A personal account from a P4C member re one of the two Feb. 8th economic recovery house parties in Petaluma

From Elaine Larson. Elaine opens with a personal message about her impressions of the meeting, and then outlines the ideas that came out of it:

Hi All.

Yesterday, after an incredible Mystery School weekend, I went to a local house meeting about the Economic Recovery Plan. There were 12 in attendance who, except for couples, had not met before. We watched the videos and then discussed ideas we had. It was a great experience and a summary of our ideas is below.

One idea that was left out is that US car makers have overseas operations that build small, fuel-efficient cars for other countries. Why can't those be made for the US market asap?

I bought my last new car in 1976. After that I made a vow that I would not buy another new car until I could buy one that got at least 100 mpg and was totally non-polluting. That was 33 years ago and the technologies were available then; I was disgusted that major auto makers were paying enormous sums to inventors so they could keep the technologies from coming to market.

It is a wonderful experience to meet other locals who want humans to survive as a species on the planet and who want the US to be in the forefront of creating solutions to make that possible.

Namaste,
Elaine

Ideas from 301 6^th St. Petaluma Meeting:

February 8^th, 2009

· Make a commitment to advocate among our community about the need for Recovery Plan to friends and neighbors- demonstrate our support for the Recovery Plan

· Donate our tax relief for projects and services that are being cut and are important to us

· ? Tax cuts do they make sense? Isn't that what has gotten us to where we are today?

· Moody's grade report for best spending says it is in aid- -unemployment, food stamps; health insurance etc.

· Long term tax cuts- allow people to create business plans that create for which they can get a loan.

· Credit? For business that hire people? That feels like a tough sell? Couldn't we create stimulus (reward) for hiring?

· Universal Health care-that could be a big boon for the country

· Infrastructure projects need to be shovel ready (ready to go)

· I'd like to see more manufacturing built in the US- but not to use protective tariffs- and not initiate a global trade wars. What can we do about it? How can we rebuild the manufacturing industries in the US?

· Are we addressing the mega watts issue? California uses a third less energy than other states because we conserve energy. - How can we help spur renewable energy across the nation?

· We need a whole different way of thinking than what we've had

· What is a healthy economy anyway? What does it look like? We need to ask ourselves this question in a new way. This is an important questions to ask ourselves as we embark on the biggest spending package we've ever seen

· Parks and the arts-don't appear to be in this package and they are both key to building a healthy community and economy.

· Can we insure that new technology in building materials are used in the infrastructure projects- i.e. concrete and asphalt that do not rely solely on petrochemicals etc. .are used in the infrastructure projects that are on the docket

· I want to weigh in to the admin – and those who are working on how to influence the choices are made so that we move ourselves toward a more sustainable economy.

· Can we get a list of what is being proposed to be spent on Infrastructure projects locally? Call Lynne Woolsey? We might be able to influence choices that will be made.

· Can we influence?

--
Elaine Larson