1 members
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 30 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing Summarizing
Diary   

Envision This!! Resilient Self-Sustaining Communities!!!!!


Burl Hall
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Burl Hall
 

On June 25, 2012, Rob Kall of OpEd News sent an email identifying several areas that are of importance towards developing free and healthy community.   Two of the areas Rob stated he would like to see in writings are:    

 

Community, re-localization: how are communities fighting globalization and getting local.

 

Bottom up Grass Roots identifying new angles on the bottom up revolution and grass roots actions and efforts.

 

Both of these arenas speak to the on-line, "Blog Talk" Radio Show that Merry Hall and I will be hosting within the next couple of weeks.   We are calling the show Envision This!  

 

Many of our guests will be people fighting globalization and helping people get local by developing self-sustaining communities.   Indeed, one of our first guests will be Bob St. Peter, the head of Food for Maine's Future, who has been instrumental in developing local ordinances in eight Maine jurisdictions such as Blue Hill and Sedgwick.  

 

Bob St Peter's vision entails a real bottom up democracy where people are empowered within their community.   No longer will people be working for a paycheck cut by corporations whose interest is in making their top shareholders richer than they are.   Nor will they be working to ensure the world is dominated by megalithic corporations. There is no reason for our money to help the already over-the-top rich get even richer.   Rather, they will be working for the welfare of their community, their family and themselves.   

 

Can you Envision This?: A healthy Earth with clean air and water supporting a healthy community.   A community that you live in and in which you see the fruits of your labor helping to feed, clothe, entertain, or somehow make richer the lives of all those living in your community.   Would you feel so alienated then?  

 

If you can Envision This, then let's make it happen.   Envision This! will be more than a "talk show."   It will provide a venue for visionaries to get their ideas (which mainstream media ignore) out to the public.   It will be geared towards fostering change.   To foster change, the format of the show will give listeners the opportunity to call in and ask questions, make comments or briefly share their own vision.   Just as Bob St Peter and Rob Kall believe in the power of localities, our show will encourage and respect your power while also helping to foster more movement towards localized economies, production, and meeting of needs.

 

Could this be the end of alienation from the planet, our community, ecosystem, and even our self?   This is the dream for our show.   Envision This! can be one voice speaking to a life of connection, love, and real freedom where rule is more from the inside out than the outside in as it is in aristocratic and bureaucratic systems of management and government.            

 

Can you Envision This and make it happen in your locality?   I can Envision This!   Come, join us and share your vision with us!

 

Merry's Turn

June 26,2012

Yes Burl, I can Envision This! Most of the time I give my whole heart and hope to making it work. It is our best opportunity yet to help regenerate a healthy relationship between humanity and our Mother Earth. The time is ripe. Then my Neg-Nags (internal negative voices of self-doubt, despair, and harsh judgments that nag at me) set in.

We listened to a Democracy Now segment on the upcoming but highly secretive Pan-Pacific Trade agreement being pushed by the corporations and the governments they have bought out. It would further legitimize and consolidate the power of the transnational corporations, creating an international kangaroo court, placing them above the laws of member countries. This further motivates me to act now, act powerfully, act publicly. It also scares the living daylights out of me. 

My Neg-Nags are screaming:

What arrogance to think you can have the power and influence to affect what is already in motion! All the power is in their control, not yours. Don't you care that they can arrest you on any trumped up charges they want to brand you a terrorist? If you believe that is just paranoia talking consider this: Burl's income, your social security income and teachers' retirement are all in government hands and can be wiped out with a few clicks of the mouse. You will no longer fly under the radar. Are you forgetting that they have 5,000 years of enculturation of the public to believe that they are the source of (not a threat to) security and plenty? You've tried several times before to get your influence out there, only to fail dismally. Don't you get yet that you don't have the charisma or the persistence to make it happen? Humanity is more ready to walk right over the cliff than to listen to you. You're 68 and it's time for you to retire, not start a whole new career"especially one that offers no likelihood of keeping a roof over your head and food in your mouth.  

 

These voices will keep going endlessly, so I'll simply turn down the volume on them and turn up the volume on my resolution and passion. Okay "simply" isn't the right word. The world's need for every voice we can muster is urgent. For today, I'll ask my zeal to overpower my fear. After all, Amy Goodman is still alive and earning her living.

Today is important. We do the trial run of our show. It only goes to our account at Blogtalk Radio for us to critique, not out over the air. But it's one giant step closer to going public (that is, more public than this blog-diary already makes us.) May my nervousness empower rather than block me. May I turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones.

Rate It | View Ratings

Burl Hall Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Burl Hall is a retired counselor who is living in a Senior Citizen Housing apartment. Burl has one book to his credit, titled "Sophia's Web: A Passionate Call to Heal our Wounded Nature." For more information, search the book on Amazon. (more...)
 
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact EditorContact Editor
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter

Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend