Dems cave on Peru FTA

By Frank Zollo 

With less than half of Congressional Democrats supporting the Peru “Free Trade Agreement” (FTA), the recent Bush initiative to push more controversial trade deals before Congress falls into serious jeopardy. 

On Nov. 8 the House of Representatives approved the Peru Free Trade Agreement on a vote of 285-132. The Senate approved the deal on Dec. 4. 

Few were surprised that the free trade agreement passed: since the May 10 deal negotiated between the Bush Administration and the House Democratic leadership, there had been sufficient Democratic support.  Ways and Means Chair Charles Rangel and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, were unable to garner a majority of the caucus.  The Peru agreement passed with 117 Democrats voting against it, and only 109 in favor.

Not one U.S. labor, environmental or faith group endorsed the Peru FTA.  In response to concerns raised by its ecumenical partners in Latin America and throughout the world, Church World Service called for the U.S. Congress to withhold ratification of free trade agreements and re-think its trade policies.

Both of Peru’s labor federations, its major indigenous peoples’ organization and the Archbishop of Huancayo called on the U.S. Congress to oppose the deal based on the damage it is projected to cause Peru’s small farmers and environment. 

The Bush Administration continues to go full throttle in campaigning for a vote on the Colombia FTA.  Since Democratic leaders of the House say there will be no vote until supporters prove they have the votes to pass it, the Bush Administration and the Colombian government are on a full-court press lobbying campaign to convince Democrats to support the FTA. 

With murders of union leaders continuing across Colombia, we must redouble our efforts to ensure that our Congressmembers commit now to opposing the Colombia FTA.  If we can make it clear that the votes are not there to pass it, we can keep the agreement from even coming to a vote. 

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Review by Bill Durland, J.D., Ph.D.

In 2004, John Perkins’ New York Times bestseller, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, revealed the activities of the U.S. “corporatocracy” (a coalition of government, banks, and corporations), which - while professing to alleviate poverty – put many nations into debt so the United States could exercise control over them.

Naomi Klein goes deeper to expose the motivating philosophy behind such activities as she explores the application of the Chicago School’s “free market” theories and the practice of intentionally manipulating accidental shock/disaster events.

Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman’s far-right laissez-faire capitalism is integrated into a unified and intrusive economic, political and military scheme, which ultimately fails but, in the process, destroys civil liberties and social services as it imposes deregulation, privatization and outsourcing. This new order model applied to the U.S. and foreign countries from Nixon to Bush Jr. is dubbed “the corporatist state.”

The U.S. corporatist state exports its design to vulnerable developing countries using three major tools: privatization, deregulation and the elimination of governmental social spending.
Friedman says a growth economy trickles down to those in poverty, and charity fills the voids through such methods as “faith-based initiatives.” I would also add, as a derivative of those three, the practice of outsourcing, which is a way to have traditional government duties administered through privatization and deregulation by business contracts.

Flowing from these three tactics: federal governmental spending should be used only to protect citizens from continually emerging internal and international enemies; elimination of such public healthcare programs as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and any pensions (Social Security would be privatized, as was the case when these principles were exported to dictator Pinochet by Friedman in 1973); the end of public education, replaced by vouchers and charter schools but funded with tax dollars, as well as the termination of public post offices and national parks; low interest rates; low inflation; little concern about high unemployment; end of labor unions, minimum wage and price controls; tax cuts; free-trade arrangements such as NAFTA and CAFTA, which would act to remove barriers to foreign investment and takeovers so that U.S. businesses are able to buy up privatized and deregulated financial organizations and investments in foreign countries –what we call “globalization.”

Global warming, a newer issue, would fit into that agenda since its eradication would interfere with economic profits. The end result of Friedman’s theories is a polarization of wealth, more to the rich, less to the poor. Friedman says that nothing should interfere in any way with the making of profit.

The second step in Klein’s analysis is that Friedman believed that the best way to get these intrusions adopted quickly in foreign countries is to intentionally create an emergency situation or to benefit from an accidental disaster event similar to the shock treatment imposed on mental patients in past medical experiments designed to create a non-resistant individual.

Klein compares shock treatment, which she says has been used in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay following the Kubark counterintelligence interrogation methods, to the manner in which Friedman’s economics could most easily be introduced in a foreign state. That is through some kind of shock event.

The methods used at McGill University by Dr. Ewen Cameron in the 1950s were funded by the CIA on psychiatric patients, keeping them asleep for weeks and in isolation, administering electro-shock and experimental drugs such as LSD and PCP to reduce them to infantile states so that they would emerge with “clean slates upon which we can write.”

Her book reports such examples as the use of hoods, stripping, beating and humiliation so as to reduce the patient to a point where the doctor becomes a father figure and the patient (and now the enemy combatant) becomes mindless and therefore willing to confess to anything.

These experiments caused Friedman to see the value of shock procedures in an economic prototype, which would also act to cause vulnerable populations in developing countries to “choose” to transform their economic system into his liking and the liking of the dictator who controlled the economy of the country.

So beginning with friendly dictators and later powerful “democratic” executives, the Chicago School’s economic policies were implemented after intentional shock to the economy or by accidental natural disaster, i.e. tsunamis, hurricanes, etc. - having the same effect in Chile, Brazil, Indonesia, Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Poland, China, South Africa, Russia, Thailand, South Korea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon over a quarter of a century in varying but similar ways, as Klein describes in a highly detailed way how they failed.

Nevertheless the political and military power exercised over those countries by the internal dictator and the foreign U.S. superpower proved to be economically beneficial to American interests from Chile in 1973 to Iraq in 2007.

But there is always good news, and that is the movement back to sanity in some of the countries in the Americas, which found their nations devastated by America’s free market adoption of the Chicago School’s principles – Bolivia, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador and, in other parts of the world, Malaysia and Russia, which have refused to be dominated indefinitely by this form of economics brought to them by American entrepreneurs, motivated by the only thing that keeps them going – killing for profit.

But in America “free market” continues to create its devastation with the polarization of rich and poor, empire building and the like. It seems that American citizens and voters always have a scapegoat presented to us to blame our ills on so that these things happen over and over again - Hitler, Stalin, Bin Ladin, fascism, communism, jihad.

The U.S. response is the spreading of economic privilege by a superpower over the rest of the world, justified in the name of national security, but with stronger motives of greed and profit, powered by a so-called “free market economy.”

The corporatist state, a dark combination of capitalism and dictatorial powers possessed by a “democratic” president willing to continue to impose on his fellow humans the most obscene, disgusting and dangerous realignment of world power, threatens for all time to take away our most precious civil liberties, indeed our civilization itself.

Focus on the Media: Don’t expect the press to illuminate candidates

Have your heard? We elect a new president in less than a year. Primaries and caucuses will probably be part of the New Year’s Eve entertainment.

And with the state-of-the-art, top-of -the line, space-age communications media we have today - radio, TV, cell phones, iPods, iPhones, Internet, blogosphere, etc. - we’ll be able to march into those voting booths and vote intelligently for the next leader of the free world. Right?

Wrong. Judging by the heaps of garbage to which we’ve been treated since the beginning of time - no, I mean since the campaign onset - we’ve been failed miserably.

Consider the debates (I use that word loosely). It seems that the questions often posed are meant to provoke bonfires, with very little heat. They are planned with no attempt at in-depth discussion of real issues with a little subterfuge on the side.

At the latest CNN-You Tube debate, Clinton’s campaign planted one of its advisors, retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr, to ask why gays shouldn’t be allowed to serve openly in the military. At the same debate, with more than 5,000 possible questions to choose from, CNN selected such earthshaking queries as whether candidates take every word of the Bible literally.

Then, there’s the gender thing. Initially, Clinton (and most other women who have run for office in the U.S.) was judged on stereotypes of clothes, hair and home decor. When was the last time the haircut of any of the male candidates was commented on by the media?

One of the greatest failures of the mainstream media is their very early propensity to virtually ignore any candidate who hasn’t been christened a “front runner” by one of the two major parties. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the media found so-called “second-tier” candidates annoying. Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich were seen as “extremist” - for espousing such radical views as getting out of Iraq!

Bob Schieffer of CBS asked, “Is it fair to have all these people out there? It just wastes time.” And Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza believes that money ought to be all that matters. That’s certain comfort for those of us who cannot amass millions in campaign donations.

The candidates themselves have contributed to the fogging of the campaign with their unwillingness to commit themselves to definite positions. They have often adopted watchwords of President Bush, words meant to spark fear in the American voter. Listen for “terrorist,” “jihad,” “Islamic fascism” and “illegal alien.”

As voters, we have to separate the hype from genuine discourse. Our reliance cannot be on unclothed emperor of so much of today’s media.

Pat Huhn is a member of the AfJ editorial board.

Chavez will continue people power reforms

By Berta Joubert-Ceci

After Venezuelan voters rejected his proposed changes to the Constitution by a slim margin, President Hugo Chávez admitted the setback but vowed to continue his efforts to move the country down the path to socialism.

Chávez said the results present a new “for now,” echoing the phrase that catapulted him to fame in 1992, when he headed the ouster of President Carlos Andrés Pérez.

“For now, we could not make it,” Chávez said in a radio and television speech on Dec. 3. “Do not be sad. In the past we have turned alleged defeats into moral victories that then became political victories.”

On Aug. 15 Chávez presented his project for constitutional reform to the National Assembly (NA). It contained 33 changes. On Nov. 2, when the NA submitted its proposal to the National Electoral Council, the number of changes had jumped to 69. This was the result of intense debates within the NA, including proposals submitted to the legislative body from social groups and organizations.

The purpose of the changes was to transfer power to the people, making participatory democracy a strong vehicle by, among other things, restructuring local government to facilitate the revolutionary organization of various social formations and the government funding of communal projects proposed and directed by the people themselves.

This territorial restructuring, according to the text of the Reform Project, includes the establishment of communes, which “will constitute the basic and indivisible territorial nucleus of the Venezuelan Socialist State where the citizens will have the power to construct their own geography and history.”

Among other changes: the government would have had a larger role in the Central Bank; diversity would have been recognized, including rights for gays and people with disabilities, and discrimination would have been prohibited – many issues besides whether or not the president could be re-elected as many times as the people want.

The work day would have been reduced from eight to six hours and the voting age will be lowered to 16.

The development of a socialist structure in all institutions and the recognition of Poder Popular (People’s Power) in all areas of the government apparatus exist throughout the Reform Project.

There is a special section on international relations. A paragraph in Article 152 states, “The exterior policy of the Republic should orient itself in an active way towards the configuration of a pluripolar world, free from the hegemony of any center of imperialist, colonialist or neocolonialist power.”

Article 302 addresses the rich resources of the country: “For reasons of sovereignty, national development and interests, the state earmarks for itself the activities of exploration and exploitation of liquid, solid or gaseous hydrocarbons … especially those in the Orinoco strip.”

In general, these reforms increase the potential for autonomy and sovereignty of the nation—key goals of the Bolivarian Revolution, in order to further development on behalf of the masses and attain social justice.

It is not surprising, then, that Washington, the Venezuelan pro-imperialist oligarchy and their stooges would be especially infuriated with these proposals.

The opposition both inside and outside Venezuela has used the media to air charges of a “constitutional coup,” “the loss of freedom and civil rights,” and that President Chávez will be “dictator for life.”

They are particularly angered by the proposed changes in the presidential elections, as if Chávez is the only president in the world to propose this.

A good response was given by Giusto Catania, vice president of the Commission for Freedom of the European Parliament. He said, “This constitutional reform absolutely responds to European standards. In almost every European country exists the possibility that a president of a republic, elected by the people, or a prime minister, can repeat his mandate indefinitely. It happens in Spain, France, Great Britain and Italy.”

This article first appeared in Workers World. It has been edited to reflect the outcome of the Dec. 3 election.

Special Report: A More Eco-Friendly Army?

2007 in Review

Thanks to the people who volunteered in one way or another for our 2007 programs and projects - we couldn’t have done it without you!

Amelia Aaron
Tony Abdo
Rita Ague
Julianne Aiello
Aiyo
Melissa Allen
Geoff Ames
Dennis Apuan
Jane Ard-Smith
Eric Barker
Terrance Bayley
Tammy Beck
Ed Billings
Jeff Briggs
Al Brody
Buck & Dee Buchanan
Kelly Church
Ellen Clark
Heidi Cooper
Frank Cordaro
Bruce Coriel
Meredith Dalebout
Judith Daley
Linda Day
Wendy Dillenschneider
Bill & Genie Durland
Molly Eaves
Becky Elder
Chuck Ernst
Katherine Fatica
Tom Faudree
Elizabeth Fineron
Steve Flynn
Rich Fowler
Alice Gallmeyer
Dave Gardner
Max Hale
Steve Handen
Pete Haney
Sandy Hanzlian
Sallie Harper
Renee Hartslief
Pam Hazelton
Sarah Herbert
Suzie Hodges
Spencer Hoffman
Kate Holbrook
Barbara Huber
Pat Huhn
Greg Jamieson
Mary Jaurequi
Donna Johnson
Barry & Ellen Johnson-Fay
Mark Joyous
Josh Kempf
Betty & Tom Kerwin
Kateri Kerwin
John Kilis
Esther Kisamore
Cyndy Kulp
Debbie Kunkel
Cynthia Lang
Mark Lewis
Rod Litwiller
Cindy Lucero
Phyllis Lucero
Joe Martelli
Jan Martin
Melissa Marts
Sophia Maravell
Darlene Matthews
Christy Mikkelson
Jean Miller
Diana Moore
Jillien Morga
Juna Muller
Molly Mulligan
Tony Musser
Shree Nath
Jocelyn Nevel
Jo Ann Nieman
Tom Noonan
Ruth Obee
Megumi Obuchi
Meridith O’Sullivan
Julie Ott
Cindy Page
Blair Parkhill
Matt Parkhouse
Jeff Peskoff
Mike Procell
Lindsey Railsback
Garrett Reppenhagen
Zach Royer
Don Schaeffer
Dorothy Schlaeger
Rochelle Schlortt
Joe Sciallo
Robin Shankman
Mary Lynn Sheets
Mike Siddoway
Rebecca Siegel
Terri Smalberger
Mary& Peter Sprunger-Froese
Mary Jane Sullivan
Bill Sulzman
Bill Taylor
Clay & Ann Taylor
Amanda Terrell
Clare Thomas
Sarah Troemel
Glenn Truitt
Sr. Carmela Trujillo
Joe Uveges
Eric Verlo
Kathy Verlo
Diann Webb
John Weiss
Jim & Patti White
Mark Wilkerson
Loring Wirbel
John Wise
Brian Wolfe
Bill Young

Sustaining war not a good goal for America

Whatever happened to Dr. Strangelove? You know, the 1964 satire that ended with cowboy Slim Pickins triumphantly astride a nuclear bomb, targeted at the Soviet Union to the tune of “We’ll Meet Again”?

Actually, Dr. Strangelove is alive and well and living in the U.S. military - only now, there’ s no hint of satire - to the military, that is. Every year with straight faces, Fort Carson sponsors its Sustainability and Environmental Management System Conference (SEMS) that may conjure up for the innocent a genuine concern for our perilously threatened environment.

Consider some of the goals noted on the Fort Carson Web site:

* Sustain all facility and mobility systems from renewable sources and reduce the total water purchased from outside sources by 75 percent.

* Reduce automobile dependency and provide balanced land use and transportation systems. (Are tanks and hum-vees good substitutions?)

*All DOD and Fort Carson procurement actions support sustainability. (For whom? Defense contractors?)

* The total weight of hazardous air pollutant emissions is reduced to zero. (On what planet?)
The problem I see is this high-minded sustainability seems to apply only to Fort Carson, not to the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site with its live fire and proposed expansion. And certainly not to war zones. Consider the record - just in Iraq.

Iraq is regarded the world over as the cradle of civilization. It gave birth to writing, legal codes, poetry, epic literature and organized religion.

Before the U.S. invasion in 2003, anthropologists - conscious of the destruction in the first Gulf War and the threat to history and archaeology - pleaded with the military to protect the museums and archaeological sites in Iraq. While the ministries of oil and the interior had ample protection, looting and destruction of these sites was rampant with, in many cases, the military standing by.

First came the looting and sacking of the Iraqi museums. Here were kept 170,000 relics of ancient Mesopotamia, Sumaria, Akkadia, Babylonia, ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, tablets of Hammurabi’s code. Eighty percent of these were destroyed or stolen.

Failure to protect these is a violation of the 1954 Protection of Artistic Treasures in Wartime Act of the international community.

When the military built a base in the ancient city of Babylon, according to a study by the British Museum, the widespread damage and contamination was “tantamount to establishing a military camp about the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in Britain.”

The museum study noted damage to the Ishtar Gate, “caused … by a person or persons trying to remove a decorated brick … broken bricks inscribed with the name of Nebuchadenezzar lying in spoiled heaps.”

Other atrocities to the world’s heritage: In the city of Ur, the original brick surface of the great processional route was crushed by military vehicles. Fuel has seeped into archaeological layers. Tons of archaeological material was used to fill sandbags.

When this practice was stopped, imported material contaminated the sites. The military flattened an area close to the ancient Ninevah temple for a helipad.

And the latest irony: in July, the Department of Defense issued a pack of playing cards to the troops, “Respect Iraq and Afghan Heritage.” These wonderful cards contain such powerful admonitions as, “When possible, fill sandbags with ‘clean earth’ earth that is free of man-made objects, including broken pieces that may seem insignificant” and “Heavy excavation equipment can do great harm to archaeological sites. Be aware and prepare to stop.”

Isn’t war, by its very nature, anti-sustainability?

Pat Huhn is a member of Citizens for Peace in Space, Pax Christi and the AfJ editorial board.

Fort Carson Year 2027

It’s 7:30 a.m., May 9, 2027 and Private Rogers finishes physical training (PT) on an obstacle course located in the middle of Fort Carson. His heart is pounding and sweat rolls off his nose, but according to his fitness stabilizer monitor built into his uniform, he’s in an optimal zone for cardio conditioning and his electrolytes are in balance. The clean mountain air is refreshing and Private Rogers is glad he’s at Fort Carson and not Fort McHot-n-Humid.

After PT, Private Rogers runs across the street to shower at home. He stops at the coffee shop next door to grab a coffee and muffin for his wife. She and their daughter love the muffins that Bill, the shop owner, bakes with berries from a farm down the road in Fountain. At home, Rogers steps into the shower under a high-pressured nozzle that sprays a composite of water, air and “dirt eating” bacteria. The whole process lasts under one minute and uses one cup of water, which feeds into microbial filtration system and the building irrigation system to water gardens on the roof of the complex. The small amount of water used in his shower is heated from solar photovoltaic panels that line the roof and south side of the housing/retail complex and capture the sun’s rays to provide power for the building.

The complex, like all other buildings on the Installation, generates all the power it needs and therefore is not hooked up to the local power grid. This means Fort Carson pays for solar PV equipment when constructing a building, but does not have any utility bills - or utility lines.

The family leaves their two-story town home, dropping off clothing at the laundry service downstairs. Each family member only has a few suits made from organic, non-toxic material that reacts to body temperature, adjusting the level of protection from sun, wind and rain to keep the body dry and within one degree of natural body temperature. This eliminates the need for seasonal wardrobes and outer garments. Private Rogers’ Army uniforms have similar “smart wear” features, and are equipped with physiological sensors (to ensure he gets immediate and proper attention should accident or injury occur in the field) and thermal “masking” technologies (that keep Soldiers from being detected on thermal sensors).

On their short walk to the high-speed hydrogen-fueled train, the Rogers pass many of their neighbors and see several friends at the train stop just outside of the Town Center. Private Rogers rides the train to his company area where he picks up his training gear. Most of his light-weight gear runs on solar-powered batteries and includes a hand-carried device capable of enabling remote network interface to operate unmanned systems. After being inspected to ensure his unit has all the required gear, he and his unit are briefed on the day’s training.

The next evening, the family has dinner on their rooftop patio surrounded by beautiful plants and grasses that thrive in dry climate and soils unique to the Pikes Peak Region. Left over food and other waste is fed into a waste-to-energy system that breaks down the waste and generates ethanol and a composite gas to fuel an electric generator that will provide energy for the building on those rare cloudy days.

The Rogers end their day feeling at peace about their family, community, country and world.

Source: 2007 Fort Carson Sustainability Report

Resource conservation a good goal for Carson

By Annie Oatman-Gardner

When a civilian contractor working for the U.S. Army first contacted me in 2005 to work on a project led by Fort Carson, I was reluctant. The offer made me wonder if working with the Army would implicate me in the national defense policy of our country.

Our national policy has troops fighting in Iraq. Reflection led me to recognize that I am complicit in our national defense as a US citizen irregardless of my employment.

Working for the Army was not going to change my complicity, but understanding and sharing concepts of sustainability might help change our defense path.

At my initial interview, Christopher Juniper of Natural Capitalism Solutions outlined the work being proposed. I would assist in implementing a strategy that would further Fort Carson’s sustainability goals.

He asked me to help facilitate a community process to determine which data to collect and report, in hopes of helping our community understand if it was making sustainable decisions.

Getting an opportunity to work directly with Christopher, who’s reputation for being on the international, cutting edge of sustainability thinking, was the first reason to say yes. Getting an opportunity to continue work on a sustainable indicators project was second and a close third was working directly with a part of the community I knew so little about.

Christopher also told me it was to be his task to train all those in leadership positions on post in the principles of sustainability. The strategy being that they could use that thinking in problem solving day-to-day issues and in training those they lead.

This was indoctrination heaven for an environmentalist. Sustainable thinking is a long-term, whole-systems approach to decision making. No matter who promotes it, the more the better.

Then, we talked about soldiers using these principles as they problem solve while in conflict zones to stabilize local infrastructure, water and electrical systems and take new technology with them around the world. I am optimistic about the outcomes that we will see if all sorts of people can learn and embrace this type of thinking.

Working for and with the people at the Directorate of Environmental Compliance and Management (DECAM) on Fort Carson, as well as the Garrison Commander and staff over the past three years, has been a great privilege. The sustainability mandate under which they strive is creating legitimacy for sustainable thinking as a model for our community.

Here is a quick look at five of the 10 Fort Carson sustainability goals and what has happened so far. More information can be found on the Fort Carson Sustainability and Environmental Management Systems Web site, http://sems.carson.army.mil.

1. Sustain all facility and mobility systems from renewable sources, and reduce the total water purchased from outside sources by 75 percent. The post is hosting a 2-megawatt photo voltaic solar array, that will meet 2.3 percent of its electricity needs.
Fort Carson is the largest Colorado Springs Utilities customer and wants to purchase more green power. The post has already reduced water consumption by 40 percent.

2. Enhance partnering to collaboratively develop, integrate and implement regional sustainability. Fort Carson has become a leader on sustainability thinking out in the community. Many community leaders who support the military but are not necessarily environmentalists are hearing about sustainability.

3. All new construction at Fort Carson must be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified, meaning more energy efficient.

4. All DOD and Fort Carson procurement actions support sustainability. Staff is crafting Garrison procurement policies that will ensure that everyone on post who is able to spend dollars is trained and connected with green products.

Increasing purchasing also increases supply within the region, allowing access to others for these types of products at good prices. The work being done in this area is creative and system wide.

5. The total weight of solid and hazardous waste disposed of will be reduced to zero. While a tough goal, a lot of creative thinking at Fort Carson is going into the challenge.

Vast resources at Fort Carson, dollars as well as human initiative of the civilian, enlisted and officer workforce, are being applied to environmental sustainability and advancing aggressive environmental protection goals. They are working the environmental and economic legs of the stool.

The next conversation will more fully engage strategic thinking around the third leg in the sustainability equation - community. The initial goals for sustaining community (also called “society,” “well-being” or “human capital” in the global sustainability conversation) are around strengthening partnerships and creating a community of one.

The more we know about one another, about our systems and relationships, the more fully we embrace the relationships between the shrinking planet, war, environmental protection and peace.

I have thought about my initial reservations many times over the past three years as I watch the impacts of the war on our community, soldiers and families.

Working within the Army system has been enlightening. Having the opportunity to build relationships with people in the Army has been a privilege. But what is going to help us change our direction is relationships with present and future elected leaders, the leaders that manage our foreign policy and direct the military.

Fostering sustainable thinking in our society, I believe, is a tactic to changing the course of those decisions.

Annie Oatman-Gardner has led citizen initiatives to preserve open space, expand bus service and reform immigration. Currently she is preparing the Fort Carson Regional Growth Coordination plan for Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments.

Pulse

Getting warmer
Gov. Bill Ritter released Colorado’s first Climate Action Plan last month. Following California’s lead, the plan establishes two greenhouse-gas reduction goals (20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and 80 percent by 2050), as well as a carbon-offset program. Ritter has directed the Colorado Air Quality Control Division to work out proposed clean car greenhouse gas emission standards in the next year or two.

Uncivil society
The Dec. 3 shooting of Kyle Haner marks the 24th homicide within the city of Colorado Springs for 2007. That brings us close to the 2002 record of 25 murders. What’s going on here? Simply stated, the community lacks good conflict-resolution skills. Police Chief Richard Myers estimates his officers spend about 75 percent of their time on calls to intervene in disputes. People fight, it gets out of hand, someone calls the police. So many fights, it seems, Myers laments he doesn’t have the staff to get involved in serious crime prevention programs.

Darfur dialogue
Everyone is concerned about the suffering in Darfur, but what is the best course of action for activists committed to nonviolence? The last thing we advocate is U.S. military action in Sudan over oil. What organizations can we support in the region? In the spirit of dialogue, the Social & Economic Justice Working Group will sponsor a roundtable discussion on Darfur from 7-9 p.m. Jan. 7 at the PPJPC offices, 214 E. Vermijo Ave. To RSVP, contact Steve at econjustice@ppjpc.org.

Green living
Permaculture is about living off the grid and as self-reliantly as possible. Certified permaculture designer and professional gardener Becky Elder will lead an all-day immersion into ecological living from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Jan. 26 at the PPJPC offices, 214 E. Vermijo Ave. Registration is $40. To register, contact Steve at sustain@ppjpc.com.

For those ready to move beyond the basics, Becky has scheduled a Permaculture Design Certification Course for the third weekend of every month, April through November. The cost is $1,100 (or $950 if paid by Feb. 15), and work study and scholarships may be available. For more information, contact Becky at (719) 685-0290 or rselder@comcast.net, or Robin Shankman at (719) 685-6372 or rsltenergy@msn.com.