Reader’s Comments, a Note, and Some Photos

NOTE

For the month of December, I’ve reserved a one-bedroom apartment 300 meters from the beach at Las Terrenas on the incredible north coast of the Dominican Republic on the Samana Peninsula, which was Franklin Roosevelt’s favorite destination on his yacht. The living room has a sofa bed and the kitchen is fully furnished, with wifi. You are invited to visit. For more info on the apartment, click here.  For more info on Las Terrenas, click here.

Martha Redbone at the 2013 Vancouver Folk Music Festival

Reader’s Comments

Re: Obama and Wall Street: Is There Hope?

This is a terrific article that brings the reader up-to-date on this critical national debate. The first part of the article asks the challenging question about where President Obama and Treasury Secretary Lew stand on the issue of pushing forward with banking reform during the remaining years of this Presidency. I found the comparisons to France’s Mitterand as well as Clinton very useful in gaining a historical perspective of the forces at play. But certainly the most compelling part of this article is the analysis of Wall Street’s political power and how banks and bond merchants manipulate access to capital for their own ends. You won’t find a better case than in this article for how to harness alternative sources of capital to serve the public good. The discussion about how some local banks such as Bank of North Dakota have gone in an alternative direction provides a glimmer of hope that we can reduce our dependency on Wall Street and establish a more diversified financial system.

--Michael Stein

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excellent piece Wade ...con paz

--Anonymous

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Of course not, what a silly question.

--Anonymous

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Re: Alaska Reflections

On the Alaska Marine Highway ferry

Wade, this is for me the most resonant of any of your writings I've read. I can't stop to comment more on it now, but thank you for the post.

--Valerie W.

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 "If we knew in advance

what it would look like

it would not be

transformation.

It would be

a product.

We can only

go with the flow

if we want to be

creative."

Beautiful, insightful, spot on.

--Steven Shults

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enjoyed this entry very much

--Roger Marsden:

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Glad you enjoyed the trip. Perhaps Gandhi is right about starting from the inside out, the first challenge being to be the change we want to see in the world.

--Mike Larsen

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I enjoyed reading about your experiences and insights, and taking in your perspective on things. Great trip sounds like, lots of going with the flow.

--Anonymous

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Good one...really appreciated reading this.

--Anonymous

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Re: Vancouver Reflections

The scholar's study at the Classical Chinese Garden, Vancouver

It's worth noting that Vancouver has been having an influx of capital from Asia for a few decades, creating a real estate bubble and generally helping the economy.

--Seb Paquet

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I haven't been to Vancouver, though I've been wanting to go for some time. I had similar experiences in Victoria many years ago, as well as some similar feelings while in Seattle and Portland (i.e., more white, more granola).

I also agree on SF.

Peace,

Dan

PS Also, I'm told that British Columbia has a carbon tax, resulting is less

pollution and more economic growth.

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Where I lived on the Canadian border, we didn't wear lipstick, etc., everyday either. Only for special occasions and now everyone is into casual, so, cosmetics are less everyday even in this era.

On 51% language. they may have been referring to language differences that don't necessarily reflect racial differences. French for instance is a national language in CAN

--Anonymous

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Re: Zimmerman, Celebrities, Heroes, and Villains

Are most of us disempowered by a celebrity culture? I don't know. I can't speak to an amorphous "most." Maybe I'm too unreflective, but I don't think about heroes much. I just plod along doing what I can, when I can as I see needs at hand. I feel pulled to a lot of issues and events, but just have to deal with the limits to my time and energy.

--Anonymous