[CRNMC] The next issue to take on...

[Charles Cresson Wood]

Hello CRNMC friends,

Like Sandy Marshall, I've been thinking about what the next issue should be that could be used to advance the community rights cause in Mendocino County. As this group knows, community rights is actually a pretty complicated legal issue, and it takes some time for people to really get it -- I mean deeply appreciate the big picture (see how we Americans are ruled by corporations, how the Constitution is used to pervert the economic system in favor of property owners, understand how Federal laws preempt local and state laws, etc.). So I suggest that we combine an important next step in the community rights area with a hot environmental issue that everyone can relate to, even if they are only reading our new ballot measure for the first time when they are voting. The environmental issue ideally should be something people are already concerned about... so there is a minimum of education required.

As the link below indicates, the availability of sufficient pure water, and keeping water from being polluted by pesticides, landfills, etc. is on the list of top issues in the environmental area. Since we the residents of Mendocino County have just suffered through a very serious and historically unprecedented drought, and it looks like drought will continue -- although hopefully at a less severe level -- I suggest that a water issue is the best way to go for our next ballot measure. This measure could incorporate pollution of waterways via pesticides from agriculture, hack-and-squirt (a local forestry practice using pesticides), and related local issues. Pure water also directly affects food as well as public health, and as this link shows, these two issues are also among the top concerns of the public when it comes to environmental issues.

Another great reason to keep with the water theme is that we can build on what we established with the first ballot measure. We could set-up an organizational infrastructure for legal enforcement, for example. We can also play on the spiritual theme of everything being connected, because how we handle water affects us all.

So I suggest that the next ballot measure address pure water, and the availability of pure water. 

/s/ Charles

http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/08/18/most-important-environmental-issues-of-today/