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Rachel Dolezal

Sunday, June 21st, 2015

by: Marceline Donaldson

Ms. Dolezal is paying a high price, claiming to be who she feels she is inside – which is the right we all have in this life.

But look – who is that they are nailing to a cross and raising high into the air for all to see? Is that Ms. Dalezal? What did this one woman do by claiming her Blackness that was so horrible that she has lost the work of her life – her volunteer as well as her career work. And for ridiculous reasons. Misrepresentation? How did she misrepresent?

Ms. Dalezal calls herself Black. What is “Black”? A race of people? A community of people? A culture? What – that her calling herself Black has raised such a furor. She certainly looks and acts Black and has for a few decades!

Media people are saying Ms. Dalezal lied and is not Black. So what is this Blackness?

It is not a race – nor a community – Is it a culture and what else? I call myself New Orleans Creole. Then someone comes along and says you are not a Creole, you are Black! Isn’t that something – that is fear!

As a culture, Ms. Dolezal is correct in identifying herself as Black, given her lifestyle.

And the rest of us? We have accepted “African American” as a term and we consider it a race. My daughters have a Jewish father (Russian Jew) and an African American mother. But wait a minute – that African American mother has a ‘White” father and an African American mother. But wait a minute – that African American mother has a father who is half Black Foot Indian and half French and then some of what I think is Portuguese. She has a mother who is part Irish, part Choctaw Indian, part English, and according to family legend part Swiss.

So what are they? African American? Black? Jewish – although they were christened Episcopalian and have never been in a Synagogue? Or are they something else? And then their children. One daughter’s children are half whatever she is with all that mish mash and half their father – who is Swedish. Now what do we have? Can they be called African Americans? Swedish Americans? Jewish Americans? Italian Americans? etc. According to government form-filling-out protocol, they can’t check Caucasian on those forms. Someone would say they were not telling the truth. So, here we have it – the new way of identifying that drop of African “blood.” No longer acceptable in one form, so we have a new African American form which does the same thing. If they check Caucasian, they are criticized for “passing”.

African Americans have accepted every word attached to their identity as though it is gospel and the world will fall apart if they don’t claim to be African Americans and God forbid someone comes along who makes that claim and the rest of the world doesn’t validate that claim. Well – along comes a Rachel Dolezal who does something to bring all of this racism into question and we go wild. Make her stop. Force her to take all of her talk back. Straighten her hair and make her skin as white as possible so we can claim she is lying. Lying about what?

Why isn’t she “Black” if that is her culture and “Black” is a culture? Why isn’t she Native American, since part of her heritage comes from Native Americans ancestry. Is she both and all of that?

I have friends who are African – from Africa. They have immigrated to this country and are now African Americans. Who else can claim that title? All of those pretenders whose ancestors came from Africa generations ago and have intermarried with the rest of the world – or had children with the rest of the world. How are they now African Americans? Are we all passing? And if a little bit of African determines you are African American then all the United States needs to sign up on government forms checking the box which says “African American”. Actually, isn’t Africa where we all came from anyway? And in the U. S. A. hasn’t the mixing been extensive and profound?

All of those terms – which we accept as identifying a race – are really terms which identify the structure of racism in this country. To call someone with African, Italian, English, German, Native American ancestors “African American” is racist. Why? It comes from the history of this U. S. A. which called anyone with one drop of African blood ‘Colored’ or ‘Black’ or ‘African American’ and made all of those folks self-identify as such or something horrible would happen to them. They didn’t have to wear a yellow star on their clothes, they had to put that African American identity in their psychic so those who do not identity as African American, but are in the racist group can comfortably know where the boundaries are and those “African Americans” are charged with the task of keeping the boundaries.

Anyone who this society thinks should be African American is called out and embarrassed and shamed by those who claim to be White as well as by those who claimed to be Black with its other descriptors. Now Rachel Dalezal claims to be Black and she is transgressing all of that history and tearing down all of that racist structure by her claim so the rest of society is building a cross for her and nailing her to it so she will be the example that no one else will follow.

Don’t you think it is ridiculous that we are still engaging in this kind of child’s play – which not even children will engage in? It is the play of those whose identity is false and acquired by the color of their skin rather than the accomplishments of their lives. They get away with it because we are still guilty about slavery; still in need of that kind of master/slave relationship and our structures, which were formed during slavery, still demand the kind of incredible behavior we are only too willing to give.

We are now engaged in a race war – call it anything else, but this is a race war when 9 people are shot by one young person who was raised up in this racist structure and even though he thought the people he engaged in a bible study with were “nice” he was still called by his “mission” to shoot them because they were “Black”. And he isn’t the first. What he did is in a long line of those like him who have been killing the people identified as African Americans for generations with little or not penalties for their effort.

Where are you all? I am Black? I join hands with Rachel Dalezal? And you?

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Rachel Dolezal, Racism, Sexism
Posted in African American history, Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Blog Response, Hedge Schools, Historical Support, politics, Rachel Dolezal, racism, sexism, The Black Race | No Comments »

The Black Race*

Friday, June 19th, 2015

WOW! Powerful! Thank you! I wanted to respond, but being white, I thought I should keep my mouth shut. Your blog has changed that. I am going to say what I think, wherever I am and let the chips fall where they may. I have been afraid of being called a racist most of my life. Today it really doesn’t matter. I need to be heard.

From your blog – lets start a new race! The Black Race. Since it was your blog I should let you be the charter and first member, however, in my new space I am going to be the charter and first member.

The Black Race is —

A ‘race’ you can’t be born into – you have to elect to join.

Your skin color does not matter nor does your sex.

The major criteria for joining is your need to be with people who understand equality and are equal to you and you and you to them.

A race concerned about this planet and how we take care of it.

A race of people concerned about the food we eat and what is being done to it.

A race of people into which you can put your most cherished foods, holidays, symbols, sayings which were a part of your former ‘race’ and which you want to remember and hang on to – and where others will also celebrate ‘your’ things as their own.

A race of people whose members reach out to one another to mutually be there for those of us having a difficult time getting through this life.

A race of people whose members do not tolerate homelessness.

You may maintain ‘membership’ in the Black Race and any other race you choose at the same time. (added 6/20/2015)

The Black Race has members spread around the globe and are citizens of many countries. It is not limited to one country. (added 6/20/2015)

Your name needs to be inscribed in the membership book of The Black Race. Currently, you can do that by sending an email to bettinanetwork@comcast.net until a separate site is established for The Black Race and then new members would send their names to that new address. (added 6/21/2015)

Only those who sign up to be members of The Black Race are accepted. No one is automatically a member of the Black Race. (added 6/21/2015)

We need a creed and a membership card. Each person who joins The Black Race should have their own card made up with additional cards to give to their friends, relatives and colleagues. All are welcome to join the Black Race – and to tell the media and others that you are Black. Maybe we should have little dinner parties to announce to our friends that we are now Black.

I will start the Black Race Creed:

I, (your name), am a member of the Black Race. If you do harm to one of us you do harm to all of us.

As a member of the Black Race I give up whatever White Privilege I have been given. (added 6/21/2015)

If there is anything you want to add to this definition of the Black Race, please feel free to do so. If there is anything you want to add to the “Black Race Creed”, please feel free to do that also.

If you want to be public about your membership in the Black Race, send a blog to Bettina’s with your name and reasons for joining. Come out of the closet all of you Black people.

Does someone want to contribute bumper stickers which read “I am a member of the Black Race” ?

*Ed Note: Currently, there is no such thing as a Black Race, so this conversation about whether or not Rachel Dolezal is Black or not is a ridiculous conversation. African Americans also don’t constitute a race of people. So this initiative to start such a race has a clear field.

And oh, by the way, we have had a couple telephone calls asking us to find out where Rachel Dolezal has her hair done. Anyone know the answer to that?

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Rachel Dolezal, Racism, Sexism
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Guest comments, Historical Homes, Rachel Dolezal, racism, Reader Feedback, sexism, Ubuntu | No Comments »

Rachel Dolezal – over Breakfast!

Tuesday, June 16th, 2015

I am sure you knew we would weigh in on this one. It is too good not to talk about over breakfast – and it was a great conversation. What was best about the conversation – it was honest. We did not talk platitudes; conversation society would expect or accept; we just talked.

The first question was of honesty; the roles of physicality, culture and identity; is there anything about physicality/biology that informs identity in an essential way. That is certainly what this public discussion has put forth. Somehow, according to the media, Ms. Dolezal’s biology has determined that she is not Black.

It gets really tiring the way color is discussed. One person is really Black – wow that brother is something else! Another is Black, but not Black enough. Another is ‘high yellow’ trying to be what she is not ‘Black’. She has AFrican American parents, but her Blackness is what is questioned. He doesn’t talk as though he is Black. She doesn’t dress as though she is Black. Who do they think they are – they know that’s not how Black folk act. and on and on. Who are they pretending to be – look at her, trying to be like Miss Ann. We’ve heard these conversations and more for decades.

And then we got into it. Is Rachel Dolezal Black? And who determines Blackness? Where are the determiners of who is Black and who is not. No one heard anything like that being discussed in this media onslaught. The discussions on television, in the print media, on the internet, etc. all were fraught with assumptions. The first – to be Black one had to be African Americans and apparently come from African American parents. That then allowed the charges of ‘dishonesty’ to come into play. Ms. Dolezal was ‘dishonest’ so she had to give up her Presidency, which she wouldn’t have if she hadn’t work for it. There are too many “Blacks” in the NAACP for someone to be elected President simply because they are Black. It was very disheartening to see the NAACP move Ms. Dolezal out of a position for which she put in hard work to achieve. Because they didn’t want to have this ‘distraction’? If this isn’t an issue of race and a primary issue of race which the NAACP needs to be addressing I don’t know what is.

That brought up – why, after all this time, did Ms. Dolezals mother decide to come out and take her daughter down. She did it in as wide spread and mean spirited way that she could – so the dysfunction in that family is out in the media for all to see. It is one thing to adopt and raise African American children – or any other minority child. It is quite another to be identified as the race of the child you are raising. Not many people could handle that and I have seen such adoptive parents bristle when someone saw the children and assumed they were also African American.

Many people, who have done such adopting, have not been able to get out of the ‘doing good for those poor minority folks’ syndrome. And I know many folks are going up in smoke when they read this – but take a look around. That doesn’t mean they have not loved, or cared for their adopted children. That just means it takes a lot to move out of your White Privilege into the Black Ghetto in which your adopted children live all of their lives. The White parents of such children have moments here and there where they can ‘escape’. The minority children don’t and won’t for their entire lifetime. What happens if those White parents gave up their White Privilege and lived with their children as minorities one and all? What a difference that would make in this society. What a statement that would make.

In mixed marriages in the 1940’s and 1950’s in the deep south the White partner generally left their White Privilege behind and lived as Black. Some knew they were Black, some thought they were simply light skinned African Americans.

With Rachel Dolezal’s family’s Native American ancestry, how does that fit into this conversation? Can one who is part Native American consider themselves Black? Some Native American tribes are trying to get all those with some African American ‘blood’ out of their tribes and deny them any advantages the tribe, with which they have identified for generations, could offer. Did the casino’s change the definition of who is Native American? What has changed the definition of who is Black? From everything I’ve seen and heard – Black is a culture – a way of talking, eating, playing, socializing, being. Lots of discussion has gone on around what it means to be Black and now with Rachel Dolezal all of that discussion has gone down the toilet. We are now in a mode of “protect the identity of White Privilege” – if the White Privileged person doesn’t have the smarts to protect their own identity then the rest of society must do it for them and is that what is happening with Rachel Dolezal? Hey kid, get back into your White tribe. In this case, the media has been charged with that duty. Drag her through everything so those other young people watching won’t try to do this. What a society this would be if hundreds, thousands of White children – wallowing in White Privilege would give it up and identify as Black. Would racism crack and break into pieces to be washed away in the next thunderstorm?

Rachel Dolezal did what Black Civil Rights groups have been ragging on Whites to do for decades. Don’t try to address the issues, problems, attempts at a solution for Blacks unless you give up your White Privilege and live the way racism forces ‘us’ to live. I’ve heard that so many times it got to be a bit disgusting – especially in the 1970’s. Generally brought up by a Black Male whose ego was wounded and felt White Women were taking his place and putting him down – out would come, “when you give up your White Privilege” then come and …………….. One reason to keep African American women out of the women’s movement was because they were ‘up against’ a group of White women who could run home to their White husbands or family and wash the pain and suffering of the people they were working with off their clothes and skin. They could run home and relax in their Whiteness and their White Privilege.

Who better to head the NAACP than a WOMAN who has given up the advantages and ability to oppress Blacks; than someone who has given up that White Privilege and whose life shows who she is, where she is comfortable, with whom she has decided to live her life and not for a week or a month or a year, but this has been for decades. AND, the only person who can determine if she is Black or not is Ms. Dolezal. It is her identity to put out there and our role is to respect how she defines herself. How many times have we heard – ‘who do you think you are defining me. Don’t you dare define me, you respect how I define myself.’

Everything but that has happened.

Honesty doesn’t even belong in this conversation. And neither do all the trappings – I know several women in my social circle who would not think of going out with having first used a spray tan. I know others who pay lots of money to have themselves “sprayed” before major events. If Ms. Dolezal uses spray tan – what’s the difference? One group uses it for frivolous cosmetic reasons – to make their skin darker. Ms. Dolezal uses it to be able to better fit in where she finds herself comfortable and is able to work on the issues and societal problems for which she has a passion. She is not working on them as a White Person – with all the privileges that screams. She is not patronizing anyone – in fact, to give up her Whiteness to work on these issues takes all of the inequality away from the groups she is working with and for.

The media has set the conversation and has determined which questions need to be asked and what the answers should be for Ms. Dolezal to pass their ‘examination’. Their questions are racist and sexist and the tone they set for this conversation is one to maintain the status quo. For heavens sake lets get out in front of this before more of ‘our’ children start using spray tan and working in the civil rights movements after having given up their White Privilege. WELL – here is someone who has chosen not to be able to wash off all of that and to live a Black life. And here we are taking her down from the NAACP and goodness knows what else.

All of us – in theory – are against prejudice based on race. Most of us can not sustain that when it comes to one on one interactions. We substitute ‘personality disorder’, ‘crazy’, ‘not the right kind of person to take this issue forward’, and I could go on and on and on with these excuses.

Now – someone who was effective in dealing with a part of racism and sexism in her part of the world has been “outed” and made to resign the posts for which she has moved the conversation and the society forward. There are no qualifications within the NAACP that one be Black or White or African American or Chinese or whatever to work within that organization or as one of its officers. In many organizations there have been people who were gay who masqueraded as straight. There have been people who were Black who passed for White. I have Chinese friends who have had their eyes widened and who then look European. Is this dishonest?

This is not a big deal in a racist society. This is not a question of honesty or dishonesty, because this is not a society which is color blind. It is a racist, sexist society and honesty has a value which does not belong nor fit into this issue. We are throwing it around and using it in ways to maintain our status quo. How ‘hones’t is a person who felt called to the ordained ministry and masquerades as a straight man to become ordained – then masquerades as a straight man to be elected bishop. He was not “outed” for his “dishonesty”. That was never an issue. Why not – given this Rachel incident. We have held up and honored such a person – looking at their achievements in the area of their choice rather than the “dishonesty” of what they had to do to be able to do the work we raise up and cherish. But then, he was a White man.

What is dishonest is using biology to define race where that is a ridiculous argument. What is dishonest is to claim physicality to define race and use it to distinguish and defines one person as better than another because of their race – no matter how veiled the argument may be. It is only a question of time before someone decides she is mentally unstable and should see a psychiatrist. That is usually said by the people who are in actual need of serious therapy.

What is needed to bring about major change is to require that anyone working on the issues of race give up their White Privilege and become Black. Then, you can know the issues on which you are working a lot better; you can focus knowing you are not going home to that White Suburban existence from which you came to do this ‘nobles oblige’ work. Then Blacks can know you are serious about what you claim to believe about racism and how to address this problem.

Ms. Dolezal needs to be a role model – a requirement for those in society who want to see race/skin color/and more eliminated from society.

There is no biological separation of someone who is Black from the rest of society – this conversation is putting all of those requirements in place without actually taking on such an overt discussion. Bo Derek broke the White/Black hair thing decades ago when she was declared a “10” with all of her Rostifarian hair braids. Blacks declared the hair line broken when Madam Walker developed the cosmetic that straightened African Americans hair – and the hair of Whites with curly hair who wanted it to look less curly and more straight. But now we have this uproar also over Ms. Dolezals hair. Is it acceptable in some contexts to have an Afro or African American hair style, but in other contexts it is ‘not honest’. Interesting is how we held up a woman with a “Black” hair style when it was a decorative thing, frivolous, girlish thing to do and it didn’t mean anything except women were experimenting with their bodies again and their value is in their bodies in this society. So Bo Derek was experimenting with her “image” on a very superficial level so the furor over that was very low level and very short lived – in fact, many White women took up her style after she came out with those braids. The same thing with ‘spray tan’. It is fine when used as a cosmetic, frivolous thing to enhance the physical beauty of a woman, but not when it is used to allow someone to follow their passion to work to change the society in which we all live. A woman’s value, after all is in her physical beauty, her physical appearance.

What is not honest is the racism running rife through this discussion without anyone calling the media-people who have introduced their racism into this discussion and having them answer for the direction in which this discussion is going and the damage they are trying to do to Rachel Dolezal so others won’t follow her example. Something slightly akin to a witch hunt and what happens to the witch when she has been exposed. Delicious here is the fact that this witch was exposed by her mother. That must warm the cockles of some New Englanders’ hearts.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, politics, Rachel Dolezal, Racism, Sexism
Posted in African American history, Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Breakfast Table Talk, Hedge Schools, Historical Homes, Media Control, Rachel Dolezal | No Comments »

Dog Post Response

Thursday, May 28th, 2015

A response from a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community to the post on “Dogs, Dogs and more Dogs!

“Thank you for that post. I was overjoyed to see someone pointing out how much we spend on our pets in view of some desperate human beings who have to fight to get a meal each and every day.

I also watch the dogs outside my window. There is a park and we have a leash law. I see dogs playing off their leashes every morning with their owners watching. They run, chase what their owners throw and have a general good time. Which is great for them! However, I also watch in the afternoons when parents come with their toddlers and let the toddlers run around the park – right where the dogs relieved themselves. Your intro about the disease may have been in fun, however, shortly, there is going to be a serious outbreak when a mother’s child comes down with a disease from playing where the dogs crapped. The city does nothing about stopping the people from letting their dogs run without leashes. That law was passed for a reason – basically to protect people and dogs. If anything serious happened in that park – even a loud noise – there is no way to control the dogs who then react in fear.

Keep writing – I will keep reading.”

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, dogs, health
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Dogs! Dogs! and more Dogs!

Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

Oh! Isn't that cute! I can leave it where it drops, the leaves will cover it up.

Oh! Isn’t that cute! Such a thoughtful dog, we can leave it where it drops, the leaves will cover it up.

NEWS FLASH! New terminal disease discovered which is killing the population. It is fatal within two hours of a human becoming infected. Scientists have found the cause – the huge amount of animal fecal matter spreading rapidly and piling up across the world. The main spread agent – dogs whose fecal matter turns into this rare form of disease when expelled. No cure found! Babies under one year are the most susceptible. Humans on earth are confounded. Hospitals are not overcrowded because people infected with this new dog caused disease die before reaching the hospital or a doctor!

Everywhere you go there are people with their dogs. Some on leashes, some running free, all peeing and dropping their fecal matter on the sidewalk – in the gardens around the trees – everyplace except where it is supposed to be dropped. Some people pick up their dog’s crap. Some don’t. Some pick it up and drop it on top of their neighbors garbage cans or in another neighbor’s garden. Most humans are pretty thoughtless about other people and are only concerned about their own comfort and convenience.

This was a pretty emotional breakfast. So many feelings about all the dogs multiplying, increasing exponentially in a society which still has homeless and young children without enough to eat – no one to care for them – needing clothes, education, comfort and love. None for you, my lovely and needy children, it is all going to the dogs.

WHY?

Our little band of temporary friends decided it is because dogs worship humans. A self-absorbed society adds to its self-absorption by bringing in an animal that gets happy when it sees its “master”; wags its tails strongly to show how happy it is to see this human being who feeds them, etc; gives companionship in a master/servant kind of way and will never try to become an equal; and the biggy – isn’t going to stage a revolution for its freedom.

What would this world look like if all the money and other resources being spent and lavished upon dogs were spent and lavished upon those who are in need. Is that enough to end poverty? To end homelessness? to end children on the street selling their bodies for a meal and a roof over their head?Buy a dog or adopt a child!!! Take care of a dog or help a family take care of its children!!! Spend tons of love and care on dogs or spend tons of love and care on humans in need. We have clearly made our choice – the dogs win. The humans think, care, act! Dogs just worship!

It is much harder to deal with your own kind than to deal with a group you have designated as less than. That master/servant relationship isn’t going anyplace. It is firmly in control of most of us and we seem to not be able to stand on our ethics, our principles, our own two feet and we especially don’t want to be inconvenienced or put out in any way. We won’t even pick up our own servant/dogs poop – or dispose of it properly. For every one person who does, there are at least 10 who don’t.

His new teeth cost a fortune, but it was worth every penny!

So what is the answer? We couldn’t find any. Get this dog problem under control and we will probably only be able to do so by putting another situation in its path that will turn into something worse than what we are now experiencing. Everybody at the table, including those with dogs had a horrible dog story to tell about a neighbor, a friend, a relative and that persons dog.

While we talked at breakfast about the incredible number of dogs every place you turned, doing damage to human life and health, we were in a dining room with a window which looked out on the street and we counted twelve (12) dogs going by with their owners – and this in less than an hour. The dog owners stopped in front of the tree which was surrounded by lovely flowers. That was a clear signal to the dog – pee and crap now and in this spot. The dogs simply walked into the flower bed, encouraged by its “master” and peed. We were sure that flower bed would soon be barren. As it is, the flower bed was bedraggled from the dog traffic and our host didn’t want to go out to continue to cultivate it after watching all the dog pee going into the ground.

Contrary to dog owners claims – dog pee and dog fecal matter are not garden fertilizers. They are garden destroyer.

They can’t be talking about me! But I am so cute, anyone would be proud to have me lick their face!

What does it do to the human spirit and the human soul to lavish all of the resources now being spent on animals and ignore the need of humans who are going hungry – are without basic shelter – have no way to get out of their current tragic existence. How would you feel in those circumstances sitting on the sidelines watching pampered pets go by? We have more compassion for “rescue” dogs than we do for another human being. We talked – finally – about seeing friends getting all misty-eyed when they see a dog in need and turn hostile when they see a human in need. There is something basically wrong here and we are clearly not dealing with what is missing in the human spirit which allows this and blind-sides us to our part in this tragedy.

When you die will it be your dog who greets you with its tail wagging or will it be the humans you denied because of your inability to face your own mortality and morality?

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, breakfast table talk, dogs, health, Spiritual Reflection
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina's Box of Shame, Breakfast Table Talk, Dogs, Health, Historical Homes | No Comments »

Marceline’s Brown Biscuits

Wednesday, May 20th, 2015

Named by a guest, these ‘biscuits’ are easy to make and they destroy the marketing mythology that cooking and baking are difficult and one must, instead, decamp to the local store to buy the instant variety of anything because we don’t have the time or knowledge enough to cook – we must buy instead from the ‘professionals’. For us, such prepared food has too much salt – too much sugar – too many preservatives and other things which don’t belong in food. We like plain ordinary ingredients which one can quickly turn into great biscuits in five minutes of prep time.

These biscuits can be made in many versions. One can make plain biscuits for a great breakfast, dripping with butter; or one can put cinnamon, apples, onions, peanut butter, cheese, nutmeg, sugar, etc. into your own version of these biscuits and call them Theodore or JoAnn’s Biscuits. (Hi JoAnn, thanks for naming my biscuits.) Only your imagination limits the possibilities. We have been known to put everything except the kitchen sink into our biscuits and the more ingredients, the better the biscuit. Want something really special, try making these biscuits with raw, unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk. Now there is a biscuit that harkens back to the time when food was food and not a conglomeration of chemicals.

Start with one cup organic whole wheat flour in the food processor.

Add one cup organic whole wheat pastry flour

Add one teaspoon salt – or to taste

Add one teaspoon baking power

To remember the ingredients – it is biscuits with the power of one plus six. What is the six? The number of ingredients.

Turn on the processor and give it a few twirls to mix these dry ingredients.

Add one stick organic butter to the ingredients in the food processor – slice the butter to make it quicker to incorporate

Turn on the processor and let it twirl until all ingredients are mixed and it looks like tiny little balls

Add 2/3 cup milk and twirl for a quick second until the ingredients are in a kind of ball.

Use organic butter to make rounds of grease on a cookie sheet. Each round is where you will drop a biscuit.

Take a small handful of the biscuit dough and roll it lightly between your hands to form a ball. If your hands get sticky during this process, put a bit of flour on the palms of your hands and keep rolling the biscuit dough between them.

Drop the biscuit ball onto one of the greased rounds on the cookie sheet

When all are done, bake at 350 degrees until done. Maybe 10 to 15 minutes depending upon your oven.

Let them cool for a few minutes after you take them out of the oven or they will break up and you will have to eat biscuit crumbs.

These should be very light and lovely and give you about one dozen biscuits.

For variety – use organic coconut milk instead of cow’s milk – or goats milk – or almond milk – or whatever you like. We loved the coconut milk. It was a subtle taste. You knew something great was in the biscuits, but you didn’t know quite what.

To the plain biscuits, add grated cheese before baking. Grate cheese and just push a small amount into the biscuits. Top with a square of butter, sprinkle salt over the biscuits and then bake. These are super fantastic. The addition of the cheese, salt and butter takes these out of the everyday category into the universe.

To the plain biscuit dough, add a heaping tablespoon of organic ceylon cinnamon. Use organic coconut milk instead of regular cows milk. Add sugar to taste – a lot if you want sweet biscuits, a medium amount to make these ‘dressy’. Grate a bit of nutmeg into the biscuits or sprinkle the tops generously with nutmeg and sugar before baking.

Add chopped apples to the sweetened biscuits. Apples give an unexpected taste and texture to these dressed biscuits along with the coconut milk plus.

NO! ABSOLUTELY DO NOT SUBSTITUTE WHITE FLOUR FOR ORGANIC WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR. Organic Whole Wheat Flour is what gives these biscuits the taste of ones grandmother used to make. The good grandmother, who knew how to cook with solid, organically grown ingredients.

It takes, at most, five minutes to mix these biscuits and another ten to fifteen minutes to let them bake in the oven. The effort is minimal, the results are spectacular.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Homes
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A Bettina Network Moving Sale

Thursday, April 30th, 2015

Sale happens Saturday May 2, 2015 – Look for the Bettina Network Flag flying in front of the house to know you are in the right place.

Starts at 10am and ends at 3pm

Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Members will be allowed in at 9am on May 2, 2015.

The address of the sale is 65 Huntington St, Milton, MA. 02186.

There are interesting items for sale:

An elevator chair, which goes up and down the stairs. The company will take it off the wall and we are sure for a small amount of money they will reinstall the chairs in your home. There are two chairs. One goes from the first to the second floor. The second goes from the basement to the first floor – where the two stairs are not contiguous.

Many of the items we could not picture because Word Press only takes pictures up to 2MB. So next time we will click accordingly – once we learn how.

There are two lovely Tiffany-style hanging lamps which are quite old and beautiful.

Dining room table and chairs. Porcelain dinner service. Stem glasses.

Opalescent glass figures. Book cases. Bedroom set with queen-sized bed – real wood.

Mahogany book cases. Pine book cases stained mahogany.

Miscellaneous items that will look lovely in your living or dining room where you need an extra something.

Clothes. Fur coats. A collection of 1930’s mink and fox throws for over the shoulder – remember the kind with the head, feet and tails intact – well come and see these (No conservationist comments please – this was the 1930’s and there were not many of these made).

Off-white Pinch pleated thermal drapes – lots of them. The way they conserve heat and cold in your home will make up for the fox and mink shoulder stoles.

Nylon curtains – some with frilly ruffles for just $5.00.

An old sewing machine case – a little rubbing with coconut oil will make this case look lovely.

Oriental-style rugs – one for $25 and it is room size – the second for $125.

Pots and pans. Kitchen miscellaneous.

Basement items, including professional floor cleaning equipment ideal for someone just starting a new business. Use these until you have earned enough to buy the new, super shiny, over-priced machines that will take away most of your profit.

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As in all Bettina Network Sales, whatever is left after the sale is donated to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. A 501 ( c ) 3 organization and the family gets a tax credit for the amount of the items so donated. The Bettina Network Foundation, inc. gives all of these items to people who are recently homeless and are beginning to furnish their new permanent home and/or to people in difficult situations who these items can benefit and make their lives a bit easier. We work with Therapists and Social Workers to determine who can best use the items available. They are not stored they are taken immediately to their new home so volunteers at the end of each sale are crucial.

If you are a Social Worker, Therapist or someone working with the homeless and would like to volunteer to help in this effort to eradicate homelessness as best we can, call us. We send you an inventory of items available and you let us know which ones your clients can use.

If you would like to volunteer some of your time to work with the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. we welcome you. Speak to one of the people working the sale and they will give you more information. It is fun -a good learning experience – and who knows where it will lead for you. We need photographers, designers to help those receiving items have an idea as to how to place them for maximum beauty, those who like to clean and work with others to help them learn how to keep up what they now own, etc., but especially those who enjoy giving – being creative – finding a way where there was no way, etc.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Moving Sale
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Coconut Oil Toothpaste?

Saturday, April 25th, 2015

A new kind of toothpaste?

Just when you think you know everything about a food along comes Dr. Mercola and mercola.com with something new.

If you have not subscribed to the mercola.com newsletter, we suggest you do so as soon as possible.

Their latest entry is “6 Reasons to Start Using Coconut Oil as Toothpaste”. To subscribe go to www.mercola.com and enter your email address where it says “subscribe now.” In the search box put “Coconut Oil as Toothpaste.” You won’t be sorry and you will be challenged to think and be conscious about your choices in food and other things.

Coconut oil to inhibit growth of bacteria responsible for tooth decay is a new one on even Bettina Network’s Blog. We use it to clean and oil furniture; to put on the hair after washing it; using it instead of Olive Oil for cooking – we still use Olive Oil for salads where it is hard to beat – and we still use Peanut Oil for frying; and occasionally for an all over massage, but It has taken a little bit of daring to use it for toothpaste. We will give it the Old School try and see what happens.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, health, health and beauty
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A New World Order

Tuesday, April 21st, 2015

We first heard of a “New World Order” when George Bush was president and let those words slip. We want to pick up those words and expand and change what that means – just a little.

We live and see others prosper as we recapture the past and move into the future world order. Some of us see the past as that place full of light and goodness. Others see this new technology creating that place full of light and goodness. We think they are both wrong and totally destroying what they are trying to achieve and capture. How does that happen? How did and do they get it so wrong?

We have to go back to the old world understanding that we don’t own anything on this earth. We contribute those ways of thinking to the ‘primitives’. Those groups of people who didn’t understand and were very ‘unintelligent’ in their ways of thinking. Their basic belief was that we don’t and can’t own anything in this world. All of that changed. But did it really or only in new constructs we chose to use to define who we are and how we live!

When we enter this world we do so with nothing except the body we take on at conception. When we leave it, we leave with nothing – not even the body with which we have identified for as long as we have lived on this earth. So how have we gotten everything so messed up, mixed up, confused and just downright wrong?

We need to go back to accept the fact of who we are instead of who our leaders have created us to be through their mythology – which we have accepted – and look at and accept who we really are and what we really own, if anything. Once we do that, the Bettina Lifestyle is simple – it is a “New World Order” based on our shared humanity – and a joy to live.

Whatever we receive in this life is a gift and something we own only temporarily. It really belongs to the earth – whatever that means. So we should take care of every pin, every dot, every tittle and iota that comes into our possession because it is not permanent and it is not ours. We keep all of these things for a second and then pass them on to someone else, unless we have ruined all of what we have possessed in the meantime and then we throw our things into the landfills. Those things we claim to own came from someplace else and are going someplace else when we no longer have use of whatever we have acquired.

Enter the Estate Sale – the Yard Sale – the Garage Sale. All ways we use to get rid of our ‘old’ stuff’ that we no longer want nor think we can use. The thought of taking care of our things because we are passing them along in the future very seldom enters our minds. We are the throw away society. We use it and throw it away. And what happens to those waiting to receive those throw away items? Sorry, but they were trashed, discarded, uncared for because the person using them interrupted the cycle by their inability to recognize their humanity and the need to share everything with those waiting to receive. We have dehumanized those waiting to receive to justify the way we have dehumanized ourselves. We have re-created ourselves in the image of the god we created who would put up with our sins, and wastefulness and uglinesses to ourselves and to others.

If we had taken good care of what we ‘owned’ temporarily, and understood that what we have must be used by someone else, those things would continue their lives and would continue to be useful someplace else and to someone else.

Some people can only buy and use “new” stuff. Some of us delight and cherish the ‘old stuff’ that we find at Estate Sales. It is like winning the lottery to find something wonderful for a fraction of what we would have to pay for the same item “new”. It is living on society’s throw aways, but what a luxury life.

Clothes are the best example. If you wear your clothes carefully, you can pass them on to continue to be used by someone else. So Bettina provides for that. Bettina Network, inc. has estate sales. Bettina Network Foundation, inc. gives away that which is given to us to those who need the give-aways to be able to participate in this society. How wonderful to find those give-aways in good condition.

There is no understanding of the ugliness and selfishness of the society in which we live until one becomes homeless. You can understand it on a very small basis as you interact and see the political fights, the petty jealousies, the coveting thy neighbors belongings. You can understand it only so far, if you also have a position which pays you money to work; friends in the same or better position of whom you can be jealous; belongings which don’t quite measure up to those of your neighbors. Homeless, you are cut off from all of that and are standing outside alone or with children or with other family or with friends- all of you alone -it is a stark emptiness, fear and feeling of what was it all about and what is it all about now that I am on the street! But oddly enough, that tendency to create negative structures in which to live is so strong that the homeless recreate the same scenarios only on a different level from that which we find in the society at large. What stops that? What intervenes to get rid of all the myths which we have created to continue this insanity?

To be homeless raises the question as to what got me in this place? Did I do something or not do something that I wound up homeless and cut off from everyone and everything except those in my condition? There are a few people who reach out to help, but they are not my friends. They are making themselves feel good as a part of their “belonging,”‘ enhancing their position in society; reaching out to ‘do good’, but going back into the lifestyle and the society which created the underbelly of people that are not doing so good.

Why do we throw away our children onto the streets? Why do we cast our elderly into buildings which harbor and collect all of the germs and diseases one gets as one gets older and keeps them from being seen and interacted with by others – the normal younger ones? Why do we eliminate youth and family from these buildings and put those who are only one step above the elderly in such places to ‘care’ for them? Is there something about youth who don’t tow the line and the elderly who shouldn’t be seen with the rest of us that makes us segregate?

As racism subsides are we so quickly replacing it with this form of elder-ism and creating more isms – so we don’t run out and might have to acknowledge our equality? Separate and unequal now true for the elderly and for our children?

It is interesting that one sees, on the streets, people active until about age 70 and then it is rare to see those much older unless we see them amongst the homeless. We have to go out of our way to these elder-buildings to see anyone older than 70. Why do we so desperately need to be better than, that we will destroy other human beings to fill our need to be better than?

Marketing and advertising create the image of being stunned by those over 40 who look good (translate young) – who are not ill – who are active in society. We just gasp at a 50 year old who looks younger and is still very active. Corporations almost totally refuse to hire anyone over 45 and we go along with that. Somehow, wisdom does not count. And we can see that in how our society operates. If wisdom were allowed in, and we commonly shared the experiences we have acquired from having lived many years through much, that might change the structures of our world and those who are busy creating this horror might have to give way to others who understand, acknowledge and act out of our common humanity.

If we treated our possessions as being with us only temporarily would that change all of this? If we consciously understood that when we leave this earth we would not even be able to do so taking our own bodies? Would that make a change? If we passed on what we now own and use when we either no longer want or need it and we passed that on in good shape to others would all of this change?

As of now, wearing clothes someone else bought and wore and now throws away is not considered great. Many of us won’t wear other peoples’ clothes. We expect to immediately get sick and die from some terminal disease we catch in that process. This need for new stuff and only new stuff has been created by a marketing and advertising campaign which has made us deathly afraid of each other and sometimes of ourselves. We must feed the “growth through throw away” societal structure. The faster we can get others to discard and throw away the faster new industries and companies can grow.

Look at this, – we can’t stand to be around someone who has an odor. That has created a whole industry, which is thriving. Try it sometimes and see how repulsed your friends and even your family can be if you smell. And we all smell. The exception is those who temporarily get rid of their smell by using chemicals which in the long run are harmful to one’s health. Maybe those products need the addition in their television commercials to list all the bad things they do to the body, if you use them, as soothing music plays in the background. Your smell is as unique as everything else. Get used to it. Can you walk into a room and know any of the people who just exited by the odors left or do you know the odors left by the brand of the chemicals used by the individuals?

We prefer to be around those who have more than we do and we will do some strange things to each other reaching ‘up’. We cater to those who seem to have more, hoping they will acknowledge us and pull us ‘up’ with them. And those already ‘up’ are doing their best to distance themselves from those who have less because they don’t want their ‘position’ compromised, especially by the unwashed.

Take a look at what keeps us without an odor – full of chemicals. Take a look at what keeps us clothed – chemicals, oil, especially in the middle classes and you will find these chemicals and processed oils giving off gases into our bodies. The food the chefs, who now make millions of dollars for the prattle produce, – can be really fowl, only we claim it to be exquisite because we repeat what we are expected to repeat to stay a member of the group. Once upon a time these Chefs touted Olive Oil as the only Oil to cook with if you wanted to be healthy. Slowly, too slowly, word got out that one can’t really cook with Olive Oil because it goes rancid as the temperature in the pot goes up and it doesn’t have to go up very far for the rancidity to appear killing all of the B vitamins in our system.

Try life in this New World Order. Take good care of what you currently own, with the thought that it will be owned by someone else in the not too d Bettina Trademark istant future and you want to preserve it so it can continue to be used and enjoyed. Pass your belongings on to those who either won’t or can’t pay the top dollars required of the people buying new stuff. What is this new stuff they are buying? Shoes full of chemicals way into four figures; New pocketbooks which show off a certain status costing into five figures. Instead of landfill, make sure those items with which you currently live are in such good condition they can be passed on to others to enjoy.

Find someone homeless and bring them into your social circle. Include them in your parties, your dinners, your outings, your vacations. You don’t have to provide them with permanent housing. When dinner is over they go back to their homeless state. When you return from vacation, they go back to their homeless state. When you pass someone homeless on the street – smile and speak. When you pass anyone on the street – smile and acknowledge your common humanity. What will that do? Possibly cure this society’s penchant for creating homelessness and then not taking responsibility for what we have created. How? By acknowledging our common humanity. If I have a lot in common with that person on the street how can I do otherwise than to at least speak. Maybe one day……………..

As the homeless are more included in your life and the lives of your friends and family maybe they will see another way to move out of the state they are in. Maybe doors have been opened for them and within them to help move them off the street.

Try this beginning of a truly New World Order and see how far it takes you and us.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: ageism, bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Information, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bettina Scattering Sale, estate sale, Moving Sale, politics, Racism, Scattering Sale, Sexism
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Class in America and the World, Empathy, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Growing Old, Hedge Schools, Moving Sale, politics, Press Release, Press Release from Bettina Network, Spiritual Reflection, Ubuntu | No Comments »

Henry Ford once said —–

Monday, April 6th, 2015

Wisdom Comes from Experience and Age

“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.”

Can it be true that success comes as a byproduct of failure for many people?

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Henry Ford, success
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Water – Water – Everywhere!

Saturday, February 28th, 2015

From a New Orleans group of folks comes the following advice:

– (we haven’t tested it, only pass it along for your use and feedback. As you can tell, folks added what they knew as this email on water went from person to person, hope you will do the same. We could exhaust human knowledge on water as a health promoter if we all joined our knowledge together in one place. All kinds of knowledge – passed down through the family; picked up someplace traveling; gems to be collected and kept before our supply of water becomes too polluted to be of any help to continue life; old wives tales, etc. Not facts from encyclopedia’s, but knowledge from the storehouse you have picked up from living – your experience.)

“Drinking Water

I suppose if we all drank the suggested amount of water a day, we’d be okay. I need to do better. Starbucks doesn’t count.

How many folks do you know who say they don’t want to drink anything before going to bed because they’ll have to get up during the night!!
Heart Attack and Water – I never knew all of this ! Interesting…….

Something else I didn’t know … I asked my Doctor why do people need to urinate so much at night time. Answer from my Cardiac Doctor –
Gravity holds water in the lower part of your body when you are upright (legs swell). When you lie down and the lower body (legs and etc) seeks level with the kidneys, it is then that the kidneys remove the water because it is easier. This then ties in with the last statement!
I knew you need your minimum water to help flush the toxins out of your body, but this was news to me.

Correct time to drink water… Very Important. >From A Cardiac Specialist!

Drinking water at a certain time maximizes its effectiveness on the body: 2 glasses of water after waking up – helps activate internal organs

1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal – helps digestion
1 glass of water before taking a bath – helps lower blood pressure
1 glass of water before going to bed – avoids stroke or heart attack

I can also add to this… My Physician told me that water at bed time will also help prevent night time leg cramps. Your leg muscles are seeking hydration when they cramp and wake you up with a Charlie Horse.

A Cardiologist has stated that if each person after receiving this e-mail, sends it to 10 people, probably one life could be saved!

I have already shared this information. What about you?

Do forward this message. It may save lives!

“Life is a one time gift”

Enjoy life NOW, it has an expiration date!”

From Bettina Network, inc. we will add – organic lemons squeezed into your water does wonderful things as do limes. We tried to drink the limes straight, but needed water to get the juice down. We looked 10 years younger after a few days of mainstreaming this Vitamin C.

“Overindulge in sugar? Drink lots of water to dilute the affect.”

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, health, health and beauty, New Orleans Creole
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina's Cookbook, Health, Health and Beauty | No Comments »

Your Bettina Kale Chips Recipe

Monday, February 23rd, 2015

Hi folks,

I have been trying your recipe along with the recipe of others for Kale Chips.

That is a hard thing to do – although it sounds as though it should be easy. To get the seasoning right is the key.

I suggest some changes to your original recipe which is in your Bettina Network Blog. The changes or cautionary suggestions I would have follows:

1) To use the right amount of organic cold processed Olive Oil is key. It is also one of the hardest things to do. Use too little Olive Oil and your kale chips burn. Use too much and they are greasy, negating why you make these kale chips in the first place. You can’t really tell the chips have burnt because they come out very dark looking really burnt when they are not. You can only tell when you pick one up and taste it and then you realize that strange taste is burnt kale chips.

I would suggest using only enough Olive Oil to barely coat the raw kale. That is the hardest part of this endeavor. I think how much to use only comes with trial and error, but if you are aware of the problem you will take more precautions in how much or how little Olive Oil you use.

2) The seasonings are really a matter of taste. I first tried your kale chips recipe at the xxxxxxxxxxxx house, but WOW! I don’t have that strong a tongue – my throat rebelled as well. It was hot and then some. Those who like really hot food – and I don’t mean heat from the stove hot food – will love your recipe. I had to eliminate the chipotle powder that I saw them putting on those kale chips. A huge tablespoonful was used. I used just a teaspoon because I love the taste of chipotle peppers, but I can’t tolerate much heat in my food.

I would also suggest when one makes kale chips you look at the spices you really like. At first I tried the old faithfuls thyme, oregano, lots of turmeric. I have now changed to using those I really like and not try to copy anyone else’s use of spices. I love Old Bay Seasoning so I use it on my kale chips. I have eliminated turmeric because I think it doesn’t give much taste and one must use it – in things like grits – after the boiling point has been reached. I don’t think it gives much nutritional value when I put on turmeric at the beginning of the process and it heats up with the kale as they cook in the oven.

I really like your tekka seasoning. I use it on popcorn because of your recipe in this blog for your Bettina popcorn. So I tried it on kale chips. Don’t know what nutritional value it has, but I like what it added to the chips.

Everytime I’ve made the kale chips, I have used different seasonings. After a while I expect I will find something I really think is exceptional and use that always. Too bad that is what the human condition reduces us to, but we all like to find a road that we can always travel – brag about its smoothness and how quickly it gets us to our destination – and through constant use gradually turn it into a gutter that becomes difficult to walk in, a muddy mess when it rains and heaven knows what when it snows – still seeing that road as smooth and easily travelled. But hey, who am I to complain if I can finally find an exceptional kale chips seasoning combination.

Keep those recipes coming. I would not have tried kale chips, but for your recipe. Those things cost about $6 for a small, overly processed bag, which does not have a memorable taste. I am trying to keep an organic, non-processed food diet, but sometimes what is offered on the other side dissolves my resolve. We look to you for encouragement to stay with organic, well thought through food that is good for our health.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Homes
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Bettina Network Hedge Schools***

Thursday, February 19th, 2015

The thirst for knowledge is unquenchable!

What are Bettina Network Hedge Schools? How do they work?

A Bettina Home is a part of the Bettina Network Educational Institute. We take homes into Bettina Network, inc. because they have something to contribute to our learning; they are full of many amenities not found elsewhere; the knowledge they contribute is sometimes in the mainstream, but most often personal history and experience you can’t find or learn from the history books. As a Bettina Home they are also Bettina Network Hedge Schools.

A Bettina Home/Bettina Network Hedge School, is a place where you can stay while visiting a particular city, country, village either on other business or vacation or a historical review of the area and you want to add to the experience of the trip; or you can travel to a Bettina Network Hedge School just for the experience, knowledge and wisdom it adds to your life.

The family in residence offers their life-experience, a workshop, knowledge of art, architecture, prayer, spirituality, health, cooking, or whatever is their specialty. In Bettina Homes/Bettina Network Hedge Schools, those specialties change as the family lives and grows and experiences life from different perspectives.

Bettina Network Hedge Schools are patterned after the historical “Hedge Schools” of Ireland, which were one of the things Mary Daly was interested in establishing. With everything else she did for the betterment of women, men and children, she did not get around to establishing her closely held love for the idea of Hedge Schools. To Mary it was a way to teach feminism without the interference and regulation of current educational institutions. They are the same for Bettina Network, inc. although we are not limiting the Bettina Network Hedge Schools to feminism. We include all the world’s knowledge, experience, religions, spirituality.

While we have chosen the idea of Irelands’ Hedge Schools for Bettina Homes, many countries around the globe have had and still have versions of the historical Hedge Schools – most particularly where women are not allowed a formal education, or to be educated at all in anything, except maybe a few home crafts, which they learn by doing.

What were Hedge Schools? They were clandestine schools. Places Catholics in Ireland went to learn what was illegal for them to learn under the then existing Penal Laws. These laws forbade the teaching of Catholic catechism as well as all education for Catholics. They were held in inaccessible caves, tiny huts, behind hedges, in groves of trees, or wherever time, space and a bit of knowledge could be passed on.

In the Hedge Schools in Ireland, all those many years ago, the schoolmaster went from house to house to teach and impart knowledge to as many as possible. They were constantly being hunted down for what they were doing and had to be hidden by the local populace. Almost like the Underground Railroad, some houses, which protected the teachers in these schools, had walled off places in the home where they could hide when those searching them out showed up.

In Bettina Homes/Bettina Network Hedge Schools the students travel from house to house, instead of the “Hedge School Masters*” traveling. Although we have a few ‘have knowledge will travel’ Hedge School Masters*” who travel from house to house to hold workshops and lead other learnings at Bettina Network Hedge Schools, we are looking for more. Not all Bettina Network Hedge Schools have traveling ‘Masters*’. Most are places which welcome those thirsting for knowledge and wisdom and the “Hedge School Master*” lives in and owns the house.

We are looking for knowledge that is not readily accessible. Or that has become skewered by vested interests. It is also a place to learn a story from those who actually lived the times – which may be different from accepted history.

The Hedge Schools of old taught Latin and Greek, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, history, spelling, writing, arts, crafts, etc. And the teaching was done by the poorest and most ragged people who had no homes and who taught under shelter of the hedges. In todays world we would look down on such people and consider them lazy, shiftless, ignorant because we don’t look beyond the outer trappings. These “Hedge School Masters*” of old haggled for purchases in Greek, or discussed theories in Latin, and were generally very highly educated both in the traditional knowledge of the world and the wisdom which comes from having lived such harsh lives. They were known as “hedge school masters*”. We are known as “Bettina Network Hedge Schools” and some of our “Hedge School Masters*” may look a bit like the hedge school masters of old.

We don’t give degrees or other accolades to show one’s achievement in particular areas. We do spread knowledge and share experiences with those who serendipitously stay in a Bettina Home.

What are the other parts of this company? The Bettina Network’s Blog shares information and knowledge culled from the talk around the breakfast table in Bettina Homes. Bettina’s Menu of Events spreads information about events which we consider ‘in the Bettina Lifestyle’. The Bettina Home/Bettina Network Hedge Schools share and spread knowledge, experience and wisdom to as many people as we can reach. The Bettina Network Foundation, inc. works to eliminate homelessness.

We are connecting a community of people. We are sharing what we have and weaving a net so we have some protection from falling through into the morass of homelessness, of ignorance, of isolation. The Bettina Network Hedge Schools provide ways for you to travel and learn as you travel. We provide not just a room for the night; or a meal for a part of the day; but permanent places to pass on to others some of the history now being dropped and/or changed as well as some of the learning being skewered and mis-told by those marketing for money. We also pass on the arts and crafts of the world with workshops on creativity, cooking, sewing and how to live authentic lives. – being able to ignore those outer trappings we seem to see first and sometimes only.

There is nothing wrong with money – let me quickly add – just something wrong in the way we are moving to intensify its home with just a few and to make it scarce among the many.

The Bettina Hedge Schools are just another way the Bettina Network, inc. is coming together to help others in their quest to bring all of our money, the way we spend it and our talents together to benefit each other without having to stop to spend enormous amounts of time and resources unsuccessfully trying to cure problems we created in the first place, by the way we have lived on this planet.

*Since today we recognize the title of “Hedge School Master” as sexist – we are changing that title to “Hedge School Facilitator”.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

*Copyright applied for

*Trademark applied for

*Patent applied for

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Information, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Hedge Schools
Posted in A new home in the Bettina Network, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Hedge Schools, Historical Homes, Press Release, Press Release from Bettina Network | No Comments »

Thanks for the Health Information!

Tuesday, February 17th, 2015

Hi folks,

Let me give back by summarizing for you what I took away from my stay at one of your homes, which changed my health dramatically.

I arrived feeling awful. Pain all over and exhausted. I had been traveling for a couple weeks and wasn’t feeling too great before I set out so you can imagine how I felt when I arrived.

I was greeted with a cup of ginger root tea. It was the beginning of my turn around. I now make ginger root tea once a week and it lasts about a week because I am the only one drinking it. No one else is allowed unless they undertake to make a huge pot and that isn’t going to happen.

I ate as though food was going out of style at the house where I stayed. I fully expected to have gained several pounds on returning home, but not only had I lost weight, but – and this isn’t always discussed – my bowel movements had quadrupled. At my age that is a concern because somehow, I thought you just had smaller bowel movements as time wore-on. I think that is the real reason for my recovery.

The food was all organic – which was fantastic. My food was normally all processed before I discovered your network. If I ate anything healthy, it was purely accidental. I didn’t realize until then that my food. during processing, had all the taste taken out as the companies strove for long shelf life and what was added to the food to make it palatable was salt and sugar. No more of that in my body.

I have several rituals that I now have added to my lifestyle. The last thing I do at night is have goats milk yogurt with a bit of organic maple syrup over the top. No sugar or other stuff in the yogurt – only what I add myself.

First thing in the morning I have a cup of warm water with lemon juice squeezed into the cup – the juice of one organic lemon.

Later in the day I try to snack on apples/oranges/bananas. That keeps the sugar demons away – and, of course, my organic ginger root tea keeps me going throughout the day.

In the afternoon, about 4pm I have three limes (organic) squeezed into a cup and I drink that straight without the addition of water or anything else. I know you folks talk about the woman from India whose nutritionist suggested she have four limes per day about 4pm, but I can be cheap and somehow I can’t bring myself to use four limes a day. It took a few days before I got good at drinking that lime juice without major contortions of the face, but today it actually is something I look forward to – the pickup in energy for me is phenomenal.

By the time I left your house to go home I was feeling no pain. It was all gone and I had enough energy throughout the week to get my work done – and I had an extremely difficult schedule, trying to get things done without having to extend my stay – cost was a consideration.

Hope that helps someone else reading your blog. I wouldn’t have believed the change in my energy level or all the other things that happened to me and as I continue to feel better, I continue on this regimen.

Needless to say, those who tried to take me to dinner loved your regimen because it meant I ate almost nothing in the restaurants and their bill was miniscule. I tried to be social, but my stomach just flipped and wouldn’t stand for the intrusion of the wrong food. I think I am going to become a very popular person to take out to dinner.

Keep those discussions going during breakfast – make them about health so we can get more of what other people are doing to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I am now a Bettina health fanatic. In a few weeks I will calm down and just be like everyone else, but in the meantime I am acting like the newly converted with my fanaticism.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, health
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A Bettina Network Foundation Day on the Town

Monday, February 9th, 2015

February 7, 2015 – Quincy, MA.

We had a great Saturday.

Those who volunteered to help us move the furnishings from an apartment in Quincy, MA., to give to others who could use the items, gathered together for a bit of food, conversation, getting to know each other, learning what the day would be like, and prayer.

The morning started with breakfast made by the Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett so we were off to a good start.

Before going out the door on our way, we joined hands in a circle of prayer and it set the tone for the rest of our time together.

The volunteers were eight Seminarians from Harvard Divinity School – gathered together by Jonathan Bett Fields, also an HDS Seminarian. Next time we will include a photographer – the possibilities for great pictures to share with you were endless.

Cheryl Nicholas, who was the inspiration behind all of this, brought the UHaul truck and oversaw the move to get everything into the UHaul so her job of off-loading the items as she went about delivering the furnishings would be easier. Cheryl didn’t get away without an injury, but we put a bit of medicine on her cut to stop the bleeding and she and the rest of us continued. Next time, we will bring a first aid kit, we did need one. A few cuts and bruises, but no one noticed, everyone just kept moving to get the job done.

Ramesh Iyer, who made the donation to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. was a joy. His ‘gentle reminders’ will become a part of Bettina lore and will be stored in the Bettina archives. We picked up his spirit and instead of calling or emailing to say what needs to be done – NOW, we have established the practice of sending ‘gentle reminders’.

Kaitlyn Justus was a wonder. Everytime we looked around she was out the door with yet another piece of furniture or a very large box.

Farris Blount worked with Cheryl outside making sure the items were in the UHaul properly.

Chavis T. Jones became a whirlwind of activity when he saw a watch in a box that might be added to his collection, under the right circumstances

Ryan Cogswell felt good about the “manual labor” he was doing. He must have been totally exhausted at the end of the day.

Everyone pitched in to move the first pieces out the door, which were unbelievably heavy, bulky, hard to move and maneuver and turned out to be a godsend to those who received them – beautiful leather couches, in like-new condition. One piece, that took everybody together to move, was a pull-out bed whose mattress was still wrapped in the plastic in which it was delivered when first purchased. We took turns deciding how to get the pieces out the door – it was finally all these ideas together that succeeded.

We learned many lessons on Saturday. Mostly, we learned how beautiful is the human spirit when we are all engaged in God’s work.

Marceline Donaldson made lunch which ended this part of our day together.

We were a very diverse group. God for each one of us would be described in different terms, but bottom line what prevailed was that which is within us, that makes us know we are all one and responsible for one another – no matter our different physical appearances or religions or other seeming differences, or how we describe the God we worship.

May it ever be so in all that we do.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Information, Bettina Network News, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, estate sale, Moving Sale
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Bettina’s Educational Institute

Sunday, February 8th, 2015

‘Pass It On!’

What is? A way to pass on to others what you have learned in this life and to receive from others their legacy.

Pass on your life lessons, serendipitously!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Information
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FACEBOOK – Marketing for MultiNationals

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015

Isn’t it interesting to talk about Facebook to those who don’t know other than – ‘I am addicted’: ‘I put all of my business on Facebook’:’ I spend all of my time on Facebook’: ‘my friends and I talk all the time on Facebook’: ‘I used to email, but Facebook is so much better’: ‘with Facebook I feel as though I belong’. But it is sensational to talk to people who have a deep, historical, psychological and cultural knowledge of Facebook.

There is nothing like a bit of breakfast conversation among strangers. People who will probably never meet again but are together for a short period of time and who use that breakfast conversation to sort through complicated societal, cultural and economic institutions and/or the development of cultural and social mores. Especially if those conversations are honest with nothing held back.

We had no idea how invasive Facebook is becoming and how indispensable it has become to this society – both to individuals and large corporate conglomerates. It is developing its own niche – especially amongst the young but also gaining ground amongst the older crowd.

We had a very disturbing experience with Facebook recently and started poking around to understand what happened. At the same time we threw Facebook out as a topic for breakfast conversation and the response was electric.

At breakfast, one person said – I used to post a lot to Facebook. I don’t anymore. I only post very generic, announcement things. I have gone back to email, which may not be entirely private but at least I know someone will have to have a court order to see what I have been emailing. When I have something to say to friends, I send them an email. Just think, we used to be concerned about the lack of privacy emails produced. They seem like Fort Knox compared to what Facebook has introduced into society. My friends could send my emails on to others without my knowledge, but they can’t send thousands of copies of my emails to others, which is the affect of Facebook on what I post out there.

During this breakfast conversation we discovered there are several ways Facebook totally invades your privacy. The basic one is, they have privacy guidelines and from what we heard, it is a word game because they don’t follow and apparently don’t intend to follow what it means to have privacy laws.

They will scream loudly at this because Facebook claims to have solid, written and circulated privacy policies – which they do. What is not showing in those policies is that they are subject to constant change and the change looks suspiciously like a company encouraging you to trust them with your information because they handle it with care and totally within their privacy laws and at the same time, it looks as though they will change those privacy rules when enough information has been accumulated to justify new and expanded contracts with the large corporate entities who can use that information to exploit John and Jane Q. Public.

When you join this corporate entity called Facebook, you discover that it is full of people who have given no thought to the institution to which they are contributing all of their life’s information. That can be a horrifyingly mysterious experience, until you begin to understand the lay of the land. How does one discover that? Look into how Facebook makes its money and that will clearly lay out its priorities. We discovered, at breakfast, that Facebook makes billions selling your private information.

Once you join Facebook, all over its pages you will find there is a strong pressure for you to “like” some group, business, industry, celebrity, etc. What happens when you do that? The entity you have ‘liked’ has a Facebook page on which they post much – and what they post shows up on your Facebook page, whether you understood that was what you were really allowing or not when you clicked that ‘like’ button. No wonder there is such an intense push to get people on Facebook to ‘like’ so many things.

To “like” anything on Facebook gives that entity the right to post to your Facebook page and whatever you post in response shows up on their Facebook page – sometimes. It can be very disconcerting to have all of this stuff showing up on what you thought was your private page for you and your friends. Now you realize, it is open to the world and you only have to “like” the rest of the world for them to partner with you on Facebook to receive what you share with friends.

How do so many entities have so many “likes” on Facebook? You advertise for them. We wondered why one advertised on Facebook since it rarely brings increased business. It does bring hundreds of new “likes” to you and those “likes” are what give you access to hundreds of people. People whose Facebook pages are now your personal property to do with what you ‘like’.

Facebook also has what has become a ‘tradition’. It guarantees you privacy; has a very distinct and well written privacy policy so you feel comfortable with what you post within those guidelines; and once you have joined and set up your page you are very comfortable knowing the parameters of what you can do and what will be kept private and sacrosanct by Facebook.

HYPOCRISY ALERT: These privacy guidelines are temporary. Once you become comfortable with your personal information being kept private by Facebook and you begin to reveal more and more that you would not reveal if you knew what was coming, those privacy guidelines change and there you are in the middle of your Facebook page with – symbolically – no clothes on, because Facebook has changed its privacy laws and protections and what you thought was private is now out there for the world to see and use. Well, not really the whole world, only those who have bought contracts with Facebook to receive your information within seconds of your postings. But – you are not fully exposed because you are still ‘protected’ with their new privacy laws. Except lots of marketing and other institutions now have information which you didn’t intend to provide, but which they now have and can use because Facebooks’ privacy laws changed and now allows them to receive that much needed information.

And now Facebook has the possibility of gaining new contracts from ever larger and some smaller entities because those entities can now see how this business can work to their advantage.

Another wrinkle discussed at breakfast is what happens when you sign in to the different groups to which you belong on the internet – not Facebook – but you sign in with your Facebook password. What does that do? It allows Facebook to send to the large marketing, retail and other large corporations just about all of the information on your Facebook page. Information they could not otherwise access, such as – your ‘friends’ and other stuff that is off limits to those individual people who want to join your merry band and who would like to see that info before deciding to befriend you. They can’t see that information because of Facebooks strict privacy rules, but those large corporate entities can access all of it because of your tendency to be a bit lazy and want just one password to remember – Your Facebook password. Large groups can now access everything you thought was private and there are no restrictions on what they can do with what was your personal and private information. Actually, that information is still off limits to the little person, but the large corporations now can access it all – if they are paying Facebook properly.

Another new wrinkle and new opportunity has popped up. When you join a group which is a mini-facebook, – such as is now becoming more common – such as your Church, club, social group, companies you buy from with a password to their site and more – a part of what those groups can offer is for you to link your Facebook page to the information or your profile on their site. What does that do? Think about your bank! It allows Facebook to give them, not just what you post to your Facebook page, but all of the information you thought was private and members of those groups can now post to your Facebook page.

Small social groups, small Churches – Synagogues – Temples – don’t have the IT capability to do anything with this information, but the large groups which you access via a password, but now access using your Facebook password, can post to your Facebook page and those in the group can also post to your Facebook page from the Group’s supposedly closed shared internet space. This gives those with whom Facebook has partnered the most amazing and complete information about you. In affect it is everything you have on Facebook, including any new posting they or others can now make. It is quite powerful for these groups to be able to post to your Facebook page from your mini-group internet gathering place, but even more powerful for Facebook to be able to sell information about the groups to which you belong; the companies with whom you do business; the retail internet places where you buy and why you buy, etc.

I used to wonder how some companies received so many hundreds of millions of dollars to develop their start-up idea. After this breakfast where everybody shared what they knew about Facebook, I now know how one group is selected to receive and one group must struggle. To receive huge amounts of money from ‘venture capital’ groups, or individual investors who want to contribute mightily to your idea, you must have a start-up idea which rips off the public for the benefit of these large institutions . It has very little to do with anything else.

Facebook was an electric idea. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Facebook opened your private world to marketing, advertising, strategic planning groups with the kind of information they had not previously dreamed they could ever access.

The minutiae of your lifestyle; your choice of friends; things you talk about to those you know and trust; your likes and dislikes and how and when they change; what you buy or have just bought and why. Facebook is also constantly coming up with new and different ways to satisfy this bottomless pit of the need for your most private information. You – your friends – your family – your professional associates are all the subject of marketing mining; of giving up your most private information so the multi-nationals of the world will know how to manipulate your desires, wants, needs, to increase their bottom line.

The most lethal part of Facebook is their constantly changing privacy rules, because there are always new people joining who have not experienced the jarring instant change of privacy rules which allows those with contracts with Facebook to gain massive new information about you which you thought would always be kept private. And that information is gained by those contract holders in seconds. You can fight those changes in privacy laws, and possibly they will be changed back – rarely, but it is possible. That does nothing for you because your information went into the hands of those who could afford those very expensive contracts with Facebook almost immediately. And not just once, but every time you post anything to Facebook, it is in the hands of those marketing people immediately.

And we worry about identity theft? That is like worrying about the lone ant when the elephants in the room are sitting on your chest and destroying everything around you that you hold dear. We have created a world where most of us are prey to those who want to use us to be the consumers of the products, ideas, and more that they are producing without our giving thought to the basics of whether the product contributes to a good, healthy, caring lifestyle! – do we need this? is it good for us? will it enhance the quality of our lives or do the opposite? and more. Our payment? The ability to be rendered more and more thoughtless in the way we live through this psychological manipulation, with generations to come not understanding the history of our and their lives and who do not understand that this is any kind of problem.

The information flow continues through our continued use of Facebook and some other large groups like them, as they now stand.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Facebook, Making Connections
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Martin Luther King Day at Bettina’s

Tuesday, January 20th, 2015

Hate murdered a man, at 39 years of age, who preached love.

It has been amazing and humbling to watch the progress of the Martin Luther King holiday over the years. We watched from the beginning, when there was much conflict, confrontation, opposition, loud voices of angry protest at the very idea that such a man, with his history and achievements should be honored. We watched until today when the determination and love of those who were going to make sure Martin and the work of the Black Civil Rights movement was recognized. This 2015 year we celebrated and recognized a man and a movement with time out of school for our children, to the closing of banks, the post office and some of our corporations. To get even this far, has been a long, hard, painful, but very rewarding journey for many.

How do we treat greatness when discovered or suspected in African Americans?

We attended and participated in events which recognized Martin Luther King and the movement of which he was one of the leaders. The events, their venues, the people participating were a cross section – not only of America – but across parts of the world where the work of the Civil Rights Movement was remembered.

There was much “breakfast table talk” about the history which brought us to this day. We hope it continues throughout the year. I thought we would share some of that conversation with you:

“We had a fantastic breakfast – I would have to call it a ‘breakfast seminar.’ Only one person at the table had been through the Civil Rights Movement which created this holiday. The rest of us were either not yet born or were on the other side. I was one of those on the other side at the time because, to me, what was happening with the protests, the disruptions, the dogs, the hoses aimed at the hurting of even young children was something I couldn’t abide. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with life the way we were living it. My point of view was not that of those who were willing to die for their freedom and were looking to the future at their children’s future, but of someone whose life was being disrupted. Not seriously disrupted, but enough to be inconvenienced and I just wanted it to stop and things to go back to the way they were. I don’t know when God took hold of me to shake me up and to shake those attitudes out of my life, but somehow it happened and I am now a part of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. My grey hair can be seen among all of those young people and I hope somehow, even though it is a very little and very late, my efforts will matter to those who come behind me.”

Are you listening out there in Simi Valley? How diverse is your neighborhood!

WOW!

“What a history lesson! I remember studying the Civil Rights Movement in school. We learned about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and what that time was all about, but I had never talked to someone who was a part of that history before. This was a very different perspective. I think of history as being about the study of dead people and past times. Here I was in the middle of a conversation with someone who lived that history and those past times are still with us today. I have never been a part of a demonstration of any kind. Never talked to anyone who had. Didn’t intend to talk to anyone who was a part of something like that and here I was in the middle of breakfast deep into a conversation that changed my life. Thank you to my breakfast companions for putting up with me. My responses must have been horrible to you, yet you were so kind – well almost kind, after you got over the shock of my being at the breakfast table. I don’t know what I expected, but certainly not what happened. I have never even thought twice about the Martin Luther King holiday. No different from all those other holidays I don’t celebrate. Maybe it is the newness of this one – with the pain still being felt by those who experienced the events which led up to this being important enough to remember once a year. This is, however, a holiday I am bringing back to my family to celebrate every year by learning something new about that time in history and by trying to be a little better about dealing with my prejudices which have caused so many people pain. But – is ‘celebrate’ really what I want to say. I almost feel as though we should all be in sack cloth and ashes for what we’ve done, but ‘celebrate’ is what I feel.”

A truth the world needs to hear! From the religious aristocrats to the homeless on our streets, none of us is immune from this need! To be accepted by proving that we can discriminate against our brothers and sisters just as good as the next person.

A truth the world needs to hear! From the world’s elite, the corporate billionaires, the religious aristocrats, the homeless on our streets, no one is immune from the need to be silent so we can be accepted. “I am sorry, but I can’t get involved. Only when my earthly masters signal their approval.”

“A small group of us (women all) get together every year on Martin Luther King day to try to continue to work through our conflicting thoughts about the Black Civil Rights Movement. It was a difficult time for us. Women – who were discriminated against, not only by the wider society, but also by the Black Civil Rights Movement. It was very male oriented and some, in the movement, felt embarrassed if women were perceived as being in any leadership position. We withdrew, but still supported what was happening with our money, by marching and by being a part of. At the same time, we gathered together to fight for the equality of women and here was an example where those discriminated against were discriminating against us. That is so the human condition! Flawed, full of sin, dragging our own history and almost blind to that of others. Our time together, each year, is to try to reconcile and acknowledge our being human and to root out our separateness to be able to embrace everyone and not feel victimized as we work with those also fighting for their freedom in a society which seems to need to have a group on top and a group less than and which needs to manage and continue their being on top by playing one ‘less than’ group against another.”

“I love Bettina’s. It is a safe place to be able to express whatever and you never know who is going to be at breakfast. May you all live long and prosper.”

Ed Note: We had a lot more expressions of breakfast at Bettina’s on Martin Luther King Day. We shared just a few. The places where people came from, knowing the history of King and the Movement amazed even us. We could put this all together in a book, but we will stop here. Hope this gives more meaning to your day and information to your life.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Information, breakfast table talk, Martin Luther King, Racism
Posted in African American history, Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina's Hall of Fame, Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Historical Support, Holiday Greeting, Jr., Uncategorized | No Comments »

Happy New Year and Our Year End Review!

Monday, December 29th, 2014

Bettina Network, inc. Trademark

We wish all of you a very Happy New Year and much success, joy and gracious living throughout 2015!

We review what we have done, at the end of each year, within the corporation. We thought we would do something different this year and share that review of Bettina Network, inc. with those who have used our services and those who care about us as much as we care about them.

One of our goals for the year was accomplished towards the end of 2014 through the establishment of Bettina Network Foundation, inc.

It took longer than expected for that to happen, but we worked hard on the structure of the Foundation and to bring it out as a 501©3 organization before the end of 2014. If you would like to know more about this organization, we encourage you to read about it in the Blog – just click on Bettina Network Foundation and the articles written throughout the year will come up for your information. Our mission statement is “We exist to help those in need to restructure and reframe their lives and their thinking through various avenues and tools so they may become entrepreneurs with the mindset, education, requisite tools, resources and skills to start and grow their own business. We establish ourselves in memory of all those who have had wonderful ideas, who worked to bring those ideas into reality in the form of their own businesses, but who died without having reached that goal.”

We tried to set Bettina Network Foundation, inc. up as a self-funding organization and we think we have succeeded in that goal also. Although it is majorly self-funding, we are certainly open to contributions. The Bettina Network, inc.’s web site has a section for the Foundation and there will be a way for you to contribute by going onto the web site and clicking the top link which says “foundation” and there will be a page for contributions.

We were also able to establish an education institute as a part of Bettina Network, inc. There will be more about that later, but for now and for your information, we are basically looking for homes to add to the Bettina Network, inc. which offer an educational component. Guests/scholars/researchers/business people/students -even tourists – will be able to stay and take part in the educational offerings of the home owners as well as visit, tour, take care of other business, visit family and more during their stay in a particular city.

Bettina Network’s Blog has held its own this year and developed from a few hundred visitors a day, at the beginning of 2014, to a consistent 1,000 plus visitors towards the end of the year. Our readership jumped to some 6,000 readers, but the company which is our managed server managed to mess that up – big time – by cutting off whole countries from having access to the Blog. At one point we could not access our own blog because our part of the United States had been cut off from having access to the Blog. When they straightened that out, we still had a difficult time with access because their machines were down more than they were up and active, so we had to re-build the readership and we were not happy campers. It was a horror story which we are still in the process of working through.

Technology is one of the largest problems companies have and we are experiencing the good and the bad of all that technology can do.

Our dream of establishing Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community has started to happen. We were able to send out passwords to those who used Bettina Network, inc. over the years and welcomed them into the Community. Their first benefit was using their password to access Bettina’s Menu of Events whenever they wish. It is not yet a worldwide Menu, but we are on the way to expanding it so that it will soon become such a calendar of events.

Members of the Community were also able to add events to the Menu using their passwords. We have not have many people use that benefit. It will take time for it to catch on and for Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community to realize the many benefits they now can access. We are hoping that small, very choice, community events around the world that we would never otherwise know about, become a part of Bettina’s Menu of Events by those in the Community using their passwords to add their favorite events for others to enjoy.

Our dream is that members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community will be able to use their passwords to access events around the world for any date and any location they choose and will be able to use Bettina’s Menu of Events as often as they need to do so.

As you can see we have been busy. We hope you will continue to read Bettina Network’s Blog and to use the services of Bettina Network, inc.

If you have feedback for us, we are open to hearing from you. We were able, over this past year, to bring several things into fruition that we had only been able to dream about, but we continued to work hoping for good results and some of that happened in 2014. Since we are self-funding and do not have the hundred of millions of dollars others seem to be able to access, we think we have done an outstanding job and have congratulated ourselves for about five minutes before getting to work a little harder because we now have a bit of wind behind our backs.

We want to move forward with your input added to our own, to produce a company that serves others and brings goodness into the world. We hope you will send us your suggestions and will stay in touch and use our services for many years to come.

Who knows what 2015 will bring! We hope it brings greatness to us, to you and to your family!

Sincerely,

All of us at Bettina Network, inc.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Information, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bettina Network's Menu of Events, holiday greeting, inc.
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network NEWS, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Holiday Greeting, Press Release from Bettina Network, Who are the Bettina Families | No Comments »

Folk Dancing and Poetry in New England!

Saturday, December 27th, 2014

Marcie Van Cleave, the Executive Director of Folk Arts Center of New England, composes a poem which she includes with each newsletter the Folk Arts Center puts out. Each newsletter has a new poem written by Marcie. They have intrigued us for a very long time and we thought we would share one with you.

If you are a part of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community your password gives you access to Bettina’s Menu of Events. We encourage you to use it and there you will find events sponsored by the Folk Arts Center. They are many and varied and when visiting the New England area to take an afternoon or evening for folk dancing is great. Sometimes you can find them folk dancing in Copley Square, Boston and in other places around the city, as well as the usual indoor spaces they use for their folk dancing….Marcie’s poem follows:

“Thank goodness for volunteers is all I have to say

For without them FAC would not be here today.
Our programs are rich and varied, and wonderfully done
Our folk family is extended and second to none!

The recent cultural exchange with the Romanian youth
Happened after a year of hard work – and that’s the truth.
Arline and Dorina led the efforts with enthusiasm galore
We have new friends in these kids whom we all now adore.

Julia (Vail) makes sure the Saturday parties are staffed
With lots of talent and volunteers, both fore and aft.
From the musicians and programmers to the door sitters
Not a detail’s left to chance to give the office the jitters.

What would Friday nights be without smiling Lumona
Greeting all at the door with her calm and friendly persona?
What would Thursdays be without its cadre of contributors
Who teach and run music and take care of other particulars?

Our Pinewoods Camp sessions run on countless hours of work
Our scores of volunteers never blanch, nor from their jobs shirk.
Our June session is being spearheaded by Sue (Flint) with alacrity
Our 40th year will be filled both with fun and to capacity!

Then there’s the Program Committee and its bevy of beauties
Who meet every month and attend to myriad duties.
Eric and Walter (the handsome component) are joined by Wanda,
Cory, Diana, Arline, and Julia – all of whom we are fond a’!

I could go on but space is now at a premium
Plus I don’t want to delve into the region of tedium.
So for all of you who have helped in any way, shape, or form
Toward you all the cockles of FAC’s heart are indeed warm!”

–Marcie Van Cleave

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Folk Dancing, Poetry
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Folk Dance, Poetry | No Comments »

Archive for the ‘Bettina Homes’ Category

Rachel Dolezal

The Black Race*

Rachel Dolezal – over Breakfast!

Dog Post Response

Dogs! Dogs! and more Dogs!

Marceline’s Brown Biscuits

A Bettina Network Moving Sale

Starts at 10am and ends at 3pm

Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Members will be allowed in at 9am on May 2, 2015.

The address of the sale is 65 Huntington St, Milton, MA. 02186.

There are interesting items for sale:

Coconut Oil Toothpaste?

A New World Order

Henry Ford once said —–

“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.”

Water – Water – Everywhere!

Your Bettina Kale Chips Recipe

Bettina Network Hedge Schools***

Thanks for the Health Information!

A Bettina Network Foundation Day on the Town

Bettina’s Educational Institute

FACEBOOK – Marketing for MultiNationals

Martin Luther King Day at Bettina’s

Happy New Year and Our Year End Review!

We wish all of you a very Happy New Year and much success, joy and gracious living throughout 2015!

Folk Dancing and Poetry in New England!

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