Town of Taos Candidate Forum

Join us for an evening at FarahNheight Gallery to meet candidates for Town of Taos offices. Bring your friends, neighbors and questions!

Learn about their positions on issues that effect community residents and the planet.

Hosted by Green Party of Taos County.

Town of Taos Muncipal Election

Election day is March 6, 2018

Absentee voting is from January 30 to March 2, 2018

Early voting is from February 14 to March 2, 2018

For more information visit: Town of Taos or call 575.751.2005

Los Alamos Labs: Call for Resolution

Ecological Wisdom

Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) operates with continued negligence, delinquency, and a singular focus on profits that make it the wealthiest community per capita in the US.  Its despoiling environmental legacy threatens all who live downstream and downwind, including Taos, 32 miles real distance downwind. (Recall how swiftly smoke from the forest fires threatening LANL reached Taos.)

The City of Santa Fe recently passed a Resolution that demands increased funding and action on clean-up for LANL’s legacy unlined nuclear waste dump, better safety training to prevent the lab’s recurring near-catastrophic criticality accidents, and a pause in nuclear bomb production until egregious safety issues are resolved. Should Taos follow Santa Fe’s example?
Join us in a background briefing by local activists and a call to action to pass such a Resolution in Taos Town and Taos County.

Guest speakers: Jeanne Green and Marilyn Hoff

Maximum 25 participants
Please RSVP Susann at 575.758.4035 to reserve your place

Resources:

Nuclear Watch of New Mexico
903 W. Alameda, #325
Santa Fe, NM 87501
phone and fax 505.989.7342
info@nukewatch.org
Directors Jay Coghlan and Scott Kovac
Our Mission: Through comprehensive research, public education and effective citizen action, Nuclear Watch New Mexico seeks to promote safety and environmental protection at regional nuclear facilities, mission diversification away from nuclear weapons programs, greater accountability and cleanup in the nation-wide nuclear weapons complex, and consistent U.S. leadership toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS)
P.O. Box 31147 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87594
Phone: (505) 986-1973        Fax: (505) 986-0997
Email: ccns@nuclearactive.org
Director Joni Arends
Our mission is to protect all living beings and the environment from the effects of radioactive and other hazardous materials now and in the future.

Regional Coalition of LANL Communities
(505) 490-6155, info@regionalcoalition.org
info@regionalcoalition.org
The Regional Coalition is comprised of nine cities, towns, counties and pueblos surrounding Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Founded in 2011, the Regional Coalition works in partnership to ensure national decisions incorporate local needs and concerns. Our collective voice advocates on behalf of the best possible outcomes due to LANL’s activities, particularly those in regional economic development and LANL site employment, environmental remediation, increased educational opportunities and adequate funding for LANL.
Chair Mayor Javier Gonzales, City Santa Fe,, 505-955-6590,

Northern New Mexico Citizen’s Advisory Board
Executive Director: MeniceSantistevan
1 (505) 995-0393 Office,  1 (800) 218-5942
We are a community advisory group that was chartered in 1997 to provide citizen input to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). development and LANL site employment, environmental remediation, increased educational opportunities and adequate funding for LANL.

Steering Committee Meeting – Green Party of Taos County

*****Please note change of meeting venue to SOMOS*****

The Co-Chairs of the Green Party of Taos County are convening the regularly scheduled meeting of the Steering Committee on December 30, 2017 at SOMOS in Taos from 10 am to noon.

All GPTC elected officers, Green Council Representatives and Alternates and Standing Committee Chairs serve on the Steering Committee and are the decision making body of the GPTC. All members of the GPTC are encouraged to attend, and if they wish to participate in discussion, request to be recognized by the meeting facilitator. Emphasis is placed on consensus decision-making for all actions requiring Steering Committee approval.

Please suggest items for the agenda by posting comments to this announcement, and refer back to this announcement prior to the meeting for posting of a draft Agenda of the upcoming meeting and publication of draft Minutes of the previous Steering Commitee meeting.

Please respond to this announcement with your intent to attend so that we can plan on a quorum.

Creative Wellness: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Join Creative Wellness Specialist Angie Fernandez, as she helps you discover simple solutions to reducing your environmental impact. She will cover the famous R’s – reduce, reuse and recycle, plus she will teach you a few more – rethink, refuse and reconnect. Each person’s lifestyle is unique and this event will help you think about what simple changes you can make to “live like you love the planet”!

Angie is a minimal waste practitioner, residing in Taos County, NM. where she lives off grid in a 160 square foot tiny home and empties less than one bag of garbage per year. She is an advocate for the protection of land, water and people and partners with many nonprofits to promote community, agriculture, healthy lifestyles and minimal waste events. She may be reached at healthnhappiness4life@gmail.com

 

Hosted by Green Party of Taos County, New Mexico

Ecological Wisdom is one of Ten Key Values of the Green Party

A $5 donation will help to support this and future events

We Are On the Brink

by Joe Bigley

All life forms on this planet are currently in danger of extinction. The majority of the extinctions that have taken place thus far happened after our species took over the planet.

It is true that we are the most intelligent species that ever walked on Earth. Unfortunately, we are also the most destructive. If we don’t wake up and act quickly and collectively, our planet will be barren like Mars before the end of this century. You don’t have to take my word for it. There is plenty of scientific research that validates my statement.

There are two questions we should be asking ourselves: How did this happen and what can we do to change it?

All life forms are focused on survival, including humans. There are essentially two approaches to survival. One is competition and the other is cooperation. The paradigm that best describes competition is survival of the fittest. The paradigm that best describes cooperation is Love. Love is oneness realized. When we realize that we are “All One,” we will cooperate with one another. Cooperation ensures survival. Competition ensures extinction.

When the cells of our body compete, we have a deadly disease called cancer. Likewise, the competitive behavior of the human race is genocidal cancer. It is time that we as a race come together and organize like the cells of our body and save the planet.

The human race has been waging war since we invented bows and arrows. In 1945, America dropped two atom bombs on two heavily populated cities in Japan. The death toll of innocent people was horrific. It ended the Second World War, but it didn’t stop wars. We are bombing innocent people of all ages to this day. Why? Because we want to control the natural resources of the planet. We are fracturing the lithosphere and poisoning three essentials of life: air water, and food.

In 1961, John F. Kennedy was elected president. I was ecstatic that he won. But, I was stunned by the outgoing president’s farewell address. Ike warned us about the “Military Industrial Complex.” He wanted to say “Military Industrial Congressional Complex,” but he was forced to remove the word “Congressional” as it would have warned us that our government had been purchased by this Complex. JFK was assassinated a couple of years later and then Vietnam burst into a bloody, prolonged war. The wars continue to this day. Controlling the world’s oil is the main reason.

This Complex owns the Federal Reserve, all major banks, big industry, the military, and Congress. I believe that this Complex is “Big Brother” from Orwell’s novel 1984. In 2016, Big Brother rigged the elections. It wasn’t the first time, but it was the most obvious.

The 45th president is a White Supremacist who believes women are play toys. From all indications, Trump is a a sociopathic liar and a puppet of Big Brother. His cabinet is composed of oil and big bank billionaires.

As of this writing, Trump signed a bill making resistance to pipelines illegal. What happened to freedom of speech? Are we currently in a a Neo-Nazi Empire? Where do we go from here?

We must build a cooperative system and take back our Democracy. We can do it in spite of Big Brother.

During the World War II era, Spain became a dictatorship under Franco. These were frightening times for Spain’s citizens. But a brave Catholic priest in Mondragon, a small town in northern Spain, formed a cooperative system at the community level. This enabled people to come together in member-owned cooperatives that controlled education, local government, and production of goods and services. They not only survived the dictatorship, they are still flourishing today.

It is time for us to wake up and come together as a cooperative system as well. We can emulate the Mondragon cooperative system here in Taos as well as in our state and across the nation.

In Mondragon they had cooperative member-owned banks.We can take our money out of big banks and transfer it to member-owned credit unions. If necessary, we can create our own monetary system.

Remember, money is an illusion. We created it because it was a more efficient means of exchange than barter.

Of course, all of this will require more research.

I will expand on these topics and more in future articles. In the meantime, we the people must cooperatively and peacefully oppose corporate tyranny now!

Joe Bigley is a member of the Green Party of Taos County.

The Ideal Energy Program

by Joe Bigley

Around four years ago a non-profit called Renewable Taos was founded with the mission to transition Taos and our surrounding region to 100% renewable energy that is locally produced by facilities that are locally owned. This original mission is probably close to what some people consider the ideal energy situation. Imagine Taos as an “Energy Island” disconnected from the rest of the World and producing all our own energy using renewable equipment we own. Under those circumstances money to pay for our energy would remain in our community rather than having about $100 million a year leave Taos to pay large corporations and Wall St. for our electricity, gasoline, diesel, natural gas and propane, as we do now.

I stated in my last article in the Taos news, called “We are on the Brink”, that we must stop fracturing the lithosphere and poisoning three essentials of life; air, water, and food. A national entity known as Guzman Renewable Energy Partners, Kit Carson Electric Cooperative (KCEC), and Renewable Taos have come together to make it possible. Only we can’t be an “Energy Island”. That would not be practical. The latest research conducted by Renewable Taos revealed that it would require too much expensive equipment that would be idle most of the time causing the price of energy to be several times what it is now. Therefore, we can only be 100% renewable as a part of Renewable North America. This concept of connecting to renewable energy systems throughout North America not only makes it cheaper; We can also step completely away from fossil fuels sooner. In time we will link with Renewable Energy communities around the world. It will be a Renewable World.

Connecting with North America and the World on this mission will bring the fossil fuel industry down much faster and could insure World Peace, because most, if not all wars, today are over petroleum fields. Ending wars alone could save the American people trillions of dollars per year. That would be a disaster for the power elite, which is a good thing since they are destroying our planet and making a joke out of democracy.

Actually, some fossil fuel companies are already building solar arrays and windmills. I suspect it is the realization, on their part, that a complete transition from fossil Fuel is inevitable, which will cause them to go broke. Rather than go broke, they decided to expand their renewable energy facilities until they too are 100% renewable. There are only a few such companies now. But it is a good start. In my last article, I stated that the Human Race must come together like the cells of our body and cooperate instead of competing. Renewable Taos, KCEC and Guzman Renewable Partners certainly fit that model. They also are planning to convert to electrical vehicles for all forms of transportation along with charging stations that will be needed along the roads and tracks.

Everyone in the KCEC’s three county service area will benefit from this movement toward 100% renewable energy in countless ways to include better paying jobs which are badly needed in our community. We the people currently possess the potential to evolve from Armageddon to Eden. Climb aboard people! The whistle is blowing! We can start forming member owned cooperatives to produce goods and services for local renewable energy programs. We can emulate the Mondragon Cooperative System here in Taos, across the country and around the world.

Bigley is a writer for Green Party of Taos County

The Art of Sustainable Community Agriculture

with Micah Roseberry

November 18, 2017
3 to 5 PM
Cultural Energy
112 Civic Plaza Drive
Taos, NM 87571 [map]

Ecological Wisdom

Join in a conversation of how to build on the strengths we have and expand capacity for community sustainability.

Micah Roseberry, co founder of the Taos Country Day Waldorf School and Cerro Vista Farm, has been teaching and farming in Taos County for 30 years. Her current projects, Farmhouse Café and Bakery and the local, organic School Lunch Program combine these experiences to serve local, organic food to Taos students, create a market for area farmers, and build the local farming network to increase local food production and preserve our water rights. The School Supported Agriculture model is a way to increase our local food resilience, grow our local economy, preserve our agricultural heritage and invest in the health of our future generations. Join in a conversation of how to build on the strengths we have and expand capacity for community sustainability.

Maximum 25 participants

Please RSVP Susann at 575.758.4035 to reserve your place

Hosted by the Green Party of Taos County

Ecological Wisdom is one of Ten Key Values of the Green Party
A $5 donation will help to support this and future events