http://drummondpike.tides.org Drummond Pike's Blog Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:45:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Organizing and advocacy for social justice causes is hard. We all know that, and those of us who work to support such things often tire of the uphill battles. Even when we are winning, it feels so fragile. But then, every once in a while, you run across ... http://drummondpike.tides.org/index.php/2008/10/03/green-bans/ Traveling outside the country, as I am, it is surprising how difficult it is to escape the imploding financial markets. The entire globe appears gripped in this drama, man-made and preventable, and the solutions being bandied about have yet to gain real traction or acceptance. I just glanced ... http://drummondpike.tides.org/index.php/2008/09/22/predators/ On the plane to Sydney to meet up with the Organizer’s Forum delegation, I found myself thinking about the current economic “crisis” in contrast to the Great Depression to which it has been compared. Interesting. Yes, the current collapse of the credit markets has required a financial bailout ... http://drummondpike.tides.org/index.php/2008/09/20/meltdown-organizing/ Less that 7 weeks are left before one of the most important elections of our times, and it’s a dead heat. Wow. Usually by this time, there is a clear front-runner and the other candidate is trying to hard to catch up. But however the next number of weeks turns ... http://drummondpike.tides.org/index.php/2008/09/19/expand-and-protect-the-vote/ I’m a good way into Timothy Egan’s excellent The Worst Hard Time, a history of the Dust Bowl and its survivors, those gritty people who hung on and lived through one of the worst man-made disasters of all time. It truly is an amazing tale. First, how the boom in ... http://drummondpike.tides.org/index.php/2008/09/04/from-the-dust-bowl-to-climate-change/ Unlike most of my trips in the Grand Canyon, this year we stopped at Phantom Ranch to let hikers off and to meet new guests for the second half. Most often, we simply float by, eschewing the opportunity to call home from the one phone accessible to river runners during ... http://drummondpike.tides.org/index.php/2008/09/02/bad-run/ While this blog reflects my personal opinions, it is also an institutional vehicle for Tides and should reflect the institutional positions of the organization--which is why I am removing this post. http://drummondpike.tides.org/index.php/2008/08/13/pablo-on-acorn-will-it-be-fair-and-balanced/ Buried away in our non-profit bunker, where things political are verboten, some of us struggle with how to hold true to our commitments and values. So, let me begin by saying that I do not advocate on behalf of either of the presidential candidates. This is my day job, and ... http://drummondpike.tides.org/index.php/2008/08/04/mccain-wins-the-race-card-to-the-bottom/ As some of you know, we had this little conference a week ago called Momentum. It was amazing. The idea was to bring together leaders in the progressive community and expose them to one another and to a set of speakers capable of sharing some of the most important emerging thinking ... http://drummondpike.tides.org/index.php/2008/08/01/tides-momentum-2008/ Sy Hersh’s recent piece (New Yorker Magazine, July 7 & 14 , 2008 Issue) is one of the most frightening pieces I have read in years. In it, with his deft storytelling, he paints a picture of a struggle between the military command structure and the White House (primarily Dick ... http://drummondpike.tides.org/index.php/2008/07/05/hersh-on-us-in-iranhow-bad-can-it-get/