Peace + Justice

Welcome @Trent Batson !  To find Weavers in your area, you can do a search by location  - go to MEMBERS tab.  Hope to see you at a future Peace + Justice topic group gathering!

Welcome Trent.  We also have a land grant university here, Utah State, and we are blessed with a brand new Heravi Global Languages and Cultures Center including  the Heravi Peace Institute.  I am eager to find out what this new peace institute's mission will be.  And how to tie in with our non-profit International Friends.  Heravi is an Iranian philanthropist alumnus from USU.  I'd been putting off joining the Peace and Justice Section as one too many things, but here I am to explore this new potential resource for the Weavers.

By the way, I love New England, having grown up in Quincy just south of Boston.  I'm trying to get my kids who live there interested and involved in Weavers.  They are focused on families and careers, but are weaving in their own neighborhoods.

Welcome again, Nate

Nate:  I've been tracking lake levels for The Great Salt Lake -- one of the few encouraging indices related to the weather and environment these days.  It's been good to see the Lake recover.

I was surprised Boston is not formally represented yet -- you would think it would be one of the first areas to jump in.  But, Bill McKibben's Third Act has quickly organized in Massachusetts.  I'm a cultural historian, was one of the global leaders integrating technology into higher education with the explicit framing of changing the culture of higher ed -- and I see the same situation facing humanity now -- having to adopt a new evolutionary phase for our species, or, better said, return to the evolutionary phase before our industrial detour that led us to act as our worst selves.  We can return to cooperation and empathy -- the trademark human traits -- at the community level; Weavers has the right idea.  Thanks for the welcome. -- Trent

Trent. That 2 years of great snowpack and recovery of the Great Salt Lake has turned out to be a curse.  The Utah legislature found it as confirmation that climate change is fake.  They have failed to take real corrective action to save the lake and will find out only when very expensive remediation is required to save health and lives.

I became acquainted with Bill McKibbon when I read his book, Falter, some years ago.  I did not know he has started an action group, Third Act.

As a cultural historian, are you also an academic?  I am keeping an eye out for other Weavers who might be involved in the life of a University.  How to create and grow bonds of cooperation between international students, international faculty, and community groups supporting immigrants and minorities, and others who want to share with them.  Without hitting the trip-wire of now unlawful (in this state) support for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.  Some of us are going to give it a try here.

A friend recently shared with us some Grateful Dead lyrics that I have attached below.  We work, some of us, at sharing life with others, but sometimes we still like our own songs best.  

Nate

Nate:  I guess it's not surprising that any good climate news would be used to perpetuate wealth accumulation.  Yes, I am an academic, but retired now.  However, I am in touch with influential academic leaders who see, as I do, that human society everywhere needs repair, connections, hope, belonging -- in other words, that the traits of humans in evolutionary time -- up until farming when we started to believe we humans owned the earth -- our cooperation and empathy, must re-emerge.  "Belonging and Othering" is a movement in higher education as is "Well Being," and these movements are gaining momentum, strong momentum, world-wide.  My orientation is Rhode Island where I am trying to increase cooperation among churches, education, businesses (for-profit and non-profit) and government around resilience and net zero, to strengthen community ties, community action, as ways to respond well to the climate century.   Much more to say, but I'll end here for now and thank you for such a kind response to my joining and such encouragement.  Be well.

Hi Trent! Great to connect -

I am based in Philadelphia but travel regularly to Boston for work. I will be sure to let you know before next time, as it seems we share environmental interests.

I was in Boston last week for a few days, and I was able to recruit a fellow environmental enthusiast in my network (whom I had not met previously!) to join me in picking up litter. To me picking up litter is "beginner level" environmental action that almost everyone can carry out, and a restorative way to reconnect with your community, whether in an urban, rural, or nature setting.

We had a great time cleaning up Boston Commons and part of the Charles River Esplanade just before sunset. Together, we filled two 13-gallon trash bags with litter, leaving this lovely area better than we found it!

Several people thanked us and asked if we were part of an organized volunteer group, like the Charles River Conservancy, or The Esplanade Association. This experience showed me that this beautiful area, that attracts both residents and tourists, offers an excellent opportunity for organizations to find volunteers, raise awareness, and make a positive impact.

I attach a couple of pictures- my website (linked below and in my Weaver profile) has more info.

Cheers,

Razvan Dominic Ionescu
Lead Volunteer and Editor
www.OneBeautifulPlanet.org

Trent,

So good to see you and your pictures from Boston Garden and the Esplanade, a couple of my favorite places.  I grew up in Quincy and snuck up to Boston and Cambridge whenever I could as a teen.  I couldn't help noticing that you have roots in Romania.  We came close on one of our bike rides through Hungary and Slovenia.  Here is a picture of our international students at USU who we took camping and hiking in the Tetons this past weekend, most for the first time.  We didn't find much trash to pick up, but they sure enjoyed this splendid corner of our beautiful planet, Earth.  It's wonderful to see others spreading the word and working at this basic level of love, picking up the trash.    Nate