There have been many screenings in the Bay Area of a privately produced film called Thrive. It is a long documentary, created in a New-Agey, pseudoscientific mode, which would be fairly innocuous if it were not masking a reactionary, libertarian political agenda that stands in jarring contrast with the soothing...

Imagine living in a place where, even in this economic downturn, there is zero percent unemployment. Where there are no homeless people or soup kitchens because poverty is unknown. Where students get a quality education at a private university for about $5,000 a year, and healthcare and pensions are not...

Twenty years ago, I was living in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia), when the civil war erupted there. Realizing that an attack on Zagreb was a distinct possibility after Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia, I thought it wise to consider an exit strategy. However, by the time I decided to...

Yesterday, I attended the sober inaugural ceremony that installed Jerry Brown as the 39th Governor of the state of California. Attending with me was Sonoma Mayor Laurie Gallian. We witnessed an unusual inaugural event. No fanfare, no elegant reception, no frills.

Focusing on the challenges that face us but...

A few years ago, when former CA state legislator Tom Hayden suggested that Northern California should apply for observer status with the European Union, it was understood that our region had more in common with Europe than much of the rest of America. Widely recognized for its progressive politics, the...

Praxis Peace Institute (my Sonoma, CA non-profit organization) brought a group of 25 people for a 5-day seminar and tour of the Mondragón Cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain, September 13-18, 2010.

There was a popular phrase among some politicians a few years back that proclaimed, "there is...