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Peace, Love, Justice and Activism: An Interview

I had an opportunity to recently connect with one of the most cool folks in my life, Chris Matthias.  Chris is one of those folks who still battles windmills, instills confidence in whomever he meets and ultimately he is out there trying to make a difference.  After hanging out and again seeing his passion to make the world a better place, I thought it was important to share with y’all what he does and hopefully provide you access to a new channel for making a difference you might not have been aware of.

Chris was kind enough to spend the time to work with me and get an interview in place so you can hear in his own voice why it is important to contribute and generally do good things when and where you can.

Q: What is the organization you work for?

I work for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, a congregation of Roman Catholic Sisters who abide in my home town of Adrian, Michigan.

Q: What are the key themes y’all are working for?

Key themes? The office that I work for is called Global Mission, Justice and Peace. Everything that we do is rooted in the vision of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, which is a crossroads of Catholic Social Teaching, the Dominican Charism, and the issues that the sisters are most actively engaged in. We have what we call corporate stances. These are positions that we have taken on certain issues, which become a mandate for my day to day work. Things like the Death Penalty, Nuclear Weapons, and the War in Iraq. We’re against all three by the way.

Q: Peace and Justice, really – how does one get a career in that?

I’ve had a long relationship with the Adrian Dominicans. I attended one of their sponsored institutions for college,  Siena Heights University. As a student, I took a great interest in any action that was happening in the peace and justice arena. In my senior year, I did an internship in the office in which I now work and the sisters and I developed a great rapport.

After that I moved to Boston, once I graduated and continued to work for organizations in the non-profit sector, or human services.  I returned home for a short time, and just before I was going to leave again their was a want add for the office where I’d interned!   Needless to say, I didn’t get on the train.

Q: Where has peace and justice taken you?

Hmmm. Well, I suppose there are several ways to answer that one. First the concrete….

My work in peace and justice has taken me to a lot of demonstrations. Of course in Adrian, but also to demonstrations in Washington DC as well as Fort Benning Georgia to work on closing the School of the Americas/WHINSEC. But it isn’t all demonstrating. There is a lot of coalition building and colaborating with different groups. For example this summer I went to Philidelphia for the Convention for the Common Good, where progressive Catholics gathered to create discuss which issues they were most dedicated to raising during and beyond the election season.

I’ve also gone and did some modest travel – I went to the UN in New York to learn about what the Dominican Family does as an NGO which was a great opportunity.  I also did some international work in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.

In the more abstract, my work in peace and justice has taken me deeper into community with the people in my life, both familiar and unfamiliar. I know that sounds a little strange, but this is what I mean: when one’s work is focusing on injustice and inequity, we are forced to take a pretty serious dose of self examination, to make sure that we are challenging ourselves to be more just and more equitable in how we interact with our families, significant others, neighbors, our food supply, the people who produce the goods that we buy, how we spend money, what we consume, what we speak.

Q: Dude, are you a trustafarian or something?  How can you make it all work?

Far from it.  That would certainly make things much easier. The way that I approach it is to live within my means. Which I get right about 85 percent of the time.  I think that there is a big trade off when it comes to money.  Some of my friends make a lot more money than I do, but what they do to get it is nothing that they believe in.   But they get a sizable paycheck and that’s the reward. They eat at nicer restaurants than I do, they wear more expensive shoes, and can take more elaborate vacations.

Don’t get me wrong, I envy that sometimes. But most of the time it’s very easy to just be happy. The poor have their own wealth–each other.  When I lay down at night I fall right to sleep. Living in right relationships = a good life.

Q: How can folks help?

Every issue is a justice issue, and no one can handle them all. One of the things that is continuously referenced in my work circles is an interconnectedness of the issues. Human Trafficking might seem worlds away from making a choice not to but a Hummer (If that’s an option for you) but they both have to do with exercising privilege at the expense of others. So I say that the first step is start where you are.

What are problems facing your community? Go to a meeting, set up an action. You don’t have to have a Live Earth concert to do some good…Do a park clean up. Buy your food at the farmers’ market, turn off the TV and go outside. Play card games instead of video games. The way I see things, peace and justice are about healthy connecting. Injustice is a result of isolation, and selfishness. By starting small, there is a much better chance that you can stick to it, and then get into the bigger issues.


Q: I hear all that, but if there was just 1 thing everyone should do if they can’t actively travel or don’t have the cash to donate, what would that be?

Compost. I know that doesn’t seem like it’s going to save the world from AIDS, nuclear war, or global warming, however, it does mean that we actively recognize that this is a closed system we’re living in here. Recognize your part in it, and do well by it.  Life will sprout up from it.

Q:How can they follow up with you and your organization?

Visit our website @ www.adriandominicans.org or check out my blog, The Happy Activist. I don’t have that many readers right now, so if I get a few, maybe I’ll be held more accountable to write more.

I clearly couldn’t have put it as well as he did, thanks for doing this Chris! I’m definitely thankful for the effort he puts in day in and day out, so give him a read or check out what local organizations you may be able to participate in.

November 26, 2008 by
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Roads, Rail and Infrastructure: The economic opportunity

Not really political these days, but I find myself just a little more interested in politics than I have been for a while with the upcoming presidential election.  I actually haven’t had a sticker on my car since the first Clinton election which surprises me now that I think about it.  The key driver for my acute attention on this election is the economy.  The current market status is just a fun little thing to watch – evaporating value and continuous corrections.

Every good election seems to have an economic issue, wars not so much – kinda odd.  There have been two fairly interesting politically driven economies – Clinton’s internet stock bubble and Bush’s housing crisis.    Both which have helped bring us to where we are, for good or ill.   This $700B bailout has sparked more than a few interesting conversations in which I was a participant or witness over the last couple of weeks, so the economy is front and center for most of us.  I was recently reminded that we already put like $250B into the mortgage market already this year, but with the passing of the most recent allotment, I’m just a little curious of what it means.  A little positive motivation from President Bush to help me keep my head straight:

We have acted boldly to help prevent the crisis on Wall Street from becoming a crisis in communities across our country…our economy continues to face serious challenges.

Effort Free Growth

Each of the previous market growth markets – Internet and Housing, had little true production of goods and no real multi-industry impact.  Seemingly effortless growth, – stocks, real estate – passive financial growth.  If you look at the current optics of the market, it has essentially removed all the intangible/labor free wealth from the system.  The fiction and folklore around the current economy is fun to watch as well – everyone has ideas and suspicions.  Take the debates – everyone had perfectly focused talking points to promote their platforms, as long as they ask the right questions.

Plenty of non-answers or message moves throughout both debate, but one particular question effectively helped both debates go a little off message.  A single question from Jim Leherer on “what would the candidates change” based on the latest economic twist?  This question was also echoed in the VP debate.  You betcha – no one is giving up on anything for the United States voters.  None of candidates answered the question really can’t really blame them though.   That’s a tough thing to answer this close to the election date in such a competitive presidential race.  Effectively the candidates were asked to publicly modify their platforms in real-time on national television.  Nothing good comes from a direct answer, but Biden did admit a need to “slow things down”.  But the other three had no real talking points on this, so they just stayed on message. Energy, Engine, Maverick, Big Business, tax cuts below $250,000…..

Neither of the candidate’s platforms really do much for the economy, they do each have a “gap patch”, which will fix it for a while and allow them to get on with their presidency, but no long term benefit for the country.   The question I have is: “Why not go big and build a bunch of stuff too?”.  If the last couple of hurricanes weren’t enough of a clue – we may need a little Civilian Conservation Corp revival, not just to improve for disasters, but to build an infrastructure for growth.   You could give the initiative some cheesy name like Infrastructure 3.0, that way you can have a cool logo and t-shirts.  Gotta give some money to the apparel industry along the way, a single industry growth model doesn’t work.   Perhaps a plan which included the delivery of long term reusable/durable assets which make the nation’s infrastructure sounder and provides for the distribution of funds across economic strata and geographic boundaries. Cross-cutting economics might be one way to look at this.

From Productivity to Production

A geographic based development effort to optimize multi-industry growth and spawn regional economic growth through local/state projects.   Burgeoning economies, sustaining economies – ultimately build things.    Think the development of the TVA via the new deal.   The previous investment in infrastructure post depression was focused to enable the US to fully transcend an agrarian economy and to bridge the economy.  Perhaps the US now needs a new infrastructure that better supports the current information based economy which is in transition.  Perhaps we could put some folks to work building roads and enhancing the current high tech infrastructure for the future growth of our tertiary economy.

I’m not talking about a bridge to nowhere, but maybe some new bridges.  Infrastructure is on at least one candidates mind, Obama asserted that high speed internet infrastructure was important for the populous, but so are roads, rail and the environment.  A set of initiatives which focus on in country investment, energy conservation and better access might be what we need.

A new growth grid which helps optimize transportation and encourages investment in new places, local places could provide a significant improvement to the economy overall.  Basically if we could build an upgraded grid of interstate roads, rail, wireless, and internet bandwidth rural and urban areas alike would benefit.   The system would have improved routing based on current population distributions, mass transit extensions would ultimately be funded by states/private sector would provide for basic sustainability.  A more sustainable impact on the environment and a sustainable economy, for say 15-25 years.   What the US needs now is a little eminent domain, steel production and construction.

I ain’t no Economist, but…

When you hear the word depression, crisis and meltdown – something’s just a little off with the current model.  We might want to find a way to lessen the consumption, limit emissions and improve distribution. The current infrastructure and capacity was optimized for fulfilling demand as forecasted in let’s say the 50’s or 60’s and things have changed a little.

A Potential Opportunity

So there are probably 4 things which could be laid out by who ever wins which could significantly improve the economic balance of the our free market economy.  Balance between the public and private sector is the key, so the government funds it, private sector builds, localities monitor and maintain, and everyone benefits.

Funding: The funding of the activity will need to come from something, so it’s imports and export taxes/tariffs, it’s ok America is on sale and if you really need a new coach bag, you will pay the additional 4-7%.  The Euro and Pound have all kinds of room to absorb the price, as does nearly every other currency.   Other trickle down funding opportunities:

  • The incremental income tax driven by lower unemployment
  • Small business growth in new grid cross road communities
  • More government employees will be needed to support the infrastructure (police, road commission, telco, maintenance)
  • New local development to drive local taxes
  • Project bubbles for in localities on use and sales tax.

Hopefully this redistribution of tax dollars into the economy will help Hockey mom’s and hard workin American’s everywhere.  We can dream….

The Road System

We certainly do have enough roads, but most need a bunch of work and we might be able to improve commutes, increase safety and provide for an improved transportation systems for goods delivery and ultimately lessening the overall impact to local and national environs, plus you get some new bridges and new places for the tertiary economy to develop.  Who knows, maybe the next generation of bridge graffiti will be cooler to look at while your taking the train in an hour from the city, rather than commuting 12 miles in an hour.  But if you have to drive, maybe you can go 12 miles in say 20 minutes – that might be nice.

Rail

Well.. we certainly aren’t a compact set of nations like Europe which makes it a good deal easier to develop a strategic local and extended rail system, but the movement of goods, vacationers and business people via rail could accelerate extended industries like metals and aerospace while improving the environment.  No really aerospace, Boeing makes train fuselages, so this isn’t just about construction workers, engineers make out too with this plan. Putting our money here is definitely a long strategy for the movement of people, but it would provide states the opportunity to build into a new modern infrastructure for the movement of goods.  New distribution centers could develop and helping establish new growth areas economically, which don’t have the opportunity now.   Along with roads, this could help move folks and industry to less dense areas, a non-obvious eco-friendly side effect of rail and new crossroads.

Internet and Wireless

So hows that new iPhone 3G working for you?  Ok for some, not ok for others, we are a little light on coverage for the cool stuff.   You could develop as part of the road and rail activities big crazy pipes which run parallel and an extend the next generation wireless network which could further distribute IP connectivity and support for the next wave in commerce. You could also run some new energy delivery through the same network while were at it, perhaps a wind farm or two along the way.

Dream big, don’t just fix it

Wow – that’s gonna cost a lot and take a bunch of time, more than most president’s got, but the results would be immediate as folks ramp up the staff to accommodate so it just might work.  You probably also noticed that a couple of points of tax/tariff will work, but it could be enough of a hit to move some jobs back to the US, which based on fuel prices alone appears to be already happening.  You betcha we gotta do something to make sure it’s funded appropriately.  😉

So what would a maverick do?  Lease the rail?  So you could subsidize the effort by letting folks bid on say the 6 new government internet backbones, which parallel to the new train and interstate road system.   Heck – it’s all for rent!  I have no idea if the strategic multipurpose development on single set of eminent domain swaths can re-distribute population, optimize distribution models, improve the environment and provide bottom up economic growth, but you have to dream big, which I hope the next president does when elected. It’s not like I’m a economist or even that political, but this seems like a big election for some reason.  Make sure you vote.

The New Green Deal: A Growth Grid

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October 4, 2008 by
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Black Rock City: A Network, Teamwork and Preparation

I spent the last week moving from one climate to another, sometimes multiples in a single day thanks to my first trip out west to survive 5.5 days in the desert. Before I left, I would have never thought I would have come back from Burning Man 2008 with a lesson for work, but in fact I did. Don’t get me wrong – I came back with a bunch of other lessons too, like Tuesday is the new Thursday and Lake Tahoe is a good place to wash away the whole BRC scene and get to see some very cool sights, like a random Kiss concert.

So where to start? Well at the beginning…

Reno – US80 Exit 22 – Saturday @ 1:30-ish

So the trip to Reno is a long one, at least from Atlanta on Delta. We spent the whole day making our list so Em and I land in Reno and we are off! Well sorta, we wanted to synch up with Genghis, oh yeah everyone gets a playa name. I’m Echo, you don’t need to know why – it’s another post, say next week-ish. So we catch up with Genghis and the Barbi Death Camp folks to get the low down on what to get, just to make sure our list is remotely correct. The group rattled off the expected list:

  • Water
  • Sunscreen
  • Granola/Oatmeal bars/breakfast bars
  • Beef Jerky
  • Blah
  • Blah
  • Blah

Should have listened a little better, but I was excited. So off to the nearest Target, the liquor store and Long’s we went – we spent the next hour or so speed shopping and off to the playa – fast forward 6 hours…. The ad hoc/text based rendezvous at the gas station the group was just the first lesson in teamwork – these folks stopped in route to help a couple of kids from Atlanta who are obviously out of their element.

The Playa – A Big Dusty City

So we show up to the playa – it’s a little warm and the place is still under construction but from like 3 miles out you can tell this is no ordinary camping thing. We pull into our camp at 3:30 and Dart and somehow we beat Genghis, our camp sponsor for lack of a better phrase, who left at least 40 minutes ahead of us on our way to Weeeee!ville.

Even without our sponsor in hand, I go about to introduce myself and the first person I introduce myself to, was a cat I’ve know for like a decade – Marty/Frater. So this has got to be a good sign, right up to the point he offers us a juice. Oops – forgotten item 1. This began the first real discussion of what we forgot? It also started one of many discussions on what had happened previously on the playa and how you just won’t know what you need until live through your first burn.

One thing that became apparent very quickly in camp is everyone we had already met from Fickleodeon was willing to make make sure the folks around were having a good time and that they were safe. To that end, fun can’t start until you’re setup and Marty pitched in to help us setup and we pitched in to help him move his camp to a new location.

Ready, Set, Wander!

With our little piece of playa in place, we coasted through the rest of the afternoon on sunscreen and liquids into the evening. As sundown approaches so does the nightly neighborhood wander and prep.

During our evening prep we find our next set of forgotten stuff – no lights, not even a glow stick which I would have thought my wife had hidden away in some backpack, since she brought with her a party kid heritage, not to be confused with a raver heritage, but nope. So there we are – a couple of darktards on the playa waiting to get run over by midnight bikers who can’t see us as we make our way around the streets of the city. Marty to the rescue – lights and glowsticks. No barter necessary – gifted, thanks Frater.

Since we were there on early passes, most everything was in a state of setup and in fact until we left on Thursday, things were still being setup. After chatting with folks around camp the first night the common theme is you ALWAYS forget something and your list always getting bigger EVERY year. I immediately was struck on how presumptuous everyone was on next year’s list during our first night chat, but I moved on.

After setting up the bar, stage and other gear we decided to go to town for a camp ice run and restock for us. So we rode into Empire for a restock – beer, fruits, vegetables, silver, plates, ect.. basically whatever we could buy that they had there at the local general store in say a 200 person town in the desert. Reasonable product assortment, but not complete enough to address our gaps in total.

Yup – we still forgot stuff on the second stocking as well, nevermind the selection issue….I think the heat does something to your short term memory.

All Fickled Up

Upon our return from the store the finishing touches were being applied to the camp, after everyone pitched in the morning and setup the 20×30 revival tent, the shower and a most ingenious evaporator for returning the gray water to the environment I found on the playa, thanks to the mad welder Mongo. What’s gray water? It’s waste water from coolers, doing dishes, brushing your teeth… The goal of this event is to make sure while we have a good time we need to respect the natural environment, which mean no waste water into the environment, so Mongo built a cool contraption to introduce it safely back into the environment – an evaporator. Burning man is a leave no trace event – the playa effectively becomes the fifth largest city in Nevada temporarily and within weeks of the event ending there is no trace that 10 story towers, ginormous crane requiring art, make shift diners, bars and clubs sustained almost 50,000 people throughout the labor day weekend and the prior week.

Just so you know – a revival tent is really easy to put up with 11 people, not sure it is possible with under 4.

Many hands make for light work

Monday – The Dust Storm

Apparently the desert is one of the harshest climates EVER – no really, you can’t imagine it without experiencing it — I tried, I was wrong. We burned through most of our sunscreen in 3 days and didn’t have painters masks or bandannas – which is a problem when the dust kicks up. Especially with an asthmatic on the team. It wasn’t a problem for long – folks in the camp had extras so we could go out and explore the playa during the storm!

The first place we went was to catch up with Antron. At his camp Sally and host of others were hanging, but the dust storm was a little much so our list of places to go became a list of 1 – there. So we spent the next like seven hours in camp injustUS, where they had an incredibly chill shade and dust structure to waste away time with tunes and chatter. We also went out that night to watch a little house music with Ted and Bunny on the playa. This Fire Rave thing/camp was complete with like 20 foot fireballs which accentuated the drum beat and twin screens for projecting highly orchestrated visuals for the way loud house music.

So Monday night closed with about 400 folks on a corner of the playa (2:00 and Esplanade) watching DJ Dutch mix it up with fire and bass until the morning. At least I think it was Monday – time is a completely relative thing at burning man.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

With time not a real variable the day on the playa is pretty simple: –

  • sleep as long as you can until the sun turns your sleeping structure into a sauna
  • make coffee
  • Chat
  • wander around
  • look at art
  • eat a bunch of whatever
  • find some music

Thursday only made it to wander around 1 last time and take camp down, but even the breakdown showed team work were we redistributed our beer, water and foodstuffs.

Preparation Isn’t Enough

So where is the lesson in this rambling play by play? I think it starts with what I went with – stuff stuff and a network. Quickly I learned that the folks I was able to catch up with more valuable than what I brought.

In BRC it’s not what a person has or can do, it more about what a group of people can do. To me it seems pretty straightforward – every person has a list and everyone’s list is different – lesson’s learned, interest and an understanding of what others are bringing to camp, like say a blender or a disco ball. Like with any task one might encounter, having the right network of folks or camps, having the right skills and working together is key for success – perhaps even more than being prepared.

No matter how much you plan there are always things that come up that require something you don’t have at that particular time. Being reliant on others is not traditionally a position of strength, but in the right environment which encourages team effort you can find success and fun by utilizing the strengths of folks.

Not every scenario is a survival gig, like Black Rock City, but most require you have a near approximation of the right stuff and the right attitude to get things done – dust storm or not. As folks in the workplace what can we do to better understand what folks bring to the camp? How can sharing our lists other folks in camp strengthen a deliverable?

Everyone we met forgot something and each of those items no matter how well prepared a camp was, could have made life just a little bit better for the group. While I originally thought it was presumptuous to think we were going again next year on the first day, in retrospect, I think we were making our list when we cracked our first beer and drove the first stake into the playa.

September 1, 2008 by
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