The Prophets of Doom

Recently I viewed a TV program called Prophets of Doom. The format was an informal gathering of individuals in a studio set, five or six leaders in their various fields, who via discussion format were challenged to predict the one disaster among the many currently looming which they believed would most likely be the one to spell the downfall of the United States. The participants demonstrated great intensity in the expression of their individual views on this subject and shared a sincere, albeit alarming consensus that the United States is indeed on the brink of downfall, if not from those specific individual causes that each championed, then most certainly from a combination of several of them.  Our demise was projected to come from economic collapse, water loss, an accelerated disfunction resulting from the downslope of peak oil, nuclear terrorism, and/or the dominance of machines. No, this was not a movie, but a serious discussion among knowledgeable, highly trained professionals with the facts at their disposal. The time frame for this demise was determined to be within the next two decades. The elephant not in the room, surprisingly, was climate change. It was never mentioned, not once. But the scenarios presented during the two hour presentation were dramatic, catastrophic, frightening. A term, cognitive dissonance, was introduced to describe what we humans do in the face of  possibilities on a scale beyond our emotional capacity to deal with them: which is to pretend that they do not exist. This tactic seems to have been employed by the these very prophets in terms of global warming. I would put that concern before the worry of my robot dismissing me as non-essential function (if I had a robot!). Regardless, the program re-introduced the dark underside of our lives, the realities which in our 'cognitive dissonance' we ignore, fail to see, or chose not to believe. It showed the Rome that is burning as we fiddle. But unlike many such documentaries, actual solutions were introduced. And these solutions make sense. 

Centralized government with its centralized programs was a clumsy proposition at the best of times. But even as we watched the waste grow and the inefficiencies mount and the inequalities increase over the centuries we continued to support it because, well hey! it was ours and it worked after a fashion and we enjoyed propping it up against those other governments out there…good old America, the land of the free! Along with cognitive dissonance, Americans also suffer from 'momentum sickness', the effect of the Newton law that says its better not to change those things that seem to be working. It is momentum sickness that allows us to continue to support the oil industry, to continue to pay taxes to a central government for services many of us will never receive, to allow politics to trump the needs of the people in the halls of congress. But the problem with momentum sickness is that this malady makes it difficult to tell when things have actually stopped working. Because of momentum sickness leading to cognitive dissonance Americans are allowing a failed debt-ridden unresponsive central government to soothe us with the false reassurance that because it has always been there for us after a fashion, it always will. Remember New Orleans and FEMA? What about public education? Where once a central government actually worked, in the face of the growing needs of an ever increasing population it no longer can. Which is why the solutions offered by the Prophets of Doom make sense.

Localize! That's it, in a nutshell. That was the consensus of the group. Bring everything down to a scale that will work. Allow individual localities to determine and respond to their own needs, in the way best suited to their local environment. Institute local water plans that will work for that neighborhood, that town, that population. Reverse outsourcing to insourcing. Buy local. Grow local. Establish a local economy that is not reliant upon remote conditions. Establish a local currency for that economy. Get off the grid. Find ways to produce electric locally, individually. What about a local health plan? Or a local retirement plan? Its time to go back to the future.

Localizing does not require a major government overhaul. It will never be accomplished through endless debate among congressmen attended by influential lobbyists and concerned corporations. It can only be done from the bottom up. The very bottom up: you, and I. A small group of neighbors with a proposal, a plan. A Saturday activity, a project. 

Yes, laws will need to be changed and responsibilities shifted and systems restructured eventually but that will happen in due course if each individual American subscribes to this course of action. I intend to start right away. My first step is simple: on my small balcony, in prepared containers, I will grow vegetables to eat. I can grow tomatoes and perhaps a squash and lettuce variety. My other foods I will purchase at farmers markets or otherwise be sure that they are local. And I will make myself more aware of how I consume: aware of my water quality and source, aware of the cost and source of the electric I use, aware of  the disposition of my waste water. I will study ways that my community could potentially utilize solar and wind on a very local basis. These are very small steps, but they are positive steps. We need to learn to walk before we can run.

A Gift For Los Alamos

In times marked by trials, tribulation, and discouragement, it is always refreshing to learn of an effort that offers a resurgence of hope for the helpless and a selfless initiative for the benefit of people in need. Bad news sells, unfortunately, but we are now in that one season of the year when editors seem to try just a little harder to find room for a story that just plain feels good. This blog will be no exception.
I first learned of the Children's Project shortly after arriving in Los Alamos on the Central Coast of California. A new friend, who involved himself on occasions in service to the town, wondered if I had heard about the project. It seemed that a group had formed around an idea to benefit the foster children of Santa Barbara county. The idea was to seek a charter and then to build a public charter boarding school for foster children. It would be a unique concept in public education. And it was to be built right here in Los Alamos.
I learned that the active force behind the idea and the driver of the project is a former television series actress  currently practicing law in Santa Barbara named Wendy Kilbourne Read. I fired off an e-mail to Wendy and she graciously agreed to meet me in a little coffee shop in Santa Ynez. I was eager to share my character and leadership education  practices that I had developed at my former position in an eastern boarding school and so set aside a folder full of lessons, frameworks, and scholarly dissertations that illustrated my work. Fortunately for both of us, in my haste I brought the wrong file. Because what followed instead was a free flowing exchange of ideas about children and character education and opportunities.
I learned that Wendy had taken on responsibility for volunteering time with a six year old foster child. She quickly became discouraged by the quality of his passage from childhood to his eventual emancipation from the court system, a journey which included 26 dis-placements. She questioned the need for a life of continual turmoil. She realized the cyclic nature that such instability initiates: the consequent lack of academic focus and achievement, the inevitable narrowing of opportunity, the resignation to a poorer life and prospects. Wendy's association with a local private boarding school might have suggested the 'Ah hah!' moment that sent her along her current road toward the creation of a foster child boarding school. But like any good student, she did her own homework. She traveled around the country and even to Israel visiting similar schools instituted for similar reasons. Each visit added fuel to her enthusiasm. At the time of our meeting, The Children's Project had taken large strides toward influencing potential stakeholders and  raising private funds and had already acquired land. A great deal of the time consuming work was then being focused on acquiring a charter. I was later privileged to witness the fruit of this labor when I attended the meeting at the County Board of Education in Santa Barbara at which the charter was granted.
As The Children's Project brochure and web site (www.childrensprojectsb.org) can tell you, The Children’s Project Academy is a residential charter school that will enable 120 7th-12th grade foster youth to live with passionate, dedicated foster parents and alongside their teachers, foster grandparents and staff, in this way creating permanent relationships with caring adults. And a permanent place to reside, work, and play among children like themselves, a place to call home.
I find myself uniquely positioned to foresee the potential benefits to both the Gown and the Town. Around me in my little community within a community in Los Alamos live refugees from a nearby town of similar size now advanced in the shaping of its character beyond reclamation. At one time, that town would have stood poised to make decisions that must determine the quality of its future. In a land of tourism and a successful wine industry a choice that favored wine tasting rooms and boutique stores supporting that industry is not surprising and probably necessary. But the occasional outcome for the residents, the dark underside of inebriated tourism with its noise, fumes, and filth, is what sent my neighbors packing to Los Alamos.
I grew up in a community that supported a private boarding school and my career subsequently took me to another community enveloping not one but two private boarding schools. In each case the net effect was the same: the economy of the community gradually lifted by the tangential benefits of a residential school in its midst while the quality of life and attractiveness of the town was maintained.  Today both communities are surrounded by overpopulated and noisily gridlocked towns yet themselves remain an oasis of calm, dignity, and space. This is not magic; it is the fact that every town decision is made in some consideration of the young people who live in its heart and the perspective of other young people and adults who will come from other schools and towns to visit them.
The Children's Project Academy is a wonderful and worthy project that appears to have no down side. But as always with initiatives of such size and scope, there remain substantial hurdles to overcome before completion. There will be those who would oppose it and those who wish to diminish it. Now, however, at this particular time of year is the right time to celebrate not perhaps  the realization of this vision so much as the spirit of caring that brought the vision to light.