Pre-requisite Bio 11?

Yesterday morning the south shore team left Bridgewater for Brockton, a nice 7 mile ride between two adjoining but very different towns. Bridgewater was a great success, we met many great people who are involved in the climate movement and many, also, who are just starting to awaken. One such woman goes by the name of Diane and works at a small coffee shop across from Bridgewater State College called The Rockin' K cafe that sells fair trade organic coffee and specialties. We met Diane on our first day in town and she helped us by placing one of our Re-power America petitions on the counter and encouraging all her customers to sign, along with passing out our remaining Clean Power Now pamphlets and advertising for the symposium. We were very grateful for her help and are continuously reminded of goodness of the human spirit through our interactions with strangers.

Also, while in Bridgewater we had the privilege of attending their first ever Farmers Market, at which we met some amazing people involved with Citizens for an Informed Community. They insisted that we meet with them for dinner and discuss our project and we gladly accepted so last night we were picked up by one of the women and brought to a member's home for pizza and discussion. We were a little confused at first because no one seemed to know that we were coming but were glad to have us. The moment we walked in we were handed rulers, black pens, and a stack of 1000 or so pamphlets that needed a phrase to be crossed out.. we confusedly proceeded to tediously cross out the phrase "pre-requisite Bio 11" from the pile of pamphlets about a course in organic farming. A couple hours later, phrases crossed and hands cramped, we all gathered around the pizza and talked about our organizations and all the different issues we care about and work on.

These people, the majority of which are elderly, are the most enthusiastic and dedicated people I have met thus far and give me great hope and expectations for the future. Their praise and support for our program boosted our egos a little bit but also re established within us the drive to continue on and provided us with just the right motivation we needed while nearing the end of our journey.

Re-energized by our encounters last night, this morning we made a visit to the Brockton Brightfield, the largest concentration of solar panels in new england, to take some photos and see what can be done with land that had been deemed toxic and unusable. In the midst of a depressed city it seemed a little unusual to find such innovation, but from this can be seen that renewable energy is not something reserved for high income families and cities, but rather something that must be and is being implemented everywhere. Although this particular project only provides electricity for 70 homes, that is 70 less homes being run on fossil fuels and 70 more homes prepared for the future. Turning a toxic brown field into a solar bright field is just one example of the many noticeable signs of change popping up all around us. Hopefully the rest of the state, the rest of the country, and the rest of the world can take Brockton's example of the changing dream to heart and follow in it's bright footsteps. :).