My mother died the first of this year.  My father is still alive and plans to move in with us next year, after he sells his house in Florida and packs up all his things.  We have a two-family house, a side by side.  I bought it years ago thinking that one of our parents might die and the other might need a place to live. 

Last night at a shiva call, a member of my congregation told me that when my father moved in I would “still have my privacy.”  I laughed, reminding her of the old joke from the Shtetl, “if you want to know my business, ask my neighbor.”

We in America value privacy.  I like to think I value community.  Are they so opposed? Is our concern (obsession?) with privacy going to destroy our ability to build community?

How do we support organization's that work for social justice?  Going to same usual suspects of foundations has many limitations.  Mostly the attention deficit disorder of such foundations, that fund something one year, and then want to move on to the next new thing.  At best, they provide a few years funding and then expect you to bake cookies to make thousands of dollars.  Not terribly strategic, but I am afraid we need to stop looking to these foundations to change any time soon.   There might be a better way.

A lot of organizations are looking for “earned income” — like businesses, and some businesses are looking for a bottom line, or “bottom lines” that are more than making money.

Such earned income should be consistent with the organization’s mission.  How about growing and drying tomatoes (like Jessie Jones does, in Organic Gardening magazine) and selling little jars for $6. Maybe the Food Project could do this. 

The National Organizers Alliance receives some incomes, although not enough, from its pension/retirement program, which helps organizers all over the country plan for retirement.  But, to deal with the law and the details, NOA needs to implement a national payroll system to ensure compliance with the complex pension reporting rules.  Like any business, you still have to execute, and the devil is still in the details.  NOA can help organizers and bring in steady income to support its organization, but only with the right technology and information systems.

On the business side, William Shutkin, a ...   more »