Saturday, August 28, 2010

Beck and King Are A Like Oil and Water--They Don't Mix. But Then Neither Do Obama and King.

It was a little painful, of course, but I did have to laugh this week when right-wing TV entertainer Glenn Beck said that he and people like Sarah Palin were responsible for creating the US Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. While Beck and Palin will be making that same claim today on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial--on the very Anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Justice where King gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech--there are big, big differences between their supporting the U.S. military invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and opposing universal health care, economic stimulus, anti-poverty, and federal jobs programs and what King and the 1960s Civil Rights Movement would advocate.

Still, it is all too easy to point out the differences between King and a radio and TV "shock jock" like Beck. The more important distinction to be made is to the real gaps between King's position and President Obama's--and most of the Democratic Party. While Beck hates the whole idea of "social justice" and "community organizing," which were central to the Civil Rights Movement, we will likely need to focus on both and turn the heat up on the current administration in order to move it in a stronger, more positive direction.

To get a sense of what Martin Luther King would be saying to us today if he were alive, take a look at this 30 minute clip of King on Meet the Press from Augustin 1967. We've got some real work to do folks.

Friday, August 06, 2010

A Quick Transition Movement Video

I not only teach about the Transition Movement as part of the core curriculum of the Environmental Studies master's concentration in Advocacy for Social Justice and Sustainability, I'm also a co-founder of the Transition Keene initiating group. The last few nights I have been working on creating a wordpress.com website for the group entitled Relocalization: The Keene Transition Movement's Interactive Website and Blog. That's not ready for prime time yet (though it will be announced here soon I think). Yet, today, I wanted to share a good video I found for the local Transition Movement's homepage. I would love people to write up some comments about the strengths and weaknesses of this short video.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Antioch University New England Wins Green Business Award

A Letter To The Antioch Community From Abigail Abrash Walton... 

Dear Friends,

Our sustainability efforts are being recognized!  AUNE has won Business NH's Lean & Green 2010 Award for large companies.  We're featured in the August 2010 issue of Business NH, now on newstands, and we'll be honored at an event in Portsmouth on September 14.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this success (by turning off lights, switching to CFLs, powering down your office equipment, composting, recycling, etc.).  Those small individual actions all mount up to some significant hard numbers in terms of reducing our collective institutional carbon footprint -- and we're saving money doing it.

Stay tuned: our next initiative focuses on helping all of us who commute to campus to do so in less carbon-heavy ways (and, yes, there will be prizes involved).

All the best,

Abi

Abigail Abrash Walton
Faculty, Department of Environmental Studies
Assistant to the President for Sustainability & Social Justice
Antioch University New England
40 Avon Street
Keene, NH  03431
TEL: 603/283-2344 (direct line)
        603/357-3122 (general number)
FAX: 603/357-0718