There are so many cynical people in today’s media pointing out what’s wrong with the world (myself included).

It is always encouraging to find individuals and organizations that are not complaining but making an effort to build a better tomorrow…and not I don’t mean standing in front of the Wal-Mart signing up voters for Barack!

What’s that you say? The problems are so big you can’t really to fix them?

Well, I beg to differ. Anyone can identify issues on a local scale from the neighborhood, town or region around their home and work towards making a positive change.

Just because the Federal Government blows $12 Billion a month building new prisons and taller walls in Iraq, doesn’t mean you can’t make your local world a better place. Each day you have a choice to select the food, products and services on which you will spend your money. Start voting with your dollars and make a positive difference in the local world of your community.

One such organization that is making a big difference in their local region and beyond is the E. F. Schumacher Society of Great Barrington, MA, USA.

Their ideas often sound like this: “Inventory the multitude of human, natural, and financial resources available for local production. Support existing businesses. Share information. Apply the genius of local knowledge to shape new enterprises.” They are positive helpful information we can all appreciate.

Their local region even has its own private currency, the Berkshares and as you will read below in just a few short years of use, consumers have already exchanged over $2 million dollars worth or this private currency. Their organization’s web site can be found at http://www.smallisbeautiful.org Thanks to Susan Witt from the E. F. Schumacher Society, I’ve been receiving the Society’s updates and news for many months.  These people are making a big difference in their world. Try following their lead, if you don’t like the economy around you take a tip from Susan Witt and change your world for the better.

Dear Mark Herpel,

If our common interest is to build more independent regions and their unique regional cultures, then part of that effort will be to build more independent regional economies –ones in which the goods consumed locally are produced locally.

In her Cities and the Wealth of Nations, the late Jane Jacobs brilliantly argues that the best strategy for economic development is to generate import-replacement industries. She would have us examine what is now imported into a region and develop the conditions to instead produce those products from local resources with local labor. Unlike the branch of a multi-national corporation that might open and then suddenly close, driven by moody fluctuations in the global economy, a locally owned and managed business is more likely to establish a complex of economic and social interactions that build strong entwining regional roots, keeping the business in place and accountable to people, land, and community.

What then is the responsibility of concerned citizens to help build sustainable regional economies?

An independent regional economy calls for new regional economic institutions for land, labor, and capital to embody the scale, purpose, and structure of our endeavors. These new institutions cannot be government-driven, and rightly so. They will be shaped by free associations of consumers and producers, working cooperatively, sharing the risk in creating an economy that reflects shared culture and shared values. Small in scale, transparent in structure, designed to profit the community rather than profit from the community, they can address our common concern for safe and fair working conditions; for production practices that keep our air and soil and waters clean, renewing our natural resources rather than depleting them; for innovation in the making and distribution of the basic necessities of food, clothing, shelter, and energy rather than luxury items; and for more equitable distribution of wealth.

Building of new economic institutions is hard work. Most of us rest complacently in our role as passive consumers, not co-producers and co-shapers of our own economies. But it is work that can be done, and fine beginnings are being made in the development of local currencies, community supported farms, regionally based equity and loan funds, worker-owned businesses, community land trusts, and business alliances for local living economies.

These initiatives are motivated by the affection that the citizens of a region have for their neighbors and neighborhoods; for the fields, forests, mountains, and rivers of their landscapes; for the local history and culture that binds these all together; and for their common future.

On this Labor Day of 2008, we encourage you to join regional economic projects in your own communities or create them anew. Inventory the multitude of human, natural, and financial resources available for local production. Support existing businesses. Share information. Apply the genius of local knowledge to shape new enterprises. Celebrate successes.

On Saturday, September 20th BerkShares local currency will celebrate the two millionth BerkShare exchanged at one of our five participating banks with the Second Annual BerkShares Bash. Featuring some of the Berkshire businesses that define the program and our local economy, the event is scheduled for 1-5 PM on the front lawn of the John Dewey Academy at the historic Searles Castle, Main Street, Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Admission is 5 BerkShares. Kids 12 and under are free. Delight in local musicians, yummy food, fine crafts, Roger the Jester, face-painting, stilt walking, neighbors and friends. Bring the family, a picnic basket, a blanket for sitting, extra BerkShares for treats, and the expectation of a great time.

Happy Labor Day,

Susan Witt for the E. F. Schumacher Society

• 140 Jug End Road
• Great Barrington, MA 01230
• www.smallisbeautiful.org
• www.berkshares.org
• efssociety@smallisbeautiful.org

Board of Directors: Jessica Brackman, Starling Childs, Merrian Fuller, Hildegarde Hannum, Eric Harris-Braun, Constance Packard, Joseph Stanislaw, Nancy Jack Todd, and Charles Turner.

Board of Founders: Ian Baldwin, David Ehrenfeld, Satish Kumar, John McClaughry, and Kirkpatrick Sale.

Advisory Board: Tanya Berry, Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, Lisa Byers, Olivia Dreier, Hazel Henderson, Wes Jackson, Amory Lovins, John McKnight, David Orr, Michael Shuman, Cathrine Sneed, Lewis Solomon, John Todd, Greg Watson, Barbara Wood, and Arthur Zajonc.