[Chapter_Fourteen] more on justice & permaculture

[Larry Korn]

Hello again Rachel,

I didn't mean to be rude in my response to you.  I agree with all of your
concerns.  From my experience, the greatest danger in our permaculture
efforts is burn out.  We are so concerned with the state of the environment
and all the social injustice that we don't even know where to begin.  There
is only so much each of us can do.  Taking on too much is a recipe for
failure.  We have only so much time, energy, resources and so forth.  I
believe that we need to concentrate our efforts on what the people who are
involved choose to focus on.  That's why I suggested that if you have a good
idea about how our permaculture community can improve you should take it on
and to create it yourself.  Others will welcome your efforts and join in as
they are able or willing to.  I agree that having Hayes Valley Farm open on
weekends including child care, if their agreement with the city allows,
would be great!  Other practical ideas along these lines would certainly be
welcome especially if someone was there to organize and take responsibility
for the project.

~Larry


On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 8:06 PM, Larry Korn <ldkorn at gmail.com> wrote:

> We can ask questions like this and have discussions, but unless someone
> steps up and decides to take it on themselves, even the discussion becomes a
> drain.  For example, if you think Hayes Valley Farm should be open on
> weekends with child care, why not line up the volunteers and other
> resources needed to bring the plan about and present it to the Hayes Valley
> Farm People?
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 1:11 PM, Rachel A. Buddeberg <rachel at rabe.org>wrote:
>
>> Again, i want to share some more of my thinking around a question i raised
>> in that long email i sent and with that reenergize our discussion a bit
>> more.
>>
>> I asked: How can we make sure that everybody can participate?  Are we
>> preventing some people from participating? If so, how? Can we overcome those
>> obstacles?
>>
>> I was thinking about Hayes Valley Farm as an example. Let me preface this
>> by saying that i think it's wonderful that the Farm exists and i am grateful
>> of and admire the people who are putting a lot of work into the Farm.  I am
>> not raising these questions as criticism but just as some of the things we
>> might want to consider if we want to utilize the Farm to grow more than food
>> but also justice.  If volunteer hours are during a weekday when people work,
>> aren't we excluding people?  What about single mothers who don't want to
>> bring their child(ren) along or even those who would want to - is there
>> child care?  Do people really sign up for PDCs if they cannot afford to pay
>> anything?  How do we actually come across to others - maybe people are
>> turned off by the way we talk?  By the verbosity of my writing?
>>
>> I am not looking for specific answers to these questions but rather would
>> like to use them to ask more generally: Are these questions the type of
>> questions we would want to ask ourselves as people who are interested in
>> permaculture?  Are they part of our commitment to permaculture?
>>
>> I am looking forward to your thoughts!
>>
>> Rachel
>>
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