OUR LIVING PLANET, OUR ONLY SOURCE OF LIFE IS DYING FAST —IT'S UP US TO SAVE HER AND OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURES
IT'S TIME TO CHANGE HOW WE LIVE WITH ONE ANOTHER AND PLANET
Pre OHIAS projects according Bill Callahan
NO Target San Rafael 2011
I joined a small group of local business owners and concerned citizens who joined together to stop construction of a proposed Target department store in San Rafael. We narrowly lost the battle to put it on the ballot by just a few signatures but possibly not the war. The final outcome of this effort and others are yet to be determined. There's much work to do, more people need to speak up and out regarding health and justice issues around our lives, families, homes, transportation, work, environment, community, and planet.
PRESIDENT OBAMA 2011
I published an open letter to President Obama (YouTube) asking him to appeal to all politicians, community leaders and activists across our nation, in every state and every city, to take on the challenge of closing all landfills and incinerators in 5 years. The general idea was, doing this would result in improved health, reduced waste, increased efficiency, reduced energy needs and emissions, new business opportunities, hundreds of thousands of new green jobs and a reduced deficit to name a few of the many significant benefits.
In a second attempt to reach the president I tried a new White House petitioning program called We the People. Although considerable time and effort were put into both efforts, neither developed the necessary energy but proved to be an essential step forward for the invaluable feedback I received from people on both sides of the of the discussion. It really helped me hone my stand in opposition to Zero Waste campaigns and goals as it stands today because it fails to address the central issue, our world’s growing unsustainable consumption.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG'S
MAYORS CHALLENGE 2012
I completed an application (unsolicited) for the City of San Rafael entry into the Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Challenge with a chance to win 5 million dollars for its idea for creating a community cooperative designed to reduce waste through increased REUSE. Bloomberg’s Mayors Challenge urges cities to compete for best local solutions and seeks innovative ideas making city life better, efficient, service, responsive, what people want but don't want to pay for. Unfortunity the application failed to get the mayor's interest and support.
Occupy Fourth Street 2011 – 2013
When the Occupy Wall Street protests began in New York City, it generated a great wave of human emotion, energy, and outcry around the actions and inactions of the world's richest 1%. San Rafael had its group too which met every Saturday around noon for a couple hours to proclaim our support for this grassroots effort to raise local conscientiousness around the issues. I made my best effort to distinguish my personal take on the 1% and world conditions from a health perspective. The health of people, community and planet. My belief and focus have not changed in believing that if we first focus on the health (life-sustaining capacity) of our planet many of the issues of our day would no longer exist.
San Rafael's Farmers Market 2012 — 2013
Free Speech 4th and A Streets San Rafael – Public Stump
Promoted community benefit work for those seeking wholesome work involving reuse and repurposing of materials and products from the local waste stream, and the many community health benefits from this work; reduced air, water, and land pollution, especially reduced landfill, and a massive boost to community sustainable economic viability. The stump, included a sprinkling of controversial posters related to Marin lifestyles and thinking about our world today. I stay confident and dependent on community support and participation.
Ready Rested and Sober hourly work study program and development — 2013
In 2013 I launched an effort to study the interest level of local people who had limited or no means to support themselves. I had several important needs for this information and wanted to learn about their talents, skills, and interests while developing rapport and trust. I also wished to learn a little about their attitude around work and self-sufficiency. I had each complete a simple form (Community Resource Recovery and Empowerment, a Pilot Study) with their name, age, skills, phone number and or email address. The study lasted a little more than a year, and nearly 200 participated. Overall I found all had a significant interest in performing wholesome community work for community benefit regularly. Many said they would gladly do just about any work ask of them, while a good many were interested in employing their acquired skills. To many simply completing the study gave them hope for something more, an opportunity for some wholesome work and possibly a substantial step up. Many remain hopeful that all my talk and actions might yet become a reality.
OHIAS posters will be available for purchase soon!