05031 - Barnard, Vt.
Laura Shelton, 28, of East Barnard, is the organizer of the local chapter of the Conversation Cafe, part of a national organization. The following is an edited interview.
Being green is an elitist thing in my mind. Not everyone can afford to put up solar panels at their house, or a windmill. I mean, that's thousands of dollars. And not everyone can afford to buy organic or go to the farmers markets. There’s all these great projects and all these great ideas, but right now it's only for people that have a lot of money.
In Barnard there are so many kinds of people, but the majority of us can't afford to buy services from each other. The idea is to bring the community together to generate ideas about what the rest of us can do.
Not everyone has to be on the exact same page in what brought them here. It could be their personal financial situation, or their environmental concerns, or whatever. I just don’t think there can be too many people coming together to share ideas right now.
Someone suggested a canning workshop, a cheese-making workshop. Another person volunteered to teach about gardening techniques and how to save seeds. We talked about setting up a time-banking system where we can trade skilled labor with each other. We talked about sharing a cow for milk, and going in together on a side of beef. These things are so simple, I love that.
There was such a broad range of people that came. It wasn't just young people or old people, or just women, it was everyone. By the end of two hours we were so excited. People came up to me and said they felt more hopeful than they had in a long, long time. It makes you stronger to know you’re not alone, that you don’t have to do it all by yourself.
I really believe that strengthening the community through this kind of meeting is the surest way to face the environmental crisis, the political crisis, the economic crisis. Coming together is the only way I can imagine of really dealing with things.
I have a quote by Albert Camus I think is really good. "Hope remains only in the most difficult task of all: to reconsider everything from the ground up so as to shape a living society inside of a dying society." I think that pretty much sums up what we’re trying to do.