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Kat
- 41, Female
- Chattanooga, TN
- United States
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Kat's Groups
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Building Transition Co...
4 members
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Sustainable Chattanooga
18 members
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Master Kudzu
12 members
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Transition Solution Wo...
6 members
Treehugger.com
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Kathryn Westcott
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Kat has not received any gifts yet
Latest Activity
You're welcome Elizabeth! :) He's such an inspiration to me. There is probably more on youtube and google about him.
Great video! I wonder if he does speaking engagement or helps start-up. Thanks for the heads-up Kat
Profile Information
- How are you currently involved in the Transition movement?
- I have spent a good bit of time researching the Transition model through the handbook, interviews, articles, etc. and I've been observing and corresponding with other groups, full-fledged Transition towns, and similar models about how they function. Lately I've been analyzing the situation in Chattanooga and the group here, and am inspired about what we can do. I understand the model well and while I can't do every part of it singlehandedly, I'm interested in applying it for maximum growth in our area. I'd like to participate with mature visionaries who operate out of love and selfless service, who know how to cooperate genuinely with others, and who are ready to do what it takes to work together with the kind of open, understanding and adventurous spirit that characterizes the vision and values of the Transition Town Movement.
- In what ways do you identify with the Transition movement? Why are you interested?
- I wholeheartedly agree that the model according to which we've been functioning since medieval times or earlier is no longer valid (was it ever?). It is not sustainable and I want to be involved in choosing and pioneering what replaces it. For me, this goes far beyond traditional sustainability and reaches into the need to literally re-engineer society out of a monetary system altogether and into a new system based upon resources and abundance for all. Everything we need for abundance, sustainable living, exists. In order to access it and provide well-being to everyone, the system must be changed.
- How can you help the growth/acceptance/vitality of the Transition movement?
- I can help by working on myself, looking for every way possible to change how I think and what my habits are, and to help inspire others about what can be done on a personal level as well as spread the word about what others are creating. Beyond that, I continue to educate myself and one day coordinate, organize and share with those who are interested in working with the model and building Transition Tennessee.
- Your Favorite Books/Websites/Blogs/RSS Feeds for Information about the Transition Movement
- Will fill this in later. I have to sort through all my bookmarks!
Kat's Videos
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2008 MacArthur Fellow Will Allen
Added by Kat
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How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Added by Kat
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Comment Wall (12 comments)
- At 1:04pm on May 22, 2009,
Jeannie Cerulean said…
- I live at the biodiversity park 8012 Shallowford road. This year at SVI's Food for Life I hold theatre workshops the last weekend in May!
- At 1:17pm on February 19, 2009,
Stone said… - Have you seen this video from "path to freedom"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPEBM5ol0Q
- At 1:13pm on February 18, 2009,
Tami Freedman said…
- Hope to see you on Sunday. I'm on Global Warming Task Force, Sierra Club board, and CHEO board - plus run Green Events calendar at meetup.com - and have been wishing more people would get involved. Like to find a way to have more access to media locally... Kat, looking forward to hearing about what you're doing also! T
- At 7:34am on February 18, 2009,
- Thanks for the welcome Kat! Looks like a great group and looking forward to meeting other sustainable and planet health folks! See you soon! T
- At 11:20am on February 6, 2009,
Mike Morin said… - Kat,
My picture says it all. My gift is vision, but they all want cell phones and luxury cars, and all the other ridiculous toys of American Capitalist culture.
I am very frustrated. It is refreshing to "hear" from such a bright, fresh mind and heart such as yourself.
You mention that you are feeling jaded, already. I hate to say this, but you've probably got a LOT more of that coming your way.
Don't get depressed. Don't give up. That's easier said than done. If you do give up, or have to, because of circumstances, I'm sure that you will find equally, if not more so disappointment and frustration in your pursuits. That's life. So if you can keep on the right track, and you have the opportunity to pursue a correct calling with the best of intentions, stick with it!
Here's a prayer that I wrote:
The Lloyd's Prayer
Our father, this earth ain't no heaven
Hugh could be his name
Thy kin dom come
We will work on it
to try to make it better (Kevin?)
Work this day on our daily bread
and think about the future, look ahead
Forgive, but don't forget
and be good to each other.
Keep trying, don't internalize the insanity
and try not to be overwhelmed
with the disappointment.
Amen.
Mike
- At 6:37pm on February 5, 2009,
Angela said… - Pack-rat, I mean, heehee!
- At 6:36pm on February 5, 2009,
Angela said…
- Hello Kat! I'm Angela. I am a 35 year old Registered Nurse at a Physical Rehab. Hospital. I have been with Ron for 8 years and my son Jonathan is 15 years old. I really want to be more involved in environmental issues and natural living. Unfortunately, I resist using computers and checking my email messages, etc. rarely occurs (usually only once a month so it is a very unreliable way for me to keep in contact with others). I try to reuse and recycle all that we can and have become a bit of a pat-rack hating to throw anything away....
- At 12:37pm on February 5, 2009,
Mike Morin said…
- Kat,
I am very fortunate in many ways.
First of all, I had two great mentors, Dr. Norton H(e)art Nickerson and Dr. Hugh Cussbear William Mott Morris Davis.
I have had many good and great teachers, including the "youth culture" of the 60's and early 70's.
I have been fortunate to have been given and taken the time to pursue my true calling. For many years of my life, I was unable to do this because of economic circumstances.
The Buddhists call it right livelihood. Few have the opportunity to pursue it and many eschew it even as a goal. The Society of Friends ethic, and I've lost my notes as to whom to exactly attribute this to, holds that a person's life is an exercise in ascetic value, a proof that his/her state of grace through his/her conscientiousness which is expressed in the care and method with which he/she pursues his/her calling.
George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, set out to "conquer the world with love". He was beaten to death in an English prison, not by fellow prisoners but by the King's "men". Some historians estimate more than 15,000 imprisonments of Friends in England and America, resulting in more than 450 deaths in the first forty years of the movement.
The history of working peoples’ struggles is very similar. From the early cooperative communitarians of the 1600's to the socialists of the 1700's through to the Labor movements and those of the socialist and communist movements throughout modern history has been one of Feudal/Mercantile/Capitalist oppression and aggression with the religious, militaristic, and financial propaganda arms saying it was the freedom fighters that were the "terrorists", when actually the State Supported terrorism dates back at least 350 to 400 years, actually many more.
Shock and awe. If that ain't State Supported Terrorism, then I'm gullible.
It is very hard to advise. You are young and full of life. Life is very hard and the history of what we are pursuing is fraught with repression. I have experienced this first and second hand. If you want to discuss my life further, we can, but it isn't all that necessary. Suffice to say, what I have said.
Understand that farmers and farmworkers (it used to be extended families and communities) have throughout history been the most exploited peoples of the planet. Serfdom is not much different, if at all, from slavery.
The history of the relationship between banking interests and farmer/farmworkers has always been one of brutal exploitation and oppression. For example, read about Shay's Rebellion. With the onset of Corporate Control of agriculture, the situation got worse.
Bankers and Capitalists always keep enough of the military, the yeomanry, the clergy, to keep the artisans either satisfied and/or terrified, the latter true for the peasantry. They use all their power, their charlatanry, their propaganda, their mythology, and whatever other insidious measures, and they stop at nothing to keep allegiances and obeisance.
Don't believe the Reagan/Clinton/Obama/Yuppie/Banker/Capitalist line about the "great American middle class". It is an appeal to gluttony. It is an appeal to some sort of God-given right to blind fully oppress fellow citizens of our nation and more importantly the whole planet.
I'm not sure I've answered your questions. We have so much work to do, and I also feel often helpless with regards to the history of what we are trying to do.
Be strong. Be intelligent. Be friendly. Be knowledgeable. Be vigilant. Be careful. I mean the last in two ways. You are obviously a careful young woman. That is, you obviously care about others and equity, and quality of life, and humanity, and sustainability, and peace. BUT, be cautious, because the powers that be have made a history of calling us "Outopian" (which means no place) and laughing at the hip peace movement and embracing the greed-soaked Yuppies. I prefer eutopian, which means good place, and will continue to work for it, despite the large odds that we face, in a world that doesn't care, a nation that worships greed, complicated by rich Liberals that just don't know and/or obfuscate with a smiling, ostensibly caring, face.
With much love and care,
Mike Morin
- At 6:45pm on January 25, 2009,
Charity Stuart said…
- Hey Kat! Yep, NZ seems to be the perfect little country to try TT as a national/local initiative. Being islands helps of course. And good to see the Urban Pioneers in San Diego on your video links. They are my idols.
- At 3:13pm on December 11, 2008,
Stone said…
- Speaking of Chattanoogans... You might want to peruse this myspace group.
http://groups.myspace.com/masterkudzugardeners
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