So what can ONE person really do, anyway? Richard Perez It's easy for us to sit on our hands and bemoan our fate and the fate of our planet. What can we do? We are only individuals. How can we possibly affect the powerful megastructures that run our lives and our environment? Well, here is what one person, Mary Duffield, is doing. Meet Mary Mary Duffield is a retired English teacher living in Santa Cruz, California. She has spent many years living on sailboats and thereby making her own power. At 70+, Mary has more energy than most folks half her age. She uses this energy to foster communication about the issues that affect us all, topics like the environment and what we're doing to it. Mary's energy and strength comes from her ideas and her faith. She has more faith in us as human beings, and our ability to do whatever we set our minds to, than any person I have ever met. Mary works with children, as a volunteer, teaching Ham radio communications in the Santa Cruz school systems. It is in her work that Mary really sparkles. You see, she has some really strange ideas. She thinks our kids are rational human beings. She thinks that by listening to the younger inhabitants of this planet, we may discover things we have forgotten or never even knew. Mary believes that if enough of us (and she really means everyone in this us) get together and talk things over, we can solve any problem that we might confront. You know, I think she may be right. Mary is a Planetary Citizen. She knows that this entire planet is her Home. And as such, she would no more dump waste overboard from her boat, than she would in your (our?) living room. In Mary's words, her goal as a Planetary Citizen is, "To serve as an international network through which the unified thoughts and actions of Planetary Citizens are effectively working against such common threats as hunger, war, overpopulation, and pollution." You might expect a sermon from one of such lofty goals, but with Mary you get a smile and a warm glow. Mary works with kids. In a society filled with all types of discrimination, Mary works with probably the most discriminated against minorityÑ children. These children, by virtue of their naivatee, have been able to accomplish what adults have not. As proof of Mary's ideas, I offer what her students have accomplished. Children, Clean Water, & Ham Radio Mary teaches Ham Radio communication to children. Now, anyone who has taken an Amateur Radio exam from the FCC knows that these tests are tough. Many adults have trouble with the radio theory, law, and Morse code. Well, Mary's got children in their early teens passing these exams. But the Ham license is just the beginning for Mary's students. With the Ham license and equipment comes the ability to communicate with other Hams all over the World. It is this communication, and what may spring from it, that Mary and her students are really interested in. Consider this solitary example. Mary's students are concerned about the quality of water. Their idea was to set up an international teleconference via Ham radio to talk to other students about water quality. These students, all of Junior High school age or less, arranged an international conference between student Hams in Scotland, West Germany, New York, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Washington D.C., Arizona and finally Santa Cruz. The topic was water quality. The Santa Cruz students sent water test kits to all these locations. The students gathered around their radios with the results of the water tests they conducted in their individual locations. The students agreed that everyone would help the group that had the worst water to clean it up. As a 15 year old student, Betsy Baily put it, "We all agreed we would test our own water and start helping work on it. We wanted to cooperate globally to help whichever school has the worst problem, which turned out to be the school on the Indian reservation in Roosevelt Town, NY." The students discovered that the water supply to the Freedom School on the Mohawk Indian reservation in upstate New York was contaminated with lead and PCBs. The students at this school were slowly being poisoned every time they drank a glass of water. This was discovered by a group of children globally linked via radio! The pollution in this case is so severe that if a child had eaten as few as eight tomatoes from their school garden, it could have been fatal. The students were not content to just discover the pollution, they had to clean it up. And they were at least partially successful. They deluged the powers that be with letters and shamed them into acknowledging and fixing the problem. The Freedom school now has its drinking water trucked in from an uncontaminated source. Plans are underway to move the school to a more healthful site. All this accomplished by children using Ham radio to talk about water problems. Now children don't burst with political or social power. They don't even get to vote. But by the strength of their moral arguments, their organization, and their maturity, they succeeded in making real changes in the water pollution poisoning the students at the Freedom School. If a bunch of kids can accomplish this, then what can all of us together accomplish? It makes one wonder. The Agua Alegre-- Floating Self-sufficiency Mary's boat, a 35 foot wooden Alden sloop, is the focus of her activities. Mary's floating Home shares the same waters that nourish us all. Its power is the wind. When we visited Mary in Santa Cruz, we were treated to a short sail that gave us the photo you see on this month's cover. Well, sailing a boat is nothing new to me. But sitting and watching Mary's crew certainly was. None of the crew of the Agua Alegre (that's Spanish for Happy Water), on that day, were old enough to vote. Our skipper, Todd Meyers (KB6VOQ) was only seventeen years old and his crew (both Hams also) of two were both under 16 years of age. These youngsters not only sailed the boat, but amazed me with their grasp of ecology and their concern for our environment. Mary uses the Agua Alegre as a floating classroom. Her students learn ecology, sailing, navigation, and Ham radio while on board. Her students are allowed on cruises only if they are passing in their regular academic work. The student crews of the Agua Alegre maintain the boat themselves. The students raise the money for docking fees, food and operating expenses through their own labor at paper drives, raffles, and other money raising activities. Through sailing the Agua Alegre, Mary's students learn self-sufficiency. They stand watches, during which they, alone, are responsible for the safety and management of a sailboat under way. These lessons are not wasted on children. They are lessons we all must learn. These kids are lucky to have Mary there to give them the opportunity. So far Mary, her students and the Agua Alegre have completed four long distance cruises. Imagine Mary and her students sailing to such places as Venezuela and Alaska. The Redwood Youth Foundation So now you've got an idea of what Mary's doing. And maybe you've got a glimmer of why she's doing it. Well, here's the how. Communication is how Mary and her students accomplish their goals. To this end Mary has formed a non-profit organization to foster communication between children. Mary's hope for our future lies with our children. In Mary's words, "We are all one another's teacher and we become increasingly connected in the radio networks sharing communications skills with others who are cooperating to create a planet worthy of our children." Mary and the Redwood Youth Foundation work tirelessly. And I mean tirelessly, for after spending just 26 hours with Mary in Santa Cruz, I was tired enough to want to return to something easy like making a magazine! If you want to help out (and we really should) then get in touch with Mary Duffield (WA6KFA), 2355 Brommer Street #23, Santa Cruz, CA 95062 or call 408-462-0300. So what can ONE person really do, anyway? Well, one person can talk to another. And they can talk to others. Before we know it we've got thousands, nay millions, talking. Talking about our future and what we will experience when tomorrow becomes today. And it really doesn't matter who we are talking to. It may be a mover/shaker bursting with Worldly Power, or it may be a child with only the Power of youth. The concept is the same. By sharing our hopes, dreams, and nightmares we, all of us, just might succeed in creating a livable Home for us all. SIDEBAR The photos you see of the Agua Alegre and her crew were obtained by our intrepid Home Power Photographer- Brian Green. Brian is a landlubber, and his courage in climbing into an eight foot dingy, bouncing around in high seas, to capture the Agua Alegre is without parallel. While he got wet, he still smiled.