[Jonathan & Julie Hart]

PLEASE TAKE THIS DISCUSSION TO POWDERPOLITICS!!!!!!

EVERYONE!
THAT MEANS YOU!  AND YOU!  YEAH, YOU WITH THE T-SHIRT!

-----Original Message-----
From: powderworks-admin@cs.colorado.edu
[mailto:powderworks-admin@cs.colorado.edu] On Behalf Of Kate Parker
Adams
Sent: April 15, 2003 8:49 PM
To: Bruce Robertson
Cc: Tom Davies; powderworks@cs.colorado.edu
Subject: Re: [Powderworks] VLMOC: anti-Americanism, so-called


At 06:50 PM 4/15/03 -0400, Bruce Robertson wrote:
>On the Oils being anti-American, aren't we more interested in
>understanding what the Oils are FOR? I'm no rocket surgeon, but
figuring 
>out what's wrong with the world comes pretty easy to me, and I assume
most 
>of us. 'Where do we go from here'  would be a more pressing - and 
>promising - question IMO.

I think this also ties into the whole boycott thread ... misguided and
not 
terribly constructive in a global sense.

If you listen to Pete's rantings and read his website, there is much
that 
he has to say about sustainability, about the web of life, about 
precaution.  Much of that starts with making the choice to buy local 
products and from local merchants whenever you possibly can.

I bought several items today that were made in America, and the
important 
thing about all of them was that they were purchased from local 
merchants.  Instead of going to the McDonald's in the food court in the 
hospital area, I bought from the food co-op and the local ice-cream 
truck.  Got my organic fair trade coffee from a local coffee house (with
a 
free coupon from the fiery and hip little local free paper no less!) 
instead of being patronized by a latte ventil barristro pretentiomonium
at 
Starbuquitous a block away . I bought bike inner tubes from a local bike

shop, not from a corporate bigbox - they won't give me a massbike member

discount anyway.  I paid the mortgage at the local bank that holds our
loan 
in portfolio five years after we moved in (rare - usually, mortgages are

sold fast), and made a deposit at my credit union.  I did all of this
while 
commuting to and from work on a bike.

Given corporate hegemony in certain areas, it simply isn't possible to 
totally avoid the merchandising machine.  But you don't have to make a 
perfection campaign out of it, you just have to realise that sometimes
you 
have choices, and that buying locally benefits your community and buying

local goods is usually a vastly more sustainable choice due to the 
environmental costs of transit alone.

Ken Geiser, a mentor of mine at the Lowell Center for Sustainable 
Production, has been on a positivist kick as of late, urging all and
sundry 
to think of how the future should look and work toward policies and 
practices that make it so rather than simply fight a multi-front, never 
ending battle against _____.    As hard as that is in the current
climate, 
I think I am attracted to Ken's teachings for the same reasons that I am

attracted to the Oil's messages.  It is not about fighting bad guys -
its 
about building a better world for all and making it last.

Just my $0.02,
Kate

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