What's Going On This Week?

ACTION! Join the People's Settlement - I'll be down there on Saturday afternoon for the bakesale, and probably wander down for the kick-off too. Events keep getting scheduled:

Frustrated with Corporate Control of Politics? Angry over unjust Housing Foreclosures? Big Bank Bailouts? Continuous War? No Change?

That is why a group of us has decided to take the power back and come together on a broad based front, united against a common threat. Join us at the People's Settlement, a week of action dedicated to focusing on various corporations in the downtown area; from Bank of America's bailouts to Peabody Coal's unethical energy to the prison industrial complex to Anthem's blocking of real healthcare reform.

This is the first step in building a genuine broad-based anti-corporate movement in St. Louis. All of us want an end to injustice--from issues of from local control, to clean energy to peace to jobs to healthcare to equality and everything in between. And we have been working separately for too long. It's time that we stand up and stand together on a united front! Many of us have worked hard on political campaigns and activist campaigns attempting to bend the ears of our legislators and it has been to no avail. Why? Because corporate power divides us on every issue and blocks us from effecting real change and legislative action.

We hope our work can harness anger endemic in corporate control of politics, the economy and corporate personhood and serve as a rallying cry for similar actions across the nation. It is also noteworthy that for the first time, all of the major federal campaigns--Healthcare, Financial Reform and Immigration--are emphasizing the need for there to be significant, mass movement in order to achieve anything meaningful in DC. So join us to "break up with your bank", participate in guerrilla street theater, campout on downtown, demand clean energy and a real economy, or simply raise your voice.

We will kick-off the event at 3pm on March 24th with a “real economy” demonstration in Kiener Plaza.

Tentative Schedule:

Wednesday, March 24
3:00- Kick Off Rally
3:30-Foreclosure action at Bank of America
6:00-Settle! Set up the Settlement

Thursday, March 25th
7 a.m. LGBQT Action against Laclede Gas Discrimination
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=376221911371
2-3:00 p.m. Break Up with Your Bank!
5-6:00 p.m CWA-Revenue Action

Friday, March 26th
3:30-5:00 Anti-War Action

Saturday, March 27th
11-1:00 Literacy for Social Justice Teach In
1-3:00 Privatization of Education Bake Sale

Sunday, March 28th
1-3:00 p.m. Faith Based Action-Catholic Action Network
3:30-5:30 p.m. Labor History Tour
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=401545241423&ref=mf

Plus great stuff every evening! Come check us out!

What You Can Do: We need you to come for the kickoff! We need you to camp-out in the evening. We want you to invite your friends and family. Most importantly, this is a movement, we want your ideas on programming and actions.

Sign Up to camp:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BZ3XC2V

My World Is Changing

I've been hearing about Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods for a while now, and I finally got around to buying it this summer when we were in Arkansas. But it wasn't until I committed to go to a book discussion about it for work that i finally got around to reading it. I cracked the book yesterday and I'm almost finished - unheard of for me and non-fiction, which usually takes me weeks to finish - and now I can't stop talking about it. This book broke something open in me, and now I'm so emotional about it, I'm a mess, which is sort of a problem since I have to speak about it rationally tomorrow. Anyway to organize my thoughts, this is why I like it:

1. Louv could have gone a completely different way with the tone of this book, when I first started reading, I immediately bristled wondering if I was going to feel like a miserable parent for not taking Nora backwoods camping at the age of two. But he didn't. Yes, he clearly does stuff like this with his kids, but really what he's advocating is for parents to ensure that kids get out of the house and into a natural setting everyday. This could mean trips to the park, but it can also mean growing a seed in a dixie cup or watching the birds land on the railing. In one of the best passages of the book, Louv reassures us that making the reconnection is possible, that it doesn't have to be a giant task, and he gives us permission to have fun and to learn things too:

" But before I take you on this hike, let me say something about the pressures that parents endure. Simply put, many of us must overcome the belief that something isn't worth doing with our kids unless we do it right. If getting our kids out into nature is a search for perfection, or is one more chore, then the belief in perfection and the chore defeats the joy. It's a good thing to learn more about nature in order to share this knowledge with children; it's even better if the adult and child learn about nature together. And it's a lot more fun."

2. He makes a really strong case for our need for Nature for a. mental health b. cognitive learning c. physical health d. the creative process. Our disconnect from nature is really messing us up on all four of these fronts and ruining the earth for everything else on top of it. Really that's it in a nutshell, but this book is so much more.

3. This book should be required reading for parents, educators and policy makers for Chapter 8 - the section on ADHD and the benefits of being in nature to combat it- alone. If you don't read any other part of this book, read that chapter, it is incredibly powerful.

4. He puts the responsibility for making our re-connection to nature on a multiple shoulders (well actually everyone) but he doesn't hang parents or teachers out to dry by saying its all their fault or that they are the ones who can fix this. He takes on universities, environmental groups, government, corporations,educators, parents and everyday folks and gives extremely sound advice about how to make this work. i.e.: this book doesn't just tell you there's this huge society wide problem that is destroying us, but it also gives ideas on how to fix it and points to places where folks are doing it right. Louv also cites lots of research to back up his claims but he also tells us where no one is doing any research, or not enough research, or the research is faulty to support his arguments to encourage more work to be done.

5. This book is readable. It doesn't overwhelm you with statistics (although there are plenty), it doesn't feel like you are being lectured, it's well set up and most of all it is extremely interesting, not just for parents and not just for educators and not just for green folks (although I am all three of those).

So, please check the book out. You can borrow it from me or buy your own copy or go to the library. Whatever it takes. If you want the readers condensed version check out the link to the Orion magazine article he wrote (it's where you will go if you click on his name above). Maybe you won't have the epiphany-revealing, earth-shattering, emotional reaction to it that I have, but maybe you'll like it anyway and maybe it will convince you to go take a walk in the woods. I hope so.

Indoors and Outdoors

Environmental Educator David Soule is coming to Webster in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I won't be able to hear him speak, due to other plans, but I have been motivated to take a look at some of his writings. I recommend reading his essay Beyond Ecophobia, which takes a look at what most schools are doing around environmental education and whether it's actually effective. I think his arguments make a lot of sense and he and Richard Louv (Last Child In the Woods) have been making me think about our lack of connection to our natural world and how I can make sure Nora has more time in it. Interestingly, their writings are bringing me closer to Waldorf education, despite some of my concerns about it. And I am ever more wishful that we could afford to send Nora to an Reggio Emilio school, but that is sort of out the question right now. Actually, I wish every child could to to an Reggio school, but unfortunately, no one is asking me about education policy (at least no one who has power to change education policy). In some ways, Nora, thanks to my parents and extended family, gets much more time in nature than many children do, but I also think that her parents are not always the best models for appreciating the out of doors. Mainly because Jason and I are much more likely to go read a book than we are to go on a hike. While I think reading books are a great idea, I sort of wish we were a little, teensy, bit more outdoorsy than we are. I'm not suggesting we suddenly decide to take up kayaking any time soon, but maybe we'll take Nora on her first camping trip this spring.