This last week, Dane Buy Local added Project Kinect to the extraordinary group of local businesses that make up this initiative. The mission of Dane Buy Local is “to create a sustainable, vital local economy through education, collaboration, and promotion as a nonprofit member organization.” To date, there are nearly 800 members with Dane Buy Local, and they are the #1 Largest Buy Local Organization in the United States.
Some values and vision points:
• Importance of local ownership and purchasing
• Supporting small business practices and ethics
• Sense of community
• Desire to learn
• Belonging and inclusion
• Sustainability
• Respect
• Value of uniqueness vs. sameness
• Commitment to future generations
• Better quality of life for all
• Building social and economic capital
We thank you Dane Buy Local for including us in this very unique and groundbreaking organization.
This isn’t brand-new news, but it is still newsworthy. This early polar freeze we are experiencing has shaken us all up. This cold coming early also makes life as a homeless person more difficult. Our founder, Gregg Potter, has worked extensively with homeless populations globally. His view is that homelessness is not a problem, it is a circumstance. Each one of us could find an unfortunate path that leads us to life without a place to rest our head. Because it is a circumstance, and not a problem, we need to aid people in their individual situations.
Occupy Madison is taking steps to assist the homeless population in south central Wisconsin. This last Saturday, there was a ribbon cutting for the Tiny House Village. This village is creating homes that people from the homeless population can partner with to obtain. Each person must volunteer, agree with the mission and vision of the village, and abide by strict rules. The idea is that this will be enough a stepping stone to reach personal goals.
The Tiny House Blog mentioned this:
Occupy Madison, with help from numerous community groups, has built nine tiny houses, a day resource center, laundry facilities and a community gardening space in the village. The 96 square foot homes are made from reclaimed and recycled materials and include a bed, a toilet, propane heat and solar panels for electricity. Each building costs around $5,000 to build and the money was raised with private donations.
There may never be one definite solution to homelessness because each person, with or without a home, has their own story and their own set of circumstances. The Tiny House Project is a great step towards helping out in specific communities. Click here if you’re interested in doing this where you live.
As we looked back at the year 2011, we can’t help to look at the political climate over the year as well as the outrage that citizens had all over the country. Three months after the protests and demonstrations began in Madison, WI, I went for a walk with my friend Alyssa to check out what was happening in the middle of everything happening. Here is that post as well as the video we took.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to witness everything happening in Madison, WI in the months of February and March but when I arrived into Madison, I wanted to make sure I got the feeling of what was happening over those two months. Thankfully, my friend Alyssa was in the middle of it which made her the perfect tour guide for this video. As you watch it, keep in mind that it was the middle of winter, covered in snow with an average temperature of 26 degrees. Over those two months, there were hundreds of thousands of people with the largest protest maxing out at close to a hundred thousand people. That was the protest where the state farmers came to support and brought their tractors right up to the capital and drove around it the entire day.
Also keep in mind what this means to have a hundred thousand people in this space. Over the last five months, we have been reading and hearing about hundreds of protests in the Middle East from places like Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and so on. The protests in Madison were as large and in some moments, larger than those. Americans will rally too and we can’t forget what we can do when we come together.
In this video there are a couple references that are made and just in case you would like to check them out, here are a few links.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to witness everything happening in Madison, WI in the months of February and March but when I arrived into Madison, I wanted to make sure I got the feeling of what was happening over those two months. Thankfully, my friend Alyssa was in the middle of it which made her the perfect tour guide for this video. As you watch it, keep in mind that it was the middle of winter, covered in snow with an average temperature of 26 degrees. Over those two months, there were hundreds of thousands of people with the largest protest maxing out at close to a hundred thousand people. That was the protest where the state farmers came to support and brought their tractors right up to the capital and drove around it the entire day.
Also keep in mind what this means to have a hundred thousand people in this space. Over the last five months, we have been reading and hearing about hundreds of protests in the Middle East from places like Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and so on. The protests in Madison were as large and in some moments, larger than those. Americans will rally too and we can’t forget what we can do when we come together.
In this video there are a couple references that are made and just in case you would like to check them out, here are a few links.
We only spent one night in Beaumont but I got a good chance to check things out the next morning though. The night that we got in town however, the four of us just wanted to grab a drink so we headed downtown to find an open bar with some locals to chat with. Our search became extremely limited when we only found one bar open, this little country gay bar called Beaumont Patio and Bar. We walked in and were welcomed by a large empty bar area with a few people carrying things out to their car. We sat, ordered a round from the bartender and waited. The bartender was the owner, Chris, and she welcomed us and chatted with us for a bit but we didn’t get any information until Rhonda sat with us on the outside patio.
Rhonda grew up in Beaumont and works part time in the medical field and the rest of her time cleaning vacation houses for a friend. When we asked her why there was nothing open, she said that there was really no reason for anything to be open. As for the gay bar, she told us everyone had
Rhonda was our welcome wagon into Beaumont
started to go to a new spot down the road. That is how things work in the LGBT community in Beaumont, when something new opens, the old ends up shutting down.
I find great sadness in this because if a community is working towards the same goal, then why isn’t there more cooperation? This isn’t just for the LGBT community, this is for all communities. In order to get things accomplished, we have to find common ground in order to move forward together.
In this example, yes I realize that these are business’ in competition, but there is still a way to make it work so that the entire community can flourish. I take this from the example that Madison, WI made. When I moved back to Madison in the fall of 2006, there were still only two GLBT friendly bars. They were always competing against and defamating each other. Now, in 2011, there are five successful gay bars that all have good standing in the entire city of Madison, find pride in holding winter dart leagues and summer softball tournaments and continue to build a larger and more successful pride celebration each summer. That is a community working together. We all have to find common ground and we can do it and I believe that Beaumont’s LGBT community will. Everyone can take a lesson from Rhonda and “Just find it through love”
