Comment

Comment by Dana Miller on November 8, 2008 at 8:19am

Beautiful and inspiring....in fact, we at Transition Denver are in conversation with city employees and other organizations to do some sort of a Victory Garden project in the spring.....I am going to forward your vision to them, to serve as inspiration.....thanks for your loving and brave heart, Kathy.

Comment by Kathy Jacobson on November 8, 2008 at 7:06am

Thanks for the head's up Dana! I will forward this news to others as well.
I just posted the following on the http://www.change.gov/your vision site:

My vision is that we, as citizens of the United States, will address the root cause of our problems by taking personal responsibility and changing our own lifestyles.

Folks are having a hard time now but climate change, peak oil and pandemic flu are coming down the pike and it's time for us to prepare for the transitions.

I envision people forming neighborhood circles, creating safety nets, getting prepared to take care of each other while building bridges with government entities. We need to build comprehensive systems toward greater local resiliency.

The Transition Towns Initiatives offer communities encouragement, guidance and a template to move forward in a very positive goal-oriented approach. Transition Initiatives are now rolling out in communities all across our great country.
Transition Towns http://www.transitiontowns.org
Transition US http://www.transitionus.ning.com

I see a country that takes a top-down/bottoms-up systems approach. My role here is to inform, inspire, empower and mobilize while holding our public and political leaders accountable.

I also walk the talk in terms of living a simple sustainable lifestyle with off-grid solar electricity, rainwater harvesting, organic gardening, composting, woodland farming and active preparedness strategies.
http://www.broadwellhill.org

I reach out to my neigbors and provide educational experiences to Ohio University students and others in my larger community. I hope to serve as a catalyst for social change toward greater preparedness, sustainability and resiliency.

However, it would help a great deal if our new president also demonstrated leadership in this regard while advocating for communities around the country to address peak oil and climate change via a Transition Initiatives approach.

We've done it before and we can do it again...remember the WWW 2 and depression era movements, i.e. Victory Gardens, recycling, etc. We as a people have lost many basic skills however and a great reskilling effort needs to emerge from the grassroots.

What role does a president have in catalyzing such a movement?

The lawn around the White House should be turned into a demostration Victory Garden with organic methods, including composting. Our leadership should demonstrate the active practice of the 4 Rs: refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle. Our president and the government as a whole should take strong action to conserve energy, water and other resources and there should be a lot of PR about it. There should be solar panels on all government buildings. Systems should be created where government employees can work from home as much as possible. It will reduce fuel consumption, carbon emissions, increase quality of life and will help increase our chances of riding the waves of a pandemic flu. Our political leadership should also encourage businesses to do the same.

Diminishing resources, increasing population, climate change, peak oil and the pandemic flu are realities that we must contend with if we are going to adapt to the changes predicted for this century and build a robust legacy for future generations.

YES, WE CAN...but we need strong, clear leadership and a president who is actively walking the talk.

Thank you!

Kathy Jacobson, RN
The Broadwell Hill Learning Center and Resiliency Initiative
The Federal Hocking Forest Watershed, Athens County, Ohio