COMMONS MAGAZINE
From the Wolf News Information Link
Posted: August 3, 2035 2:38 p.m.
Imagine if your car is stolen and you walk into the nearest police station (they didn’t answer the phone) to discover that it is now a privately run company.
That’s the storyline of a brilliant sketch from the BBC comedy show “A Bit of Fry & Laurie.” But in these days of rampant privatization in the UK, one wonders if it’s really a joke. (Thanks to Jon Spayde for turning it up.)
“See it here”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLfghLQE3F4
“Saving the Great Lakes Forever” was the rallying cry of the recent conference held May 6-7 in Traverse City, Michigan and hosted by the FLOW coalition (For the Love of Water). On the Commons staff Alexa Bradley and Faye Brown joined water activists from around Lake Michigan and beyond to talk about ways to protect these waters and our communities from a multitude of threats: from privatization and bottling to pollution, over-extraction and hydro-fracking.
Imagine if your car is stolen and you walk into the nearest police station (they didn’t answer the phone) to discover that it’s now a privately run company.
That’s the storyline of a brilliant sketch from the BBC comedy show “A Bit of Fry & Laurie.” But in these days of rampant privatization in the UK, one wonders if it’s really a joke.
“See it here”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLfghLQE3F4
Despite sunny skies in what has been an unusually gray Portland spring, more than 200 people spent a Saturday afternoon indoors to celebrate all they share at the Oregon Commons Convergence May 7.
Unlike the public sector, the private sector is bred for efficiency. Left to its own devices, it will always find the means to provide services faster, cheaper, and more effectively than will governments.
From the Wolf Network Information Link
26 May 2035 1:15:29 p.m.
CATO, TX (USA)— Libertarians, with their revulsion of government and worship of greedy individualism, dominated politics in the U.S. from the 1980s until the second decade of the 21st Century.
Their mission was to dismantle nearly all government programs outside of the military, law enforcement, corporate subsidies and highway building. They deemed the public sector outmoded and dangerous— a threat to our economic liberties and future prosperity.
From the Wall Street Journal-Fox-National Review Information Link
26 May 2035 1:15:29 p.m.
PLATO, TX (USA)— Libertarians, with their revulsion of government and worship of greedy individualism, dominated politics in the U.S. from the 1980s until the second decade of the 21st Century.
Their mission was to dismantle nearly all government programs outside of the military, law enforcement, corporate subsidies and highway building. They deemed the public sector outmoded and dangerous— a threat to our economic liberties and future prosperity.
From the Wall Street Journal-Fox-National Review Information Link
26 May 2035 1:15:29 p.m.
CATO, TX (USA)— Libertarians, with their revulsion of government and worship of greedy individualism, dominated politics in the U.S. from the 1980s until the second decade of the 21st Century.
Their mission was to dismantle nearly all government programs outside of the military, law enforcement, corporate subsidies and highway building. They deemed the public sector outmoded and dangerous— a threat to our economic liberties and future prosperity.
From the Wolf Network Information Link
26 May 2035 1:15:29 p.m.
CATO, TX (USA)— Libertarians, with their revulsion of government and worship of greedy individualism, dominated politics in the U.S. from the 1980s until the second decade of the 21st Century.
Their mission was to dismantle nearly all government programs outside of the military, law enforcement, corporate subsidies and highway building. They deemed the public sector outmoded and dangerous— a threat to our economic liberties and future prosperity.
Maude Barlow— co-chair of the Council of Canadians and co-author of the International bestseller about water, Blue Gold— has issued a comprehensive report about the future of the Great Lakes. She advocates that the Great Lakes and all its tributaries be recognized as a commons, a protected bioregion and a public trust.
“The word ‘Shift’ implies a willingness to think radically different – to see the abundance of possibilities that come with change. We need to tap the collective good for the good of everyone.” —Julie Ristau, Co-Director, On the Commons
"The word 'public' has been removed from the name of the Fort Worth Library.
Why? Simply put, to keep up with the times."
From the Media release on the rebranding of the Fort Worth Library
Personal Life
1. Challenge the prevailing myth that all problems have private, individualized solutions.
2. Notice how many of life’s pleasures exist outside the marketplace—gardening, fishing, conversing, playing music, playing ball, making love, enjoying nature and more.
3. Take time to enjoy what the commons offers. (As the radical Brazilian educator Paulo Freire once declared, “We are bigger than our schedules.”)
4. Introduce the children in your life to the commons. Let them see you enjoying it, and working with others to sustain it.
To mark the one year anniversary of the disastrous BP oil spill, a small group of Indigenous women, elders and youth gathered at sunrise on April 20 in Gulfport, Mississippi and began walking more than 1,430 miles north to Lake Superior in Wisconsin. Carrying a pail of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico, they will walk forty miles a day for over six weeks to reach their destination.
For Republican presidential candidates the phrase American Exceptionalism has taken on almost talismanic qualities. Newt Gingrich’s new book is titled, A Nation Like No Other: Why American Exceptionalism Matters. “American the Exceptional” is the title of a chapter in Sarah Palin’s book America by Heart.
Biology is destiny, declared Sigmund Freud.
But if Freud were around today, he might say “design is destiny”—especially after taking a stroll through most American cities.
It is the tradition at World Social Forums (WSF) to focus a considerable amount of time, energy, resources and attention on issues faced by people in the host region and country. The 2011 World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal that I had the privilege of attending was no different.
The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.
Thomas Donohue, Former President AFL-CIO