This is a wonderful opportunity to engage with folks in our region who care about water. The first session on Sept. 21 was awesome, and there is still time to register for the remaining five sessions: Sept. 28, Oct. 12, Oct. 26, Nov. 9, Nov. 12. Sustainable Rogue Valley is a co-sponsor of this summit.
This web site has all of the remaining dates, times, and locations, as well as a recording of Session 1 on the website as well. Please join us for this important and inspirational gathering!
INVITATION to Fall ’22 Rogue Valley Water Solutions Summit
Southern Oregon Pachamama Alliance and our co-sponsoring organizations invite you to be a participant in the Fall 2022 Rogue Valley Water Solutions Summit, a 6-session community exploration of our relationship with water in the Rogue Valley, next meeting Wednesday, September 28.
Each session will include background materials to review ahead of time, guest panelists for Q&A, and breakout groups for public input on “What Could Be” — all aiming to create opportunities for the public to envision and share wholistic solutions that address issues and impacts related to water for Jackson and Josephine Counties.
Our first Zoom session highlighted the two major themes of this effort–nurturing an awareness and appreciation of water, at the same time we seek out solutions that support all the Valley’s communities. Meeting every other Wednesday, we started with…
Honoring Water
REGISTRATION required
Here are the themes and dates for the next sessions:
(Zoom link to be sent the day prior to all registered)
Wed Sept 28, 6-8 pm Flow and Fairness: Pipes, Projects & Possibilities (Domestic water)
Wed Oct 12 Channeling Better: Outcomes for Agriculture
Wed Oct 26 Veins of the Valley: Wetlands & Waterways
Wed Nov 9 The Catch Basin: Averting Floods, Fires and other Impacts
Sat Nov 12 Where Do We Go from Here? (in-person summary & action planning)
Join us in dedicating this Water Summit in gratitude to Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim, the voice for water.
There is no charge for participating in the Summit, but if you’d like to help with covering the costs, our DONATE button will take you to the donation page for Peace House (our fiscal agent).
Visit the Water Solutions Summit webpage for a description of each session as well as access to the background materials (videos and articles) to review prior to Session #1, or go directly to REGISTER.
We connect with you in appreciation for water,
Lauren, Lorraine, Cynthia, & Catie
Water Solutions Summit Team
Southern Oregon Pachamama Alliance
Contact: 541 530-8454
Email: info@SouthernOregonPachamama.org
Together let us be “an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on the planet.”
Here is the latest update from Alyssa about Whitehorse Park.
There will be a meeting on Monday April 25 at 9am at Anne Basker Auditorium amongst the County Commissioners and Planning Department covering decisions made at the meeting in February. The deadline for comment submission is TOMORROW, Wed. April 13 @ 5pm. I apologize for the immediacy and super short time line that you have to submit comments, but it is very important that you do so, please! The more public participation we can get to flood Commissioners with our concerns, the better. So please share this information with anyone else you might feel will submit something. Would also be wonderful for anyone that is available to attend the meeting in person on April 25th to speak.
You can follow the link below to view the notice sent by James Black from the Planning Department for more specific details.
Notice sent by James Black about Whitehorse Park
You can also follow the link to a sample letter from Alyssa for you to copy and paste to send in, but please attach your name, address, and any other concerns that you feel you would like to be submitted into the record as well. Send your comments to jblack@josephinecounty.gov and ask for confirmation that they were received.
And here is an excellent letter to the editor written by Mike Oxendine, a supporter from Talent.
Mike Oxendine’s Letter to the Editor (GP Courier) on 3/15/22
The rally on Saturday, February 5 at Whitehorse Park in Grants Pass had a turnout of at least 50 people concerned about the Josephine County proposal to cut down over 300 mature, healthy trees to pave an area for RV hook-ups.
There will be a public hearing tomorrow night, February 7, at 6:00 pm at Anne Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass. If you are concerned about the fate of these trees, and the effect of their removal on the rest of the park ecosystem, please attend this meeting, either in person or remotely, or send your written comments in advance.
Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83446772362?pwd=Rk9kdHJyeDRxTlJONWZlWEgvS2w5Zz09
Friday, June 25, we will be mulching and pulling weeds at the RCC raingarden/bioswale from 10:00 am – noon. Chas will bring a truckload of mulch, and we will be joined by EARTH Club students. Plan to get your feet wet and your hands dirty — it should be great fun! Below you will find a map of the RCC Grants Pass campus showing the location of the bioswale near the Josephine Building.
This Article and Photo by Bear Guerra courtesy of Emergence Magazine
Where the Horses Sing
by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
“If we are to become partners with the Earth, living our shared journey, we have to once again speak the same language, listen with our senses attuned not just to the physical world but also to its inner dimension.”
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee is a writer and Sufi teacher whose work focuses on spiritual responsibility in our present time of transition. In this essay, Llewellyn witnesses a growing wasteland that parallels our increasing detachment from the reality that spirit and matter are united.
Recalling the deep knowledge of land and water that was once interwoven into the lives of all of our ancestors—and the ways in which Western civilization has marginalized those who continue to maintain this deep relationship—he seeks the threshold that could bring us back to the place where the land sings: to a deep ecology of consciousness that returns our awareness to a fully animate world.
OPEN ESSAY
Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83446772362?pwd=Rk9kdHJyeDRxTlJONWZlWEgvS2w5Zz09
Two short documentaries:
Presented by Project Drawdown, this six-unit video series is filled with the latest need-to-know science and fascinating insights from global thought leaders. Free, full of hope, and streaming now.
https://drawdown.org/climate-solutions-101
Your climate solutions journey begins now. Filled with the latest need-to-know science and fascinating insights from global leaders in climate policy, research, investment, and beyond, this video series is a brain-shift toward a brighter climate reality.
Climate Solutions 101 is the world’s first major educational effort focused solely on solutions. Rather than rehashing well-known climate challenges, Project Drawdown centers game-changing climate action based on its own rigorous scientific research and analysis. This course, presented in video units and in-depth conversations, combines Project Drawdown’s trusted resources with the expertise of several inspiring voices from around the world. Climate solutions become attainable with increased access to free, science-based educational resources, elevated public discourse, and tangible examples of real-world action. Continue your climate solutions journey, today.
Can we feed the world without destroying the planet? That depends – on what we do NOW.
Join us for this FREE screening of Conscious Earth Films’ award-winning documentary:
The Need to Grow –
by Zoom on Sunday, March 21, 2021, from 1:00-3:00 pm.
Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83446772362?pwd=Rk9kdHJyeDRxTlJONWZlWEgvS2w5Zz09
Courtesy of Yes! Magazine
| Kevin A. Young teaches history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is a co-author, with Tarun Banerjee and Michael Schwartz, of Levers of Power: How the 1% Rules and What the 99% Can Do About It (Verso, July 2020). |
Protesters march against racism and police brutality in Amityville, New York, on July 5, 2020. Photo by Thomas A. Ferrara / Newsday RM / Getty Images
All disruptive social movements are met with stern warnings from people who think they know better. The current movement to “Defund the Police” is no exception.
Thus an editor of the Detroit Free Press professes sympathy for the protesters’ aims but says their “awful slogan” is “alienating” to the public, including to “White people who feel more reassured than threatened” by the police. Other pundits insist that “activists who are demanding radical change” are paving the way for Trump’s reelection: “Defund the Police” is “music to Trump’s ears” because it baits the Democrats into endorsing this presumably unpopular demand.
These critics share an assumption about how change happens: Movements must win over the majority of the public; once they do so, that sentiment soon finds its way into policy changes.
This argument has several problems. One is that government so frequently disobeys the will of the majority. Statistical analyses that compare public preferences and policy find that the opinions of non-wealthy people “have little or no independent influence on policy.” Having the support of the majority is no guarantee of change, to say the least.
Also problematic is the assumption that radical demands or actions scare away the public. The empirical evidence is mixed, but the 54% support for the recent burning of the Minneapolis police precinct should make us skeptical of conventional wisdom.
But the biggest problem with the We-Must-Persuade-the-Majority argument is that most progressive victories in U.S. history did not enjoy majority support when they were won. In case after case, a radical minority disrupted the functioning of businesses and state institutions, which sought to restore stability by granting concessions and ordering politicians to do the same.
Read the rest of this interesting and illuminating article here.
A moving 7 min. film on the effects of adverse childhood trauma.
sustainableroguevalley.org 
