permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=561

The work of the Community Environment Legal Defense Fund is more 
important than ever. The history and lessons offered in their pages is 
the fuel needed to empower effective resistance to corporate dominance 
in all public arenas. Read every essay linked on this page. You'll learn 
more in an hour or two than in years of activism. You'll find yourself 
wildly copying and pasting and posting...and that's good! Please share.
Keith

The Legal Defense Fund has staked out its mission to assist communities 
and community governments to establish and assert currently denied 
self-governing rights and authority. The questions I ask everyone who 
contacts the office seeking help with saying “no” to corporate and state 
abetted assaults are two: 1) in your community, when it comes to making 
decisions on issues which directly affect your community, families, 
neighbors, environment, future generations and quality of life, is it 
the people affected who make those decisions? If yes, then 
self-governance and consent of the governed are alive and well where you 
live. If not, then fundamental rights are being denied you and your 
community. 2) If the answer is no, then are you prepared to change that, 
to assert your rights, overcome injustice and establish self-government 
and consent of the governed where you live, for yourself and for future 
generations?

Make no mistake. Lost rights and community destruction cannot be 
overcome by relying on rules and regulations the state “permits” us to 
use under current law. Whether or not people are prepared to understand 
and act upon the gravity of our situation is by no means irrelevant. 
Even among those not yet ready to take a stand and assert local 
self-governing rights there is little apathy for our plight, but often 
there is residual hope that by deftly pleading for our rights, the 
corporate-run State will yield them up to us. Lack of clarity and fear 
of asserting rights are the main obstacles to creating a People’s 
Movement to establish and perpetuate fundamental rights. Not everyone is 
ready to take the necessary bold steps and live up to their obligation 
to neighbors, the natural environment that sustains all life, and to 
future generations.

And so we put our resources and energy where we think it will be most 
effective: in communities where the People have recognized the face of 
oppression behind the mask of false promises by the corporate state. Our 
hope is that the inclination to be free is strong enough to finally 
overcome the inclination to obey illegitimate power while enduring 
injustice. If that’s the case, strategic triage over where to put our 
efforts won’t be necessary for long. The time is coming when it will be 
the rule, not the exception, that communities are ready to assert Rights 
and establish local self-government at consent of the governed.
--

Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 5516, Bloomington, IN 47407
(812) 335-0383
- Permaculture Activist <http://www.permacultureactivist.net/>
- Permaculture Trading Post <http://www.permaculturetradingpost.com/>
- Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting 
<http://www.permacultureactivist.net/design/Designconsult.html>
- Permaculture & Regenerative Design News Blog 
<http://kjpermaculture.blogspot.com/>
- Permaculture Politics Blog <http://permaculturepolitics.blogspot.com/>

- Transition Indiana <http://transitionindiana.blogspot.com/> - Blog 
<http://transitionindiana.blogspot.com/>

- Transition Bloomington <http://transitionbloomingtonind.ning.com/>
- The Gardeners' World Blog <http://theecosystem.blogspot.com/>
- Renaissance Farm and Permaculture Center 
<http://bloomingtongrowers.locallygrown.net/growers/show/212>
- Bloomington Permaculture Growers Cooperative 
<http://bloomingtongrowers.locallygrown.net/>
- Bloomington Permaculture Guild Blog 
<http://bloomingtonpermacultureguild.blogspot.com/> - Calendar 
<http://my.calendars.net/bloomingtonpccal/>
- Switch to Solar Power the Easy Way 
<http://www.jointhesolution.com/KeithJ-SunPower>