permaculture

["Robert Waldrop" <bwaldrop@cox.net>]

I am a candidate for mayor of Oklahoma City (I 
don't remember if I have mentioned this here 
before). Below is my election day statement (today 
is our municipal election day).

Bob Waldrop, Oklahoma City

A SPRINGTIME OF HOPE FOR OKLAHOMA CITY
www.bobwaldrop.net

Social justice. Energy conservation. Environmental 
sustainability. Local economic development. "What 
kind of whacko candidate are you, Bob?", a good 
friend gently teased me after reading my website. 
Indeed, it says something about the modern 
political context that these simple, common sense, 
and pragmatic ideas are considered irrelevant to 
the present era.

If you want to know where I come from, you have to 
go down to southwestern Oklahoma and back in time 
a bit. My grandparents went through the Depression 
and the Dustbowl years as farmers in Tillman 
County. They didn't get through those hard times 
by being foolish. They raised nearly everything 
they ate. They were frugal with their money. They 
pitched in to help friends and family in time of 
need. The idea of conspicuous consumption and the 
"throw-away society" were not part of their 
vocabulary. Many years ago, I was at my 
grandparent's house - a home built by my 
grandfather Glen Waldrop and his brother Fred - 
and I threw an empty glass jar into the trash. My 
grandfather picked it out of the trash and said to 
me, "Bobby Max, you already paid for that jar, why 
would you want to throw it away?"

I wouldn't have anyone believe that those days 
were perfect, even in the retrospective view of 
memory. Tillman County wasn't Walton's Mountain. 
Racial segregation was a blot on the honor of the 
community, and the poverty was so deep it ground 
people into the dust. But the seeds of overcoming 
lay in the fertile soils and people not only 
survived, they prospered.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and those basic 
ideas seem almost quaint in their simplicity. We 
fancy ourselves as much more complex these days. 
We are far beyond ideas like local food security 
and energy conservation - we think - in our 24 
hours a day, seven days a week "busyness". But are 
we actually happier? Are we more secure? Are our 
prospects as hopeful as theirs? Somehow I don't 
think so.

I realized a few years ago that I was becoming my 
grandparents. In our youth oriented culture, some 
might be horrified by that thought, but I wasn't. 
I found myself thinking, "This is the way things 
should be." I am grateful that their basic 
virtues, including a deep and abiding love for the 
land and the soil which gives all of us our daily 
bread, were part of my own life, despite many of 
my personal efforts to escape that cultural 
legacy.

Outside of my windows, the peach and the apricot 
trees are blooming, and asparagus shoots are 
coming out of the ground, promising a feast of 
abundance in the future. Spring is a time when 
farmers and gardeners look forward in hope. The 
cold of the winter is past, the heat of the summer 
has yet to come, the wheat is growing, the peas 
and spinach and potatoes and turnips have been 
planted. Promise is in the air. It is said that to 
everything there is a time and a season. Thus, I 
dare to dream of a springtime of hope for Oklahoma 
City, a time to put aside the politics of division 
and hatred, a time to open the doors and welcome 
all to the table of plenty, a time to remember the 
virtues of our grandparents and to understand 
their importance and their utility for the 21st 
century.

Victory in this election is less an issue of my 
actual election as mayor and more a realization by 
people that they can take personal responsibility 
for their lives and live them with great 
intentionality and that doing so is a way towards 
a life of joy and abundance and hope and security. 
Going along to get along will get us nowhere but 
the ash-heap of history. Greed and gluttony are 
the roads to ruin. A secure, prosperous, and vital 
Oklahoma City calls forth the opportunity for 
people to do what is right, irrespective of the 
occupant of the mayor's office or what the city 
council may or may not do. It doesn't take a city 
ordinance for people to get out of their cars and 
walk, ride a bicycle, or take public 
transportation more often. It doesn't take a 
mandate from City Hall for people to buy food from 
Oklahoma farmers, to shop at locally owned stores, 
to plant fruit and nut trees in their yards and 
grow their own tomatoes and carrots, to eat at 
locally owned restaurants, and to put their money 
in locally owned credit unions and banks. Every 
person who does these things is participating in 
the springtime of hope for Oklahoma City and is 
doing more than all the politicians added together 
to build a secure and promising future for 
themselves and their children.

Today is not the end of this campaign. It is only 
the beginning.

Bob Waldrop

PS. Thanks to everybody for the wonderful support 
for my campaign. Don't forget to vote! And don't 
forget to invite your friends and family and 
co-workers to vote! Don't forget to plant some 
fruit trees this spring! If you can, come by our 
watch party tonight, starting at 6:30 PM at 1524 
NW 21st (that's the southeast corner of North 
McKinley and NW 21st. There will be lots of good 
Oklahoma food on the menu. Bring a dish to share 
with friends. For more information about the 
Oklahoma Food Cooperative, visit 
http://www.oklahomafood.coop . For more 
information about simple and sustainable living, 
visit http://www.bettertimesinfo.org . If you need 
help with energy conservation, go to 
http://www.energyconservationinfo.org . If you are 
concerned about local transportation issues, visit 
http://www.oklahomacityrail.org . If you are a 
fabric artist, and sew clothes or quilts or other 
items for sale to the public, I would be happy to 
list your business for free at 
http://www.oklahomaclothing.org . For more 
information about the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker 
House, visit http://www.justpeace.org .