admin October 26th, 2007
(Frances) I spoke here last night to a conference of the Rural Development Initiatives, a fabulous organization bringing democracy to life in hundreds of rural communities in Oregon and Washington.
This morning I heard one of my heroes, Michael Shuman, speak about local living economies. He’s the author of the Small-Mart Revolution, the book that busted the myths that keep us feeling helpless on the global corporatization treadmill. Continue Reading »
admin October 26th, 2007
(Jess, Small Planet Institute Editor and Tour Manager) A recent Identity Theory post brought my attention to this TomPaine.com article – titled ‘Green Yields Green’ by Frank O’Donnell. O’Donnell cites the prevailing wisdom that dealing with the threat of global warming in a meaningful way will wreak havoc upon the market, and then he argues that it ain’t necessarily so:
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admin October 25th, 2007
(Frances) Okay, I apologize for my pun, but it is how I feel this morning at the break of Boulder dawn.
Last night at the Boulder Book Store I spoke to a standing-room-only, caring, attentive audience—an author’s dream come true. This community already had a special place in my heart for because I’d used its gorgeous library some years ago as a writing retreat when I was finishing You Have the Power. And Boulder brings back memories of rich time with close friends here over the years.
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mark October 22nd, 2007
(Mark) A story came to my attention over the weekend that brings out every reason why Clean Elections as the only way forward. This Wired story spotlights two batches of questionably-motivated—and extremely-poorly-timed—political contributions. With a bid for immunity heating up the political wires, executives from Verizon and AT&T wrote some dubiously-intended checks to Senator Jay Rockefeller, the reported hand-on-the-wheel of the Senate Intelligence Committee & a key player in whether the telecoms’ collective head goes on the block for unwarranted wire-tapping
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admin October 18th, 2007
(Frances) From past experience I’d seen the challenge of a book tour as figuring out how to repeat my key messages over and over while always sounding fresh. But this time around, with Getting a Grip, the challenge is not the similarity of experiences but the rich differences. My head is spinning.
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mark October 17th, 2007
(Mark) I’ve had an article from a local paper sitting on my desk for a few weeks simmering. “Student loan costs stifle economy:” an AP story about the debt college grads are accruing. For many, it probably seems like just another ripple in the tsunami of fiscal concerns: sub-prime, predatory lending, housing worries, and fuel prices. “Oh, and students are taking their lumps, too,” the piece seems to say.
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admin October 15th, 2007
(Jess) In a remarkable October 11th article, the New York Times tells the story of Pascasie Mukamurigo, a Tutsi woman, a weaver, and a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. In the aftermath of the country’s devastating violence, Ms Mukamurigo – who lost her husband and a child in the attacks, and who was in hiding from Hutu militants for months – adopted 13 orphans. To help support them, she created a weaving group of surviving widows, all of whom had also adopted children orphaned by the genocide. And she invited Hutu women, members of the families who had committed the atrocities, to join the group as well. The baskets produced by the resultant, mixed-ethnicity group- beautiful, detailed, painstakingly created – were an “embodiment of reconciliation.” Today, the baskets are distributed by Macy’s, and the weavers have been lifted by their work out of poverty. Continue Reading »
mark October 12th, 2007
(Mark) An English friend used to needle me endlessly about Americans: “You can always tell the Americans, because all they say is ‘Wow!’”
He meant this, of course, to suggest that Americans are not as cultured and refined as his fellow English. In some ways, I guess he was right. Being from Texas, I never really aspired to ‘cultured’ status, but over the years, I’ve come to a different understanding, having said my fair share of ‘Wow’s.
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admin October 10th, 2007
(Frances) The energy in the living room of seventy-plus guests last night was about as electric as the lightning show I could see through the picture window of Josh Mailman’s apartment.
Richard Rowe, Josh Mailman, Anthony, Frances, and Anna Lappe at the party.
The much anticipated Getting a Grip launch party became an evening I’ll carry with me for a lifetime. When the time came for our brief “program,” Josh began by telling everyone that our friendship began at least 30 years ago—in itself a message about how powerful it is to stick with our friends as we grow and change. (BTW: Josh had invited the Candle Café to cater the event with sumptuous vegan fare. Candle Café had contributed recipes to our book Hope’s Edge…so another circle felt completed by their beautiful presence.)
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admin October 10th, 2007
(Frances) And I have a photo to prove it. Last Sunday was a glorious Vermont autumn day, and the 15th anniversary of my falling in love with the state where I made my home during the 1990s. Lucky for me, I had been invited to speak at the Harvest and Courage Celebration, an annual celebration of the six-year old Center for Whole Communities in Waitsfield, Vermont.
I didn’t know what to expect. I just knew I’d loved the sound of it all when cofounder Helen Whybrow had called recently to fill me in. The Center holds 6-day training retreats on their mountainside farmstead for activists who are working to reconnect humanity with the earth.
Soon after 11 a.m. about 400 people began to gather. By noon the parade up the side of the mountain was underway to a spot with a glorious view of the Mad River Valley. Little kids, big kids, adults and elders—some with large animal masks and other colorful emblems—climbed.
Paraders settle in on mountainside, Harvest and Courage Celebration
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