Friday, December 7, 2007
The Green-Collar Solution
An October, 2007 article by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times was right on about the urgent need for, and incredible opportunity in, aligning the environmental and social justice movements. I consider Van Jones, the subject of the article, to be a dear friend and one of the most vital voices of sanity in our times. I urge folks to read the article, and check out the organization at
A Prisoner's Purpose
I found this Templeton award-winning article to be profoundly inspiring. Its author, Kenneth Hartman, is serving life in prison, and has been living behind bars since he was 19. This is the eloquently written, deeply personal account of his journey of awakening to his own sense of purpose in life. And his work, starting with his own journey of self-knowledge and liberation from the shackles of mental prison, has touched thousands of lives. As he writes:
“For me, after these years of struggle, and a lot of bruises incurred along the way, pursuing something worthy of sacrifice has altered my sense of myself. I am reminded of the words of Feoder Dostoyevsk’s Grand Inquisitor, that the secret to a life well lived is to have something to live for. I have identified my raison d’ etre, taking the hard-won knowledge I have earned from a lifetime of imprisonment and putting it to good use; more specifically, reforming the world’s largest prison system from within one of its cells. It has been, and will surely continue to be, a hard slog but it must be done. For some reason I am not fully sure of, luck of the draw, fate, providence, it appears to be my task.”
Check it out. I think it will inspire you as it has inspired me.
Ocean Robbins
“For me, after these years of struggle, and a lot of bruises incurred along the way, pursuing something worthy of sacrifice has altered my sense of myself. I am reminded of the words of Feoder Dostoyevsk’s Grand Inquisitor, that the secret to a life well lived is to have something to live for. I have identified my raison d’ etre, taking the hard-won knowledge I have earned from a lifetime of imprisonment and putting it to good use; more specifically, reforming the world’s largest prison system from within one of its cells. It has been, and will surely continue to be, a hard slog but it must be done. For some reason I am not fully sure of, luck of the draw, fate, providence, it appears to be my task.”
Check it out. I think it will inspire you as it has inspired me.
Ocean Robbins
The Speed of Trust: Trust, Branding & Competitive Advantage
An Interview with Stephen M.R. Covey
by Christian Sarkar
A sought-after speaker and advisor on trust, leadership, ethics, and high performance, Stephen M. R. Covey is cofounder and CEO of CoveyLink Worldwide. He is also the author of The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything, an eye-opening book which challenges age-old assumptions about trust. In this interview, Covey explains why the notion of trust as a soft, social virtue is a myth and instead demonstrates that trust is a hard-edged,economic driver—a learnable and measurable skill that can give your business a competitive edge.
Read more here!
by Christian Sarkar
A sought-after speaker and advisor on trust, leadership, ethics, and high performance, Stephen M. R. Covey is cofounder and CEO of CoveyLink Worldwide. He is also the author of The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything, an eye-opening book which challenges age-old assumptions about trust. In this interview, Covey explains why the notion of trust as a soft, social virtue is a myth and instead demonstrates that trust is a hard-edged,economic driver—a learnable and measurable skill that can give your business a competitive edge.
Read more here!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Locals unite under Yes! banner
By Trina Kleist, trinak@theunion.com (from theunion.com)
12:01 a.m. PT Aug 25, 2007 Yes! is a nonprofit organization that brings together young people who have money with young people who have a cause.
A small group has formed in Nevada County to support the international organization’s goal of empowering youth who are making the world more just, humane and sustainable.
“We wanted people to know there’s something hopeful going on in the world for young people,” said Nina Snegg of Nevada City, one of the local supporters of the group’s fundraising efforts.
The organization was founded by Ocean Robbins and a friend in 1990 when he was 16 — already with the experience of having organized an elementary-school peace rally, running a natural bakery and facilitating international youth summits in Washington, D.C., and Moscow, according to the organization’s Web site.
Based in Soquel, Calif., Yes! operates networking sessions, called jams, with outstanding young leaders from 65 countries who are working to save indigenous people’s land, guard schools from violence, broker truces between gangs, train religious people for social action, work toward sustainable local economies and scores of other projects.
The organization also brings together young people of money and privilege who want to learn how they can leverage their positions to support social change, fulfilling their values and their visions.
Now 33, Robbins recently discussed the long-range goals, wide-ranging movements affiliated with Yes! and the organization’s funding needs at the home of Mike and Nina Snegg, co-hosted by Aaron Snegg, Malaika Edwards and Aeron Miller.
“The event, called Generation of Hope, was an exhilarating and inspiring event,” Nina Snegg said. “The event featured a moving presentation by a troupe of extraordinary young global leaders.”
That troupe included Mayerly Sanchez, now 19, a Colombian who at 12 founded the Children’s Peace Movement after her friend was stabbed in gang violence. Sanchez and the movement have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize at least twice for their impact on the nation’s four-decade-old civil war, and they were chosen by UNICEF to attend a peace conference at The Hague in the late 1990s.
Yes! has supported the Children’s Peace Movement, now involving three million children, with networking and training for Sanchez and other leaders.
Yes! operates with a yearly budget of more than $1.2 million, with four full-time staff members and affiliate offices in India, Africa, Asia, South America and the United States, according to the organization’s 2006 annual report.
To learn more about the organization, call (831) 465-1091, visit http://www.yesworld.org or mail to info@yesworld.org.
To contact City Editor Trina Kleist, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call 477-4230.
12:01 a.m. PT Aug 25, 2007 Yes! is a nonprofit organization that brings together young people who have money with young people who have a cause.
A small group has formed in Nevada County to support the international organization’s goal of empowering youth who are making the world more just, humane and sustainable.
“We wanted people to know there’s something hopeful going on in the world for young people,” said Nina Snegg of Nevada City, one of the local supporters of the group’s fundraising efforts.
The organization was founded by Ocean Robbins and a friend in 1990 when he was 16 — already with the experience of having organized an elementary-school peace rally, running a natural bakery and facilitating international youth summits in Washington, D.C., and Moscow, according to the organization’s Web site.
Based in Soquel, Calif., Yes! operates networking sessions, called jams, with outstanding young leaders from 65 countries who are working to save indigenous people’s land, guard schools from violence, broker truces between gangs, train religious people for social action, work toward sustainable local economies and scores of other projects.
The organization also brings together young people of money and privilege who want to learn how they can leverage their positions to support social change, fulfilling their values and their visions.
Now 33, Robbins recently discussed the long-range goals, wide-ranging movements affiliated with Yes! and the organization’s funding needs at the home of Mike and Nina Snegg, co-hosted by Aaron Snegg, Malaika Edwards and Aeron Miller.
“The event, called Generation of Hope, was an exhilarating and inspiring event,” Nina Snegg said. “The event featured a moving presentation by a troupe of extraordinary young global leaders.”
That troupe included Mayerly Sanchez, now 19, a Colombian who at 12 founded the Children’s Peace Movement after her friend was stabbed in gang violence. Sanchez and the movement have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize at least twice for their impact on the nation’s four-decade-old civil war, and they were chosen by UNICEF to attend a peace conference at The Hague in the late 1990s.
Yes! has supported the Children’s Peace Movement, now involving three million children, with networking and training for Sanchez and other leaders.
Yes! operates with a yearly budget of more than $1.2 million, with four full-time staff members and affiliate offices in India, Africa, Asia, South America and the United States, according to the organization’s 2006 annual report.
To learn more about the organization, call (831) 465-1091, visit http://www.yesworld.org or mail to info@yesworld.org.
To contact City Editor Trina Kleist, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call 477-4230.
Selma: Day of Witness To Hate Crimes
By Chapin Gray and Jim Toweill (from fightbacknews.org)
Selma, AL - Over 100 activists, youth and community organizers met at the 21st Century Youth Leadership Center outside Selma, Alabama, July 14 to witness the aftermath of a recent attack on the center. The 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement is an organization that helps train African-American youth for future leadership roles in their communities.
In March, while thousands, including big-name politicians and civil rights leaders, rallied to commemorate Bloody Sunday - the march for voting rights in 1965 that was met with fierce police brutality - vandals broke into the center, trashing rooms, destroying office equipment, pulling plumbing from ceilings, cutting appliance cords and spray painting racial slurs and obscenities on the walls, even severing gas lines. This resulted in a total of $200,000 worth of damage.
This is not the first hate crime committed against members and leaders of the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement. Cars were firebombed outside the law offices of organizers Hank and Rose Sanders at the height of the “Joe Gotta Go” campaign against Selma’s incumbent republican candidate for mayor, Joe Smitherman, in 2000.
The progressive local African-American radio station has been the target of multiple attacks, and both the tower and the station itself have been set fire to and burned down. Road signs for the nearby Martin Luther King Drive have been shot up repeatedly, as has the grave of Jimmy Lee Jackson, whose murders sparked the march on Selma in 1965.
Read the whole article and see pictures of the damage here.
Selma, AL - Over 100 activists, youth and community organizers met at the 21st Century Youth Leadership Center outside Selma, Alabama, July 14 to witness the aftermath of a recent attack on the center. The 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement is an organization that helps train African-American youth for future leadership roles in their communities.
In March, while thousands, including big-name politicians and civil rights leaders, rallied to commemorate Bloody Sunday - the march for voting rights in 1965 that was met with fierce police brutality - vandals broke into the center, trashing rooms, destroying office equipment, pulling plumbing from ceilings, cutting appliance cords and spray painting racial slurs and obscenities on the walls, even severing gas lines. This resulted in a total of $200,000 worth of damage.
This is not the first hate crime committed against members and leaders of the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement. Cars were firebombed outside the law offices of organizers Hank and Rose Sanders at the height of the “Joe Gotta Go” campaign against Selma’s incumbent republican candidate for mayor, Joe Smitherman, in 2000.
The progressive local African-American radio station has been the target of multiple attacks, and both the tower and the station itself have been set fire to and burned down. Road signs for the nearby Martin Luther King Drive have been shot up repeatedly, as has the grave of Jimmy Lee Jackson, whose murders sparked the march on Selma in 1965.
Read the whole article and see pictures of the damage here.
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