On The Road again

This semester, I will be engaging foreign and English language students at Hang Gong Hang Tian Da Xue (Shenyang Aerospace University) on the subject, “Conversations On The Road from Empire to Eco-Democracy.”

Last Aug. 30, 2011, I wrote: “We always sense the passion of our body, heart and soul, and the manifestation of our profound humanness. Mine is reflected in The Road from Empire to Eco-Democracy, a four-year writing output from members of the Symposium for Realistic Living. We hope to get it into book form in the hands of those interested by December of this year.”

Well, we were a month late. In January the book finally made the market but the wait and the cross-editing has been all worth it. Those interested might catch blips of it on Amazon.com and iUniverse; those wanting to get hold of a copy, the ISBN for the book is 978-1-4620-8364-0, and for the eBook, 978-1-4620-8365-7, $20 and $4, respectively.

If readers happen to notice the similarities of the content and language expressions in some of my writings and those in the book, it is not accidental. I am a member of the Symposium for Realistic Living and we swim in the same sea of linguistic discourse. My colleagues are just better at writing their thoughts than I am, so this book is very readable. Their bios are up front before the Intro.

The book cover alone tells the whole story of the book’s content. It is a photo of a paved road in disrepair branching to a gravel road strewn with autumn leaves with the title The Road from Empire to Eco-Democracy boldly emblazoned above a directional sign that says “Under Construction.” (See inset.) The book attempts to capture a bird in flight, highlighting the meat and the motion of our human journey.

OK. Enough poetry. The Introduction addresses folks who classify themselves as “progressives,” offering a comprehensive overview everyone can sink their teeth into beyond the current practice of piecemeal repairs. That is to say, it offers more than just palliatives for CHC and the Retirement Fund, or the longing for a casino fill on treasury coffers! No less than presenting a social vehicle within which humanity can survive and thrive is proffered.

It has four parts. We previously touched on all four in this page before the book made print. First is a litany of 10 wake-up calls to civilized sleepers. Next is the invitation to take a long view. Third is a practical image on how to view society as a whole. Finally, it presents objective pointers on how we “get there from here.”

All eco-democracy proponents, the lead writer is a towering giant of social and science thoughts; the co-authors include a female school principal ex-bush pilot of Alaska, a self-professed “political junky” Town Council member from old historic Lexington, Mass., a former oil company executive and adjunct MIT faculty from Houston, Texas (heard of Sugarland where our Marianas friend Tom Delay had a home?), a PhD behavioral health advocate from and to all over, with the deft feminist and cultural touch of the lead writer’s spouse and another colleague. One could not get a more diverse set of thinkers, all thoroughly ordinary and commonsensibly understandable. The book comes highly recommended.

The postlude is a Coda: The Challenge to Each of Us. I could think of 20 people just on Saipan who need to read this book and can initiate their own circle of conversations to get the talking part going. What has become clear in our time is that small groups of determined citizens can spell quite a difference locally, nationally, and globally, when they connect their gabbing together.

The poetry has all been around us a while. There is no blueprint that came with the planet Earth, was one in my early years from the geodesic guy. Eco-democracy proponent Mike Kibbins now spells Eaarth for a planet under siege. Think global, act local, has given us the word “glocal” that has been in circulation for more than a decade, and we use quite liberally in our reflections printed in this daily. The one that illuminates our journey well says, We build the road as we travel. This last one illuminates the personal and the planetary journeys, and all points in between.

The blame game is passé and the whining is boring. Time for serious conversations. Shall we?

Jaime R. Vergara (jrvergarajr2031@aol.com) is a former PSS teacher and is currently writing from the campus of Shenyang Aerospace University in China.