Field of Dashed Dreams

From Maureen Dowd’s Op Ed column in the Aug. 16 2011 issue of the New York Times:

“…After assuring Obama that she was a supporter, an Iowa mother named Emily asked the president at a town hall at the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah what had gone wrong.

Standing in a setting that was Martha Stewart-perfect – a red barn with an American flag, surrounded by white pines, red cedars and pink zinnias – the president looked breezy in khakis and white shirt. But he seemed to tense up as Emily spoke.

“‘So when you ran for office you built a tremendous amount of trust with the American people, that you seemed like someone who wouldn’t move the bar on us,” she said. “And it seems, especially in the last year, as if your negotiating tactics have sort of cut away at that trust by compromising some key principles that we believed in, like repealing the tax cut, not fighting harder for single-payer. Even Social Security and Medicare seemed on the line when we were dealing with the debt ceiling. So I’m just curious, moving forward, what prevents you from taking a harder negotiating stance, being that it seems that the Republicans are taking a really hard stance?…'”

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/opinion/field-of-dashed-dreams.html?_r=1&hp

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

5 Responses to Field of Dashed Dreams

  1. JUst found your blog. A resource I've needed for some time. Hubbie and I are selling our too big certified oragnic farm business in order to downsize…way down…to a live where we grow food just for us. Can't wait to read more of your posts !

  2. I like this quote from the article:

    "The former Air Force pilot said the military and veterans would prefer a commander in chief who had been in uniform."

    Right, just like the presidents who guided the US through its biggest wars—Lincoln / Civil War, and Roosevelt / WW II—

    —oh, wait. Never mind.

  3. First and foremost, the President needs to follow the silly piece of paper he swore to defend the Constitution of The United States. Obama, just like Bush, has ignored it for political expediency. He didn't have to sign the re-authorization of the Patriot Act or the tax cuts for the wealthy. He certainly shouldn't have sent so much as one plane to Libya. That action was a clear violation of the Constitution. When he starts showing that he's brave enough to stand up for the Constitution before partisan politics, then he might get my grudging respect.

  4. The fact of the matter is there are too many rats in the cage. Anyone who continues to look to government to solve any of their problems is going to be very disappointed. I am convinced that Homesteading, the trend to smaller and more efficient shelter , focusing on the simple and basic pleasures (gardening, surfing, reading, conversation, friendship, family, etc) and the circling of a nuclear family within that Homestead (be that in any form that suits those individuals) is the future for those who wish to live a quality life with the luxury of "government" policies having the least impact possible on their lives. Does anyone really think that it is possible to lead a country of 300,000,000 people with the execution of any but the most basic of visions? Given what he has to work with, which is a nation with a whole lot of idiots and a dysfunctional partisanship that will only get worse, I predict we will be looking back on these times as quite good i comparison to what is coming down the pike. Just my .02.

    W

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