[Community_garden] My two cents on Gena, Louisiana

Fri Sep 21 10:14:20 EDT 2007

Perhaps a bigger question is how community gardening efforts help to unite communities and reduce racial tension?  Perhaps places where there are lots of community gardening efforts experience less events such as that happened in Jena, LA?  Just curious.

  If so, more of a reason why to promote community garden.

Mike McGrath <MikeMcG at PTD.net> wrote:
  I must have missed the beginning of this discussion, and so am reluctant to 
comment in any kind of depth. I would just like to step back and point out 
that we should all go out of our way to be tolerant of everyone, including 
(especially?) each other.
I personally don't quite get why the ACGA would make a statement about a 
non-community gardening situation. I always like my organizations to have a 
laser-like focus on their topic, and if it were my responsibility, I would 
take a pass on this because it doesn't appear to have any connection to our 
core topic. (Now if someone mounted what appeared to be a racially motivated 
attack on a community garden site or people in the garden, I would hope that 
'we' would be on them like yellowjackets on an overripe peach!)
But I also have a tremendous amount of respect for Judy and the great 
work she has done in DC, so maybe she sees something here that I'm missing.
At any rate: As you can imagine, we were asked to take public stands on 
many, many issues back when I was the editor of ORGANIC GARDENING magazine. 
Although we tended to agree with most of those stands, we deferred if it was 
not about growing without chemicals.
That's not disagreement; its just sticking to your topic.

Peace to all, Mike McG
----- Original Message ----- 
From: 
To: ; 
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 8:33 AM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Gena, Louisiana

>i appreciate the overall, deep, local work that ACGA does, but it
> should have the interest and ability to respond to specific situations,
> to a 'national flame' as you call it. this situation is simply calling
> for response. i find this reponse from acga to be very disappointing.
> judy
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Amy DeShon 
> To: grow19 at aol.com; community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
> Sent: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 4:55 am
> Subject: RE: [Community_garden] Gena, Louisiana
>
> Each and everyone of us is doing our part. We work hard to be inclusive,
> collaborative, and aware. We act locally to break down barriers and we
> conscientiously do our work for the greater good. While we are not,
> directly, addressing this particular issue our good work is quietly,
> actively, and directly doing more to break down the barriers that led
> (and
> lead...) to the Gena 6 than is accomplished by walking away from our
> gardens, our kids, and our neighborhoods to focus on a national flame.
>
> Let us remember to be focused on our sphere of influence (that which we
> can
> change) while at the same time remaining aware of issues of concern
> (that
> which we have little ability to control). All of us ought to be proud
> (and
> humbled) by our movement's constant good work. Get back in your garden,
> get
> back with your kids, get back to the neighborhood, do what you can do to
> make this world a better place Today!
>
> This means, talk to your gardeners, the kids, and your neighborhood...
> ask
> them how they feel about the issue, have conscientious answers to the
> issues, and let them know that there are wrongs (terrible wrongs) in the
> world which each of us can work to fix (at our own pace). And, don't
> ever
> forget that what each of us is doing in the garden is profoundly
> changing
> our world for the better!
>
> Sincerely,
> Amy DeShon, MPA
> Executive Director
> American Community Gardening Association (ACGA)
> 1777 E. Broad Street
> Columbus, OH 43201
> 1-877-ASK-ACGA
> Direct Line: 614-645-1537
> adeshon at communitygarden.org
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org
> [mailto:community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org]On Behalf Of
> grow19 at aol.com
> Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 8:27 PM
> To: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
> Subject: [Community_garden] Gena, Louisiana
>
>
> Perhaps there is much that the environmental and community gardening
> and 'gardens in schools' groups are doing to respond to the sad mess in
> Gena Louisiana but I have seen nothing about it on any list serve. If
> ever there was a time for
> 'conflict-resolution-by-hands-on-environmental action' this is it. I
> wish that ACGA was pulling together people at the local, state, and
> national level (margaret spellings, conflict resolution folk, tree
> planting w/youth folk, environmental educators, etc) and do what
> demonstrations cannot do. Bring the youth outside, create a safe
> outdoor well-treed schoolyard where ALL of the student and teachers can
> enjoy the outdoors.
>
> Anyone know anything like this that is underway? ACGA?
>
> Judy Tiger
> Washington, DC
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! -
> http://mail.aol.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of
> ACGA's
> services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to
> find
> out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org
>
> To post an e-mail to the list:
> community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
>
> To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:
> http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.commu
> nitygarden.org
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! -
> http://mail.aol.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of 
> ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and 
> to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org
>
> To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
>
> To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: 
> http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
>
> 

_______________________________________________
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org

To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.
                                   - Lao Tzu
  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20070921/40b81dd9/attachment.html 