Call for a community of communities...

[Bruce Kunkel]

If we wait for the governments, it'll be too little, too late...
If we act as individuals, it'll be too little...
But if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time...

http://www.sonomacounty.golocal.coop/

[Jeanne]

Great discussion... I agree, Bruce, that we are the ones who creating this new dawn. I was encouraged by Paul Hawken's "Blessed Unrest". It speaks of a quiet grass roots revolution that has been taking place on a global scale. So many people quietly changing the world as we know it.

Its great to hear about the many community groups forming. Let me tell you a bit about the City Repair Project. It started in Portland, Oregon, but groups have formed in many cities. Anyone can do it... any neighborhood.

Here's a blurb off City Repair website:

"City Repair was formed in Portland, Oregon in 1996 by citizen activists who wanted a more community-oriented and ecologically sustainable society. Born out of a successful grassroots neighborhood initiative that converted a residential street intersection into a neighborhood public square, City Repair began its work with the idea that localization (of culture, of economy, of decision-making) is a necessary foundation of sustainability. By reclaiming urban spaces to create community-oriented places, we plant the seeds for greater neighborhood communication, empower our communities and nurture our local culture."
http://www.cityrepair.org/

The reality of the these neighborhood communities is - neighbors who hadn't spoken to each other, now look out for one another; children's voices are heard and they make significant contributions to their neighborhoods; homeless people find community and they become part of the we... not the them. The quality of life increases in these neighborhoods and the crime goes down.

http://www.cityrepair.org/wiki.php/about

[Anita M Burke]

First you are welcome!

Boulder localization... involved??? was hoping to be i was on the founding board of BALLE BC and a leader in localization efforts in vancouver and a cocreator of the vancouver peak oil group...

i recently moved to boulder albeit i have had a long history and deep friendships there for many years... localization, as a movement there, is emerging... current frames and structures are evolving into second tier and there remains a host of red/orange and mean green meme action happening expectedly amidst the mess of chaordic unfolding... currently watching and engaging where it feels open and unified..

i am currently in mexico working on a start up development process for a local permaculture school and a micro lending scheme for this region... will be here thru march.

While i am a devotee and ardent practitioner and seeker in the realm of Dr. Clare Graves innovation called Spiral Dynamics... and have many many friends who are dedicated to Ken ( you may know David Johnston??)... i have not been called to that and have engaged the container a couple of times... I enjoy visiting Jeff Slazman's emergent new galaxy known as Boulder Integral Life... off and on...

I find Ken's work to be an heroic contribution to deconstructing mutlidimensional living into a linear visual that is enticing to the masculine mental proclivities... albeit i find little original thought and appreciate that he took all the great work on this edge and translated it for everyone... basicly i find his ideas a handy and dynamic graphical user interface that makes it understandable to the linear mind...

I do respect him for his one original contribution of "transcend and include"... and i have some back of the house and personal experiences of Ken that really turned me off honestly...

and i shy away from the ken wilbur scene! and love the essence of the word integral and am fairly keen on the original premise and thought that spawned integral - Dr. Clare Graves ....

I am working with 7 women form around the world off in a corner really looking at the spiral ... and imagining/ revealing, within and externally, the feminine context at each memetic... until we launch into tier two then i beive for now that there is a oneness that being absolutely the best individual ou can insures that the oneness can really take off in its own evolution... and we are deeply wondering if the spiral keeps expanding or if it is more like a pulsar... i digress...

and after all that intellectual babble i have come to believe for now that no matter how one packages or writes it or markets it...

the bottom line is LOVE TRUTH and SIMPLICITY

diggin finding someone who gets the govt is not going to do this.. business can not.. and it is about strong community nodes weaving together a magical new whole... from the strengthening and innovations of each of the individual communities ...

thanks for asking about my point of view and engaging here!!!

warmly

Anita

[Bruce Kunkel]

Hey Anita...

Thank you for this! Are you involved with the Boulder localization community? Any touch with Integral Institute, Ken Wilber ?

[Anita M Burke]

I agree with this in my cellular memory!

i just found this first stab at a transition "new" declaration of independence -

is there a way for this community to collaboratively generatively start ehre and organicly emerge as a divine truth of existence here?

Transition Declaration of Independence
Adapted from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America
Thomas Jefferson, 1776
Adaptation by Dr. Susan Krumdieck, 2008

http://transitionculture.org/2009/01/15/the-transition-declaration-of-independence/

Here is something rather wonderful that emerged in late 2008 from New Zealand, thanks for Dr. Susan Krundieck. It is an update of the US Declaration of Independence, brought up to date for a generation facing peak oil, climate change and economic contraction, and is attributed to the Representatives of the Transition Committee of Oamaru (a town in New Zealand). I love the list of ‘the Growth Economy has for its own sake…’ accusations statements… there is a deep, forceful power to this, a clearly spoken and resonant declaration of intent. Prepare yourself for a goosebumps moment.


When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the economic bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, Justice, the pursuit of Happiness, a Healthy Natural Environment and Sustainability for ourselves, the Third Generation and the Seventh Generation.

— That to secure these rights, Organisations are instituted among Communities, deriving their just powers from the consent of the Members,

— That whenever any Form of Economy becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Relationship, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Economic Relationships long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them and their environment to ruin, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Economic Constraints, and to provide new Guards for their future security and sustainability.

— Such has been the patient sufferance of this community; and such is now the necessity which constrains us to alter our former Systems of Business Growth for its own Sake and Environmental Exploitation. The history of the present Theory of Economics is a history of repeated disasters, injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over communities and the environment. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

The Growth Economy for its own Sake has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, felled our forests, polluted our water and fouled our air.

The Growth Economy for its own Sake has exploited our talents, put us into debt, degraded our culture and eroded our relationships with the members of our community.

The Growth Economy for its own Sake has exploited mineral resources which by right should belong to people in perpetuity in order to obscenely enrich a few in the short term.

The Growth Economy for its own Sake has paved our farms, sprawled our towns, and destroyed the quality of live of our people and their children and grandchildren.

The Growth Economy for its own Sake has convinced us, for more than a century, to ignore the voice of scientific knowledge and reason in order to continue the acidification of our air and oceans through Sulphur Dioxide, Nitrous Oxides and Carbon Dioxide emissions from combustion of fossil fuels.

The Growth Economy for its own Sake has exploited the labour of people and environments that have no protection from ill use, and has persecuted people who worked for economic justice and equality.

The Growth Economy for its own Sake has assaulted the morality of our youth and treated them as a target market rather than with the respect of future citizens and community members.

The Growth Economy for its own Sake has corrupted the purpose of our governance and civic institutions, it has usurped the purpose of our curiosity and research efforts, and it has shifted the motivation for the education of our young from development of their intellect and character to exploitation of their labours for further growth of the economy.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the Transition Committee of Oamaru, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this community, solemnly publish and declare, That this Community is, and of Right ought to be Free, that we are Absolved from all unsustainable and perverse requirements of the Growth Economy for its own Sake, and that all connection between this Community and the Growth Economy, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as a Free and Sustainable Community, we have full Power to reduce fuel and electricity consumption, restore our environment, protect our culture, nurture our agricultural assets, set aside our resources, refrain from extracting minerals, stone or fossil fuels, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Local Commerce based on our own principles and theories, and to do all other Acts and Things which Sustainable Communities may of right do.

— And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

[Humanity Healing Foundation]

We agree completely!
Bravo.