It’s not every day that the Vice President of the United States stands less than a foot away from you, gives you a disarmingly warm hello and a very firm handshake!  Thanks to a dear friend, Bernard L. Jones, that’s exactly what I experienced a few days ago.

Bernard, a Democratic State delegate from Colrain and Vietnam combat veteran, had invited me to a special reception in Boston for Vice President Joe Biden. Together with several hundred other people on the roof deck of Fenway Park, I listened to the Vice President speak about the issues confronting this new administration. He described his visits to hard-hit industrial communities throughout the United States and the economic necessity for health care reform. His speech was sober, personal, and finally…uplifting. Not in an impractical or hyperbolic way. His optimism was authentic, real.

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This week on The Sunny Way we looked into our core concept—how changing ourselves is a vital component of changing the world—from a variety of perspectives:

• Monday, I wrote about my experiments with optimum nutrition and exercise and how the walls of what-I-thought-I-knew are crumbling.
• Tuesday, Esther updated us on the project she’s involved with to build bridges between Israeil and Palestinian women—powerful stuff!
• Wednesday, I described how my brain exploded, in a good way, from reading Naomi Wolf’s Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries.
• Thursday, I wrote about and signed up for the Truth Squad’s its mission to get radical climate awareness on the agenda in newspapers, magazines, and blogs around the country. We also launched our email subscription feature!
• Today, one of my favorite blogs, Tiny Choices, ran a survey I filled out!

Today’s post is all about the Waxman-Markey Bill currently swirling around Capitol Hill. It will create a cap-and-trade system aimed at dramatically reducing carbon emissions over the next few decades. What is cap-and-trade? Good question, and Hank Green from Eco-Geek (a remarkably level-headed green technology blog) has created this short video to answer it.

Once you’ve got the basics from this video, check out some of the more in-depth links here. And contact your Congressperson to let them know that you want a strong bill that doesn’t have loopholes or giveaways for big energy. We need real change, not just another law that armies of lawyers can find a way to weasel out of!

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image by SimonDoggett

Since reading Naomi Wolf’s most awesome book Give Me Liberty and attending the 350 Conference Saturday before last, I’ve been feeling the urge to get even more deeply involved with the climate change movement and researching different ways to do that. (More on some of the cool stuff I’ve found next week.)

Looking at my strengths and at what needs to be done, I’m pulled toward finding more opportunities and outlets to share ideas and inspiration via writing. Spirited exchange of ideas is a huge component of democracy, and Wolf spends several chapters of Give Me Liberty on the importance of debate in creating a well-informed and participatory citizenry. She suggests that we write Op-Ed pieces, Letters to the Editor, and blog posts to get the message out, and even explains how to go about it.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Antoine de St. Exupéry’s The Little Prince, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” Communicating is what I do best; maybe I can help create a yearning for a clean and meaningful future.

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I first read Naomi Wolf in college, when The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women came out. This book helped me so much—I can’t say it got me over all my body/appearance-related issues, but it at least gave me a more objective way to look at them.

Reading The Beauty Myth, I felt both validated and liberated. It was obvious that Wolf really understood the psychological and historical forces at play every time I, and every other woman about my age, looked into the mirror. I appreciated both the clarity of her thought and the passion of her writing.

I feel the same after reading her latest book, Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries, in which she turns her rigorous intellect and her fiery opinions to the subject of democracy itself. The result is both a blistering critique of where our country is, and an inspiring vision for how to get it to where we know it can and should be.

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image by Roberto Garcia-S

Alright—so the biggest good news, affirmed again in an awesome talk I went to last night—is that evolution is real and happening. It is always good to think about this again.

The speaker was Michael Dowd, a self proclaimed “Evolutionary Evangelist.” He transformed from a fundamental Christian into a preacher of the awe-inspiring truth of evolution and the practical as well as spiritual significance of the knowledge of it. For example: We now know how our brains developed over millions of years, from the amphibian/limbic part, to the mammalian/emotional bonding section, to mind and interpretative capacities in the neo-cortex and finally to the anterior cortex, whose neurons light up when we make the effort to hold ourselves to a commitment—say, a marriage vow.

As we all find out on a daily basis, our center of gravity unfortunately is not yet located in this more evolved part of our brains, so even if we make decisions or commitments in one moment, we are thrown by uncertainty and desires, left, right and center in the next. But knowing about the differences in these parts of our brains we can interpret our own experience, of lust, say, or of our willingness to sacrifice our principles to get what we want in a very different context.

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What a nice week! I’ve been visiting friends in Massachusetts and we celebrated our first birthday as your one-stop shop for ideas and inspiration to create the future. Here’s what we talked about:

• Monday, I wrote about the true nature of money, and how we can recognize and wield its creative power.
• Tuesday, Uli rounded up lots of great stories of progress from around the world, including her own business!
• Wednesday and Thursday, we celebrated our anniversary by posting some of our best and most popular articles from the last year

This week’s video comes from our main man, President Barack Obama. His weekly addresses are available on Youtube and as podcasts through iTunes, and it’s great to hear straight from him what’s going on each week.

Last week he discussed the flooding in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, and pointed out how important individual effort is in addressing these and all of our crises. “In the face of an incredible challenge, the people of these communities have rallied in support of one another. Their service isn’t just inspirational, it’s integral to our response. It’s also a reminder of what we can achieve when Americans come together to serve their communities.”

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image by Roberto Garcia-S

Yesterday I signed my business up for the Berkshares, meaning that my Pilates studio in Stockbridge, MA (in Berkshire County) will accept this local currency. It works just like a dollar, and because 100 US Dollars are worth 105 Berkshares, the customer receives a 5% discount simply by using them. Several hundred businesses participate in this scheme and millions of Berkshares have circulated through the local economy. And that is the point: to strengthen businesses and trade in this area.

Alternative currencies or trade systems have existed in a large number of places all over the world, ever since 1934, when the WIR Bank was founded in Switzerland. There are a lot of different approaches, some using actual currency, some, as time banks, crediting people for the hours they spend working for others that they can then trade in for services they need. One of the better known systems here is LETS, as well as the Ithaca Hour (worth 10 dollars) or the Toronto dollar. In economically tough times, these alternative methods of payments or barter systems make particular sense, connecting people without work but skills to offer and people without dollars but the need for help.

And as a sign of just how well accepted these concepts can become: Ithaca has the first credit union now accepting an alternative currency as mortgage payments!

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Recently in my favorite thrift store, I saw the entire set of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books on sale for $4, and snapped them up. Over the next month I flew through the 9 books in the series, which through Laura’s eyes documents the Ingalls family’s journey from the Big Woods in Wisconsin to Indian Country in Kansas and finally to Dakota Country, where they were among the first settlers of the town of De Smet.

There are many things to treasure in these books. Laura’s writing is lovely, and develops over time from the simple diction of a 4-year-old to the full, descriptive, sharp prose she writes as a young woman. It’s fun to see her grow in responsibility and character as the years unfold and the world around her begins to change.

These stories take place in the late 19th century, a time of huge change in America. Looking through the lens of Spiral Dynamics, this was a time of transition for many Americans from traditional to modern values. Of course, there’s no clear line that can be drawn, and it’s interesting to see how Laura’s Pa is willing to embrace some technological advances but not others, and how his choices differ from those made by others in the town.

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image by luis de bethencourt

The election campaign last fall mobilized hundreds of thousands of people across the country that weren’t just going to go back to their private lives once Obama was elected into office. I knew I wasn’t, too, and it was the same for many of my friends. We all felt and still feel that some kind of window opened into a different possibility in politics and culture and that, if we weren’t making the biggest possible use of this moment to help make a difference in whatever way we could, we would always regret it.

A group of us kept meeting weekly, trying to figure out how we can best use our particular talents and training. As much as some of us wanted to just go ahead and do something, like collecting food for the increasing number of folks who are dependent on food banks right now, it also seemed important to take the time to think about what our mission and vision actually is. So while we have been collecting food, we have also thought a lot about the context and scope of change that Obama represents and that has triggered in us a passion and a call to respond.

We are now planning to hold a Memorial Day event here in Lenox, MA, in which we want to ignite and motivate grassroots support for Berkshire County becoming a zero net energy community. This means the county will locally and sustainably generate as much electricity as it uses. We think that in order to move this possibility forward it will take the larger public thinking about and being behind such a bold and ‘on the edge’ vision.

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an I Heart PV letterwriting party

11 Questions is an ongoing feature where you, the reader, tell us all about a project you are working on to create a more functional, just, and beautiful future. Then we share your project on The Sunny Way. To tell us about your project, either fill out the survey, or copy the questions below and email your answers to us. We look forward to featuring your good work soon!

What are you creating with this project? What are your goals?
I Heart PV aims to make New York the solar power (photovoltaics) capital of the East Coast. The way we’ll get there is by implementing long term, focused policies that create financial incentives for solar adoption until the technology can compete with fossil fuels on cost. The experiences of other places that have implemented aggressive solar incentive programs—such as Germany, Japan, California and New Jersey—has been a more rapid decline in costs as a result of local industrial evolution and increased competition. We need to move New York onto a similar track.

Solar advocacy has existed in New York State, but nothing that has effectively engaged a large number of voters in the action. I Heart PV will continue to act on this end of things: educating and mobilizing constituents to deliver feedback in support of pro-solar policies to relevant elected state officials.

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image by whateva87

This is Part 2 of Sarah Moon’s report on last week’s Capitol Climate Action. Read Part 1.

We woke up at nine a.m. on Monday, March 2nd at the Hilton Garden Inn just blocks from the White House. We packed up our things and headed to the lobby. It was a beautiful sunny day with a thick, fresh layer of snow on the ground. After waffles and eggs at a café on the Hill, we made it to the corner of New Jersey and D Street. Waiting there were the leaders of the mountain top removal movement including Chuck Nelson, Larry Gibson, Rory McIlmoil, Teri Blanton and Goldman Environmental Award winner Judy Bonds bundled in warm winter coats. It had been decided that those on the front lines of the fight against coal, the residents of Appalachia, would lead the parade.

After helping each other affix I Love Mountains stickers to our hats and the backs of our jackets, Ozzy, our waiter from the Brickskellar, showed up smiling in a red, white and blue striped scarf. I had to jump up and down to keep the blood flowing in my damp feet. We could hear the cheering of the mass of people gathered at Spirit of Justice park two blocks way. As the cheering grew louder, my excitement rose. No longer able to wait, I ran up the hill to C Street, the Capitol rising before me. I looked to my left and lost my breath. There they were. A mass of people that filled the street from sidewalk to sidewalk waving red, yellow, blue and green banners.

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image by whateva87

I’ve never felt more certain that love is the answer than I did standing in the crowds outside the capitol power plant last Monday in the largest demonstration against global warming in U.S. history. As our elders Bill McKibben and Wendell Berry spoke from the podium, the next generation of environmental activists cheered out and waved banners and signs that read “Power Past Coal” and “Climate Justice.”

Just three months prior, Berry and McKibben had sent out a mass letter asking for people to gather in DC on March 2nd for an act of civil disobedience. “We don’t come to such a step lightly,” they wrote in the invite letter. “We have written and testified and organized politically to make this point for many years, and while in recent months there has been real progress against new coal-fired power plants, the daily business of providing half our electricity from coal continues unabated.” For thirty-some years, our elders had kept a flame alive. We were ready to pick it up en masse and let it shine for the world to see. 

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image by David Paul Ohmer

Last Friday, Sarah, Rich, and I went to hear a talk by Kona Goulet, Director of Development for EnlightenNext, entitled “Keeping the Faith: Holding to our highest ideals in challenging times.” The talk was held at the beautiful and noisy Rubin Museum of Art, and Kona started by quoting Gloria Steinem: “We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs.”

She then said that she sees our current economic crisis as primarily a crisis of ethics, and I couldn’t agree more. Many people end up in dire financial straits because they don’t have any choice—American health care system, I’m lookin’ at you!—but this crisis isn’t about them. From the individuals blithely living far beyond their means to the credit-lending agencies that egged them on to the banks that leveraged each dollar far beyond reason, this crisis is all about ethics. Our economic problems are systemic, and they also reflect the morality of all of us who participate in them. How often do we put our money where our mouths are?

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image by Daquella manera

I woke up this morning with an email from climate crisis author and organizer Bill McKibben, urging us to stand together with the protesters at the Capitol Hill Power Plant in Washington, DC. Nothing could be more important today than supporting this, so I want to share the letter and the call to action with you. Please consider signing on to support the folks who are there to help push us past coal.

*****
Dear Friends,
There are moments in a nation’s—and a planet’s—history when it may be necessary for some to break the law in order to bear witness to an evil, bring it to wider attention, and push for its correction.

Today is one of those days.

In a few hours, the first big protest of the Obama era—and the largest-ever civil disobedience against global warming in this country—will take place against the not-very-scenic backdrop of the coal-fired Capitol Hill Power Plant in Washington DC.

Myself and people of every stripe will be risking arrest today, and I’m asking you to stand with me as it unfolds. 

Please stand with the thousands gathering today in DC, and show the world that people everywhere are uniting behind a future free of coal—a future safe from the ravages of climate change.

Click here to stand in solidarity with this action: http://www.350.org/Coal-Free/

Here’s the statement you’ll be signing onto:

I share your vision of a coal-free future and a safe climate, not only in Washington DC—but all over the world. I stand in solidarity with the coalition of citizens working for a clean energy future for the entire planet.

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image by Roberto Garcia-S

Inspiring news from across the fronts…

Medicine first…
The United States is just beginning to move ahead on stem-cell research while other countries, like India, are far ahead. A couple of winters ago I met Amanda, in Aspen, CO,  a passionate skier who had been a paraplegic for 15 years due to an accident on the mountain. She refused to be victimized by her disability and founded a charity that helps others with disabilities enjoy mountain-sports. For the past year and a half, she has been traveling to India to receive stem-cell treatments. The results are extraordinary – she is able to feel her legs again, can control her bladder and she began to walk assisted by braces and a walker. Here is a video of her tackling the streets of New Delhi.

While there are still a lot of open questions about stem-cell research and its safety, especially in the long term, it is hard not to marvel at the miracle of this technology…and Amanda’s guts to be a pioneer.

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