 Dana’s Journal 5/8/08
It's been over a year since I put the first two projects up on the website. After a wild year of touring all over the place, I’m finally getting to dive back in and add a bunch of new projects that I believe are easily repeatable in schools, places of worship and community centers in any town, anywhere. I’m dedicating all of May and June 2008 to research and writing for the website.
I’m not pulling all this information together alone. For the last six months I’ve been asking at my concerts if anyone would like to help me research and write up the outstanding sustainability projects that are going on all over the world. I’m looking for folks who enjoy research and writing: cruising the web, making phone calls, writing up wonderful projects that can be replicated in the next town. I’ve been getting an average of one volunteer per show.
What has really moved me, and what I didn’t expect, is how much time and effort the volunteers are putting into the project. It gives me enormous hope. Deep down, I’ve always known that folks will volunteer large amounts of time to help out the community at large, as long their efforts matter and make a difference. I’ve seen the incredible generosity, goodness and hard work of people donating their time to important local efforts throughout the course of my life. Currently there are more than ten of us researching and writing for the website.
Because I know in my bones that most folks will work hard for what they believe is right for their families and communities, that is why I believe a huge worldwide, indeed universal, movement to build a sustainable culture is possible and is occuring. The simple projects that can save our world are already happening. To create the new sustainable culture, we must organize ourselves and make the projects happen everywhere.
I know we have corrupt media, corrupt corporations, and corrupt governments all working overtime to confuse and overwhelm us. And yes, that stuff takes its toll on all of us. But in the end, it is irrelevant. We can, we will, and we must defend our children and protect the land and water so that they can flourish in health and happiness for generations to come. Forever.
It is our birthright and fundamental parental responsibility.
So how do we overcome this out-of-control industrial juggernaut that seems to be dragging us all over the abyss?
We start by fixing the things we can fix. Our homes. Our schools. Our places of worship. Our towns. We fix the places and institutions that we control.
What is going to happen when we’ve organized every school and every place of worship in our town and have wonderful sustainability projects going on all over? Well, all of a sudden we’ll have quite a town team, won’t we? We’ll have a team of concerned parents and kids working in every school and every place of worship in town. A strong team. An accomplished team. A happy team.
And then some of our team will run for city council. And pretty soon we’ll be passing laws to ban cosmetic pesticides just like our neighbors in Quebec and Ontario. Yes, that’s right, two weeks ago Ontario banned cosmetic pesticides for the entire province. Toronto and all. Following Quebec’s lead of course.
So I’ve got three more weeks to work with our team of researchers before I think I’m going to dive into recording a new album. I’m hoping to have 3 or 4 projects on the menu for elementary, middle, high and home schoolers by June 1st.
Sorry for the delay on the college and university projects, but hey, one step at a time.
Recording an album can (almost always) takes a long time, so with any luck some of the volunteers will continue researching, writing and adding the list of cool projects we can do in our towns.
Dana, May 8, 2008
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Dana's Journal 3/15/07
Next week I perform for nearly two thousand ten- and eleven-year-olds at youth environmental conferences.
I’ve been wanting to create this website for over five years. Between seeing Al Gore’s movie on climate change and the thought of facing two thousand young folks who would like a healthy planet to live on, I figured it was time to get off my rear end and get the thing done.
It’s been a fascinating process. I spent a couple months researching school activist projects, and last week I wrote up the first draft of the website.
When I go in front of the youth conferences next week I’ll be able to offer them some specific ideas about what they can do in their schools. I’ve always felt frustrated singing about environmental issues in schools and not having something specific to ask them to get involved with.
If we are going to evolve into a truly sustainable culture (thinking seven generations down the line), we’re all going to have to make changes and get to work cleaning up the mess we’ve created. In my experience, youth can make the change easier than adults can. So I’m going to put the bulk of my energy into encouraging youth to action.
And as for the adults, if we do our job well, they get to listen to their eco-activated kids bugging them. Good luck dealing with that, Mom and Dad.
This is an experiment. I’m not sure if this “menu” of projects will inspire students to action or not. In my experience, if you ask a motivated person to do something that is positive for their family and community, they’ll often do it. We shall see.
Dreaming the big dream.
Run free with the Buffalo!
Dana, March 15, 2007 |
