[starhawk] Supporting the work  in New Orleans

Dear friends,

 If you ve been on this list for awhile, you ve been following our efforts to support some of the exciting works of change  happening on our globe today.  As I look back over the last year, I feel a definite change has occurred, which has been reflected in my own work and that of the groups I work with.

 A year ago we were reeling from the outcome of the elections dismayed at how easily the vote could be manipulated, depressed at the thought of four more years of the Bush administration, and disgusted that, rigged or not, millions of people actually did vote for the guy.

Now the Republican agenda is imploding.  It almost seems as if the country has woken up, shaken off some kind of spell of befuddlement, and returned to a bit of clarity. 

 But this change has come at a terrible cost thousands of lives in Iraq, bodies floating in the streets of New Orleans, more subtle deaths from poverty and cutbacks in all the support systems that support the poor.

 My own work has taken some surprising turns.  I expected to, and did, teach permaculture courses in support of the G8 actions in Scotland, and help set up an ecovillage there for the thousands of protestors who arrived.  I thought I might go to Argentina for the FTAA, to the Climate Change conference happening now in Montreal, even to Hong Kong for the WTO meetings.

 Instead, I went to Camp Crawford to support Cindy Sheehan, and to New Orleans to help with relief, rebuilding and bioremediation efforts there.  In the vacuum left by official negligence and outright hostility, local grassroots groups like the Common Ground Collective began to self-organize garbage pickup, distribution of supplies, medical care.  Their efforts are tremendously exciting, because they bring the skills we ve developed organizing convergences and encampments to bear in supporting some of the most disenfranchised people in this land, and transforming a disaster area into an arena of hope.

 That work will continue this year.  The Alliance for Community Trainers, our new 501c3 organization, will help support efforts to clean up New Orleans using the natural methods of bioremediation: using bacteria, plants and fungi to break down toxins and restore the health of the soil.  A report on our first phase can be found on my website, www.starhawk.org <http://www.starhawk.org/> .  Our next phase, this winter and spring, will expand our efforts and include a training program for local people, with the aim of forming a worker s collective who can carry on the healing work as a source of right livelihood.

 And the lessons we learn in New Orleans will be invaluable for the future.  For climate change is real, and more hurricanes will come. Social safety networks have been dismantled, all over the globe, and more systems are likely to collapse. The skills of healing, growing and organizing will be needed more than ever.

 But the work needs resources.  So once again, I m asking you to share some of yours.  A donation to ACT is tax-deductible, and will go to support this valuable work.  ACT will help fund the bioremediation efforts in New Orleans, including training and documenting the work and producing materials that can be used by others.  ACT will fund scholarships to our Earth Activist Trainings that combine a permaculture design course with a focus on organizing skills and a grounding in earth-based spirituality.  And ACT will help provide the training and organizing support for actions and mobilizations on issues of global justice and peace.

 You can donate online at my website, www.starhawk.org <http://www.starhawk.org/> .  Or you can send a check made out to ACT to 1405 Hillmont; Austin, Texas 78704.  Checks can be earmarked for special projects, like scholarships or bioremediation.  Online donations will go wherever funds are most needed.  Both are tax deductible.

 We have over $16,000 in scholarship requests for the January EAT course, and others coming up in May in California, July in England and September in Missouri.  www.earthactivisttraining.org <http://www.earthactivisttraining.org/> .  We need funds to set up biobrewers, spawn farms, to support trainings and produce visual materials and videos that can explain the biology to people who lack formal education.  And we need funds to help respond to issues and emergencies in the coming year.

 I know many of us are short on funds this year.  But money is like seed it needs to be spread to grow.  A donation to ACT will seed  projects that will return their value ten times over in health, empowerment, and hope.  We receive no government support nor big foundation grants we depend on individuals like you to make our projects possible.  Thank you for helping us to continue this vital work.

 Starhawk

www.starhawk.org <http://www.starhawk.org/>

 And if you are looking for holiday cards to send, or gifts, check out our CafePress stores that also support these vital projects:

 http://www.cafepress.com/earthactivist/?pid=4130928

 http://www.cafepress.com/belili/?pid=4130928
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Starhawk is a lifelong activist in peace and global justice movements, a leader in the feminist and earth-based spirituality movements, author or coauthor of ten books, including The Spiral Dance, The Fifth Sacred Thing, Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising, and her latest, The Earth Path. 

Starhawk's website is www.starhawk.org, and more of her writings and information on her schedule and activities can be found there.