Crazy Week

So, after my mini-meltdown early last week, a lot happened. I will not go into great detail, but basically, there was panic, crying, recriminations, anger, a riot on the Commons, garden vandalism, a massive computer assault, and someone either burned down or blew up the county's Department of Services Coordination building, which a lot of folks here see as a front for the government's increasing takeover of every single aspect of our lives. A far cry from our relatively peaceful existence as hippy community/college town.

My exposure to the media has been pretty limited these past several days, although that is about to change. Kim gave a portion of our harvest to some of her shadowy contacts in the city and returned with a suite of security and equipment upgrades that should keep us connected. There was a lot of protest from the neighbors, but it's obvious that we need to be connected, and the local paper (the Ithaca Journal, which we call the Ithaca Urinal) is reduced to carrying government wire reports and unattributed stories it trolls from the net because it cannot afford a regular news service. I also used my weekly library allotment to download some stuff to our old phone (which Kim adapted to work as a reader, basically, since cell service is non-existent out here now), and Brian has called me a few times with a bit more information. And what passes for news on TV is laughable. Dan told me at lunch yesterday that all he has seen about the GEAS report is a two-minute story about how a group of naysayers are predicting the end of the world. Which is of course laughable; the world will keep on spinning long after we are gone. It may not even miss us. . . .

The decision to trade food for information access was a hard one, but, as some of us argued, we need to know what's going on beyond our little garden walls. We are feeling the ripples of all the problems discussed in the GEAS report. Whether one agrees with the prognosis, we still have to deal with the symptoms. Humanity is ill, and we need to start figuring out how to get well. Consensus about this was hard to achieve, and I owe out a pile of scrip, labor, and turnips, but we should now stay connected for the foreseeable future. That's good, because it gives everyone a little time to use the net, and it gives a few of us a connection that we can hopefully put to good use.

So, given the preciousness of this resource, why am I blogging? Two reasons: one, to let people know what's happening here, both the problems and the potential solutions we are working on. We are remarkably isolated in town; I'll tell you about the university's fences a little later. But Ithaca is not only "centrally isolated," as we like to say, it is in some ways abandoned, and quite vulnerable to the superthreats. So, I want others to know what's happening here, and what we are trying to do.

More importantly, I want to connect with people and see what they are doing. We need to know what is happening out in the wider world, and what people out there are doing. I want to exchange ideas and keep tabs on developments. If the problems are as vast and potentially devastating as we have been told, they will not be solved by isolated pockets of people reacting without planning or coherence. We need to talk to each other, throw ideas out, and start crafting a plan that will not just help our communities survive, but start to reverse the damage that has been caused and figure out a new path to something better.

Dammit, the kids are bugging me for their turn. I will have a dedicated station after today, so I should be much more connected. I hope to hear from other people soon!