Love, love, love this post, John! Thank you for sharing this with us, and for sharing your voice with us! What a beautiful reminder that local community, local activism, is so dang powerful and a catalyst for change on a larger scale. Bravo, friend!
Well said, John! I'm firmly in the "focus most of your political energies on local/regional issues" camp. That's where we can actually make a difference in both politics and people's lives. We have county commission and other elections coming up, too, and our county commissioners have some of the worst attitudes on houselessness, immigration, clean water, sidewalks, ... you name it, if it's a public good (or even, to me, common human decency), they don't like it much. I live in an extremely conservative county, so it's a tricky ship to turn around. One of the arrows in the quiver right now is a ballot measure (thought up by a combination of Republicans and Democrats) to change the way our primaries are run so we don't end up with the most extreme people winning in the end.
This is such a hopeful and hope-giving post! I agree with you 100% on the power of local involvement. I'll share with you one local project I know of and love. There's an organization in Portland called WeShine with a mission of building small communities for those who are houseless. Their first site is in my neighborhood, and I couldn't be happier about that. It came about through a coalition of folks with common interests and varied skills/knowledge. I got to see resistance up close as my neighbors organized to fight it; I'm glad they failed. https://weshinepdx.org/a-new-tiny-home-village-for-the-houseless-is-opening-soon-in-portland/
I think this kind of small, highly local approach to a seemingly insolvable problem provides a model that can be applied to all kinds of issues.
Yes! Truly wonderful. We have a couple of similar projects here, with several of my friends and neighbors volunteering to help. It's pretty clear that "the market" is never going to create low-income housing. It's great to see local groups stepping up.
Yes! In a similar vein, my parents organized with other parents and community groups to create a community-based home for adults with cognitive disabilities. (Their non-profit is Olympic Neighbors, located in Jefferson County, near you.) While I wish our ways of providing care to those who need it was more large-scale systemic, this is our current reality. We can wring our hands and write posts about how wrong things are (they are!) but in the meantime people need real help.
I love how you are taking care of your part of the world and your reminder that we can do likewise. If we all took care of our 15 miles or 24.14 KM, we could accomplish so much.
What a wonderful post to end my night. Dinner out tonight turned to conversations around convictions and November, and, and … just a sad state of things. Such a beautiful reminder to stay in my lane when things feel too hard and overwhelming.
On a personal level I am learning all that I can about my local watershed and falling more in love with the Great Lakes. I know in May our city filed a lawsuit against the EPA to force them to set pollution caps. And even though I don’t know all that much about it, it is heartening to know some really brilliant people are on the case.
Thanks, Lindsey. I'm guessing you're in Toledo then, looking at nutrients from industrial agriculture causing algal blooms. While the city and county are Iooking at pushing the EPA into implementing pollution caps, the USDA is subsidizing these farmers. Thanks for reading and being active where you are!
Love, love, love this post, John! Thank you for sharing this with us, and for sharing your voice with us! What a beautiful reminder that local community, local activism, is so dang powerful and a catalyst for change on a larger scale. Bravo, friend!
Thank you so much!
Well said, John! I'm firmly in the "focus most of your political energies on local/regional issues" camp. That's where we can actually make a difference in both politics and people's lives. We have county commission and other elections coming up, too, and our county commissioners have some of the worst attitudes on houselessness, immigration, clean water, sidewalks, ... you name it, if it's a public good (or even, to me, common human decency), they don't like it much. I live in an extremely conservative county, so it's a tricky ship to turn around. One of the arrows in the quiver right now is a ballot measure (thought up by a combination of Republicans and Democrats) to change the way our primaries are run so we don't end up with the most extreme people winning in the end.
Thank you, Nia.
In Washington, we have open, vote by mail, top two primaries. That mostly keeps out the extremes, but not entirely.
This is such a hopeful and hope-giving post! I agree with you 100% on the power of local involvement. I'll share with you one local project I know of and love. There's an organization in Portland called WeShine with a mission of building small communities for those who are houseless. Their first site is in my neighborhood, and I couldn't be happier about that. It came about through a coalition of folks with common interests and varied skills/knowledge. I got to see resistance up close as my neighbors organized to fight it; I'm glad they failed. https://weshinepdx.org/a-new-tiny-home-village-for-the-houseless-is-opening-soon-in-portland/
I think this kind of small, highly local approach to a seemingly insolvable problem provides a model that can be applied to all kinds of issues.
Yes! Truly wonderful. We have a couple of similar projects here, with several of my friends and neighbors volunteering to help. It's pretty clear that "the market" is never going to create low-income housing. It's great to see local groups stepping up.
Yes! In a similar vein, my parents organized with other parents and community groups to create a community-based home for adults with cognitive disabilities. (Their non-profit is Olympic Neighbors, located in Jefferson County, near you.) While I wish our ways of providing care to those who need it was more large-scale systemic, this is our current reality. We can wring our hands and write posts about how wrong things are (they are!) but in the meantime people need real help.
I love how you are taking care of your part of the world and your reminder that we can do likewise. If we all took care of our 15 miles or 24.14 KM, we could accomplish so much.
Thank you, Lisa, it’s true!
What a wonderful post to end my night. Dinner out tonight turned to conversations around convictions and November, and, and … just a sad state of things. Such a beautiful reminder to stay in my lane when things feel too hard and overwhelming.
On a personal level I am learning all that I can about my local watershed and falling more in love with the Great Lakes. I know in May our city filed a lawsuit against the EPA to force them to set pollution caps. And even though I don’t know all that much about it, it is heartening to know some really brilliant people are on the case.
Thanks, Lindsey. I'm guessing you're in Toledo then, looking at nutrients from industrial agriculture causing algal blooms. While the city and county are Iooking at pushing the EPA into implementing pollution caps, the USDA is subsidizing these farmers. Thanks for reading and being active where you are!