Dawn broke grey and terrible over Green Bay on the Day I had selected to depart for my 4,280 mile bike tour of the Great Lakes Ecosystem; April First, 1987. For a period of two years I had studied the complex interrelationship between the heavy hand of human activity and the specific, known insults that have been perpetrated upon the landscape and watershed of these critically threatened inland seas. When I was age seven, I had an epiphany that every cell of my being was hydrated by water from this ecosystem, that eventually the moisture of each breath would find it's way back into the system. The very same liquid that dripped off my toe, when dipped in the Fox River running through my backyard, could potentially make it's way back to the sea through the St. Lawrence River.
In an instant, I felt that my being extended through the whole watershed, and lapped at each and every shore of these Great bodies of water. In the moment of ecstasy that the experience engendered, I resolved to pedal my bicycle around the Great Lakes to help me to understand their full extent and complexity. At that time, the alewife invasion was reaching a climax and rafts of dead fish would wash up on the shore. Knowing that the system was out of whack, that my life would be dedicated to educating the common man about ecological benefits that accrue if we change our relationships with the earth, soils, air, fire water and spirit. Even as a child I struggled with the question of how to share a message of compassion for the planet in a culture based on wreaking ecological havoc. I knew I was setting myself up for a hard row to hoe, but my inner spirit took on the challenge anyway, fully expecting to be made a martyr for my understanding and insight. I have always seen my way through hard times and heavy weather with the same intent spirit. Recently, I heard a Scandinavian say, "There is no bad weather, only bad clothes." On that historic first day out, I suited up and after a hearty breakfast at a locally owned breakfast place, rode out of town to the north and west into the teeth of a storm that started with sleet and massive flake snow and on through eighty miles of everything Mother Earth could throw at me. When I was coming toward my aunt's house ten hours later, in Marinette, the snow was deep enough that I could not see below my knees!
This approach to life in general is the polar opposite of the way we are running our American corporate society. Whereas I took out upon a beautiful adventure into the heart of a storm, our businesses today want to capitalize on the fact that they are victims, of a bad economy or because of a few bad decisions. Whatever their sob story, the sham way of doing business that led to this collapse cannot possibly help us to find a way forward. The shift that is coming is toward sustainability, not extraction. Supportive commitment to a dream, building strong foundations for sustainability.
My adventure began from a point of knowing with every part of my being that what I was about to see would break my heart, drive home the point that Mother Earth has been raped, poisoned and sterilized for senseless greed and with exquisite deceit. American business, the Goliath economic forces that have colluded with government to keep the rest of us in slavery need to cease and desist. corporate welfare, especially the military industrial complex simultaneously suck at the teat of workers, who are the most true patriots, carrying the weight of millions on their backs! Businesses need to suck it up and spend money that will assist in raising quality of life for all Americans and instituting services and centers for capital that allow sensitivity to the local needs, issues and skills that ultimately will be put to their highest use locally. separating sources of capital from either the workers or where they are able to purchase services only adds to the toxic load on the environment caused by transportation.
Living lightly on the planet requires buying local as much as possible and utilizing shared resources cooperatively. there are tens of thousands of co-ops in America, join one, have a say in how they operate, form your own, it it patriotic and can raise quality of lives of far more folks than corporate America ever has.
In an instant, I felt that my being extended through the whole watershed, and lapped at each and every shore of these Great bodies of water. In the moment of ecstasy that the experience engendered, I resolved to pedal my bicycle around the Great Lakes to help me to understand their full extent and complexity. At that time, the alewife invasion was reaching a climax and rafts of dead fish would wash up on the shore. Knowing that the system was out of whack, that my life would be dedicated to educating the common man about ecological benefits that accrue if we change our relationships with the earth, soils, air, fire water and spirit. Even as a child I struggled with the question of how to share a message of compassion for the planet in a culture based on wreaking ecological havoc. I knew I was setting myself up for a hard row to hoe, but my inner spirit took on the challenge anyway, fully expecting to be made a martyr for my understanding and insight. I have always seen my way through hard times and heavy weather with the same intent spirit. Recently, I heard a Scandinavian say, "There is no bad weather, only bad clothes." On that historic first day out, I suited up and after a hearty breakfast at a locally owned breakfast place, rode out of town to the north and west into the teeth of a storm that started with sleet and massive flake snow and on through eighty miles of everything Mother Earth could throw at me. When I was coming toward my aunt's house ten hours later, in Marinette, the snow was deep enough that I could not see below my knees!
This approach to life in general is the polar opposite of the way we are running our American corporate society. Whereas I took out upon a beautiful adventure into the heart of a storm, our businesses today want to capitalize on the fact that they are victims, of a bad economy or because of a few bad decisions. Whatever their sob story, the sham way of doing business that led to this collapse cannot possibly help us to find a way forward. The shift that is coming is toward sustainability, not extraction. Supportive commitment to a dream, building strong foundations for sustainability.
My adventure began from a point of knowing with every part of my being that what I was about to see would break my heart, drive home the point that Mother Earth has been raped, poisoned and sterilized for senseless greed and with exquisite deceit. American business, the Goliath economic forces that have colluded with government to keep the rest of us in slavery need to cease and desist. corporate welfare, especially the military industrial complex simultaneously suck at the teat of workers, who are the most true patriots, carrying the weight of millions on their backs! Businesses need to suck it up and spend money that will assist in raising quality of life for all Americans and instituting services and centers for capital that allow sensitivity to the local needs, issues and skills that ultimately will be put to their highest use locally. separating sources of capital from either the workers or where they are able to purchase services only adds to the toxic load on the environment caused by transportation.
Living lightly on the planet requires buying local as much as possible and utilizing shared resources cooperatively. there are tens of thousands of co-ops in America, join one, have a say in how they operate, form your own, it it patriotic and can raise quality of lives of far more folks than corporate America ever has.
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