Just say no to megabanks: Asheville jumps on Move Your Money bandwagon
Below is my commentary about the Move Your Money project in this week’s Mountain Xpress.
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Outraged by the federal government’s multibillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street, Asheville residents are registering their displeasure by withdrawing their assets from arrogant “too-big-to-fail” megabanks in favor of local institutions that serve their own community. Joining forces with fellow citizens nationwide, Ashevilleans across the political spectrum are voting with their bank accounts, sending a strong message to both Washington and Wall Street.
Despite the latter’s direct responsibility for precipitating the financial crisis, these huge institutions remain unrepentant — even after receiving tens of billions of taxpayer dollars via the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Refusing to lend to small businesses in a meaningful way, they continue their high-risk activities, award huge bonuses to their chief executives, and spend millions lobbying Congress to defeat financial reform, ensuring that taxpayers will also have to pick up the tab for future financial fiascos.
Meanwhile, our political leaders in Washington appear to lack the will to resolve the problem. And some citizens, awash in cynicism and hopelessness, say this is just the way things work in our nation: socialism for the rich and capitalism for the rest of us. But a small band of visionaries has devised a simple, effective way for ordinary folks to take direct action on their own behalf: the Move Your Money project.
The concept is simple: shift your checking and savings accounts from such Wall Street behemoths as Bank of America, Wachovia and Citibank to a community bank or credit union.
Area residents speak out
To get a sense of how this movement is shaping up locally, I put out a query on Facebook. Here are some of the responses:
Lael Gray, Asheville: “My husband and I decided that our real power as citizens lies in where we put our dollars. We’re always on the lookout for ways to buy local, so the Move Your Money project caught our attention immediately. So far the main advantage of working with the local bank we selected is that we’ve gotten a much better deal on our checking account that now earns interest! And there are no monthly fees for online banking.”
Eric Miller, Asheville: “I think it really hit me when all the TARP stuff was going on. I was going out of my way to get local meat from Hickory Nut Gap, trout from Sunburst Trout Farm, etc., yet I was going to the Wal-Mart of banks. My new bank made everything very easy, with much shorter waits (if any) and much more personal attention. … We also get interest on our checking and can use any ATM.”
Laura Collins, Asheville: “I recently moved my main checking account from Wachovia to Asheville Savings Bank. The interest checking there really appealed to me, and their customer service is among the best I’ve ever come across.”
A community banker weighs in
“Bank of Asheville’s deposits were up 20 percent during 2009,” reports President and Chief Executive G. Gordon Greenwood, “moving us from 12th place to eighth place out of a total of 19 banks in Buncombe County. Other community banks are experiencing something similar.”
People are realizing that we offer all the services of the bigger banks — online banking, bill pay, credit cards, debit cards and so on,” says Greenwood. “And of course, there’s a definite advantage to being able to talk face to face with an officer who can actually make a decision for the bank. Plus, 95 percent of our loans are made to consumers, mortgage holders and small businesses right here in Buncombe County.”
How about it, Asheville?
Now it’s time for the city of Asheville to transfer its money from Wachovia/Wells Fargo, Bank of America and BB&T to community banks. During the Feb. 9 City Council meeting, Council member Cecil Bothwell proposed considering just such a switch.
“In light of the poor management decisions evident among banks considered ‘too big to fail,’ I suggest that the city of Asheville might do well to bank with local banks which have proven to be resilient and responsive to the needs of our local community,” Bothwell explains. “It seems to me that local tax dollars collected and distributed by the city government would better serve the community if we banked locally. Council has embraced the idea that we should bolster the local economy and local small businesses whenever we can, and moving our money can be part of that effort.”
Move your money!
Some might claim that switching from their current bank is too much trouble. But the Move Your Money Web site (moveyourmoney.info) lays out a very straightforward process. Read the FAQs and checklist and then proceed to “Find a Bank/Credit Union,” where you can choose a local institution that meets your specific needs. (To view a list of highly rated WNC banks and credit unions, click here.) Before moving your money, however, you’ll also want to check the institution’s safety rating and whether your deposits would be FDIC-insured.
With a little foresight and perseverance, you can make this change with grace and ease. And the rewards are huge — more personalized service, lower fees and higher interest, a focus on the needs of local families and businesses, and loans made where customers actually live and work. What’s not to like?
Thursday, February 25th, 2010When Brucie met Shonnie
I first laid eyes on Shonnie Lavender in 1995 when we both joined the Austin Fit Green Training Group for the Austin Motorola Marathon. It was August, and as usual, hot as Hades in the capitol city of Texas—highs in the upper 90s to lower 100s. Of course, Austin runners (about ten percent of the city’s population) are accustomed to being thoroughly sweat-soaked through and through by the time they hit the quarter-mile mark.
Between 20 to 30 intermediate-level runners in our group met early each Saturday morning at Town Lake. With the support of our 
coaches, we ran increasingly long distances on the trails around the lake (ultimately up to 20+ miles) in preparation for the marathon that would take place on February 18, 1996. For the record, there were also beginning and elite runners groups that trained on Saturday mornings as well.
After running together week after week for longer and longer distances, the size of our group dwindled to seven runners. Shonnie was the only remaining woman. My first recollection of the single feminine member of our group was of a very attractive, assertive woman of indeterminate age who looked pretty damned good in running tights. Our group’s theory was if we were running too fast to chat, we were running too fast. So after many hours on the trails around Town Lake, we got to know a bit about one another, and I soon learned Shonnie was in a relationship as I was at the time.
Marathon completed!
Shonnie, Jesus, Tim, Tall Bald Larry, Medium Bald Larry, Jack and I all became fast friends over the months of training together and most of us completed the marathon, though a couple of our members each ran a half of the race each due to 
injuries that had slowed their conditioning. Actually I was injured too. A week or so before the marathon I suffered a shin splint after a misstep during a nocturnal run. But I was determined to finish what I’d started, so I took a handful of Advil, put my head down and completed my first marathon in 3:52:21.
Our tight little band of athletes continued running together, though not as regularly or as far. And in addition to our long runs on Saturdays, we began participating in the Tuesday and Thursday afternoon training sessions sponsored by Run-Tex. On Tuesdays speed workouts at the local track, and on Thursdays hill repeats, though in Austin finding a decent hill was not a simple task.
The plot thickens
I spent a good deal of the summer of 1996 in New York City with my girlfriend Carolyn, a time of deep learning about relationships for both of us. And upon my return to Austin in July I had several phone messages from Shonnie inviting me to rejoin our training group in preparation for the 1997 Motorola Marathon. Little did I know at the time she was really inviting me to something else entirely.
In August 1996, after picking up a few new runners, we regrouped and began training again in earnest. And we began to hang out a bit socially as well, usually heading to nearby Magnolia Cafe for pancakes after our long run on Saturday mornings.
I was involved in the Life Training program (a personal growth program later renamed More to Life), and I invited my running buddies to attend an introductory presentation. The interactive presentation was led by Ann McMaster, one of the program’s senior trainers. At one point during the evening, attendees had an opportunity to ask questions, and Shonnie stood up, made a comment and asked a very perceptive question. Though I don’t remember what she asked, I do remember thinking “Hey, this is not just some ditzy blonde.” There was a depth and wisdom that I hadn’t anticipated from a 25-year-old, and my perception of Shonnie shifted significantly in that moment.
Synchronicity strikes
The Green Group all planned to go out for a few beers and some music one Saturday night in early September. But that morning over pancakes after our long run, everyone backed out . . . except me and Shonnie. Whether the Universe 
conspired that day, you’ll have to decide. For, despite the fact there were only two of us, we decided to go forward with our plans. We chose on a small venue that offered music, poetry and cold Shiner Bock. I’d pick her up at 7:00 p.m.
As we were paying the cover, I lightheartedly requested the senior discount (I was 53 at the time.). The woman taking our money said, “Yeah, I see a little gray on you, but I’m not so sure about your daughter there.”
We enjoyed the music and most of the poetry, and as the evening progressed, this excursion became more and more like a date than merely two running buddies out on the town. And it seemed even more so when my hand on Shonnie’s knee was favorably received. I think there was merely a simple “good night” hand squeeze when I dropped Shonnie off at her condo. I don’t really remember. But I do know that my interest had been piqued. And I’d discovered that Shonnie was no longer “involved.”
At Shonnie’s suggestion, we went to a play together the next week—a dramatized version of “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” After the play, Shonnie said she wanted to slow things down, that she was concerned that we might be moving too fast. Somewhat puzzled, I told her that was OK with me.
A few days later Shonnie called. “What are you doing?” she asked amiably.
“Getting ready to have dinner and watch a movie with Pamela (my housemate),” I replied.
“Can I come over?” Shonnie asked.
Pamela knew and liked Shonnie, and we invited her to join us. We three had an enjoyable evening together, and after Shonnie left, I found myself a bit puzzled. I asked Pamela, “What do you think she wants?” “It’s pretty damned clear, big boy; she wants you.” Pamela drolly responded.
Love walks in
Events progressed in no way slowly after that. Seeing which direction this budding romance was heading, I called Carolyn in NYC. I told her of my attraction for Shonnie and asked if she saw any chance of a future for the two of us. Carolyn’s answer was “no.” So we acknowledged one another for how together we’d become more artful in the ways of relationships and for the other undeniable benefits of our time together. At the conclusion of our conversation, we vowed to remain steadfast friends.
Over the next few weeks, it became apparent that Shonnie possessed the most important attributes I wanted in a significant other—she was compassionate, honest, authentic, committed to personal/spiritual growth, physically attractive, athletic, passionate, vegetarian, willing to make 100 percent commitment to our relationship . . . the list goes on. After attending a breath workshop on the University of Texas campus, I told Shonnie I loved her for the first time. “I love you too,” she tenderly replied. We kissed and held each other on that balmy summer afternoon, totally oblivious to anything going on around us. Yes, we were in love!
Subsequently, we began spending a few nights a week together, sometimes at my place, sometimes at hers. Later in the fall of 1996 we decided to fully commit to our relationship and to move in together on January 1, 1997. In the process of doing so, however, we got to deal with some mindtalk, especially about our age difference (approximately 28 years): “Yikes, this will never work; she’s younger than my daughter!” “My parents will never go for this—when I’m 50, he’s going to be 78!” And so on. The vast majority of the chatter between our ears proved to be BS, of course. The truth was that we loved one another, and that was what mattered most.
Committing to a life together
Because we wanted to be intentional about our relationship and living together, we made commitments about how we would be with one another (treat one another with love and respect, tell the truth, practice 
forgiveness, keep our personal space clean, etc.), how we would live together (create a warm and inviting space that works for both of us and reflects who we truly are) and how we’d treat the feline members of our new family—Attabi, Aurora, Kaali and Chocolate (love and protect each of them and treat each as our own).
On January 1, 1997, we read our intentions and commitments aloud to one another, gave the kitties some space to get to know each other, replaced Shonnie’s coffee table with mine, expanded a bit on Shonnie’s usual menu of cereal, salad and baked potatoes and enthusiastically settled in to our life together.
This post was written in honor of Shonnie’s 38th birthday (12/28/09) and the 13th anniversary of our life together.
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009Hopi words of wisdom
You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered. . . .
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for your leader.
This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.
See who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the one wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word ’struggle’ from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
–Hopi Elders
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009Sprint!
In his blog post below, Seth Godin clearly captures the intensity and single-mindedness of my three months of working for the Obama campaign in Ohio. No time for negative mindtalk to slow me down. No time for second guessing myself (or my leaders). No time for overpreparation. At the top of my consciousness was the most creative and compelling action I could take next—an unrelenting progression of “Fire, ready, aim!”
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By Seth Godin
The best way to overcome your fear of creativity, brainstorming, intelligent risk taking or navigating a tricky situation might be to sprint.
When we sprint, all the internal dialogue falls away and we just go as fast as we possibly can. When you’re sprinting you don’t feel that sore knee and you don’t worry that the ground isn’t perfectly level. You just run.
You can’t sprint forever. That’s what makes it sprinting. The brevity of the event is a key part of why it works.
“Quick, you have thirty minutes to come up with ten business ideas.”
“Hurry, we need to write a new script for our commercial… we have fifteen minutes.”
My first huge project was launching a major brand of science-fiction computer adventure games (Ray Bradbury, Michael Crichton, etc.). I stopped going to business school classes in order to do the launch.
One day, right after a red eye flight, the president of the company told me that the company had canceled the project. They didn’t have enough resources to launch all the products we had, our progress was too slow and the packaging wasn’t ready yet.
I went to my office spent the next 20 hours rewriting every word of text, redesigning every package, rebuilding every schedule and inventing a new promotional strategy. It was probably 6 weeks of work for a motivated committee, and I did it in one swoop. Like lifting a car off an infant, it was impossible, and I have no recollection at all of the project now.
The board reconsidered and the project was back on again. I didn’t get scared until after the sprint. You can’t sprint every day but it’s probably a good idea to sprint regularly.
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Join in Buy Nothing Day
Since our capitalist economy depends on us citizens consumers maxing out our credit cards to buy a lot of crap we don’t need, do we worsen the economic meltdown if we participate in Buy Nothing Day today? Personally, I believe that the financial crisis we’re experiencing is the natural consequence of Americans and others living an unsustainable lifestyle. From Adbusters website:
Suddenly, we ran out of money and, to avoid collapse, we quickly pumped liquidity back into the system. But behind our financial crisis a much more ominous crisis looms: we are running out of nature… fish, forests, fresh water, minerals, soil. What are we going to do when supplies of these vital resources run low?
There’s only one way to avoid the collapse of this human experiment of ours on Planet Earth: we have to consume less.
It will take a massive mindshift. You can start the ball rolling by buying nothing on November 28th. Then celebrate Christmas differently this year, and make a New Year’s resolution to change your lifestyle in 2009.
It’s now or never!
From Charles Eisenstein at Reality Sandwich comes the most clear and concise explanation of the role Wall Street greed has played in our current economic crisis that I’ve yet seen.
Suppose you give me a million dollars with the instructions, “Invest this profitably, and I’ll pay you well.” I’m a sharp dresser — why not? So I go out onto the street and hand out stacks of bills to random passers-by. Ten thousand dollars each. In return, each scribbles out an IOU for $20,000, payable in five years. I come back to you and say, “Look at these IOUs! I have generated a 20% annual return on your investment.” You are very pleased, and pay me an enormous commission.
Now I’ve got a big stack of IOUs, so I use these “assets” as collateral to borrow even more money, which I lend out to even more people, or sell them to others like myself who do the same. I also buy insurance to cover me in case the borrowers default — and I pay for it with those self-same IOUs! Round and round it goes, each new loan becoming somebody’s asset on which to borrow yet more money. We all rake in huge commissions and bonuses, as the total face value of all the assets we’ve created from that initial million dollars is now fifty times that.
Then one day, the first batch of IOUs comes due. But guess what? The person who scribbled his name on the IOU can’t pay me back right now. In fact, lots of the borrowers can’t. I try to hush this embarrassing fact up as long as possible, but pretty soon you get suspicious. You want your million dollars back — in cash. I try to sell the IOUs and their derivatives that I hold, but everyone else is suspicious too, and no one buys them. The insurance company tries to cover my losses, but it can only do so by selling the IOUs I gave it!
So finally, the government steps in and buys the IOUs, bails out the insurance company and everyone else holding the IOUs and the derivatives stacked on them. Their total value is way more than a million dollars now. I and my fellow entrepreneurs retire with our lucre. Everyone else pays for it.
This is the first level of what has happened in the financial industry over the past decade. It is a huge transfer of wealth to the financial elite, to be funded by US taxpayers, foreign corporations and governments, and ultimately the foreign workers who subsidize US debt indirectly via the lower purchasing power of their wages.
Read Eisentein’s entire post at: Reality Sandwich | Money and the Crisis of Civilization.
Related story: Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede
So what’s the one action you’re going to take to move toward a more sane and sustainable lifestyle?
Friday, November 28th, 2008I support Cecil Bothwell for Asheville City Council
The Asheville City Council is taking applications for the seat that opened up when Holly Jones moved to the County Commission. I think the injection of reality that Cecil Bothwell offers would be most excellent for our fair city.
Here’s how Cecil answered the first question on the application:
1. What motivates you to apply for this position?
I believe that every citizen owes it to the community to step up and serve the public good, in accord with his or her abilities and interest. It is the only way to take back the government from career politicians who are more interested in personal power and wealth than in the common good. I was initially very reluctant to apply for the Council seat, but have been urged to do so by numerous friends and supporters and have been convinced to overcome that reluctance.
As I explained during my campaign for the Buncombe County Commission last spring, it appears to me that we are in for some very rough sledding in the near to mid-term future. I believe that the confluence of the bankruptcy of this country created by Bush administration spending, the end of the petroleum era and global climate change will combine to beggar the U.S.
Our entire way of life is built on cheap and plentiful fossil fuels. We tend to frame that as a transportation issue but it is far more profound than that. Most of our food supply qualifies as petrochemical, in that we use vast amounts of natural gas to create nitrogen fertilizers, fuel tractors and then fuel transport of food. Our cars may be converted to electricity, but what about the asphalt roads? There is no affordable alternative to that petroleum product (Portland cement is energy-intensive). The range of industrial applications of petroleum is beyond easy categorization, and the impact of scarcity is incalculable.
Our economy is broadly dependent on cheap fuel as well, with many major manufacturers now relocated overseas.
Click on the link below to view Cecil Bothwell’s entire application for the open Asheville City Council seat.
My application for Asheville City Council « bothwell’s blog
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard
So as we were getting rid of some extraneous stuff that doesn’t really fit in our 1000-square-foot townhouse (anyone need 
a laptop with Windows 98?), our friend Adrian sent us a link to The Story of Stuff. After watching the compelling and enlightening video, I decided I didn’t need those new jeans after all. From the website:
The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
Click this link to watch The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard or cut and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html.
So religion really is the opiate of the people?
Personal growth blogger, writer, speaker Steve Pavalina offers ten reasons not to be a member of an organized religion.
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10 Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion
by Steve Pavalina
While consciously pursuing your spiritual development is commendable, joining an established religion such as Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism is one of the worst ways to go about it. In this article I’ll share 10 reasons why you must eventually abandon the baggage of organized religion if you wish to pursue conscious living in earnest.
Since Christianity is currently the world’s most popular religion, I’ll slant this article towards Christianity’s ubiquitous failings. However, you’ll find that most of these points apply equally well to other major religions (yes, even Buddhism).
1. Spirituality for dummies.
If you have the awareness level of a snail, and your thinking is mired in shame and guilt (with perhaps a twist of drug abuse or suicidal thinking), then subscribing to a religion can help you climb to a higher level of awareness. Your mindset, however, still remains incredibly dysfunctional; you’ve merely swapped one form of erroneous thinking for another.
For reasonably intelligent people who aren’t suffering from major issues with low self-esteem, religion is ridiculously consciousness-lowering. While some religious beliefs can be empowering, on the whole the decision to formally participate in a religion will merely burden your mind with a hefty load of false notions.
When you subscribe to a religion, you substitute nebulous group-think for focused, independent thought. Instead of learning to discern truth on your own, you’re told what to believe. This doesn’t accelerate your spiritual growth; on the contrary it puts the brakes on your continued conscious development. Religion is the off-switch of the human mind.
Leave the mythology behind, and learn to think for yourself. Your intellect is a better instrument of spiritual growth than any religious teachings.
2. Loss of spiritual depth perception.
One of the worst mistakes you can make in life is to attach your identity to any particular religion or philosophy, such as by saying “I am a Christian” or “I am a Buddhist.” This forces your mind into a fixed perspective, robbing you of spiritual depth perception and savagely curtailing your ability to perceive reality accurately. If that sounds like a good idea to you, you’ll probably want to gouge out one of your eyeballs too. Surely you’ll be better off with a single, fixed perspective instead of having to consider two separate image streams… unless of course you’ve become attached to stereo vision.
Religious “truths” are inherently rooted in a fixed perspective, but real truth is perspective-independent. When you substitute religious teachings for truth, you mistake shadows for light sources. Consequently, you doom yourself to stumble around in the dark, utterly confused. Clarity remains forever elusive, and the best answer you get is that life is one giant mystery. Religious mysteries, however, arise not from what is truly unknowable; they arise from the limitations of trying to understand reality from a fixed frame of reference.
A more intelligent approach is to consider reality through a variety of different perspectives without trying to force your perceptions into an artificial religious framework. If you wish to learn more about this approach, read Spiritual Depth Perception. (more…)
Friday, June 13th, 2008
