In the US right now, the health care “debate” is raging and town hall meetings being held across the country are being deliberately hijacked by those who don’t want to see reform go ahead. This tactic is discouraging but predictable. “Town Hall” meetings are not usually conducive to democratic deliberation, and they are never about dialogue. Over the past few days an amazing conversation has unfolded on the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation listserv about what these events mean for deliberative democracy. Tom Atlee has summarized a lot of the learning from these in a long blog post which …
I have updated my music pages and finally migrated them here. Go visit if you want to learn about my musical history, watch some videos and listen to a few tracks and sound samples from my musical career.
One of the people in this video, Kathryn, is a friend of mine. Have a gander at what she is saying, which is that due to a preexisting medical condition in her young son, there is no way she ever return to live in the US, because his condition would bankrupt her. I travel and work a lot in the US and two things always stand out to me about the lack of public health care in the US. First, many people I know have been kept from doing truly interesting work because they have had to remain slaves to …
Goodness that came my way this past week: Norma Flores, a participant on our Food and Society Conference core team this year, has a blog about her work for farmworker justice. Brad Ovenell-Carter and the void of voids. Dave Pollard shares a travelouge from Joanna Macy in the Tar Sands Also from Dave, The Transition Initiative. Dojo Rat on his practice over the next 50 years.