Why do huge boondoggles get going?

How systems work 

Systemantics

Feb 25, 2014 01:00 am

Originally published as Systemantics, the pun in the title carries the important message that systems have "antics" — they act up, misbehave, and have their own mind. The author is having fun with a serious subject, deciding rightly that a sense of humor and paradox are the only means to approach complexity. His insights come in the form of marvelously succinct rules of thumb, in the spirit of Murphy's Law and the Peter Principle. This book made me 1) not worry about understanding a colossal system — you can't, 2) realize I can change a system — by starting a new one, and 3) avoid starting new systems — they don't go away.

The lesson is that whatever complexity you are creating or have to work with — a website, a company, a robot, a tribe, a platform — is a system that will over time exhibit its own agenda. You need to understand the basic laws of systems, which this perennial book (now in its third edition) will cheerily instruct you.

-- KK

The Systems Bible
(3rd Edition of Systemantics)
2003, 316 pages
$7, Kindle
$18+ (used), paperback

Available from Amazon

Sample Excerpts:

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A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The parallel proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.

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We begin at the beginning, with the Fundamental Theorem: New systems mean new problems.

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The system always kicks back — Systems get in the way — or, in slightly more elegant language: Systems tend to oppose their own proper functions.

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Systems tend to malfunction conspicuously just after their greatest triumph. Toynbee explains this effect by pointing out the strong tendency to apply a previously successful strategy to the new challenge. The army is now fully prepared to fight the previous war

Undernews: Recovered history: Louis Armstrong and the civil rights movement

http://prorevnews.blogspot.com/2014/02/recovered-history-louis-armstrong-and.html

Recovered history: Louis Armstrong and the civil rights movement

Sam Smith - Louis Armstrong, given his great popularity among whites, would, from time to time, come under criticism for not doing more for civil rights. Ben Schwartz in the New Yorker sheds some interesting light on this in a new article, including Armstrong's response for not having taken part in a protest march: 

"My life is my music. They would beat me on the mouth if I marched, and without my mouth I wouldn't be able to blow my horn … They would beat Jesus if he was black and marched."

In fact, musicians vary markedly in their activism and often express it in their own most familiar language: music. For example, Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit, a song about lynching,  became popular more than a decade before the modern civil rights movement. And we forget that musicians on the road in integrated bands were among those who ran most directly into the walls of segregation. It was, for example, one reason Armstrong didn't return to New Orleans for years. 

And then there are the stories, that get missed, like this one in Schwartz' article: 

One example, of too many, came when Armstrong was arrested by the Memphis Police Department in 1931. His crime? He sat next to his manager's wife, a white woman, on a bus. Armstrong and his band were thrown in jail as policemen shouted that they needed cotton pickers in the area. Armstrong's manager got him out in time to play his show the next evening. When he did play, Armstrong dedicated a song to the local constabulary, several of whom were in the room, then cued the band to play "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Old Rascal You." The band stiffened, expecting another night in jail, or worse. Instead, he scatted so artfully that, afterward, the cops on duty actually thanked him. Armstrong most likely never quit smiling that night. His subversive joke was not understood by anyone except the African-Americans in his band.

Schwartz also writes: 

Armstrong chose his battles carefully. In September, 1957, seven months after the bombing attempt in Knoxville, he grew strident when President Eisenhower did not compel Arkansas to allow nine students to attend Little Rock Central High School. As [Terry] Teachout recounts in "Pops," here Armstrong had leverage, and spoke out. Armstrong was then an unofficial goodwill ambassador for the State Department. Armstrong stated publicly that Eisenhower was "two-faced" and had "no guts." He told one reporter, "It's getting almost so bad a colored man hasn't got any country." His comments made network newscasts and front pages, and the A.P. reported that State Department officials had conceded that "Soviet propagandists would undoubtedly seize on Mr. Armstrong's words."....

When Eisenhower did force the schools to integrate, Armstrong's tone was friendlier. "Daddy," he telegrammed the President, "You have a good heart."

Unmentioned by Schwartz is an example of Armstrong, like Holiday and other musicians, helping to frame an issue well before political activists. Here are the lyrics to "Black and Blue," written by Fats Waller in 1929 and later an Armstrong standard: 

Cold empty bed, springs hard as lead
Feels like ol' Ned wished I was dead
What did I do to be so black and blue 

Even the mouse ran from my house
They laugh at you and scorn you too
What did I do to be so black and blue 

I'm white inside but that don't help my case
'Cause I can't hide what is in my face 

How would it end, ain't got a friend
My only sin is in my skin
What did I do to be so black and blue 

How would it end, ain't got a friend
My only sin is in my skin
What did I do to be so black and blue

It was a song, incidentally, that helped turn me, then a young white high school student in the segregationist 1950s, not only on to jazz, but towards the civil rights movement when it arrived a few years later. 

Music can work like that

Re: Article in Bloomberg on Shale Oil

Yes, this is why rising traffic projections are unadulterated BS.  Oil has to be over $100 bbl for the producers to make any money.  At the prices needed, the US economy crumples like a beer can hit with a hammer.  Thus, monstrous highway projects are self defeating, because highway spending only increases productivity in poorly connected countries.  In the US, already way overpaved, highway spending is just zero sum, spending to please group A, taken out of the hides of groups B, C, and D, which pushes them backwards economically, increasing inequality and further contracting the money available for things like auto travel.

The bottom line is that we have to stop moving around so much.  Period.  Less driving, more walking.  Little to no flying. All attempts to deny that reality will only hasten it even more.

Read this article and thought of you:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-27/dream-of-u-s-oil-independence-slams-against-shale-costs.html?cmpid=yhoo

Schrader against raising the minimum wage

Insanity. This guy needs a strong primary opponent badly.

This week, the Huffington Post reported [1] that a handful of Congressional Democrats are joining with Republicans to oppose an increase in the federal minimum wage. Oregon's own Rep. Kurt Schrader is one of those Democrats.

Congressional supporters of a higher minimum wage just announced their intention to make a rare procedural maneuver by filing a "petition to discharge" aimed at bypassing John Boehner's roadblock on raising the minimum wage. [2] If a majority of the House of Representatives sign this petition the Fair Minimum Wage Act will be given a vote, no matter what the Tea Party opposition wants. However, but this petition will not be successful Rep. Schrader's support.

Tell Rep. Schrader to stop siding with the Tea Party and John Boehner. Tell him to support the Fair Minimum Wage Act.

Some of Oregon's largest concentrations of people living in poverty are in Rep. Schrader's very own district, [3] so why is he giving political cover to Tea Party Republicans and Speaker John Boehner by opposing something that would help his very own constituents?

Momentum is building all over the county to raise the minimum wage, and we need  Democrats like Schrader to listen to the 71% of Americans (including 52% of Republicans!) who support a raise to the minimum wage. [4]

Tell Rep. Schrader to support an increase to the federal minimum wage.

Thanks for all you do,

Steve Hughes
State Director, Oregon Working Families

Sources:

1.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/house-democrats-minimum-wage_n_4855940.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

2.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/02/26/democrats-plan-rare-legislative-maneuver-to-force-vote-on-minimum-wage-will-it-work/

3. http://projects.oregonlive.com/maps/foodstamps/

4. http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-and-centers/polling-institute/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=1993

SJ lies about CRoCk up in Portland, the even-bigger-Bridgeasaurus Boondogglus

It's harsh to say that an editorial board is lying about something, but that's all you can conclude about this pile of disinformation about the gigantic pile of pork and graft being sold up in Portland.

Not only are the bridgespans NOT the problem up there, but the federal high-capacity-transit money could just as easily go to support bus rapid transit as light rail.  That would have the additional benefit of allowing a new bridge to be high enough to avoid interference with river shipping (the reason that the proposed form of the CRoCk --- "Columbia River Crossing" -- is too low to allow all current shipping to pass is that light rail can't climb for squat, so the proposal is to buy off the existing upriver shippers whose shipments would be impeded).

I'm not a light-rail basher; for years I've supported good light rail projects in appropriate settings. But the cross-river proposal on offer up there is simply a civilian form of contractor-capture of the proposal of Pentagon-esque proportions.

There's a common-sense alternative proposal that makes a TON of sense for dealing with the Portland-Vancouver link.  Of course, it doesn't cost nearly enough to excite the contractors pulling for the Full Monty Bridgeasaurus.

No surprise to see the SJ pimping the CRoCk though -- they've gone all in for the absurd "Salem River Crossing" and the last thing they want is for ODOT to start making decisions based on logic and reason instead of political pull.

Tell your state senator! Punish corporate wrongdoers, don't reward them! Tuesday 2-25 is the big day.

Subject: Important legislative alert! Tuesday is the big day.

Call your State Senator to urge a yes vote on HB 4143

Oregon State Representatives Tobias Read and Jennifer Williamson have been diligently working to pass HB 4143 during the current legislative session. HB 4143 passed the House on Monday and it will be up for a vote in the Senate soon.

HB 4143 modifies the distribution of unclaimed class action funds. Currently, the unclaimed funds are returned to the defendant.  The bill would direct the unclaimed funds to legal aid, ensuring that critical legal services programs receive much needed funding.

Call or email your State Senator to encourage them to vote yes on HB 4143.
To find your State Senator go to: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/FindYourLegislator/leg-districts.html

If you live in the districts of Senator Johnson, Senator Close, Senator Hansell, Senator Olsen, Senator George, or Senator Boquist please consider personally contacting your Senator and sharing your support for the bill.


 *   The demand for Legal Aid services is higher than ever and many Oregonians can't get help because legal aid has resources to meet less than 15% of the need. The number of Oregonians eligible for legal aid has grown by 61.5% making us the 8th highest in the nation.

 *   There are now only 90 legal aid lawyers to serve more than 850,000 of our most vulnerable Oregonians, including domestic violence victims, children and the elderly.

 *   Now is the time!  The 2014 session gives us a unique opportunity to secure funding for legal aid's future.

 *   HB 4143 simply changes the distribution of unclaimed class action money.  Currently, unclaimed money is returned to the defendant.  This bill would designate unclaimed monies to legal aid, providing a means of funding critical legal services programs. By creating this fund, Oregon is following the growing trend of states, including Washington, dedicating unclaimed monies to legal aid.   While this will not fix the legal aid funding problems, as the fund grows, it will relieve pressure on the budget.

The full text of the HB 4143 can be found here: https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2014R1/Measures/Overview/HB4143
To find your state Senator go to: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/FindYourLegislator/leg-districts.html

The Dark Power of Fraternities - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580/

Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay

"What should we do to prepare for the hard times to come?"

Cover via Amazon

Gail the Actuary (Gail Tverberg), a deeply serious person who isn't solumn about it, has a profoundly important post about how how everyone - especially whole citiesful of people in places like Salem - should be preparing for the coming resource downsizing.

Her suggestions should be the meta-curriculum of public and private education -- teaching kids how to live in the world that's emerging, not how to seek cubedweller jobs in the world that's fast disappearing.

Reaching Limits to Growth: What Should our Response Be?

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Gail Tverberg

Oil limits seem to be pushing us toward a permanent downturn, including a crash in credit availability, loss of jobs, and even possible government collapse. In this process, we are likely to lose access to both fossil fuels and grid electricity. Supply chains will likely need to be very short, because of the lack of credit. This will lead to a need for the use of local materials.
The time-period is not entirely clear. Some countries, such as Greece and Syria, will be seeing these effects quite soon. Other countries may not see the full effects for perhaps ten or twenty years. What should our response be?
It seems to me that there are many different answers, depending on who we are and what our goals are. The various options are not mutually exclusive.

Option 1. Make the most of the time we have available.
If there are things that are important to you, do them now. If you have been meaning to reconnect ties with family members or old friends, now is the time to do it. If there are things you would like to accomplish that require today’s transportation and services, do them now. If you want to support local charities, now would be a good time to do it.
Appreciate what you have now. We have been privileged to live in a society where transportation is readily available and where most of us can live in homes that are comfortably heated and cooled. At the same time, we can still enjoy many of the benefits of nature—clear skies and plants and animals around us. Life expectancies in the past were generally 35 years or less. Most of us have already lived longer than we could have expected to live in the past.
Develop stronger relationships with family and community.  This is likely to be a difficult transition. It is likely to be helpful to have as many allies as possible in transition. It may be helpful to move closer to other family members. Another approach is to form or join community groups, such as a church group or a group interested in common goals. The ties a person can form are likely to be helpful regardless of what path lies ahead.

Option 2. Prepare at least a little for the future
Learn to bounce back from downturns.  When I was an editor at The Oil Drum, I was editor for a letter from a man who grew up in Kenya and returned there practically every year. He told that the people in Kenya were very happy, even though they had little material goods and mortality was high.  One thing he mentioned was that if things went wrong—the death of a child for example—people were able to mourn for a day, and then move on. They also rejoiced in things we take for granted, such as being able to obtain enough food for the current day.
Do what you can to improve your health. In the United States, we have been used to a combination of practices that lead to overweight: (1) much too large food portions, (2) much processed food including much sugar and (3) lack of exercise. If we can change our eating and exercise practices, it is likely that we can improve our health. If healthcare goes downhill, fixing our personal health somewhat protects us.
Learn what you can about first aid. Injuries are likely to be more of an issue, as we work outside more.
We will need some specialists as well. As long as we eat grains, we will need dentists. As long as babies are born, we will need helpers of some type–doctors or midwives.
If circumstances permit, plant a garden and fruit or nut trees. Eventually, all food production will need to be local. Getting from our current industrialized agricultural model to a model with local food production with little (if any) fossil fuel inputs is likely to be a difficult transition. One approach is to learn what local plants, animals, and insects are edible. Another is to attempt to grow your own. Doing the latter will generally require considerable learning about what plants grow in your area, approaches to building and maintaining soil fertility, methods of preventing erosion, and a variety of related topics.
Find alternative water supplies. We currently are dependent on a water supply chain that can be broken in a variety of ways—drought, loss of electricity, storm damage, or pollution problems. If the long-term water supply seems questionable, it may be helpful to move to another location, sooner rather than later. Alternatively, we can figure out how to bridge a gap in water supplies, such as through access to a creek or lake. For the very short-term, a water barrel of stored water might be helpful.
Figure out alternative cooking arrangements. We humans are dependent on cooking for purifying water, for allowing us to eat a wider variety of food, and for allowing us to obtain greater nutrition from the food we eat, without chewing literally half of the day. We now depend primarily on electricity or natural gas for cooking. Determine what alternative cooking arrangements can be made in your area, in the event current cooking arrangements become unavailable. An example might be an outdoor fireplace with locally gathered sticks for fuel, perhaps supplemented by a solar cooker with reflective sides.
Store up a little food to bridge a temporary supply interruption. We have troubles today with wind storms and snow storms. There are any number of other types of interruptions that could happen if businesses encounter credit problems that lead to supply chain interruptions. It doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

Option 3. Figure out what options might work for a few years for taking care of yourself and your family 
We have a lot of goods made with fossil fuels that probably will work for a while, but likely won’t be available for the long term. Examples include solar PV, batteries, power saws, electric pumps, electric fences, bicycles, light bulbs, and many other devices that we take for granted today. Of course, as soon as any part breaks and can’t be replaced, we are likely to be “up a creek, without a paddle.”
I expect that quite a few of the permaculture solutions and organic gardening solutions are temporary solutions. They work for now, but whether they will work for the long term is less clear. We are not going to be able to make and transport organic sprays for fruit for very long and irrigation systems will need to be very simple to be resilient. Plastic wears out and even metal tools will be hard to replace.
Purchasing land for agriculture can perhaps be a partial solution for some individuals, with sufficient skills and tools. Ideally, a person will want to be part of a larger group of people using a larger piece of land, rather than a smaller group, using a smaller piece of land, because of the problem that occurs if one worker gets sick or injured. It may be helpful to have multiple non-contiguous pieces of land, to help even out impacts of bad weather and pests. Ideally, the land should be large enough so that part of the land can remain fallow, or be used for feeding animals, and can be rotated with crop-producing land.
Security is likely be a problem, especially if a single home is distant from other homes. Ideally, a family will be part of a larger group in order to provide security.
Other issues include inability to pay taxes and the government taking over property. Because of the many issues involved, any solution is, at best, temporary. Unfortunately, that may be the best we can do. As parts of the system fail, a local group may be able to support fewer people. Then the group will need to deal with how to handle this situation–everyone starve, or kick out a few members from the group, or attack another group, with the hope of obtaining control of their resources.

Option 4. Work on trying to solve the long-term problem.
There are many studies of how pre-industrial societies operated without fossil fuels and without electricity. For example, Jared Diamond gives his view of how some very early societies functioned in The World Until Yesterday. The Merchant of Prato by Iris Origo documents the life of one particular 14th century merchant, based on old letters and other documents.
Through studies of how past societies behaved, it might be possible for today’s people to develop a civilization that could be operated using only renewable resources of the types used in pre-industrial times, such as wood, water wheels, and sail boats. Such groups would probably not be able to use much metal or concrete because of the problem with deforestation when wood is used for energy-intensive operations. (Today’s so-called “renewables,” such as hydro-electric, wind turbines and solar PV require fossil fuels for manufacture and upkeep, so likely will not be available for very long.)  Heating of homes will need to be very limited as well, to prevent deforestation.
As a practical matter, the groups best equipped to make such a change are ones that have recently been hunter-gatherers and still have some memory of how they operated in the past. Perhaps some former hunter-gatherers could give instruction to others in sort of a reverse Peace Corps operation.
We do know some approaches that have been used in the past. Dogs have been used to help with herding animals, for hunting, and for warmth. Animals of various types have been used for transportation and for plowing. The downside is that animals require the use of a lot of land to produce the food needed for them to eat.
Traditional societies have used the giving of gifts and the requirement of reciprocal gift giving to increase the strength of relationships and as a substitute for our money-based financial system. With such an approach, a person gains status not by what he has, but by what he gives away.
Storytelling has been a way of passing on knowledge and entertainment for generations. Songs, games, and simple musical instruments are also part of many traditions. These are approaches that can be used in the future as well.

Option 5. Take steps toward getting population in line with likely long-term energy availability.
The world is now overfilled with people and with the many animals that people raise for food or as pets. Without fossil fuels and network electricity, we probably will not be able to feed more than a fraction of the current population of humans and domesticated animals.
Some steps we might take:
Keep family sizes small. Encourage one-child families. When a family pet dies, don’t replace it (or replace it with a smaller animal).
Eat much less meat. This could be started even now.

Option 6. Rearrange personal finances.
Paper investments are, in general, not going to be worth much, regardless of how we rearrange them, if resource availability drops greatly. Ultimately, paper investments allow us to buy goods available in the marketplace. But if there isn’t much to buy in the marketplace, they are likely to be much less helpful than we assume. Precious metals have the same difficulty–they can’t buy what is not available.

Purchasing land is theoretically better, but even land can be taken away from us by taxes or by appropriation. There is also a possibility that we may need to move, if conditions change, regardless of what property ownership conditions seem to be.
We need to learn to take each day as it comes. If we find that our bank accounts aren’t there, or that only a small fraction of the money can be withdrawn, or that the money is in the bank doesn’t buy much of anything, we need somehow to figure out a way around the situation. Very likely everyone else will be in the same boat. This is a major reason for working on substitute access to food and water supplies.

Option 7. Put more emphasis on relationships. 
Studies show that relationships are what bring happiness—not the accumulation of goods. Starting to work now on developing additional strong relationships would seem to be a worthwhile goal. In traditional societies, extended family relationships were very important.
Religions can teach us how we treat our neighbors and thus about relationships. A version of the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have then do unto you) is found in several major religions. Many readers of this blog have given up on religions as hopelessly out of date, instead choosing such “wisdom” as, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” In fact, this latter wisdom is clearly nonsense. We can expect our fossil-fuel based “toys” to lose their usefulness before our very eyes in the not too distant future. Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen are not gods, even if we are told that they are all-powerful. 
Another aspect of keeping good relationships is finding ways to mend broken relationships. One such approach is forgiveness. Another is through reconciliation procedures aimed at returning broken relationships to wholeness. Such procedures are common in small societies, according to Diamond (2012).

Option 8. Find ways to deal with the stresses of a likely downturn ahead.
As much as we would like to take one day at a time, oftentimes it is easy to worry, even though this does no good.
Even though we think we know that outcome of our current difficulties, we really do not. The universe has many physical laws. Ultimately, the source of all of these physical laws is not clear–is there a Supreme Being behind them? The story of natural selection is in many ways a miracle. The story of human existence represents more miracles—learning to control fire; learning to control our environment through agriculture; learning to modify our environment further through the use of fossil fuels. In my own personal life, I see a pattern of circumstances working together in ways I could never have expected. 
We are not the first to go through hard times. Because of my background, I find myself comforted by many Biblical passages. I am sure other religions have other passages that are also helpful.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for though art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. .  . Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. . . (Psalm 23: 4, 6)
. . . in all things God works for the good of those who love him . . . (Romans 8:28)

For me personally, more things have worked together for good than I would ever have dreamed possible. I will not rule out the possibility of this happening again in the future, regardless of what the external circumstances may look like.

Option 9. For those who are concerned about Climate Change
In my view, the changes we are encountering will bring a quick end to the use of fossil fuels. Thus, the concern that future fossil fuel use will cause rapid climate change is over-blown. If individuals would like to personally reduce their own fossil fuel use, I would suggest the following:

• Stop eating meat now, especially that raised in our current industrial system.
• Get rid of pets that are not providing support functions, such as hunting for food.
• Spend less of your wages. With more of the money left in the bank or in paper investments, this money will lose value and thus will reduce spending on fossil fuel-based goods and services. (While theoretically this money could be lent out and reinvested, lack of credit availability will put an end to this practice.)
• Use a bicycle for transport instead of a car, when possible. Or walk.
• Purchase a more fuel efficient car, if you need to replace a current vehicle.
• Turn down the heat in your home or apartment. Don’t use air conditioning.

I would suggest quitting your job as well, but if you quit your job, the job is likely to go to someone else, resulting in the same fossil fuel use for someone else.  Even stopping a business you own will not necessarily work, if another business will expand and take its place. If the business that ramps up is in a part of the world that uses coal as its primary fuel, stopping your local business may lead to an increase in world carbon dioxide emissions.

Urban farmers movie

http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/grow-some-food-grow-wherever-you-are.html

Grow some food. Grow wherever you are.

"Growing Cities" is a new documentary film about the rise of urban farming in the United States. When Dan Susman and Andrew Monbouquette, two young men from Omaha, Nebraska, become disillusioned with the lack of urban farming projects in their hometown, they strike out on a road trip. They are searching for people who grow their own food, who believe in the tremendous potential of urban farming, and who are changing their communities through growing food.

The filmmakers certainly find what they're looking for. It's not surprising that the West coast has many well-established urban farms. In San Francisco, municipal laws are lenient toward urban farmers, even inner-city livestock; and Seattle provides land to anyone willing to farm. Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit boast incredible operations that feed thousands, build community, and offer employment opportunities. New York City boasts impressive rooftop gardens; Boston continues to maintain an original, World War II-era Victory Garden; and farmers in Atlanta and New Orleans are working to make urban spaces green and productive, while training underprivileged youth.

Urban farming is beneficial for many reasons. It can offer much-needed nutritious food to urban dwellers. Many Americans nowadays live in what's called a "food desert," where local stores don't stock fresh produce regularly. In Detroit, for example, 550 000 residents (over half the city's population) don't have close, reliable access to vegetables and fruit.

Urban farming teaches Americans how to view vacant land in a new light. Wherever there's space, there's an opportunity to grow something. Even if you don't own the land, many landowners are happy to have someone actively improve and beautify their empty lot for free, while benefitting the community. As one Atlanta farmer explains:

"The hugest part of sustainability is having people understand the importance of caring for land, regardless of whether you think you own it or not."

Urban farming helps secure the national food supply. Americans have done it before, thanks to the tremendous growth of Victory Gardens during the two World Wars. Just a few years after being established, these homegrown gardens provided 40 percent of all produce consumed in the United States. There's no reason that can't happen again. Americans possess 35 million acres of lawns that could be productive.

What's needed is a cultural shift in the perception of agriculture. Farmers need to be raised up in our society, and regarded in a similar way to doctors and engineers. After all, farmers are the most important people in our lives because they are the ones who feed us. And people need to get their hands dirty, to learn about growing food in limited, compromised spaces. You'd be amazed at what's possible.

Growing Cities Trailer from Growing Cities Movie on Vimeo.

"Growing Cities" is definitely worth watching. It's inspiring, lighthearted, and educational, and has been very well received at film festivals. You can find a list of screenings here, or learn how to host your own. The film's website also has lots of helpful information for starting your own urban farming projects.

Sadly, City of Salem and Marion County should send many people to this symposium

The time to prepare for trouble certain to arise is as soon as possible. Worst option is to hope that something will come along that makes preparations unnecessary.

Willamette College of Law CLE

Under Pressure: Fiscal and Regional Difficulties Facing Local Governments  

 

For the last five years local governments have experienced a wave of fiscal distress unmatched since the Great Depression.  Aggressive policy responses like municipal bankruptcy and state takeovers have raised difficult questions about local democracy and the state's role in supervising municipal governments. 

 

Join Willamette University College of Law for the 2014 Law Review Spring Symposium Under Pressure: Fiscal and Regional Difficulties Facing Local Governments, a day-long presentation featuring panels of local and national experts who will explore these issues in Oregon and beyond. 

 

Friday, February 28, 2014

8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

John C. Paulus Lecture Hall, Room 201

Willamette University College of Law

245 Winter St. N.E., Salem, OR

Approved for 4.75 general CLE credits.

 

Register online and learn more at: http://willamette.edu/wucl/events/library/2014/under_pressure/index.html.

 

For more information contact Reyna Meyers at 503-370-6046. 

Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay