|
Oct 14
2010
|
Organizing Against PovertyPosted by Bruce Robinson in speaker , rights , politics , policy , nonprofit orgs , justice , jobs , Ideas , government , education , economy , current events , community , California , activism |
 |
What can people in poverty do to improve their lives? Mary Gonzales takes an atypical approach; organizing disadvantaged communities to exercise political clout they didn’t know they had.
Mary Gonzales, The Gamalilei Foundation's regional organizer for California and Hawaii, reports that her greatest success story to date occurred in Venturra County, where a combination of organizational outreach and concentrated research enabled the local agricultural community to fend off a major mining operation's plans.
California has long since met its goal of recycling at least half of the state’s waste stream. So north coast Assemblyman Wes Chesbro thinks we should reset the goal to be even higher.
Achieving further reductions in overall waste generation will require working closely with manufacturers to adjust processes and materials so that their products are more readily recyclable.
No one has a better first-hand view of the problems with this country’s health care system than the doctors who work in it, a vantage point that has made some of them “mad as hell” about it.
As a strong advocate for a single payer health care system, Dr. Paul Hochfeld had hopes that the federal health care reform debate this year would lead to some major improvements. When the final bill was passed, however, he was deeply disappointed.
From his position inside the current system, Dr. Hochfeld recognizes the power of the fiscal incentives to provide maximized, specialized care during the final few weeks or days of a patient's life. Yet he argues, it is widely acknowledged that this approach is both highly expensive, and often contrary to the comfort and well-being of the patient.
You can find out more about Dr. Hochfeld and his film at his 
