Seattle Citizens Define Their Own Dow-Jones Average
By Donella Meadows
–May 20, 1993–
Last June an unlikely bunch of people got together in Seattle — a Boeing executive, an Episcopal priest, a city councilman, citizen activists for everything from the environment to minority rights, a high school teacher, a union representative, a local television personality, and about 100 more. They called themselves the Sustainable Seattle Civic Panel. Sustainability for [...]
Rules for the New World Order: A Citizen’s Proposal
By Donella Meadows
–April 1, 1993–
We who were born to democracy value it, but human beings are not all alike. Some may prefer to live under dictatorship. Anyway, whether other people like their leaders is no business of ours. As long as other governments stay within their own borders, they are not our problem.
Those were the dominant ideas of the old [...]
Town Meetings of the Airwaves
By Donella Meadows
–February 11, 1993—-
I’m a talk-radio junky. I’d rather listen to real folks stumbling to express their own thoughts than to polished puppets reading what someone else has written. I tune into Larry, Rush, and the folks who call in to them, to keep myself awake, chuckling, thinking, and every now and then yelling in outrage.
One item of talk [...]
OK Kids, Time to Turn to your Snickers Lesson
By Donella Meadows
–October 1, 1992–
The scariest article I have read in a long time appeared in the September 21 issue of The Nation. It was written by Jonathan Kozol, and it is about the plan George Bush, Lamar Alexander, and Chris Whittle are hatching for America’s schools.
You know who George Bush is. Lamar Alexander is his Secretary of Education. Chris [...]
If It’s Broke, Be Careful How You Fix It
By Donella Meadows
–August 2, 1992–
Just about everyone admits these days that the American democracy is both broken and broke. Many ideas are circulating about how to fix it, most of which, as far as I can tell, would make things worse.
The most popular fix seems to be term limits. Fifteen states are putting term limit options on their ballots this [...]
