A Fire Bell in the Night
For two and a half months we have driven some 14,730 miles (or 23,706 kilometers) across two countries searching for signs of hope in these dark times. What did we find? A lot.
The first and probably the most important observation is that there is a genuine recognition of the problems that we face and acknowledgement of the seriousness of those problems. There is also a deep commitment on the part of many of the people we met to do something about them.
Second, no one that we talked with is waiting for the government or corporations or national political parties to act. Individuals, small groups and communities are taking action themselves. And they are doing an effective job. It is a bottom-up, rather than a top-down movement. There are some notable exceptions at the state and city level - Vermont's limits on urban growth and protection of small farms, California's environmental legislative initiatives, and Portland, Oregon, which may well be the most attractive and progressive city in North America. But these examples are exceptions. The real effort is being done by individuals and small groups.
All across Canada and the U.S. we found individuals - farmers like Nick Botner, coffee shop owners like Wes Bergmann at the Blue Moose Coffee House (see photo of Wes, and posting below),,,, and groups like Wiser Earth, the Small Planet Institute, and The Elders to name just a few, and there are websites like Common Dreams that daily bring together some of the best writing on our current state. Then there are the books by Paul Hawken and Frances Moore Lappe - "Blessed Unrest" by Hawken and "Getting a Grip" by Lappe have similar threads running through them and deserve to be read by everyone concerned about the direction we are taking. Howard Zinn is quoted as follows: "A small number of people in every generation are forerunners, in thought, action, spirit, who hold a torch high for the rest of us. Lappé is one of those." And so is Paul Hawken. If you haven't read them yet, you need to find an independent bookstore and buy a copy of each and start reading.
Third, the "fire bell in the night" (Thomas Jefferson, April 22, 1820) has already sounded. Alarms about the degrading environment, our loss of civil rights and constitutional guarantees, growing social injustice, governments out of touch with the will of the people, and an economy ruled by greed have been heard more and more frequently, and the results of inaction are painfully obvious. The real hope lies not in the sounding of the alarm, but in the decision to act. Now. ... Bob
The first and probably the most important observation is that there is a genuine recognition of the problems that we face and acknowledgement of the seriousness of those problems. There is also a deep commitment on the part of many of the people we met to do something about them.
Second, no one that we talked with is waiting for the government or corporations or national political parties to act. Individuals, small groups and communities are taking action themselves. And they are doing an effective job. It is a bottom-up, rather than a top-down movement. There are some notable exceptions at the state and city level - Vermont's limits on urban growth and protection of small farms, California's environmental legislative initiatives, and Portland, Oregon, which may well be the most attractive and progressive city in North America. But these examples are exceptions. The real effort is being done by individuals and small groups.
All across Canada and the U.S. we found individuals - farmers like Nick Botner, coffee shop owners like Wes Bergmann at the Blue Moose Coffee House (see photo of Wes, and posting below),,,, and groups like Wiser Earth, the Small Planet Institute, and The Elders to name just a few, and there are websites like Common Dreams that daily bring together some of the best writing on our current state. Then there are the books by Paul Hawken and Frances Moore Lappe - "Blessed Unrest" by Hawken and "Getting a Grip" by Lappe have similar threads running through them and deserve to be read by everyone concerned about the direction we are taking. Howard Zinn is quoted as follows: "A small number of people in every generation are forerunners, in thought, action, spirit, who hold a torch high for the rest of us. Lappé is one of those." And so is Paul Hawken. If you haven't read them yet, you need to find an independent bookstore and buy a copy of each and start reading.
Third, the "fire bell in the night" (Thomas Jefferson, April 22, 1820) has already sounded. Alarms about the degrading environment, our loss of civil rights and constitutional guarantees, growing social injustice, governments out of touch with the will of the people, and an economy ruled by greed have been heard more and more frequently, and the results of inaction are painfully obvious. The real hope lies not in the sounding of the alarm, but in the decision to act. Now. ... Bob
posted by Looking for Hope | 7:51 PM
1 Comments:
WiserEarth.org , a project of Paul Hawken and his team, is a directory of more than 100,000 nonprofits working on social justice and environmental sustainability around the world. Hawken mentions it at the end of Blessed Unrest.
It is a way for people and those working in these organizations to connect and visualize themselves as a movement. Check it out, anyone can use it and contribute!
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