Subject: Re: Getting Together

From: [email-masked] (Don Bowen)
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 07:05:20 -0800

>Exactly, everywhere europeans went in the world they modeled the same sick
>living philosophy.  Lure people to the citys with the false promise of
>a better life.  the fact that prices where low for a few more upper poor
>broadened the working class.
        In europe there was little private ownership of land.  As te new
industrialism spread to the farm, fewer people were needed to work the
fields.  THe reduced labor needs resulted in a fall of rural wages.  People
were forced to move to the cities where they became just another raw material.

  Donald E. Bowen           [email-masked]
  Valley Center CA.         [email-masked]

  Software Engineer, woodworker, historian, beekeeper, farmboy
  model railroader, 1936 Farmall 12, 1966 Corvair CORSA 140 convertible
  1 wife, 3 kids, 2 acres, 2 cats, 2 dogs, ? projects,  24 hours

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From: [email-masked] (Don Bowen)
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 09:03:17 -0800

>How many times has anyone read about the folks who clean up a vacant lot for
>growing and getting people together to do it.  I always read how good it 
>makes them feel to commune together and see some beauty in an otherwise
>ugly, dirty place.   thanks for the response above.  I think city mgt.
>needs to work more with these kind of ideas.  it would benifit all of us
>in the long run.

        Often you read that later the city has thrown those gardens out
because the lot did not belong to the gardners or the city wanted the tax
revenue from another strip mall on the site.

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From: [email-masked] (Barb Bruns)
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 95 13:37:10 EST

> revenue from another strip mall on the site.

True, but some survive.  The city of Cincinnati has at least a dozen of
these gardens, designed, planted, and maintained by one paid coordinator,
a bunch of volunteers, and the residents of the neighborhoods they are
in.  It's a well-run organization (Civic Garden Center).  They do good
things, put on gardening seminars, garden shows, hold plant & bulb
sales to help fund themselves.  I think the greatest funding comes from
the city, though.

Barb

[email-masked]
I don't speak for LEXIS-NEXIS.

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From: [email-masked] (Don Bowen)
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 13:58:19 -0800

>   
>   I think classes are a key word here,  as we know it was technology 
>   and the monopolising of such that caused the stratification of people
>   to begin with (beginning in Europe). 

        Europe in general and all "advanced" societies have some sort of
class structure.  The royalty was "empowered by god" and the peasents were
just labor. The technology of trade and transportation di gave rise to a
middle class.  THe rush of consumer goods brought about increased technology
helped convert the middle and upper classes into consumers and further
defined a line between producers and consumers.  Producers had less worth
than consumers.

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From: [email-masked] (Barb Bruns)
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 95 13:26:31 EST

> > Our readership seems to be made up (predictably) of two kinds of folks - 
> > active homesteaders and prospective homesteaders.  Why not try to get 
> > them together?  How about it - any homesteaders willing to let a few of 
> > us dreamers bug you for a few hours and see how you do it?  I'd be 
> > willing to act as a coordinator, if need be.  What do you think?

Here's a "Yes!" vote from one of the wannabees.  I'm teetering on the
brink of "Should I do it?  When?  How?  Can I?"  Seeing the things I'm
thinking about Actually Being Done would help my self-confidence a lot.

A group I belong to (pay dues to, anyway), Ohio Environmental Food & 
Farmers, does something along the same lines, called farm tours.  They do 
a couple of them a year, I think, and feature organic farms, often those 
doing something a little different (raising spelt, using "Australian"? 
rotational grazing, an Amish farm, etc.).  They seem to be very well received.  

I've never gone to one - how much nicer it would be to visit the homesteads 
of "friends" we already know via Internet!

Barb