We Americans are drowning in a sea of goods from excessive

commercialism. Can we confront and address this condition and do

so in a balanced manner, that is, one where we show the seriousness

of the situation and yet remain light-hearted? Yes, success is

possible provided we work together and perform meaningful actions

on a wide variety of fronts that are individually-directed,

community-oriented, and involve regionally, nationally and globally

concerted efforts. Our goal should include reaffirming our

American freedom and constitutional democracy, which have been

systematically threatened by the growing influence of multinational

corporations.



Brevity. I'll keep this brief even though on other issues I do

speak at length. My thesis is that, if we expose the absurdity of

commercialism, we can dilute its impact and find imaginative

solutions that will work in the long run. If it weren't that crass

commercialism is global in scope and is enticing many in developing

countries, we would say the current commercial situation is

ludicrous. But the dead seriousness in which the Cato Institute,

the World Bank, Wall Street and Advertising Age take their world

mission only prods us the more to do the opposite. We're not being

frivolous; we just make light of ourselves for allowing such a

commercial system to spawn, thrive, and entrap us. Let's keep our

cool while we turn on the heat.



An Invitation for Comments. The following list of suggestions

is our current best endeavor, but it certainly can be improved

through insights and suggestions. It is one way to shake the

public from the addiction of consumer products. However, addicted

consumers have some creativity left, which, when coupled with a

light-hearted spirit, may confront this wretched system paralyzing

so many of us. It will take a united effort to topple the idols of

commercialism, preserve and enhance the environment, keep our

sanity, enter into solidarity with others throughout the world, and

enjoy this activity all the while.



Arrangement. We move from the individual action to the more

global ones without trying to say that one is more or less

important than another category. The order within sub-sections is

random and without any judgment as to relative importance of

individual entries. They are more or less arranged according to

when discovered. Choose from the selections those which you can

better perform with your own limited resources. We can't do

everything, but we can do some things well.



-- Al Fritsch, SJ









INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS



1. BOLSTER WILL POWER -- This first challenge is perhaps the most

difficult. It involves the overcoming of our addictions whether of a

chemical, consumer product, media, or other nature. As we gain self-

control we acquire self-confidence and an ability to use our creativity

to assist those around us whether near or far. We begin to understand

the situation and see ourselves as part of the problem whether by

commission or omission. If necessary, we can attend AA meeting or

other related group gatherings, and we can seek and find proper

spiritual direction from a balanced friend. We can't stand alone but

need assistance from a Power greater than ourselves. Armed with self-

knowledge and Divine assistance we are more able to confront the

crushing power of over-commercial interests. By ourselves we are weak;

with God's help we can overcome the seemingly insurmountable.



Experience: I give several retreats a year though not as many as

in the past. These retreatants plus my parishioners in two parishes

hear much about the need to enhance our will power.



2. DON'T BUY -- An important anti-commercial challenge is to

refrain from going out to acquire more things. However, we have got to

fight the sheer panic of commercial pressure. Plan before you shop and

refrain from impulse buying. Check at home to see what you already

have that you may have simply forgotten about having at home. This

planning strengthens the will power to refrain from acquiring. If

items are not needed, don't get them. Reuse, exchange, take what

another doesn't want, and be cautious about purchasing.



Experience: Post a shopping list and add to it when needs arise.

I suffer from the impulse to buy but find the list quite helpful. I

seek to refrain at least until prices come down. And I observe making

no commercial purchases on the day after Thanksgiving as well as not

purchasing on Sundays.



3. THROW BACK JUNK MAIL -- Conquering junk mail (a minor problem)

is a challenge showing us that we can become successful in major

difficulties. The amount of junk mail is overwhelming and depressing;

it creates a messy situation where it collects; it requires disposing;

and it contributes to the depletion of our threatened forests. This

challenge offers quick success. One plan involves collecting junk mail

for a month. Selecting the franked return envelope from the sending

group you dislike most and attach it to a box containing the month's

worth of junk mail. The cost will be several dollars for the original

sender, and it is almost a guarantee that one will not send it again to

you. Forget about clearinghouses which are meant to notify junk mail

senders. Our direct action works far better, and is a success.

Furthermore, postal workers play a valuable part in this vote of no-

confidence for junk mailers.



Experience: It's a pleasure to return junk mail. I have insisted

on the policy of never trade or sell a mailing list, for this is

confidential matter. Certainly there could be profit in trading the

list, but that would be going against the trust of supporters. I have

actually returned metal items to disliked senders in pre-9-11 days.

Today that becomes a problem for a tolerant postal worker who lets such

items through. Far better is focusing on paper products alone.



4. VOTE -- The challenge in our complacent democratic society is to

get the people out to vote. First we have to resolve to do it

ourselves, especially in local and off-year elections when turnout is

light. Major differences occur among politicians that are often hard

to determine and that requires some attention to campaigns -- an

increasingly hard task due to the sophistication and escalating price

of 21st century publicity and promotion. None of these are perfect and

so we must attempt to choose the better one among a slate of

candidates. It is not enough to resolve to vote; let's encourage

others to get out and vote as well. If we vote intelligently, changes

may occur, or at least have a better chance to occur. We begin to take

our democracy more seriously.



Experience: Voting is very important both in Appalachia and

throughout our country and world. I have always attempted to vote even

when I know the vote is a mere protest against a sure winner. The

right to vote is too precious to take lightly.



5. MAKE YOUR VIEWS KNOWN -- The challenge is not to hold it in; we

are psychologically more healthy if we try to say what is on our mind.

Commercialism has a grasp on people in all walks of life. Infants are

being taught from the first TV viewing; youngsters are targeted with

placement of favorite cereals at the bottom of supermarket shelves;

teens are caught up in MTV and in fashion purchases. Adults have their

toys in the form of expensive speed boats, off-road vehicles, and

sports cars and vans. Let's speak up amid the commercial noise and let

our word be placed properly. Say what you think at parties or at the

dinner table about the dangers of over-commercialism to our national

moral fabric; lobby a favorite bill or write or phone your

congresspersons about pertinent legislation; encourage others to create

their missives and to participate as well; send letters to the editor

or e-mails to the media. All of our opinions are important.



Experience: Resolve to make your views known at least once every

three months in some manner. That is my individual goal and I attempt

to keep it. However, on some issues we may have to become far more

intensely engaged during a shorter period of time.



6. PUBLISH ON THE INTERNET -- The challenge is to expand individual

communications to publication and the Internet -- the citizen's

publishing house. We soon realize that mass commercialism means that

publishing firms target celebrity and sensationalism as part of

dumbing-down people. Those with meaningful things to say are often

drowned out and denied a voice through the selectivity of the

publishing and electronic media. In such circumstances it is hard to

remain enthusiastic. The Internet's access to a broader audience is a

promising device, for it has not succumbed yet to corporate or

governmental interests. Writers, who are frozen out of large

publishing firms, have a new outlet for public discourse. Search

engines can find your issue quite quickly. We only need recall the

late 18th century early American historic struggle for a free press

waged by Ben Franklin's grandson and others in the Philadelphia Aurora,

and other non-Federalist newspapers. Remember that the infamous Alien

and Sedition Laws threatened and nearly overcame the constitutional

freedom of the press. Let's champion free access to the Internet.



Experience: This website <www.earthhealing.info> has enough

materials to keep most visitors busy. If they need more, we have links

to many other valuable sites. We currently have a visiting rate of

about one and a half million visits per year and hope to expand this in

the coming year through interspersing more pertinent photographs among

the Daily Reflections.



7. JOIN PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS -- The challenge is to work together

on local environmental problems with public interest groups. The

larger groups with few exceptions have six-figured salaried directors

and a temptation to take over local issues and group achievements.

Often local groups are more in touch with issues, have better contacts

with decision makers, know how to engage others in work or celebration,

and can muster local support more easily. However, some national

groups are worthy of support as well. One is well worth mentioning,

Public Citizen, which does an excellent job. This Washington-based

group offers a host of actions worth considering, and the group invites

readers to participate through letter-writing, signing, supporting, and

lobbying. We are often reminded that the public interest can easily be

damaged by the immense power of special commercial interests. A lack

of public interest opens the door to totalitarian repression by a

fearful government. Terrorists are becoming modern Paul Reveres by

throwing monkey wrenches at an ever more vulnerable complex technical

system. A fragile democracy can best be preserved by making sure the

marginalized have a voice in civic affairs so they don't resort to

violence.



Experience: As a member of Public Citizen, I can vouch for how

dedicated and consistent both the president, Joan Claybrook, and the

founder, Ralph Nader, have been throughout the past three decades.

Visit their website and find out for yourself <www.citizen.org>, or

send in a donation by letter to 1600 20th Street, N.W., Washington, DC

20009.



8. ORGANIZE A YARD SALE -- We are challenged to do more than

individual acts that are hidden and personal like voting and returning

junk mail. We can go public and reduce throwaways through bringing

ecologically sound commerce to our front yards and local parking lots.

A yard sale is a public statement that we want to trade with others and

to share unwanted or surplus materials with those looking for a

bargain. Here is an opportunity to hone in on social skills, offer a

place to trade stories, and participate in social life, as well as

reducing one's inventory of furnishings, fixtures, clothes, books and

what is sometimes classified as "junk." We can become lean by being

cheerful, not mean. We might even dissuade others from engaging in a

favorite modern sport -- malling, or strolling through mall stores in

search of bargain. A yard sale is low-pressure commercialism and may

even involve giving items to those who are financially hard pressed.

Some people want frequent wardrobe changes in order to remain

fashionably dressed. Often they discard usable garments and then feel

guilty and take them to second-hand stores or yard sales.



Experience: I believe in the value of yard sales more than the

fact I frequent them. That is partly because I may end up buying what

I don't need. When someone has a shopping list and takes that to a

yard sale, that is salutary; to simply perform a miniature malling

exercise is not. However, I did organize an end of academic year yard

sale at Marquette University during my sabbatical stay in 1998 as an

ecological project by the students.



9. SHOW BUMPER STICKERS -- Answer the challenge of the current

closing of access to the air waves from public use. Think of doing

this in places of maximum public display, namely, on bumper stickers.

This may be done positively by adding good stickers to vehicles --

those promoting the public interest on a wide range of social justice

and environmental issues. Some of us do not like to clutter up our

vehicles, because a multitude of stickers make reading more difficult.

Only select stickers say it well and are brief and clear. "If you read

this you are too d----- close" is short but gets to the point quite

well. The negative sticker (a "don't" to be placed over a "do") has

some value provided you don't get caught putting them on in the ball

park before or after the game has started. Sometimes a cute sticker

just fits the vehicle even when it is not yours. But be careful with

your generosity for it may not be appreciated.



Experience: I find that thinking up good bumper stickers is a

mental exercise when on road trips or when having spare time. Getting

someone to print or distribute these gems is a far harder task. People

would rather put them on small items (books or suitcases). The one I

put on in 2003 just before the Iraq invasion was torn off along with a

vandalizing threat that made me see how much these can be political and

social statements.



10. CREATE ANTI-COMMERCIALS -- The challenge is to make a

caricature of familiar television or radio commercials. This can be

done in school and scouting skits, in conversation, and in special

writings. Be aware that commercial interests may take this seriously

and even threaten to sue. The local fireside is an ideal place to

purge ourselves of the pervasive influence of commercials. Through the

game process we help generate a low credibility for things which richly

deserves the gutter -- most high pressure, loud, gaudy, addictive

advertisements. Today the credibility of most ads has sunk to low

levels, but the very young, the gullible, the new immigrant seeking to

assimilate American culture, and the mentally less fortunate are all

prime targets for the advertising world. So are the rest of us in our

more relaxed moments. Exposing idols through anti-commercials can be

fun and serve a very useful prophetic purpose. Turn the tables on the

commercial interests and tie up their lines and e-mail with your own

creative anti-commercials.



Experience: I answer the phone to credit card and phone peddlers

by goofy and odd-ball responses. Don't you know credit cards are

sinful? We hope such responses generate conversation among the sending

groups who must have a boring life at the phones. And the list of

actual comments is growing to where one could have a one-act skit of

good sayings.





LIFESTYLE CHANGES



11. USE RENEWABLE ENERGY -- The challenge facing Americans is to

wean ourselves away from the umbilical cord of the large utility

companies. This can be partly or totally done through such solar or

wind applications as solar photovoltaics and electricity produced by

wind turbines, through solar hot water heating, space heating, food

cooking, food drying, solar greenhouses and water pumping systems.

While the movement from non-renewables (coal, gas and oil) to renewable

energy sources cannot be done in a day, still some applications can be

more easily installed than others. Begin with solar food ovens or

solar photovoltaic path lights. Advance to installing solar hot water

systems, which can replace a high portion of domestic non-space heating

and cooling energy.



Experience: Setting up the Appalachia-Science in the Public

Interest (ASPI) physical facilities involved using renewable energy for

space heating (wood fuel and solar gain). The Mount Vernon office uses

solar energy collected in the adjacent solar greenhouse to give about

40% of the space heating in winter, and solar arrays add electricity

through a net metering program and to run the ventilation system. See

ASPI Technical Papers 4, Solar Greenhouses; 9, Breadbox Solar Water

Heaters; 6, Solar Food Dryer; 1, Solar Box Cooker; and 49, Solar

Photovoltaics.



12. BUILD A CISTERN -- The challenge facing people experiencing

severe droughts is to design, encourage and use appropriate

technologies, which are independent of community water supplies. We

can save water by catching runoff from roofs during rainy seasons. The

traditional centralized utility structure allows for ease of control as

opposed to multiple cisterns, wells and other individual water sources,

which are less capable of being monitored. Consider reducing your

dependence on distant water sources by building a cistern, which can be

ample storage, sturdy, and free from exterior contamination through a

special sealing process. This collected water can be used for house

and garden plants and, through proper safeguards, as potable water.

The rainwater quality is generally far superior to chlorinated

municipal water.



Experience: The ASPI cisterns, which we designed and built, have

furnished plentiful supplies of water even during the periodic

droughts. There is a finite amount of water in a cistern, but the

limited supply can withstand sizeable droughts through proper domestic

water conservation measures. If the utilities fail and the municipal

water pumps stop, the trusty cisterns are always there. See ASPI

Technical Paper 3, Cisterns.



13. CONSIDER LOCALLY BUILT DRY COMPOSTING TOILETS -- The

challenge is to popularize well-built and well-maintained dry

composting toilets (CT). Unfortunately, some CTs that have too small

a capacity have been built in the very difficult arena of public places

(parks, playgrounds, etc.). These receive sporadic heavy use that can

easily overload the system. Individualized homesteads have better

controls over these composting devices. The CT can easily be built at

low cost; it is easy to maintain and can be maintained so as to avoid

an unpleasant odor; it saves half of the domestic water used in the

average home; it furnishes a rich humus material in a very short time

which can be used to fertilize trees and flowers (and edible vegetable

plants with proper precautions). Locally built systems allow

construction money to remain and be circulated in poorer communities.



Experience: ASPI has installed three commercial dry composting

toilets and has designed and built five others. Likewise the

associated greywater effluent from three residences are connected to

artificial wetlands. See ASPI Technical Paper 2, Compost Toilets; 30,

Artificial or Constructed Wetlands; and 41, Humanure.



14. EAT LOWER ON THE FOOD CHAIN -- The ongoing challenge is to be

watchful of one's diet and eat foods which require less resources to

produce: vegetables instead of meat; chicken and fish instead of pork

and beef; eggs from free-ranging chickens rather than corporate farm-

produced eggs; whole grains instead of bakery prepared products; bulk

foods rather than individually packaged items; dried foods rather than

frozen ones; and locally and seasonally produced items rather than

those produced in distant places. The non-renewable resource (how much

oil, gas, nuclear, or coal it takes to produce, process, and ship)

contained in a particular food item varies immensely. It often takes

as much to produce the bottle as the contents or the TV food tray

package as the served food. Eat less fast food and return the litter

to the parking lot of the fast food logo. Buy less packaged food and

more bulk produce such as whole grains, lentils, cabbage, and dried

beans.



Experience: We find that gardening can furnish a sizeable portion

of fresh vegetables and herbs throughout the growing season, and even

beyond, with careful use of seasonal protective materials such as cold

frames.



15. TURN BLACKTOP INTO GARDEN -- The challenge is to turn urban

areas or recreation space into productive gardens. Raised beds allow

for intensive gardening and the foliage overlapping walkways during the

summer productive season. These raised beds should be organic (no

commercial chemical pesticides or fertilizers) and yielding high

quality crops that can be consumed right at home. Interplanting with

flowers add color, protect from certain pests, and attract bees,

butterflies and curious neighbors. Domestic gardens can be quite

artistic with the mosaic changing by the week. If properly done,

domestic gardening enhances spiritual well-being, adds to personal

enjoyment, affords physical exercise, offers a social opportunity, and

furnishes a steady supply of nutritious food without the transportation

and preservation costs associated with distant commercial produce.



Experience: While directing the ASPI operation, we turned a

portion of a paved parking lot next to the Mount Vernon office into a

productive garden yielding over 1,400 pounds of vegetables on the one-

twentieth of an acre of raised bed plots for a number of years. See

ASPI Technical Paper 46, Backyard Gardens: The Last Frontier.



16. SHARE ALTERNATIVE GIFTS -- The challenge is to give gifts that

reflect more of ourselves and less from a commercial outlet. Items

produced or services performed by individuals have far more meaning to

the one receiving the gift, e.g., home-baked goods, picked berries,

visits on regular occasions, yard work for the elderly, donations to a

worthy cause in the name of someone, and dedicated poetry to or offered

prayers for an special person. Christmas have been turned into a

materialistic orgy with mountains of once-used wrappings and a large

array of expensive items, some of which have little or no use. The

economic forces attempt to get people to start shopping for gifts at

Thanksgiving or even before.



Children should be encouraged to become involved in gift sharing.

They should be encouraged to share unused (or even favorite) toys or to

donate one to a more needy child when they receive one for themselves.

Otherwise they can soon become quite selfish gift receivers bent on

acquiring more and more. Adults need to share as well underused items

such as garden tools or devices used but once a year (kraut cutter,

wine press, or chain saw) with others in one's immediate neighborhood.



Experience: The ASPI Simple Lifestyle Calendar encourages others

to give volunteer time to worthy causes in Appalachia. This has also

encouraged through our Daily Reflections and homilies near the end of

the year and the gift-giving holidays.



17. BUILD YOUR OWN HOUSE -- Challenges can be humorous but, if you

start house-building for the first time, there are intermingled tears

of joy and sadness. Some general pointers on simple living methods

that will keep housing costs low and use less resources: keep

construction plans as simple as possible; build the most essential

portions of the building first and plan to construct additions over the

next one or two decades, rather than all at once; use native building

materials where possible (don't build a straw bale house if you don't

have a source of local straw or it is too humid); look for recycled

building or what are called deconstruction materials from structures

being torn down; don't design fashionable tall ceilings or high attic

space, if you plan to heat or cool the entire house; and keep home

construction away from mortgage hounds by doing the task yourself.

Additional pointers include keeping as many mature and healthy trees

for shade or wind barriers as possible, positioning the building for

maximum solar gain in summer; protect the windward sides as much as

possible by earth or vegetation; and go at least partly underground in

a portion of the house to reduce heating and cooling costs.



Experience: When growing up my dad and our family built about a

dozen houses, one each summer. While directing ASPI I have helped

design and build five dwellings using native materials and including

cisterns and compost toilets: a two-story solar frame house; a

cordwood log building; a cordwood covered mobile home; a frame one-

story traditional building from native materials; and a semi-

underground apartment with accompanying yurt as bedroom. See ASPI

Technical Papers 5, Cordwood Buildings; 8, The Yurt: An Excellent Low-

cost House; and 40, ASPI Solar House.



18. TAKE AN ALTERNATIVE VACATION -- The challenge is to find

vacation time that satisfies us and yet does not require costly travel,

motels, and the vast outlays to the tourist industry. So many consumer

havens like Disneyland near Orlando, Florida, or the strip malls and

trinket stores of Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, Tennessee become traps to

take money and return a limited change of scenery and entertainments

that could be substituted at far less expense and time. Traveling on

the byways or house-sitting for a relative can be a change of location

and pace and yet allow for a limited amount of activity that is

relaxing. Enjoyed vacations means changes of pace, different patterns

of life, new places, and new ventures.



Vacation alternatives to long hours of travel could involve: doing

service for others such as building Habitat for Humanity housing;

taking time off to learn a hobby; furthering one's education by

attending an Elderhostel class; allowing home care givers to take a

vacation; or house-sitting for others. Also consider an alternative

vacation through virtual travel, i.e., getting a travel tape and plug

into the VCR, settling back with popcorn and having an evening or

longer entertainment; no trips to the doctor to get required shots, no

passport photos, no waiting when dogged tired for buses or taxis and no

need to leave home.



Experience: I try to couple vacations with speaking engagements

or assessments at distant places..



19. AVOID CREDIT CARDS -- The challenge is to resist the ever

present temptation to accept and get involved in the credit card world.

Some testify that by paying promptly the system could work in your

favor beyond the seeming convenience of not having to deal with cash.

In fact, so many now carry credit cards that few could be robbed for

much cash. However, I once found a folder of 20 some cards lost by a

jogger in DC. When I called he was extremely hurt by his loss and was

relieved to hear they were found and not used by the finder. Maybe you

like credit card convenience, the free periods of credit, and the

ability to easily purchase things. Remember, you are beholden to the

banking establishment and could owe your soul to them through rash

excessive purchases. What about other members of family or community

who do not share your abstemious ways? They contribute to the multi-

trillion dollar consumer indebtedness load. Be credit cardless and

create a scene if cash is not accepted.



Experience: I avoid all the temptations to accept an inviting

institutional or individual credit card. It gets harder to do each

year and is now impossible for convenient on-line purchases.



20. CHOOSE GREEN RECREATION -- There is a challenge when it comes

to fulfilling our need for exercise and relaxation to either do things

that require motors or those without. These expensive activities are

highly promoted by the recreation industry and are considered the macho

thing to do for recreation. Motorized forms of recreation (dune-

buggies, motorboats, off-road vehicles, airplanes and snowmobiles or

accompanying sports such as sky-diving and water-skiing) use much non-

renewable energy to operate motors. These devices are generally noisy,

costly, polluting, and dangerous as well. In the same amount of quality

leisure time one could hike, bike, jog, camp, bird watch, read or

write.



Green recreation is no joke; it takes less resources and

equipment; it can be just as pleasurable, healthy and wholesome. Some

forms of green recreation may work best with costly gear but these

generally are single purchases that last a long time. Even sightseeing

by the disabled (using motor vehicles) can be considered a wholesome

and green form of recreation. Spectator sports may or may not take

resources depending on your choice of place to watch (TV or a distant

recreation park). Remember, the goal should be to stay active and

healthy.



Experience: Like other environmentally conscious individuals,

many of us seek to do only green recreation sports, namely, walking,

jogging, camping, hiking -- and gardening.



21. PRESERVE ONE'S HEALTH -- Health care is our most expensive

bill and our greatest worry. Preserving health is more a question of

don'ts -- don't smoke, don't eat too much, don't become a couch

potato, don't forget proper sleep, and don't let worries bother you.

Even with good health measures we do need medical advice and help. We

need to be cautious about television pharmaceutical messages of cures

and miracle drugs that may do more harm than good. Some physicians

become pill pushers and some patients don't have enough stamina to

endure all those chemicals medicines they are encouraged to take. Who

knows what happens when a number of these chemicals are taken

simultaneously? Advertisements and pressured sales inflate drug

companies profits, while African AIDS sufferers can't afford

treatments. Think less commercial medicines and more alternatives,

namely, herbal therapy, relaxation and meditation, and vitamin and

mineral therapy. Read Drug-Free Healing: Breakthrough Remedies for

Healing Yourself Naturally by the editors of Prevention.



Experience: Several of us founded the Appalachian Ginseng

Foundation, which encourages the growth of a major herbal medicine.

I have grown comfrey (exterior use), garlic (colds), aloe vera (minor

burns), jewelweed (scrapes), echinacea (flu), and pokeweed (rheumatism)

-- I take one fresh or frozen pokeberry each day.



22. REDUCE PAPER USE -- Challenge the use of paper, especially

that derived from wood pulp, which is obtained from overly harvested

forests. While wood pulp-derived toilet paper use is not challenged,

some practices can include:



* cutting use of bathroom and kitchen paper towels through use of

cloth towels and air blowers which take less resources;

* using permanent dishes, cups and glasses in place of paper (and

styrofoam) picnic supplies and personalized mugs;

* recycling office and especially copy paper when possible. Many

grant agencies allow and even encourage use of two sides in submitting

proposals;

* reuse envelops in sending mailings when feasible;

* refraining from buying note pads through use of backs of junk

mail and other blank paper materials;

* carrying along tote bags for purchases (I find this difficult);

* curbing newsprint use by sharing papers, buying specialized

publications in place of entire newspapers, using the Internet, radio

or television for news (even though not perfect substitutes); and

* recycling newsprint through mulching and plant cover, insulation,

wood fire tinder, gift wrapping, and pressed fuel logs.



Experience: We encourage the reuse of envelops and the use the

back blank side of old manuscripts obtained from a local indexing

editor for draft copies. I have bought less newspapers and obtained

more news over the Internet and radio and thus saved newsprint. Weekly

newspapers, magazines and periodicals are exchanged; office paper is

recycled. Also check again the section on Junk Mail -- a major paper

user in our society.



This, sir, is the language of democracy -- that a majority of the

community have a right to alter government when found to be oppressive

.... How different from the sentiments of freemen, that a contemptible

minority can prevent the good of the majority. --Patrick Henry of Virginia



COMMUNITY ISSUES



23. PLANT TREES -- A major challenge facing our planet is to

preserve forestlands. Some hesitate to say "plant trees," which seems

be a cop-out to more active endeavors. Yet planting trees, especially

as a community project, is needed today. Some calls for tree planting

may be excuses for cutting down many other trees. However, replanting

is a sign of hope, a start at healing the Earth, a necessary

conservation measure that takes some effort and public commitment.

When planting, we realize the trees perilous journey to maturity even

long after we are gone. We confront our own mortality; we place trust

in a better world with these added trees; we recognize trees as sources

of nuts, fruit, fuel wood, shade from the summer sun, protection from

wind and soil erosion, privacy and noise barriers, and moisture-

retaining and micro-climatic mitigation instruments. Tree planting can

become a special celebration and an opportunity to socialize.



Experience: While assisting at Good Shepherd's in Frankfort, we

developed a project where every one of the approximately 300 students

at the school planted a tree in the spring. In 2005-6, the parish at

Ravenna planted a mini-orchard on the church grounds with memorial

plaques for those who passed on. Additional tree-related efforts

involve getting people to sprout and plant American chestnut as part of

our Appalachian reforestation project.



24. COMPOST -- The challenge is to return organic matter that is

considered kitchen wastes (except meat scraps) and yard wastes (small

brush, weeds, grass clippings, etc.) to a compost bin or a compost box

under the kitchen sink. With friendly bacteria, some earthworms, and

proper air and moisture, the work can be done efficiently and well.

The end product is rich dark humus, which can be returned to flower

beds or garden plots. A backyard bin could be protected from rodents

if that proves a problem. Cover the composting materials with dirt at

all times to keep out pests. The process is simple and, if you wish

more, see the ASPI Technical Paper 11, Composting for Gardens.



Experience: All current kitchen and yard wastes are being

composted in a bin in my backyard. Efforts are being made to expand

the use of this excellent natural recycling technique to others.



25. REUSE OR RECYCLE -- The challenge is to refrain from buying

unless necessary. When something is purchased, it should be used to

the degree possible or recirculated through yard sales and giveaways --

provided it's no excuse for more purchases. Recycle what is left. For

instance, a soft drink with much of the material resource found in the

container and not the contents, becomes a problem. Some states find

bottle deposits add to keeping the place cleaner when people return

container for refunds. However, larger profits have come with the more

centralized bottlers shipping to remote places and stamping the need

for consumer responsibility to recycle on the label. Thus originates

the commercial effort to promote recycling instead of returning

containers. Recycling is obviously more convenient for the producer

even though it takes resources to collect and make new containers.

While composting is participation in a natural process, recycling

metals, paper, plastics and rubber as useable consumer products is not.

Returning containers and other reusable materials to the system for

reuse is better ecological practice. However, recycling (for

production of another item) by way of efficient, sustainable and

accessible recycling centers is the next best thing in our consumer

culture.



Experience: We are privileges in our local town for it has a

multi-sort recycling pick-up system (newsprint and paper, cardboard,

metal, glass, and plastic) with additional specifics for drop off at

the local recycling center.



26. PROMOTE LOCAL SELF-INSURANCE -- Insurance coverage is always

challenging. Billions of dollars are siphoned from across America to

insurance companies and only a portion is ever returned. Why are not

all of us like the Amish and insure ourselves as community? If a barn

or house burns, let's commit ourselves to helping the victims rebuild.

Thus community dependence and good will becomes the best and cheapest

insurance. This works when communities are living simply (do not want

a larger place than what was destroyed), when the community is

cohesive, and when the disaster is not so widespread as to cripple an

entire area through hurricane or disastrous flood. For times of

extensive damage, another coverage strategy is possible -- self-

insuring but underwritten by broader communities of other self-insured.

To our knowledge, extensive networks of the self-insured do not yet

exist. Federal assistance generally works in very specific cases and

most often when there's existing traditional insurance. Self-insurance

counters what could be America's largest gambling racket and is a ready

candidate for Federal protective measures.



Experience: Self-insurance is difficult but can be achieved by

some group such as our Jesuit health plan. A question many of us must

raise is the high cost of home insurance that is rising in part due to

coverage for expensive homes in hurricane prone areas. Why must we pay

for their foolishness?



27. SUPPORT SMALL FARMS AND COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE --

Challenge the welfare system, which allows corporate farms to flourish

and smaller family farms to flounder and fall one by one. This

condition is in part due to subsidies going to the larger farms, which

can obtain money more easily than can the smaller farms. The costs of

farming has escalated to such a degree that the larger feedlots and

plantations have a cost efficiency when considering machinery and

pesticide expenses. Small farmers are bothered when urbanization

contests their way of life (complaints of manure smells and machinery

operations); unchecked land development and highway building takes away

the cohesive farming community one farm at a time. Radical stances

have been tried. Some small-farm support has resulting in attending

forced farm sales (by banks) and blocking outside purchasers of the

land. Encourage bankrupted farm families to stay put as long as

possible and organize communities and groups to back such stands.

Small farm health should be strengthened before such events by

encouraging profitable a variety of small farm alternative crops such

as fresh herbs, mushrooms, certain flowers and bulbs, seeds, locally

grown fruits, vegetables and fish. Champion community supported

agriculture where possible.



Experience: Many with whom I am associated support the cultivation

of organic vegetables. A community herb growing association meets here

at the parish each month and good growing information is shared.



28. EXPOSE ILLEGAL BILLBOARDS -- The challenge is always to reduce

visual pollution due to advertisements, especially on billboards. All

the while, we see the need to furnish basic information to travellers

for restaurants, motels and fuel stations. The Interstate system uses

service signs before each intersection. This is certainly preferable

to large random signs blanketing the approaches to interstate exits,

towns, and cities. In the past some have taken it on themselves to cut

down forbidden signs or doctor such signs with anti-commercial

graffiti. It ends as one illegal act to demonstrate against another

and more commercially acceptable illegal act. If you must pretty up

illegal signs, do so with creative imagination at the proper place.

Far better is to get the illegal signs removed through pressure to

Federal, state, county or municipal transportation agencies.



Experience: The property I managed at ASPI is barely within sight

of one of America's busiest highways (Interstate 75), but the board of

directors has resisted the temptation to put up billboards that could

be seen by thousands.



29. STOP COMMERCIAL GAMBLING -- Let's give a challenge to those

whose only exercise is coming to a casino and operating a one-arm

bandit. Gambling is a touchy subject. Many like it; some of us hate

it; a large group of those in between find some special gambling

occasions enjoyable. We all get nervous about the big money behind

some of the gambling operations. These places can be very highly

commercial, and simply requiring the posting of odds of winning is not

sufficient to curb gambling. The addicts and their families suffer;

the community where the gambling joints are located is destabilized

when bad elements take over. We need to resist the gambling economy at

the individual, community, and national level as important. Surveys

show that poor folks gamble higher percentages of their limited income.

The best argument against expanded gambling is that such activities,

always fall heavier on the lower income folks; a better alternative to

shunting proceeds to the government is to levy taxes on the rich.



Experience: Some of us try to avoid gambling and even discourage

the practice of giving unclaimed Kentucky winnings to non-profits

engaged in low-income home construction projects. Gambling is not a

healthy practice and is fostered by commercial interests.



30. DISCOURAGE HUNTING FOR PURE SPORT -- Some hunters no longer

conduct themselves in a traditional sportsman manner. It seems that

for them the kill is the important thing. A challenge to bear hunters

who work in packs and use two-way radios to track and trap bears or

other large game is to disrupt their radio frequencies in areas where

and when the animals are being sought. This can prove to be quite

successful, though it does leave activistic bear protectors vulnerable

to angry people with guns.



Experience: I have never promoted hunting purely as a sport.

However, excessive wildlife (partly encouraged by the state hunting

interests) has resulted in immense damage to vegetation, especially by

so-called wild turkeys and by deer. Some of this excess is thinned by

coyotes but other measures may be necessary -- and we do distribute

venison for the local poor -- and I eat some of this myself.



31. CURB NOISE POLLUTION -- Advertisements are often produced

louder than the rest of the television and radio programs. Surface

traffic, jackhammers, chainsaws, airplanes and office equipment all add

up to a numbing, roaring jumble that produces stress and harms our

hearing. We could address excessive noise in a number of ways:

individually, by putting sound-proofing and fabric hangings to dampen

the exterior noises from disturbing us; in the household, by cutting

down on times or places where noise is traditionally made; in the

neighborhood, by pressing for local noise ordinances, and at the

national level, by championing less noisy road surface materials (as

required in parts of Europe), or reducing the level of motor noise on

airplanes, motor surface vehicles or boats.



Experience: I am planning to write a book on Silence and Sound

with Arthur Purcell of the Los Angeles-based Resource Policy Institute

-- but it is slow going due to our other books and commitments. He

will cover noise pollution and I am developing another fifty ways to

reduce stress and reestablish a quiet environment.



32. FIND THE POOR IN YOUR COMMUNITY -- Network, a national Catholic

social justice lobby, deplores the fact that 35 million Americans have

lived in poverty during this past decade of unparalleled prosperity.

One quarter of children in this country under six lack life's basic

necessities. All of us should become all the more concerned because

individual (not corporate) welfare rolls have declined 4.6 million

people (38%) since welfare reform legislation was enacted in August,

1996. Still people are caught in the web of poverty and quite a few

women and children go to soup kitchens and ask for food handouts. Find

out who is going hungry in your county and help keep tabs on school

children who are on breakfast programs -- especially during winter

months on snow days when schools are closed. Most likely these

students will go hungry. Develop food packets of nutritious materials

that can be easily distributed during these times of emergency. Make

potential hunger situations known to legislators and county and state

authorities.



Experience: The parish where I reside has an outreach program

with the poor who need food and other necessities. My other parish

cooperates with a community-wide ecumenical program to aid the needy in

Powell county, Kentucky. We still have people needing food especially

towards the end of each month.



REGIONAL ISSUES



33. FOREST PROTECTION -- The challenge in an age of assault on our

forests is to save our trees and forestlands. A forest is a community

of which trees are part. Thus opposition to clear-cutting, which

compacts the forest floor with heavy machinery, rests on solid

ecological and scientific grounds even though some scientists for hire

would object to this. Opposition to forest destruction in the past has

been through legal actions, educational programs and such practices as

spiking trees and trails. Effectiveness rests on the story, the

actors, the publicity and the end results. Greater efforts are now

being made to get the forest landholders to grow virtually wild ginseng

with an understanding that in so doing they make the forest more

valuable than just as a producer of timber.



Experience: Over time, I have been associated with a variety of

groups that have attempted non-violent, educational, and other forest

defense techniques, always advocating the least violent means to effect

meaningful change. Our book, Eco-Tourism in Appalachia: Marketing the

Mountains, lists a variety of recreational activities such as sight-

seeing that enhance forestland value through tourism and non-resource

extractive activities.



34. LOCAL MONEY: A NEW ECONOMIC ORDER -- Creating a new economic

order is a challenge that we find quite difficult. Different

communities, especially academic ones, have tried to organize

alternative money systems to the current American money system. The

problem is much the same as faced by a small nation that is not self-

sufficient and requires medicine and basics from outside the

boundaries. The local money system would work if the local community

produces all its basic needs and is truly self-sufficient. While

services like cutting hair or fixing vehicles can work reasonably well,

furnishing non-renewable fuel from an exterior source will not. The

alternative money system works for services but not materials or for

health and educational services outside the local area. In other

words, economic alternative Americans for the most part would have to

straddle two economic systems in order to survive. Only thoroughly

self-sufficient communities could make local alternative money systems

work -- and these are rare.



Experience: This is the most theoretical of all the challenges

and remains a problem for me because many economic alternative systems

have not proved too practical. We have to remain open to such

possibilities even though educational and health costs are a hurdle

that must be overcome.



35. ENCOURAGE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS -- The challenge is to inspire

the very institutions whose goal is spiritual inspiration. Why not?

All need encouragement and that includes the churches and other

religious institutions. Let's target them because they could be such

worthwhile models to oppose the over-commercialism and materialism of

our American culture. Churches are visible, open, morally committed,

and supposedly authentically prophetic. They can ill afford to be

silent when their members are persuaded by the civic religion of

commercialism. Should good church administration be defined through

profitable investments and unquestioning conformity to the current

economic system? Are even so-called socially responsible investments

mere cover-ups for becoming party to the system itself? Is the

prophetic witness of churches and church leaders toned down for fear of

raising the discomfort level of affluent people? Raise such questions

in an encouraging fashion.



Experience: Paul Gallimore at Long Branch Environmental Education

Center and I have performed over 200 environmental resource assessments

over the past quarter century and the majority are for religious

institutions (churches, cathedrals, motherhouses, senior citizen

facilities, colleges, and youth camps). Many of our recommendations

seek to strengthen the prophetic voice of the community being assessed

-- and quite a number have become model places in their neighborhoods.



36. CONFRONT COMMERCIALISM IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS -- The challenge

is to return the public school to being a forum of free expression and

sound instruction for our American youth. And the added challenge is

to return public institutions into being truly public and not the

private domains of a privileged few. For instance, why should the

taxpaying public have to support unneeded new sports arenas which are

now equipped with luxury seating for the super-rich? Why are

commercials found in the public schools (12,000 of these schools have

subscribed to Channel 1 -- the advertising educational channel as of

this writing)? Why is there a Coca Cola/Pepsi commercial war directed

to school boards across the nation over which vendor has a right in set

up machines in the particular facilities? Why should one who wears a

pepsi shirt be sent home on Coca Cola appreciation days? These turf

wars, while yielding some money to school board coffers, are also

giving the wrong choice of products to students who are the principal

victims of these commercial wars. Soft drinks are quite popular and

often replace milk needed to reduce calcium deficiencies. Parents,

teachers, students, and the general public should take up this battle.

It is ironic that those who rave most about taking God out of schools

are often silent about the godless materialism (crass commercialism)

now found in many school systems. Help preserve the "public" in public

schools, museums, libraries, and sports arenas.



Experience: We in Kentucky are proud of this state taking a

national leadership role in combating junk food promotion in schools.

The state received the highest mark by a 2006 report by the Center for

Science in the Public Interest, Suite 300, 1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20009-5728.





NATIONAL ISSUES



37. DEMAND CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM -- Our democratic heritage

challenges us to take back our democracy which is threatened by the

escalating cost of electoral campaigns. Poll after poll shows that

the majority of us want campaign finance reform. Powerful lobby and

special interest groups have inordinate influence on candidates for

public office, mainly because of the high costs of campaigning and the

purchase of critical media time. The cost of running for public office

spirals into the millions and even tens of millions of dollars and is

gradually cutting out worthy potential officeholders who lack the

finesse to capture large sums of money. The qualifications move away

from the public interest and to persons who have access to personal or

special interest funding. Gradually this is becoming a game for the

super wealthy or those associated with such persons or corporations.

Why should not campaigning be done on free public service time? The

reason is that a major promotion of candidates comes through television

watching. The public debate should be open in its location, air time,

and subsequent public discussion. We should no longer tolerate "soft

money," which is not donated to specific candidates (spending caps of

$1,000 are imposed), but to the political parties. Let's help save the

threatened democratic process.



Experience: Support finance reform through support of Public

Citizen (mentioned elsewhere). Also consider supporting Common Cause,

1250 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 Web Site: <www.

commoncause.org>



38. CHALLENGE THE U.S. MILITARY BUDGET -- We Americans are all

challenged to be honest with ourselves. Why is so much being spent on

an American military budget (over four hundred billion dollars

annually) when we engage in hopeless Middle East conflicts and a

supposed War on Terrorism? The answer rests in the basic insecurity of

materialism, for those who have more are more afraid of losing what

they have. An affluent nation on top of the world can get in this fix.

Did not the Roman Empire have the largest military expenditures in its

last century (fifth AD)-- though it did have challengers from the

outside? Congress enjoys pork barreling military money for their

respective districts and thus fight any closure of wasteful unneeded

military bases in their respective districts. Challenge congresspersons

in DC or at some state occasion. Become responsible taxpayers and turn

war-making into peace-keeping.



Experience: While organizations may be forbidden to lobby, we

individual citizens are encouraged to do so. Letter-writing and

meetings with congress personnel can be effective in at least

reconsidering aspects of the ever growing military budget.



39. REGULATE LARGE CORPORATIONS AND BANKS -- The current climate of

deregulation of banks, media companies and others has assumed that

competition can be preserved with fewer groups. From that way of

thinking bigger is better and smaller is ugly. Corner grocery stores,

clothiers and local banks are disappearing. Mere competition does not

define all services of the local small establishments, and it is this

flavor of the hometown and small community that is disappearing at a

rapid pace. We need to return to a national strict regulatory policy

that hampered the excesses of the 19th century and to do so very soon

before more small businesses are lost. The focus of attention on the

rapid growth of Walmart in the 21st century may lead to some

regulations regarding hiring practices and worker insurance coverage.



Experience: I enjoy purchasing materials from the local hardware

store and garden supplies from the local greenhouse, even when at

greater cost per item. The guarantee of quality and the story that

goes with sales is so very important. We strive to promote local

merchants and banking establishments.



40. MAKE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS (PSA's) -- Americans are

challenged to reassert public ownership of the airwaves. Over the past

eight decades the American electronic media has gradually taken over

the air waves, which are part of our commons. This has reduced the use

of air waves by the citizenry to fewer restricted areas. In so doing

the control by the electronic media has infringed upon our basic right

to free expression as guaranteed by the Constitution. See RICH MEDIA

POOR DEMOCRACY by Robert W. McChesney. A strong case can be made that

available public service broadcasting and televising has become

increasingly restricted. The best and sometimes the only viewing and

listening times are cooped by paid commercials. Even children's

programs are filled with commercials, a practice which is forbidden in

Sweden where the controlling agencies understand the harm of

commercials to the young mind. It is time we reassert our demand for

public interest programming and for controls on current commercial

content and timing.



Experience: Some of the very early public interest work in the

1970s included PSAs for radio. These cost little to develop and put on

the air. However, with time this faded partly because PSAs were

relegated to times of low audience.



We are free today, substantially, but the day will come when our

republic will come to impossibility because its wealth will be

concentrated in the hands of a few. When that day comes, then we must

rely on the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the

laws of the nation to the changed conditions. --James Madison



41. STOP CORPORATE WELFARE -- The challenge is to confront the last

and largest form of welfare (the dirtiest word in American Politics) as

Mother Jones Magazine notes, namely, corporate welfare. In 1998

Federal government aid to these corporations amounted to $167 billion -

- nearly five times the amount that trickled down in welfare to the

poor and their children. Why should corporations have such benefits?

Why should they be regarded as persons, somewhat coequal with the human

person? Corporations do not have inherent rights, but rather the

corporation is the creature of the state. Corporations are not

mentioned or protected within the Constitution, but became over time an

entity, which can take on an international status as powerful as many

smaller nations. Is there time left to return corporate controls to

the people through Federal laws and regulations? Those politicians

beholden to corporate interests appear unable to apply controls to the

real welfare chiselers.



Experience: I have tried to introduce this theme in certain

seminars, writings, and talks throughout the years. This is most

recently true in the September contribution to Eco-Spirituality

throughout the Seasons.



42. ENERGY EFFICIENT VEHICLES -- Throughout the last quarter

century, the Federal Government has attempted to cut fuel consumption

by requiring that the total population of new cars (not all individual

ones) meet average fuel consumption goals. This was being achieved

until recent increases in popularity of sports vehicles, which were

outside the anticipated scheduled categories. Suddenly fuel efficiency

leveled off and then began to decline. It would seem that after so

much engineering and work on the internal combustion engine that fuel

efficiency would steadily improve. Part of this problem is due to the

current economic prosperity with relatively low fuel prices until quite

recently. But until 2006 the total number of inefficient new vehicles

grows and that exacerbates the problem. More efficient vehicles mean

less air pollution, reduced global warming, and even reduced ozone

depletion. It is time to improve energy efficiency through tighter

Federal regulations and to accelerate the production of cleaner

vehicles for the driving public.



Experience: ASPI has always strived to drive fuel-efficient

vehicles, especially through the ASPI solar electric car; this is a

model for others in the region to take a lead and curb the gas guzzlers

that do not seem to lose popularity fast enough.



43. COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH INSURANCE -- The challenge is the best

health plan at the lowest cost to the most Americans. Some question

whether all people are entitled to such health insurance. Today, some

44 million Americans (many of these the lower income working poor and

their families) are virtually frozen out of health care systems. The

debate will be expanded in the coming years where the emphasize will be

on lower cost coverage, on controls of HMO practices, on preventative

medicine, on long-term care for the elderly, and on high risk patients

with large health costs. The issues are somewhat complex and some

politicians are finding that escalating health costs must be addressed.



Experience: With more and more un- or underinsured it is becoming

necessary that we take this matter beyond what individuals at do at a

local level. This is a national issue and demands our concerted

political effort so that the tens of millions of uninsured will have

decent health coverage. That is certainly an important current social

justice issue.



44. PROMOTE ALTERNATIVES TO PRISONS -- Many of America's exploding

prison population do not need to be incarcerated. In fact, these one-

and-a-quarter million Federal prisoners become the laborers at

virtually no wages. The system involves manufacturing cheap prison

products which enrich private businesses working hand-in-glove with the

Federal and state prisons. It is America's gulag. Instead of this

prison economy, the non-violent convicts ought to be paroled and

allowed to live in their home towns under proper surveillance. If a

parole is broken, the prisoner returns to the institution. Savings for

those who comply with the requirements could be as high as $20,000 per

person per year, and the surplus money saved could be allocated to

crime and drug prevention programs. Furnishing prison supplies and

buildings is a "growth" industry and part of the crass commercialism

involved with incarceration. But this is hardly a way to build and

maintain a healthy domestic economy.



Experience: Eastern Kentucky is fraught with Federal prisons, a

growth industry. In my work at these places it becomes evident that a

great number of folks need not be here at all. The cost of imprisoning

these people is staggering. We support reducing prison populations,

especially with the non-violent offenders. We champion the cause of

prisoners and try to help them prepare for reintroduction into the non-

prison world.



45. RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE -- The challenging condition of the

working poor in a land of immense wealth is always before our eyes.

The working poor must pay relatively high rental fees and food bills;

they often cannot afford health insurance. The gap between the rich

and the poor continues to rise even in times of the most robust

national economy. A number of states have raised minimum rates in

recent years but, as of this writing, the federal government has not

succeeded in raising the rate that has been stuck well below six

dollars an hour for the past two decades. The working poor find it

increasingly difficult to meet basic needs of rent, food, health, and

education. Raising the minimum wages is one way to begin to equalize

the wealth and expand the national well-being especially since many of

those who suffer from low rates have little political voice.



Experience: During my administration at ASPI we always paid more

than minimum wages, and this is all the more important today when

people can't quite make it on less than six dollars an hour.





GLOBAL ACTIONS



46. CONTINUE TO CELEBRATE A JUBILEE -- This was first written

before turning of the calendar for the 21st century and thus focused on

a Jubilee year in the biblical sense -- a time for freeing existing

debts and sharing again the commons with all the people. Many economic

debts result from oppressive regimes under the encouragement of western

governments. The affected inhabitants had little participation in the

growth of the debt and yet repayment to wealthy governments and banks

requires denying them their basic medicine and food. Nations like the

Democratic Republic of the Congo under Mobutu Sese Seko witnessed

massive funds transfer (even billions of dollars) to Swiss banks. Some

say that if the banks are to relinquish such money that came from

Holocaust victims surely the same principles should apply to looting of

the resources of developing nations. The basic justices has been

recognized to some extent and the seventeen poorest nations have had

their debts eliminated, but what about the next tier of nations?



Experience: What has begun as a forgiveness by richer nations and

agencies must continue and thus we need to insist that the year of

Jubilee is right now for the poorer indebted nations.



47. THINK GLOBAL POOR -- A challenge is to present a viable

alternative to confront the global commercial interests -- multi-

national corporations, NAFTA and the International Monetary Fund --

where power and money go hand-in-hand. Do we need to globalize the

world economy when certain players hold all the cards (and money), and

others are at their mercy? Should 25,000 American cotton farmers have

their crops lavishly subsidized while millions of African and other

small cotton growers languish? Or, is it better to have decentralized

economies which are more locally-controlled, people-oriented, and

community-based? The two choices are quite different, though media

popularity and big government favors the global approach. However

ecological health and ultimate viability favors a decentralized

approach such as that espoused by the late appropriate technician --

E.F. Schumacher and the Society that bears his name. Write to E.F.

Schumacher Society 140 Jug End Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230

<www.schumachersociety.org>.



Experience: We feel close to EFS, my distant cousin, and seek to

promote decentralization. However, some global controls are necessary

such as involves international controls on widespread pollutants.

These global problems cannot be handled adequately at the local level;

they need more widespread support.



48. SUPPORT UNITED NATION'S EFFORTS -- The challenge facing

affluent nations is the Lazarus Effect (named for a New Testament

parable of the rich man who knew the beggar Lazarus by name but did not

reduce his misery). Do we as a people know Niger and Haiti by name --

but do so little to help them? The agency that seeks to address such

problems as destitution in a world of plenty is the United Nations,

which was born in San Francisco and has its main offices in New York

City. It deserves our American support and dues payments. It

undertakes many health, education, Food for Peace, and peace-keeping

efforts which cost money. It takes $15 to immunize a child for life

from the six killer diseases (measles, polio, tuberculosis, tetanus,

whooping cough and diphtheria) but still over two million children die

annually from these. About a quarter of child deaths are due to

diarrheal diseases which could be remedied by just seven cents per

packet. Supporting the United Nations is supporting the poorest of the

poor. UN Children's Fund 333 East 38th St. New York, NY 10016

<www.unicefusa.org>



Experience: Our October issue of Eco-Spirituality through the

Seasons on this website is a strong endorsement of UN efforts on many

fronts.



49. COMMUNICATE WITH FOLKS WORKING IN THE THIRD WORLD -- One of

the glories of the Internet is its ability to transmit messages to

people in distant lands conveniently, rapidly, and at low cost.

Communication is the bond that holds a world together. Without it we

soon become isolated from others; with it we are blessed with the good

word and cheer of people in distant places. These folks challenge us

to break away from ourselves and expand our vision to other peoples,

problems and legitimate needs. Thus the encouragement is mutual, for

we need to know, and to realize our own place in the vast world of

needs. Contact the Tapori Children's Network, Fourth World Movement,

7600 Willow Hill Dr., Landover, MD 20785. (301) 336-9489

<www.tapori.org>



Experience: We are in communication with people in an average of 80 countries

through this website. Our e-mails from them are always most welcome.



50. SUPPORT LOW-INCOME VENTURES -- The final challenge is to

recognize the need to support small business ventures in foreign lands,

which are geared for launching people into entrepreneurial enterprises.

Many need just a little money to get things rolling and are sincere and

willing to pay back over time. Venture capitalism, as it is termed,

strives to make small sums of money available to those seeking to built

their own small local businesses. If you desire to make such loans

make contact through your church with overseas mission personnel who

may guide you to persons of greatest need and how funds are used.

Loans persons should consider forgiving interest payments and rotate

the basic funding to new starting enterprises in these foreign lands.



Experience: I strive to donate as much as I can afford to groups

in Central America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East who work with

low-income groups. Please distribute your support carefully.

