Sonoma Pulse by Stephanie Hiller — June 2020
People are coming out, many wearing their masks, and on Sunday at the Plaza this Memorial Day weekend, family groups clustered six feet or more apart. This is good, though some say not good enough, healthwise. Frankly it’s hard to wear a mask on a hot afternoon, especially if you’re going to eat.
And eating there was, judging from garbage cans bursting with the paper and plastic of takeout meals. But there wasn’t much shopping going on. Not yet.
In the meantime we are all buying everything on line. Even food comes by delivery. We may not be using much gas these days, but Amazon is certainly using it. And unlike the rest of us, Amazon is making money.
If we look over our heads and into the future, the larger picture is grim.
We are moving into a time of corporate control over just about every facet of our lives. The Big Box stores we fought to keep out of our town are now operating behind the veil of their Internet shopping sites. Try to get a person on the phone to address a problem!
If we look at the little things, it’s apparent that the clock has turned back on many of our better practices. Remember bringing your own bag into the grocery store? Paper bags are now piling up next to my fridge. Filling your water jug with filtered water instead of buying plastic gallon bottles? for recycling, but we don’t have a great recycling program place.
The world that is emerging on the other side of this pandemic could be sterile, wrapped in plastic, and controlled by the invisible Wizard of Inc.
Is this what we want? And if not, is there something we can do? Sliding into apathy or depression will just reinforce the web of control that is being dropped over our lives.
In a letter to the Sonoma Sun, Georgia Kelly of PraxisPeace suggested we develop an urban culture more like Europe’s, blocking traffic from First Street for outdoor dining. Richard Raley has a similar idea in the IT. Saul Gropman of Café Le Haye suggests table service on the sidewalk. That might be a start. With people getting into a furor over proposed bike lanes on Broadway, the reaction to blocking off streets is predictable.
Change is hard but not has hard as it looks. We’re forced to change whether we like it or not. What if we took the reins and made the kinds of changes our community needs, as fire season rolls in (months early) and climate change looms on the horizon.
One thing I know: protecting our local economy is critical. We need to support local retail, dining, and entertainment. And most fundamental is supporting family farms. We’ve got to stop buying blueberries from Chile in January.
People are starving, and the Food Banks are overwhelmed; but are they distributing local produce? No. Can something be done about that?
I don’t have the answers but we do need to have the conversation. The time will come when we can have meetings again! We should start planning for some type of town hall or what is now called a Citizens Assembly. Guidelines may be found on the web. It’s a form of participatory democracy, which Councilmember Amy Harrington touted at a recent council meeting. But it’s not done by survey; it’s a place to show up, to voice individual opinions in a civilized way, to build agreements, and maybe vote.
We could consider creating a local currency. These have worked in many Transition Towns around the world. We have a couple of credit unions; we could have a local bank.
We could also begin to buy shares in local businesses instead of investing in a distant stock market, using some of the tools for community financing now available.
We are actually prepared to deal with this emergency. We just have to agree. And act.
