Our Portland, Our Selves

I'm sure that you're aware in the U.S. we are in need of some more Unity. It seems like the division in our society has put us at odds with each other, each side screaming that their side has the answer and not listening to each other, except to repeat their ideological gospel. We need more Unity, and the only way that we can achieve that is to work to benefit all. But the place we start is in our own community. We are going through hard economic times, hard environmental times, hard power times, hard spiritual times and it is time for us to remember each other, remember the work that got us here, and work to help our community become stronger by helping each other to thrive. I feel that Portland is ready to do this work, and in the transformation, we will become a model to the rest of the country on how to turn things around. We need more local self-sufficiency, without sacrificing our global connections, but trade is not the only basis of global interchange. We can now through the Internet and in many cases in person see what solutions other countries have to problems and we could work to implement these solutions on a small scale in our own community. In the meantime, we will create work, by investing in new ideas with time, energy and money right here in our communities. Some of our efforts will bear fruit, and some will not. But we will be moving towards a more interconnected community and that will feed itself in the face of every success and failure.