“First take a deep breath and realize that you are not alone in this.  There are people all over your state, all over America, all over the world, who are with you.

If you’ve read this site, and read the links you are probably feeling upset and concerned about your future and the future of your country.  Good.  There are a lot of issues that make it into the news but UN Agenda 21, communitarianism, and sustainable development/SmartGrowth doesn’t show up much.  So you’re shocked about it.  You may even be hoping that it’s nothing, that it will blow over, that you don’t have to do anything about it.  But this is real and your voice is needed.

You may be looking for a leader.  Take a look in the mirror.  This is the real face of grassroots.  YOU.

To start, the best thing you can do is to read more and open your eyes to the workings of your town.  You’ve heard the slogan “Think Globally, Act Locally”?  Take that to heart, to the real heart of what you see.  Take your local paper.  Read it.  So many of us take the New York Times or the San Francisco Chronicle but not our local paper.  It’s a rag, we say.  Who cares?  You should.  Up above we said that UN Agenda 21, communitarianism and sustainable development/SmartGrowth don’t show up much in the paper, but they do, every day.  If you’re paying attention and reading intelligently.  Articles about redevelopment projects, bicycle boulevards, neighborhood summits, neighborhood elections, neighborhood revitalization projects, neighborhood stabilization projects, visioning, local boards, smart growth projects, low-income housing subsidies, transportation grants, green building retrofit programs, well monitoring, SMART electric and gas meters, and the people who object to them come out every day.  Connect with those people.  Tell them about UN Agenda 21.  Be a bridge.

Amazingly enough, flyering is one of the most effective ways of reaching a large number of people in a short time.  Get up early on a weekend morning and take these around different neighborhoods for a few weeks.  Drop them on porches, don’t put them in mailboxes (they’re FEDERAL property, apparently).  Don’t let people waylay you and draw you into conversation or you’ll waste your Saturday arguing instead of putting out the info.  Tell them to go to the website on the flyer if they want more info.  If they want to help tell them to make copies of the flyer and walk them around.  Take the flyers with you to the store, coffee shop, meetings, and give them out.  It only costs about $5 to make 100 black and white copies.  Go for it!

If you’re a sceptic, and you should be, keep reading and asking the questions.  Be a sharp researcher.  If you read about a group that is advocating for SmartGrowth, for instance, take a look at who’s in the group.  Google the names of the people running the organization.  Follow those links.  Who funds them?  What influence do they have on your community?  For instance, in our town, Santa Rosa, CA, there is a group that is trying to develop new neighborhood associations in conjunction with the City so that they can hand-pick neighborhood ‘leaders’ and shut out other voices.  It’s called the Neighborhood Alliance, a group founded by the local president of the UN-USA Association.  Didn’t know there was a local chapter of the United Nations in your town?  Neither did we.  What else?  The other founder is the director of advocacy for the California Lung Association.  A check of that group shows that they lobby the legislature for smart growth (that term means multi-story residential condos stacked on top of retail stores next to railway lines, proposed rail lines, or transit corridors, the preferred development style for Agenda 21).  Surprised?  We were.  That explained why the Board of the neighborhood association went nuts when my partner was elected neighborhood president.  They threatened her with a trial to remove her when they found out she and I had organized a group and sued to stop a local redevelopment project.  You get the point.

Connect with others who are feeling that their property rights are being limited or taken away through excessive regulations.  Most people who do own property don’t own more than their own home, but if you do own a piece of improved or vacant land, whether it is rural, urban, suburban, commercial, residential, or industrial, you’ve been affected.  And you probably know it.  So do others in your situation.  Political parties are a diversion.  Don’t make that an issue.  You’ll find allies by watching the Planning Commission meetings on your local cable station, or by going down to the meetings yourself, listening for a few weeks, giving your card to those who are in a similar situation, and meeting them.  Tell them about UN Agenda 21.

You might get a shock, as we did sometimes, when you think you’re meeting with allies but find out that you’re mistaken.  Take the chance.  Spread the word.  Ask us for a bumpersticker or some business cards with this website address on them.

Try to get a small group together. Yes, it takes some courage to point out actions being taken by your neighbors, by your town council, and by your community when you feel alone.    Here’s an example of a small group that has made a big difference.  Or maybe you’ll just have one other person. Go to your neighborhood visioning meetings.  Remember though, they use tactics like the Delphi Technique at local meetings to marginalize dissent.  You can learn very effective ways to monkey-wrench their tactics here.  Go to the City Council meetings and get used to speaking out.  It’s kind of scary at first but go for it.   It’s tremendously engaging to become involved locally.  It’s your town—Get Involved.  But don’t let them snow you.  Or use flattery to turn you.  Don’t be fooled.

Host a Movie Night!  There are lots of great movies that you can buy on the internet or just show from your computer, such as Invisible Empire and Inside Job.  Show my videos (take a look at the Video/Smear Article page and the What is Agenda 21 page for the videos).  Do you have a small office or shop that you can show movies in after work?  Invite a few people and watch them together, and discuss.  Make it a regular once-a-week thing and you’ll be surprised how fast it grows.

When you’re discussing UN Agenda 21 with people who are part of the sustainability movement think about their arguments.  Are they logical?  If they advocate for high density development in the center of your town, ask them: Why do you support vertical sprawl? Ask them: Did you know that low-income housing developments do not pay property tax?  Did you know that they do not contribute to paying for city services?  Ask them: Did you know that property taxes on new developments in an area that has been declared blighted contribute very little to the schools, hospitals, police and fire? The majority of their property tax is diverted to the Redevelopment Agency to pay off redevelopment bonds. If they bring up issues that raise questions for you, research the answers.  Use it as a learning opportunity.

Here’s a way for your voice to be heard in every newspaper and magazine in the nation:  Go on their online sites and comment on articles related to UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development.  Most sites will allow anonymous posting, if you wish to be anonymous.

Do you subscribe to a newsletter?  Write something for it.  Go ahead!  Do your best and don’t worry if you don’t get it all in there.

Start a blog.  Just do it, it’s easy!  Weebly is a terrific web-building site.  It’s free and you can easily have a website and blog in about 5 minutes.  As you learn more, post it.  Link to others.  Get support by finding others, like us, who have awakened to UN Agenda 21 and Communitarianism.

Do you have a community media center in your town?  At the college or high school there may be a local TV cable station with classes in how to do a local TV show.  It’s fun, you learn a lot, and you get your show on the air.  Try a ‘man on the street’ show.  Ask everyone you meet:  ‘Did you know that (your town) was a member of ICLEI?’ or ‘Did you know that sustainable development is a United Nations plan?’

There’s an election coming up.  Go to the forums.  Ask:  ‘What is your position on UN Agenda 21?’  Hold up a sign.  Find out if your town or county is a member of ICLEI.  Ask: ‘What is your position on ICLEI?  Will you commit to KICK ICLEI out of our community?’

Don’t look for a hero, don’t expect someone to do it for you.  You are joining a huge worldwide genuine grassroots movement.  Being green is using energy efficient ways to conserve, and using intelligent means to preserve our lives on the earth.  You don’t have to lose your rights and give up living with a personal vehicle, a private home, modern conveniences, and good food.  We’ve been told by local groups that they don’t want electric vehicles to be successful because that will stop people from getting out of their cars and onto bikes.  That even if all electricity came from renewables that people having personal vehicles are ‘anti-social’ and that streets should be bike only or removed.

If you’ve been identifying yourself as progressive ask what that means.  Ask yourself what it means.  Think about it.  In your mind, move into a condo.  Get rid of your car and ride a bike.  Take your time thinking about this.  Stop eating any food that was not produced locally (within 25 miles).  Limit your water usage to 10 gallons per day.  Pay a carbon tax for any trip you take.  Wash your clothes and bedding by hand and hang them up to dry (try this for a month).  Perform your hours of ‘mandatory volunteer work’.  What does it mean to be progressive?  Are you a liberal?  We can own the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, too.  It’s ours.  We’re a big country with a lot of room and a lot of resources.  We’re cleaning up our pollution, we’re reducing our energy use, we’re more efficient with our water.  We are a nation of rights.  Not republican or democrat rights.  National, civil, rights.”

Ojai is in the process of developing their General Plan – Ojai 2045. Really think about this:  What do you want Ojai to be like in the year 2045?  What’s your vision for our future?  The United Nations’ dystopian Agenda 21 plan is not yet set in stone.  We can have a much more creative, human-affirming, empowering vision for the future!  It’s up to us to speak up!!!