Jeri wrote: "You can also make an effort to add such roses to public gardens in your area, where people can see them, and covet them." Easier said than done! You'd think public gardens would be open to preserving climate-appropriate old roses that once grew here, but I've been trying to talk a local 19th century home/museum into putting in the kind of 19th century roses that would have originally grown near the homestead but so far have been stymied because there is a garden design committee with, I'm sure, various landscapers and "experts" who probably think more in terms of aesthetics and modern, easy-care plants and may know little and care less about heritage roses. I can see this will take persistence and persuasion...

Good grief! Here's the problem...ESPECIALLY if you live in Southern California... We have SO many micro-climates that if you were truly to find 'a' native, chances are, it is NOT going to grow in the supposed area you are told it is native to because of the micro-climate. Yes, this is true. I don't care what anyone tells you. I have had so many people contact me asking why their 'native' milkweed isn't growing. hmmm...shall I explain wby? Why does the A. curassavica grow better in certain areas whereas the A. fasicularis just sit there and, well, NOT? Could it be the soil? Water quantity? Moisture in the air? Fog layer? Altitude? Oh my, I could go on and on and on. Even within one city, there are a variety of micro-climates so that you can't state that a 'native' is going to definitely grow! Sheesh. If people are this fired up over a Milkweed plant, then perhaps they should just grow it in a pot. There are many plants that are NOT natives and there aren't any complaints that I hear of. In fact, lots of the fires that we've had lately? Native plants not having any water *but that's natural because they're not supposed to, right? so the area is dry and brittle and fire prone...and by leaving it 'back to the native' it opened up a huge fire zone So was it bad? Bad meaning bad having these native plants out there? No. Bad for fires though, yes. I'm not saying we shouldn't have native plants. Nah, not that at all. I just think that it's like politics and religion and not something people should argue over. Each person should be entitled to their own opinion. Plain and simple. I don't think this is something worth arguing over. Sherry

Hey KWOODS As per any country (this one included) alot of good and bad happend and happens. That is past now and hopefully the country will start progressing forward and not sink. I personally agree 100% with the decision to put such a fence up, reason being that it pretty much cured the issue of fence jumping. Nowdays when its "more humane" and give a little shock people literally steal the fencing and walk on through. As bad as some things were, many people in other countries infact dont know the history of what actually happend and only rely on CNN which is a dangerous thing. As I said to start with, the US has an horrific history, as does Spain and many other countries, with the bad though there is always things and decisions that that were actually a pretty good idea for the saftey of the country and its people. Thata all Im going to say on that one. Cheers Sheldon

Do you think the current administrations attitude towards environmental issues sort of represents their attitude toward other issues? It seems that some of the decisions they make and the positions they take tend to be short sighted. They are willing to sacrifice clean air and water in order to support the interests/profits of corporate polluters like mining,logging, and manufacturing companies. They are willing to disrupt a sensitive environment in the arctic to squeeze out a little more of our precious oil/gas to keep the machine humming a few more years. They are willing to gamble that the issues of global warming and ozone depletion are caused by something cyclical or something other than our/their actions and will go away by themselves. That civil and human rights are less important than their agenda that they tell us is needed to fight the "war on terrorism." It seems strange to me that executives of oil companies would have input into making decisionson our nations energy policies. It feels wrong that Haliburton is making billions of dollars in the Mid East. It seems strange that the reasons we were given for invading Iraq turn out to be not true. That Colin Powell would bail on this administration after they made him get up at the U.N. and say things that he knew were not facts. It feels wrong that the trade balance and deficit are snowballing. In short the situation we have now is not sustainable Can not continue indefinately. There will be consequences in the long run. The administration is in denial. They spin the truth, they try to scare us into thinking that the boogeyman is waiting around the corner. I dont consider myself a Democrat or a Republican. I am an American. Maybe a little more LIBERAL than some. I vote for the person with whom I agree the most, or disagree the least...