Van Jones: The Green Movement’s Black Hero

“When people think about climate change, often the first thought that comes to mind has to do with all the solar panels, wind farms, and green rooftops we need, and how quickly it needs to be done. But the question that rarely follows is, “how much manual labor will this take and who’s going to do it?” It’s also becoming clear that more and more people in underserved communities, especially young people, are getting left behind while the rest of us struggle to climb closer and closer to the American dream. Can we think of these people not as a burden, but as an underused resource? The man who isn’t afraid to ask these questions, and who has an answer, is Van Jones, President and co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBC) based in Oakland, California.” (Exerpt from, “community Heros” by Rosemary Prizker. Click on this link to read entire article.)

Greatfully, there is a development occuring that makes us ask, “Is the Overwhelmingly White, Green Movement finally reaching out to blacks and other people of color … or are people like Van Jones inserting the reality that black people can and will play an integral part of this “New Green Movement“?

“What’s a nice black guy like me doing in a movement like this?” asks Van Jones. The tall, 39 year old cuts a striking silhouette in a black turtleneck and blazer as he strides the stage at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center. A  charismatic lawyer who grew up in rural Tennessee, Jones graduated from Yale Law, and founded the Ella Baker Center for jobs and justice in Oakland.

“The Prius people, the polar-bear crowd are great,” Jones says. “We’re not mad at them. We like them! At the same time, if the only people who can participate are the kind who can afford to put solar panels on their second home, the green movement is going to be too small to fix the problem. If we want to beat global warming, there’s no way to do it without helping a lot of poor people. If you design a solution that does not do that, it’s a solution that’s too timid.”

In Jones’ eyes, the first wave of environmentalism, led by Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir, focused on preserving the nation’s natural beauty in parks. The second wave, led by Rachel Carson of “Silent Spring,” concentrated on federal regulation of toxics. The third wave, he says, is about investment. Initially, that meant individual consumer choice: hybrid cars, organic food, energy-efficient light bulbs. Now, it’s evolved into major public spending and community-wide action.

Jones’ grand vision? Think New Deal and civil-rights movement combined with a clean-green industrial revolution. The nation needs to train masses of “green-collar” workers to conduct energy audits, weatherize and retrofit buildings, install solar panels and maintain hybrid vehicles, wind farms and bio-fuel factories. The icing? Wiring buildings and installing solar panels can’t be outsourced.

“Brother,” Jones says, “put down that hand gun and pick up this caulk gun.”

[Partially re-written from article written by Paula Bock. Click this link to read the entire article.]

Quit The Road: God MUST Love Me Because …

“Thank you for all you’ve done … and for allowing me to eat this past year … but ‘yall can have these keys back.”

That’s right … on Wednesday I handed the man back the keys to his truck.  No more Flatbed Fred wrestles with filthy tarps, heavy chains, and dusty straps. No more unloading in frozen ice and snow. Gone are work days spent in southern Arkansas … where you can pass out before your load is secure and tarped.

Now … I’ve returned to the INSANE, arrogant California Bay Area and on the first day, I’m amazed at how well things are going. This is the same place where economic racism forced me to become a truck driver. This is the same place where I left 14 months ago and traveled to OKLAHOMA to get a job! Now, on my first day back, I already have:

• A new job … one that allows me to go home every night
• A new van - the owner has a body shop and someone failed to pay, so he has to get rid of it…
• A new apartment - he’s throwing in the small apartment over the shop

This allows me to take a Greenhouse Production class out at City College. Amazing. God is good. I don’t think it’s ever been this easy. After the semester, it most likely will be the right time to pack “my stuff” into my new van and drive to South Carolina … which will become … “My New Home.”

The Perfect Small Farm Cow … Dexters

The concept of moving to the contry after a lifetime spent in urban America is daunting, but part of the fun is dreaming about what types of farm animals I’ll raise. So far I’m certain about the two breeds of dogs … and I know there will be both chickens and Guinea Hens, but I’m still undecided about, “Goat or Sheep?”

But last week I read an article on Dexter Cows. Not those big, intimidating things that “guard” countryside fence lines and stare back at me with unblinking eyes … not them. I’m talking about Little Cows. Not pygmy cows or miniture cows … a real breed of bovine … that’s naturally small. Cool.

I don’t have a family so a “normal” size dairy cow would have me making cheese, ice cream, and butter on a 24/7 hour basis. But Dexters give smaller amounts of milk and every web site I’ve looked at swore they are “gentle.” Have a look:

Want “Power”?

Okay, so the value system of this country is the 7 Deadly Sins, right? (Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, Sloth). “Yeah … America is Number 1” and all that self-centered, power hungry crap.

So seeing how demonic those paths are … why do we need, “Power” and … what kind of power do we need in our current time?

Jung said that, “The need for power is the need for love.” I’ve always wondered why so many people run around trying to be “powerful” … or trying to be “Alpha Males” or Alpha Females” … appearing “powerful” … when all they’re really seeking is love. So why not go straight at it?  Be honest about it …

The theologian Mathew Fox wrote: “Sin is misplaced love.” All the weird and strange things that people do throughout each day … seeking attention … and missing what the really need and deeply desire.

Sin also distances us from God. That’s also the description of Hell … “distance from God.”

So yes, we live in a highly dysfunctional world, filled with addictions that open up portals for demons to enter and run our lives into ditches. And yes, in this “postmodern, alienated, technocratic world,” our existential dilemma creates terror and its coexisting trait of anger (fear) … and all the while, all we need to do  is step out of pride, humble ourselves to God’s will, and begin the process of being Gateways of God’s mature love to the world … and all our problems will be solved.

Financing My Urban Escape

Okay, so in the process of concluding that I want a greater quality of life than I can create in urban America … and then deciding that I can best create such a life on a small farm (8 or more acres) … I’ve learned a great deal even before leaving Oakland, California.

But perhaps the greatest thing I’ve learned is how to make my fantasy a reality. In other words, how to finance the move. Life in the country requires a lower amount of money to live on. The reason why all that beautiful property is so cheap is there is a lack of jobs out thar. Hence, I decided to learn to become a truck driver.

I drove a cab in San Francisco back in the late 80’s for a few years to finance my return to college, but I never dreamed I’d ever yearn to drive an 18 wheeler. But it’s such a great choice because not only can I drive through various parts of the country and get a feel about potential areas where advertised cheap property is located, but I can live anywhere and be a trucker. (Not to mention that truckers can potentially earn up to $200, 000 a year!)

FREE Truck Driving School
This journey is teaching me faith … and more… the power of following your dreams. I actually found a FREE truck driving school. When I graduate, I won’t have any contracts nor will I owe anyone any money. More, the school is located in San Francisco’s City College Bay View Campus off Evans Street. It was started by Tania Alexander and her father, Rev. Alexander of True Hope Baptist Church in the Hunter’s Point area. Class is located in the Evan’s Street Campus of San Francisco City College. (The program is so new that I see it isn’t even listed on the SFCC Webstite .) The program is sponsored in partnership with Goodwill Industries and here’s a link to press releases about the program:

Goodwill Truck Driving Academy

Bayview True Hope Truck Driving Academy

Phone Number: 415-550-4421

NOTE: If you look at the picture above, you can see me standing in the backgrown just between Rita’s eyes (the person in the simulator’s driver’s seat) and the screen.) Da kid ain’t playin’ … I’m going to have my Class A in about two weeks. Um … perhaps you folks should decide to stay off the streets for the next two months … )

14 Steps To Begin Your Black Farm Dream

Dreams of moving to the country continue as I walk constantly into the reality of making it happen. Only a few more steps before I enter truck school. It’s a free program sponsored by a church in Hunter’s Point, Goodwill Industries, and San Francisco City College. Attending an independent truck school rather than a truck company’s school means I won’t be under a $5,000 contract when I leave. It also means I will most likely earn more money starting off.

Why truck driving? I dunno … I like to drive and it’s a long way from listening to crack addicts tell me lies all day. Homes and land are cheap in rural America … but it’s that way because there often is a lack of jobs. This means I’ll have to:

1. Take a few Horticulture and/or Permaculture courses
2. Take a welding class (FREE too at several locations here in urban America)
3. Make sure I’m getting enough exercise so that I’ll be fit when I get there
4. Research the appropriate farm equipment, farming practices, local truck actions, and other means of paying less than full price for much of what I’ll need
5. Read up on rural life … like a book I ran across the other day that illustrates why country neighbors really are better than city neighbors … because they need you more … but … research will still have to be done …
6. Visit http://www.city-data.com and gather as many candid remarks about the towns, states and cities I’m curious about
7. Visit http://www.unitedcountry.com and check out the tip of the iceberg of what’s available (I’ve noticed they’ve stopped posting the really cheap places … hey … Real Estate Agents want to make money too… they also have a huge book that comes out twice a year that’s far better … only $9.00 a year for a subscription.)
8. I also like to open http://www.wikipedia.com and pull up the demographics of an area … won’t paint the whole picture … but it can fill in a few blanks
9. And if you visit the http://realestate.msn.com ’s Real Estate link, you’ll see where you can request hard copy books for areas you’re curious about. These books are found in free sidewalk newspaper bins all over the U.S. … but if you request one online, Real Estate agents from those areas will send you emails, listings, and letters inviting you to build a relationship with them
   [Click on http://realestate.msn.com ... and check out the second one down that has a house and two barns with acreage and timber for $160,000]
10. Start dreaming into all the things you’d do if you only had land … and a bit of time to pursue them. Then start searching the web for examples of what those projects look for other people. You’ll really be surprised if you let yourself go
11. If you’re single, start posting your ad on dating sites for country and farm people
12. Remember … there are fears about a looming global recession in 2012 … so people with small farms WITH WATER under or on it will do better than those sisters and brothers still complaining in the hoods … did I mention the fears around a global water shortage starting in 2015?
13. But above all … I have to remember that it really isn’t all about me. That if God gives folks gifts and talents, He wants them to funnel them into our bringing something to the table … assisting with the greater good …
14. Look around for friends and family to bring along. Asian and Mexican immigrants are showing us some excellent examples of how to create successful social models that create both economic success and individual / group safety. It’s FAR better to bring some trusted comrades to watch your back as you build your fences … and more importantly … your bridges … in the new rural community you select

But if it’s one thing that all that non-profit, social service trench work taught me … when I want to save someone… I’m usually projecting onto someone else a part of ME that needs “saving.” Hence … pause, SAVE MYSELF FIRST, then do some … wise … charity work.

Racism or Engineering Your Life?

Recently I’ve been receiving comments about racism. This blog really isn’t about racism. It’s about walking away from the addictive pull of contiual reaction to racism. I say “addiction” because anything that traumatizes the psyches of MOST human beings, the mind repeats looking for resolution.

I write at a black audience right now because:

• I am black
• Black people as a culture are on fire
• White, Asian, and Mexican/Hispanic youth who feel disenfranchised look to what has become a bastardization of blackness to take their cues on “reacting” to feeling outside of mainstream or dis-empowered.

Are they making horrible choices? Yes! Do you have to? No.

Rather than continuing to be silly by looking at “Da White Man” and pointing fingers to justify our lives and our bad behavior, at the ripe old age of 53, I’ve concluded that it’s a FAR better choice to simply engineer a good life for myself. That means:

1. It doesn’t matter how much anyone else has … the issue is–
2. What do YOU bring to the table?
3. Taking stock (and responsibility) for everything that has happened in my life. Discarding the crazy-making people I’ve allowed to enter it, and owning everything else. Only through such a process can I get on the other side of “being a victim” and move into being a mature “full grown man.”

I yearn for the day we stop reacting to “racism.” It’s become a such a cop-out. YES, racism is alive and well … but if I find myself in a field that I cannot win in … WHY keep failing around, crying about how unfair it all is, instead of picking up my ball and building a field wherein I can win? We don’t have to be against anybody. In fact, the object is to increasingly love as many people as you can… because when you can’t love yourself… that’s when you find yourself hating others (projecting your self hate outwards) and being jealous of what others have. Thank God no one is giving me nothing. I was born with a keen mind … keen enough to see opportunity instead of self destruction when it is ripe. Get some land my brothers and sisters. If you can’t afford to in the city, move out of it and build up your cheap little home, and with the equity you build, you can later buy a dream place anywhere on the planet.

Luke 6:42 “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out that is in your own eye, then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” (The Beatitudes)

(By that time… after removing drugs, alcohol, helplessness, criminality, and sex as a mood altering, demoralizing experience, whatever is in his eye probably won’t matter.)

Why, “Back To The Land”?

 

“I personally want a higher quality of life than I have been able to create as a city dweller. I don’t want a lot, but I want to walk out of my door without seeing that my car has been towed … and I’m tired of parking tickets. If feels like the various municipalities all have hoses hooked up to me and they’re slowly, parasitically draining me dry. When I talk with people who have children, many are concerned about where and how to raise them in these “interesting times.” For many people, it just makes common sense to do so in the most natural and healthy environments possible. Places where you can raise healthy food without worrying what has been sprayed on them or meat without wondering what they ate. These pages are designed to explore a few of the many alternative ways anyone can live without being either wage slaves, or institutional slaves…regardless if you want to acquire property in the country or continue to live in urban or suburban environments.”

What are “we” facing? Why should people look into buying some of the many cheap, small farms now available throughout the Midwest and South? Are there other ways to make a good living on the land without “just farming?” This blog discusses these along with other related questions.

“The Only Constant is Change”
Currently we all know about large segments of black and other “People of Color” being locked up. Yes, the laws are unfair, but far too many have fallen prey to their own choices and feel that their future is “locked in stone” as a result. I assert that current Urban Values are not “Black” values. African Americans as well as others thoughout the diaspora share intrinsic values that reach back to agricultural  ways of being with self and others.

There are subtle but huge but huge changes amongst black and disenfranchised urban value systems. Joe Marshal of “Street Soldiers” remarks that, “..even in good, two parent homes, the lure of the streets is often too strong to save a child.”

It is clear that the dynamics now in place throughout urban America will have to run their course before things change. Murder rates in many large cities have declined, but does that mean that being just one more rat amongst an already over-crowed cage of rats is the only option open to me?

Back To The Land
I assert that it’s best for blacks …and anyone else who has not created enough security in their careers and safety for their families and trusted friends…to find greener pastures by joining with Intentional Communities, Co-Housing Communities or simply, become one of many who find remote places and buy their own land. We don’t have to waste time condemning what is naturally happening … we just have to find our own paths.

We’re living in a Bardo … at time of transition. What comes next will most likely be, “interesting times.” So, in “interesting times” it’s best to have someone to watch your back. Those who don’t believe in work certainly do … and they will certainly be watching who is buying new cars, and new computers, furniture … etc…

American psychologist Abraham Maslow wrote that we all must self-actualize. When I was young, I needed places and lifestyles filled with drama and over-stimuli to balance the internal turmoil I felt. I know desire a place to serve as a backdrop for … “putting it all together.” A sort of place to serve as a creative palette for ideas I’ve yet not found time to bring forth. There are many reasons let nature balance us out.. return us to baseline…quality of life, security should the greater economy turn unstable, or just a desire to learn a fuller sense of self-reliance by living as our forefathers did are just some of them.

• Grand Theft Auto
• Rock Star Games
• CBS News: Can A Video Game Lead To Murder?
• Young Black Farmers

 

“Without a vision, the people perish.”

“…They want you to self-destruct.”

“Texas Prison Camp Future American Gulag?”

One More Reason to MOVE and Take Control of Your Destiny.

Detention facility currently holds as many as 200 children and many more adult men and women incarcerated after midnight arrests. Is this the foreshadowing of America’s future work camps?

Reprinted Prison Planet story by Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Monday, January 8, 2007

The Prison Planet story discusses one of the many prisons already built in remote areas that are poised to become a system of penitentiaries that can only be described as American Gulags … or Work Prisons. The prison spoken of in the article is in Tyler, Texas currently holds hundreds of rebuffed asylum seekers who legally entered the country, half of which are children swept up in midnight raids, is a potential prime location for the enforced transfer of American citizens during a time of “national emergency.”

One of the first questions that come to mind is that due to the fact that these prisons were quietly built in remote areas—in relative secrecy—what talks will take place to decide what is and what isn’t a “national emergency?” Reportedly, many people who live in adjacently towns aren’t even aware that the prison even exist.

• Currently, America’s Public Health System is already overwhelmed.
• This country locks up over 2 million people each year and each year, over 600,000 circulate back to the streets where many teach dysfunctional lifestyles acquired in prison, to populations that may or may not ever go to prison. Parole
  
• Officer Dan Belford recently reported that officers “felt embattled … at the point of being “over-run”Prison sentences have gotten longer. There are more “lifers” and an expensive ageing population.
• The mental Health System has virtually collapsed and many of the mentally ill that should be going to hospitals or asylums are now routinely sent to prisons. Currently there are many people on SSI who lie around the hood doing nothing but occasional, mild mannered mischief. Often worse. The Feds look upon them as people who don’t contribute to the public coffers, and drain public funds. When the series of upcoming recessions occur, how will many of these people be viewed?
• What are the going to do with the millions of addicted life-time self-professed criminals they can no longer house nor supervise?
• The gap between the rich and poor is only going to increase … and what is going to keep all those “poor people” out of your cars, houses, and apartments when you’re not looking? Nothing.

Question: Do you think for one second that white America is going to sit quietly by and let anarchy back them up against a wall … the rulers of New Rome?

Entertaining this question is just one more reason I advocate moving to LAND (with your name on the deed) along with like-minded friends and relatives to help you watch your back. The writers of the article cite ways this moving people from over crowded prisons and from towns and cities will legally occur:

“A much discussed and circulated report, the Pentagon’s Civilian Inmate Labor Program, has recently been updated and the revision details a “template for developing agreements” between the Army and corrections facilities for the use of civilian inmate labor on Army installations.”

Click here for the total story.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it, but..

 

I strongly believe that Urban America has become a terminal disease that is killing black folks. Should the 2007 reader still need more “facts” and statics to support this claim, please drive through your nearest “hood” –day or night– and refresh yourself with the sights, sounds and smells of black, urban death and decay. Issues not seen by the naked eye but still strongly felt are:

• Despite all the killings, AIDS is now the Number One cause of death for black men 25 and under. (And no, they are not catching nor transmitting the virus by themselves… our black women and mothers  are dying at an alarming rate for the simple crime of wanting love and not insisting that the character-less infected “brotha” not wear a rubber)
• The Public Health System is now officially overloaded. They don’t have enough money nor grant services to provide individuals with known cures they already have.
• Even Black Theology (black churches) are out-dated… still preaching that same old Santa Claus version of God, that didn’t keep pace with the Space Age we entered 30 years ago … let along this alienated, technocratic, New Millennium.” And worst still, is the fact that they are STILL preaching that we need to beat our children … and produce still more violent children emotionally equipped for 18th Century survival and not 21st Century success.

High Tech Guru “Art” a.k.a. “Frank Pembleton” wrote:

“I’ve always said that Black people are a rural people, and that we weren’t meant to live surrounded by concrete.  This whole western urban environment is partly responsible for our jacked up mental, emotional, and physical condition.  Half of what we call “Blackness” or Black culture is southern culture anyway.  Black people are in denial about our southern roots, because for too long we have associated the south only with terrorism and pain.  The white man has tricked us out of our birthright.  We didn’t just escape from the south, we were also driven from our true homes, not in the absolute sense, for the south isn’t a specific place, but rather, rural living, amongst nature, with trees, grass, vegetables, and flowers, is where we should really be.  Folks don’t even understand.  This urban environment is partly responsible for the insanity around hypermasculinity.  The whole construction of Black male identity as being only about “hardness” or toughness is directly tied to this urban nightmare we’re trapped in.”

People all over the nation… as well as worldwide… are now feeling the desire to move into either more collaborative living that involves small farming, permaculure and other green living, or simply getting out of the way and  moving back to the land.

Land provides self determination. I remember my parents telling us how people who lived on farms like theirs back in Mississippi, were immune to the horrors of The Depression. When you own your own cow:

• You have plenty of fresh milk, fresh cheese, cream, and other dairy products to use or sell. [NOTE: While most African and Asian people are lactose intolerant, we still need Vitamin D. Cancer has been linked to a lack of Vitamin D. Our darker skin demands we get over an hour a day in the sun or take Vitamin D supplements.]

When you own your own chickens:

• You don’t have to wonder what you’ll eat for breakfast.
• You can sell the additional eggs at Farmer’s Markets or other sources. 
• You have a meat source that replenishes itself.

When you grow your own vegetables:

• You don’t have to wonder what type of pesticides are on your tomatoes
• You can link with other organic seed growers and remove bio-engineered crops from your diet as well as remove your wallet from large agri-corporations that currently have larger farmers under their thumbs by hooking them to seeds that are good only for one year.

~You don’t have to beg or steal
~ You are healthy
~You have dignity
~You are happy
~You don’t see the insides of a Kaiser Stress Clinic
~The only boss you have is the bank … and God

This isn’t a lifestyle change for everyone. Yes you can easily find 5-10 acres of land with a 3-4 bedroom house on it for under $150,000 (and MANY times under $100,000) in rural communities throughout the South and Midwest, but you have to have ways of making money BEFORE you buy. This will work best if ideally:

• You have done your research and have started educating yourself on some of the MANY ways to make a good living in rural America
• You have researched the areas where your grandparents or great-grandparents lived, researched inexpensive land/farm/rural living choices near Black Universities and/or outside of larger cities
• Decided you want to live out your life peacefully and provide safe, enriching housing to raise healthy children
• And decided that you either want to be self-employed or live and work with other like-minded people who will collaborate with you as you follow your other, primary or secondary dreams like being an artist or writer. You may also have a valuable trade that you can take almost anywhere like teaching (rural communities always have trouble finding enough qualified teachers) or you’re involved with medicine, Bio-tech or high tech endeavors that you can do anywhere you can link with DSL, Cable, or Satellite.

 Urban life ain’t getting no better, and unless you’re very skillful in a LEGAL career field currently in high deman in your area, it most likely won’t provide you with anymore opportunities than it has in the past.