Vote for Joe

We went to a talk by Winnona LaDuke at Berea College in Kentucky today.   Ms. LaDuke is an Ojibwe Tribe member from the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota.   She is also the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project.   [We had done research at this Reservation several years prior.   And the thrust of the project is to buy back as much Reservation land as possible (from corporate farming concerns, etc.) and reintroduce organic farming, replant native trees, re-stock sturgeon in the waterways, revert to sustainable, Native American  hunting practices…]   When we were at White Earth, Ms. LaDuke (who has twice run as a vice-presidential candidate for the Green Party) told me the Tribe’s environmental practices stem from  the belief this generation is  spiritually responsible for the “next seven generations.”   At the talk today, she said that if we don’t think we have to be reconciled with the natural world, “we’re pretty much in denial.”   Ms. LaDuke, who attended Harvard University,  said she is a “Rural Development Economist” who is interested in moving toward a society that’s based on equitable and just relationships.   America, at present, isn’t there. For instance,  Ms. LaDuke  pointed out that the United States was  developed on land stolen from the Native Americans, and the economy was initially built on the backs of Black slaves.   “History books don’t hardly teach this,” she said.   Current multi-cultural education, in fact, is primarily from an “anglo” perspective, “with a little spicing up,” Ms. LaDuke said… Ms. LaDuke said her interest is in”deconstructing oppression.”   Some 90% of the White Earth Reservation is now held by other concerns (again, such as corporation farms).   There is also a 65% unemployment rate at White Earth.   And even though there is some job training, Ms. LaDuke went on, there are few jobs.   In regard to all this,  she scoffed:   “You tell me to pick myself up by my bootstraps — but you’ve got my boots.”   Part of Ms. LaDuke’s answer to this is to get back as much land as possible and make the Reservation as sustainable within the context of a decentralized micro-society.   Note:   Our platform calls for making tangible amends to the Native Americans for past atrocities, including giving land back in as many creative ways as possible.   One of those ways, we believe,  would be to help fund projects like the White Earth Land Recovery Project, and similar initiatives on Reservations across the country.   And these amends can start — now.

I have jumped ahead a couple entries here. (Will catch up on the rest of the last week soon)…     At St. Mary’s Church in Athens, Tennessee, this morning we saw the remnants of a “Cardboard City” that was set up in solidarity with the homeless.   We learned that for two nights youth here slept outside in order to increase their empathy for the homeless.     Later on WYXI Radio in Athens, I told host Bob Ketchersid that I would hope this kind of empathy would translate to sacrifice.   That is, as president  (and as a presidential candidate) I’d ask people to cut back considerably on consumer purchases, on entertainment… and put the savings in a fund for the homeless.   This, in part, would mean trying to turn a blind eye to modern advertising.   We are so awash in “urgent” messages to get the the new this, or the improved that, or  yet more of  something we already have… that we’ve been brainwashed to believe many of these things are necessities, when in fact, they are in no way necessities.   And in all this, we keep pampering ourselves — while little children and adults sleep, not in new sleeping bags on the soft grass at St. Mary’s, but  under dirty blankets on  the asphalt alley ways of Cleveland, Los Angeles, Atlanta…     Note:   Later in the morning, I told a reporter from the Daily Post Athenian that beyond  money  for the homeless, our family has set aside a bedroom as a “Christ Room” for the homeless in the inner city of Cleveland.   We could end homelessness in this country, if we were serious about ending homelessness in this country.   Sadly,  most of us are way  more concerned about ourselves.   And our actions (consumer buying patterns) show this, in spades.

I gave a talk at the “House of Prayer” in St. Augustine, Florida, last week.   The audience, for the most part, seemed relatively well off socio-economically.   I said billions of people in the Third World were either homeless, or living in cobbled together shacks with no running water, no electricity, little food, virtually no medicine…   What’s more, 24,000 of these people starve to death every day.   I said I didn’t know what the town of Nineveh was doing before Jonah walked through it, but I doubted it was worse than letting 24,000 people starve to death every day.   And that’s exactly what we do as we continue on with our relatively “well off” lifestyles in America in the face of this worldwide abject poverty…   The prayer group leader, Gary Gornick, then did a teaching he had planned for the evening.   He said the talk would, indeed, dove tail with what I had said.   Gornick said if someone has a proclivity to do “wicked things,” they have a strong tendency to  insulate themselves  with people of “like minds.”   As a result, seldom — if ever — are you confronted.   Extrapolated out, if I want to  remain unfettered by my  comfortable First World lifestyle in the face of all this horrendous Third World suffering, I’ll move into, say, a sub-development, church community, etc., of “like minded” people where stock portfolios, lawn care and Florida Gator football are the predominant topics of conversation.   Not Third World poverty, and what  one is  trying to do to help end it.   Note:   Mr. Gornick said:   “We’re going to be judged on what we do.”   I said I  thought the Ninevites “sack cloth thing” wasn’t just about dressing down, but rather about turning from their sinful, gluttonous lifestyles.   And doubting the Gap was going to come up with a “Sack Cloth Fashion Line,” wouldn’t it be about cutting back our lifestyle in America as well?   Of course it would.  

In Brunswick, Georgia, we researched the Hostel in the Forest.   Tom Dennard gave us an extensive tour.   He is the founder of the Hostel and  also teaches a Backpacking Class at Coastal Georgia Community College.   The Hostel in the Forest is a series of small, geodesic dome huts and “tree-houses.”   There is no heating or air conditioning.   There are extensive gardening plots,  complete with  solar panels to help pump water to the gardens.   The Hostel has recycling bins for clear glass, green glass, brown glass, paper, cardboard… and if it’s a material that can’t be cycled, it goes in: “The Can of Shame.”   Dennard noted that the Hostel is big on “reduce, reuse and recycle,” with a strong emphasis on “reduce.”   During the tour, Dennard noted that the area used to be somewhat swampy, but for the past five years there’s been a tremendous drought here and all of it is currently dry.   “Global warming,” he lamented.   The Hostel hosts regular environmental education workshops.   Note:   It’s so crucial to have this environmental mindset from house to house in America these days in the face of climate change.   We must become a Society of Conservers rather than a Society of Consumers.

In light of the last entry about America’s tremendously dangerous transportation infra-structure…   I was interviewed by Anneli Sundquist last week.   Ms. Sundquist is a free-lance journalist from Sweden and regularly travels the world.   After the interview, she told me that she has been in dangerous places in many countries, but she had never feared for her life more than — when she drove the Interstate from Brunswick, Georgia, to Savannah, Georgia.   She said with packs of cars speeding along at an extremely “fast” clip, cars and trucks rapidly changing lanes (our standard highway driving fare), she felt in danger the whole drive north.   Yet, I couldn’t help but think, we’ve come to accept this crazy, fast-paced driving mileau because, simply, we’ve been conditioned (in increments of 5 mph more at a time) over the past several decades (despite all the increased fatalities, maiming, and so on).   We are so conditioned, in fact, that  seldom, if ever,  would ever question it — it would take an outsider.   What’s more, when I asked Ms. Sundqvist what she thought of America, she said it’s like viewing “a big car crash.”   That is, she said, even though the crash is a mangled jumble you know you shouldn’t slow down to look at, there’s something inside of you that’s “fascinated” with it.   What Ms. Sundqvist construes as the mangled jumble, is: our, again,  high-speed driving patterns; the rapid fire rate that advertisements (tv, radio, billboards…) come at us to buy so many, and often absurd, things; the breakneck pace of business in general; fast food, drive-thru expresso… I couldn’t help but think, after my conversation with Ms. Sundqvist, that  European travel agents  could capitalize on this:   “Fly to America to see the ‘Big Car Crash!   And  we’re not talking NASCAR…”