FALL 1997 - ISSUE NUMBER 38
Summer Salons--
Discussions about Sustainable Communities
By Ruth Carey and Jim Crowfoot

In the ancient tradition of communities sharing food and friendship around an outdoor fire, friends and staff of the Neahtawanta Center gathered for five weekly salons this past August and early September. (information on salons). In these discussions held in the front yard of the Inn overlooking Bowers Harbor participants talked about ideas and dreams for sustainable communities, and about the future direction of the Center. We shared delicious vegetarian food brought by each participant which together provided diverse and balanced meals to nourish us as we enjoyed each others' company and and shared important ideas. As we began in early August, evenings were warm and the sunlight and its afterglow remained present until we bid each other good night. As the weeks passed and the season began to change, the fire became even more welcome and the darkness arrived earlier. Occasionally rain moved us inside to the Inn's beautiful timber-framed yoga room.

The participants in the salons -- staff, board members, long time supporters of the Center and an occasional Inn guest -- varied from week to week with most people coming to several salons. Size of these discussions varied from 7 to 17. For a list of people who participated in the salons, see side bar at the end of the article. Pervading all the conversations was enjoyment in being together discussing important ideas and a deep and abiding caring about the work of the Center and the core staff, Bob Russell and Sally Van Vleck.

Why Salons On The Topic Of "Sustainable Local Communities?"

This became the topic of the recent Center discussions because of the growing awareness by Center staff and key supporters of rapid changes and related problems which are occurring in local communities (including the Traverse City area). Also the Center is aware that some of these changes result from the growing strength of the global economy and its impacts on employment, investment, and poverty as well as consequent impacts on important areas like community cooperation, family life, education, and citizenship. Still other community changes and problems (e.g. sprawl, violence, pollution, and homelessness) are influenced by other forces as well.

Because of the Center's decade of work on issues of the environment, peace and justice in the Traverse city area and beyond, it has had a "front row seat" for witnessing major changes affecting each of these important areas. Many articles in the first 40 issues of Synapse have focused on specific dynamics and consequences of such changes. For example, look at the last issue of Synapse, the longer than usual 10th anniversary issue, which reprinted key articles from earlier issues. In this issue were articles about community, human's needs for communication, violence in war and families and in the environment and practical means of pursuing non-violence in each of these arenas, the need for new economic alternatives, and the issues of food and health.

The Center from its very beginning has focused on the community of Traverse City, Michigan and the surrounding area. It has done this by seeking local volunteers to be actively involved in the Center's work and Board and by directing many of its efforts to addressing the environmental, peace and justice issues of this area. In giving basic attention to this locality, the Center has at the same time placed major attention on national and global issues and changes which impact life here and in communities throughout the U.S. Thus the focus on sustainability in the Traverse City area is a continuation of the Center's work in this locality along with a wider perspective connecting this place and its conditions with other relevant communities in the U.S. and beyond.

Staff and supporters of the Center have become aware of people elsewhere in the U.S. and throughout the world taking action to do something about the decline of local communities. They recognize that current patterns, if allowed to continue, will lead to the loss of what people need from their communities in order to survive and thrive. Some observers seeking to describe this growing awareness and action in local communities, have referred to it as "the local sustainability movement." As a result there is a growing exchange of ideas, experiences, and other resources among people leading local efforts to enhance the sustainability of their communities.

Based on observations of what was happening in the Traverse City area, what is being worked on in other communities devoting attention to local sustainability and the Center's interests and resources, the planners of these initial salons decided to give attention to community sustainability by beginning to discuss the local economy, local media and information, and local food and health.

Context For The Salons On Community Sustainability

This past June, the Neahtawanta Center celebrated its 10th anniversary by gathering members and friends for a dramatic performance highlighting key projects and actions of its first decade. A month and a half after this celebration, local Center supporters including Board members gathered on August 6, for the first salon, a discussion of the Center's future. One major theme of this discussion was the need to focus the Center's energies and do it in a way that builds on the Center's Mission. A second theme was recognition of the reduced volunteer power available to the Center due to the economic pressures on individuals. Thus the group of discussants participating in this series of salons were very aware of the Center's past accomplishments and the economic changes impacting the Center and many of its members and volunteer staff. These people were also deeply committed to the Center's mission and to the future well being of the Traverse City area as it is being impacted by a rapidly changing world.

The Local Eonomy In A Sustainable Community

In Traverse City, as in most other local communities, it is becoming obvious that more and more businesses are not locally owned and that their comings and goings result from decisions made elsewhere. Most visibly the construction locally of new, large malls along with the new presence of non-local retailers heralds this fundamental change. At the same time local employment opportunities and conditions are more and more determined by corporations located elsewhere whether the area of employment is tourism, retailing, manufacturing, finance, service, or information.

The second campfire salon focused on four questions related to local economy:

The first two questions helped each participant consider the issue of local economy from an inner place of personal experience with money as well as out of family history. Feelings about money ranged from "money means security and is an indicator of a person's worth" to "money is worthless", "a pain in the ass", "boring", "offers me no long term security at all". Others spoke of money as educational ("learned much about myself when money was available and not available"), as a means of injustice in our society, as a resource when used well and obscene when used poorly. Still others referred to feeling guilty for having money, the necessity of money for "life's basic needs", "confusion" about the enormous paper transactions from which some reap huge monetary benefits.

Consideration of grandparents' economic situation, brought to our awareness the vast changes in our society since then as well as the history of local economy experienced by many of our ancestors. Many personal and poignant stories were told as participants recalled and shared with warmth and humor information about their grandparents. People spoke of grandparents whose work varied greatly (teacher for $3.00 per week, coal miner, lumber mill worker, gardener, housewife, farmer, driver for Wells Fargo, minister, doctor in a timber camp, seamstress, mining engineer, employee for Elgin Watch, veterinarian and surveyor). Several were immigrants coming to seek a better life. Some were quite frugal and passed down that legacy. Some were happy, some very unhappy, some made a great deal of money and some barely got by. Many told of grandparents who were paid for services with food from gardens and barns. Some worked for pay and others survived totally on food they grew and preserved. Most worked very hard and had little time for enjoying life and most were very much a part of a local economy, trading with local merchants and selling produce and services to local people.

In the tradition of salons, the discussions of the final two questions generated many good ideas and observations. The questions, considered together, were: how do we define local economy and what would our desired local economy look like?

Basic Values

Local production and exchange of goods and services

Environmental Protection and Sustainable Use

Local Government Action

This discussion of the desired values and characteristics of a local economy in a sustainable community could have gone on for a long time.

Despite the limited time for discussion, participants recognized and described elements of the Traverse City economy which already contribute to local sustainability, e.g. Cherryland Cooperative Electric Company, Oryana Foods (local food coop), Board of Water and Light windmill, Meadow Lark Farm, community mediation, the co-housing project, and a local HMO.

It became clear to us all that there is much to be learned and done if the economy in this community is to become more local and contribute more to the sustainability of the Traverse City area.

Local Media In A Sustainable Community

Citizens need full information to understand changes affecting the quality of life in their local communities. This information will of necessity be different from and sometimes critical of institutions and organizations whose chief interests are not the local quality of life. Citizens also need to know each others' visions for future community improvements and what other citizens and communities are doing to become sustainable. Some of these visions and many of these community plans and actions will be different from what entrenched power groups advocate and what is wanted by organizations and groups benefiting from actions which contribute to the current decline in quality of life.

To receive the information they need, local citizens need to control information gathering and communication. Citizens also need to be involved in providing this vital service. Here in the Traverse City area, as in most localities, it is increasingly clear that the news and information most readily available through the media comes from non-locally owned, private corporations. These media organizations are strongly influenced by their owners and advertisers whose primary goal is their own bottom line. Also, often the information gathering and interpretation done by powerful media organizations comes from outside the local area. All too often more attention is given to sensational events than to what citizens need to know about how their own community is meeting and not meeting basic human needs, as well as ways of improving the situation. In the face of rapid global and national changes eroding the sustainability of local communities, public and community media and their capabilities are becoming ever more important.

The third salon began by participants listening to each other read key statements on the public's needs for and rights to information. These statements included Article 1 of the U.S. Bill of Rights, Article 19 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and excerpts from a treaty developed by non governmental organizations (NGOs) attending the Rio Earth Summit (see Communication Rights). These powerful reminders of fundamental rights and descriptions of critical needs, led to a brief exchange of questions and answers about how the UN Declaration and the NGO Treaty were developed. They arose from long study and sustained citizen work and struggle. One participant stated, "É the right to communicate becomes more and more crucial as public space shrinks and public media are defunded and also shrink."

Using the inspiration and ideas from these statements of citizens' needs and rights to communicate, participants used most of the third salon to discuss their responses to the following two questions:

Participants identified the need for data and information in relation to key indicators of community sustainability in the areas of the local environment, economy and social processes and structures which provide for the needs of local residents, particularly families, children and senior citizens. More specifically they wanted information on health, employment (and lack of employment), food and drinking water, housing and shelter, because in each area change is happening and conditions are less than they could be. Some people are affected more than others which creates great inequities. The group began to identify what information we are not getting:

One participant shared the observation, "We don't have the local data and people don't even realize we don't get it because all media information is prepared by commercial media which are influenced by the people who buy advertisingÉ., " and another rejoined, "People choose to read and to view the commercial media; there are alternatives to TV. " As the discussion continued, it was stated, "Even if the information were available, few people would act on it anyway." This brought the response, "With information, people can change; they are intelligent. They will act if treated intelligently."

This exchange moved the group to focus on the central importance of education for critical thinking. As one attendee of the salon stated, "that's the role of education&emdash;getting the information and using it." But someone else said that in their experience few students are taught to be critical thinkers -- to seek out relevant information, evaluate it and draw their own conclusions. Still on this topic, a third person observed, "Our generation struggles in terms of critical thinking skills and younger people are having even more difficulties with these skills." It was lamented that public schools could, but generally do not teach students how to do research on real local issues in ways that lead to problem solving and community change.

Then the discussion turned to the matter of how citizens obtain the information they need about community sustainability. One person suggested, "It's important that information comes from citizens' organizations or community based media." Another responded, "The question is: 'Who is asking the questions?' What aren't we getting information about?" This brought the response, "We're too busy to do the really important things. Some people think we have too much information. No, we don't have the right information." In reaction to one individual's idea, the group agreed that there is an important and unmet community need for people to gather the data and prepare the information on local community sustainability. This unmet information need was more specifically described as follows, "We need a group of people to gather and prepare information to be communicated to a wider audience É a paid position and related infrastructure is needed to coordinate the process of community information gathering, in-depth community based, participatory-research on issues important for achieving community sustainability and preparing this information for communication to a wider audience." In further pursuing and developing this idea, it was stated, "We need to be clear why we act, what we're trying to achieve while operating within a consensus of the community about its desire for information. Even to frame what we would do within the Bill of Rights does not ensure agreement."

"It is very important in defining 'sustainable local community' to gain as much agreement as possible. We don't want to just be against things but clear about what we are for. We need a vision for sustainability in our community and people to support it as the foundation for information gathering and communication." The group recognized that people working for higher quality of life through community sustainability will face questions like:

At the same time the group discussed that it would be possible to identify what is not working well right now in the community, and what of value is vulnerable to decline in the medium and long term. As one participant stated, "Éthings aren't all that good and it's worse for some than others. So how can we help people see the fragility of things which are beyond our influence as well as what is within our influence&emdash;both now and in the longer term?"

The evening's discussion ended by focusing on the status and unmet needs of TCTV 2 (the public access channel in Traverse City) and WNMC (the community radio station). Everyone recognized the value of these media and their tremendous unmet potentials. Both continue to struggle for the financial and institutional support that provides them space, equipment and a small nucleus of paid staff to train and coordinate volunteers. It was recognized that they represent critically important ways of communicating with a much wider audience about community sustainability.

Health And Food In A Sustainable Local Community

Among the most basic human needs is the need for food which is healthy and for other conditions and resources which sustain human health. Locally, there is growing awareness that most of the food available is not locally grown and processed and that one of the results is not knowing the people who grow the food nor its quality. Also among some people here there is growing concern about the impacts of this food on health, and the security of the food supply when the vast majority of the food is coming from long distances and controlled by non-local organizations and people. On the front page of a recent Sunday edition of the local newspaper, The Record Eagle, one story was titled,"Food for Thought" and told the story of growing attention locally to pesticide residues on food and consequent desire for organically grown foods. The article also listed the few local farmers whose farms are certified organic but ignored the issue of how little food consumed locally is grown in this area. Salon number four began with some short readings about food and health. All the readings related to the impact of humans on the planet, effects of the increasing dependence on animal protein, the industrialization of the food system and its implications for health, and the growing dependence of local consumers on non-locally grown food.

As the discussion opened, participants spoke of the sobering occurrences of e.coli illnesses from retail meat, news reports of farmers mixing chicken manure and sawdust with feed for cattle because of the high cost of grain, and the practice by grain-selling countries of keeping prices lower within their borders but placing a tariff on grain to other countries who can ill afford the prices which, in turn, contribute to further destabilization of these already poor countries. We could readily see how these incidents and practices do not sustain the well being of local communities.

And with this as a backdrop, we turned our attention to the focus of Salon #4 which was: "Envisioning Human Health in a Sustainable Community." Participation was lively as we generated a long list from our individual visions. Later Sally Van Vleck honored our fecund ideas by creating a graphic inclusive of all our thoughts. (see below).

After a very productive discussion, we also identified necessary next steps to creating the reality we envisioned. Included were suggestions from "start composting" and "do more yoga" to "encourage the local HMO to include coverage of alternative health care". Other statements focused on selecting a topic and doing research, as well as producing a Public TV show, supporting co-ops and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), preparing a directory of existing co-ops and CSAs. And finally, someone suggested researching other communities' successes in creating sustainable communities including sustainability in the areas of health and food.

Because this salon's focus was on very basic and personal needs/realities (food and health) everyone readily contributed fruitfully and meaningfully from their own experience and dreams of what could be.

Results From The Initial Discussions Of Community Sustainability

At the fifth and final salon in the series, each person was invited to share thoughts to help determine next steps. Responses were deep, poignant, and thoughtful. Following are some selections: one person thought of us as visualizing something positive in a world where not a lot positive is happening. Another said, "Reflection on written history allows us to observe that most change movements result from a small nucleus of people who are committed to working together to bring about change. We need to focus on the fact that change is possible." Several people indicated they wanted the salons to continue in order to look in more depth at subjects addressed. One participant expressed a strong desire to organize distribution of Synapse. Yet another, "the task is to discern what we are to do next, and the salons have really helped but it's not clear yet."

The evening ended as we responded to the invitation to share what stands out from the salons. Several found the Grandparent stories deeply moving (salon #2). One stated that we need to look at what has already been done or that already exists (e.g. community based mediation in TC). Perhaps Synapse could focus on sustain-ability for the next year; there could be future sustainability salons to explore "money", "heritage", "media", or "healthy cooking".

The salons stimulated and focused interest and did so in ways that the participants enjoyed and valued. They view themselves as capable, individually and collectively, of learning more on this important topic with the goal of making a difference in the Traverse City area. They believe that as a small group they can learn from each other's ideas and from what is going on in other communities. They are confident that through the group's creativity, planning and action they can make a positive difference locally and contribute to the wider work of achieving sustainable local communities. Present plans are to meet monthly on 2nd or 4th Mondays 6:30 to 9:00 in each other's homes.

The first salon and potluck supper in the coming fall and winter series on community sustainability is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, October 27th at Neahtawanta Inn. The focus of discussion will be the question, " What Next Steps Do We Want to Pursue to Advance Sustainability in the Community of the Traverse City Area?" At the end of this Salon readings will be available describing the definitions and approaches being taken by other groups working on community sustainability.

The Campfire Salons held this past August and early September, on the bluff over Bower's Harbor were only a beginning. Yet, they demonstrate the importance of the topic of sustainable local communities and strong interest in doing further work to understand, plan and implement this idea. These salons also demonstrated that valuable ideas can be developed through focused and respectful discussion in which participants share their thoughts, experiences and hopes for developing a sustainable community in the Traverse City area. While this was being accomplished, participants enjoyed each others' company, learned from each other, and were stimulated and satisfied to discuss future challenges facing the Traverse City area and what needs to be done to improve the quality of life in this place.

Return to the Index of Synapse 41, Fall 1997