Rule consciousness

By Zhongming Xu

Before I came to the United States, many friends told me that the United States is one country of the rules and credit. In China, rules and credit are the profits of tools. The rules and credit are often trampled and abused.

Friends may ask, where are rules and the credit of American consciousness? Here I have a story. Langping should be known to most people. She was a coach of USA's volleyball team. One time she brought USA’s volleyball team to play game in China. After the game when she was heading to U.S., she did not bring her passport when she needed to enter the America. The U.S. HSD in accordance with relevant laws didn't let her to entry; she had to return to China for more than a month to wait to get her related formalities before the Department allowed her to enter the United States territory. This is completely legal equality in a flat surface of the typical case. In the United States, people must obey the law, and no one had the privilege. I don't know this kind of circumstance will be happening in China. Perhaps the HSD also abided by laws, not let Langping to enter China without her passport. Perhaps there is a leader to take a telephone to solve. What do you think would be?

Since I came to UNCG, I have the deepest feelings of the people to obey the rules with honesty and positive attitude. Legal consciousness had deeply rooted in every American’s mind; law-abiding is every citizen's responsibility and obligation, and strictly enforcing the law is guaranteed that can become the thorough popular feeling.

So I think when the motherland will have harmonious situation. From the historical development and 5,000 cultural inheritance observed, when our legal system was fully functioned, we would be a powerful country, such as Qin, Han and tang, etc. Now after the legal system was built, we have relatively perfect legal system, but there is the lack of certain aspects which caused our legal system with different degree of damage, such as unreasonable legal system, law enforcement system not rigorous, etc. How can true equality under the law with everyone? It is the process of constructing a perfect legal system in our society. We must further strengthen the work on this aspect.

We all wish to have a strong motherland; it continually makes progress, even little progress. We would feel heart-felt joy if our country became a powerful civilized society.

Green Leak of the Month: Create Gift Bags from Old Newspaper

Need a crafty project when stuck inside on a hot summer day? one projects that your kids might enjoy ... or crafty adults ... which is economical and green! If you have lots of newspaper lying around, its great to recycle it, but why not REUSE first. Here are some easy to follow steps on creating gift bags from newspaper. If you want more ideas, you can also make gift bags from envelopes .... or try gift bows from old magazines.

Herbal Healthcare Recipes

Here are some basic recipes to supplement the Staff Development Committee Alternative Health presentations:


Basic Healing Salve

Ingredients

2 oz Comfrey Leaves,Dried
1 oz Calendula Flowers,Dried
2 c Olive Oil
1 oz Pure Beeswax
4 Drops EO Of Tea Tree
4 Drops EO Of Lavender

Directions

Heat herbs in olive oil over low heat for 5 hours. Do not boil or
bubble. You can use a crock pot for this. Strain out all of the herbs
while oil is warm. Put 1 1/4 cups of the herbal oil into a saucepan,
add the beeswax, heat over low heat just until wax melts. Pour into
jars and store at room temp. This is the base for the psoriasis salve,
also makes a great lip balm, or a salve for healing cuts and scrapes as
it will promote healing and has antiseptic properties. To customize it
for psoriasis, eczema, or dry skin, add some herbs!

Eucalyptus Chest Rub

Ingredients

40 drops essential oil of Eucalyptus
10 drops essential oil of Camphor
2 drops essential oil of Wintergreen
1 drop essential oil of thyme
1 ounce Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon Beeswax

Directions

Preparation: Add the beeswax to the olive oil and heat until the beeswax is melted. Use very low heat or a double boiler to prevent burning the oil. When the wax is melted, remove the oil from the heat then add the essential oils and stir to blend. When the mixture is cool it is ready to use. You can make this using only the eucalyptus oil if preferred.

To use rub a small amount on the chest as needed to relieve congestion.

Herbal Repellent Oil

Ingredients

1 part fresh pennyroyal
1 part fresh thyme
1/2 part fresh basil
1/2 part neem leaf (if available)
tea tree essential oil
citronella essential oil
olive oil

Directions

Pick your fresh herbs. Manually remove any dirt then set them in a sunny place until the herbs are wilted.

Using 1/4 cup as your part, measure 1/4 cup of pennyroyal and thyme, and 1/8 cup basil and neem leaf into a crock pot. Pour in enough olive oil to cover the herbs plus another inch of oil (approximately 1 cup). Turn the crock pot on low temperature and heat the herbs for about 3 hours. An alternative way to prepare your oil extraction is to place the herbs in a clear glass jar and set it in the sun for about five days. Shake it once or twice a day.

When you have finished heating your oil, strain your oil through a cheesecloth lined strainer. Squeeze out as much oil as possible. Measure out how much oil you now have. For each ounce of oil add 10 drops of citronella essential oil and 5 drops of tea tree oil.

Pour into lotion bottle and label.

Pain Reliever Salve

Ingredients

Mix together 1 oz of chickweed (reduces inflammation and aids in healing), 1 oz of
wormwood (a great pain reliever), and 1 ounce of yarrow (an anti-bacterial agent that

also helps relieve pain). The yarrow plant contains achillein and achilleic acid.
These substances reduce the clotting time of blood, so they help stop any bleeding.
Yarrow also has pain-killing and anti-inflammatory properties that are similar to aspirin.

Add the mixture of herbs to 2 pints of olive oil and simmer 3 hours.
Strain and add 3 ounces of beeswax and 1 teaspoon of tincture of benzoin.
Test for consistency before pouring into wide mouth containers.

Teething Gel

Ingredients

1 ounce pure vegetable glycerin
2 drops essential oil of clove


Directions

Add one drop of clove to your glycerin and shake it until it is well blended. Test it on yourself to make sure it is not too strong before adding another drop. For a young baby I use 2 drops. You could use vegetable oil instead of glycerin if you want. Glycerin is very sweet so it makes the remedy a bit more appealing.

OMG--Kittens!

As many of you are aware, I've had two stray cat moms entrusted me with their newborn kittens for the past few weeks. This takes the Krim household from 2 to 14 members.

I would like to thank Pat, Clara, Cindy, and Edward for their donations. I would also like to thank Darinlee, Erica, Chad, his wife Laurie, and maybe Sarah for their willingness to be kitten moms and dads.

Of course, there are still many cuties left if anyone else is interested in adding to their family, or knows someone outside of the library is as well. For those of you just wondering if there are any pictures, here you go: Stacey's Kitten Photostream

Green Leak of the Week--Change Your Font!

Check out this tip from The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Diane Blohowiak, director of computing at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, said in an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio that the university had switched from Arial to Century Gothic because it uses about 30 percent less ink when students print out their messages. The ink in printer cartridges costs about $10,000 a gallon, so the financial and environmental savings are significant, she said."

Using Herbs Safely

Here is the Power Point for the second herbalism lecture. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Using Herbs Safely

View more presentations from Stac3y.

Learn about Herbalism While You Work or Drive to Work

Herbmentor.com (which is a really great website) provides free hour-long podcasts of interviews with professional herbalists on HerbMentor Radio. You can download these to mp3 players or burn them to cd. If you attended my first presentation and would like to hear more about the Doctrine of Signatures from an herbalist who uses it, check out the interview "Brigitte Mars and the Doctrine of Signatures." Interviews I think are particularly worth while are:

Aviva Romm: Herbs for Children
Natural First Aid with 7Song
Susan Weed Interview (Wise Woman Tradition)
Rosemary Gladstar Interview (Wise Woman Tradition)

Enjoy!