We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Workshop details: ISE at the US Social Forum

from the Institute for Social Ecology. A workshop on the Thursday where ordinary people are coming together to see what can be done to promote real solutions to the climate change conundrum.
Real solutions do exist! This workshop will begin with discussion of false solutions and their direct impacts on our communities, and then turn toward a collaborative and wide ranging discussion of genuinely renewable, community-centered solutions, rooted in the principles of climate justice. This is part of an ongoing effort to build a “People’s Vision” for U.S. climate action that is just, effective, realistic and potentially transformative.