Previous Newsletters and Lead Up
Newsletters from April 2020.
The Institute ramped up for relaunch in 2020 after a ten-year hiatus.
Then, the pandemic.
Unexpected Spring – Unite our Understanding
Social Proximity | Half a Century of Earth Days
Why the hiatus?
This time afforded a participatory research sabbatical otherwise known in the jargon as time to be a participant observer. Myriem, | epi | founder, spent time farming in Colorado, teaching in New Mexico, and living frugally in the rough and tumble Pacific Northwest.
In the spring of 2010, Myriem wanted to experience the bloom in the extraordinary pionnering orchard first in water on the North Fork of the Gunnison River. And she did. One thing led to another. She moved from Boulder, to Durango, then Cortez, Paonia, Santa Fe, Tesuque and then Sequim, Port Townsend, Swansonville, and then Quilcene for the summer of 2021.
Myriem experienced first hand the struggle to make sense of difficult times in America for those who cannot or will not. She is a life-long seeker of sustainable living. She became friends and is in direct workaday contact with pioneers in the food and natural building movements. She spent time in seclusion in contemplative centers. She has seen a lot and with good measure is ready to share what she knows.
The lead up to 2010
2008. The opportunity to step into a new direction for living her life occurred in 2008 after an incredible surgery that restored her physical ability to walk. Many other political economic disruptions occurred that same year. As the year closed, Myriem envisioned a better way to do regional planning with more public participation and better sourcing of information. With a politically-astute elder in her community of Boulder, she gained the confidence to give it a go and founded Economics for Peace Institute.
2010. Climate change is happening faster than the modeling projected. Farmers already knew this. The keynote on the second day at the ecr.gov conference spoke to the inevitable. You could hear a pin drop in a room of almost 200 leading Federal agency staff and consultants. Myriem had presented two talks on new public involvement strategies. For her, this confirmed she needed to stay the course: new ways forward were necessary Stakeholder involvement and collaboration were a a good start, but not enough.
Things started to move really fast after that.