The Rosebud Sioux reservation in South Dakota is building community and prosperity by building windmills. Other Native Americans are doing the same, harnessing wind and sun.
Local businesses in Utah, threatened by corporate big-box stores, have created a "Buy Local First" campaign with tremendous success.
A major California winery has done well by going organic and urging others to do the same.
Trailing Europe but catching on, the United States now has about 300 worker-run businesses. If anything can encourage democratic behavior outside the office, I would think it would be democracy within it.
These stories and more are told in "Building the Green Economy," interspersed with theory, analysis, vision, resources, and tips on what an individual can do to get involved. I would add one more tip: Recycle your television and read some books like these. Those of us focused on national approaches can use the fortification of learning about successes, and need to remember the connections between local and national work. Those focused on the local level may want to consider this overview and pause to reflect on how their steps forward can avoid the two-steps back that Washington is always trying to hand them. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3
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David Swanson is the author of "When the World Outlawed War," "War Is A Lie" and "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for the online (
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