What do you find hopeful in the world today?

The fall issue of Positive News US Edition features three of our speakers at Green Fest 2007 answering the question, "What do you find hopeful in the world today?" Here are their answers:

"Young people. Young people don't see the lines that divide us. The ones 'we' over forty were raised with. They see only humans....not ism's. That gives me hope that a better world is possible." SKCM Curry (Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza-Curry), Candidate for Green Party Vice Presidential nomination.

"In little pieces things are moving towards overall good. Little things keep adding up. And everything has a voice in this movement." Dan Hill, Cayuga Nation flute performer and storyteller.

"People are taking their right of self-governance seriously. They are engaging the struggle for real democracy and rewriting laws in service to their communities and public authority,. not property and corporate authority." Virginia Rasmussen, Co-founder of Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD).

The issue also features two articles by Steve Gabriel from Finger Lakes Permaculture, another speaker. Ilonka Wloch, the editor of Positive News was also one of our speakers.

On the Occasion of Remembering Susan Blake

A celebration of Susan Blake's life has been scheduled for Sun., Jan. 20 at 2pm at the Unitarian Fellowship in Shelter Rock, Long Island.

On the Occasion of Remembering Susan Blake
by Jean Wilkins Dember

In the time of white Jesus & other fables -
in the time of white out
of the "rich in hue" & sable
in the time of police killings
& the daily grind of T.V. gutless thrillings
in the time of the same superficiality,
proper & improper etiquette & banality
In the time of the crises
of poverty, racial inequity & genocide,
death still catches us by surprise
& we are reminded that some things are real
& no matter how some of us may feel
in this time we pause...
Did I know Susan Blake
I think most of would agree
she was not plastic & she was not fake!
Did I ever help her with lugging & hauling,
yard sales &
demonstrations that were her calling
Some of the old timers may recall
she had a humongous vision for someone so small -
she believed in the Peace
she worked for indefatiguably,
stretching small donations
to plant the seeds of change
on L.I. where the Indigenous reservations
are still out of range
of justice & equality
where 20% of the population
makes up 60% of the jail -
How could each one of us evolve?
when there are so many gritty issues to solve -
only by speaking truth to each other
as Susan & I did on each account
can we ever hope to really build
the love of the "Sermon on the Mount"

Jean Wilkins Dember, M.H. S.
Dec 7, 2007