Guest post by Barbara Janeway on the results of the Transition Carrboro Chapel Hill brainstorming May 15 at Century Center:

Want our community to be safe and resilient through the coming effects of unstable economy, climate change, and the end of cheap oil? A great start was made on this issue at The Great Unleashing, held May 15 at Carrboro's Century Center, sponsored by Transition Carrboro Chapel Hill.

Over 150 people attended and created the agenda for the day themselves, identifying issues to work with. From these, 28 discussion groups met throughout the day, and brainstormed! By day's end, a powerful 'unleashing' of ideas had occurred, and 21 Action Groups were formed. Many positive visions of our future were communicated!

These Action Groups have begun to meet regularly. And those who join will begin the work of transition in our region, to a more stable local economy with more vibrant local resources. Anyone is welcome to join an action group. The groups will do work on issues such as: more affordable housing, communal gardening, energy independence, children's sustainable education, skill-sharing, health, and many more.

According to this morning's Herald-Sun, the Orange County "Board of Commissioners is one of the first government bodies in the nation to seek to define social justice and make it a backdrop for its decisions." The Human Relations Advisory Board presented a draft of their document to the BoCC on May 13. The full document is available at: http://www.co.orange.nc.us/OCCLERKS/1005131.pdf

For those who don't have time to read the full document, here's the bare bones.

In working to seek social justice, Orange County shall perform government duties including policy-making and budgeting with the express objectives of:

1. Striving for the elimination of oppression and inequity by creating an environment of equal opportunity in which no groups are targeted for harassment, exclusion, intimidation or violence.