Thanks to the Evanston RoundTable for publishing this letter to the editor that I wrote in mounting frustration at the amount of damage control our City Council inflicts on itself (and the rest of us — voters, City staff, businesses, etc.) as the result of an outdated City Code. An extra thanks to editor Susy Schultz for […]
Real Democracy
The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is gaining more and more attention as an alternative to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the economic metric adopted in 1944 as the standard for all nations. The GDP is currently the most powerful economic signal on earth, even though it was not designed for that purpose. GDP is used to […]
CONTENTS: Four new blogs + 2 news items on the following topics:— Local Foods— Participatory Budgeting— Universal Basic Income— Lakefront Misconduct Report TO: — Evanston voters, media, political groups, businesses, activists, institutions— Residents in my neighborhood (Nichols Neighbors)— Some non-Evanston voters with Evanston connections & interests Hi, all —I don’t know how much more energy I’ll […]
In 2009-10, I was lucky enough to learn about Participatory Budgeting as a way to promote real democracy. I was doubly lucky to learn from the first PB project initiated by a U.S. municipal official, the 49th Ward of Chicago where Alderman Joe Moore and his wife, Barb Moore, spearheaded the process. Evanstonians know the […]
I first came across the term “funded sovereignty” in a book by Native American scholar, Barbara Alice Mann. Her 2000 book, Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas, is an eye-opening read for anyone who believes in the ideals of the U.S. It is also sanity-inducing for anyone who’s been disappointed in the implementation of those ideals. Mann’s book […]
OK, I admit it. I am confused about the current women’s movement. On Jan. 21, 2017, I was glued to my computer, watching the livestream of the Women’s March from Washington, DC, periodically flipping to scenes of Women’s Marches in cities around the world. Two months shy of my 66th birthday, 66 years of lifelong […]
It turns out that The Money Question was a common topic of civic conversation in colonial U.S. and early U.S. history. In 1913, the adoption of the Federal Reserve Act, which privatized the U.S. money system “permanently”, seemed to put an end to public discussion about The Money Question. INTRODUCTIONI first learned about The Money […]
In my lifelong search for women’s public authority, I’ve been studying the gift economy, especially the maternal roots, as facilitated by scholar/philanthropist Genevieve Vaughan and many other women. Vaughan’s websites are filled with resources featuring scholars from around the world: articles, videos, event proceedings, etc.— Original website Gift Economy— Newer Maternal Gift Economy Movement A new anthology […]