Today I helped my community...

thuja · Last edited by thuja on Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:14 pm; edited 1 time in total

I've spent a lot of time on these boards and I've been watching the steady drum of cynicism, vigilantism, weaponized survivor mentality begin to take over. I stopped posting over at LifeaftertheOilCrash because that's all they do over there.

My belief is that there is no way to go it alone in these days ahead and we will need to work more closely together on local levels to deal with pressing problems.

That is why I am creating a thread that deals specifically with how you are working with your community to make positive changes to prepare for the Long Emergency. United we stand...divided we fall.

I have posted this on a spearate thread, but I have been working hard on creating a farmers market in my little neighborhood. We had a successful first season with over 25 vendors attending. Lots of nearby fresh produce, local musicians and a spirit of a community coming together.

So, is cynicism the easy way out here? Is anyone left here interested in community solutions?

IanC

Thuja, you're so cool I think I'll call you "Light Sweet Crude".

Congratulations on the Market. I know some people in your neighborhood who were thrilled that it was there. The Eastbank market took about 3 years to really catch-on, so keep plugging away!

I've found tremendous satisfaction in getting out meeting face to face with people in my community. I've been teaching Interest Class electives at my oldest daughter's school - a great way to connect with young people and (hopefully) provide a positive role model and good experiences for them. I'm also working hard on a fund-raising Harvest Festival auction for my younger daughter's preschool. It's been great to meet and work with the other parents, many of whom live near me on such a positive project. I also participated in the memorial slow bike ride for a fallen 19-year-old biker who was killed downtown, joining a few hundred other bikers. What a powerful experience, especially with my 2 kids riding with me.

I agree with you - Peak Oil is happening all around us. There is nothing we can do to change the course of history. In the end, we are in this together and having a strong tribe around you, whatever form it takes, is the best bullwark against the storms ahead.

-Ian
Off Belmont

azreal60

My plans for my community include.

1. Becoming a police officer in it. Can't really think of anything I can do that can more directly affect my community than that.

2. Convince local companies to either allow telecommuting or encourage like subdivision housing with busing from that housing.

3. Advocate for development of rail and electric cars at the same time. Divergent solutions to the same problem, lack of public transport.

These are all plans, but number 1 has the best chance of happening.
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Azreal60

MrBean · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Sep 26, 2004 Posts: 1292

... by thinking and sharing what kind of community. These kinds of communities:

http://gen.ecovillage.org/

IslandCrow

Thanks Thuja for this thread.

The more I work on my PO preparations the more I realise that I need a viable community around me. I struggle with this because although I am living in an area where there has been long term settlement, it is also an area experiencing a major population decline.

Basically in this stage most of what I can do is to help support local businesses by buying from them. In some cases, like filling up the car, buying local can be much more expensive that doing it in the city, in other cases, it can be cheaper, for example the local baker not only has fresh bread warm from the oven but he undercuts the price of the big national bakeries. The local grocery store sells vegetables from local farmers, so I have had to change some of my meal plans to include more local produce (generally expanding the range of root vegetables that I never eat as a child!)

One small project I am involved with is giving bookkeeping and tax advise to a man starting his own business. This helps the local economy (he would be unemployed otherwise), and I think that it would be of great benefit for the post-PO world, as part of the business would be to hand build wooden boats, based on the tradition patterns of boats from this area. In the long term I will have to support this business by buying one of the boats (small enough that I could row it, but with a single mast at the front as I firmly support the idea of using wind energy).

In general I feel frustrated that so far there is only a tiny little bit that I can do to help the community prepare for the post-PO world. I also feel frustrated with my own preparations, as the list of things I would like far exceeds the financial resources I have available.
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We should teach our children the 4-Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rejoice.

Fishman

Held a job, paid my taxes, kept my kids out of trouble, checked on their homework, told them they were responsible for their actions, worked in my garden, gave a neighbor a few vegetables.

Did not "strike about the present status", did not live off the dole, did not teach my kids they were "victims and not responsible for their actions".

Ludi

I haven't done anything for my community except plant extra fruit trees.......

But I approve of this thread! Smile

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"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow." - jboogy

thuja

I thought you would Ludi- it seems like the steady drum beat of cynicism and me-firstism is overtaking these threads.

Ian- great to hear about your teaching and fundraising work. Did you hear this morning that another bicyclist was killed doing the same thing that the 19 year old had done. Sad- Perhaps we need to get the city to support the "Bike Box" idea and get them set up at major intersections...

Azreal- I work as a psych counselor and I work with policeman all the time. They are on the frontlines of helping their communities every day. Most all of them are doing great work in a stressful job.

Mr. Bean- yes to Ecovillages...

Island Crow- supporting local businesses is supremely important. Keeping money local means that local businesses will thrive. Chains and Big Box stores suck vital monies from a community and tend to leave an area more impoverished.

IN any event, we will not be able to rely on massive international conglomerates in the future and have to create our own infrastructure, manufacturing (I love that you support a wooden boat builder), and support networks.

And Fishman- yes- this is the whole point...community work means not relying on federal or corporate power to save the day. It means creating networks with your neighbors and friends to help and support each other.

We have been living in an imaginary time, where people can "go it alone" and hide inside a bubble created by the magic of fossil fuels. We can drive by ourselves in cars to cubicles and then return home to locked homes with the gas furnace on and do not have to interact if we don't want to.

Those times are over and the more we make connections, the safer and happier our lives will be.

RedStateGreen

I like this thread. I don't do much other than smile and wave when I see someone in the complex, but I'm not very social. This gives me something to think about. Thanks. Smile

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Conservation is conservative

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change. -- Charles Darwin

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1422

In a number of small ways, our family is very involved in our local community. To define, our community is a rural one. We live on what we call a "loop" which is about 5 miles around. I know many of the families on the loop, having grown up here. The nearest town is about 13 miles away, and it's a town of about 6,000 people. Most of the "community" we're involved in, though, has nothing to do with the town, rather our rural community - I will say, though, that we patronize local businesses as much as possible in town.

On the loop, though, there's a thriving barter and trade system going on out here. Some examples...

I raise chickens and sell eggs, and the occasional bird. This activity has opened many doors for us to tie us to the community. Last night I traded a dozen eggs for some jalapenos and cayennes. I've also traded eggs for plastic barrels (to use as rain barrels), and apples from a neighbor's orchard. One neighbor bought some eggs from us last week, and I used the money that they gave us (plus some more), to pay my sister (who needs the money) to help with some of my housework. She then took the money to the local mom-n-pop grocery up the road, supporting the local economy. (We frequent that local store as often as possible, even though it is more expensive at times - because without it, the nearest store would be about 10 miles away.)

Another gentleman bought several hens from us last week. His son is the one who cuts our hay for us on shares - so we get some for the goats, and he keeps the rest - his equipment, his gas, he gets the biggest share. He also has milk cows, and since my goats are dry right now, I'm going to be getting some fresh milk from him. He's going to give it to me, because I've offered to make him some cheese from some of his milk.

Another friend of ours out here is very handy fixing small engines. We had several old things laying around (chainsaws, a weedeater, etc) which in and of themselves, were not repairable. Our friend, knowing we needed an air compressor, said he had one that could be fixed with some parts. Carlin gave him all the small engine things we had lying around. He told him if he could make one working chainsaw out of the two non-working ones, or get the weedeater running, he could keep it - provided he could get the air compressor running for us. He did. He got a new chainsaw and weedeater, and we got a new compressor - it didn't cost us anything. He got something he needed, and so did we.

Our community regularly bands together to help each other out. When we were adding on to the house, we had a whole crew to help out. Like an old fashioned barn raising, the room addition was framed and closed in during the course of a single day. Similar crews have showed up to help my cousin build her house just up the road.

Another neighbor wanted to clear some land to make pasture, and he's offered us all the firewood we care to cut, because he doesn't want the wood just wasted (bulldozed).

During gardening season this year, we often traded one type of veggie we were growing with a neighbor who was growing something else we didn't plant.

My nephew shoes horses - and charges just a small fee for the locals (quite under what other farriers in the area charge). I've also hired local kids to help with farmwork.

We have a thriving small church (2 miles away and on the loop) that regularly gets together for social activities. Just to have fun.

As one old-timer here said to me once, "When I was a kid, we didn't know there was a depression. It really didn't affect us much out here." That's because of two reasons - one, everyone was poor anyway Smile

, and two, because a lot of local trade and barter was common out here. My grandmother used to help a neighbor up the road shell peas all day for a take of the days shelling...

No, none of this activity is going to change the planet in an of itself, but it does make our little rural community much more self-reliant, knowing who has "X" skill, who produces "X" product, and so on. The more connected we become with our community, the less I fear economic hard times, because I know we'll help each other out.

Kathy

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1422

Bump.
Anyone out there helping their community? I'm still interested to see what others are doing, and get some ideas...
K

alokin · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 24, 2007 Posts: 883

I founded a sustainability group, which emerges a bit slowly, I'll try to start a community garden and I dream of planting some guerilla fruit and nut trees.

RedStateGreen

Since I last posted on this I began volunteering at our local food co-op once a month. It's a lot of fun and I've met a lot of the local food producers, which is always a good thing. Smile

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Conservation is conservative

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change. -- Charles Darwin

WildRose · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jun 21, 2006 Posts: 1092

azreal60

Well, the police officer job didn't work out this time around. Even though I scored the highest you can get on the reading portion and passed the physical portion, I didn't get even to the oral boards. I don't really want to go to some hugely small town to get around the diversity requirements and competitiveness of Madison, but I'm thinking if I ever want to be a cop I almost will have to. That or join the military.

As for the community, on a local level I'm so busy just trying to stay afloat I really haven't had a chance to. One thing I'm thinking of doing is doing political dinners, pot lucks and the like. This is a very political town, and I'm going to be working for the Obama campaign. If he get's the Dem's nomination, that might be something we would do long term and then just keep on doing it.

As for helping the community, well, I'm thinking of running for local government once I get a place to settle down in. If I can find a place like that, then run for local office, I know for a fact a lot of good can be done from the local level. Most of the most directly impacting decisions that governments make come at the local or state level. All that car friendliness? It's built in by governments zoning choices. So joining the zoning board or the planning board of your local community in many ways can be the best thing anyone with peak oil knowledge can do for their community.
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Azreal60