COMMONS MAGAZINE
We all know that walking is good for us. It sheds calories, tones muscles, and clears our minds.
In 2007, an Australian prime ministerial candidate told the electorate that climate change was the greatest moral, social and economic challenge of our generation. Within four years of being prime minister, Kevin Rudd had not only dropped his government’s carbon-pricing policy for political reasons, he had also lost the leadership of his own party, making him one of the few prime ministers in Australia’s history to suffer that fate.
Everywhere I turn, the story line seems to pivot on hormones.
Stories of Detroit’s emerging comeback often highlight the city’s attraction to young hipsters. According to plentiful media reports, well-educated twenty-somethings are streaming into the Motor City to test out new ideas, explore art and music projects or launch D-I-Y revitalization initiatives.
You’re invited to help us grow the commons movement
Do you seek to help communities collaborate in new ways? Are you interested in creative resource sharing? Do you often think about what we all share—and work to reclaim and protect it for future generations?
If you are drawn to commons-based approaches, you belong in the Commons Network, a group of individuals and organizations who advance the commons in communities all over the world.
The commons is an old idea—the chief organizing principle for human society for most of history—that’s now being rediscovered and reinvigorated all around the world.
The commons means what belongs to all of us—and the many diverse ways we share it equitably and sustainably among each other and coming generations. It describes sweeping set of practices ranging from the intricate social structures of indigenous people to the ever-evolving networks of connection fostered by the Internet. And everything in between—natural and human made.
Our Great Lakes Commons Gathering
At the Great Lakes Commons Gathering, scholars, economists, engineers, Indigenous leaders, environmental and social justice activists, artists, attorneys, and students from the U.S., Canada, and Indigenous Nations will come together to explore strategies to both establish the Great Lakes as a commons, and create a life-affirming future for the bioregion.
The Need for a Whole-System Solution
On September 4, Quebec’s student movement, admired for its 300,000-person protests, provided a less sensational model for youth worldwide — of a movement struggling with the contradictory effects of a hotly contested election.
Watching professional football these days reminds me of Lily Tomlin’s Ernestine the telephone operator on Saturday Night Live and her famous punch line, “We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the phone company.”
Or in this case the National Football League. For those who don’t follow football, let me bring you up to date. In June the NFL locked out its referees and has been using replacements ever since. Referees at major college conferences refused to become scabs so the NFL reached down into the lower college and even high school ranks.
Traffic calming has swept the world over the past 20 years. It’s based on the rather simple idea that cars and trucks don’t have exclusive ownership of our streets. Streets are shared commons that also belong to people on foot and bicycles, in baby strollers and wheelchairs. Reminding motorists of this fact, traffic calming uses design features such as narrowing roads, adding speed bumps or elevating crosswalks to slow traffic and assert pedestrians’ right to cross the street.
Americans will be getting an earful about the perils or virtues of government until they vote on Nov. 6. But they won’t hear anything about what it is exactly.
To Republicans, government is a cancerous force, there to secure what their platform calls “our God-given liberties.” Success comes only through individual hard work, nurtured by faith and family. As the platform explains: “We are the party of maximum economic freedom,” which promotes prosperity so “individuals and families can maintain their freedom from government.”
Like most Americans, I love this country. I love its boundless energy and spirited people, its natural beauty, its creativity in so many fields, its many gifts to the world, and the freedom and opportunity it has given me, which is why on August 20, 2011, I became a jailbird.
Late last Friday biotech chemical and seed giant Monsanto doubled-down on their bet against American’s farmers and citizens.
In a desperate bid to keep Americans in the dark about what they’re eating, Monsanto just funneled another $2.9 million dollars to defeat California’s Prop 37 to label genetically engineered foods. This comes on top of their $4.2 million dollar pledge only weeks ago and brings Monsanto’s combined total to more than $7.1 million dollars! That’s a huge pile of cash and it’s dedicated to only one thing – denying you the Right to Know what’s in your food.
Late last Friday biotech chemical and seed giant Monsanto doubled-down on their bet against American’s farmers and citizens.
In a desperate bid to keep Americans in the dark about what they’re eating, Monsanto just funneled another $2.9 million dollars to defeat California’s Prop 37 to label genetically engineered foods. This comes on top of their $4.2 million dollar pledge only weeks ago and brings Monsanto’s combined total to more than $7.1 million dollars! That’s a huge pile of cash and it’s dedicated to only one thing – denying you the Right to Know what’s in your food.
The recent colorful tirade by Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe against a legislator who demanded the Baltimore Ravens owner fire linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo for supporting gay marriage and the overwhelmingly positive response to it by football fans and players alike are heartwarming developments. It shows how far we’ve come.
Read our invitation for more information about the Commons Network. Then fill out this online form, or download the PDF version below, to get involved. Completed PDF forms should be emailed to office[at]onthecommons.org.
Thanks for your time, we look forward to calling you a fellow commoner!
In his acceptance speech on September 6, Barack Obama raised a theme that may have surprised some and pleased others: “We also believe in something called citizenship, a word at the very heart of our founding,” he declared.
His supporters tend to see the president’s citizenship too narrowly, as a riff on progressive politics. In fact, it points beyond partisan wars to the idea of citizenship as the work of citizens, with appeal across the spectrum.
The recent revision of the 40-year-old Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (see New York Times blog) to address on-going international pollution problems is an important recognition of the continued threats facing the world’s largest source of freshwater. It also highlights systemic problems in our conventional approaches to protecting our common heritage.
You’re invited to help us grow the commons movement
Do you seek to help communities collaborate in new ways? Are you interested in creative resource sharing? Do you often think about what we all share—and work to reclaim and protect it for future generations?
If you are drawn to commons-based approaches, you belong in the Commons Network, a group of individuals and organizations who advance the commons in communities all over the world.
While public acceptance for gay marriage has grown dramatically in recent years, even among many young people who identify as Republicans or evangelical Christians, the issue has still fared poorly among at the polls. Voters in a number of states, including California, have passed constitutional amendments or other limits on same-sex unions.
But this fall’s 2012 could be a different story, as four generally liberal states vote on same sex marriage: Washington, Maine, Minnesota and Maryland.