Green Shoots 5: Ever-Widening Circles of Response to Environmental Threat

Hermann Bellinghausen reports on Mexico's indigenous peoples for La Jornada. Several days ago, his article "Where the Living Jungle Lives" appeared. The story of an outsider's first visit to the community, "Sarayaku: A Journey Into the Heart of the Resistance", includes details and photos that enrich Sarayaku, the Kichwa community described by Bellinghausen. Links to relevant articles are provided below this translation.

"Where the Living Jungle Lives"

Hermann Bellinghausen,

La Jornada, 10/5/2015

One afternoon late in 2011, while sharing manioc beer under an umbrella a few yards from the Bobonaza River [flows into the Amazon] in Ecuador's Amazon jungle, José Gualinga wondered, What is the "living forest" (Kawsak Sacha in Kichwa, or Quechua). Here's how he answered his own question:

"A space of beings where we people elevate our physical, psychological and psychic emotions. For example, in August most of the people move into the jungle, not in a community, but into the jungle, in little houses deep in the interior. There the children, women, everyone, re-create, pick up their life. They go to see the Masanga, the mysteries. This strengthens you and makes brotherhood, unity and respect for the natural world" (Ojarasca, October 2011).

At that time, Gualinga presided over Sarayaku's Governing Council. Before and after, he has taken on various responsibilities representing his people in national organizations and before the world. The Sarayaku defeated an oil company and the government of Rafael Correa himself. They are living proof that it can be done. Bearing the voice of his people, Gualinga has traveled. He does not ignore the essentials of the global environment, or the poisonous honeys of the "first world" or the stinky breath of the leadership circles in Quito [Ecuador], but he knows that in his place life is better without poisons and in harmony with the natural world.

The Kichwas of Sarayaku pulled themselves together. They let the land speak, and they live as she says:

"It is sacred territory, one must not destroy it. The living jungle is also the place where the shamans and elders transmit their knowledge—the science of the jungle, how to know the trees, plants, fish, animals, orient yourself, dream, have visions. This is our science, the relationship with this world. A language of communication with the animals."

Gualinga spoke of the Amazonian indigenous project that goes against the grain of the capitalism that has historically ignored the indigenous people and their existential choices. It is long-term; it is for today and for when we die. This future defines the present. Not the opposite, like the non-neoliberal project that subjects the future to the present. Gualinga confided:

"This proposal that all nationalities of the center-south Amazon region are developing—the Kichwa territory is one border, and the territory extends all the way to the Achuar and Shuar territory. The indigenous territory is five million hectares [12.4 million acres; 19,305 square miles]. The northeastern jungle, Sucumbios, Orellana are already affected, but here the jungle remains well protected."

Now, four years later, the people of the Amazon march once again in the Ecuadorian distances [outside the jungle] to demonstrate their rights and their principle of existence in resistance to the populist-extractivist government of Correa (who has already had to legislate on the rights of Mother Earth).

"As the government expands the oil blocks, we propose declaring the living jungle to be sacred of the beings, where our life is constituted. We propose plans of life: managing the natural resources according to our vision grounded in a fertile earth, applying the knowledge of the peoples and the social behavior that make Sumaj Kawsay (Good Living in Kichwa; in Spanish Buen Vivir). Within that [proposal] we are going to use the natural resources for education, health and our own economy. The platform, the great vision, is to maintain the Sumaj Kawsay, where the natural world is not contaminated but free."

This way of thinking is winning significant battles. In Argentina, impressed by the examples of Bolivia and Ecuador, a Supreme Court Justice wrote "La Pachamama y el humano", Mother Earth and the Human Being (published by Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, 2012). Justice Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni undertakes a legal, philosophical and humanistic review, from Kant to Monod, of man's relationship with the natural and animal world. Zaffaroni calls for working "intelligently" in the search for a "friendly coexistence" between man and La Pachamama, Mother Earth. On page 12, he writes that if they continue preying on the rivers, mountains and animals that live there,

"the planet is going to continue living. It is not going to end, but we are the ones who are not going to continue living, we human beings."

The most lucid indigenous peoples in South America are moving forward on a risky, but possible project. They have managed to set legal limits .... In a 2014 interview with Lobo Suelto [Unleashed, Loose Wolf], Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui declared:

"What we do is transform ourselves into a collective will of 'doing'. We always project ourselves toward the outside as collective wills that break the barrier between the manual and the intellectual."

In her criticism of the government socialisms that, including Bolivia, just don't understand the indigenous peoples, the relentless Aymara thinker said:

"We are no longer alone, since also accompanying us are a whole lot of critters and the Earth." ... 

Are we speaking of a dimension more humane than democracy? Spanish original

* * * * *

There is no more fitting way to close this post than by presenting the ambitious campaign sponsored by AVAAZ to establish in the Amazon River Basin the world's largest environmental preserve: 135 million hectares [333,592,265 acres; 521,238 square miles] of Amazon jungle. That's more than twice the size of France! The petition states:

"But it won’t happen unless Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela’s leaders know the public wants it. That’s where we [AVAAZ] come in. 

"Colombia has just said it is on board. Now, if we create a huge global push to save the Amazon and combine it with national polls in all three countries, we can give the Colombian president the support he needs to convince Brazil and Venezuela. All three leaders are looking for opportunities to shine at the next UN climate summit. Let’s give it to them.

"The Amazon is vital to life on earth—10% of known species live there, and its trees help slow down climate change by storing billions of tons of carbon that would otherwise be in the atmosphere. Experts say this reserve would be a total game-changer for stopping rampant deforestation. Sign the petition now, when we reach 1 million signers, indigenous leaders will deliver our petition and polls directly to the three governments."

* * * * *

Let me give the last word to Paul Hawken:

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. 

What I see everywhere in the world are tens of millions of ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.

Still Curious?

• Paul Hawken (2007), Blessed Unrest; website links to Video (5:45): Paul Hawken delivering core message about this nearly invisible, but powerful worldwide movement. Highly recommended.

• Hermann Bellinghausen, "Donde vive la selva viva" [Where the living jungle lives] (La Jornada, 10/5/2015).

• La Jornada Ojarasca website (Spanish):

• "Los Kichwas Amazónicas Protegen Sus Territorios Gobernándose A Si Mismos" [The Amazon Kichwas Protect Their Territories By Governing Themselves], José Gualinga, Kichwa leader;

• "Sarayaku: crónicas del buen vivir" [Sarayaku: Chronicles of the Good Life], Hermann Bellinghausen (Pastaza, Ecuador).

• Chakana Chronicles blog:

• "Sarayaku: A Journey Into the Heart of the Resistance" tells the story of an outsider's first visit to the community of Sarayaku, with photos; 

• "How You Can Help" (Video, 2:36; Spanish with English/German subtitles): Patricia Gualinga, Kichwa leader, sets Amazon struggle in global context a la Paul Hawken. 

• "Resistance to Mega-Mining Projects in Defense of the Water" (Video, 6:32; Spanish with English/German subtitles): Carlos Pérez Guartambel, leader of the Confederation of Kichwa Nationality, explains how mega-mining projects threaten the water; Carlos Pérez Guartambel holds the doctorate in Law and devotes his practice to 'Indigenous Justice'. 

• Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni (Argentina Supreme Court Justice), "La Pachamama y el humano" [Mother Earth and the Human Being] (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, 2012).

• AVAAZ: About Us; AVAAZ-sponsored petition to create world's largest environmental reserve in the Amazon River basin.

• Previous Green Shoots posts in Jenny's Journal:

• Green Shoots 1: Living Mesoamerican Community;

• Green Shoots 2: Finding Community on Both Side Sides of Our Shared Border;

• Green Shoots 3: Nurturing and Living Community in the U.S.;

• Green Shoots 4: Social Movement Afoot, Eluding Radar of Mainstream Culture.

Green Shoots 4: Worldwide Social Movement Is Afoot, Under Radar of Mainstream Culture

When we moved to Mexico seven years ago, I recall idly wondering how we might be affected by living long-term outside the United States. For the first few years we were caught up in building some master of Spanish and becoming acquainted with the endlessly fascinating, complex levels of Mexican culture. We had neither time nor emotional space for thinking about it.

During the three years we lived in Pátzcuaro, we were especially attracted to Purhépecha culture. That interest, in turn, led us to explore in greater depth what anthropologists more broadly call Mesoamerican culture. We visited many, if not most, of Mexico's southern archaeological sites, all the while becoming increasingly aware of similarities between the linguistic and cultural groups we visited. Regardless of location, these groups share two major themes: a common cosmovisión, or worldview, and their profound relationship to la naturaleza, the natural world.

Meanwhile, disheartened by all that is not being done to deal with climate change, I had come to wonder if the relationship forged with Mother Earth by Mexico's indigenous peoples might be unique to Mexico. Fortuitously, I came upon the work of Paul Hawken, environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author whose influential writings have shaped corporate sustainability. Prior to the 2007 release of his book Blessed Unrest, the environmental magazine Orion published an article adapted from the book.

In that 2007 piece, Hawken relates that over the last fifteen years he's given close to a thousand talks about the environment. Afterward, people would gather to talk, ask questions and offer their cards:

The people offering their cards were working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. They were from the nonprofit and nongovernmental world, also known as civil society. 

They looked after rivers and bays, educated consumers about sustainable agriculture, retrofitted houses with solar panels, lobbied state legislatures about pollution, fought against corporate-weighted trade policies, worked to green inner cities, or taught children about the environment. Quite simply, they were trying to safeguard nature and ensure justice.

Arriving home from a trip, Paul would take out the cards, look at the names and logos, and reflect on their various missions. Then he'd put the cards in paper bags. Tellingly, he writes: "I couldn't throw them away."

Eventually, Hawken got curious: did anyone know how many organizations there were? His initial curiosity evolved into a "hunch that something larger was afoot, a significant social movement that was eluding the radar of mainstream culture."

Government tax census records in some countries enabled him to extrapolate the number of environmental and social justice groups. At first, Hawken estimated the number of environmental groups to be 30,000 worldwide — a number that swelled to 100,000 when he included social justice groups:

"Historically, social movements have arisen primarily because of injustice, inequalities, and corruption. Those woes remain legion, but a new condition exists that has no precedent: the planet has a life-threatening disease that is marked by massive ecological degradation and rapid climate change. It crossed my mind that perhaps I was seeing something organic, if not biologic. Rather than a movement in the conventional sense, is it a collective response to threat?" 

Hawken has a lot more to say—let me highly recommend Blessed Unrest—but consider these:

"After spending years researching this phenomenon, including creating with my colleagues a global database of these organizations, I have come to these conclusions: [1] this is the largest social movement in all of history; [2] no one knows its scope; and [3] how it functions is more mysterious than what meets the eye. 

"What does meet the eye is compelling: tens of millions of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world."

Hawken concludes the Orion article with these prophetic words:

THERE IS FIERCENESS HERE. There is no other explanation for the raw courage and heart seen over and over again in the people who march, speak, create, resist, and build. It is the fierceness of what it means to know we are human and want to survive. 

This movement is relentless and unafraid. It cannot be mollified, pacified, or suppressed. There can be no Berlin Wall moment, no treaty-signing, no morning to awaken when the superpowers agree to stand down. The movement will continue to take myriad forms. It will not rest. There will be no Marx, Alexander, or Kennedy. No book can explain it, no person can represent it, no words can encompass it, because the movement is the breathing, sentient testament of the living world. 

And I believe it will prevail. I don’t mean defeat, conquer, or cause harm to someone else. And I don’t tender the claim in an oracular sense. I mean the thinking that informs the movement’s goal — to create a just society conducive to life on Earth — will reign. It will soon suffuse and permeate most institutions. But before then, it will change a sufficient number of people so as to begin the reversal of centuries of frenzied self-destruction. 

Inspiration is not garnered from litanies of what is flawed; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, recover, re-imagine, and reconsider. Healing the wounds of the Earth and its people does not require saintliness or a political party. It is not a liberal or conservative activity. It is a sacred act. 

In Hawken's view, three intertwining roots make up this inchoate worldwide movement: the environmental and social justice movements, for sure, but — central to our interests — the resistance by indigenous cultures to globalization.

In Mexico, Miguel Concha, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) professor and a long-time, highly respected human rights advocate, lays out the challenges clearly and succinctly: "Mexico's Ordinary People Struggle for Life, Land, Water and Work". More specifically, the Zapatista movement in Chiapas probably enjoys the broadest international recognition, but other movements are just as far-reaching and important. To name just two: communal actions by the Yaqui Tribe in Sonora (against diversion of water from the Sonora River—in violation of indigenous water rights—for industrial purposes); and community actions taken in seemingly lesser places like Cherán, Michoacán (Purhépecha indigenous community successfully claimed its constitutional right self-government under traditional Uses and Customs and, hence, to defend its hereditary lands from illegal logging by organized crime).

Hawken's idea of grassroots activism isn't a new theme for Jenny's Journal. In 2010, we wrote a three-part series titled 'Green Shoots' (see below) that explored the notion of community that is at the very heart of indigenous cultures all over the world. But a healthy sense of community is by no means restricted to indigenous cultures.

Green Shoots 3 recaps highlights of Bill Moyers' conversation with Grace Lee Boggs, Ph.D. in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr and a civil rights activist in Detroit for more than fifty years. Ninety-one years-old when she spoke with Moyers (she died recently, October 5, 2015, at age 100), Boggs talked about the cultural revolution she saw brewing in our country at the grassroots level. When Moyers asked her what advice she had for young people, she replied,

"Do something local and specific—it doesn't matter what it is, just start."

Echos of Paul Hawken—actually, Hawken would probably say that what's happening in Detroit is yet another spontaneous human expression in response to the global environmental threat. If they're not already on it, Hawken would certainly add Detroit's grassroots community organizations to his ever-growing list—now conservatively estimated at 130,000—of organizations contributing to worldwide Blessed Unrest.

Still Curious?

• Highly recommended: Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest (2007); the book's website gives access to Video (5:45), where Hawken delivers the core message about this nearly invisible, but powerful worldwide movement.

• Green Shoots 1: Living Mesoamerican Community;

• Green Shoots 2: Finding Community on Both Side Sides of Our Shared Border;

• Green Shoots 3: Nurturing and Living Community in the U.S.

Reflections on Sustainability: "Water Is Life"

Written last May, this post brings together themes I've been mulling over for several months. It's taken a little time for me to get my head and heart around what seems to me to be the only message at this time. I plan to publish other posts soon centering on the same theme: the Health of Our Planet, Our Spaceship, Mother Earth, and what we can learn from Her Original Peoples—in Mexico, yes, of course; but also in the Western Hemisphere, and around the world.

Personal History Tells Bigger Story

I was born in Chicago six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. As a Reserve Army Officer, my father was called up and stationed in California. My mother and I joined him there. When the war ended, my Dad—a civil engineer—looked around and concluded, "A lot of people here need water and sewage treatment plants." Given that water was his specialty, he decided to stay. He wasn't alone.

In 1940, California's population was 6.95 million. At the war's end (1945), it had swelled to 9.3 million. When I graduated from high school (1959), it was 15.47 million; at my college graduation (1963), it was 17.67 million. By 1970, it had risen to 19.97 million. In just thirty years (1940-1970), California's population had nearly tripled.

But that wasn't anywhere near the end of the Golden State's explosive growth. By 2014, it stood at 38.8 million—that's nearly double what it had been in 1970! One thing was absolutely certain: Everyone needed water.

Over the course of his 30-plus year, post-WWII civil engineering career, my father put in if not the majority, then a significant share of the water and sewage treatment plants up, down and across California. In retirement, he told me that across the years he had watched the water tables consistently drop: "I've never seen them restored. 'They' are going to have to fix that."

Given California's epic four-year drought, it appears the time has come for 'them' to take action. Governor Jerry Brown's executive order mandating a 25 percent decrease in urban water usage may have been historic. Yet Robert Reich asks a good question (Facebook, 4/4/2015):

Why did Governor Jerry Brown exempt Big Oil and Big Agriculture from his order this week to cut water consumption by 25 percent? Big Oil uses more than 2 million gallons of fresh water a day in California for fracking, acidizing, and steam injections – nearly 70 million gallons last year alone. Meanwhile, California’s farmers consume 80 percent of the water used in the state but generate only 2 percent of the state’s economic activity.

Oddly, the Governor’s order focuses on urban water use, which makes up less than a quarter of the water consumed here. California could save the same amount of water by requiring its farmers to increase water efficiency by 5 percent. And in this seismically-challenged state, there’s no reason to continue allowing water-intensive fracking, which has been shown to increase the likelihood of earthquakes (just look at Oklahoma).

Mexico's Original Peoples Knew It First: Water Is Life

The seventh anniversary of our arrival in Mexico to stay came up last July. For the first three years, we had the good fortune to have lived in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. The people of this pueblo mágico gave us an unparalleled opportunity to become acquainted with the guiding cosmovision, myths and traditions of Mexico's original peoples.

Early posts in Jenny's Journal told stories about what we were learning and experiencing. One of the earliest on this theme is: Mesoamerican Culture: The Human Bond with Nature (8/22/2011). Two years later: The Enduring Power of Mexico's Natural Forces (9/19/2013). Both cite the oft-repeated Mexican dicho, saying, El agua es vida—Water is Life.

If I were to sum up our experience, I would say: Living in partnership with the earth; e.g., Mexico's Volcanoes & Mesoamerican Mythology (1/11/2012). One of my all-time favorite posts focuses precisely on that theme: "I Am the Earth."

The longer we live here, the more it becomes clear that familiarity with this ancient cosmovision lends cultural texture to much of what we encounter in Mexico. For example, toward the end of his formal announcement of a Zapatista conference scheduled for last May 3, 2015, Zapatista Subcomandante Galeano (nee Subcomandante Marcos) wrote:

Conference Begins on May 3. Why May 3? 

In our villages, May 3 is the day of planting, fertility, harvest. It is the day of the seed, the day of Santa Cruz, Holy Cross. In the pueblos, villages it is customary to plant a cross where the river begins, at the gully or spring that gives life to the settlement. This is how the place is shown to be sacred. It is sacred because the water gives life. 

May 3 is the day of asking for water for planting and a good harvest. On that day, the villagers go to give offerings where the waters are born. Or rather, as they speak to the water, they give it their flowers, they give it the bowl of atole (corn-based beverage), their incense, their salt-free pozole (chicken-corn soup). In other villages, they give a little drink, but alcohol is prohibited in Zapatista villages, so they offer a soda to the water. The pozole offered to the water is without salt, so the water doesn't dry up. During this ceremony of offering, they play music and everyone begins to dance—men, women, children, young people, old people—everyone!

When the offering ends, the socializing begins. The comida (food) they brought is shared: atole, chicken, beans, pumpkin. All the food is eaten communally at the very source of the life-giving water. When the meal ends, the people return to their houses. And now for pure joy, they continue the dance in the village and, still together as a community, they eat and have coffee with bread.

So there it is:

Zapatista vision infused with traditional Maya myth and custom overlaid with a patina of Roman Catholic Christianity: Holy Cross.

In distinct contrast to the so-called 'modern' approach taken in California by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.

Qué te vaya bien ... May it go well with you.

Green Shoots 2: Finding Community on Both Sides of Our Shared Border

During the three years we lived in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, we were deeply affected by the profound communal sense that permeates Pátzcuaro, strongly supported by a generous hospitality that made us—newcomers, strangers and foreigners to boot—feel welcome.

The first Green Shoots post in this series introduces Gustavo Esteva's important work, Grassroots Post-Modernism, which discusses Mesoamerican traditions of community and hospitality. Some time later, I discovered a discussion of U.S. community written by Robert R. Archibald, a trained historian and President of the Missouri Historical Museum (MHM) in St. Louis, Missouri.

Returning to his childhood town to reflect on the meaning of community and history, Archibald gathered his reflections together in A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community. Remarkably, the Midwestern historian uses 'attachment to place' as the unifying theme for grounding his reflection on what and why history matters, and how history can more deeply inform community problem solving, empathy for others, and personal enrichment.

In sharp contrast to the mobile lifestyle that characterized the twentieth century U.S. lifestyle, Archibald recalls,

"A sense of attachment to place—including contested, submerged, and living memories generated over time...."

Archibald's identification of 'attachment to place' resonates with a key component of Mesoamerican culture—the profound connectedness with the earth possessed by indigenous peoples—the rooted certainty that their land is their proper place on this earth identified by Gustavo Esteva:

"...not even the five hundred years that have passed since the arrival of the Spanish has managed to disrupt their [indigenous] sense of place." 

Tellingly, Grassroots Modernism is subtitled Remaking the soil of cultures.
The etymology of the Spanish verb estar (to be) traces back to the Indo-European word "sta," which means to stand; some derivatives mean "place or thing standing." In English, for example, we have state, stage, stay, statue, station—all words sharing the same root as the Spanish verb estar.

Our friend Ina tells of buying a breakfast taco from an indigenous vendor in Oaxaca, who asked where she is from. When Ina replied, "I'm from Wisconsin in the United States", the woman drew herself up and replied simply, "Ya tu estás en mi tierra" ("Now you are in my land")—a simple statement of fact.

Archibald writes,

"If we are to rebuild healthy communities, we must oppose those forces that detach people from place and confine them in a lonely present, truncated from past and future alike, isolated from each other."

In Archibald's view, four core values—mutual obligation, sustainability, transcendence, and memory—organize and sustain community. His mission at the Missouri History Museum (MHM) is to build on these values in ways that facilitate civic dialogue and hence serve as a catalyst for generating solutions to community challenges of education, crime, environment, infrastructure, taxation, family, and neighborhood.

But on the other side of our shared border, Archibald's core values are eerily reminiscent of components identified by Gustavo Esteva as characteristic of Mesoamerican culture.

• Esteva: Community is knit together by threads (ties) of mutual obligation, rather than assertion of 'individual rights'. 

Archibald: "A community is a place, but it is also a mindset—an attitude that acknowledges people's connections with each other, a sense of responsibility for one another and accountability to one another. Through investment in the common good, individuals transcend self-interest and act for the good of the whole." [p. 133]

• Esteva: Men and women cultivate the land using sustainable techniques that demonstrate respect for the earth. 

Archibald: "From the sense of mutual obligation emerges an acknowledgement that the living generation does not have a right to use everything up, and that the future [generation] too has a claim on the planet and a right to a reasonable quality of life."

• Esteva: Human beings and the natural world make up parts of a single Life-Force; a sense of transcendence derives from recognizing this essential relationship. 

Archibald: "The sense of transcendence speaks to humans' spiritual and emotional requirements that are, in turn, the wellspring of inspiration and creativity."

• Esteva: Myths and legends told by los grandes (the old ones) are handed down across generations, thus preserving the collective memory [identity] of the people—who they are, who they belong to, and who belongs to them. 

Archibald: "Public history practitioners must ensure that change does not overwhelm continuity; through remembering [stories, narratives] we construct identity for ourselves and our communities."

Under Archibald's leadership, MHM strives to be a place (!) where people can present multiple narratives about the community, where they can try to construct and present history [stories] in ways that deepen people's recognition of each other while developing historical narratives that connect them to others and facilitate solutions to problems. 


Gustavo Estefa might sum up the mission of MHM in one word: hospitality. Treating each other (the stranger) with dignity and respect—seeing in the other simply another part of one's own self, another part of the essential Life-Force—is at the heart of hospitality as practiced in Mesoamerican culture.

My architect sister and I engaged in an ongoing dialogue about possible connections between landscape, which surely embraces the concept of place, and spirituality. Several weeks ago, I read an article about new ideas for twenty-first century suburban spaces.

To my delight, one idea focuses on creating park-like centers for living, working, and playing in new suburban environments. The centers described by these futurist-planners seem remarkably like the plazas that are even today the pulsating heart at the center of life, work and play (fiestas) in Mexico's cities, towns, and villages.

So there you have it! At the grassroots a discovery of Green Shoots—the sights and sounds of community resonating along and across both sides of our shared border.

Green Shoots Part 3 features conversations between Bill Moyers and two remarkable women who actively live and nurture community in their lives. Here's the link:  Green Shoots: Nurturing and Living Community