Jane, I have had it with your BD piety. If you had half of the wisdom you you think you have, you would see that not everybody involved in social change is running around as an activist waving signs and telling people they should use preps and become enlightened. Change happens on may levels, and some are less plainly obvious because they deal with change from the inside.
An individual is what she or he is and it does come from the inside whether the person is working outside or inside the political system. Local cultures differ so much. Someone from a large metropolitan area is different from someone in a rural setting. There's a young woman who just moved here who is sponsoring a whole series of programs on sustainability. She is trying to educate people broadly on the concept of sustainability, yet she spent a week in Puerto Rico at the island where the U.S. tests their munitions and the people are so upset. I bet she has a good firsthand background in politics, yet she is very gentle and always tries to be positive. The spokesperson for the Green Party is now a woman who is working very hard to be relevant in local political issues--not necessarily environmental. All approaches are good. As for piety--I don't see how a person can judge someone else's spiritual depth. There are mystics in every religion and there are mythics to whom the myth is more important than spiritual guidance. People who come from one or the other have trouble communicating even if they are both Catholics, Quakers or whatever. It's just that different people have different focuses. Allan is trying to find a way to serve us all. This is a particularly difficult time for many people. I just put my own name in Goggle and found my address and phone number on line from the Farmers Market page on the Sandpoint website and from the state certified organic list. Weird what was there and you're right, Allan, the particular things that were there didn't necessarily characterize me as I would want to be ideally characterized. It was an odd smattering. I put Christopher Shade in Goggle and found a picture of a young man with unruly hair and a beard who has a degree in Ecology. There was also someone who ran a mediation, body guarding and occult business. Are both persons you, Chris? I put Jane Sherry in and got two very nice pieces of art work, b&w pictures of women, probably illustrations for books. I also got the BDNow 2003 archive with all recent entries by everybody. My husband is a wooden sailboat nut among predominantly fibreglass boats on the lake. He takes particular pride in someone else's small skiff with spirit sails that beat all the other boats in a local race. Some people pride themselves on the latest, most expensive fibreglass boats and others who have traditional homemade small boat rigs pride themselves on sailing faster. Allan, you just can't please everybody. Best, Merla >
