After placing all the required materials in InDesign (that’s the pagination program I use) I realized there was an empty page. Ah, an empty page; so zen... but it didn’t last long. I decided to fill it up with something different, like Gandhi’s perspective on Zionism in 1938 but realized that was 2,000 words and also we had already printed it in our Special Supplement on the Palestinian/Israeli horror. It can be viewed online at http://www.hopedance.org/archive/issue34a/articles/34a-11_ramakrishnan.html (or use http://tinyurl.com/nduub). But then a better idea came to me: to include some material I always somehow forget to add to these precious pages.

How to Read HopeDances?
Keep it for awhile. It is not your typical advertising/entertainment rag that can be read in the time it takes a bowel movement. HopeDance includes resources for change and survival and community building. hundreds of events and organizations in four counties. Please go through every page, look at the ads and photos and images and cartoons and poems, perhaps a few teasers as well. Then put it away. Let yourself feel what you feel. I try with every issue to make you feel empowered. Like some film directors who want you to feel afraid or angry or happy, I want you to feel inspired to take your life and use it for the purpose you came to this planet for. That’s all. Really simple. If I succeed, wonderful. If not, I try again next issue. Pick it up another time and start thinking what you want to do, what film or event you wish to attend. Cut out the pages if necessary and post them near where you eat so you can see them. Tell people about the advertisers; try the advertisers; check out the cafes and the coffees and the SLO chais that we advertise. Support local and green businesses. Call them, ask them questions. See how they are doing. Become familiar with these growing change agents and pioneers. Remember, the paper will last about two months for the dated material but much longer since we focus on subjects that are really not in the popular press (have you noticed?). Keep it in a safe place, near your toilet (be it compost or traditional) or your bed so you will have inspiring dreams of being that intrepid activist who saves the world.

The Sexuality issue (July/August) went fast; not sure if people were tossing them or grabbing them up -- but one thing is certain (learned in a leaked memo) the Head of the SLO County library sent out a directive to all the librarians to “recycle” HopeDances due to its “dedication to sex.” When news got out, some media jumped on it. The Tribune ran a story (http://tinyurl.com/emuzv). See the LTE in New Times (at http://www.newtimes-slo.com/index.php?p=letters). The Times Press Recorder has reported on the subject of librarian censorship (http://tinyurl.com/pdtog). Dave Congalton of KVEC had me on his radio talk show for an hour and a half. Amy from KVEC had me on for 10 minutes. KCOY-TV from Santa Maria interviewed me for the evening news for about 10 minutes. And HopeDance’s webmaster, John Calvert of Calvert Design, informed me that we had 25,000 hits the other day (up from a daily 2,000 a day). And Utne (at http://tinyurl.com/ge9me) summarized the Sexuality issue with:

<<In an attempt to confront, and seemingly disestablish, the “very limited monoculturalist view of sex” that’s brewing in the United States, the July/August edition of HopeDance throws the doors of sexuality wide open. No subject is too risqué for these pages: sacred prostitutes, a farmer’s land buzzing with reproductive frenzy, a woman who’s had enough with public masturbators. Also included are editorials on pornography, later-in-life intimacy, and much more. By and large, pieces avoid mining for shock value, focusing instead on presenting information and stories frankly, showcasing examples of how they’d like to see sexual discussion evolve. -- Rachel Anderson>>

A librarian suggested a group of us put together a DVD compiling the happenings with the librarian tossing out the copies of HopeDance; to archive the articles and interviews with pertinent legal notes and the ALA Freedom To Read document (http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/ftrstatement/freedomreadstatement.htm), among others. The idea is to send them to librarians throughout the country to give a heads up to them about what is occurring here. If you wish to help, please drop us a message at 544-9663 or info@hopedance.org. If you wish to see my Viewpoint at the Tribune, go to http://tinyurl.com/p3at8.

I just sent out a mass-mailing fundraiser letter to 2,000 people (from the data base of years of accumulating subscribers and freebie requests). If you haven’t subscribed, you will not be receiving one. If you wish to see the letter, click here.

Some other notes:
We had in the works to write a summary of what Tompkins County is doing about preparing for Peak Oil. Seventeen people from the main cities (e.g., Ithaca) in upstate NY’s Tompkins County have created a 28-page document about organizing and planning. They are not affiliated with any actual city government, but the idea is that when that county’s populace gets to the point of demanding policies, this 28-page document will be available. Go to http://www.ibiblio.org/tcrp/doc/project.htm to learn more about what that county has already done.

If you need more inspiring news about what cities are doing, create a google alert and type in “Cities Preparing for Peak Oil” or other similar titles and watch the news come in.

Bob Banner


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