Wednesday, August 27, 2014
#135 Mastering Creation
Dear all,
I'm still basking in the glow of my 65th birthday party last week. I loved sharing myself as fully as I knew how with people from all different parts of my life (including feeding them from my garden!), and it was wonderful to receive such a beautiful big bouquet of verbal gifts in return. I recommend it!
In addition to the usual in this month's offering, I've included links to a couple of sites that have published other writing of mine. It's been a bountiful summer.
Love,
Pamela
Mastering creation
Human struggle for dominion over creation has reached epic proportions. While we have demonstrated a staggering capacity for mastery, the damage to the world around us has been staggering as well—and it’s becoming increasingly clear that we won’t have the last word.
Time at a co-op cabin in the woods of northern Pennsylvania has provided lots of opportunities to consider who’s in charge on a more intimate level. Sometimes we witness forces that are totally beyond our control. During the multi-year gypsy moth infestation, we watched helplessly as those little caterpillars ate up our woods. Great maple trees died and then fell, opening up sunlit spaces for briars and new young saplings to move in. Other trees survived, but took years to regain any semblance of health. Less dramatically, a rocky area of poor soil that had once been grazing land for sheep was still open and sunny when we arrived, with dozens of wild blueberry bushes. Gradually, with nothing eating off the vegetation, it has converted to scrubby woodland, and the blueberries have died away.
At times we have been able to nudge nature a little in the direction of our wishes. One year, when briars seemed to be steadily encroaching on the open area around the cabin, I found a dozen or so tiny little hemlock volunteers and transplanted them to form a barrier. At eight or twelve inches tall, they could initially be only a symbolic statement of how far we would protect our domain of human civilization, but each year they grew taller, and now tall trees form a barrier that is real.
The most vexing area of contention over mastery has been the pond. We human beings want it to stay as clear, clean and deep as possible, while natural forces are moving it steadily in the opposite direction. Created by others before we got there, with a small stream feeding it at one end, and a modest outlet at the other, it has little flow. Silt collects, pond weed gets more and more of a hold, cattails flourish at the edges and expand steadily inward. Everything that dies ends up on the bottom, and every year there is more organic material to grow and die.
We have tried many things: Spread chemicals on the water to kill the pond weed—but nobody really wanted chemicals in the pond. Import specially bred fish to feed on the bottom. This sounded like a winner—but in a year or two there was no evidence that they had made an impact or were even still there. Just keep unclogging the outlet, harvesting the pond weed and piling it up in great heaps in the canoe; wading in at the edges and pulling out armload after armload of cattails. This has probably had the most impact, but it’s pretty clear that the forces of nature are stronger than us, and we haven’t figured out any way to get the muck off the bottom without a massive dredging project.
Do we have a right to the pond of our dreams? This question took on more poignancy for me after reading a loving description by a Native American botanist of the richness of a cattail marsh, while all I could see was an obstacle in my path.
Then I think of our community garden, where we bring in soil, plant seeds in bare ground, define some plants as weeds and pull them out, offer extra food, water and supports to others that wouldn’t manage on their own, wage eternal battles against bugs. We are totally bent on mastery; yet without some effort in this direction we wouldn’t eat.
How to reconcile this conflict? Maybe we can learn from the farmers who know and love their land. They know the different soils, patterns of water absorption and run-off, sun and shade, woodland, marsh and field habitats, sources of soil replenishment, what part each plays in the health of the rest. With such intimate knowledge, with a sense of connection and belonging, with deep respect and thanks for the gifts of the land, I think we can see ourselves as partners and beneficiaries rather than masters.
Our pond struggle, I imagine, will continue. But perhaps I can approach it with more love, and if I pull out a cattail, I can thank it for the role it plays in this universe.
More love
The evils of the world crowd round
War and climate change
a system breeding inequality
mass incarceration
misery across the globe.
I used to ward them all off
feel nothing as I tried
to do my share
avert my eyes
protect my heart.
I'm after more these days
more open now to heartbreak
willing to respond.
And yet, and yet
how much more then must I do
to hold on to integrity?
Must I respond to everything
with all my heart
submit to bleak and never-ending work?
Then from this murk
the answer rises, clear and true:
Love.
You must love more--
love more widely
love more deeply
love more openly.
Any new atrocity
new threat
new injustice
requires a response:
more love.
Imagine--A new economy is possible!
Work Sharing
The logic of work sharing is simple. Instead of the government providing workers who lose their job with an unemployment benefit, the government effectively pays firms to keep workers employed but working shorter hours. In Germany, for example, the standard framework is that if the work week is cut by 20 percent, then the government picks up 12 percent of the workers’ pay and it requires the company to pick up four percent. The result has been far less unemployment in countries with such incentives.
Three of the most promising ways that countries have found to reduce work hours are to: trade productivity gains for more free time instead of higher pay: pass laws giving the right to workers to request shorter workweeks without worrying about retribution from employers as has been done in Belgium and the Netherlands; and introduce shorter hours at both ends of the age scale, so that young, new workers would start with shorter workweeks and workers above a certain age could reduce their hours as well.
http://maryknollogc.org/encounters/encounters-2-what-it-takes-change#workweek
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
The 10,000 people in Tel Aviv who participated in a rally earlier this month under the slogan, “Changing direction, toward peace, away from war”, and all the other peace building people and groups in Israel and Gaza.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/13-peacebuilders-in-gaza
An alternatives to violence program that was initiated in the US to offer resources to people in prisons, exported to Rwanda and Burundi to help address conflict there, revised by local leaders in Africa to focus more on trauma healing, then exported back to the US as trauma healing for African immigrant communities.
http://aglifpt.org/rfk/?p=287
The creation this spring of a partnership of indigenous farmers from Peru, Bhutan and China, to exchange indigenous potato varieties and farming methods as a way to help protect agricultural biodiversity in the face of climate change.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/indigenous-seed-savers
A precedent-setting case by the New York Court of Appeals in late June, ruling that the towns of Dryden and Middlefield can use local zoning laws to ban heavy industry--including oil and gas production--within municipal borders, a boon to the more than 170 municipalities in New York that have already passed bans or moratoriums, and a hopeful sign to towns throughout the country fighting for their right to local self determination.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/court-rules-that-new-york-towns-can-ban-fracking?utm_source=YTW&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=20140703
More resources
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.org, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Thursday, July 17, 2014
#134 Naming evil
Dear all,
I've been enjoying the succession of berries in the garden--and am delighted to have learned how to make a simple fruit sorbet! Now the summer squash season is upon us. There's nothing better than sharing with loved ones and strangers out of a sense of abundance, and no better reminder of that than a summer garden. I send wishes for similar abundance to all of you.
Love,
Pamela
Naming evil
I don’t use the word “evil” lightly. I don’t use it to describe the forces that are driving climate change, the greatest destruction of our time. Yes, they are blind, short-sighted, greed-based, power-hungry, stupid, and ultimately tragic to a degree that is hard to fathom, but I see no evil intent, nobody working out a plan to make life unlivable for their grandchildren or great grandchildren.
Our country’s system of mass incarceration is different. It follows that if you build a system that is based on retribution rather than restoration and add in the age-old tendency to find people who can be categorized as “other”, they will be disproportionately affected; any such criminal justice system becomes a breeding ground for unintended consequences. But this is worse. As Michelle Alexander lays out so compellingly in The New Jim Crow, the War on Drugs had an intentional, if hidden, intent of targeting black men. She quotes H.R. Haldeman, President Richard Nixon’s former chief of staff: “The whole problem is really the blacks. The key is designing a system that recognizes this while not appearing to.”
Black men are arrested, tried, incarcerated and held at rates staggeringly higher than those of whites. The GPS anklet that parolees wear has an uncanny resemblance to a 21st century chain—with those who control it in complete power over the human being on whose leg it is fastened. Old forms of discrimination—in employment and housing, denial of basic public benefits and the right to vote, and exclusion from jury service—have become perfectly legal again, just more coded. Mass incarceration is sucking the soul out of many communities of color, its effects eating away at them, and its threat always present.
The most chilling aspect is that this whole system can be described as totally race neutral, as straightforward and beneficial protection from a dangerous criminal element. In the face of these distortions and slippery lies, this murk of concealment, manipulation and complicity, how can we see and speak clearly, grasp the issue firmly, and find the solid ground of integrity from which to act?
I think the first step is to call this system out for what it is: twisted, hidden, and malevolent. It is sucking the soul not only out of our communities of color, but out of all of us whose complicit and confused acquiescence supports this evil. It is sucking the soul out of our country.
Evil needs exposure to sunlight and good air. We need to talk about it for what it is, open out all its hidden folds and pockets of wrong, hold it out to the clear light of day. People who hurt and kill others don’t need to be relieved of consequences, and people who are just doing their jobs don’t need to be blamed, but the forces that have twisted power and fear together to create and maintain this horror need to be called out.
We need to grieve together. This system has caused untold loss and damage. While it impacts some more directly, we are all caught in its web. If we don’t look clearly and face the grief, we are vulnerable to vengeance or to the hardening of hearts that comes from separation. Without grieving, we cannot be healed.
I know there are many people attacking this system on many fronts, inside prisons, in impacted communities, and in support of both. I’m not clear which path is mine to take, but I believe that it will open up as I take my first steps. I know these need to include talking more openly with my friends and neighbors—both black and white—finding a way past the feelings of privilege, guilt and disconnection to the firm ground that an evil done to my brothers and sisters is an evil done to me. I know that more steps lie ahead for all of us, and I believe that, by naming this evil with each other, looking straight at it, and grieving the sorrow and loss, we can find our way forward together.
Left and right
I work my way down the patch
picking every single berry I can find
Then I turn and work my way back—
always finding more
that had been hidden from view.
Looking just from the left
or just from the right
leaves ripe fruit
to rot on the vine.
Imagine--A new economy is possible!
European cooperative banks
In a comparison with major commercial banks in Europe, co-operative banks outperform shareholder banks on a number of measures: generating more stable long-term profits, providing better customer service, and boosting local economies by lending more to small and medium-sized businesses. Plus, their more prudent approach to managing capital allowed them to weather the financial crisis better than the commercial banking sector, thus contributing to financial stability.
Ownership by members places an incentive on managers to maximise long-term customer value, and ensures that profit is treated as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. This focus presents a range of benefits, not just for customers but for the economy as a whole.
Over the past fifteen years, European cooperatives have increased their share
of European bank branches from just under twenty five per cent to over twenty
eight per cent. This is because, while commercial banks have been closing down
branches to increase cost efficiency, cooperatives, with their focus on customer
value, have been expanding.
http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/entry/co-operative-banks-international-evidence
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
The findings of a report comparing the views of people who live in red and blue Congressional districts or states across 388 questions: majorities or pluralities took opposing positions just 3.6 percent of the time, with no statistical differences in two out of three cases.
http://vop.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Red-Blue-Report.pdf
A recent decision of the World Council of Churches, representing half a billion Christian, to stop investing in fossil fuels.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/11/world-council-of-churches-pulls-fossil-fuel-investments
New York City’s budget for the 2015 fiscal year, which includes a $1.2 million new item for the development of worker-owned cooperative businesses, the largest investment in the sector ever made by a city government in the United States.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/commonomics/worker-owned-co-ops-get-one-million-dollars-in-new-york-budget
A tiny effort in Russia, Friends House Moscow, that supports local citizen initiatives to change conditions for orphans, people with disabilities, refugees, soldiers and conscientious objectors, among others.
More resources
Posts on other people's blogs: http://www.classism.org/children-mass-culture
NEW: Check out my friend Daniel Hunter's new book, a narrative of direct action campaigning: Strategy & Soul: A Campaigner's Tale of Fighting Billionaires, Corrupt Officials, and Philadelphia Casinos: www.strategyandsoul.org
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.org, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
I've been enjoying the succession of berries in the garden--and am delighted to have learned how to make a simple fruit sorbet! Now the summer squash season is upon us. There's nothing better than sharing with loved ones and strangers out of a sense of abundance, and no better reminder of that than a summer garden. I send wishes for similar abundance to all of you.
Love,
Pamela
Naming evil
I don’t use the word “evil” lightly. I don’t use it to describe the forces that are driving climate change, the greatest destruction of our time. Yes, they are blind, short-sighted, greed-based, power-hungry, stupid, and ultimately tragic to a degree that is hard to fathom, but I see no evil intent, nobody working out a plan to make life unlivable for their grandchildren or great grandchildren.
Our country’s system of mass incarceration is different. It follows that if you build a system that is based on retribution rather than restoration and add in the age-old tendency to find people who can be categorized as “other”, they will be disproportionately affected; any such criminal justice system becomes a breeding ground for unintended consequences. But this is worse. As Michelle Alexander lays out so compellingly in The New Jim Crow, the War on Drugs had an intentional, if hidden, intent of targeting black men. She quotes H.R. Haldeman, President Richard Nixon’s former chief of staff: “The whole problem is really the blacks. The key is designing a system that recognizes this while not appearing to.”
Black men are arrested, tried, incarcerated and held at rates staggeringly higher than those of whites. The GPS anklet that parolees wear has an uncanny resemblance to a 21st century chain—with those who control it in complete power over the human being on whose leg it is fastened. Old forms of discrimination—in employment and housing, denial of basic public benefits and the right to vote, and exclusion from jury service—have become perfectly legal again, just more coded. Mass incarceration is sucking the soul out of many communities of color, its effects eating away at them, and its threat always present.
The most chilling aspect is that this whole system can be described as totally race neutral, as straightforward and beneficial protection from a dangerous criminal element. In the face of these distortions and slippery lies, this murk of concealment, manipulation and complicity, how can we see and speak clearly, grasp the issue firmly, and find the solid ground of integrity from which to act?
I think the first step is to call this system out for what it is: twisted, hidden, and malevolent. It is sucking the soul not only out of our communities of color, but out of all of us whose complicit and confused acquiescence supports this evil. It is sucking the soul out of our country.
Evil needs exposure to sunlight and good air. We need to talk about it for what it is, open out all its hidden folds and pockets of wrong, hold it out to the clear light of day. People who hurt and kill others don’t need to be relieved of consequences, and people who are just doing their jobs don’t need to be blamed, but the forces that have twisted power and fear together to create and maintain this horror need to be called out.
We need to grieve together. This system has caused untold loss and damage. While it impacts some more directly, we are all caught in its web. If we don’t look clearly and face the grief, we are vulnerable to vengeance or to the hardening of hearts that comes from separation. Without grieving, we cannot be healed.
I know there are many people attacking this system on many fronts, inside prisons, in impacted communities, and in support of both. I’m not clear which path is mine to take, but I believe that it will open up as I take my first steps. I know these need to include talking more openly with my friends and neighbors—both black and white—finding a way past the feelings of privilege, guilt and disconnection to the firm ground that an evil done to my brothers and sisters is an evil done to me. I know that more steps lie ahead for all of us, and I believe that, by naming this evil with each other, looking straight at it, and grieving the sorrow and loss, we can find our way forward together.
Left and right
I work my way down the patch
picking every single berry I can find
Then I turn and work my way back—
always finding more
that had been hidden from view.
Looking just from the left
or just from the right
leaves ripe fruit
to rot on the vine.
Imagine--A new economy is possible!
European cooperative banks
In a comparison with major commercial banks in Europe, co-operative banks outperform shareholder banks on a number of measures: generating more stable long-term profits, providing better customer service, and boosting local economies by lending more to small and medium-sized businesses. Plus, their more prudent approach to managing capital allowed them to weather the financial crisis better than the commercial banking sector, thus contributing to financial stability.
Ownership by members places an incentive on managers to maximise long-term customer value, and ensures that profit is treated as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. This focus presents a range of benefits, not just for customers but for the economy as a whole.
Over the past fifteen years, European cooperatives have increased their share
of European bank branches from just under twenty five per cent to over twenty
eight per cent. This is because, while commercial banks have been closing down
branches to increase cost efficiency, cooperatives, with their focus on customer
value, have been expanding.
http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/entry/co-operative-banks-international-evidence
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
The findings of a report comparing the views of people who live in red and blue Congressional districts or states across 388 questions: majorities or pluralities took opposing positions just 3.6 percent of the time, with no statistical differences in two out of three cases.
http://vop.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Red-Blue-Report.pdf
A recent decision of the World Council of Churches, representing half a billion Christian, to stop investing in fossil fuels.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/11/world-council-of-churches-pulls-fossil-fuel-investments
New York City’s budget for the 2015 fiscal year, which includes a $1.2 million new item for the development of worker-owned cooperative businesses, the largest investment in the sector ever made by a city government in the United States.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/commonomics/worker-owned-co-ops-get-one-million-dollars-in-new-york-budget
A tiny effort in Russia, Friends House Moscow, that supports local citizen initiatives to change conditions for orphans, people with disabilities, refugees, soldiers and conscientious objectors, among others.
More resources
Posts on other people's blogs: http://www.classism.org/children-mass-culture
NEW: Check out my friend Daniel Hunter's new book, a narrative of direct action campaigning: Strategy & Soul: A Campaigner's Tale of Fighting Billionaires, Corrupt Officials, and Philadelphia Casinos: www.strategyandsoul.org
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.org, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Thursday, June 12, 2014
#133 Respecting our ecosystem
It’s heartening how sometimes a larger truth to which one is deeply committed can knock the air out of an insistent but essentially irrelevant argument.
With six children in my family growing up, one-on-one attention from my mother was a precious but scarce commodity. When one of her children was sick, however, my mother always came through. One of the highlights of my childhood was the time in seventh grade when I had bronchial pneumonia. The first few days, when I was delirious, were harder on her than on me, and they were followed by weeks recuperating at home with just my mother and my precious little toddler brother.
I often wished in high school that I could have another break like that, but never got sick enough again. There was no tolerance in my family for malingering—and no sympathy for weakness or petty complaints. If what ailed you wasn’t demonstrably serious, you were expected to continue to pull your weight.
So I came of age still wistfully wishing that sometime I might get sick enough that somebody would put me first and make everything better, while at the same time being a harsh judge of complainers and weaklings. This has been particularly challenging when I’ve been a little under the weather. Quite apart from whatever was happening with my body, there was full-scale warfare in my head. I’m not feeling well. Oh for goodness sake, it’s not that bad; just get over it. But really, I’d rather be in bed. Buck up. Tons of people keep on working when they’re sick—what makes you think you’re so special? I think I need to lie down. Oh, stop whining! Maybe if I take care of it, it will go away. Oh, if you must, you little weakling.
Over the years, I’ve had many reminders that my body is trustworthy. I’m not one to lie in bed in general, and I tend to prefer work over rest. But somehow the war in my head has continued, and it’s been hard to listen to my body with all that din between my ears.
Then, somehow, a totally new concept fell into that space, stunning all other voices to silence. Your body is an ecosystem. It deserves respect.
Well, I’m passionate about ecosystems. I have a sense of wonder about their complexity, the amazing levels of interdependence, the variety of distinctively lovely forms they can take. And I’m keenly aware of the threats that so many ecosystems face, and how a loss in one can devastate others. I have some sense of both their vulnerability and their resilience, and my respect for their value is abiding and deep.
The idea of human bodies as ecosystems is newer to me. I have loved breathing in the reality that every water molecule in my body has existed for billions of years; that our existence depends on the soil, the source of our food; that we are all miracles of recycling.
It makes sense that poisons and pollution affect my own internal system just as they affect our external waterways and atmosphere. It’s a little harder to get my mind around the reality that the vast majority of cells in my body are non-human. I am host to an enormous diversity of other microorganisms—with all the intricate interdependence of any other ecosystem, and with all their resilience and vulnerability.
So, this ecosystem of mine, as all other ecosystems, is totally deserving of respect. If it is under stress, that is something that calls for thought, care and intelligence. I can benefit from its resilience—it doesn’t need to be constantly fussed over—but I certainly don’t want to take its good functioning for granted.
What does this mean? When I don’t feel well, when this ecosystem that I inhabit is stressed, neither moral judgments about weakness nor lingering hopes for comfort from my childhood are relevant. What is called for is a thoughtful assessment of the whole system, and as non-invasive a program to bring it back to balance as can be managed. There’s much that I still don’t know but, with respect for this ecosystem as central, my feet are on solid ground at last.
Gifts
In our big shared garden
digging baby black-eyed Susan plants
to give away
a Mexican neighbor offers me cilantro
and I go home with four sweet plants
to tuck in with my herbs.
Then, hauling pots of flowers
that have spread out of their beds
to share with rental neighbors
eager to fill bare ground with life,
As I walk, I greet a gardener
I do not know, who turns out to have
sunflowers to spare,
and digs them out most willingly—
Just what I’ve been looking for,
the final touch of glory
that our garden needs.
I’m filled up to the brim
with so much giving and receiving
in these few hours,
so much pleasure shared.
The earth, indeed, is full of gifts.
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Who will feed us?
The industrial food chain uses 70% of the world's agricultural resources to produce just 30% of our global food supply. Conversely, the peasant food web provides 70% of the global food supply while using only 30% of agricultural resource.
While industrial agriculture can produce a higher yield of a monocultural crop than can peasant monoculture, multi-cultures of diverse crops, fish and livestock (intercropping) can produce more food per hectare, which is also more nutritious, than any industrial monoculture, at a fraction of the cost and with employment and environmental benefits.
Looking toward the future, with "agribusiness as usual": urban share of global population, obesity, meat and dairy production, water demand, and greenhouse gas emissions all rise dramatically. With the "peasant web", including land and rights, rural population holds steady, nutrition and food availability increase, obesity drops, and greenhouse gas emissions, water demand and agricultural fossil fuel use all drop dramatically.
http://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/ETC-WhoWillFeedUs-shortversion.pdf
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
Paul Hawken's unforgettable presentation of the 2 million-plus groups around the world that are working toward a just and livable future. youtube.com/watch?v=NzMPUKAXM7U (I've mentioned this one before, but it's made me hopeful again!)
Food distribution companies, such as Common Market in Philadelphia, that work to connect local farmers with large institutions such as hospitals and schools--thus supporting small farmers while improving the quality of food these institutions serve. commonmarketphila.org/
The Obama administration's recent Environmental Protection Agency ruling, which is intended to cut carbon pollution from power plants by 30% (from 2005 levels) by 2030.
The Bike Superhighways of Denmark, a network of 26 routes to connect commuting suburbanites to the city, including air pumps, safer intersections, and traffic lights timed to average cycling speed, allowing 50% of all Copenhageners to cycle to work or school every day,often faster than by car. www.positivenewsus.org/the-bike-superhighways-of-denmark/
More resources
Posts on other people's blogs: http://www.classism.org/children-mass-culture
NEW: Check out my friend Daniel Hunter's new book, a narrative of direct action campaigning: Strategy & Soul: A Campaigner's Tale of Fighting Billionaires, Corrupt Officials, and Philadelphia Casinos: www.strategyandsoul.org
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.org, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
With six children in my family growing up, one-on-one attention from my mother was a precious but scarce commodity. When one of her children was sick, however, my mother always came through. One of the highlights of my childhood was the time in seventh grade when I had bronchial pneumonia. The first few days, when I was delirious, were harder on her than on me, and they were followed by weeks recuperating at home with just my mother and my precious little toddler brother.
I often wished in high school that I could have another break like that, but never got sick enough again. There was no tolerance in my family for malingering—and no sympathy for weakness or petty complaints. If what ailed you wasn’t demonstrably serious, you were expected to continue to pull your weight.
So I came of age still wistfully wishing that sometime I might get sick enough that somebody would put me first and make everything better, while at the same time being a harsh judge of complainers and weaklings. This has been particularly challenging when I’ve been a little under the weather. Quite apart from whatever was happening with my body, there was full-scale warfare in my head. I’m not feeling well. Oh for goodness sake, it’s not that bad; just get over it. But really, I’d rather be in bed. Buck up. Tons of people keep on working when they’re sick—what makes you think you’re so special? I think I need to lie down. Oh, stop whining! Maybe if I take care of it, it will go away. Oh, if you must, you little weakling.
Over the years, I’ve had many reminders that my body is trustworthy. I’m not one to lie in bed in general, and I tend to prefer work over rest. But somehow the war in my head has continued, and it’s been hard to listen to my body with all that din between my ears.
Then, somehow, a totally new concept fell into that space, stunning all other voices to silence. Your body is an ecosystem. It deserves respect.
Well, I’m passionate about ecosystems. I have a sense of wonder about their complexity, the amazing levels of interdependence, the variety of distinctively lovely forms they can take. And I’m keenly aware of the threats that so many ecosystems face, and how a loss in one can devastate others. I have some sense of both their vulnerability and their resilience, and my respect for their value is abiding and deep.
The idea of human bodies as ecosystems is newer to me. I have loved breathing in the reality that every water molecule in my body has existed for billions of years; that our existence depends on the soil, the source of our food; that we are all miracles of recycling.
It makes sense that poisons and pollution affect my own internal system just as they affect our external waterways and atmosphere. It’s a little harder to get my mind around the reality that the vast majority of cells in my body are non-human. I am host to an enormous diversity of other microorganisms—with all the intricate interdependence of any other ecosystem, and with all their resilience and vulnerability.
So, this ecosystem of mine, as all other ecosystems, is totally deserving of respect. If it is under stress, that is something that calls for thought, care and intelligence. I can benefit from its resilience—it doesn’t need to be constantly fussed over—but I certainly don’t want to take its good functioning for granted.
What does this mean? When I don’t feel well, when this ecosystem that I inhabit is stressed, neither moral judgments about weakness nor lingering hopes for comfort from my childhood are relevant. What is called for is a thoughtful assessment of the whole system, and as non-invasive a program to bring it back to balance as can be managed. There’s much that I still don’t know but, with respect for this ecosystem as central, my feet are on solid ground at last.
Gifts
In our big shared garden
digging baby black-eyed Susan plants
to give away
a Mexican neighbor offers me cilantro
and I go home with four sweet plants
to tuck in with my herbs.
Then, hauling pots of flowers
that have spread out of their beds
to share with rental neighbors
eager to fill bare ground with life,
As I walk, I greet a gardener
I do not know, who turns out to have
sunflowers to spare,
and digs them out most willingly—
Just what I’ve been looking for,
the final touch of glory
that our garden needs.
I’m filled up to the brim
with so much giving and receiving
in these few hours,
so much pleasure shared.
The earth, indeed, is full of gifts.
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Who will feed us?
The industrial food chain uses 70% of the world's agricultural resources to produce just 30% of our global food supply. Conversely, the peasant food web provides 70% of the global food supply while using only 30% of agricultural resource.
While industrial agriculture can produce a higher yield of a monocultural crop than can peasant monoculture, multi-cultures of diverse crops, fish and livestock (intercropping) can produce more food per hectare, which is also more nutritious, than any industrial monoculture, at a fraction of the cost and with employment and environmental benefits.
Looking toward the future, with "agribusiness as usual": urban share of global population, obesity, meat and dairy production, water demand, and greenhouse gas emissions all rise dramatically. With the "peasant web", including land and rights, rural population holds steady, nutrition and food availability increase, obesity drops, and greenhouse gas emissions, water demand and agricultural fossil fuel use all drop dramatically.
http://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/ETC-WhoWillFeedUs-shortversion.pdf
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
Paul Hawken's unforgettable presentation of the 2 million-plus groups around the world that are working toward a just and livable future. youtube.com/watch?v=NzMPUKAXM7U (I've mentioned this one before, but it's made me hopeful again!)
Food distribution companies, such as Common Market in Philadelphia, that work to connect local farmers with large institutions such as hospitals and schools--thus supporting small farmers while improving the quality of food these institutions serve. commonmarketphila.org/
The Obama administration's recent Environmental Protection Agency ruling, which is intended to cut carbon pollution from power plants by 30% (from 2005 levels) by 2030.
The Bike Superhighways of Denmark, a network of 26 routes to connect commuting suburbanites to the city, including air pumps, safer intersections, and traffic lights timed to average cycling speed, allowing 50% of all Copenhageners to cycle to work or school every day,often faster than by car. www.positivenewsus.org/the-bike-superhighways-of-denmark/
More resources
Posts on other people's blogs: http://www.classism.org/children-mass-culture
NEW: Check out my friend Daniel Hunter's new book, a narrative of direct action campaigning: Strategy & Soul: A Campaigner's Tale of Fighting Billionaires, Corrupt Officials, and Philadelphia Casinos: www.strategyandsoul.org
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.org, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Sunday, April 27, 2014
#132 A Courage Project
Dear all,
A stunningly beautiful month of April, a new grandson--life is full of gifts. I've been taking the 15-month old to the community garden every time I have him; this week it was cold and we just sat for a while, bundled up, listening to the birds. I'm taking in the truth that where we choose to put our attention, that is where we develop the capacity to notice more. I hope his ear is always attuned to the birds.
And I'm so pleased that the State Department has not approved the Keystone XL pipeline, but delayed any action, and I choose to believe that our messages to the President--of all kinds--played a role in that decision.
Love,
Pamela
A Courage Project
You can have fear without courage, but you can’t have courage without fear. As I’ve been thinking about how we can best support each other to do scary things, I realize that we can take a lesson from the children. They look for activities that will test them—climb a tree, walk through a culvert, jump across a gap, have an adventure in the dark, tell scary stories. Children are pulled to test their courage, in a heady mix of fear and excitement.
As adults, some of us still thrive on risk; others are more cautious and prefer our thrills well buffered. Both tendencies are being increasingly accommodated by our consumer economy. Those who want risk without protection gravitate toward extreme sports. Those who prefer to consume it safely have a range of manufactured thrills available, from parachute and bungee jumping to amusement park rides.
It’s a paradox. On the one hand, we are protected from risks in small things as never before; on the other hand, the big dangers we face are unprecedented. These are times that call for enormous courage about things that are real—the courage to face threats to our future, to welcome chaos, and to find our way together into the unknown.
I thought a lot about courage at a recent day of action on climate change, when I ended up stepping away, at the last minute, from risking arrest. Rather than going on auto-pilot to do what seemed “brave”, I found myself choosing a path where I could stay more present and connected to myself, while still being involved in the action as a whole. As I reflected on this experience, I realized that there are many ways of being brave, and my most courageous act had probably taken place several days earlier: after noticing that I had been very quiet about my plans, I spent an evening daring to share with a wide circle of friends both my passion for the earth and my feelings about the action. Showing myself fully: now that’s scary!
Courage is not one size fits all, and nobody can take another person’s courageous step, but we all can be braver in ways that are completely our own. What if each one of us did a personal inventory of the times and places where we have been brave, and brought them to our community for acknowledgment and celebration? Then we could look at where our fears keep us quiet and passive, and develop personal courage campaigns. With a buddy or a small group, we could share our intentions to practice being brave—in our families, at work, with our neighbors, in the larger community—and come back to share our successes, or grieve our failures, and get ready for the next courageous step.
What are mine? Talking about what matters to me even though others don’t seem to care. Openly trying a response, even though it might fail. Letting others know what I’m trying, and inviting them to join me. Once they’ve agreed, then sticking with it, holding out confidence that any second thoughts or complaints (theirs or mine) are just a way of showing our fears.
At a recent workshop on easing the transition to lower energy use by building resilience at a local level, the leader asked if anyone had the courage to build a core group that reflected their diverse urban neighborhood. I was surprised at her use of that word, but raised my hand. I’m not good at it. It’s not coming quickly or easily. But I know what it takes to put my hand on the phone, think of a million useful things that I could do so much more easily than call somebody who is not yet in my circle, or who doesn’t yet know how much I care about something that may not be on their radar screen, pause, breathe deeply, then make the call—and, when I don’t hear back, then make it again.
We don’t know how courageous other people are. We don’t know what it costs them to do things that might seem easy to us. But together we can all do more. I’m looking to recapture that model from our childhood: A gang of buddies coming across—or setting up—a challenge. An open acknowledgment of fear: Yikes, this is scary! Do you think we can do it? I don’t know. Let’s try anyway. Okay, here goes! The squeals of excitement/fear, the shivers running up and down our spines, the uncontrollable shaking. Then assessing the results together: Wow, we did it! Wow, almost, let’s try again! Wow, that didn’t work at all! What next? Could there be a more human way of being in this world together?
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Local planning
Cape Cod is one of the few places in the country that embeds economic criteria in its planning policies and requires that large projects get approval from both the host town and a regional planning body, the Cape Cod Commission. The Commission is made up of representatives from each of the Cape’s 15 towns, and focuses on how the development would affect Cape Cod’s economy and environment. After looking closely at a proposal to bring in a new Lowe's, the Commission concluded that “the probable benefit of the proposed development is not greater than the probable detriment.”
A pivotal issue was the store’s projected impact on jobs and wages. One of the region’s primary planning goals is to increase household income. In a region already saturated with building supply stores, Lowe’s arrival would cause many existing local businesses to downsize or close, leading to a net decline of 48 jobs. Moreover, the new jobs at Lowe’s would pay $9,000 less on average than the jobs lost at local stores, resulting in a total income loss of over $3 million for the region’s residents.
Armed with this kind of analysis, the Cape Cod Commission has approved relatively few big-box stores in its 24-year history. Not surprisingly, Cape Cod has significantly more independent businesses per capita than the national average.
http://www.ilsr.org/smart-planning-policies-protect-good-jobs-cities-vote-big-boxes/
Easter sunrise
Well before dawn
biking toward the Easter morning sunrise
a bird I do not know greets me with cheery song.
I take it in, rejoice, bike on.
The bird song follows,
block after block after block.
Is this one bird following me
intent to gladden my heart
and make my ride a joyous one?
Is he passing me on from friend to friend—
in some sweet welcoming relay?
Or am I just a witness
in that pre-dawn dark and cold
to all the heralds of the day?
The thought that it is personal
brings on a smile.
The sure knowledge that
these birds will sing the sun up
as long as they have breath to sing
reminds me of the chance we have each day
to give our thanks
for all the life the sun makes possible
on Earth, our home.
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
The Obama administration's Good Friday extension of the review period on the Keystone XL pipeline, pushing back a final decision on the disputed project indefinitely, to have time to review some 2.5 million public comments, and assess the impact of a pending lawsuit in Nebraska.
Philadelphia's move to the forefront of a national movement to protect immigrants from deportation over minor and nonviolent crimes, by limiting the information it shares with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
A restorative justice program in Oakland California's public schools, which has led to dramatic reductions in suspensions and referrals for violence, as well as increases in graduation rates and test scores.
The opportunity to connect with individual women artisans in Guatemala and orchard planters in Azerbaijan and Tajikistan through the no-interest lending program of Kiva.
More resources
Posts on other people's blogs: http://www.classism.org/children-mass-culture
NEW: Check out my friend Daniel Hunter's new book, a narrative of direct action campaigning: Strategy & Soul: A Campaigner's Tale of Fighting Billionaires, Corrupt Officials, and Philadelphia Casinos: www.strategyandsoul.org
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.org, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
A stunningly beautiful month of April, a new grandson--life is full of gifts. I've been taking the 15-month old to the community garden every time I have him; this week it was cold and we just sat for a while, bundled up, listening to the birds. I'm taking in the truth that where we choose to put our attention, that is where we develop the capacity to notice more. I hope his ear is always attuned to the birds.
And I'm so pleased that the State Department has not approved the Keystone XL pipeline, but delayed any action, and I choose to believe that our messages to the President--of all kinds--played a role in that decision.
Love,
Pamela
A Courage Project
You can have fear without courage, but you can’t have courage without fear. As I’ve been thinking about how we can best support each other to do scary things, I realize that we can take a lesson from the children. They look for activities that will test them—climb a tree, walk through a culvert, jump across a gap, have an adventure in the dark, tell scary stories. Children are pulled to test their courage, in a heady mix of fear and excitement.
As adults, some of us still thrive on risk; others are more cautious and prefer our thrills well buffered. Both tendencies are being increasingly accommodated by our consumer economy. Those who want risk without protection gravitate toward extreme sports. Those who prefer to consume it safely have a range of manufactured thrills available, from parachute and bungee jumping to amusement park rides.
It’s a paradox. On the one hand, we are protected from risks in small things as never before; on the other hand, the big dangers we face are unprecedented. These are times that call for enormous courage about things that are real—the courage to face threats to our future, to welcome chaos, and to find our way together into the unknown.
I thought a lot about courage at a recent day of action on climate change, when I ended up stepping away, at the last minute, from risking arrest. Rather than going on auto-pilot to do what seemed “brave”, I found myself choosing a path where I could stay more present and connected to myself, while still being involved in the action as a whole. As I reflected on this experience, I realized that there are many ways of being brave, and my most courageous act had probably taken place several days earlier: after noticing that I had been very quiet about my plans, I spent an evening daring to share with a wide circle of friends both my passion for the earth and my feelings about the action. Showing myself fully: now that’s scary!
Courage is not one size fits all, and nobody can take another person’s courageous step, but we all can be braver in ways that are completely our own. What if each one of us did a personal inventory of the times and places where we have been brave, and brought them to our community for acknowledgment and celebration? Then we could look at where our fears keep us quiet and passive, and develop personal courage campaigns. With a buddy or a small group, we could share our intentions to practice being brave—in our families, at work, with our neighbors, in the larger community—and come back to share our successes, or grieve our failures, and get ready for the next courageous step.
What are mine? Talking about what matters to me even though others don’t seem to care. Openly trying a response, even though it might fail. Letting others know what I’m trying, and inviting them to join me. Once they’ve agreed, then sticking with it, holding out confidence that any second thoughts or complaints (theirs or mine) are just a way of showing our fears.
At a recent workshop on easing the transition to lower energy use by building resilience at a local level, the leader asked if anyone had the courage to build a core group that reflected their diverse urban neighborhood. I was surprised at her use of that word, but raised my hand. I’m not good at it. It’s not coming quickly or easily. But I know what it takes to put my hand on the phone, think of a million useful things that I could do so much more easily than call somebody who is not yet in my circle, or who doesn’t yet know how much I care about something that may not be on their radar screen, pause, breathe deeply, then make the call—and, when I don’t hear back, then make it again.
We don’t know how courageous other people are. We don’t know what it costs them to do things that might seem easy to us. But together we can all do more. I’m looking to recapture that model from our childhood: A gang of buddies coming across—or setting up—a challenge. An open acknowledgment of fear: Yikes, this is scary! Do you think we can do it? I don’t know. Let’s try anyway. Okay, here goes! The squeals of excitement/fear, the shivers running up and down our spines, the uncontrollable shaking. Then assessing the results together: Wow, we did it! Wow, almost, let’s try again! Wow, that didn’t work at all! What next? Could there be a more human way of being in this world together?
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Local planning
Cape Cod is one of the few places in the country that embeds economic criteria in its planning policies and requires that large projects get approval from both the host town and a regional planning body, the Cape Cod Commission. The Commission is made up of representatives from each of the Cape’s 15 towns, and focuses on how the development would affect Cape Cod’s economy and environment. After looking closely at a proposal to bring in a new Lowe's, the Commission concluded that “the probable benefit of the proposed development is not greater than the probable detriment.”
A pivotal issue was the store’s projected impact on jobs and wages. One of the region’s primary planning goals is to increase household income. In a region already saturated with building supply stores, Lowe’s arrival would cause many existing local businesses to downsize or close, leading to a net decline of 48 jobs. Moreover, the new jobs at Lowe’s would pay $9,000 less on average than the jobs lost at local stores, resulting in a total income loss of over $3 million for the region’s residents.
Armed with this kind of analysis, the Cape Cod Commission has approved relatively few big-box stores in its 24-year history. Not surprisingly, Cape Cod has significantly more independent businesses per capita than the national average.
http://www.ilsr.org/smart-planning-policies-protect-good-jobs-cities-vote-big-boxes/
Easter sunrise
Well before dawn
biking toward the Easter morning sunrise
a bird I do not know greets me with cheery song.
I take it in, rejoice, bike on.
The bird song follows,
block after block after block.
Is this one bird following me
intent to gladden my heart
and make my ride a joyous one?
Is he passing me on from friend to friend—
in some sweet welcoming relay?
Or am I just a witness
in that pre-dawn dark and cold
to all the heralds of the day?
The thought that it is personal
brings on a smile.
The sure knowledge that
these birds will sing the sun up
as long as they have breath to sing
reminds me of the chance we have each day
to give our thanks
for all the life the sun makes possible
on Earth, our home.
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
The Obama administration's Good Friday extension of the review period on the Keystone XL pipeline, pushing back a final decision on the disputed project indefinitely, to have time to review some 2.5 million public comments, and assess the impact of a pending lawsuit in Nebraska.
Philadelphia's move to the forefront of a national movement to protect immigrants from deportation over minor and nonviolent crimes, by limiting the information it shares with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
A restorative justice program in Oakland California's public schools, which has led to dramatic reductions in suspensions and referrals for violence, as well as increases in graduation rates and test scores.
The opportunity to connect with individual women artisans in Guatemala and orchard planters in Azerbaijan and Tajikistan through the no-interest lending program of Kiva.
More resources
Posts on other people's blogs: http://www.classism.org/children-mass-culture
NEW: Check out my friend Daniel Hunter's new book, a narrative of direct action campaigning: Strategy & Soul: A Campaigner's Tale of Fighting Billionaires, Corrupt Officials, and Philadelphia Casinos: www.strategyandsoul.org
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.org, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
Monday, April 7, 2014
#131 Seeds
Dear friends,
Spring is coming! My mind keeps turning to seeds and flowers, and the earth--the inspiration for much of which follows. And I'm still writing every other day or so to the president. If you want to join me, check out http://www.pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com/2014/03/130-how-to-love-earth.html
Love,
Pamela
Seeds
My grandmother loved a flower that she called Rocket. It was tall and pinky-purple and bloomed at the side of the road. She would gather seeds and scatter them—and now, whenever I see Rocket blooming, I wonder if that beauty might have come from one of my grandmother’s seeds.
Not all seeds grow. Even if we plant and care for them most tenderly, forces without number can keep them from becoming mature and productive plants. And when we scatter them more randomly, the chances go down even farther, as some fall on rocky ground or among the thistles. But some do grow, sometimes in the most unlikely places.
I became very aware of this truth after Chuck and I poured our hearts into trauma healing and peer-listening workshops in Northern Uganda. Back home, we kept hoping that something would take root as a result, but heard precious little news of growth. Maybe the ground was just too stony. Yet, when we returned three years later, we discovered that one of the most self-effacing young men in our workshops had been steadily teaching his friends everything he had learned. When we returned again, we were astonished to discover that a teenage girl, who was very much at the edge of that second workshop, was now leading an energetic and committed group of students in a neighboring town. Who would have imagined?
I’m learning this lesson again as I search for ways to play my part in the movement against climate change. Once I got the idea that anybody who went to college could play a role by urging their alma maters to divest from fossil fuels, I was motivated to get started right away. Yet I struggled. The administration of my college was glacially slow in responding to my inquiries, and I wasn't able to build much momentum with the alumni that I knew. There were no encouraging signs.
More stony ground? But I really wanted this fruit—and started dropping seeds among my friends and colleagues. When it looked like disappointment might stop them as well, I hustled to work the soil. After all, the seeds had come from me, and I felt responsible. I was able to make contact with some enormously helpful staff people at the Fossil Free movement of 350.org, and worked to link them with my friends. Buoyed by this resource, I scattered a little more.
Over the months that followed, there was some heartening progress at my college, but certainly no fruit to enjoy anywhere. Then one recent Sunday a fellow congregant told me that the letter he’d written to his college had been answered by the president, no less, who was intrigued with this idea and wanted to know more. Omigosh—a sprout!
Later that same week, a young woman who went to college with my son mentioned to others in my hearing that she was now involved with the new alumni council that had been formed to address fossil fuel divestment. I had included her in one of my messages to everyone I knew who went to that college, but hadn’t heard back from anybody, and hadn’t expected her to make such a stretch. Another sprout! Now I can't help but wonder if there are yet others growing totally out of my sight.
This is not the only way to grow things. I may choose at times to pour selected resources into a carefully controlled environment, in the hopes of getting good fruit. But there’s something about not knowing which seeds will take hold, and spreading them generously with the knowledge that we are not ultimately in control, that speaks to me. I think that I, like my grandmother, will continue to scatter seeds by the side of the road.
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Participatory budgeting
Participatory budgeting (PB) is a different way to manage public money, and to engage people in government. It is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It enables taxpayers to work with government to make the budget decisions that affect their lives.
The process was first developed in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989, and there are now over 1,500 participatory budgets around the world. Most of these are at the city level, for the municipal budget. PB has also been used, however, for counties, states, housing authorities, schools and school systems, universities, coalitions, and other public agencies.
Though each experience is different, most follow a similar basic process: residents brainstorm spending ideas, volunteer budget delegates develop proposals based on these ideas, residents vote on proposals, and the government implements the top projects.
http://www.participatorybudgeting.org/about-participatory-budgeting/what-is-pb/
Lenten rose
The hellebore, or Lenten rose
is new to me--
deep mauve, pale green and ivory
in bloom before the daffodils,
now planted in one corner
of our park.
A bitter winter hid the ground,
park lovers picked their icy way
or stayed at home.
But now the corner with the hellebores
has been revealed--
debased, awash in trash.
I pass it twice, in pain.
The third time, in the rain
I find a plastic bag
and pick it clean.
The corner now is theirs alone.
The hellebores can shine
in all their quiet loveliness.
My eye can rest
and I go home
more hopeful, and refreshed.
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
The government of El Salvador, which stopped issuing gold mining permits half a decade ago, despite high gold prices and persuasive arguments about boosting economic growth--because the majority of Salvadorans get water from one large river system, and gold mining invariably pollutes nearby rivers and watersheds.
Thousands of North Carolinians, who have been challenging the state government's austerity agenda for months in protests called Moral Majority Mondays, organized by a coalition including union, civil rights, faith-based, environmental and feminist groups.
Knowing that, during the conflict in Ukraine, there were local people in the big square in Kiev actively sharing skills and perspectives of Alternatives to Violence.
The ability to act in ways, no matter how small, that increase the stock of hopeful things in the world.
More resources
Posts on other people's blogs: http://www.classism.org/children-mass-culture
NEW: Check out my friend Daniel Hunter's new book, a narrative of direct action campaigning: Strategy & Soul: A Campaigner's Tale of Fighting Billionaires, Corrupt Officials, and Philadelphia Casinos: www.strategyandsoul.org
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.org, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
Spring is coming! My mind keeps turning to seeds and flowers, and the earth--the inspiration for much of which follows. And I'm still writing every other day or so to the president. If you want to join me, check out http://www.pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com/2014/03/130-how-to-love-earth.html
Love,
Pamela
Seeds
My grandmother loved a flower that she called Rocket. It was tall and pinky-purple and bloomed at the side of the road. She would gather seeds and scatter them—and now, whenever I see Rocket blooming, I wonder if that beauty might have come from one of my grandmother’s seeds.
Not all seeds grow. Even if we plant and care for them most tenderly, forces without number can keep them from becoming mature and productive plants. And when we scatter them more randomly, the chances go down even farther, as some fall on rocky ground or among the thistles. But some do grow, sometimes in the most unlikely places.
I became very aware of this truth after Chuck and I poured our hearts into trauma healing and peer-listening workshops in Northern Uganda. Back home, we kept hoping that something would take root as a result, but heard precious little news of growth. Maybe the ground was just too stony. Yet, when we returned three years later, we discovered that one of the most self-effacing young men in our workshops had been steadily teaching his friends everything he had learned. When we returned again, we were astonished to discover that a teenage girl, who was very much at the edge of that second workshop, was now leading an energetic and committed group of students in a neighboring town. Who would have imagined?
I’m learning this lesson again as I search for ways to play my part in the movement against climate change. Once I got the idea that anybody who went to college could play a role by urging their alma maters to divest from fossil fuels, I was motivated to get started right away. Yet I struggled. The administration of my college was glacially slow in responding to my inquiries, and I wasn't able to build much momentum with the alumni that I knew. There were no encouraging signs.
More stony ground? But I really wanted this fruit—and started dropping seeds among my friends and colleagues. When it looked like disappointment might stop them as well, I hustled to work the soil. After all, the seeds had come from me, and I felt responsible. I was able to make contact with some enormously helpful staff people at the Fossil Free movement of 350.org, and worked to link them with my friends. Buoyed by this resource, I scattered a little more.
Over the months that followed, there was some heartening progress at my college, but certainly no fruit to enjoy anywhere. Then one recent Sunday a fellow congregant told me that the letter he’d written to his college had been answered by the president, no less, who was intrigued with this idea and wanted to know more. Omigosh—a sprout!
Later that same week, a young woman who went to college with my son mentioned to others in my hearing that she was now involved with the new alumni council that had been formed to address fossil fuel divestment. I had included her in one of my messages to everyone I knew who went to that college, but hadn’t heard back from anybody, and hadn’t expected her to make such a stretch. Another sprout! Now I can't help but wonder if there are yet others growing totally out of my sight.
This is not the only way to grow things. I may choose at times to pour selected resources into a carefully controlled environment, in the hopes of getting good fruit. But there’s something about not knowing which seeds will take hold, and spreading them generously with the knowledge that we are not ultimately in control, that speaks to me. I think that I, like my grandmother, will continue to scatter seeds by the side of the road.
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Participatory budgeting
Participatory budgeting (PB) is a different way to manage public money, and to engage people in government. It is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It enables taxpayers to work with government to make the budget decisions that affect their lives.
The process was first developed in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989, and there are now over 1,500 participatory budgets around the world. Most of these are at the city level, for the municipal budget. PB has also been used, however, for counties, states, housing authorities, schools and school systems, universities, coalitions, and other public agencies.
Though each experience is different, most follow a similar basic process: residents brainstorm spending ideas, volunteer budget delegates develop proposals based on these ideas, residents vote on proposals, and the government implements the top projects.
http://www.participatorybudgeting.org/about-participatory-budgeting/what-is-pb/
Lenten rose
The hellebore, or Lenten rose
is new to me--
deep mauve, pale green and ivory
in bloom before the daffodils,
now planted in one corner
of our park.
A bitter winter hid the ground,
park lovers picked their icy way
or stayed at home.
But now the corner with the hellebores
has been revealed--
debased, awash in trash.
I pass it twice, in pain.
The third time, in the rain
I find a plastic bag
and pick it clean.
The corner now is theirs alone.
The hellebores can shine
in all their quiet loveliness.
My eye can rest
and I go home
more hopeful, and refreshed.
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
The government of El Salvador, which stopped issuing gold mining permits half a decade ago, despite high gold prices and persuasive arguments about boosting economic growth--because the majority of Salvadorans get water from one large river system, and gold mining invariably pollutes nearby rivers and watersheds.
Thousands of North Carolinians, who have been challenging the state government's austerity agenda for months in protests called Moral Majority Mondays, organized by a coalition including union, civil rights, faith-based, environmental and feminist groups.
Knowing that, during the conflict in Ukraine, there were local people in the big square in Kiev actively sharing skills and perspectives of Alternatives to Violence.
The ability to act in ways, no matter how small, that increase the stock of hopeful things in the world.
More resources
Posts on other people's blogs: http://www.classism.org/children-mass-culture
NEW: Check out my friend Daniel Hunter's new book, a narrative of direct action campaigning: Strategy & Soul: A Campaigner's Tale of Fighting Billionaires, Corrupt Officials, and Philadelphia Casinos: www.strategyandsoul.org
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.org, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
#130 How to Love the Earth
Dear friends,
My love for the earth has led me in a couple of strikingly different directions this week, and I'm feeling called to share, even though you heard from me not that long ago.
Last Saturday was a warm day that seemed like a herald of spring, and I realized that this was the time to prune the cherry and peach trees that I'd planted in the community garden. It feels like a great responsibility--doing right by the trees that help nourish us, and I put time into doing it as well as I could.
Then on Monday, I participated in a protest against the Keystone XL pipeline**. I went with the intention of risking arrest--a big stretch for me--but ended up standing aside. It was clear that those of us who stayed all day, singing and supporting the civil disobedience were critical to the success of the event as well, and I went home with tons to think about: different kids of courage; what it means to stay fully awake to both the situation around me and what's going on inside; the puzzle of how to put your body on the line when the line is not visible. All that will take some time to brew, and you may hear more later...
But I also came home very much under the weight of the threat of the pipeline, particularly since it looks likely that the President may well make a decision on it in the next couple of weeks. So I decided to do something that can't be more different from risking arrest: writing a letter to the President. Actually I've written three so far, with two more in the works, and posted them on several FB pages. I'd like to invite you to join me.
So here's what I've got for you today:
Five letters to the President, and a link to his e-mail page (you're welcome to any or all of my text).
A promise to be in touch about the issues the protest brought up for me.
And a poem from last March about pruning.
Love,
Pamela
**For those of you who may not be aware, this is a plan to pipe crude oil from the Alberta tar sands in Canada through the prairies of the midwest for export from the Gulf coast. It seems clear that exploiting the tar sands fully would tip climate change to a trajectory that is irreversible and life-threatening, and that the pipeline would not only encourage that exploitation, but also pose enormous threat to the land and water supplies on its route. For more information, go to http://350.org/campaigns/stop-keystone-xl/
Dear President Obama
I implore you to do what you know is right, and stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Big money will hate and vilify you for it, and your short term legacy may be compromised by their lies. But if you do the right thing, and we end up with a future on this planet, all the world's grandchildren and great grandchildren will thank you for the single most important action that you took to ensure their chance to flourish.
In making your decision about the Keystone XL pipeline, please keep the needs of the seventh generation in the front of your mind. You don't have to be re-elected. You have the luxury to do the right thing. Go down in history as a climate hero--the one who turned the tide.
You have an unprecedented chance to make a difference for the whole world by stopping the Keystone XL pipeline. Please do the right thing. Don't give in to big money. I bet you'll sleep better at night.
We're smart enough to find a way to live with less oil. Please choose for the potential of our intelligence rather than for the pressures of greed. Say no to the Keystone CL pipeline and yes to a still-unknown, but potentially livable future.
I could offer pages of scientific reasons to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, but at root I think it's a simple moral choice: health is more important than money. Ultimately we can't build a healthy economy on the foundation of an unhealthy earth. Our children and grandchildren won't thrive. Please do the right thing.
And here's the link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
On a fruit tree pruning workshop at Bartram’s Garden
The melody line dips and soars
through roots, buds, branches
soil, sun, fruit.
The base is a steady
love, love, love.
The buds will lead the way in spring
while the roots are still asleep—
They touch the sun.
Remember the children when you prune—
They need a place to sit
a way to climb.
Feed the trees with a woodsy compost mix—
Think of what they love
and how the fungi nourish them.
I’d cut back on the branches here—
Make it so the sun can find a way
to kiss the fruit.
I would have stayed all day
never mind the standing or the cold
just to hear that song.
I don’t remember all the words
I wish I could—
I treasured every one.
But the base stays with me
heartbeat of the universe
love, love, love.
My love for the earth has led me in a couple of strikingly different directions this week, and I'm feeling called to share, even though you heard from me not that long ago.
Last Saturday was a warm day that seemed like a herald of spring, and I realized that this was the time to prune the cherry and peach trees that I'd planted in the community garden. It feels like a great responsibility--doing right by the trees that help nourish us, and I put time into doing it as well as I could.
Then on Monday, I participated in a protest against the Keystone XL pipeline**. I went with the intention of risking arrest--a big stretch for me--but ended up standing aside. It was clear that those of us who stayed all day, singing and supporting the civil disobedience were critical to the success of the event as well, and I went home with tons to think about: different kids of courage; what it means to stay fully awake to both the situation around me and what's going on inside; the puzzle of how to put your body on the line when the line is not visible. All that will take some time to brew, and you may hear more later...
But I also came home very much under the weight of the threat of the pipeline, particularly since it looks likely that the President may well make a decision on it in the next couple of weeks. So I decided to do something that can't be more different from risking arrest: writing a letter to the President. Actually I've written three so far, with two more in the works, and posted them on several FB pages. I'd like to invite you to join me.
So here's what I've got for you today:
Five letters to the President, and a link to his e-mail page (you're welcome to any or all of my text).
A promise to be in touch about the issues the protest brought up for me.
And a poem from last March about pruning.
Love,
Pamela
**For those of you who may not be aware, this is a plan to pipe crude oil from the Alberta tar sands in Canada through the prairies of the midwest for export from the Gulf coast. It seems clear that exploiting the tar sands fully would tip climate change to a trajectory that is irreversible and life-threatening, and that the pipeline would not only encourage that exploitation, but also pose enormous threat to the land and water supplies on its route. For more information, go to http://350.org/campaigns/stop-keystone-xl/
Dear President Obama
I implore you to do what you know is right, and stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Big money will hate and vilify you for it, and your short term legacy may be compromised by their lies. But if you do the right thing, and we end up with a future on this planet, all the world's grandchildren and great grandchildren will thank you for the single most important action that you took to ensure their chance to flourish.
In making your decision about the Keystone XL pipeline, please keep the needs of the seventh generation in the front of your mind. You don't have to be re-elected. You have the luxury to do the right thing. Go down in history as a climate hero--the one who turned the tide.
You have an unprecedented chance to make a difference for the whole world by stopping the Keystone XL pipeline. Please do the right thing. Don't give in to big money. I bet you'll sleep better at night.
We're smart enough to find a way to live with less oil. Please choose for the potential of our intelligence rather than for the pressures of greed. Say no to the Keystone CL pipeline and yes to a still-unknown, but potentially livable future.
I could offer pages of scientific reasons to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, but at root I think it's a simple moral choice: health is more important than money. Ultimately we can't build a healthy economy on the foundation of an unhealthy earth. Our children and grandchildren won't thrive. Please do the right thing.
And here's the link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
On a fruit tree pruning workshop at Bartram’s Garden
The melody line dips and soars
through roots, buds, branches
soil, sun, fruit.
The base is a steady
love, love, love.
The buds will lead the way in spring
while the roots are still asleep—
They touch the sun.
Remember the children when you prune—
They need a place to sit
a way to climb.
Feed the trees with a woodsy compost mix—
Think of what they love
and how the fungi nourish them.
I’d cut back on the branches here—
Make it so the sun can find a way
to kiss the fruit.
I would have stayed all day
never mind the standing or the cold
just to hear that song.
I don’t remember all the words
I wish I could—
I treasured every one.
But the base stays with me
heartbeat of the universe
love, love, love.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
#129 Honoring Our Elders
Dear all,
I was privileged to spend a week in February with the extended family we have claimed in Poland. It is always good to be reminded that my country is not the center of the world. For me this time, it was even more important to be reminded that our connections with each other are the threads that make up the fabric of community, Any change for the better requires those threads to be strong, and my thread is more important to the lives it crosses and weaves through than I can easily remember.
Thanks for crossing my life--and I send warm hopes for spring!
Love,
Pamela
Honoring our elders
Last spring I had the privilege of participating in a local event to honor our neighborhood elders, organized by a friend of mine. She had encouraged neighborhood groups and congregations to nominate an elder from their midst whose life had been long, fruitful and inspiring. Then friends and neighbors gathered at a local community hall to honor them. For each, a brief bio was read, they stood up (as able) to share a few remarks, and then received a certificate and the appreciation of those present. Black and white, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish, everyone in our diverse and changing neighborhood was united in being thankful for the lives of these eight elders. The concept was simple, the impact unexpectedly profound.
Our society in general is not that great with aging, and our heady faith that technology can win out over old age and death is troubling on many fronts. Our love affair with youth verges on obsession. The last 300 years has been a whirlwind of innovation, with newer and better replacing the old and familiar at a dizzying rate. With our newest gadgets now completely obsolete in a matter of years, what used to be valued as wisdom is easily consigned to the trash bin of irrelevance.
But there are more and more signs that a viable future requires a concern for our roots, that we need all the wisdom from the past that we can get our hands on and our minds around. There is the great accumulated wisdom of our ecosystems; the wisdom of our cultural traditions, and of indigenous peoples from all over the world; the wisdom of our grandparents. My grandfather took delight in a hole well dug—and in the digging of it. My grandmother coaxed bounty out of her garden, and used the smallest scraps of fabric to create both utility and beauty.
There is wisdom; there is also vulnerability. As we are coming through the bitterest winter I can remember, I’m getting better at remembering my elderly neighbors. It was a shock to realize that I’m not good at this. Raised in a community of all young families, we had no elderly neighbors—nobody to shovel for, nobody who needed looking in on when the power was out. I grew up with an unaware assumption of physical competence and self-sufficiency as a norm, and I now wonder if that assumption fed a lack of attention to vulnerability in other forms and places.
I’m up for the challenge of embracing more fully both the wisdom and the vulnerability in our communities—the long-time ecosystems that support us; our native peoples; our elders. In the midst of winter, I am shoveling for my elderly neighbors, calling shut ins—and I am looking forward to spring and another opportunity to honor our neighborhood elders.
Language density
The week was dense with Polish--
all those deep and subtle sounds
that fill the air
in homes, streets, subways, shops
as people go about their Polish days
and talk, and talk and talk.
We were with friends, family to us
cocooned in English and their love.
Others were kind and helped us on our way
so we were not lost.
Translation helped. I listened, tried
remembered more from day to day
rejoiced in all I understood.
But still the language did not bend
to ear or tongue.
Even leaving, at the airport, on the plane,
the signs and sounds stayed true
to native land.
Animated Polish filled those narrow chutes
as we came out to London’s vast Heathrow—
then lost its density, thinning away
in moments to nothing but a wisp
in that great space filled solidly
with English.
More comfortable, but all the same
a loss, somehow.
Imagine: A new economy is possible!
Local currency
Just days into the job last year, the mayor of the city of Bristol in England announced his decision to be paid in Bristol Pounds. This local currency is designed to support Bristol’s independent businesses, strengthen its economy and keep the city’s high streets diverse and distinctive. A not-for-profit social enterprise run between the Bristol Pound Community Interest Company and Bristol Credit Union, the Bristol Pound is the UK’s first city-wide local currency.
Bristol Pounds are purchased with British Pounds and can be spent with any of the more than 500 businesses that have signed up. Additionally, the program operates online banking and has a text message payment system. Says Bristol Pound director Chris Sunderland, “Of all the money spent in a city, most of it leaves the city almost as soon as it’s spent. It goes up to the financial institutions and gets lost. What people can be sure of with Bristol Pounds is that they’re circulating in the city and that’s where they’ll stay,” he said.
http://www.positivenewsus.org/mayor-of-bristol.html
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
How fruit and vegetable auctions in rural Ohio area are getting fresh vegetables into food deserts, building community, and helping rural Appalachian farmers earn a living. http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/how-a-fruit-and-vegetable-auction-in-rural-ohio-helps-appalachian-farmers-thrive
How peace, faith, environmental and union groups got Connecticut, one of the most defense-dependent states in the nation, to pass legislation convening a broad-based Commission to come up with a plan to diversify Connecticut’s overly defense-dependent economy. http://www.ips-dc.org/blog/demilitarizing_the_economy_a_movement_is_underway
A reduction in homelessness in Utah by 78 percent, based on a recognition that it is more cost effective to give people an apartment and social work services than to pay for the annual ER and jail costs associated with homelessness. http://www.nationofchange.org/utah-ending-homelessness-giving-people-homes-1390056183
The new constitution, recently agreed upon in Tunisia, which includes guaranteed equality between men and women, a mandate for environmental protection, a declaration that health care is a human right, and a democratic system with rights to due process and respect for freedom of religion.
More resources
Posts on other people's blogs: http://www.classism.org/children-mass-culture
NEW: Check out my friend Daniel Hunter's new book, a narrative of direct action campaigning: Strategy & Soul: A Campaigner's Tale of Fighting Billionaires, Corrupt Officials, and Philadelphia Casinos: www.strategyandsoul.org
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.org, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
I was privileged to spend a week in February with the extended family we have claimed in Poland. It is always good to be reminded that my country is not the center of the world. For me this time, it was even more important to be reminded that our connections with each other are the threads that make up the fabric of community, Any change for the better requires those threads to be strong, and my thread is more important to the lives it crosses and weaves through than I can easily remember.
Thanks for crossing my life--and I send warm hopes for spring!
Love,
Pamela
Honoring our elders
Last spring I had the privilege of participating in a local event to honor our neighborhood elders, organized by a friend of mine. She had encouraged neighborhood groups and congregations to nominate an elder from their midst whose life had been long, fruitful and inspiring. Then friends and neighbors gathered at a local community hall to honor them. For each, a brief bio was read, they stood up (as able) to share a few remarks, and then received a certificate and the appreciation of those present. Black and white, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish, everyone in our diverse and changing neighborhood was united in being thankful for the lives of these eight elders. The concept was simple, the impact unexpectedly profound.
Our society in general is not that great with aging, and our heady faith that technology can win out over old age and death is troubling on many fronts. Our love affair with youth verges on obsession. The last 300 years has been a whirlwind of innovation, with newer and better replacing the old and familiar at a dizzying rate. With our newest gadgets now completely obsolete in a matter of years, what used to be valued as wisdom is easily consigned to the trash bin of irrelevance.
But there are more and more signs that a viable future requires a concern for our roots, that we need all the wisdom from the past that we can get our hands on and our minds around. There is the great accumulated wisdom of our ecosystems; the wisdom of our cultural traditions, and of indigenous peoples from all over the world; the wisdom of our grandparents. My grandfather took delight in a hole well dug—and in the digging of it. My grandmother coaxed bounty out of her garden, and used the smallest scraps of fabric to create both utility and beauty.
There is wisdom; there is also vulnerability. As we are coming through the bitterest winter I can remember, I’m getting better at remembering my elderly neighbors. It was a shock to realize that I’m not good at this. Raised in a community of all young families, we had no elderly neighbors—nobody to shovel for, nobody who needed looking in on when the power was out. I grew up with an unaware assumption of physical competence and self-sufficiency as a norm, and I now wonder if that assumption fed a lack of attention to vulnerability in other forms and places.
I’m up for the challenge of embracing more fully both the wisdom and the vulnerability in our communities—the long-time ecosystems that support us; our native peoples; our elders. In the midst of winter, I am shoveling for my elderly neighbors, calling shut ins—and I am looking forward to spring and another opportunity to honor our neighborhood elders.
Language density
The week was dense with Polish--
all those deep and subtle sounds
that fill the air
in homes, streets, subways, shops
as people go about their Polish days
and talk, and talk and talk.
We were with friends, family to us
cocooned in English and their love.
Others were kind and helped us on our way
so we were not lost.
Translation helped. I listened, tried
remembered more from day to day
rejoiced in all I understood.
But still the language did not bend
to ear or tongue.
Even leaving, at the airport, on the plane,
the signs and sounds stayed true
to native land.
Animated Polish filled those narrow chutes
as we came out to London’s vast Heathrow—
then lost its density, thinning away
in moments to nothing but a wisp
in that great space filled solidly
with English.
More comfortable, but all the same
a loss, somehow.
Imagine: A new economy is possible!
Local currency
Just days into the job last year, the mayor of the city of Bristol in England announced his decision to be paid in Bristol Pounds. This local currency is designed to support Bristol’s independent businesses, strengthen its economy and keep the city’s high streets diverse and distinctive. A not-for-profit social enterprise run between the Bristol Pound Community Interest Company and Bristol Credit Union, the Bristol Pound is the UK’s first city-wide local currency.
Bristol Pounds are purchased with British Pounds and can be spent with any of the more than 500 businesses that have signed up. Additionally, the program operates online banking and has a text message payment system. Says Bristol Pound director Chris Sunderland, “Of all the money spent in a city, most of it leaves the city almost as soon as it’s spent. It goes up to the financial institutions and gets lost. What people can be sure of with Bristol Pounds is that they’re circulating in the city and that’s where they’ll stay,” he said.
http://www.positivenewsus.org/mayor-of-bristol.html
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
How fruit and vegetable auctions in rural Ohio area are getting fresh vegetables into food deserts, building community, and helping rural Appalachian farmers earn a living. http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/how-a-fruit-and-vegetable-auction-in-rural-ohio-helps-appalachian-farmers-thrive
How peace, faith, environmental and union groups got Connecticut, one of the most defense-dependent states in the nation, to pass legislation convening a broad-based Commission to come up with a plan to diversify Connecticut’s overly defense-dependent economy. http://www.ips-dc.org/blog/demilitarizing_the_economy_a_movement_is_underway
A reduction in homelessness in Utah by 78 percent, based on a recognition that it is more cost effective to give people an apartment and social work services than to pay for the annual ER and jail costs associated with homelessness. http://www.nationofchange.org/utah-ending-homelessness-giving-people-homes-1390056183
The new constitution, recently agreed upon in Tunisia, which includes guaranteed equality between men and women, a mandate for environmental protection, a declaration that health care is a human right, and a democratic system with rights to due process and respect for freedom of religion.
More resources
Posts on other people's blogs: http://www.classism.org/children-mass-culture
NEW: Check out my friend Daniel Hunter's new book, a narrative of direct action campaigning: Strategy & Soul: A Campaigner's Tale of Fighting Billionaires, Corrupt Officials, and Philadelphia Casinos: www.strategyandsoul.org
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.org, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
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