Jeff Reifman

Model Community Bill of Rights Template for Occupy Communities

It's out: We’ve published the model Community Bill of Rights template for Occupy communities that wish to begin mobilized initiative campaigns in their region. Think of the template as a menu to pick and choose what’s important in your community. It’s meant to provide a framework and a starting point, not necessarily to be used in its entirety. The text is derived from ongoing national and global work by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) such as Ecuador adding Rights for Nature to its Constitution, Pittsburgh stripping drilling corporations of corporate constitutional “rights,” such as corporate “personhood” and Spokane’s Community Bill of Rights initiative which narrowly missed passing by 1,000 votes last month. Those efforts have joined over a hundred other municipal campaigns that have driven into law local bills of rights.

WooT!

This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement

Turning Occupation into Lasting Change is included in the Yes Magazine's new compendium on the Occupy movement ... check it out...

This Changes Everything shows how the Occupy movement is shifting the way people view themselves and the world, the kind of society they believe is possible, and their own involvement in creating a society that works for the 99% rather than just the 1%.

Attempts to pigeonhole this decentralized, fast-evolving movement have led to confusion and misperception. In this volume, the editors of YES! Magazine bring together voices from inside and outside the protests to convey the issues, possibilities, and personalities associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

This book features contributions from Naomi Klein, David Korten, Rebecca Solnit, Ralph Nader, and others, as well as Occupy activists who were there from the beginning, such as David Graeber, Marina Sitrin and Hena Ashraf. It offers insights for those actively protesting or expressing support for the movement—and for the millions more who sympathize with the goal of a more equitable and democratic future.

There's Nothing Environmentalists Can't Accomplish When Corporations Don't Care About the Outcome

Update: My friend Jon says that there actually was a lot of local corporate opposition back in the mid-90's ... point taken.  

Pics from the Elwha Dam Removal:

Come hear about some radically new approaches to social change

I'd like to strongly encourage you to come hear Thomas Linzey speak on Tuesday evening October 4th at Town Hallor meet him Wednesday evening October 5th at our smaller gathering in the University District. Thomas is the Executive Director at the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) which helped Pittsburgh ban fracking and strip corporations of judge-made "Constitutional" rights. He also helped Spokane author its community bill of rights on this November's ballot. And, he helped Ecuador add rights for nature to its Constitution.

I think it's the shear desperation of the failed progressive political movement in America that leads us to shine our spotlights on Occupy Wall Street, a semi-anarchical movement which I applaud and support, but which currently lacks much focus. On the contrary, Thomas' group is the effort I see that's actually analyzed the roots of our problems and systematically takes action in hundreds of communities around the country, largely by making and passing laws.

Learn more about Thomas' appearances in Seattle this week.

Whistler vs. Squaw Valley

I've always appreciated Whistler's environmental focus but I do have to say that the pool and hot tub at Squaw Valley's 8200 foot high camp (which I got to play in this past weekend at Wanderlust) is kind of special. It's not like Blackcomb doesn't already have a huge reservoir right below Seventh Heaven in a south facing aspect within a short walk of the Peak to Peak Gondola ;) 

See more High Camp pictures...

Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts.

This is one of the most meaningful things I've read in a long time. So well said, so timely:

The simple fact of the matter is that trying to be perfectly likable is incompatible with loving relationships. Sooner or later, for example, you’re going to find yourself in a hideous, screaming fight, and you’ll hear coming out of your mouth things that you yourself don’t like at all, things that shatter your self-image as a fair, kind, cool, attractive, in-control, funny, likable person. Something realer than likability has come out in you, and suddenly you’re having an actual life.

...

Whereas, to love a specific person, and to identify with his or her struggles and joys as if they were your own, you have to surrender some of your self.

The big risk here, of course, is rejection. We can all handle being disliked now and then, because there’s such an infinitely big pool of potential likers. But to expose your whole self, not just the likable surface, and to have it rejected, can be catastrophically painful. The prospect of pain generally, the pain of loss, of breakup, of death, is what makes it so tempting to avoid love and stay safely in the world of liking.

Liking is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts. by Jonathan Franzen in The New York Times.

Note: If you like this, I highly recommend Brene Brown's talk on Vulnerability.

Save the Trees: Opt Out of Phonebook Deliveries

Now you can opt out of wasteful phonebook deliveries. Share this link with your friends!