COMMONS MAGAZINE
The Hyde Square Task Force, a youth organization working in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, made an assessment of improvements that local people want to see in their community. The Task Force then raised money and created new programs staffed by youth to fulfill the commons-based goals articulated by the community:
*Murals and other forms of public art
*Health-related education and training for youth
*Strong literacy among young people
*Community organizing efforts to address local problems
*Dance performances and other cultural events
The automobile has long been celebrated as a preeminent symbol of individual freedom. Whenever a politician or citizen group calls for redirecting our tax monies toward public transit, inter-city trains, walkable communities, bike lanes, and so forth, the automobile and highway lobbies sneer that such choices are “politically motivated” and threatening to our “freedom.”
The automobile has long been celebrated as a preeminent symbol of individual freedom. Whenever a politician or citizen group calls for redirecting our tax monies toward public transit, inter-city trains, walkable communities, bike lanes, and so forth, the automobile and highway lobbies sneer that such choices are “politically motivated” and threatening to our “freedom.”
Mr. Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, Distinguished Guests and Fellow Americans.
Let me begin with a cautionary note. I’m not here tonight to deliver a pep talk. If I’m interrupted with standing ovations I’ll know you’re not listening.
I’m here to offer some hard truths. The vast majority of you may not want to hear them. Many will reject them out of hand. Some may feel like rising out of your seats and shouting, “You Lie!” But I hope that in the days and weeks ahead as much light as heat will be generated from the conversations spurred by my remarks.
I went to the library the other day to return an overdue book of poems by W. S. Merwin, our current poet laureate.
I felt guilty because I’d been depriving other people of his wisdom and his art.
I felt guilty because I was hoarding a public good, part of the commons.
But the very idea of “the commons” is under assault these days from Republicans who want to privatize everything, and from the likes of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who denies that the commons even exists.
We need to reassert our claims to the commons, and we need to restore the concept of the public good.
“I believe that for all of our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.”
These words from President Obama struck a chord with many Americans, even those—on both the right and left—who remain skeptical of his policies on health care, war, economic policy, the role of government and more.
Fans of the Web site Hyperlocavore know there’s more than just sugar, saws and snow blowers that we share with our neighbors. They discuss the advantages of sharing our yards, from a bit of soil for a flower bed to an entire garden, which can connect neighbors, improve our gardening skills and help us to eat more healthy homegrown foods.
At the dawn of the broadcasting era, the government declared that the airwaves belonged to the public and fashioned rules to protect the public interest. Broadcasters paid no money for their licenses; in return license renewals depended on whether the station served the public interest. Broadcasters were “public trustees.” As the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), explained, “It is as if people of a community should own a station and turn it over to the best man in sight with this injunction: ‘Manage this station in our interest.’”
Life here in the desert southwest is richly complex and oftentimes a great challenge. A hint of frontier culture remains even as rampant growth and homogenization take hold at breakneck speed. People love the landscapes and the history, but can still sit and watch both disappear in the name of “progress.” At times it seems as if a strange double consciousness exists here, nowhere more prominently than in our relationship to water.
David Bollier, a fellow of On The Commons since 2004 and founding editor of OnTheCommons.org, is embarking upon two new commons projects.
2010 was a difficult year in many ways, with the economy still down, two wars raging in the Middle East, and an anti-commons message prevailing in the midterm elections. Yet awareness of the commons continues to take hold at the grassroots level, both as a new worldview arising to counter the usual Yo-Yo (You’re Own Your Own) message and as a way of life for many people who are finding life is richer when they cooperate with their friends and neighbors . Here’s a list of the five favorite commons stories among OTC readers during 2010.
These are uneasy times for anyone who believes that “liberty and justice for all” still has meaning in modern America.
Triumphant Tea Partiers don their work gloves in anticipation of dismantling three generations of hard-won social progress on Capitol Hill and in the nation’s statehouses. The drumbeat throughout the media is that we have been recklessly profligate in social spending, and simply cannot afford to help the poor, heal the environment or invest in anything besides the Pentagon.
Although the recession officially ended a year and a half ago, this is still a very difficult holiday season for millions of us. Job losses left 8 million people looking for work at some point over the past three years; and even those who held on to their jobs lost their savings due to declining home values and retirement accounts.
After the Macondo well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, it was easy enough (on your choice of screen) to see a flaming oil platform, the very sea itself set afire with huge plumes of black smoke rising, and the dark smear of what would become five million barrels of oil beginning to soak birds and beaches.
It’s become a cliché that Portland is America’s most livable city, a hotbed of innovations when it comes to green policies, public spaces, pedestrian amenities, transit, public spaces, and, of course, bicycles. In fact some people are growing weary (and the rest of us envious) of hearing about how great things are in Oregon’s largest city.
For all those who dismissed bike sharing as a woolly-headed European idea that would never work on the mean streets of U.S. cities, the success of the first season of MinneapolisNice Ride bike program will come as a surprise.
A couple of years ago, I ran into a colleague at the Oratorio Singers of Charlotte and Charlotte Symphony’s performance of Handel’s “Messiah”. As we chatted he said he never stands for the “Hallelujah” chorus and gets annoyed that audiences so mindlessly do.
Minneapolis, Minn., December 17, 2010 ~ The commons marks the rediscovery of an old truth: a wealth of valuable assets belong to all of us, from clean air and water to the Internet and public spaces. A new movement is emerging as people from all walks of life—web savvy young people, Greens, communities throughout the global South, Greens, justice advocates and concerned citizens everywhere—find the commons a powerful tool for making a better world. A new book on the topic offers the gift of optimism, just in time for the holidays.
This week, 75 years and 4 months since Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, a Democratic president is ignoring his wisdom and abandoning his strategy for protecting the program from shifting political winds. This could mark the beginning of the end of Social Security as we have known it.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt regarded the Social Security Act as the cornerstone of the New Deal. “I think he took greater satisfaction from it than from anything else he achieved on the domestic front”, observed his Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins.
Peek in anyone’s home and I’m sure you’ll find a slew of outdated items and raggedy goods lying about. Most people may be inclined to toss these derelict items into their trash but the ReUseConnection is attempting to transform people’s thinking about their seemingly useless things.