October 2002 Newsletter

 

Our Lives Together

By Rev Joie Hoffman

It is that time  of year to evaluate what we have done in  the past  and   to  make  decisions  for  the  coming year.   So  the Nominating  Committee  is working  on a slate of  new church leaders, the budget committee has been receiving requests and  putting a proposed  budget together.   We are in the process of an evaluation  process with  our  staff.   Normal kinds of activ-ities for this season in the church year.

 

   We are also hard at work making plans for our bigger future.  Making plans for a new building that we hope can get under-way next summer perhaps.  Making plans for a capital campaign – which we anticipate next spring.  We have talked about these things for several years now, and it feels good to finally see some visible results from all our work.

    It is also time consuming and energy draining.  I don’t know how it can be any different.  So I ask us to remember that this is for but a season of our life together.  A very important sea-son.  Let us give our time and energy and creativity as best we can.  But let us not forget to be the church – to be about the things that make us who we are.

    I want to highlight some things I hope we can join in to-gether.  As the church.  First, I want to call our attention to our country’s energy towards war.  I believe we as Christians must attend to this situation very prayerfully.  We must seek God’s guidance and do all that is possible to find a way to peace.  Even though no war has begun, there is much violence hap-pening – bombings are taking place, innocent people are being hurt and killed on a regular basis.  Our country is a significant partner in the violence.  Let us pray diligently for another way.

Doug Wingeier has written an article elsewhere is this news-letter that I hope you will read and ponder.  Let us talk about such things and learn together.

     Secondly, let us play more as a community.  Come to the all church picnic on Sunday, October 27.  Find some friends to join you in walking in the CROP walk on October 13.  And in December – mark your calendars now! – we have special evenings planned already.  On December 1, Ed and Mary Tor-rence will share with us an evening of storytelling and music of Christmas traditions around the world.  Later in the month, December 15, our children will do a presentation of the Christ-mas story – different from years past.  We hope to have an-other all church Christmas party, too.

  And don’t forget.  Participate in the wonderful offerings of Christian Education.  We had over 100 people in Sunday School a week ago!  That is a huge beginning for us in this new year!  Sing in the choir.  Anita assures me there is room for everyone, even though it may look crowded on most Sun- om community.  Let the spirit of that time – the liturgy of our lives – carry us forward.

Our life together – it is rich and wonderful.  I am glad you are a part of us.

 

 

 

Worship Highlights

8:30 and 11 am services

 

    October   6   World Communion Sunday

                          Neighbors in Need Offering

                          Theme:  God’s Earth/Our World

                           Focus Text:  Matthew 21:33-46

 

     October 13   Theme:  God’s Invitation

                            Text:  Matthew 22:1-14

 

     October 20   Theme:  The Other Side of the Coin

                            Text:  Matthew 22:15-22

 

     October 27    Theme:  Heart and Soul

                           Focus Text:  Matthew 22:34-46

                            Daylight Saving Time Ends

                           All Church Picnic at Lake Julian

                             after the 11 am service

 

These worship themes follow   the curriculum used by our children and youth.  We will connect with these themes as often as we can  in worship – at least in some small way if not a complete way. 

 

 

                        

                             All Church Picnic

 

   On Sunday, October 27, we will gather after the 11am wor-ship service for a picnic and afternoon of fun.  We have rented one of the pavilion’s at Lake Julian, which is in the Skyland area.  We will have maps in the narthex.  Bring plenty of cov-ered dish food to share for our meal.  Drinks and plates and such will be provided.  There is good space for playing volleyball, kicking a soccer ball, taking walks, etc.  Bring some lounge chairs or a blanket to sit on.  Maybe someone will bring a guitar.  This is just about having fun.  Come and be with us.  It won’t be the same without you.

                                          …Sponsored by the Deacons

                         New Officers

   Two new faces on the Executive Board:  Penny Stokes now chairs the Music Committee; Horace Hunt now heads the Stewardship Committee.  Both Penn’s and Horace’s terms will

Carry over through the year 2003.

 

                                   Stewardship

    Stewardship Sunday will be November 17 this year.  During our morning worship services we will receive the pledges of our members and friends in support of the ministry and mission of the church.  Immediately following the 11am service the annual Budget Meeting will be held when we will vote on the proposed budget for 2003.  The annual election of church officers will also be held at that time.

    The proposed budget will be mailed to all the members no later than the first week of November.  There will then be two opportunities to discuss and ask questions about the proposed budget:  on Sunday, November 10 following the 11am service and on Wednesday evening, November 13, at 6:00.

    The Stewardship Committee has received budget requests from the various boards and committees of the church and is presently drafting the proposed 2003 budget.

 

 

                                     Crop Walk

October 13

    Once again First Congregational UCC will be part of the an-nual Asheville CROP WALK.  This is CROP WALK’s 20th year in Asheville, and Asheville wants to do it BIG.

    There are two ways to participate.  You can walk, or you can pledge for a walker – Or you can do both.  Sponsored by Church World Service, CROP WALK raises money for agen-cies that help with hunger relief, both locally and across the world.  One billion people live on incomes of less than a dollar a day, over one quarter of them in sub-Saharan Africa.  Eleven million children under the age of five die from preventable diseases in the developing world.  The statistics go on and on.  Pledging to and walking for CROP WALK can help, not only in providing money, but in providing awareness of the prob-lems of hunger in this world.

    When you pledge you have two choices:

Make an undesignated pledge;  This way, Church World Services will distribute 75% of your money to a list of nine-teen hunger-fighting, world-wide agencies, such as Heifer Pro-ject, American Friends Service Committee, Project HOPE, and many more.  The remaining 25% goes equally to each of four local agencies:  Manna Food Bank, Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministry, ABCCM and Meals on Wheels.

Make a designated pledge:  This way, you may designate that your money goes to any one of the nineteen world-wide agencies that CROP services.

Either way Your money goes a long way to fight hunger.

 

   The  walk  begins  at  2pm on  Sunday,  October 13,  at  First Baptist Church.  Walkers also have two choices of routes.  The first  leg begins  at First Baptist  and goes down  Market Street with  a  water  stop  at  St . James A.M.E. Church.   This leg is about 1.5 miles long.   Walkers  then can  continue on,  if they

want, into North Asheville, with water stops at St. Mark’s Lutheran and the Unitarian Universalist Churches.  The entire route is about 4.5 miles long.

    There will be barrels in front of First Baptist Church for canned goods for the various local agencies.  This year’s CROP Committee has done a lot of work on making this a re-ally prominent, successful and FUN CROP WALK  It’s a great cause!  Let us, at First Congregational, help them prove it can be done.

   We’ll be signing up at First Congregational starting Sunday, September 29th.

      For more information, call Al Mojonnier at 299-8240.

 

 

Choir Schedule for October

 

                Wed, 10/02 – 7:00pm

                Wed, 10/09 – 7:00pm – Rehearsal at Deerfield, fol-lowed by dessert at Donna and Hal Jacobs’ home.  Directions will be distributed at a prior rehearsal.

                Wed, 10/16 – 7:00pm

                Wed, 10/23 – 7:00pm

                Wed, 10/30 – 7:00pm

 

All rehearsals are in the sanctuary unless otherwise noted.  Any questions, or if you are still considering joining the choir and need some encouragement (child care is provided during Wednesday night rehearsals at the church), please call Anita at 254-2079.

 

          Alternative Christmas

Celebration (ACC)

November 24th

   Several years ago I was doing a children’s sermon about the meaning of Christmas.  We were discussing the idea that Christmas is Jesus’ birthday.  One of the little girls in front of me wildly waver her hand.  I stopped to let her talk and she said:  “If it is Jesus’ birthday, how come we get all the gifts?”  Children’s sermons are always dangerous, because the kids don’t know which questions not to ask.  But her question was right on.  Then I remembered Jesus’ words in the parable of the sheep and goats (Matt 25), “When you did it for the least of my brothers (or sisters), you did it for me.”  A new way to look at Christmas for me.

  As we plan for our ACC, I stand in awe of the experience and commitment that many of you have demonstrated already in “doing it for Jesus”.  A number of folks who have been do-ing it for Jesus will be leading us in the Alternative Christmas celebration, offering us not only Alternative gift possibilities, but their own testimony to the value and the integrity of the ministries we will be supporting.  A valuable “value added: part of our program.

     We will be offering gifts through the Heifer Project International, the local Habitat for Humanity, a Palestinian Women’s craft project, Equal Exchange Coffee, Ten Thousand  Villages, and  Alternative Gifts  International.   We

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will be providing brief notes in the newsletter about each of these organizations, as well as minutes for ministry and childrens’ sermons during worship.

    The Alternative Gifts International (AGI) Mission statement follows:

                The global mission of Alternative Gifts International   

    is to send authentic, life-giving gifts to a needy world – gifts           .   that build a partnership with oppressed people in crisis and

    that protect and preserves the earth’s endangered environ-

    ment – to nourish and sustain a more equitable and peaceful

    globa community.

AGI is a non-profit, interfaith agency.  They raise funds each year for a select group of ministries in the United States and over seas.  These ministries are each certified as tax exempt organizations which have entered into a contract with AGI to send the funds raised through AGI to the specific projects for which the funds have been given.  In other words, AGI does for us on a broader basis what our own members have done for the ministries that they bring to the ACC.

    Look for Colleen Burnet’s article on Heifer Project Interna-tional in this issue of the newsletter, and watch next month’s edition for descriptions of the remaining ministries and a cata-log of gifts.  Be thinking about those special people in your life and their passions and experiences that lead to just the right gifts to be given in their honor, or for their enjoyment.  (Somewhere in the world is a water buffalo, the Southeast Asia equivalent of Caterpillar D8 that my kids give me!  Just right!)

    And, yes, you can bring your friends to church and to the Al-ternative Christmas Celebration!

                                                                       …Gene Keil

 

Capital Campaign News

     You will soon be getting to know Ruben Swint, who will be 9ur church’s fund-raising consultant during our building pro-gram.  Ruben will be with us in worship on Sunday, October 13.  He will also be meeting with many of our members during the last week of October as he conducts a feasibility study to help us assess our congregation’s giving potential.

   The Capital Campaign Committee unanimously chose Ruben to help our church in our campaign.  Ruben brings a wealth of experience and skill to us.  He has been a profess-sional fundraiser for 15 years and has led over 104 church cap-ital campaigns.  During our two interviews with him, he dem-onstrated an ability to educate us and to inspire us with enthus-iasm  about the campaign process.  Ruben’s references were many and unanimous in recommending him to us.  He has served several congregations close to our size, both in North Carolina and throughout the Southeast.  He has also worked with UCC churches, most recently Central Congregational UCC in Atlanta.

    Ruben is an active member of Oakhurst Baptist Church, a congregation with theological beliefs and commitments to soc-ial concerns similar to ours at First Congregational.  Ruben lives in Snellville, Georgia, with his wife Margie, His son Chris is a freshman at Georgia State University in Atlanta.  Ruben is affiliated with the Genesis Group, a Capital Campaign Consulting Firm that specifically serves church capital campaigns.

    One of the things our committee has learned over the past months is that a capital campaign is a special time in the life of a congregation, both a challenge and a tremendous opportun-ity.  We are considering ourselves  blessed to be partnering with Ruben.  We look forward to your getting to know him in October and to learning more about our work.

 

Educational Forums on

Sexual Violence Continue

    The  Sexual Violence Steering Committee continues to offer ways we, as individuals and as a congregation, can work through our emotions and learn more about the sexual violence in our society, our families, and our church.  Our work as a congregation is not over.  We need to learn more about how to respond when violence Occurs.  We need to know how to care for each other.

   I invite you, I even urge you, to come to the forums we are offering.  Each runs from 4pm to 5:30pm.

 

   October 6 – Bob Carpenter of Our Voice will speak on the oft-ignored topic of the sexual abuse of males.

   October 20 – Georgia Pressman, a highly respected local therapist, will speak about the effects of abuse on Children and how we can respond to any allegations of abuse.

   November 3 – The topic for this meeting is tentatively planned to be a discussion of our church’s response to the threat of sexual violence, which includes our establishing some policies to prevent that abuse in the church.

                                                                  …Cindy Maddo

 

Things You Should Know…

     Julie Squires’ address at college is: 170 Founders Hall, Guilford College, 5800 W. Friendly Ave., Greensboro, NC   27410.

    Sandra Hoskin moved from Woodland Hills last February. Her new address is:  9 Stoneridge Drive, Asheville, 28805

    Brian Graves’ phone number is 680-9728.

  Reach Beth Honeycutt by phone at 689-1664; this is her number at work

 

 

              Some Questions about Iraq

    The disturbing, not to say frightening, prospect of a US war of  aggression against Iraq raises the following questions, which we must pose to our legislators as they deliberate whether or not to authorize such an attack:

    --Where’s the evidence of clear and present danger in our security?

   --What happened to Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda?  Have we given up on tracking them down to move on to other quarry?

   --If our allies and the UN don’t support this, are we going ahead anyway in the face of global opposition?

   --Who’s going to pick up the pieces in Iraq once we have destroyed it as we have Afghanistan?

   --Why now, right before the election?  Are we sending American lives to make political hay?

   --How many lives will be lost—both Iraqi and American?

   --Who will pay for such a war?  How much money will be

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spent?  What would a lengthy war do to our already fragile economy?

   --Wouldn’t our security be better served by using this money to improve education, health care, and other services to bene-fit our own people?

   --Wouldn’t an attack make Americans—here and anywhere in the world—prime targets for terrorist retaliation?

   --Since when has America become an aggressor nation?  What would happen to what’s left of our image as a peace-lov-ing nation if we launch an unprovoked attack?

   --What do we do with the expert testimony of former chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter (a marine and a Republican) that his team saw to it that Iraq’s capability for producing weapons of mass destruction was effectively and permanently destroyed?

   --What are the alternatives?  Have we considered diplo-macy?  Negotiation to insure that weapons inspectors are re-admitted? Encouraging non-violent resistance from within, as

happened in Poland Serbia?

   --What gives us the right to insist on regime change to in-stall leadership of our liking in another sovereign nation?

   --Why do we support brutal governments that violate human rights in countries like China, Colombia, Guatemala, and Israel, but pick on Saddam Hussein to “take out?”

   --We know that Israel also has weapons of mass destruction that are a serious threat to peace in the Middle East, yet nobody talks about that.  And  Israel has repeatedly violated UN resolutions calling for the end of the occupation in Pales-tinian land.  Why the double standard?

 

And of ourselves,. We must ask:  As Christians, do we support “our country right or wrong,” even when it poses such a threat to world peace as this?  In this instance, can we not be patriotic by opposing an action which would violate the Con-stitution, the UN Charter, a near-universal global consensus, and basic standards of Christian morality?

                                                                      …Doug Wingeier

                                                     Christian Action Committee

 

(Ed.Note:  See: http://www.nion.us/NION.HTM)

 

News From the ONA Task Force

    With unanimous support from the Executive Board, the Open and Affirming (ONA) Task Force has submitted an ad-vertisement to the October edition of  “Community Connec-tions.”  This local newspaper, which is available from locations such as Malaprop Bookstore and the West Asheville Market, carries news and stories particularly related to the concerns of the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender members of our community.  Our ad will be printed beside ads from other congregations such as All Souls Cathedral and the Unity Church.  Sharing the good news about First Congrega-tional in “Community Connections” is yet another way to let others know of our commitment to our ONA covenant.

     At the invitation of the editor of “Community Connections”, Kristy Carter also submitted a letter to accompany this first month of publication of our ad.  Thank you to Kristy for sharing these personal words that remind us so beautifully why we are an Open and Affirming congregation.  Kristy’s letter is printed below:

To Community Connections Readers:

   I began my ‘naming habit’ after reading Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time series as a kid.  Everything in the series had a name – birds, creatures, stars, to name just a few.  Naming is a habit I carry with me today.  My plants, truck, stereo, computer, and refrigerator all have names of their own.  My poor dog never knows when to come because she has so many names.  Although I have been naming things for many years, it was only recently that I discovered the true importance of naming.

   One of the first questions asked by my parents when I told them I was gay was, “What do we call you?”  Rather than seizing the opportunity to tell them I now wanted to be referred to as “Athena Queen of the Known Universe,”  I po-litely told them that Kristy would do just fine.  Later, on the drive home, I realized I had missed the point.  This “gay daughter” thing was new territory for them.  They needed a word to talk about who I was.  They needed to name me to claim who I am.

   The importance of naming was made even more clear for me when my church, First Congregational United Church of Christ, had its own naming experience in January of this year.  For many years, we had been a church community that wel-comed and accepted all people.  Despite this feeling of acceptance, we needed to explicitly name who we were and who we wanted to be.  After a year-long discernment process, we named ourselves as an Open and Affirming (ONA) congregation in the United Church of Christ (UCC).

   ONA is a UCC movement than began in 1985.  It recognizes that persons of lesbian, gay and bisexual orientation, as well as people who are transgender, are accepted as full and valued members in all aspects of church life.  First Congregational’s invitational statement reads, “We invite people of every race, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, ability, financial means, ethnic and spiritual background into the full life and ministry of this congrega-tion.”

 

   When we name someone or something, we give it life.  Through the act of naming and being named, we express the image of God.  As a named member of First Congregational, I invite you to come and share your name with us.

 

Proposed Additions

To our Benevolence Giving

For 2003

 

 The Christian Action Committee (CAC) is proposing to the congregation that the following four organizations be added to our Benevolence Budget for 2003.  Below is a brief descrip-tion of each organization’s mission and work, locally or globally.  These were chosen based on needs that have come to our attention: needs in our global community – faced with the threat of more violence; needs in our local community – faced with severe cut-backs in mental health services, and needs that have sprung from our own faith community’s struggle with sexual violence.  CAC proposes to award $300 to each of these organizations in 2003.

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All Souls Counseling Center

All Souls Counseling Center began in October 2000 in response to an urgent need in Asheville for quality mental health services to people who are uninsured or underinsured.  It is a non-profit organization that provides counseling by ex-perienced, licensed psychologists, social workers, and marriage and family therapists in private practice who are willing to offer their services at greatly discounted fees.  All Souls serves people of WNC who are un/underinsured and in need of out-patient psychotherapy, particularly to those who can benefit from counseling, but whose lives are in enough control that they can function without case management, crisis intervention or hospitalization, including children, adoles-cents, adults, couples and families.  All Souls offers a sliding fee scale based on family 8ncome.  Funding comes from local faith communities, Mission St Joseph’s Hospital System, and the United Way.  All Souls’ services have more than doubled since its doors opened less than two years ago, reflecting our community’s need for affordable counseling services for low-I come individuals and families.

Our Voice

This local non-profit agency is dedicated to providing awareness and education that can lead to prevention of sexual violence.  It offers victim advocacy, outreach, intervention, counseling and education.  It offers free and confidential services to more than 5,500 people each year.  Our Voice’s services include:  a 24-hour crisis line offering help and sup-port; free counseling for anyone who has been affected by sexual violence—men, women, family or friends—in individual or group settings; accompaniment to law en-forcement agencies, court proceedings and other legal procedures; trained volunteer advocates to provide support and information to victims of sexual violence at the hospitals where they’re treated; and educational programs for schools, including age specific programs for elementary, middle and high school and college.  Parental education is also available, as well as a variety of community programs, including par-ticipaton in health fairs, fund-raisers and professional training sessions in workplace settings.

Voices in the Wilderness

Voices in the Wilderness is a small, Chicago-based organization.  They take food and medical supplies to Iraq, in violation of the US/UN sanctions, as a humanitarian act, stage demonstrations, put paid ads in papers, go on speaking tours around the country, and organize actions at Air National Guard bases that participate in US bombings of “no-fly” zones, which also continue to kill civilians.  The organization’s chief organizer, Kathy Kelly, is known as a courageous, committed person, and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.  She camped in no-mans land during the Gulf War, and has been imprisoned a number of times for civil disobedience in her peace witness.

   Voices in the Wilderness is establishing an Iraq Peace Team, to be made up of seasoned non-violent activists to take up residence in Iraq, before and during a US attack, should such an assault occur.  The team will:  live among the Iraq people during any aggression directed at them, including continued economic sanctions; use their presence and non-violent actions to protect both civilians and the facilities (e.g. water purification plants) which make daily life possible; and use their experiences to speak truthfully about the effect of sanctions and war on the people of Iraq.  The need is critical.  More than 5,000 Iraqis die every month; more than a million Iraqis have died as a result of sanctions since the end of the 1991 war, half of them children.

World Neighbors

World Neighbors is a faith-based grassroots development organization working with the rural poor in hundreds of villages in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.  It helps people find practical solutions for meeting their own basic needs, and addresses the root causes of hunger poverty, and disease.  Its programs promote self-reliance, rather than dependence on temporary aid.  They integrate food production and improved agriculture with health and family planning, water and sanita-tion, environmental conservation, and income generation.  They help people identify their most pressing problems, recognize the root causes, set their own agenda, and develop an appropriate plan of action.  Their goal is to empower people, and they stay in an area only as long as it takes for communities to become strong enough to maintain their programs without help.  The average time is about five years.  Since 1951 it has helped over 25 million people in 45 nations.  Today they have 65 programs in 17 countries.  It is a non-sectarian organization, rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and respects and affirms the dignity of people of all religions.

   They carry out an integrated program, which includes food security, agricultural production, income generation, health, reproductive health, and capacity bu8lding of community members and local organizations.  Their strategy is  a comprehensive, multi-faceted development approach.  This approach is reflective of their philosophy of working holistically with communities to strengthen capacities to identify, analyze and address the problems that affect their communities.  WN is supported entirely through private dona-tions; 55% of its support comes from individuals, and the re-mainder from foundations, churches, organizations, and endowments.  Unlike many other non-governmental organiza-tions, World Neighbors refuses to solicit or accept any USAID or other government funding.

 

(Summaries compiled by members of the Christian Action Committee.  If you have questions or comments about thjese suggested additions, please contact Mary Anne Tierney at 682-2893 or mat@brinet.com.

 

 

Affluenza:  The All-Consuming Epidemic

By John de Graaf, David Wann, Thomas H. Naylor

(Book Review by Doug Wingeier)

    Growing out of two recent PBS documentaries (“Affluenza” and ‘Escape from Affluenza”), this book uses the metaphor of a disease or addiction to tackle a very serious subject:  the dam-age down to our health, families, communities, and environment by the obsessive quest for material gain.  The authors show that problems like loneliness, rising debt and bankruptcies, longer working hours, environmental pollution, family conflict, and rampant commercialism are actually symptoms caused by this disease.

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   The authors define Affluenza as “a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the doffed pursuit of more.”  They trace the root of the malady to “the obsessive quest for economic expansion that has become the core principle of ‘the American dream.’

   They describe the situation this way:  “We in the United States have the best gas prices, awful weather, continued eco-nomic growth, persistent poverty, consumer confidence, spiraling debt.  All are connected.  In each of the past four years, more Americans declared personal bankruptcy than graduated from college.  Our annual production of solid waste would fill a convoy of garbage trucks stretching halfway to the moon.  We have twice as many shopping centers as high schools.  We work more hours each year than do the citizens of any other industrial country.  Though we comprise only 4.7% of the earth’s people, we account for 25% of its global-warming greenhouse gas emissions; 95% of our workers say they wish they could spend more time with their families; 40% of our lakes and streams are too polluted for swimming or fishing.  Our CEOs earn 400 times as much as average workers.  Since 1950, we Americans have used up more re-sources than everyone who ever lived on earth before then.  We Americans are the world’s most profligate consumers, but since the American lifestyle is the model for nearly all the rest of the world, we arfe all in this together.”

   The first of the book’s three sections presents Affluenza’s symptoms—shopping fever, a rash of bankruptcies, swollen expectations, chronic congestion, the stress of excess, family convulsions (conflict between family values and market values),dilated pupils (marketing to children and in schools), community chills, ache for meaning, and social scars.

   The second section, “Causes of Affluenza,” is more analytical, and identifies causes in five areas—spiritual (origi-nal sin, greed, desire, emptiness, hunger for meaning), emotional/psychological (insecurity. Low self-esteem, aloneness, fear), cultural (conditioning through advertising, and early primitive hoarding practices in hunter-gatherer societies), systemic (an economic system that depends on growth and expansion and demands domination and control), and political (choices of producing stuff over preserving leisure time, development over community, resource exploitation to build highways, suburbs, and malls over conservation).

   In the final section, “The Road to Recovery,” numerous practical treatment measures are prescribed which can bring about cures.  These include individual stock-taking, a nine-step frugality program, participation in voluntary simplicity study circles, experiencing the world of nature, and simple en-vironmentally-friendly lifestyle changed.  Community effort suggested includ4 co-housing designs, socially responsible in-vesting, car-sharing cooperatives, the Consumer Credit Counseling Service, teaching money management and media  analysis in schools, TV Turnoff Week and Buy Nothing Day (the day after Thanksgiving), and the screening of “uncommercials” (e.g., one Marlboro Man saying no to another, “I miss my long, Bob.”)

   Legislation proposed to address the epidemic would institute a shorter work week, graduated retirement, a living wage, sub-sidies of wind and solar power rather than fossil fuels, taxes on consumption, Pollution, and depletion rather than income; corporate responsibility to take back, disassemble, and recycle worn out products, and a ban on Affluenza ads, particularly those targeted at children.  The use of the Genuine Progress Indicator (which measures our “ecological footprint”) rather than the GDP would provide a more reliable assessment  of the health of the economy.

   The book closes with these hopeful words from Betsy Taylor, director of the Center for a New American Dream:  “In 25 years we will have new government policies that provide incentives for us to use materials and energy differently.  New policies for transportation, waste  manage –ment, recycling and taxes will help individuals and institutions consume wisely…Prices of goods will reflect the true environ-mental costs of natural resource use and waste.  Government will use its purchasing power to create markets for environmentally friendly products…Our sleepwalking culture is on the verge of waking up.”  Although much of the informa-tion in this book is appalling and disturbing—and at a time when national and global trends seem to be moving in a disas-trous direction—this positive note gives us encouragement that our efforts to adopt a simplified lifestyle and press for sus-tainable economic and environmental policies, will one day bear fruit.

 

                           October Birthdays

 

              October   1 – Jerry Mousseau

                   October   3 – Hal Jacobs

                   October   8 – Adrienna Crowther

                   October   9 – Diane Scott

                   October 12 – Barry Estes

                                           Martha Stockwell-Goering

                   October 15 – Kathryn Cartledge

                   October 20 – Jim Mitchell, Steve Wolfe

                  October 27 -  Marie Browder, Greg Walker Wilson

                  October 28 – Peggy Hester, Mary Vinson

                    October 30 – Leslie Huntley

 

 

 

Heifer Project International

A Living Gift

   If you could have any gift you wished, what would it be?  Peace on earth, an end to hunger, preservation of the environ-ment, education for a child?  These gifts are available to you-one small piece at a time.  Heifer Project International works toward dreams like these through people like you.

   There comes a time when your mother has enough sweaters, your clients have more holiday food than they can eat, and an-other toy will just be lost in the shuffle.  If you are looking for a different way to honor the people close to you, attend the Living Gift Market.

   A Living Gift Market sells food and income producing ani-mals like pigs, bees, chicks and heifers.  The animals go to hungry, rural families working to improve their lives, and are delivered with technical training in animal care and concern for the environment.

   Whole communities are changed through your gifts.  Along with training, HPI provides a female animal or starter  flock to each family, and one or more male animals to the community for breeding purposes.  Each family that receives an animal promises to pass on the first offspring from their animal to another family in the village.  Veterinary services, extension advice, and organization support ensure lasting benefits.  You can change the world in the name of those you love.

   Heifer Project International gifts will be available at our Al-ternative Christmas Celebration this year.

                                                                  …Colleen Burnet