We worry are a bi monthly. So don’t that you can’t get through this massive amount of words, photos, cartoons and ads in 20 minutes. That’s okay. We are not a daily, weekly or monthly. We don’t even focus on "entertainment" since there are plenty of other publications involved in that. HopeDance is not designed to be a throw-away or freebie or advertising rag. We are a different beast altogether; unique in its assumptions, viewpoints and solutions for the world.

Even though it’s printed on recycled newsprint, the idea is to hold onto each issue for two months since it has been designed to be informative, provocative, humorous, full of learning opportunities,

film gatherings, events where various levels of social change agents can hang out, party, initiate projects together, have fun, fall in love, marry, have children, create livelihoods, take care of the weak and the unfortunate.... We also continually post and publish websites that give readers excellent daily coverage of the major breaking news.

What I personally recommend is that you spend a few minutes just turning the pages. Don’t read anything yet. Just browse the headlines, look at the photos, cartoons, ads, film listings, contents page. Make a mental note of what’s in the new issue and return to it when you desire.

One idea I got from an avid reader is to have your daily calendar near you when browsing (grazing for ideas and activities) and jot the activities down in your calendar ... or make a list of important phone numbers to call: that permaculture class or that film you missed last time, ... events that draw you in, that resonate with your purpose.

The challenge of publishing a periodical that doesn’t have a specific agenda except for presenting a balance of the various agendas of the broader progressive community (social justice, permaculture, sustainability, empowerment, environment, spiritual transformational, peace making…) is intense to say the least, especially since most periodicals thrive on a specific niche. We are attempting to gather under an umbrella these different niches/obsessions/passions, and that may be a problem for some readers. Check out the short piece that William Seavey wrote about why he thinks people don’t read HopeDance and see if you agree with him. Perhaps your answers will fi nd themselves in our next letters to the editor.

See our expanded letters to the editor. See the interview with Julia Butterfly. Some excellent writers on Globalization are included in this issue, a topic getting more and more exposure. Kevin Danaher writes about the collapse of the WTO in Cancun (we are also showing a fi lm about it in November). Kevin and his coauthor Jason Mark of the newly released book "Insurrection" wrote a piece about Green festivals as laying the roots for a just and sustainable economy. Paul Kingsnorth, in his new book, writes about Paul Cienfuego’s Democracy Unlimited in Arcata. The infamous and very funny Jim Hightower writes about how ordinary citizens can and have challenged corporate power. First-time contributor Carlo Christian writes a review of Hightower’s "Thieves in High Places." Plus, local filmmaker David Weisman will be showing his very current interview documentary with both Jim Hightower and the "unreasonable" woman activist Diane Wilson (see the ads for all our fi lms).

David has also written a piece for this issue that tells people HOW to deal/lobby/communicate with our representatives in Sacramento. Heather Zwaduk reports on some Cal Poly professors doing solar and how you too can start watching your meter go backwards. Professor Tom Neuhaus visited Ghana a couple of months ago to learn about fair-trade chocolate since he loves chocolate and loves social justice.

We have news about bicycle coalitions, hydrogen cars, Vandenberg activists, Napalm in Iraq, the M:OME Bridge Street project update, Schwarzenegger, VoterFraud, the new SLO Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Ecotherapy, what can $87 billion buy, the Ashcroft-Rove connection, what "radical solutions inspiring hope" really means, Permaculture in Tibet, new biodiesel stations in SLO, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties … and the book and fi lm reviews (the fi lm reviews have actually been embedded into the many ads throughout this issue).

Some of the films we will be showing in November and December include: Battle of Algiers, My Lai Vietnam Peace Project, The Trials of Henry Kissinger, Fidel Castro: the Untold Story, the Japanese fi lm about Noam Chomsky, Venezuela’s Revolution, Cancun and the Collapse of the WTO, Cohousing, Dean / Kucinich video night, ... and of course, back by popular demand, another event with "1 Giant Leap".... Check out the website at www.hopedance.org for pdfs and details of all these upcoming fi lms in the Events section or browse for the ad of them in this issue, cut it out and place it on your refrigerator.

If you have come this far in reading, thank you.