This isn't for a while, but it looks really great. Basically, RUST (Radical Urban Sustainability Training) is a weekend long course that teaches you how to live more sustainably in a city. Through hands-on activity, interaction with the local community, and lecture here are some of the topics they'll be teaching about:
* Low-tech bioremediation (cleaning contaminated soils using plants, fungi and bacteria) * Rainwater harvesting * Aquaculture: ponds, plants, fish, algae * Constructed wetlands/greywater * Autonomous technologies:wind turbines & passive solar * Worm composting and soldier flies * Raised bed gardening and soil alchemy * City chickens and micro-livestock * Struggles for land and gentrification * Brownfield restoration * Biofuels: methane digesters, wood gas and veggie oil vehicles * Mycoscaping:edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation * Energy depletion and climate justice * Sustainable and efficient wood burning
Also, just because it's awesome- "If you’ve ever dreamed about quitting the rat race and taking control of your life, spend an afternoon with Dolly Freed’s Possum Living." At 18, Freed wrote the classic book about how she lived without "working."
Michelle Cravez is Social Action Vice President of the North American Federation of Temple Youth. She is a recent graduate of Miami Killian Senior High and a current freshman at the University of Florida, where she intends to major in non-profit organizational leadership. This blog entry was originally posted at RACblog.
As Election Day creeps upon us, one question seems to be floating around the average college student's conversations, "So, are you registered to vote yet?" In the past, the youth vote has often been overlooked due, in part, to the relatively low voter turnout. In this critical and potentially close election, evidence exists that this year's election could result in a historically high number of votes cast by 18-24 year olds , resulting in an increased emphasis on the youth vote. This is our country, this is our future and thus, this is our chance to start making the decisions that will affect us for years to come.
Wow, good job! You get a sticker for voting! Two gold stars for all the good boys and girls out there that got to the polls. I’m all for visibility and stickers on election day to encourage larger turnout. However, it’s undeniable that they hearken back to kindergarten.
We’ve seen a huge increase in voter turnout across the board in this past primary season, and host of coverage on the demographics (of everything) including new voters. The thing is, I’m afraid that the extreme hype surrounding increased youth participation exhibits paternalistic coverage and lower expectations.
Everyone here has something in common. We are connected to Judaism, and we care about making the world a better place than when we found it. But we call discovered this path a different way. Some of us were raised into the faith, others of us are converts. Even then, we are raised into or become members of different brances, for different reasons. We express it in different ways. Moreover, we all find that Judaism fits into our various agendas, especially as they relate to tzedek. There is much diversity in this cmmunity, and I thought, since it is so close to Shavu'ot, the renewing of the covenant, it might be nice to share how we came to this place, if you so desire.
I mention it briefly in my bio, but I was not raised into the faith. as a child, I was enamored, and still am, by different people and cultures, and theology fits into that. While I remain fascinated by all faiths, I developed a special affinity for Judaism when I was eleven. It remains, and today, I actually started a Book of Shadows for Judaism. (The Book of Shadows is a pagan concept. Practitioners share what they have learned and how they feel about their faith, as well as how they express it-prayers, rituals, tools, etc. It works for all faith. Wicca and the other pagan religions are among the other faiths that I have taken a special interest in.)
At this point, I am reading, reading, reading, and thinking, thinking, thinking about all of my possible paths, paying special attention to certain ones, like Judaism. Something about Judaism just feels right. That is what every convert feels...that good feeling that something is just right for them. Granted, I will always study and appreciate other faiths for the sake of understand the world around me, which is important to being a citizen of the world anyway. Most religions share similar tenents anyway...whether it is a Judeo-Christian concept of the Golden Rule or the Wiccan Rede the Law of Three-whatever you put into the world will come back to you threefold (which fits in nicely with the concept of tikkun ha'olam as it related to Lurianic Kabbalah.)
(Alana will be interning with us this summer. Welcome, Alana! - promoted by Hannah Farber)
Everyone always wants a moment when you figured something out; the pivotal event which molded you into who you are. For some life experiences, such as eating ice cream, that can be a simple task. I found my love for Graeters' Black Raspberry Chip ice cream very definitively the first time I ate it, probably somewhere around age 4. But other things are more complex. I have always been passionate about justice, sometimes in a bit too much of analienating high pitched angry voice, and sometimes, sadly, a bit too softly. However, I am attempting to build a happy medium between the two, and excited by the learning opportunities in an office abuzz with community organizing methodology, press releases on pro-labor tshuvot and an abundance of progressive Jews.
