Okay, so I just posted a M&WW, but this one deserves a separate post:
• "Turning Your Lawn into a Victory Garden Won't Save You" (Alternet.com, 23 June 2008) Ah, yes...I've said before that this would come...that critics would turn up to chip away at Victory Garden efforts, to condemn them as "insufficient" to solve the myriad issues it aspires to address. Actually, although I think the headline was intentionally provocative (as a former editor, I know this happens lots and lots...and it happens often with no input from the writer...then again, this was a blog post.), the content was not terribly far off base.
No, we cannot assume that planting some veggies will save the planet from global warming, improve the lot of commercial grower's workers, stem the flow of marine-life-killing chemicals into the Gulf of Mexico.
Yes, we probably do need a bit more action, more protest even on these matters. Hey, how 'bout good old-fashioned letter writing, which is also effective and too oft over-looked in an age where on-line rage is promoted over skilled, nuanced persuasiveness when we speak of civic action.
But, for now, I'm sticking with the notion that it's the little things that we can experience first-hand...some fresh veggies shared with neighbors, a sense of accomplishment, a deeper connection with the earth, an increased awareness that what goes into our soil goes into our food and into us...those are transformative experiences that trigger notions that can seed change across the political spectrum.
As I've said before, enough with the fear already. Let's be the change. More importantly, let's be bipartisan, sprout-plantin' change. And let's accept that to move people along the continuum to understanding and taking action on some very important issues, we need a lot of tricks and techniques up our sleeves.
Gardening is one of mine. Is it yours? I sure hope so. Our nation's future depends upon it.
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