Where Everyone is Welcome

Gentrification is colonizing. Colonize: to appropriate (a place or domain) for one’s own use.

It’s likely before land was owned it was held in common among people living in a given place. It also seems likely that those people worked to ensure their common interests in a way that was most beneficial to everyone – including the environment. Most likely they were agrarians who lived off the land and cared for animals who supported their way of life.

Skills were shared and bartered. And peacekeeping was left to the peaceful who held a deep appreciation for equity and dignity. 

There are many places on earth that still maintain the understanding of shared commons. There are people who still understand how important each individual is to the whole. 

For the most part capitalism, as we know it, has destroyed this sense of community. Ownership trumps the notion of shared commons. And the hierarchy that ownership creates breeds distrust. The deference that is expected from worker to employer has unleveled the playing field. We’ve lost our ability to be content and the scramble to get ahead leaves most far behind.

Individual “freedoms” now supersede any concern of the common good – that applies to all people on the spectrum of left and right. 

The word gentrification describes inner city take over by wealth as it displaces people of lesser means. But what do we call it when wealth and privilege come knocking on our rural doors?

The gentrification of the Driftless is making it hard for people to choose simple living. Suburbia is finding us. Laws on how we should live come with a price. 

Support cooperative ventures that champion the rights of Nature and human dignity. This isn’t about a hand out. It’s about paying attention to what is happening. It’s about restoring the commons.

Where everyone is welcome.