An unfortunate choice of words
EDITOR: Thanks for keeping up coverage during the pandemic. I want to comment on an unfortunate choice of words in your April 16 article (“Seed bank invests in gardeners,” April 15), characterizing Transition US as an “apocalyptic environmental movement,” conjuring visions of camo-clad survivalist hoarders.
I am hoping readers will look into the worldwide Transition movement, in which each locality tries initiatives to increase local sustainability — in many ways, including saving seeds. With the current crisis, we are already seeing people stepping up to help each other locally. Check out transitionsus.org and transitionsebastopol.org, and I hope to see a feature article soon on this important tool for our future.
Rebecca Dwan
Sebastopol
A slur on a vital movement
EDITOR: It is true that the Transition Movement would say that the course of Western civilization has been like a runaway train, gobbling up the earth’s resources and spewing out a toxic mess. It has recently proven true that we need to be more resilient—but “fending” for ourselves has never been a part of the Transition Movement ethos.
At its heart, the Transition Movement is about fostering community resilience such as building and supporting a flourishing local economy with shortened and more localized supply chains and that support local entrepreneurs. It’s about neighbors getting to know neighbors and engaging in projects like Transition Streets to lower household energy, water and waste and reduce annual utility bills, or Ready Together, which helps clusters of neighbors in getting prepared for emergencies of any kind. It’s about Seed Exchanges, community art, and convening conversations where we take stock of what we have and what we need. It’s about generating a community roadmap and then taking collective action to build our cities and towns according to the visions and needs of the people who live there.
In this time of COVID-19, the Transition Movement could not be more relevant. We are in a forced pause — a possible time for reflection and for reimagining the world we want to live in. What does that really look like on your street? In Sebastopol? In the nation?
This time is an inflection point for our global community and with it comes extreme pressures. Will we emerge from this into a world that works for life? Or into a world in which we continue to destroy? Will we slide back into an industrial civilization or forward into an ecological one?
The Transition Movement would recommend that we first imagine the world we want, create on-the-ground examples of what that would look like, build the skills needed, inspire others into action, and instead of bouncing back to where we were before, bounce forward into something much better.
Yes, it is a tall order, but one we must succeed at. By engaging practical optimism, having the heart to envision the path, then wholeheartedly realizing the destination, we will get there.
Visit our website at transitionus.org, join our newsletter and stay inspired.
Sincerely,
Carolyne Stayton
Executive Director
Transition US
There they go again
EDITOR: Alanna Brogan (Palm Drive executive director) is still jockeying to misdirect Measure W money that was intended for our former hospital. Her continuing efforts to use significant Palm Drive property tax revenues for purposes other than paying down the staggering debt for the hospital we no longer own takes real cojones.
Taxpayers are fed up with this kind of in-your-eye diversion of our tax dollars to suit bureaucrats’ personal interests. Most of us will vote no on every tax measure until this kind of backroom misappropriation of our money stops.
Shame on Brogan, who is supposed to be focusing her time on the Palm Drive District dissolution, not finding more surreptitious ways to spend our money. The District Board should fire her and get on with the dissolution.
Nancy Hair
Sebastopol
How to pass the time
EDITOR: Thanks for your newsy edition!
A couple of other ideas of how one might help during the Corona quarantine:
•            Help local small businesses by buying a certificate to use in the future, or to give as a gift.
•            Review your list of long delayed good intentions and make progress accomplishing them.
I plan to review my disaster supplies, especially the food stores. I will use up the items that are getting older, and make lists of items I use up and those I want to add. Nutrition experts have told us that you can eat food that is past the sellby date, so long as the containers are not open, bulging, or rusty.
Other easy things to put into your disaster kit:
•            paper towels and a couple of rolls of toilet paper
•            matches or lighters
•            old glasses that still help your vision, even if not perfectly
•            serviceable warm and sturdy clothes and shoes
•            policy numbers and contact info for your insurance policies
You might solicit other ideas for how to spend quarantine time from other readers.
Be well.
Gale Brownell
