Social Justice

Fear and Loathing in the White Mountains

Posted on March 9, 2021March 16, 2021 by gbaldwin

by Trysten McClain

It’s mid-morning on a warm spring Tuesday and I’m staring over my favorite hot dirty spiced chai at Cafe Monte Alto while reviewing emails and going over my weekly schedule, pondering to myself, ”How will today go?” I’m referring to House Committee hearings this afternoon. What will today provide for relief or distress? Are the Republicans going to keep playing God, ITL’ing housing relief bills, restricting abortion rights, access, and funds, or any other form of denying another basic human need or right today? Will the hearings include more racist and race-baiting language and scapegoating of whatever choice buzzword the Majority chooses for the appropriate hearing? These are not unfamiliar instances for BIPOC activists, elected officials, and any individual who is engaged in the conversation in our state, nor is it a new issue. Since Black Lives Matter found a substantial amount of support after the murder of George Floyd, everyone regardless of political affiliation has taken up arms to either construct a truthfully inclusive world for society, or fighting to retain the White supremacist, sexist, xenophobic, transphobic, and exploitive class-based control our country was founded on. Quite frankly, it is extremely heartbreaking. I found myself back in New Hampshire about a month after the pandemic began, and was living in my car and on couches of family, pondering if I’ll be safe in Rumney, NH away from the chaos of the New York Tri-State Region and the assumed downfall of humanity. I packed up all my belongings and drove back north all within one evening, and still to this day I remember the horror of driving through Manhattan while hearing countless sirens and seeing next to no pedestrians or traffic. As I found myself starting to gain my feet financially and be stably housed again, I watched the footage of George Floyd’s murder and witness the media explode over the course of three days while wondering about all the past microaggressions and overt instances of racism I experienced. Needless to say, I was PISSED with the world and America in general.

I could not tell you the number of miles I marched this summer if I tried, but I assure you it’s not a reach to say about one million steps were made. Together with so many other people over last summer, many of them who are reading this currently were in attendance at protests or events, organized slow changes locally in creating the conversation regarding human rights and respect for humanity. I could not tell you how many times I heard me or a friend be called racial slurs, told “to get jobs”, “go back home” (while many of us grew up in this area), or received physical threats. Our signs were torn up, and to my knowledge, I had the police called on me six different times over last summer for no reason. Three of those calls were on the July 4th event on Plymouth Town Common and following march and die-in, even despite the Plymouth police department’s support. One individual screamed at me and called the cops over me playing music. I was playing Marvin Gaye, and clearly, the call was racially driven by that stranger. If you told me I was going to be thrust from a quiet, financially unstable, and reclusive life into being at the front of the conversation on these issues, being approached by reporters and activists, and having a statewide presence that I try to still withdraw from, I’d assume you’re insane.

As of late, I still to this day do not feel welcomed or wanted in my hometown. The hard cold gazes of strangers and acquaintances, the lost interpersonal and family relationships, the asinine commentary, and lack of effort of the community at large to encourage a diverse, inclusive, respected, and youthful community makes me nauseous. But you know what really is the largest issue in the room currently? As discussed in Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, ‘the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice […]’. I watched many of those currently reading awkwardly look from afar at our demonstrations, and not a single word was spoken between us besides cordial hellos or the ask of our labor for your campaigns or personal interests. Maybe you shared an Angela Davis quote on Facebook, shared a black box on Instagram, watched the movie Roots, talked to your racist Uncle John or some other hollow form of solidarity instead of working to deconstruct the very foundations and environment you built for my generation and the BIPOC community. One particular jarring instance was a day a friend of mine was canvassing with our local former and current officials on Tenney Mountain Highway. Across the way, a Trumper was abusing him with racist and antagonistic comments. Nobody spoke up for him and the silence was violently loud. As a matter of fact, many of whom were in attendance condemned him for speaking back out of anger after the fact. Do you understand how exploitive that behavior is to our traumas and emotional wellbeing that you could not stand up when the opportunity was provided to your constituents? If you’re upset with these words, you need to take a hard introspective look in the mirror and have a long conversation with yourself and your higher power about your values.

I digress, creating division will not solve the issues we’re continuing to face as our voices are being continually suppressed by folks experiencing white fragility, overt racist citizens and state actors, and oppressive legislature such as HB 544. This article is a call-in, not a call-out. We need you to follow through on the promises, values, and obligations to your constituents made to protect and provide for us. We voted for you because we trust you and we want you to be the leadership we imagine. Piss poor excuses or feigning ignorance is not going to suffice any longer. New Hampshire is an aging state that is gentrifying more by the tic toc second of the clock, and we need to work together. Youth like myself need direction, mentoring, and support for our work. I cannot name a single local representative or senator whoever came to an event, offered direction or support, or had the conversation with local activists from the beginning of this movement. It doesn’t have to be this way. Excluding us from the work is an ugly shade of green on your part. But as quoted by Shirley Chisholm, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”

Trysten McClain is a current resident of Plymouth, NH who spent most of his life in the greater Grafton region. He is on the Advisory Board for Plymouth Area Democrats, an area activist for LGBTQ+ rights, Black Lives Matter, and inclusion and many other socially progressive Democrat ideals. He is a young man entering into politics and planning a campaign for State Representative in 2022.

The Menace of Absurdity

Posted on November 1, 2020 by gbaldwin

by Janet Lucas, PAD Blog Editor
Campton, NH

This blog was supposed to be a book review, but a local event with national ties grabbed my attention. The review will happen later. Here’s a teaser: the book begins with a quotation from James Baldwin who wrote “Because even if I should speak, no one would believe me. And they would not believe me precisely because they know what I said was true”.

I’ve been pondering this quotation ever since our very local event. Someone posted a sign on the old Armont Inn property one half mile from our home. The sign appeared to be home-made and it carried a slogan that reminded me of a nonprofit organization familiar to health care providers and educators called Darkness to Light. This group empowers laypersons to recognize signs of child sexual abuse and how to prevent this horrendous crime. The web address is very different from that shown on the sign which read “Dark to Light Save the Children”. A little research revealed the sign not only co-opted two legitimate and well-known charities but also directs readers to the Q-Anon web site. My prior knowledge of Q-Anon was that it is a far-right fringe conspiracy group that rants and peddles info-shlock not worth the time and effort to read. So I ignored it. That was a huge mistake.

The Q-Anon basic conspiracy theory is that a world-wide group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles control financial markets, politicians and news media and that they engage in cannibalism upon kidnapped children. They further claim that Donald Trump is the only person who can save the world from this evil cabal. A claim which, in a very ingenuous fashion, Trump appeared to endorse during a press conference in mid-August 2020.

Ridiculous right? Who could possibly believe this absurdity? Millions apparently. A very similar theory circulated throughout Europe for hundreds of years. It stated with certainty that Jews kidnapped gentile children and used their blood in satanic rituals. The Nazi platform in 1920s and 1930s Germany (and in the United States) claimed that Germany lost the First World War not on the battlefield but because Jewish financiers prevented the purchase of armaments by the German government and then blocked its postwar financial recovery. German intellectuals regarded the Nazis as a laughably inept fringe group and no worse than a shamefully ignorant embarrassment. We know what happened next. They were unable to stop the Nazis from using the democratic process to take down the fragile postwar German government. In a similar fashion, the Republican Party has allowed itself to be taken over and turned into a cult of personality, giving birth to Trumpism. In the chaos of the COVID pandemic, millions of people have ingested the Q-Anon nonsense and find solace in their online comrades as the only people who truly understand what is happening and are ready for the biblical “storm” that will soon overtake and defeat the international cabal. It’s a slick combination of an online detective game, religious fundamentalism and phobia.

The old inn’s owner had the Q-Anon sign removed promptly when he was informed of its presence. The sign was likely posted by a neighbor or someone known to our community. What do we do about that? Try to convince them that they’ve been misled? Try to explain the facts to them? Try to tell them the truth? Only to hear them deny the truth “precisely because they know it to be true”? No, that is the dead end that James Baldwin grimly implied.

What must happen now is the defeat of Trumpism. Reality should be our refuge from discontent, chaos, confusion, paranoia and willful ignorance. People will not turn away from Q-Anon and other wild conspiracy theories until they no longer need them. We must defeat Trumpism and all of its manifestations from the sign down the road to the festering hatred in the Oval Office.

The Yugely, Bigly Bungler

Posted on July 21, 2020July 23, 2020 by gbaldwin

by Janet Lucas, PAD Blog Editor
Campton, NH

I’ve been told by my nearest and dearest that I should avoid any gloomy topics in this blog. Here goes…

Given how things are going for the President, perhaps he should be planning ahead a little….Fade to orange…..then to gold…..

It’s the Oval Office. The President is seated at the Resolute Desk. He looks at his watch and then he turns to look at the clock surrounded by Goya products on the credenza. He sighs, turns back and picks up the pen next to the only other object on the desk: a blank note pad.

Just then a woman enters through a door opposite the desk. She’s gray-haired, looks worried and carries a brief case.

The Prez: “Great timing! I’ve just had some thoughts about my Presidential Library. Have a seat. Let’s get started.”

Worried Woman: “Sir I’m here with an addendum for today’s PDB. There have been some new developments in Russia and in Korea.”

The Prez: “Great. OK. Have a seat. It will be Hugely Big, my Library. It will be unprecedented, no more like UNPRESIDENTIAL!! I’ll put it on…..You’re not writing this down. What’s your name?

Worried Woman: “I’m Undersecretary Susan…

The Prez interrupting, “Ok Susan be sure to take this down. I’ll build it on an island…

(Undersec’y: thinking “Fantasy Island?”)

The Prez: The public will reach it by private jet. It’ll be sooo relaxing—they’ll love it. My people will pick them up in golf carts at the airport.”

(Undersec’y: thinking “His people? Or the cast of ‘Lost’? She then imagines a conversation in one of the carts:

Guest: “What’s that Black Smoke coming out of the ground?”

Guide: “That’s Stephen Miller. He’s in his Immigrant Interdiction disguise”)

The Prez: “They’ll have a preview tour of all the attractions and then be taken to luxury accomodations”

(Undersec’y: thinking “No doubt each equipped with a Don’s John”)

The Prez: “And then on to the Library. I see several wings to the building….

(Undersec’y: thinking “I see one shelf with your Dick and Jane collection.”

The Prez: “We’ll have a wing for the great moments of my Presidentship. I’m sure there’ll be many. Of course, great collections, there are always displays of gifts given by foreign leaders and letters from my fans.”

(Undersec’y thinking: “Plenty of room for Vlad’s soccer ball, rolls of paper towels, and Cheetos under glass.)

The Prez: “Ooh and the ladies. There has to be a section for them about my presi-dental style and fashions.”

(Undersec’y thinking: “Baroque Bordello? Retrospective on the most frightening Christmas decorations in the history of the White House?”)

The Prez: “Ok Sally, that’s a start. I’m a busy man as you know. Have that back to me in one hour with copies for the cabinet.”

Undersec’y, relieved to be leaving: “Yes Mr. uh, President”

Hope this gave you a smile! Now get back to the work of what the great John Lewis described as “getting into good trouble”.

Heat Waves and Pandemics

Posted on July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 by gbaldwin

by Janet Lucas, PAD Blog Editor
Campton, NH

Torrid is not a word normally used to describe northern New Hampshire but as I wrote during the Juneteenth weekend heatwave, you may refer to this missive as the product of a half-baked brain. As we edge toward drought after a cold, rainy spring, consider the pendulum swing nearly complete. We had snow on Mother’s Day and a Frost Warning on June 1^st.

The Campton Forward Climate Committee is hard at work on a study to examine the impact of climate change on our community and find ways to mitigate the crisis locally. They are concerned, self-less citizens spending their time and their resources on behalf of others who may be in denial about global warming. There have always been folks who push back against innovation especially when it involves science and privilege: men who fought against women’s suffrage for example. And the elephant in the room is another: the cold, hard truth about America the Beautiful: It was founded upon the genocide of First Nations and built by slave labor. The white European beneficiaries of these horrible deeds continue to oppress People of Color, resulting in generations of ethnically-undervalued, economically and educationally-deprived citizens suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, substance abuse and their associated public health catastrophes. YES, GENERATIONS.

Inequality was a subliminal force in my home state of Ohio, the self-described “heart of it all”. Separated by a historically perilous river crossing from Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky, Ohio is known for race riots in Cincinnati in the mid-1800s, a Copperhead Congressman during the Civil War who ended up fleeing to the Confederacy, the “escape” of Confederate General John Morgan from the Ohio Penitentiary in downtown Columbus, and during my adolescence, the 1966 summer of violence in Hough, a Cleveland neighborhood. I attended an all-white elementary school. My parents then moved into town and my junior and senior high schools were integrated. Ohio’s last census lists a Black population of 12.1% nearly the same as the average for the entire U.S.

So as a retiree immigrant to New Hampshire, in love with its winter (my favorite season), beautiful scenery and proximity to our kids and grandkids, something became obvious early on: Why is New Hampshire so white (94%) and Vermont and Maine even more so (both 95%)? During a pandemic and a heat wave many folks are marching in support of Black Lives Matter. They march in a quest for justice, equality and recognition of historic American truths. The unequal impacts of the pandemic and climate change are new American truths that mirror the journey of People of Color in colonial America.

European colonists enslaved “hostile” Native Americans especially during King Phillip’s War in the 1660s. (Fisher, Linford 2017) Around that time, the first Black person in N. H. arrived, enslaved from Africa, in Portsmouth. The triangle trade enriched many New Englanders (cotton>guns>slaves>repeat or sugar, molasses, rum>tobacco and cotton, etc.). New Hampshire legally ended slavery in 1783 but may not have completely abolished it until 1853. (Zilversmit, Arthur 1967) Prince Whipple, a slave who fought with the colonists against the British, is buried in Portsmouth North Cemetery. The “African” cemetery for Black people is now paved over under Chestnut Street between State and Court Streets in downtown Portsmouth. There was a Black community near Kearsarge-Lake Sunapee in the 1840s, long since disappeared. In 1834, abolitionists founded an integrated coeducational school, the Noyes Academy near Canaan, NH. The Canaan Town Meeting declared the school a nuisance and not long after the school building was pulled off its foundation by a team of oxen provided to the white supremacist anti-abolitionists. e students were given one month to leave town. (New England Historical Society)

Although New England can claim both intellectual and moral leaders of the abolitionist movement, many who fought for the North in the Civil War did so to save the Union. They were indifferent to the slave-based agrarian society of the South and were openly racist. Powerful New Englanders complied with fugitive slave laws as an 1851 handbill warned: “Colored People of Boston, respectively be warned to avoid conversing with the Watchmen and the Police Officers since by the recent order of the Mayor and Aldermen, they are empowered to act as kidnappers and slave catchers.” (New England Society of Antiquities)

After the Civil War, some Blacks fled North to escape failed reconstruction only to join their “free” brethren in segregated communities and ultimately, to be buried in segregated cemeteries. From 1890-to 1930, the Black Population in the US increased by 60% and between 1915 and 1930 some 7 million Blacks left the South in the Great Migration north. (U.S. Census various sources) In that same time period, census information shows many New England counties became whiter. By the time the KKK held its first daylight march in the U.S. in Milo, Maine in 1923, they spent their vitriol on Jews, Catholics and French Canadians because there were so few Blacks left. (Loewen, James 2005) Some Americans of northern European descent self-identified as racially superior and from the 1890s through the 1940s and 1950s espoused a pseudo-science known as eugenics. Faculty at the University of Vermont advocated coerced sterilization of “inferiors” including the Abenaki People, French Canadians, and poor and disabled people. (Evancie, Angela 2016). The National Socialist German Workers (NAZI) party in the 1930s was especially interested in this work to the point of inviting some of its American proponents to lecture on the topic in Germany. They learned about American attitudes toward forced sterilization and euthanasia. (Loewen, James 2005). In reaction to the Great Migration, small towns and communities all over the north, especially in the Midwest and in New England drove out their Black populations with violence, intimidation, restrictive real estate covenants and red-lining into metropolitan ghettos. In states with few or no large cities, the Black population was completely driven out.

Now New Hampshire faces a choice: welcome diversity or become a ghost state. Our population is barely maintained by the immigration of older whites like myself and my wife. This is not the way to keep innovation, creativity and prosperity alive. The advent of the climate crisis (including ever more frequent pandemics) offers a unique opportunity to attract People of Color back to our state. It is clear that the warming climate adversely impacts Blacks more than whites. “Women exposed to high temperatures or air pollution are more likely to have premature, underweight or stillborn babies”. (Flavelle, Christopher in “Climate Change Tied to Pregnancy Risks, Affecting Black Mothers Most”, June 18, 2020). What better way to ensure that Black Lives Matter than to make sure Black Moms Matter?! Let’s emphasize the work being done in N.H. to address and mitigate climate change. We may be a state full of older white people but we can make sure N. H. remains vigorous and innovative in the face of challenge by advertising, inviting, and reaching out to young People of Color. Consider New Hampshire—we’re cool-er.

REFERENCES

Fisher, Linford, associate professor of history at Brown University quoted by Gillian Kelley-Brown in Futurity online magazine in an article entitled “Colonists shipped Native Americans as Slaves” 2/16/2017

Zilversmit, Arthur. The First Emancipations: The Abolition of Slavery in the North. University of Chicago Press, 1967

Evancie, Angela. “What is the Status of the Abenaki Native Americans in Vermont Today?” for Vermont Public Radio, Novermber 4, 2016.

Loewen James W. Sun Down Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. New York: The New York Press 2005.

Flavelle, Christopher “Climate Change Tied to Pregnancy Risks, Affecting Black Mothers Most” The New York Times, June 18,2020.

Various from the U. S. Census, the New England Society of Antiquities and the New England Historical Society.

She’s My Why

Posted on August 15, 2019 by gbaldwin

The other day, I was chatting with a fellow PAD Board member, as we often do, and we were talking about our reasons for why we are active in politics. You know, the skin we have in the game, and why we have dedicated so much of our lives and are so passionate in promoting Democratic values, as is our PAD mission. I got off the phone and had to really sit with myself for a moment, as I never actually thought about it in that great a detail. I mean, we all have our reasons, right? But what REALLY was my do-or-die reason? That thing that really motivates me every day, when so much of the news coming out about the current regime in Washington is so damn horrify and overwhelming.

I took some time to unpack this question, pull the thread in time, go down that rabbit hole to the single incident and the reason I felt I needed to really step up my game and get more involved. For me, it harkened back to the day my 19 year old daughter came out to her father and me, almost 4 years ago. The exact moment that it really sank in for me is forever seared in my memory, and over the next few days, I processed what that really meant for our family and for her, as a member for the LGBTQIA+ community, who has since become very public and outspoken advocate for rights.

I’m sad to say, my mind went to some very dark places. For the first time ever, I had to reconcile the fact that, in some places, heck even in our own backyard, she could be beaten up or even killed for loving who she loves, or will love. She can be denied a job, housing, entrance into the military, healthcare, and the ability to foster a child, or adopt a child, and there are places in this country where that’s all perfectly legal. The discrimination still being perpetrated in this country is so extensive, it boggles the mind.

And it seems to be getting worse, not better. THAT chills me to the bone. So this is why I fight. This is why I get up every day and think about 1 small thing I can do to advance Democratic values. This is why I say “yes” to opportunities to donate time to institutions doing this same work, sometimes to the detriment of my own family-life and financial resources. It’s not my only why, not by any stretch. But it’s the reason I could no longer sit back and lie to myself that voting in every election was “enough”. It’s not. Not even close. And in this next election, which undoubtedly will be the single most important in these modern times, we are literally fighting for our very lives and the life and future of Democracy in this country. Find your why. We need all hands on deck.

A Plea for Adequate Education Funding

Posted on July 2, 2019 by gbaldwin

by Gunnar Baldwin
Plymouth, NH

It is high time to recognize the fundamental role that education plays in the security of our country. Just as a strong military protects frontal attacks on our sovereign territory, a strong public educational system is needed to defend our back door, preventing our country from weakening economically, culturally, democratically, and morally from within. Our security should not be defined solely by tanks and aircraft carriers, but also by all other ways in which we protect our way of life and maintain our status as the land of opportunity. Our back door has been breached because we have been willing to sit back and watch other developed countries out-compete us by providing robust education to their children from all income levels. True commitment to security should mean the same willingness to protect our back side where it is most vulnerable—as to defend against hostilities that are aimed at our front door.

In our country’s frontier days, it was reasonable to expect that every child would remain in the community where they were raised and often, that they would follow in the footsteps of their fathers in tending the family farm or the local logging, blacksmith, or carriage-making enterprise. It was up to communities to prepare their offspring for the local future they would have. Today, not so much. Our children will need to become highly-qualified, effective workers in a global economy, competing with their counterparts in Germany, Sweden, and Japan. Even if they pursue blue collar careers, it is still often the case that they will not stay in their home towns. It should say something that many US companies seek to procure work visas for highly qualified workers from abroad because they cannot find enough qualified applicants from the domestic talent pool.

Today, it seems that many conservatives view the fundamental right to an adequate education with disdain, as a necessary evil, like paying to truck garbage to a landfill, that should be fulfilled with the lowest-cost option. Of course, if a family wants to pay extra to send their children to a premium school, that should be their elective right—correct? I think of past local efforts to slash our school’s budgets and of those who championed that cause. The unspoken subtitle was clear: “the school is not good enough for my children, but it is good enough for the rest of you.” We are steadily marching backwards toward a feudal past, where the wealthiest and most powerful families controlled all of the country’s resources and were the gatekeepers—deciding which demographics got the chance to advance into prosperity.

It is imperative that we finally address the lack of political will to recognize what an adequate education (a common denominator for all citizens) consists of and be ready to fund that amount—whatever it is—through a fair tax system. Although conservatives plead poverty, our state government is only poor if it chooses to be, by obstinately ignoring the vital role education plays in a modern prosperous society. Failure to acknowledge New Hampshire’s responsibility to fund education is part of a broader set of factors on the national level that are slowly ratcheting our society back to a time of feudal lords and peasants. We must decide if our country’s future is just for the most affluent among us or should include everyone.

If our efforts to solve the education funding challenge are successful, we must also confront the fact that simply throwing more money at education will only confirm the most dire predictions of our conservative counterparts. Knowing how to apply improved school funding, if and when we get it, cannot be a Phase II issue that is addressed at a later date. We will not get a second chance to fix education if it is not implemented effectively from the outset. There are many ways to poorly manage an education system and far fewer ways to do it effectively.

Many of the problems that have plagued education systems around the country have resulted from the mindless application of funds to education systems, a myopic focus on aptitude test results, or dog-headed efforts by powerful people (like our country’s Secretary of Education) to do things in very specific, unproven ways that simply do not work for the vast majority of the students we need to educate. Effective teachers should receive a premium—enough to attract talented graduates who would otherwise shun teaching to pursue careers that pay a living wage. Many unpopular changes are needed that will affect the status quo and result in winners and losers. We need to ready to defend the right choices.

Taking Steps Towards Positive Impact

Posted on April 22, 2019April 23, 2019 by gbaldwin

by Steve Whitman
Plymouth, NH

Each April we turn our attention to sustainable practices as the spring weather arrives, our yards and community turn green, and Earth Day approaches. These events serve as a reminder of the beauty and fragile condition of the Earth. Reflecting on how to live lighter on the planet and reduce our ecological footprint during this time is admirable and worthwhile. For many of us, it continues throughout the year, and hopefully throughout our lives. However, the emphasis tends to be on how to reduce the negative aspects of our lives, striving to do less bad rather than working to increase the positive aspects of our environmental footprint.

I think we need to do both, and it can start with one small action that excites you and motivates you to change your behavior. After all, most of what we are talking about under the topic of sustainability is awareness and behavior change. There are many reasons to take action, for some it is an effort to reduce carbon emissions that gets them to walk or bike to work. For others, it is moving away from plastic that gets them to reconsider their current use of shopping bags or new opportunities for bulk purchasing. The beauty of taking these actions is that there is no playbook or required sequence, and all of these actions reduce our demand on the earth’s natural systems. Plus, there are rewards! Saving money, enjoying time outdoors, connecting with other people, and other benefits can be realized as we work to reduce our negative impacts on the planet.

The same can be true of efforts to make positive impacts on the planet. Converting a portion of your lawn to a habitat and food producing system, starting a sustainability initiative in your community, or assisting with outreach and education on important topics all leave a positive environmental footprint that we all benefit from.

As we take on these personal challenges it is important to start with small and simple solutions. In doing so many of us have found that this is an empowering and transformative process that encourages us to consider bigger and bolder changes over time. As an example, on our property, we started by constructing a four foot by eight foot raised bed for growing vegetables. Then we added a compost bin. Years later these steps were transformed to extensive garden areas and a greenhouse that provides year-round food production, habitat, pollination, carbon sequestration, air, and water filtering, and many other important ecosystem services. The end result for this small project is tremendous positive impact as we regenerate natural systems on our small residential lot while also reducing some of the negative aspects of our ecological footprint.

Looking to the future I know I still have more changes to adopt in my life, and I hope to do so alongside all of you as we support and inspire each other. As we do let’s be sure to enjoy the journey and avoid becoming martyrs to the cause. If we do others will take notice and want to join in on this adventure of sustainable living!

“Steve Whitman is the Founder and Principal of Resilience Planning & Design, a community planning and ecological design firm located in Plymouth, NH. Steve is also a certified permaculture designer and teacher, a part-time faculty member at Plymouth State University, and an alternate on the Town of Plymouth Planning Board.”

Looking Ahead – What’s Really at Stake in 2020

Posted on January 15, 2019January 15, 2019 by gbaldwin

by Gunnar Baldwin
Plymouth, NH

Now that the 2020 elections are on the horizon, one question is paramount: How can we keep the 2016 from happening again? It should be crystal clear that we are in for a difficult fight because of the powerful interests and almost limitless funding arrayed against us. These influential players will try to paint the election as a choice between a bright economic future with more jobs versus socialism and economic decline.

This election, however, will not be about boosting job growth through tax breaks for the very rich or about the free market versus socialism. After all, the scale of the subsidies and tax breaks for big oil and agribusiness giants looks downright socialist in comparison with welfare assistance for the poor. With respect to the economy, what is really at stake boils down to a number of fundamental issues:

Whether we have the right message and resolve to stop the greatest feeding frenzy in history, as corporations and wealthy individuals race to maximize the benefits of deregulation while the window of opportunity lasts. These powerful players know that in the long run, the reasons we have regulations (e.g., safe foods, truth in advertising, or the disclosure of predatory consumer lending provisions) and the reality of climate change will become painfully obvious to a critical mass of voters.
Whether the wealthiest individuals and corporations will get to carve up and consume the world’s remaining natural resources (our children’s and grandchildren’s heritage), realizing enormous short-term profits for a few at the expense of long-term prosperity for many. The urgent rush to convert public assets (such as protected public lands) to private wealth looks much like the asset grabs that occurred in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union, but cloaked in a thin veneer of legitimacy.

One hypothetical question may force Republicans to reveal their bottom line: If the technology existed today to extract, harvest, or catch all of the world’s remaining oil, coal, ore, timber, and fish in a single year—to benefit a single generation—would that be an acceptable goal? If the answer is yes, then their darkest intentions have been exposed. If the answer is no, what measures would they suggest for avoiding that outcome and how are those measures different from the very constraints they are hell-bent on trying to repeal?

Whether we want to transition our economy toward sustainable, next-generation industries and services that support the livelihoods of many for years to come or whether Trump’s interventions will force continued reliance on dirty fuels and technologies at the expense of sustainable ones, in order to ensure the continued profits of incumbent industries (hardly the free market at work).

Finally, if we really want to have a chance at changing the views of right-leaning independent voters, we must first address the assumptions that underlie their political views—or give them a few to adopt. If we cannot agree on why we have a government or why we pay taxes, it will be difficult to win them over with respect to specific policy choices.

As I have stated previously, one argument for government and taxes is the following:

As American citizens, most of us are all born into a collective debt that we owe to those less fortunate because the benefits of living in the great country we enjoy are directly tied to—and arose in a million little ways—from the hardship and exploitation of others.

America’s strong economy and favorable business environment, which allows a hard-working entrepreneur to realize profits and create new jobs, got its head start and an early competitive edge through slavery and the enormous profits that free labor allowed. Slavery may have been abolished in the strictest sense at the end of the Civil War, but other legal ways of exploiting people with lesser bargaining power ensued in our industrial age. The vast disparities in economic advantage that these factors produced endure today in our current society.

Just as a restaurant must pay a generalized royalty in order to play songs from a vast pool of music whose rights are owned by many artists and recording studios—who cannot be individually compensated directly by that restaurant for practical reasons—we must pay a tax to help correct our share of the costs that our standard of living has inflicted on others. Our individual share of this debt is no less real because we cannot quantify it.

Similarly, we are all part of a shared risk pool. We do not know in advance which fellow citizens will be diagnosed with cancer or have their homes destroyed by a hurricane, so we pay taxes to cover our pro-rata share of government services designed to minimize the impacts of these risks and compensate those affected by these catastrophes.

Anyone who lives paycheck to paycheck, has been bankrupted by medical bills despite having insurance, or must continue to pay a mortgage for a home that was washed away may rightly ask how they are benefitting from the American dream and past suffering by others. My answer to this question is that most people who have been locked out of the America’s prosperity nevertheless aspire to it, and in so doing yearn to benefit from a standard of living that was made possible because of the unfair advantages used against those less fortunate over the course of our history.

The arguments above do not mean that our country is bad, only that we know we can do better in pursuing our country’s ideals. But how do we even begin to convey an important message that is long-winded because of its complexity? Is there a way to distill this message into a few sound bites? This is a task that must be addressed and debated in order to reach those voters who are most receptive to rational argument (there are a few).

Finally, we should heed the warnings by Democratic candidates that did not succeed in the recent elections. Making sweeping promises like “healthcare for all” does not play well with voters who are weary of hearing politicians promising changes that can never be delivered. Stating that a policy will “reduce your medical costs” may do better. We must learn from every past mistake if we want to succeed this time around.

Like Many Americans, I was Emotionally Devastated

Posted on August 10, 2018 by gbaldwin

by Gunnar Baldwin
Plymouth, NH

Like most Americans, I was emotionally devastated at the spectacle of thousands of innocent, crying and screaming children being separated from their parents as they crossed our border and were distributed to kennel-like holding pens—by our own government. I could only conjure up images of family separations at the hands of the NAZIs or slave auctions earlier in our own history. My grief quickly turned to rage as I grasped the complicity of fellow citizens who blindly follow the current occupant of the Oval Office and are willing to look the other way, making cheap excuses, spouting cherry-picked scriptures, or sticking their heads in sand. I cannot believe that so many Americans have utterly caved into this administration’s agenda. It seemed like Kristallnacht was not far behind.

Fortunately, my gut feeling is that the child separation atrocity was a low ebb—a bridge too far for even many Trump supporters. I hope I am right. If so, there is likely a segment of citizens who voted for Trump in the last election and are amenable to a rational dialogue about the direction our country should take, but only if we can present the right message. It is hard to have a discussion about complex issues of inequity and the ethical role of government when we are allowed only a sound bite.

One of the most profound challenges for Democrats is making inroads against the ideologies of those who advocate for a small government. If asked, many Republicans will explain that they are not against compassion, but will explain that helping those in need is a role for churches, NGOs, and the Rotary Club—but not the government. Here is why that is wrong: Throughout the history of our country, our government has played a central role in facilitating the current state of affairs—from laying the structural foundation for poverty and vastly wealth disparities to the tilted playing field that secures unfair advantages for deep-pocketed industries and the very rich. In a myriad of ways, our government has been the instrumentality of inequity, from sanctioning slavery, to supporting predatory health care prices, to implementing policies that provide unfair advantages to a privileged few—picking winners and losers in the process. Government had a central role in creating these problems and now must play a central role in fixing them.

Connecting the dots between past injustices and current affairs is inherently a multi-step process that defies sound bites and may seem diffused and attenuated. However, it is no less real. Many of us benefit from the standard of living we enjoy in America today, but we cannot opt out of our past (or our cancer risk pool). Just as we cannot opt out of the debt we owe our forebears in uniform who have defended our country from our enemies, we cannot opt out of the built-in debt we collectively owe to those who are today’s victims of yesterday’s slavery, corporate robber-barons, or ethnic discrimination.

In many ways, those who wish to come to America today from south of our border are no different than those who immigrated from Europe in past centuries to pursue a better life and escape crises, both political and economic. Yet there is an important difference: America has played an enormous role in creating the very conditions (e.g., poverty, gangs) that make so many people try to flee here from Central America and other areas in Latin America. During much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the US has interfered repeatedly in the governments and economies of the countries in our backyard to secure economic advantage and support dictators friendly to US corporations. They are not simply unlucky or poorly educated. We poisoned their well water and now we refuse to share ours.

Ignorance on the part of much of the population is not intentional, but it presents a hurdle for political persuasion. For example, US schools have done a poor job in providing a thorough and balanced view of our history. (The same can be said of schools in Russia, China, Myanmar, and Turkey). It will often be necessary that we share a little additional background to frame our conversation with voters, whether the topic is education, voting rights, healthcare, or immigration. Clearly, this is a challenge. Many of the voters that are cheering efforts to disenfranchise minority voters, turn immigrants into scapegoats, and disseminate absurd conspiracy theories are very comfortable in their bubbles. We need to be creative in developing messages that can burst through a few of them.