Hello, all,

At Penn Valley meeting today I wanted to let people know something about what our group does.  I led a discussion based on Jeff's comments about using personal cars; thanks, Jeff, for being the fall guy!  I knew it would provoke discussion, and it did.  In case anyone's interested, here are some notes on the program:

DO WE REALLY NEED OUR CARS?

A Quaker Education program on the environment

First month, 26th day, 2008 

A quote from Jeff Kisling from Bear Creek Meeting started us on a lively discussion.  He said (briefly), “I don’t think we can avoid the complete loss of human life on the planet if we don’t give up personal automobiles now.  And it took me by surprise when the idea was dismissed from the start by some members of our own Society of Friends.”

In one small group, this thought was greeted with 1) shock (“I can’t imagine life without my car,” and 2) pleasure (“Maybe people would spend more time visiting with each other.”)  The other group was torn as well, between agreement with Jeff’s statement and the clear difficulty in carrying it out.  It is hard to imagine Penn Valley Meeting carrying on right now if we didn’t have private cars. 

Unanimously, Friends felt that Kansas City makes a carless life hard to imagine unless one lives close to work, Meeting and other necessities.  Public transportation is passable in the city and virtually non-existent farther out.  Biking is dangerous on most area roadways, and some of us suspected that even crossing the highway that separated us from our neighborhood services could be lethal.  

Nonetheless, we got excited about ways to cut down our travel.  There’s an online quiz at www.walkscore.com, where you can put in your address and find out what services are within walking distance.  We like the idea of learning more about our neighborhoods, and we were also intrigued with the Northeast area idea of luring neighborhood folks into nearby business by issuing an I.D. card entitling them to discounts. 

We choose our communities by driving to be with likeminded people.  The Quaker Meeting is an example of this.  In some ways we can now find others with our interests on the Internet, and conversely, we might stretch our ideas and understanding by getting to know the people on our block and in our local stores. 

Having read Don Laughlin’s reply to Jeff’s letter, we were intrigued by the possibility of saving energy by buying food grown within 50 miles of us.  We have access to farmers markets (prevalent but often costly), CSAs (farm shares) and cooperative buying.  Some markets, e.g. Hen House, proudly carry local food when they can.  We are going to include a local food meal in our next retreat, which should provoke some interest given that the retreat is in early March!   

It is easy to be discouraged by the magnitude of the problem, but trying to be more creative about solutions does help us cope. 

Karin