THE ROADS OF AMERICA

A friend of mine, Tom Weis, is riding his bike across the country to organize support for a green future. On his blog he says the following, "On September 12, 2010, I began biking from Boulder, Colorado to Washington, DC, calling for a modern day, green energy moon shot for America: a 100% U.S. renewable electricity grid by 2020. For the next two months, I will be pedaling solo 2,500 miles to Washington, DC on my futuristic, electric-assist rocket trike.

"It’s time for a new national conversation about our energy future, one I intend to have with everyday Americans I meet on Main Street, America. This ride is about the American people 'taking back our power' by demanding a green industrial revolution that will put unemployed Americans back to work, reestablish our role as world economic leader, and help ensure future generations a livable planet."

I met Tom years ago when I lived in Orlando, Florida. He was organizing on environmental issues and I was working on peace/space issues. We both are still at it and have stayed in touch over the many moons that have passed since then.

He has obviously determined that the time has come to go back to the grassroots in order to stir the imagination of the public in order to refocus them on what is needed if we are to get out from behind the eight ball. I think he is right.

Similarly the peace walk that I am now working on comes from the same organizing analysis. We need to be out on the streets reaching out directly to the public stirring their hearts and moving them to action.

Last night, as I dragged my worn out body into bed, I got a phone call from a woman in Belfast, Maine. She had seen a flyer about the peace walk at the Reny's department store where she works. She wants to participate and was so excited about the idea of the walk that I got charged up. She said she was going to talk to everyone at work about it.

This is what we are looking for. Here we are just a couple of weeks away from a national election where you'd hope the candidates would be talking about these issues but they are not because the two war parties are under the grip of the corporations that make money off our addiction to oil and militarism. But obviously there are people out there, like the woman who called and the legions of people Tom is meeting on his bike ride, that care about the future and are looking for some way to get connected to real solutions. They are looking for hope and change.

This is the job of an organizer and the groups we work with - it's our job to create ways for the public to see us, to get excited by the energy of our events, and to then be inspired enough to take our message to others in their life like the woman who works at Reny's is doing.

Tom will be blogging during his bike ride and I will be a regular reader because I too need to be recharged by good old fashioned grassroots organizing. Keep peddling Tom, just like I will soon keep walking here in Maine.

And while I am walking I'll be telling folks that the only way our nation can afford to fund Tom's excellent vision of a "green industrial revolution" is to stop our wars in Iraq-Afghanistan-Pakistan for oil and to Bring Our War $$ Home.