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| <back | home Introduction by Bob Banner It’s always a challenge to create a balance between publishing material on problems that the mainstream hasn’t covered and publishing material that delves into solutions that keep hope alive and dancing. This issue features the work going on both domestically and internationally that is indicting Bush and company. We publish these findings and reports so the reader knows they exist and can act accordingly. Also, of course, we know that the war in Iraq has much to do with oil, but what the media has obfuscated is that the oil is running out (please see our special issue #47 a year ago on the end of oil). The connections among war, oil, oil depletion, our addiction to oil (and its hundreds of products for fuel and non-fuel uses) and the real solutions must be explored. Too often the media will jump on a quick-fix solution for gas price increases, for example, without in-depth analysis and the broader view. We will not as a nation ever subscribe voluntarily to a utopian, car-free, simple lifestyle. We will CHANGE only when our options are narrowed or removed. Right now things still appear fine and the simplicity alternative energy-sustainability pioneers and peak oil analysts still appear to be kooks and doom-and-gloom prophets. When gas goes over $3.50, life will still be relatively “normal.” But there will come a time when maybe, just maybe, the mainstream culture will be knocking on our doors asking us, “What was that you were writing about and talking about these past ten years or so? I was too distracted with life to notice. What is it exactly that will get us out of this morass?” Last week the SLO Tribune did call and asked me about renewable energy entrepreneurs, since they were told to do a story on global warming because the stats said people were concerned about the issue. Isn’t that working backwards? (You don’t wait for stats, you simply lead!) When we’re asked, hopefully, you and I and others will be prepared. Perhaps our conversations will involve some known solutions that have been veiled to others. Maybe we will have neighborhood parties and learn that FOOD has always been the most common of commonalities that simply strips away judgments we have of lifestyle, politics and religion. Perhaps the Republican down the street who is growing fantastic broccoli might become more attractive then that mocha latte at Starbucks! This issue of HopeDance, the fattest ever in these almost 10 years, covers these topics in depth (or if not in depth, web sites and the full stories are listed for you to research). A suggestion on HOW to read this paper: Please at least browse through all the pages, read the headlines, look at the photos, skim the ads, dog-ear those you wish to return to, place it again on the night stand or bathroom mag rack and come back to it. Keep it handy. It lasts two months. Don’t treat it like a daily or weekly. In many cases it might be your survival. Also remember that it takes about 400 hours to create a publication like this by committed people who seek change and wish to survive and experience joy living differently than the way handed down to us. Take time off to read and to learn new skills that actually will become vitally necessary in the years to come. Perhaps you can curb your hours at a job that might not have much of a future. Rather than work more, try to work less and prepare for the transition. We need interns, volunteers, ad reps, more film places, more MONEY. In fact this is our fundraising period. Please contribute. Please subscribe if you haven’t and/or renew and receive two free tickets to the Green Festival in San Francisco (see ad on the back cover). Attend the numerous festivals and conferences coming up in September and October in our own local area. Make new friends, new alliances, build bridges among members in our community, write reports about what you see happening and the changes that are occurring, We need all the help we can muster up not only to be aware of what’s going on but to act in effective ways toward meaningful change. Bob Banner <back | top^ |