COMMONS MAGAZINE
It is a little-known fact that the vision and inspiration for great public commons like New York’s Central Park originated from cemeteries. While many modern-day cemeteries occupy valuable land in central city locations, they are generally seen as separate from, rather than an integral part of, their surrounding communities.
A few days ago I received notice of a New America Foundation (NAF) hosted conference in Washington, D.C. called “Beyond Primacy: Rethinking American Grand Strategy and the Command of the Commons.” At the conference NAF released a formal report on the subject: Whither Command of the Commons? Choosing Security Over Control.
Funding for bicycle and pedestrian improvements is under attack right now from from politicians who want to shove transportation policies back to the 1950s, when cars were the only way to go. Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn and others have targeted any money that goes to non-motorized transportation.
I always figured that it would be dolphins or whales or bonobo apes— maybe even aliens with blue skin, like in Avatar— who would convince us humans need to clean up our act in order to save the Earth.
Who knew it was actually wombats—those fuzzy, burrowing marsupials— who would finally grab our attention in this delightfully wise video “All is One” from Jason Ables and the Global-Mindshift.org?
Trebah Garden is a spectacular piece of paradise in Cornwall, England, a verdant ravine with a huge variety of trees and shrubs that winds its way down to a beach on the Helford River. Several years ago, I visited this garden to enjoy its beauty. I soon learned that its history and management structure are as interesting as its flora.
Guns don’t kill people, the old saw goes. People do.
By the same token, corporations don’t dodge taxes. People do. The people who run corporations. And these people — America’s CEOs — are reaping awesomely lavish rewards for the tax dodging they have their corporations do.
In fact, corporate tax dodging has gone so out of control that 25 major U.S. corporations last year paid their chief executives more than they paid Uncle Sam in federal income taxes.
Nearly 400 people have been arrested at a sit-in outside the White House aimed at pressuring President Obama to deny the permit for a massive new oil pipeline. More are expected to join the daily civil disobedience over the coming days.
The protest camp proved a central part of the revolution in Egypt. It’s impossible to say where the movements built around the camps of Spain will lead, but it is totally clear that their methods are capable of transforming consciousness (particularly among the millenial generation), radicalizing participants and making a better future seem not only possible, but plausible. Camps have sprung up all across the world, and have strengthened protest movements and community activism wherever they’ve appeared.
Mountain Top Removal, Tar Sands and Fracking all seem far removed from the old green in the center of town. How are these crimes against the earth connected to the commons? Well, the drillers and scrapers and dynamiters, who are used to having their way, are now the subject of protest after protest being held in public commons around the world.
Two days after Standard and Poor’s downgraded US government bonds, David Llewellyn-Smith, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald noted, “We now face the ludicrous circumstance in which the United States government holds … a lower (credit) rating than Microsoft, despite issuing its own currency (the world’s reserve), being able to raise taxes when it chooses, owning a printing press and possessing no fewer than 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (ten of which are Nimitz class).”
A man is wise with the wisdom of his time only and ignorant with its ignorance. Observe how the greatest minds yield in some degree to the superstitions of their age. —Henry David Thoreau
Throughout human history societies have been informed and instructed by the superstitions of their age. For thousands of years we believed a single person—a king, a pharaoh, a high priest— should have life and death power over us. Any other social structure was unthinkable. We believed the gods that brought drought could be appeased only by animal and, sometimes, human sacrifice.
I’ve been walking around in state of disbelief since hearing about the 11th hour budget deal reached between the White House and Congressional Republicans. It feels like a transformative moment in our history, the economic equivalent of December 6, 1941 or August 6, 1945.
Being on the road, in meetings and interviews from breakfast to bedtime, I am out of touch with all the commentary in the media and the Internet. The deal comes up in conversation, but addressed more with a grimace and a shake of the head than with a detailed discussion.
The budget negotiations that led to the recent shutdown of the state government in Minnesota, where I live, are about much more than money. It’s even more than a battle over the role of taxes in society, or over social issues like stem cell research, a ban on which the Republican majority disingenuously attached to the budget bill.
The civil rights movement ended the legal basis of white supremacy in the U.S. several decades ago yet vast inequalities of wealth still persist, making equal rights a stubbornly elusive goal. There have been modest advances in reducing the Black-White income gap. But if African-American income continues to rise in the future at the same rate as they did between 1968 and 2001, it would take 581 years for black America to reach income parity with white America.
The civil rights movement ended the legal basis of white supremacy in the U.S. several decades ago yet vast inequalities of wealth still persist, making equal rights a stubbornly elusive goal. There have been modest advances in reducing the Black-White income gap. But if African-American income continues to rise in the future at the same rate as they did between 1968 and 2001, it would take 581 years for black America to reach income parity with white America.
“Water—whether we treat it as a public good or as a commodity that can be bought and sold—will in large part determine whether our future is peaceful or perilous.” — Maude Barlow, former water advisor to the UN General Secretary General
Day at the Museum: Scenario 1
You stroll down the sidewalk and come to the corner right across from the museum. The light turns red. Cars zip past. You push the pedestrian button on the light pole, and soon the light changes so you can get across.
Not everyone likes the word commons to describe the emerging wave of interest in protecting what belongs to all of us.
Here are some of the objections I’ve heard about the term:
• “Not to be totally punny, but the word is too common. You don’t want such an ordinary word describing something as important as the commons.”
• “It is too British. I live in New York City—we don’t do too much grazing here.”
• “It is so old-fashioned. When I hear it, I think I am going to have to endure a re-enactment of Ben Franklin or someone like that.”
I am always trying to figure out how to explain the idea of the commons to newcomers who find it hard to grasp. In preparation for a talk that I gave at the Caux Forum for Human Security, near Montreux, Switzerland, I came up with a fairly short overview, which I I think it gets to the nub of things.
The commons is….
*A social system for the long-term stewardship of resources that preserves shared values and community identity.
Since 1994 Robert Dawson, a photography instructor at San Jose State and Stanford, has visited more than 17,000 libraries coast-to-coast—some grand, most humble—to document the central role they play in the life of their communities. This summer he is crossing the country again with his son Walker to celebrate these national treasures. Follow his adventures and see new photos at Library Road Trip You can also make a contribution to his project.