"In my private moments I despair, I am aware of the limits of my own imagination. . . .that imaginations shared invite collaboration and collaboration creates community."

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"As I look back over the story we have been living in Castle Valley, it does not begin to convey the power and empowering nature [character] of the process."

"It is an unfolding tale of of how a small community in the desert is rising to its own defense, saying, we believe we have a stake in the future of our own community, which we choose to define beyond our own boundaries of time, space and species."

page 80

"In the open space of democracy, we engage the qualities of inquiry, intuition, and love as we become a dynamic citizenry, unafraid to exercise our shared knowledge and power."

86

"It is time to ask, when will our national culture of self-interest stop cutting the bonds of community to shore up individual gain and instead begin to nourish communal life through acts of giving, not taking?"

p. 86.

" It is time to acknowledge the violence rendered to our souls each time a mountaintop is removed to expose a coal vein in Appalachia or when a wetland is drained, dredged and filled for a strip mall."

On being soulless, loss of soul as a theme.

"the wholesale dismissal of the sacredness of life in its variety and forms…"

"If we cannot begin to embrace democracy as a way of life: the right to be educated, to think, discuss, dissent, create, and act, acting in imaginative and revolutionary ways."

John Dewey

"I need to look in the mirror and ask this: If I am committed to seeing the direction of our country change, how must I change myself?"

p. 88.

"Without deepening our thought processes as to what constitutes a living democracy without an acknowledgment of complexity in a society of sound bites, we will not find the true source of our anger or our authentic passion that will propel us forward to the place of personal engagement."

p. 88.

Conclusion

"We are in need of a reflective activism born out of humility not arrogance."

         "… becoming a compassionate participant in the world."

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