Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
You work for peace because “it’s a moral responsibility to oppose the war machine. And as long as there’s a chance and you’re working at what has the best chance of succeeding, you have to do it.”
It’s as simple — and as bedeviling — as that. In other words, we have to give peace a chance.
In addition to a global-north induced climate crisis, the scale of Pakistan’s floods has been exacerbated by hydrological infrastructures built over centuries by western imperialism and allied local elites.
In other words – let’s give every drop of our sweat and spirit into pondering and practicing – making civic and political engagement/reimagination a core value in our teachings.
Taoist sages proclaimed, “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” Don’t just respect limits; celebrate them and work in harmony with them.
As the authors emphasize, people like Henry Keane who can lean on supportive connections in times of stress are much better able to cope with the numerous trials that invariably confront us all during the course of our lives. In contrast, isolation can be damaging to long-term health.
With two world summits on the global environment at the end of last year – COP27 and COP15 – there should have been the prospect of an immediate impact on the looming disaster of climate breakdown.
Communication is homo sapiens’ greatest strength, yet paradoxically also its greatest weakness.
Tactical Urbanist’s Guide defines guerilla urbanism as “a city, organizational, and/or citizen-led approach to neighborhood building using short-term, low-cost, and scalable interventions to catalyze long-term change.”
Processes like climate assemblies provide one way to build a democracy where more people have a stake in the decisions we all take about our future.
So don’t go by the book. Go by the garden. Learn what is there and how it fits into its community. Then fit yourself into that community.
May we continue to embrace King’s powerful advice that we pursue multiple, connected lanes in order to achieve racial justice and multiracial democracy.
But I like a scenario in which the heroic masses reach the end of their tolerance before that happens. They—we—rebel, withdraw, dismantle, and replace the evil practices with more ethical ones while the planet is still livable.
