The Fierce Urgency of Now

On this date to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr., I quote the following made nearly 50 years ago:
"We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late."


And there is this quote from Frederick Douglas over a century before Dr. King: "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." 


The two men could have been embodied in one soul but it only made sense that they lived in different eras and inspired their own generations. More importantly, they used their words as an integrated part of their actions. Rather than mere political rhetoric or scalding editorials, both Dr. King and Frederick Douglas sought resolution through direct action. Words, as that children's rhyme goes, won't break anyone's bones. But executing a physical act will break the back of oppression. Action will serve in complement to the verbage. One without the other is weak and misunderstood at best. 

A small group of you has not finished your GPS so this is especially important for you to consider in moving forward. For the rest of you, please keep in mind that this is a road less traveled with plenty of bumps. But it is this journey that you'll probably find as the most rewarding of all. In the end, what we learn needs to be distributed to our children, to our friends and all those who live without their own answers. 

Make no mistake, Urban FIRE is about economic justice. Our brand of entrepreneurship is the civil rights strategy of the 21st Century working with small groups of individuals. While we label our economic conditions as "recession," "deregulation," "inflation," and "adjustments," the majority of us continue to suffer - and when a larger sector of any society suffers, there's no way around calling it "oppression." Through our economic system based on 17th and 18th Century theories, the paradigm goes that there must be various classes of people so that different people will perform all the necessary chores from menial to rocket science. So that we don't see through the dark side of this charade, there has been a centuries-old strategy called "Divide and Conquer" which keeps us from uniting and sometimes, even fighting each other while our real manipulator continues to thrive at our expense.   


We live in a society of Haves and Have-Nots. The latter is growing and no doubt, you're in Urban FIRE because deep inside you've wanted to change the course of where you've been and you're now seeking new direction. Whether you have considered your situation as temporarily poor, economically disadvantaged or socially denied, we tend to allow our conditions to persist because, frankly, when you get use to a situation, it's easier to live with the familiarity than to fight it.


So change is hard, isn't it? You've made the first step into recognizing the need to change by enrolling in this class. You've lived within the status quo for a long time, perhaps a lifetime. You desire - as we all do - to live with dignity and sufficient means, but you've neither had the opportunity or the sustainability to make it happen for the long haul. 


So I'd like you to think of this class as an Introduction to Struggle - an organized method -  an instigation - of change even when I don't know what change needs to happen for you. Through the articles I assemble and the research that I present to you, your first step is gaining knowledge because as Malcolm X said, "The future belongs to those who prepare for it today." With this knowledge comes answers, but it only matters when you gather the experiences and knowledge of your own life to make it relevant to you. This is when you'll be able to define your own change. That's why it's imperative that you spend time now to fill out your GPS. Yep, it can be emotionally draining. 


I make Urban FIRE challenging because building upon your sustainability is hard work - but the right thing to strive for. What I ask for is fully do-able and within the means of us all. Whatever reason you have for not submitting your GPS or in not reading through the assignments is not acceptable. Your choices are clear: continue the way you've always operated and stay where you're at or take the challenge to struggle and get your answers. Remember: failure is not an option; it is mandatory. There is no success without your progressive mindset to embrace failure as a part of getting to your goal. 


So today, let's honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who fought for us at the risk of his own life. I know that we've all said, "I have a dream." Today is the day to deliver because tomorrow does not exist. Urban FIRE is do now.


With sincere desires for your prosperity, 
Boku

Entrepreneurship nor Humans Are Expected to be Perfect

For a supplement to your GPS, please check out this video on a TED talk given by Brene Brown. Give it a bit of time to warm up because what she does is build her case and concludes with a resounding bit of wisdom.
http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

"When will there be a harvest for the world?"

Hello Good People, 
I've got a loose ended proposal that looks like an empty bottle thirsting to be filled with good ideas. I originally sent this to a few people but it’s time to open it up because we’re all concerned and it’s us – the everyday people – who need to be the decision-makers. If we wait for our “leaders” to solve our problems, we’ll be waiting in the breadlines.

So let’s do something like our forefathers: let’s make up new rules, change the playing field and dust off that original meaning of democracy. Too long, it’s just been treated like a storefront mannequin, getting a new dress when the new fashion wind blows. If real change is going to happen it ain’t coming from those who put us here in the first place as Albert Einstein once quipped. It’s one person joining a neighbor joining a cousin joining a colleague joining a Facebook friend. Nothing to lose but the chains around the status quo.   I realize you're busy as hell and I fully respect that but like me, you’ve probably been saying that for years.

Myself and Paul Lamb of Man on a Mission - http://www.manonamission.biz/ - were asked by The Hub -  http://bayarea.the-hub.net/public/ - to help them understand the social justice priorities of the East Bay because they're relatively new to this area. They are an international organization that works on a local level in a variety of social and entrepreneurial programs. The premise is simply that "social justice begins with us." The Hub wants to create an on-going program of social justice advocacy. Not that they'll own; it'll belong to all of us but it'll be conveniently accessible to us via The Hub.  

Somewhere down the road, we need to build a forum or an on-going dialogue for which we participate actively 
either in person or online. Somewhere we need to start even if we don't have the perfect venue; even if we don't 
understand all that we need to. Because when we start something, then other voices will chime in and through 
these new voices, we'll begin to figure things out. 

I realize that social justice is an extremely broad term and the idea of having a convening to discuss social justice is 
like discussing food. It's a supermarket jungle. But the idea comes from a book I read entitled "Sitting In the Fire" by Arnold Mindell. There is one passage that struck me as the essence as to why we need a dialogue on social justice. Here is a short section of that passage pertaining to a meeting around racism that happened in Oakland in 1992: 

"It was a cacophony of themes, voices and pain. In the midst of the chaos, a Black man spoke out with fury about 
the privilege of whites who give the good jobs to other whites while Blacks get the undesirable jobs. Things 
escalated. A white man came forward to meet him and the two men raged at each other, face to face, inches 
apart. The Black man screamed at the white man about his sense of supremacy and privilege, and the white man 
warned the Black that if he did not cool off and speak reasonably he would get his “ass kicked.” 

"That did it. The fire roared. Privilege means, as the reader will realize by now, not only economic power, but the 
privilege of being cool, calm and detached in communication – the privilege of not having to listen to the rage, fury 
and sadness of those without power. The whites suddenly split apart; some tried to silence the white man, while 
others stood by to support him. Blacks came forward and rallied around the Black speaker." 

In an urban farming project I had initiated in Oakland, a similar situation happened between various members. We were all working for the same goal but our ways of communicating with each other were disconnected and misunderstood. This happens when people of different color, different social and economic backgrounds and different ages merge together.  Had we taken the time to sit, restated our purpose for coming together and requested more clarity with each other, we would still be working together.

There is no doubt that we are all hurting by the economy, by the overall disenfranchisement of our social system. 
And if we remain separated in our little groups, then we'll continue to suffer when the real problem is the same for 
all of us. If we don't unite we stay status quo and we continue to fight over scraps. So social justice begins with us. 
We are the leaders we've been waiting for and we need to take back the power and control if we're to beat the 
crap out of social injustice.

So my challenge is identifying the most important issues of social justice. Break it down; specify it: 
* Our toxic food system?
* Our incarceration system?
* Our one-sided economic system?
* Our education system?
* Our eroding environment?
* Our unaffordable health system?
* the continued death of our social service system?
* Our inability to see our own racism, ageism and sexism?
* Our inability to unite to fight the same enemy?

So, it comes down to organizing and building a movement that gains traction and high profile so that it does not 
remain in the closet but feels like a popsicle stick shoved up our nose. President Obama would agree. In 1990, he 
wrote the following:

“In theory, community organizing provides a way to merge various strategies for neighborhood empowerment. 
Organizing begins with the premise that 1) the problems facing inner-city communities do not result from a lack of 
effective solutions, but from a lack of power to implement these solutions; 2) that the only way for communities to 
build long-term power is by organizing people and money around a common vision, and 3) that a viable organization 
can only be achieved if a broadly based indigenous leadership – and not one or two charismatic leaders – can knit 
together the diverse interests of their local institutions."

So, any ideas; what the main issue? Is there a venue for this discussion? Who should be included? How do we gain 
momentum and get something that's real and concrete to come out of this; something that kicks ass to our main 
issue? Would we then gain the momentum and power to take on the other issues?

I realize this all sounds like stuff you've heard before. But on the other hand, when are we going to see change? When does that start? Not the politico rendition but the real one; the one when education is open to everyone, when your doctor isn't about going to the emergency room and young men don't feel the need to carry a weapon anymore. 

Anyway, I've written this because we matter - you matter. And you have the resources, connections and 
knowledge to make it happen. Can you get on board? In the words of the Isley Brothers: "When will there be a 
harvest for the world?"

- Boku

Parenting: First Offensive On The War on Poverty

The Core Issue

For a long time, I've been composing an argument in my head that speaks to the research I've been doing for the past 11 years. I need to keep constantly vigil of how I might provide a better service to those in our disenfranchised communities consisting primarily of African Americans in the inner cities. My entrepreneurship training program is one thing but there is a more fundamental training that needs to be addressed: teaching young people to become responsible, selfless parents who will mode an inquisitive, loving child into an inquisitive, loving adult.

Too often, a child growing up without proper parenting ends up out on the streets looking for connections - to belong - and usually finds it in all the wrong places. Parenting is the most important responsibility a human has once a child is brought into the world. Life's priorities need to change. Partying, staying out all night, spending money until you're in debt, regretting the baby's presence are no longer options. They must now be far down on your list of priorities. Parenting must become one of the top four responsibilities (the other three are passionate life work, personal happiness and financial security).

I'm responding to the constant data in the media, in repetitious research studies, in the neverending amounts spent by foundations to find out why African Americans continue to lag behind in education and professional careers; why there is a disporportionate number of black men in prisons and why such a huge percentage of African Americans are in poverty. It starts with a parent not parenting. It begins as a one-on-0ne home environment and while societal conditions will play a major part, the most influential aspect of any child growing up is the parent. The parent has the most control of how their child will come out as an adult.

Enough Already; Do Something!

Every decade, a dozen or so well-publicized studies are conducted, paid by foundations to showcase their purpose and written quite expertly by well-honed PhD candidates and other for-hire scholars. The study might be localized to a particular city, a specific community or a group of students in a single school, but the results come back the same and usually, the recommendations follow similar patterns. In fact, most studies will reference past studies and cite each other's qualifications to justify their conclusions. So in fact, the paradigm never changes. Who did you say these studies benefitted?

Data is useless without action. What we need is more sweat on the streets with people being well paid to care for our communities with well defined, realistic outcomes. Get over the fact that anything will have a quick solution - that's your local politican talking. Ain't going to happen because we've been mired with a hundred years of "usual" business practices that seem to take resources away from their intended target. (Several years ago, I was told that a $3 million federal grant I had initiated required us to turn over $500,000 to a local government agency for their "endorsement" even though they had little to do with our project.)

We need a new paradigm; a new way of doing business in the social service sector of our society. The status quo usually resides with those in control, and it's there because they're quite satisfied with their positions. So whenever you start acting as if you're entering the status quo, have someone kick you really hard in the head. Complacency is a prime character of the status quo and action merely becomes your butt sitting at a computer and writing glorified, justified mumbo jumbo data for some foundation. Oh, there might actually be lots of things hopping and social servants will tell you how over-worked they are. But if you were to analyze their duties, I'll bet most of it is creating report that no one will seriously look at or data collection that will have minimal usage or writing documents to justify "stuff."

Real Social Change

I believe that entrepreneurship training addresses one major level of real social change when conducted as a five-prong process:

1. civil rights

2. economic justice

3. ethical business practices

4. the science of personal success and

5. engaging in community improvements

And it does so at a fraction of the expense. Like the growing Green Industry which is reducing our dependence on foreign oil, entrepreneurship will reduce our dependence on social service as we know it now.

As I conduct my training, I bear witness to many of my students who continue to have difficulties in keeping up with the work. As much as most of them have the highest intentions of succeeding, their ability to focus and sustain their determination lags behind their desires resulting in broken promises to themselves.

Without a doubt, if you're born poor in America, the odds are you will be at a social and personal disadvantage. The experiences and the environment one gets dealt will weigh heavy in your way of thinking. For instance, many poor babies grow without enough parental love and care because parenting skills are lacking in young mothers, fathers are absent and the lack of money requires the mother to work without adequate childcare.

It's Not Just Environmental

Recent brain research has shown that a lack of nurturing retards the development of that area of the brain responsible for caring of others and social responsiblity. So that a lack of one's responsibilities and a lack of achievements is not just a social conditioning but more importantly, a mental conditioning. The good news is we can dramatically improve those skills.

In his book, "The Talent Code," Daniel Coyle writes about an experiment in an urban school where 700 students were divided into two groups at the beginning of a semester. One group was encouraged to make a good effort. The other group was informed that recent brain research proved that diligence in studying improved intelligence. In other words, intelligence was a learning process, not an inherited trait. The results: the second group had far better grades. (A side note: the number of immigrants who have launched their businesses without so much as a training program - forget for a moment whether these businesses succeed or not. Why are they more determined and with far less fear to launch a business?)

For me, the million dollar question was why my African American students had the most difficulty in starting a business? Yep, the research is there, and I now know the answer - even though incomplete - it still raises my awareness and forges some action, starting with this blog entry.

Is it me or don't other people want to actively pursue a solution for such a fundamental necessity as parenting education? Not that it's not there; it's that we don't fund it the level we need to in order that future kids don't get discarded. We want our futures to thrive with caring people and those who will work towards a global peace and prosperity. Why we haven't done much about this issue is the real question. It would probably cost about one B1 Bomber.

Here's my take on why we've injected little time and money into parenting education: 1. it's not sexy or news-catchy; 2. there's no quick solutions so that politicans and government agencies can benefit from it and 3. we're doing it already, and we don't need to tweak it. It's like the battered woman who can't leave her abuser because at least she knows what's going to happen rather than leaving and entering into the unknown. (I've experienced the reluctance to support my entrepreneurship program by social service organizations because they understand job training not job creation. I've even had one organization call me a threat to their existence!)

Maintaining the Status Quo

For all that's been written, for all the research, for all the political posturing, for the trillion dollars spent; in the end, little has changed over the years in America as it pertains to the poor in the inner cities. Yes, it is a societal issue that affects every one of us. We forge ahead with new social programs every few years with new names and new missions. And we continue to get the same results. Maybe the status quo is saying that in order for the status quo to exist, we must always have poor people. So if you're poor, the status quo is your enemy but the status quo always seems to just sit there on its big fat behind because few people are nudging it. As former Black Panther Huey Newton once said, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."

So the status quo looks like this: politicians boasts of being saviors, social service agencies maintain business as usual and the poor continue to serve as pawns of the federal money game. It's like legalized money laundering because the "clients" are kept quiet with chump change every two weeks while the real deal gets washed, folded and tucked away by the keepers of the laundermat.

In the meantime, the most basic problem - lack of parenting and the lack of a well-funded education around parenting - stays, well, status quo.

If you want to see real change starting with the most fundamental criteria, there's two levels of attack that need to take place simultaneously:

1. fight for parenting education as a requirement starting in middle school so that future parents realize their roles and responsibilities as parents in caring for their children. (Think about the killings that happen in inner city communities now that you understand how little children without proper love and guidance grow into youths without that part of their brain holding human life as precious or of social responsibility.)

2. seek out the brain research that's available now to understand how you can identify your learning ability, how to grow those parts of your brain that are the most important to you and how to achieve success by tapping into the new science of brain optimization. Some popular books to suggest:

"Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

"Talented Is Overrated" by Geoff Colvin

"The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle

"How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer

"Brain Rules" by John Medina.

Sitting With the Dhamma Brothers (Part One)

I don’t have a real answer to the violence, but that’s the point of this entry.

I might be way off but something drastically different needs to be done about how Oakland, CA deals with its never-ending violence. Nothing so far has worked so how about getting us engaged in building the answer - starting now. It needs to come from the bottom up. We need a movement of fresh thinkers joining together to form a tribe. Leaving it to our leaders has added little to the outcome. If real change is to happen, it needs to come from a new perspective. We first need this dialogue among ourselves, and then, we need to agree to a process in which we take action – the sooner the better. Let me explain my proposal in four parts.

Background: When the four police officers were killed in Oakland on March 21, 2009, it shocked me and most other people. But just as shocking for many was the support that Lovell Mixon, the man accused of gunning down the officers, was given as a hero's tribute by a small contingent of Oakland residents. This sent a rage of protest and anger from the greater community. I was thinking how separated we were becoming and adding more hardships and hostilities in an already fragile community. We've seen more violence and more soapbox rhetoric of the same brand year after year, decade after decade.

We're frustrated by the lack of progress in bringing more peace and harmony, and then I remembered a book I read that made all the sense to me.

Part One: In 2002, I was introduced to a book entitled, "Sitting In the Fire" by Arnold Mindell. Mindell is an extraordinary man whose perspective on conflict resolution needs to be taken seriously. He was a key engineer in the truce between the Protestants and the Catholics in the decades-long battles that killed thousands in Ireland. He was also involved with bringing peace among the various stakeholders in Compton, CA in the early 90s. Compton was cited as the most violent city in the country amongst those with a population of 75,000 to 99,999. Here's an excerpt from "Sitting In the Fire" describing a meeting Mindell facilitated - when you're reading this, think about how this applies in Oakland:

The atmosphere in the conference room was tense. People from outside Compton were afraid of the area and anger could be felt in the air as the conference opened. There were many heated exchanges and arguments about racism. One argument is particularly relevant to the discussion here. On the second day of the meeting, a white man in his late forties spoke gently but confidently about how he did not like anger. He smiled the whole time he spoke.

A black man in his twenties said quietly he thought the white man did not know what he was talking about. The white man ignored him. The black man then stood up, faced the white speaker and spoke vehemently about not being heard. The white man refused to talk to such an "angry person." The louder the African American man became, the more the white man turned his head and whole body in another direction, repeatedly saying he was open to everyone.

This argument came to a momentary resolution when a white member of our four-person multiracial facilitating team (two were African American, two were white) pointed out that the white man's aloof behavior, his turning away, was based on his assumption that people needed to be calm to debate. A discussion arose about how this apparently trivial assumption was a mainstream expectation born of exclusivity and privilege since calmness is possible only when the issues at hand are not troubling.

Some mainstream participants did not understand.

A black facilitator explained that there was a hidden message in the white man's request for calm: "Follow my prescription for behavior and don't upset me about issues which are not mine."

The black facilitators explained that hidden messages such as this marginalize non-mainstream issues. The dispute seemed resolved for the moment, and the work went on.

Part Two: In 2008, a video documentary entitled "The Dhamma Brothers" was released. It is a story that gives you hope that even under the worst conditions, people are capable of changing for the better when given an honest-to-goodness chance for enlightenment.

"The Dhamma Brothers" (www.dhammabrothers.com) is set in an overcrowded maximum-security prison in Alabama. This particular prison is the end of the line for these hardened criminals. They've been convicted of murders and other notorious crimes. None of them will ever see freedom again.

The importance of this story is how these once hostile prisoners volunteered in an experimental program that must have seemed absurd to the nth degree in such a Christian-domain as the Deep South. And while it was a struggle for its supporters to finally get the program approved after two years, its results proved an important point.

As far-fetched as it might have seemed to most people, these prisoners became practioners of the Buddhist practice of meditation called Vipassana. They were the first of any prison in North America to experiment with this demanding course of deep meditation lasting ten days.

For many of these convicts, it was the first time they had the opportunity to reach deep inside their conscience to reflect upon all that’s happened in their lives. For much of the day, they sat together in silence in a converted gym and allowed their souls to hold an inner conversation. At first, most of the men had to fight the same old inner voices and all the random thoughts that streamed through. But over time, their focus grew sharper and their minds settled into a meaningful dialogue.

Through this meditation, the participants saw how each of them was within control of their own world. No longer did the barbed wires and concrete walls of the prison mean they couldn’t be free. Once realized, they no longer needed to hold a posture of defiance or defense, they were free to be honest and open. What resulted was a life changing process leading to greater self responsibility, compassion for their fellow prisoners, compassion for their victims and their families and a desire to build a movement of social good within the prison. They became advocates of non-violence, and it fortified their desire to educate themselves. For some, they became teachers of Vipassana. For others, they continued to practice their meditation two years after their introduction.

I understand the California prison system is considering this approach.

To be continued

Sitting With the Dhamma Brothers (Part Two)

Part Three: (I've got to give you some background in order to make sense of Part Three.) For many of us in urban communities, gardening is probably one of the most relaxing and personally rewarding hobbies. It is a way to forget the pressures of daily living and of the intensities at work. It cleanses us of the static noises and electrical waves invading our bodies from all of our "devices." What gardening does is it literally grounds us to the earth. It brings us back to a direct connection to our ancestors and our human heritage. There is an absolute oneness you can feel - if you allow it - to the very nature of our commonality and connection to all living things. That oneness is real especially when you feel its nurturing aura as you cultivate the earth, bringing alive the meaning of "Mother Nature," and you realize that we are all her children.

Unfortunately, the human sector of her children has been behaving badly for the last 200 years. I’m sure most of us have never thought of ourselves as the black sheep of the family. So, here's a sobering thought: right now, today, 99.99 percent of all living things that have inhabited the earth are extinct. That's a scientific fact. Humans, on the other hand, have proliferated at an extraordinary rate going from one billion in 1900 to six billion in 2000.

From the DNA evidence, we homo sapiens have been uniting sperms and eggs for 200,000 years. From way back then until 1900, it required THAT length of time to reach a billion. Then in just one hundred years, we increased by five billion! It's projected that in 50 years, we'll add almost four billion. Not that all those extinctions are our fault - we weren't around when that monster meteor collided with the earth and caused a chain reaction killing all the dinosaurs. We; however, have gotten to a level of arrogance which seems to command entitlement to whatever we wish without much considerations of the consequences. This has included a justification for killing, especially of things, animals and people who get in our way. With some people, extinction seems to have become a part of business and a part of life.

The more we've dominated the landscape, the more oblivious we get about all the sand we’ve kicked into our mother's face. But the times, they are a’changin’, because Big Mama hasn’t enjoyed the facelift. It's obvious she been getting more pissed off lately and there is no doubt: an immense tantrum is brewing below the surface. Lately, she's been thinking about scrapping the whole mess and starting all over again. If you're familiar with Thomas Friedman's book, "Hot, Flat and Crowded" you'll take note that some earth scientists are saying the human species may be on the chopping block by 2100. Just think, we'll go from 9 billion to zero in three seconds flat in anthropological terms.

So, how does this all relate to gardening? And for that matter, how does it relate to the killings in Oakland? The short answer: there is a viable solution to our urban crisis if we take our human evolutionary history and incorporate the simple, ancient craft of gardening to replenish the earth and use it to build a new urban industry employing thousands of inner-city workers - but not necessarily in the way you might think. The concept is so simple and so old, it might not make sense to the powers-that-be because it requires a shift in the bureaucratic paradigm especially since it won’t cost much and may not bring much in federal stimulus money. But that’s the exact reason we should do this – high impact, low cost. My experience so far has been that ignoring (aka ignorance) has been easier than trying to understand its impact as a benefit to our communities. We all know that the same old solutions and the same old arguments have produced the same old results, and we’re still in the same old place, not to mention the enormous taxpayer monies that have been wasted. That’s why a groundswell on the Internet needs to happen. Bottoms up!

So, let’s describe this solution: instead of gardening for gardening’s sake, how about if we grow plants that will have a real value to our communities? What if we started growing fruits and vegetables across our urban landscapes and began thinking in terms of “micro-farming” where thousands of open spaces – even just a stair or deck could be utilized as a food producing site? The benefits would be enormous just by this simple act:

• More people will take control of their foods while saving tons of money.
• Foods will be grown organically, more nutritiously without harmful pesticides.
• We’d reduce our carbon emissions because our foodswon’t have to be trucked or shipped an average of 1500 miles.
• Rather than just decorative trees, plant apple, avocado, peach, pear, orange trees etc. everywhere, thus, removing more CO2 and growing an ample supply of fruits for everyone.
• Develop simple business models so that low and middle income urban residents can make micro-farming a career or at least a part time job to supplement their incomes.
• Incentivize partnerships between micro-farmers and local businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores, and food kitchens so that overall food costs are reduced and local economies can thrive.
• Develop an organic micro-farming industry that establishing guidelines, best practices and technical assistance programs as part of a new economic strategy for our cities. (In 2007, for the first time in the world’s history, more than 50 percent of the population lived in urban locations. In 20 more years, that figure will jump to 70 percent; thus, making even more sense to establish urban farms.)

Some of these urban farms are already in existence throughout the country, and no less than Michelle Obama has been instrumental in moving this agenda forward by planting a micro-farm within the White House garden. But could we expand the micro-farm concept for people even if they have no land?

In Africa, Central America, New York City, Newark and Chicago, they’re already doing it using what’s called “self-watering containers.” There are tens of thousands of these growing foods in regions that have been prohibitive for farming previously. There is no need to reconstitute the soil, no need to break apart concrete - all you do is place the container atop just about any surface. Here in Oakland, the initial steps have been taken: land is available through the Parks and Recreation Department and the Oakland Housing Authority. The Oakland school district’s Adult Education program has given us their blessing for training people in micro farming. Now, we just need a growing movement of people to participate and join the rest of the world’s progression into urban farming.

Self-watering containers are a relatively new invention that’s been available to the public since 2001. The best known of these is called EarthBox (www.earthbox.com). There are now other manufacturers with various sizes and shapes. But they all conform to a common principle: the containers hold a reservoir of water in the bottom section and through natural capillary action, move the water upward into the soil. This process is so water efficient, that for most plants, you’ll only use 40 percent of the water in comparison to the traditional in-ground system. The soil should be organic, and it will require only one application of fertilizer for the entire growing season. The process is so simple and the results superior to standard farming, it has revolutionized how we can grow our foods. The containers are nearly 30 inches in length, 14 inches deep and 11 inches tall, but the results can be as much as double your in-ground method.

Now, anyone with about eight hours of sunlight and a deck, a stair, a driveway, can join the self-watering container, micro-farm movement. I want to encourage each of you to have at least one self-watering container and push the movement forward. Proliferate it as a simple solution to food, environment and employment. Let's make it the iPod of urban farming. And that’s the point, anyone can do this; and if motivated, anyone can turn this into a successful business or a social cause which would be the final point of this blog. To be continued

Sitting With the Dhamma Brothers (Conclusion)

The annual violence in Oakland has been cited as the fifth worst in the United States. Whenever I’m traveling and people ask me where I’m from and I say, “Oakland, CA” they do a double-take, like “let me wring out my ears, I swear, I thought you said Oakland.” “Ahh, yeah, I did.” Then there’s a short embarrassing moment of silence and that perplexed look like, “You poor thing; I’m so sorry.”

So it was a wonder that the New York Times, in their Travel section, put an enticing look to Oakland’s image in an article entitled, “36 Hours In Oakland, CA” on May 3, 2009 (yes, I thought I’d put the year in just so you knew I was talking about the present day.) http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/travel/03hours.html

There truly is at least two Oaklands. One is the vibrant multi-cultural, multi-racial city featured in The New York Times of beautiful homes, diverse neighborhoods, breathtaking natural sceneries, and year-round activities enhanced by some of the best weather in the world. The other Oakland is the one that gets all the other coverage; the one that everyone in the country fears. It would be great if the first Oakland was so generous that it could eliminate the second one through its goodness to be inclusive. “He ain’t heavy; he’s my brother.” But they’re like opposite poles; never talking until something bad happens. Then the first brother either hides or demands protection. The second brother feels left out, hurt and powerless. He cries out, screams for attention to resolve the impasse but no one listens. It’s as if the Berlin Wall had been erected across the center of the city. In fact, there was so much animosity back in the early 1990s that some residents of the Oakland Hills were calling for secession and renaming their community, “Tuscany.”

The Aftermath of the Killings

I began this blog about the death of four Oakland police officers on March 21 of this year and the clear dividing line between those who idolized the alleged killer and those who were shocked by this idolization. It made me think that unless we change the way we treat each other, the fundamental course – no matter what new social program we put up – will change nothing to improve our ability to live as one harmonious community.

The aftermath of the killings brought thousands of strangers together in mourning. We watched the news, we talked for hours, we were angered, we were saddened and found comfort in our friends and family. As I was driving down Highway 80, I witnessed a long, united procession of police vehicles from neighboring cities heading into Oakland for the funeral. We paid respect to the fallen officers and on a higher level, we as a society marked this tragedy as an horrific episode for humanity. The next day, we went back to business as usual.

We understand that this sort of violence must stop but we’re so caught up in our own struggles of daily living and our own routines that thinking about how we resolve the problem is too taxing and eventually, we take the easier route, expect our public officials to take care of it and then forget - until the next tragedy occurs. Then we go through the same cycle of mourning, the same contemplation and then back to our routines.

Befriending Your Enemies

Will we ever come to the point of having a true solution? Conventional wisdom would say “impossible” but I would contend that answer is based on the mire we’ve confined ourselves in. It’s been like this for so long, we’re in a hypnotic state. Could we, though, work towards a solution that proceeds like a ladder, reaching its ultimate goal one step at a time? There are solutions across the country and across the globe where the stem of violence has been cut at its base. My friend, Paul Lamb, sent me this quote from one of the great peacemakers the world has known, Mahatma Gandhi:

“It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.”

We need a strategy based on Gandhi’s words. First of all, one of the major divides in our communities is economic. You already know that the poor are losing their survival options in these economic times. We know that unemployment is highest in the inner cities. Public services have been cut drastically. We know that common businesses such as financial institutions, retail stores and professional services do not reside in low income neighborhoods - making it even harder on those who live there.

For generations, those who lived in the poor parts of town have been crying out for equal opportunities, and when their voices weren’t being heard, they shouted in anger and sometimes, those shouts were the sounds of gunshots. The mainstream couldn’t understand and instead of looking at the root causes, we saw only the anger, the violence and the threat of escalation into the affluent neighborhoods. We gave money to social services to make the problem go away but the problem was beyond their capacity. We hired more cops, built more prisons and did everything to protect the mainstream. In the meantime, the poor still had no money, no education, no health care and no one listening. They were despised and the mainstream looked upon the poor as a group that needed to be controlled and confined.

The Inclusive Three Step

Sometimes, the best solutions have nothing to do with money. It starts with open communications without tradition. It starts as a three-step process: 1. Giving voice to the voiceless, 2. Listening and understanding, and 3.Working on an inclusive solution. It’s a dialogue that runs two ways. It is not a top down approach born from some ideology of Robert’s Rules of Order. It is giving true equality to each of our citizens with respect for their contributions to the dialogue.

Too often the mainstream has dictated how the discussion will take place. Their conventional wisdom states there is a protocol and a specific manner in which the dialogue must take place. If the discussion alters itself from the accepted form, we stop listening. It is time we accepted that no matter how many hours we spent in learning to conduct ourselves in this “accepted” form of dialogue, the people we need to include in the talks do not necessarily subscribe to the methods we’re accustomed to. What we all need to do is accept the fact that other ways of communication exist and that they are as legitimate as ours.

What’s the solution? Let me propose two at the risk of sounding like a naïve dreamer. How about an annual conference on racism and civil rights in Oakland? Yeah, I know, no one wants a conference on that anymore – too negative, irrelevant, too old school. Maybe we should call it the “Open Dialogue” or the “Conventional Defiance” Conference. It should be a venue where the voiceless and the powerless are given an opportunity to speak whether in calm or anger, whether in an “acceptable” communication style or otherwise. We pride ourselves on being such a richly diverse city, yet few of us actually mix together on a regular and personal basis. If you’re white, you stick with whites, if you’re black, ditto, Asian, same thing. If you’ve got money, you stick with the money crowd. If you’re poor, you hang with the poor. We just aren’t comfortable outside of our circle whether class-based, culturally-based, racially-based or age-based.

Building the Groundswell for Real Solutions

In the beginning, only the voiceless and progressive people will attend our conference. There would have to be dedicated advocates, some strong in organizing skills, others in technology skills and some who just plain see the need for change. They would have to create a groundswell from the bottom up to force the issue; to make the conference an annual city event when all the parties will finally show up and become a voice for the solution rather than avoiding the discomforts of confrontation. This has to be a conference where real action takes places; where communities can look forward to real results coming out of the conference; where they can say, “We’re going to have a little farm on Elm St. and we’re going to learn how to grow our own vegetables for ourselves, and it’s going to be our new business.”

A friend of mine reminded me with that in the corporate world, much of the management decision-making is filled with posturing, ego-boosting and usually takes too damn long. In fact, many solutions are created when two workers most qualified to resolve the issue, meet in the hallway for five minutes and solve the problem. That’s what this conference needs to emulate; a venue without the politicians or the bureaucrats to goo-up the process.

Unless we truly start talking with each other, especially those of us who disagree; allow for the anger to come out; allow for our fears to reveal themselves; allow for us to cry in our sadness and confess to our failures, we can’t have an honest dialogue or a true solution. Slowly, more and more will come out of their comfort zones and participate because the groundswell will progress to where the annual conference will become the norm.

Using the Silent Treatment

For my second solution, let me put a twist to this discussion with a small step that may seem out of whack to some of you. It is based on the concepts in “Sitting In the Fire,” Urban ROOTS and if you’ve had a chance to check out the “Dhamma Brothers” video documentary, you know that effective communication and social resolve doesn’t always require words:

What if a group of people volunteered to create a micro farm in a low-income Oakland neighborhood using the EarthBox self-watering containers for the intent described in Part Three? What if these people were volunteers who didn’t know each other and to promote teamwork, everyone dressed the same. We would train them to work together on creating a micro-farm with EarthBoxes but told them they couldn’t speak to each other. Everything would have to be communicated through physical action. What if at the start of each day, we would begin with a one-hour silent group meditation asking everyone to clear their minds so that they could leave the outside world behind and focus on their own inner thoughts. We would then partner the volunteers into three-person teams which would be responsible for taking care of a set of EarthBoxes. At the end of the day, we would again reserve one hour to mediate as a group. What if we did this for two straight weeks – 14 straight days for 10 hours per day?

What if one group was a dozen concerned cops and the other group was a dozen ex-cons just out of prison? What if another group was a dozen successful business people and the other was unemployed poor residents? Would they all reach levels of cooperation as they worked together as teams? Would they learn to work together without the strains of status and rank? Could they use their meditation time to reflect upon each day’s journey and feel the brotherhood and sisterhood of having worked in unison towards a common goal? Would they go away from this experience with greater compassion when they all reveal their true identities on the final day? Would there be a willingness to continue the dialogue in the future using a neutral setting and dressing the same? Could fundamental change happen?

In my head, these are legitimate solutions for social change because they are truly inclusive. And an inclusive society means people don’t feel left out, don’t feel ignored and feel they have a voice. It means that over time, we equalize our educational system so that what we provide in the Oakland Hills is no different from what’s offered in the flatlands. It means that our economic conditions improve because more skilled people work in a growing number of new companies enjoying a well educated workforce. It means entrepreneurs feel confident in calling Oakland their home. It means we learn to talk with each other and work on resolutions from the bottom up. It means the shouting lessens because people are being heard. We begin to feel like a real diverse community respectful of our different styles and cherishing what each of us brings. The New York Times does another story about Oakland without starting off with "Despite Oakland's reputation as a crime capital ...."