Tag: recession

Rural Alaskans Choosing between Food and Fuel

On By PaxIn An Important Message..., everyday2 Comments

Hey folks,

As an Alaskan expatriate I try to keep up on things in the Great Land, the land of my birth, and Anchorage, where I was raised.  People in rural Alaska are having to make a choice this Winter between spending money on heating oil and buying food for their families.

I first became aware of this story from The Mudflats, a blog looking at Alaska news and politics.  Politics is the most popular spectator sport in the 49th State, and Gods know we’ve had a few interesting characters involved over the years!

Of course the fact that for the largest State in the Union we have one of the smallest populations helps, Alaska has been described by one frustrated friend of mine as the worlds largest small town!  At around 350 thousand people Anchorage, my hometown,  is the largest city and has a little under half the States population.

Most of Alaska’s towns and villages are out in the wilderness, or as we Alaskan’s call it “the bush”, accessible only by small plane or by river boats and barges.  Many of these are from old mining camps or are Native villages that sprang up when the U.S. government put up schools in a specific location and told many of the formerly nomadic Native peoples that they needed to stay in one place.

For the better part of the last several months rural people in Alaska have been facing starvation, and no one in the U.S. media seems to care.   They would much rather report on Governor Palins celebrity foibles and misadventures, rather than the humanitarian crisis in rural Alaska that Palin’s administration had every opportunity to face and help to prevent over the last couple of years.

Of course, she’s been busy, out of State.

Running for Vice President in the “Real America”, rural America don’tcha know?  She’s also been busy speaking at Republican governors conferences and forming her own Political Action Committee!

She has also been ignoring the serious problems with the Alaskan Fisheries were factory trawlers over fish various fish populations and devestate the sustainability of the fishery population.

Then, too, she’s been busy vetoing or ignoring any energy related proposals that don’t relate to oil development or rocket research; including detailed plans from some rural villages for alternative energy development on the local level to help provide plentiful heating energy for rural Alaskan’s and plans to develop some large Oil Tank farms to be shared between multiple villages.

It’s not her fault of course, she had to make her interviews with Esquire and gear up for the important things like that animal rights feud with Ashley Judd.

Luckily there are some folks helping out.   Alaskans are (normally) a caring people and a lot of grass-roots relief efforts have been going on in State and in Anchorage.  Folks in Seafood marketing industry have been doing fundraisers to help buy heating oil to help ease the financial crunch.  The Venezuelan Government is helping out, indirectly, as a U.S. subsidiary of their national oil company will be providing 100 gallon fuel vouchers in February.

It may be enough to get rural Alaska through this Winter, barely, one can only hope that the State of Alaska, and the U.S. government will be able to find a way to help solve this terrible problem.

Sadly the Governor of Alaska is too busy elsewhere to bother with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Where is the help Alaska villages so desperately need?

~Elise Patkotak, Anchorage Daily News

Village Crisis Update

~Linda Kellen Biegel, The Alaskan Standard

Opinion: Alaska Native villages desperate for aid

~Indianz.com

Salmon dining to help suffering Alaskan villages

~Hal Bernton, Seattle Times

Invoking the Power of the Pagan Dollar 2.0

On By PaxIn An Important Message..., Community Building, Honoring the New Year, Pagan Responses to Recession17 Comments

I am, admittedly partially repeating myself here, but this idea feels important on a deep intuitive level… and it keeps coming back to my thoughts, the ideas circling like sharks ready to devour my complacency whole… so here it is…

We need to build the economic self-sufficiency of our local, regional, and national Pagan communities!

We are facing some of the worst economic times, certainly in my lifetime, and it just seems to me as if we, as a community, haven’t really been talking about this.  I say this as someone who is a self-confessed blog-a-holic, a member of multiple yahoo-groups, and an avid surfer of the Internet, and who is not all that hard to track down either in his local community or by friends nationwide.  I’ve seen some small mention of individual challenges and responses to the hard times we are in, but nowhere have I seen discussions of how we as a community can face and deal with these troubled times.  I think it’s about time we started talking about this folks, because the tough times are not going to go away overnight!

I first started thinking about Pagan community economic self-sufficiency in the months after Ellwood “Bunky” Bartlett won the lottery, and there were a lot of discussions and posts about his windfall and opinions of all sorts were floated about how a Pagan with a lot of it should spend his money.  Then, too, there are the many discussions I’ve heard, or read, about various Pagan owned businesses that shut down for a lack of support.  I’ve also been thinking a lot about how various other sub-cultural communities have focused their economic power inward and reaped no small rewards, including any number of ethnic and religious and other sub-cultural communities.

All of these influences have had me thinking a lot lately about how we in the Pagan community could build a stronger community through economic empowerment.  For me, economic empowerment means that we, as a community, are focusing our economic decisions on those choices that strengthen our community locally, regionally, and nationally.  To strengthen our Pagan community, in this case, means spending our money within our community as much as is possible and practical.

Time after time in the history of my beloved United States we have seen how the ethnic, sub-cultural,  and religious communities that form up the patchwork quilt of the United States have been able to strengthen the their communities and build their social ties, and their economic, and political power by concentrating money into community owned businesses and interests.  These decisions include supporting Pagan-owned and Pagan friendly businesses, as well as supporting local and national Pagan community organizations, and Pagan charities.

Pagan Owned and Pagan Friendly Businesses

The first thing that I would like to say is that a Pagan business is not necessarily a metaphysical or occult shop.  I know, I know, some of you out there are going…

“Well, DUH!  Pax!”

But it was both interesting and instructive for me to notice that many, many times, on many separate occasions, when I tried to communicate with others about the idea of supporting our Pagan businesses that the idea of a Pagan business often seemed to be all but consumed by the idea of a metaphysical book and paraphernalia shop.  When I look at many Pagan stores or periodicals, most of the adverts are for fortunetellers, workshops, or various metaphysical shops.

Where are our doctors and realtors and other professionals?  Where are the Pagan owned home repair businesses, yard services, and plumbers?  They are out there, I know because I have run into many of them on the Web and in book stores and at open Circles and community socials.  Sadly, a lot of our Pagan business owners and Pagan professionals who may be active in the Pagan community are to one degree or another closeted for fear of the very real economic effects of discrimination and prejudice.  Even with full protection under the law you can still be fired, or have your business ruined by a word of mouth campaign or boycott, if you are Pagan.

These fears are real, and serious.  Being out as a Pagan can be hazardous to one’s livelihood.  What can we do about this?

Within my own experience in the GLBT community, in local newsletters and in local Gay venues such as bars and community centers you will often see ads for various GLBT owned businesses.  Realtors, lawyers, doctors, books & gift shops, florists, mechanics, the local Metropolitan Community Church (a GLBT friendly Christian denomination), massage therapists, psychotherapists… all of these and more will have advertisements in their local GLBT newsletters and posted in Queer friendly businesses, as well as in GLBT community directories… jokingly often called “the pink pages” after the “yellow pages” of U.S. phone directories.  These community directories are often free booklets that are paid for with advertising fees and donation.

Do you think that GLBT lawyers, doctors, and realtors, are nervous about the possibility of being out could affect their livelihood?  Yet still many are willing to advertise in GLBT community directories and publications.  Why?

Two reasons…

One, those of us in the GLBT community have for nearly 30 years subscribed in a broad sense to the philosophy of supporting our own.  If there is a Gay owned or Gay friendly business in my area I am darn well going to use them first… keep the money in the GLBT family!  Because of this those who advertise in “pink pages” and in GLBT publications know that they are reaching out to their own community, or to a community they are friendly towards, and one that will actively spend it’s money in house first!

Reason number two, is that for the most part the people most likely to actively discriminate against GLBT owned and friendly businesses are the people least likely to willingly pick up, much less read, a GLBT publication where they would be advertised.  As for the “pink pages”, well those are usually only available in Gay bars, GLBT owned businesses, and GLBT Community Centers; none of which are on the bigots top ten list of places to go into or be seen!

To be fair I have seen some ads for paralegals and therapists in some Pagan bookstores, and that is a start.  In searching the Internet, I was only able to find one comprehensive listing for a Pagan community business directory; a similar search for a Gay business directory yielded ~ many ~ interesting ~ results.

Once we start identifying our locally owned Pagan and Pagan friendly businesses we must commit to supporting them!  When we keep our money in the community, the community will become stronger.  By supporting our Pagan businesses we also strengthen their ability to support themselves and in turn our community.

Pagan Community Organizations and Charities

A lot of you are probably thinking of groups like the Asatru Folk Assembly or Covenant of the Goddess, and yes I would certainly encourage Pagans to support some of our national spiritual/religious organizations.   I would also never hesitate to encourage you to support your local Pagan Community groups.  Is a local Pagan group holding a fund-raising dinner for a campground or community center or local charity?  Then go eat a few plates… even on a work or school night already!

Just as there are more types of Pagan business than the occult supply shop, there are other types of Pagan community organizations that we could come together to support through either our membership or charitable donations.

Cherry Hill Seminary is a graduate level Pagan Seminary with counseling and public ministry programs that is currently working at creating a Masters of Divinity Program.

Then there are programs like the annual National Pagan Leadership Skills Conference, now in its 5th year, fostering workshops on issues of Finance, Pastoral Care, and Group Facilitation.

Pagan professional organizations have come and gone, yet some remain.  The best current example is, of course, The Officers of Avalon.  This international benevolent organization for Pagan Law Enforcement Officer’s and Emergency Services Personnel has also established an active non-profit charitable wing Avalon Cares, which has done some fundraising and participated in several aid and relief efforts!  Avalon Cares is one of a number of Pagan organizations doing charitable work, and worthy of Pagan community investment.  Circle Sanctuary maintains a list of Pagan groups doing charitable work, for more examples.

Organizations like these, and supporting them as a community, are, I believe, the next step in our evolution as a community.  Think about it… having a fully accredited Pagan Seminary… is the idea of a Pagan University, a real academic 4-year degree University that happens to be run by, and offering some programs specifically of interest to, Pagans all that radical or far off a notion?

Imagine the impact, for example, if each of us focused our charitable donations to Avalon Cares for one year?  Imagine if every Pagan group in the United States focusing it’s food drives towards a specific food bank or hunger fighting organization like Feeding America (formerly Second Harvest), and then specifically donating in the name of the U.S. Pagan community.  Imagine if each of us donated even 3 dollars to Cherry Hill Seminary.  Imagine, not only, the positive impact we could make in the world, but the positive impact that would have in our community?

We all want a world where our spiritual path, our faith or belief system, is simply a part of who we are; not something that has the potential to get us fired or harassed.  We want a world where the leaders of our cities, regions, and nations address issues of concern to our community; rather than writing us off as nuts or “not a religion”.  We want a world where the press will jump all over a public official making ignorant of bigoted remarks about Pagans, rather than just letting it pass or chuckling.

Empowering ourselves economically is the pathway to that world.

Invoking the power of the Pagan Dollar

On By PaxIn Community Building, Food for Thought, Pagan Responses to Recession8 Comments

Don’t panic!  This is NOT going to be an article about prosperity spells and you drum I chant “money, money, money, gimme, gimme, gimme” type of invokation.  This little article is my own thoughts on how we in the Pagan community can respond to the current economic hard times, and at the same time, strengthen our own ties of community.

I am inspired to write on this topic, in part, by an article at The Wild Hunt on how one Pagan in Iceland has been responding to that country’s economic collapse with civil protest and increasingly strident calls to action.

In part  it also just seems to me as if we, as a community, haven’t really been talking about this.  I say this as someone who is a self-confessed blog-a-holic, a member of multiple yahoo-groups, and an avid surfer of the Internet, and who is not all that hard to track down either in his local community or by friends nationwide.  I’ve seen some small mention of individual challenges and responses to the hard times we are in, but nowhere have I seen discussions of how we as a community can face and deal with these troubled times.  I think it’s about time we started talking about this folks, cause the tough times are not going to go away overnight!

We need to build the economic self-sufficiency of our local, regional, and national Pagan communities! Time after time in the history of my beloved United States we have seen how the ethnic, sub-cultural,  and religious communities that form up the patchwork quilt of our great nation have been able to strengthen the their communities and build their social ties, and their economic, and political power by concentrating money into community owned businesses.

I have seen this work within the Gay community.

In order to do this, we need to get better about communicating with one another.  What do I mean?  Well… how many Pagan businesses can you track down?  Now before you start listing off every metaphysical book, candle, and tsotchke (sp?) shop within a hundred miles… can you name a local Pagan Doctor, Lawyer, Realtor, or Plumber, (non occult store) Business owner, or Yardwork company in your area?  Why Not?

Now as a Gay man, I know I can go into most Gay community centers, or local gay bars and find some version of the local community directory.  They are often jokingly called the “pink pages’ after the U.S. phone directories “yellow pages”.  (do they have “yellow pages” in other contries?!)

Armed with this handy information I can find gay owned restaurants, bars, realtors (my people are all over the real estate and home remodeling market, go figure!), Gay or Gay-friendly doctors and therapists, Lawers, Yard work companies and GLBT owned or friendly establishments of every kind.  I have never seen or heard of such a thing in the Pagan community!  Why not?

Now before some of the naysayers strike, don’t be afraid to spread the word within the community if Joe the Pagan Plumber does shoddy work or rips you off; but also do not hesitate to hire him if he does good work!

Another thing some of the naysayers out there may be muttering even as you read this is, ‘well doesn’t this just open us up to fundamentalist attack or religious discrimination?’  Well, in my experience most of the bigots are not going to go into a Gay bar to pick up the ‘pink pages’, and I have never heard of a business being targeted by a church or hate group for their advertising to the GLBT community; so I have a hard time imagining that the Pagan community would have any more trouble than the GLBT folks.

So now that we are starting to find one another, how can we build economic self sufficiency?  Let us start reaching out to one another, let us share what great or little good fortune we may have with others in our community.

Need a lawn mowed but just don’t have the time?  Find a Pagan Lawn Service, or local Pagan in need, to do it!

Do you go out to eat anymore?  Find out which Pagans in your community are Servers and frequent their restaurants and ask to sit in their section!

Are any of the Pagans in your area business owners?  If theirs is a type of business you might frequent, then do so!

What about knowing that there are employers friendly to Pagans as employees or customers?  Shop there!  Maybe during Pagan Pride Month you could go and drop off a note thanking the business for their progressive policies and attitudes and letting them know that because of them you make a point of spending your Pagan dollar with them!

Then there is the question of our Pagan dollar’s power for good.  How often have you, or your Grove or Circle or Community Group given money to charity in the name of the Pagan community?  Or donated food?  Next time maybe you can look for specifically Pagan run Charities or Food Banks or Scholarships.

Maybe you could even look into starting one.

The more we in the Pagan community can support our own, the more success our Pagan business people and Pagan Professionals have, the more we improve the economic and educational opportunities of our fellow Pagans, the stronger and more self-sustaining our community will be.