance.

She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona with their husband, Charlie and four children, Charlie, James, Ben and Ava.

Please visit Sara online at www.SaraEnochs.com to learn more about her Solar Hydrogen Campaign.
The Code of Destiny is available at: www.bn.com
Review Copies Available

So, what’s the bottom line? We need jobs. Not just more jobs to keep us busy, but jobs that us help create worldwide prosperity. We need jobs to create a solar hydrogen economy.

Click on this link and watch the video. Then come back to my blog to discuss what I think it all means.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY

What does it mean?

Initially, the numbers blew me away. If we want to talk about numbers, though, how about these numbers … The Wall Street Journal notes that the U.S. economy has lost 3.6 million jobs since the recession officially began in Dec. 2007.

It’s been hard watching the news. Lately, I am afraid to read the newspaper because it’s too much bad news. More homes are going into foreclosure. Stocks are plummeting and our retirement portfolios are disappearing. All that hard work that we did to create retirement portfolios, poof! Why did we work so hard only to end up in this mess? Why did we sock away all that money in 401K’s and 529’s for our kids, just to have it robbed?

Yes, you read the word right …ROBBED.

We live in an economy of thieves. What does that mean?  It starts with our collective refusal to provide for the replacement cost of what we use.  It is stealing from the Earth and then it works its way up the ladder through our corporations and then to our governments.  Much of what we think of as a sign of wealth is energy intensive.  To have energy-intensive housing, manufactured goods, food in the supermarkets, gasoline for our cars, and jet-set travels we now burn over one million years of fossil accumulations each year.   Like a thief, our collective belief is that we should have more … so we kept stealing until we got ourselves into real predicaments.

So, banks had been giving loans and extending credit cards to folks who simply don’t make enough money to keep up with the payments.  But we charge more and more just to get by, and dig ourselves ever deeper into debt. We were all spending more than we could afford.  Not just individuals, but corporations …and our nation.

How did we get into this vicious cycle? We repeatedly developed technology advances to burn fossil fuels faster to produce an economy of consumers that populated past the ability of the natural resources to sustain our needs. We distributed wealth we didn’t actually have by buying goods produced by low cost labor in places that would import our scrap metals and plastics to manufacture consumer goods we demanded.  In response to hardships that developed we went to WWI, WWII, and the lesser wars that followed over the remaining finite resources.

The Fossil Fuel Age allowed us to create an amazing amount of goods and our population grew. Now that we have stolen all that fuel and our demand for energy exceeds production, what are we going to do? This is the root of our current economic crisis.

The housing bubble, the stock exchange rollercoaster, government bailouts are all just symptoms of living a life of thieves. We are in this recession because we spent beyond our means and refused to be responsible for replacing what we took.   

Our economy is based on energy and right now we are using the wrong energy. We decided to spend the next couple of decades living like thieves and stealing the remaining fossil resources so that we could continue to do business as usual. But business as usual isn’t working anymore.

I think Benjamin Franklin would argue that it is urgent to make the change … Ben would surely think of a memorable way to say it is time to do more with what we have.   And what we have plenty of is solar, wind, moving water, geothermal, and biomass resources.  There is a silver lining to this economic down turn. We want to return to better, non-greedy days. We just spent a decade working non-stop for what? What do we have to show for all of our hard work? We are losing our homes and our kids education. Crime is on the rise. More people are turning to drugs. Now is the time to figure out a better way.  We just can’t hunker down and wait for the storm to pass.  We have to create sustainable prosperity to successfully overcome the economy of thieves.

First we must make opportunities for full employment without inflation.  Farm equipment, rail locomotives, trucks, cars, and ships at sea need to be converted to enable interchangeable use of hydrogen and other renewable fuels.  Our homes and businesses need to be converted to hydrogen. Do you know about hydrogen?

Hydrogen is the safest, most convenient, and cost-effective way to deliver renewable energy. We all want a better environment for our families to live in. Hydrogen will clean up our environment and build a new economy.  Engines that run on hydrogen will clean the air by converting greenhouse gas constituents such as unburned hydrocarbons, pollen, tire particles, and diesel soot into much less harmful water vapor and carbon dioxide.

Do you want to save the United States? We have made enormous strides in creating an amazing standard of living by rapidly using the Earth’s fossil fuels. Are we going to throw that away? Do you want to reverse the damage done by burning fossil fuels? We can do that by converting to renewable hydrogen to fuel our needs and purposes.

What about the rest of the world, do you want to save them? While our nation of 5% of the world’s population now burns about 25% of the fossil energy, the largest portion of the world’s population survives on much less disposable energy, which makes it hard for families to earn enough money to keep their children from suffering from starvation and disease. So many people live with the mind crippling effects of poverty, jealousy, despair and that promotes terrorism.

Do you want to stop the wars that drain our nation of many of its bravest and so much money that we have to borrow hundreds of billions from China? Then give terrorists jobs. That’s really what they want. They want a job just like you and me. We all need to be gainfully employed helping the planet and its inhabitants, not stealing from each other and the Earth. Everyone needs clean air to breathe and water to drink. We all need to eat healthy diets. Our brains want to learn and should be used gainfully much like our muscles. It doesn’t matter if you live in America or Afghanistan; we all need jobs …good, clean, productive jobs that help humanity advance.

Do you want to save yourself? Dependence upon fossil fuels has caused rapid increases  in environmental contamination by petro carbon particulates that cause lung dysfunctions and by heavy metals such as lead, mercury and radioactive metals. We are making ourselves sick by breathing bad air.  And it is affecting our genetic code.

So, what’s the bottom line? We need jobs. Not just more jobs to keep us busy, but jobs that us help create worldwide prosperity. We need jobs to create a solar hydrogen economy.

More than a trillion dollars have been spent for military efforts in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia on oil wars since 1980. This amount of capital could have launched new ventures that would have hired most of the Middle East’s unemployed to build pipelines, Renewable Resources Parks, polymer plants, industrial parks, and communities with schools, hospitals and libraries. This model of peaceful progress could have been provided instead of continuing dismay, terrorism and conflict throughout these countries and Africa.

But, the money has been borrowed and spent. More money is being handed out in government bailouts, which could have been used to build a new economy right here in the United States … a new civilization called the Solar Hydrogen Civilization

Where do I get my ideas? From my dad. You can buy his book and read all about this new way of life. Just go to my home page and click on The Solar Hydrogen Civilization button. Roy McAlister donates a book to each new member of the American Hydrogen Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to research, education and creating sustainable jobs in the Solar Hydrogen Economy. 

How do you want to spend your time on this Earth? Do you want to keep stealing from her? Yes, I said STEALING. It’s time to realize what we have done. Honestly, I don’t think people are aware that we have better options. The technology exists to make this change.

We have been so busy keeping our nose to the grindstone that we don’t seem to know what’s going on. Now that some of us are unemployed, and we all know someone who is, we are all in the same boat together, it’s time to look around and find answers to the hard questions. We can keep doing what we are doing and fight for the last drop of oil or we can make the conversion to hydrogen now.

Do you want to do something today? Then donate a dollar. Just one dollar. I’m going to raise six million dollars for hydrogen fueling stations and I’m going to start converting the 800 million cars that are on our streets. Join me today by making the contribution. It’s just a dollar … go to my home page and click on donate. Do you want to know where your dollar is going? Go to the my blog entry called, “Where does my dollar go?”

These are serious times and we all need to pitch in.

Invest in yourself...

For about two years I have been dropping hints to my husband Charlie.
“Can you believe I’m going to be forty?” I would ask him.
“Yeah, in about two years.” He would mumble trying to be supportive.
“You only turn 40 once you know.” I would reply.
“I realize that,” and then he would try to change the subject. “Boy, the sky sure is blue.”
“I wonder what color the sky will be on 40th birthday.”

You get the point … I love to celebrate holidays and birthdays, especially mine. One year, when I was a kid, my mom bought a Grasshopper Pie from Baskin Robbins. It was such a great idea, one that I suggested years before and every year leading up to the magical Grasshopper Pie birthday when she finally figure out that I really wanted that really yummy mint green chocolate chip ice cream pie. And ever since, I’ve made sure that we have Grasshopper Pie on my birthday, even if I have to go buy the darn pie myself. I’m not beneath doing that, you know! Birthdays are special events.

So getting back to turning forty, Charlie finally asked what kind of party I wanted to have. “Do you want a surprise party?” He asked not realizing that it would give away the surprise.
“Nah,” I respond way too quickly, “I just want to have a romantic meal with you on my very special day.” I knew exactly what I wanted.
“Cool, I can do that.”
About a week ago, however, the whole world changed. The Cardinals won and now they were going to go to the Super Bowl on my very special day.

“So honey,” Charlie said as if he had done something really wrong, “the restaurant for our really romantic dinner on you birthday is closed.”
“Hmm, really?” I asked unconvinced.
“Yeah, how strange is that?” Charlie seems somewhat sincere. “They must be really religious or something.”
“We’re going to Binkley’s right?” I scratch my head in confusion. “The one in Cave Creek with the awesome tasting menu and wine pairing? Yeah, they don’t strike me as the religious type.”
“Okay, okay, you busted me!” Charlie finally confesses. “You’re birthday is the same day as the Super Bowl and we just have to watch the game. I’m sorry.” He’s totally flustered at this point.
“That’s okay,” I say and it really is, because I have a pocket full of sunshine … I made sure to buy myself a present just in case things got a little bit squirrely. And this year, it’s not a Grasshopper Pie. No, I decided to go for the big gift, the gift I have always wanted. For a peak, check out this link:

http://www.maggiemcdonaldphotography.com/slideshows/EnochsFam/

But, you might want to hear the rest of the story. Charlie came through in a big way. We went to Binkley’s and had that very romantic meal. Then he pulled out a little blue box. Inside that blue box were earrings. Not just any kind of earrings, but little heart shaped earrings. Yes, romantic, but they have a very significant meaning.

See, I just published my first book and I’ve been asking Charlie for his approval. The book is really an autobiography that I fictionalized with daydreams, which has him a little bit nervous. He’s not sure it’s a good idea to tell our family secrets. I suppose he is right, but I did it anyway. If I have to buy my own pie, well, then that’s what I’m going to do. And, that’s exactly what I did do …I self-published, which means, I, um, we paid for the editorial, publishing, and advertising services. It’s kind of like coming home with a new car without having your spouse’s best wishes hoping he’ll grow to like the idea.

“They remind me of you.” He says as I open the blue box. “Everything you do has your heart in it like your workout video and new book and our family. I love your big heart.”

I think he’s warming up to the idea and I can’t be happier. He gave me really beautiful earrings, but more significant, was the idea that he knows that my projects come from love.

It’s hard expressing love, especially when it’s for myself. There were many times when I felt guilty for spending money on my projects, even though, I was hoping that they would help others as well. Was it worth buying my own pie and getting my projects done? YES! It means even more, however, that my husband is on board with me.

P.S. Binkley's is really closed on Sundays!children.

Believe in Now.

Driving to the game yesterday, my husband Charlie and I saw a big red truck with, “I’m driving the bandwagon,” written on the side of it.  We laughed, because we were jumping on the bandwagon.
“Have you been to a Cardinals game,” Charlie asked?
“Sure,” I laugh again. “I use to sell souvenirs like t-shirts, hats, and pom-poms.” My first job, when I was in 8th grade, was selling t-shirts at Park-N-Swap. "I was pretty good at it, too. I sold a lot of t-shirts!"
“I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, when I was in college that was the only way I could get into the game. I rarely got to see the game, but I was there. You wouldn’t believe how many people bought shirts year after year.”
“Did you make a lot of money?”
“Nah, I didn’t make a single dime. The money went to non-profit organizations. I worked for Young Life and the American Hydrogen Association and they earned a certain portion of the sales. I don’t know how much. All I know is that working in the concessions is a lot of hard work. But, I have to be honest; the fans remained hopeful all of those years when the Cardinals weren’t doing well. This is huge for Arizona.”
“Yes, yes it is.” Charlie agreed.

Later on, when we were trying to park the car, I checked out all of the banners. There were two that stood out in my mind.

Believe in Now
Shock the World

I had to pinch myself …this was Arizona and we, the fans had made it, and all of those people I sold t-shirts to were wearing them! It was a sea of red.  You could feel the excitement in the parking lot. Everyone was hooting and hollering.  I saw two people wearing green ….they were little rebel teenagers.  I might have done the same once upon a time, but now I was part of a bigger group, grateful to be there.
Charlie’s blackberry kept buzzing with friends asking where his seats were. He would punch something in and I would ask too.
“You have to tell me.” I would beg. I wanted to daydream about the view from our seats. Anything had to be better than being stuck behind the stadium, where you could only hear the noise.
The minute we got out of the truck, we began searching for friends tailgating. We must have walked the entire parking lot, but we found several who had been there since early morning. Eventually we made our way to the long lines of people trying to get into the stadium.
“We don’t have to stand in that line,” Charlie said.
“What do you mean?” My heart nearly stopped. “Don’t we get to go inside?”
“Of course, but we get to go in this line over here.” Charlie pointed to a very short line.
“What kind of tickets are these?”
“You’ll see.”
Before long, we were sitting with the folks of KTAR, the voice of news radio, in their bird’s nest where we could see everything. I grew up listening to KTAR, not because that was the station I chose, but because my parents listened to it every morning. The announcers voice would crackle trough our home while mom got us ready in the morning.   Thinking back on those days and reflecting through the years to now, I know I’m the luckiest person in the whole entire world.
The stadium was red with fans waving white towels. The cheerleaders on the field were jumping up and down. There were two boxes a blazed with fire and a football team running through all of it, pumped to win the game. Out comes the biggest American flag I had ever seen …it was the size of the entire football field. Tears run down my face as I sing our song with seventy-five thousand grateful fans.
The goose bumps didn’t fade until the third quarter when my stomach turned into a knot. When we lost the lead, I told the guy next to me, “This is going to be bad if Arizona looses. “
He agreed. "It's not the Cardinals that would loose, it's Arizona."
I’m not sure what happened after that. The crowd went wild. It was so loud and everything was happening so fast that I felt like I missed all of the brilliant moves.  Everyone was high-fiving and I was screaming, “Let’s Go Cardinals!”
Somehow we won.  We shocked the world and everyone was a believer in now.
I feel like we have already won the game with going to the Super Bowl. How lucky are we that the Cardinals get to play the Steelers?
Thanks KTAR for letting us be a part of it and thank you Cardinal fans for buying so many t-shirts and believing.

My New Year's Resolution

Trying to act as if everything is all right, I tell Charlie my husband, “I’ll go grocery shopping while you drop off our rental skies.” Everyone was hungry so it didn’t seem like an unusual request.
Charlie stops at Safeway and I gingerly hop out. His truck pulls away and I hobble straight to the Starbucks inside of Safeway. I’m a mess. My legs feel like they have been torn apart. My cute ski suit that I got for Christmas, a lime green jacket and black stretch pants, that screams active winter sport enthusiast, surely can’t hide the fact that I am seriously hurting.
I join the line at Starbucks and wait for someone to engage me in conversation like, “What happened to you?” But nobody does.
“Oh my goodness,” I have to talk to someone, but I don’t want to sound desperate, so I strike up conversation in my own head. “Don’t tell anyone, but my husband can ski super fast. Gees, I simply don’t recall him being so fast. But, it’s been seven years since we’ve been skiing and a lot has happened. I have four kids now.  See, things just don’t work the same way as before. I tried really hard to keep up with him. For two days, I stayed in control.”
“Do your kids ski too?” asks the other side of my head pretending to make conversation.
“Not exactly. We put the two oldest in ski school for the two days, but it was really crowded and I should have known better not to expect miracles. But no, I just had to take them up the bunny hill, the hardest slope on the entire mountain, to go skiing with them. I’ve been waiting a really long time to take our kids skiing and I just couldn’t wait any longer. That’s when it happened.”
“Yeah, I can see that you are all banged up. What happened?”
“I was in charge of my second son, James. We got off the lift just fine. We started down the mountain and before I could say, “turn James,” we were headed for the guardrail. The next thing I know, I’m trying to save James from hitting the guardrail, but I loose control and end up doing the splits and stopping us with my chin against the guardrail. My head felt like its was going to twist off my body.”
“Oh gees, that sounds bad.”
“Oh yeah! It was. But you know us moms. We stand back up smiling so that our kids don’t freak out. Honestly, though, I just don’t know how much longer I can keep up. Lately, everything feels like a down hill race on skies. My husband is going a million miles per hour trying to support our family and I keep trying to protect our kids. I just wrote a book about it.”
“A book?”
“Yeah, it’s called The Code of Destiny. It’s about a mom who feels sandwiched between her wounds of the past and worries about the future health of her children. It’s being published this month, hopefully. It’s a good book, really!” I try to sound convincing. But today is a prime example of living on the bookcase stuck between the bookends called “the wound” and “the worry.” I am so afraid of my children dying young that I will do anything to keep them alive …even stopping their fall by hitting my chin against the guardrail.
“So, does this mom ever stop worrying?” My brain counteracts, knowing that this is a huge problem.
“Hum…” I think about my problem as I move forward towards my little piece of heaven called a latte. “I know the answer to my problem, it has something to do with God, but I can’t turn my worry over to Him. It’s complicated. You are just going to have to read my book!” I tell myself trying to get out of discussing the God issue.
“What would you like?” It’s a real voice from a tired lady behind the counter.
“A tall, sugar-free vanilla, breve latte.” I respond speaking each word with clear precision. “And, a venti black coffee for my husband.”
I pay her and no words are spoken again. In fact, no one makes conversation the entire time I’m in line. I’m just dying to tell someone my story.
I guess that is why I wrote my book. I have to think that most of us play this tug-of-war game. Something in our past has hurt us and we worry about it happening again to our loved ones or to ourselves. So each and every day we make decisions trying to prevent this hurt from happening again. Today it happened on the ski slopes.
“When will I stop over compensating and just let my kids ski down the slope?” I ask myself.
“Never!” The other side of my brain screams.
It’s hard to trust, especially in God. Oh, I know He is out there, somewhere. But is He right here on the ski slopes? I doubt it and that is my past wound. Where was He when I needed Him the most? So, I go about my days trying to control everything. But on this day, unfortunately, I couldn’t control James and I on skies!
So, I decided that my New Year’s resolution should be to stop worrying and to trust God. I already know that this particular resolution is going to be hard to keep.
The next day, we drive home in a snowstorm. I worried the entire way home.
The day after that, we went to the Fiesta Bowl to see Charlie’s favorite team play and I fretted over each play. Thankfully, University of Texas won, but my stomach was tied in knots and I felt terrible for the Ohio fans!
I can’t help it! That’s what I do. I worry about everything!
I need a bridge to connect with God. Is it His word? Faith? Jesus? The Holy Spirit? I suppose it is all of that and more. I don’t know the answer, but that is what I’m going to work on this year.
Any suggestions?

Do you think we should keep writing to Obama?

My Dad and I are sparing over who can send the most compelling suggestions for creating a sustainable economy to President Elect Obama ... I'm sure Mr. Obama is thinking that we are a brash bunch. At least, though, he knows we are passionate about creating a Solar Hydrogen Economy.

Here's my Dad's letters to Mr Obama: (I guess I can admit they are pretty good!)

Dear Mr. Barack Obama aka President Hope:
Defense of the planet against pollution-induced health problems and global warming along with economic inflation, hardships, and conflicts over finite resources is the ultimately important, common, and unifying defense that every community of the world needs.  We envision full employment in every community of the world to develop sustainable energy security and this can enable eventual achievement of sustainable prosperity if presently living humans unite in the cause to make a safer, more healthful and inspiring world for our children. We suggest American leadership starting with training programs in our Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps to enable safe and efficient production and distribution practices for hydrogen and other renewable fuels. Persons with honorable discharges from military service can launch and prosper in new ventures to provide communities with practical options to achieve sustainable prosperity.

Dear Mr. Obama aka President Hope  
About 8000 other volunteers and I have dedicated our lives to providing scientifically proven technology options for Civilization to overcome dependence upon burning over one million years’ of fossil accumulations (coal, oil, and natural gas) each year.  We would like to show your new administration how full employment to achieve sustainable prosperity will provide an anti-inflationary economy and how every community of the world can gladly endorse and participate.  We suggest starting with training programs for AmeriCore and in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines to enable safe and efficient production and distribution practices for hydrogen and other renewable fuels.

Dear President Hope aka Mr. Obama
We envision a prosperous future for more resolutely educated, healthier, and productive Americans who have confidence that there will be increasing opportunities to achieve sustainable prosperity because our country is committed to leading the world in this cause.  This confidence will be based on sound reasoning including our national policy to create virtually full employment to harness solar, wind, moving water, geothermal, and biomass resources and to produce and store renewable methane and hydrogen in depleted oil and natural gas formations as we create sustainable American energy independence.  We envision a corresponding “Carbon Revolution” that values carbon as a superior constituent of durable goods (instead of a fuel) and provides carbon-reinforced products (instead of smoke-stack or tail-pipe pollution) including solar concentrators, wind and water turbines, and transportation components that are lighter than aluminum, stronger than steel, and more corrosion resistant than titanium.

Have you ever heard of the name Cynthia McKinney? I’m embarrassed to admit that until last week, I hadn’t.

When my early ballot to vote for the general election arrived in my mailbox, I immediately ripped it open and looked at the Presidential section expecting to find Barack Obama and John McCain.  But, to my surprise, I found three more names: Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nadar.
Cynthia, that’s a woman’s name! Not only that, but she belongs to the Green Party. That is right up my alley and I didn’t know a thing about it. How can that be?

Do you know what my favorite, "The Way I See It" saying from the back of a Starbuck's cup is? #287 and it says, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."  Madeleine K. Albright the former Secretary of State and Ambassador to the U.N. said it and I agree. I've always believed in woman power, but then I had three boys.
With this Presidential Election, we have heard a lot about discrimination… specifically race vs. gender. But, what about Third Party discrimination? Why is it that only the Democrats and the Republicans get to debate? Why has the focus only been on those two parties?
A couple of days ago, there was an article in The Arizona Republic called, “Nader, Barr a factor in race: Third-party candidates a wild card, experts say,” written by Anne Ryman. First of all, there is no mention of Cynthia McKinney, only Barr and Nader, like the title reflects. But, the article is about third-party candidates and Cynthia McKinney is one.  Anne Ryman writes that the media also gives them  (third party candidates) less attention because they often don’t have a chance of winning.

Hmm… ya think? I repeat… How can a lady being running for President and I don’t even know about it? How can that be? And did you know that her running mate is a woman too?

Even though, I’m a Republican, I wanted to vote for Hillary Clinton just because she is a woman. Then, came Sarah Palin and I was going to vote for that ticket. But, now I find out that there is Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party... a woman is running for President!

I hear that voting for a third party candidate would be a waste of my vote. But, how can voting for a woman be a waste? More importantly, what about Mother Earth? When will we vote for helping the environment?

I think its time we learn more about third party candidates and what they stand for, especially the Green Party.

What do you think of the third party candidates? Would you vote for one?

This is how we are going to fund my Dad's Solar Hydrogen project

My Third Grade Idea

When I was in third grade, I was a Girl Scout. My Mom was the Scout leader and responsible for ordering all of the cookies to earn money to pay for the troop’s activities. I remember my Mom telling all of the girls that they were working together towards a common goal and that we should all do our best to increase the “cookie revenue” so that we can help pay for other Girl Scout troops in the Phoenix area.

To be honest, I just wanted the badge so I could add it to the rest of my badge collection on my uniform. It’s amazing what someone will do for a circle patch.

See, I had a plan to get that badge.  Back when I was a Girl Scout in the third grade, there weren’t so many rules, unlike today. To earn the badge today, Junior Girl Scouts must complete at least five activities, including Safe Sales.  I’m pretty sure that my plan would not have worked in today’s standards of Safe Sale and all that jazz.

What was the plan? I got up before the rest of the world and went and knocked on my neighbor’s doors. It was brilliant. They would come to the door all sluggish and dressed in their pajamas smelling of sleep. I was like a little ray of sunshine all dressed in my bright green uniform. They promptly signed my order form and closed the door.  I got so many orders that year and all before my parents were even awake!

I was so pleased with myself that I thought, “I’ll get up every morning and knock on people’s door. I can totally fund my Dad’s Solar Hydrogen projects this way. All I have to do is knock on 30 million doors and ask for a dollar donation.“ Of course, I got my little badge and never knocked on a door that early again.

And now, I’m being paid back in spades. For the last seven years, my kids haven’t slept past the crack of dawn. I grumble each and every morning cursing the days of Girl Scout cookie sales. Back when I was in the third grade, I had so many ideas and now all I want to do is sleep!

The other day, my local neighborhood Girl Scout came knocking at my door around four in the afternoon with her mother. The daughter asked if I would like to order some Girl Scout cookies and told me that selling cookies builds entrepreneur skills, that some day she would be a businesswoman.  Now, why didn’t I think of that?

Now it is some day for me and I want to be a businesswoman with entrepreneurial skills! I think back to the third grade and my idea of knocking on 30 million doors.

“I can do that.” I say to myself.  “But, how do I do it with four kids on top of me?” I think about how hard it is just to walk around our little block and how we drive half a block just to get to school.  Not only that, but I don’t even allow my own Cub Scout to sell stuff door to door. Hmmm… times have changed.

“What if I used the Internet to reach everybody?”  My mind went a million miles a minute thinking of all the possibilities. It didn’t take long before I was designing SaraEnoch.com. I told everyone I knew of my idea.

“Nobody is going to donate a dollar over the Internet.” They all told me.

“Well, do you want me to wake you up before the sun comes up and ask for you to donate a dollar? Because if that’s what it takes, I’ll see you in the morning with my four kids.”  I say in my third grade know-it-all voice.

“No, no, no I’ll give you a dollar now.”

“I thought so.” I laugh, they laugh, we all laugh.

I still think it’s a good idea and I’m going to run with it.

Tell me what you think? Would you give a dollar to fund my Dad’s Solar Hydrogen Projects?

The Code of Destiny

By Sara Enochs

GIFTED AUTHOR SHARES REAL-LIFE STORY OF HOW DAYDREAMING ABOUT THE PAST WILL HELP US UNDERSTAND THE FUTURE…

…AND REVEALS HOW WE CAN MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE FOR OUR CHILDREN

How do you save a world in trouble? Escape reality, and get thrown into the realm of daydreams, then simply share the revelations and ideas that you encountered along the way! Using this amazing tool, we can all work to save ourselves, and each other, by accepting a whole new world of possibilities.

Daydreamer and author, Sara Enochs, has big dreams for making our world a better place for future generations, and she wrote The Code of Destiny to show a struggling society the way…

Written with heartfelt expression, The Code of Destiny, tells Enochs’s own unique story through the eyes of a beautifully developed character,

“Like me,” Enochs shares, “Ava had a lot going on in her world, and was finding that motherhood is not only a demanding, around the clock occupation, but that mothering skills don’t always come naturally.”

Hoping to awaken the nurturing instincts inside her, the plot takes us on a road trip with Ava, her mother and her newborn son, where we discover that the solitude of the backseat allows her to perpetuate elaborate daydreams that actually help prioritize her plans for the future.

Enochs says, “When someone daydreams, they have creative authority to change whatever they’re not comfortable with in their life. So, Ava reinvents who she is and in the process discovers her own true destiny.”

And what a destiny it is! Ava begins working with her father, a world-renowned scientist, developing ways to raise money for his plan to convert the world’s primary energy to solar hydrogen instead of fossil fuels. With his daughter’s help, they’ll create a unique campaign to finally put this project in motion.

Beyond the simple fact that Enochs spins a wonderfully compelling tale, The Code of Destiny also delivers valuable insight into:

The pure power of daydreaming, and the benefits of following those dreams, the importance of helping those who have given so selflessly of themselves to help us all in times of need, and finally how to juggle personal goals with motherhood in a busy world filled with interruptions.

“I wrote The Code of Destiny to not only tell a story, but to serve as a roadmap to assist others through the inevitable difficult times in their lives and to prove that if you dream it you can do it. My hope is that I can evoke dreams to flow within your hearts and heads so that together we can change the world,” explains Enochs.

About the Author

Sara Enochs graduated from Arizona State University earning two degrees, majoring in Biology and Spanish. She continued her studies at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the University of California, Berkeley. She has a warm place in her heart for kids, moms, women’s health, and the environment.

Aside from Code of Destiny, Sara is in the process of publishing the remaining two books in the Code series: The Code of Dignity and The Code of Deliverance.

She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona with their husband, Charlie and four children, Charlie, James, Ben and Ava.

Please visit Sara online at www.SaraEnochs.com to learn more about her Solar Hydrogen Campaign. The Code of Destiny is available at: www.bn.com

Review Copies Available