Our first day here

Well, it is a sunday evening here in the UK (20th August, 2006) and I am trying to set up this blog for April and me to continue a partnership we started a couple years ago now. April is a young scholar who is very interested in natural living that is harmonious with the earth. She is a committed local activist who is constantly involved in policy issues that might make her community a better place to live in. She is very interested in natural birthing and parenting. She is a mother of two and is working on completing her Ph.D in Public Policy. We will hear more from her personally in just a bit.

I met April at SUNY Albany when I was still doing my doctorate there (also in Public Policy). I finished that a couple years ago and decided to try living this side of the Atlantic for a bit and took on a research fellowship that would pay me to get here and be here for a bit. I am also interested in some of the issues April is passionate about. On the other hand I also have some other topics that really get me going- some of these are women's rights, animal rights and issues of empowerment and political involvement.

What we hope to do with this blog is to engage in a dialog on issues of importance to us - these could include a topic in the news currently, something that has us pondering at the moment, or just something that has riled us. Even if we disagree, iinstead of trying to impose a judgment on anything we take issue with, we will try to reason about it and try to show why something works for us- or not.

We believe reasoned dialog is what the world needs. We believe humans are an intelligent animal and each of us is capable of contributing positively to this planet we live in and all our co-inhabitants lives. If we humans cannot give anything positive at least we can be aware of any negative impacts we are having and learn how to get along and leave something more than a husk of a planet for the future.