Hi there,

TL;DR I’m launching a new community organizing platform in the next few months. Plus, for the first time in my life, I’m going to trial for rescuing animals in Transylvania County, North Carolina on November 29. 

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One of the central ideas behind my campaign for Berkeley mayor last year was that our political system has lost its connection with the environment around us. Whether in regard to the tent cities across the nation, or the wildfires choking our air, our most important policy decisions are no longer anchored in the people or values that we hold most dear: life, health, and an opportunity for everyone to thrive. 

There are many reasons for this. But one of the biggest reasons for our system’s disconnection, is our own disconnection from one another. People in urban environments are increasingly isolated from the people around them, and it becomes hard to organize to create change – or even just have your voice heard – when we are working alone. And, in many ways, our campaign needed to address this more fundamental problem before we could address our system’s political failures.

It’s for that reason I’m shifting this mailing list, which I’ve used sparingly since the campaign, to a new purpose and platform: The Simple Heart. Inspired by my beloved dog Lisa, who passed away a few weeks ago, I want to refocus my attention on the basic and most important values – generosity, understanding, and (above all) kindness – that allow our community and species to thrive. And I want to build real community, in real physical spaces, around those values. Now is the perfect time to do that, as we slowly come out of the pandemic-induced isolation. 

For that purpose, I’ll be retooling my blog and podcast to focus on discussions that will help people connect in their own local communities. And I’ll be building tools to help us do that. This includes a new WhatsApp group focused on people who want to have good faith conversations in real life. (The WhatsApp group itself will be focused entirely on getting us talking in person.) It also includes a scalable structure for community building that will allow you to start making offline connections in your personal life. Stay tuned for so much more in that regard, as we’ll be looking for people to champion this idea. 

There is, however, one big complicating factor in many of these plans. I’m going to trial in a few days, and, if convicted, I could be going away for a few years. The risk is, in many ways, a voluntary one. I was offered a plea bargain that included no jail time. But it’s one I must take. Because what’s at stake in this trial, in which I’m being prosecuted for bringing a sick baby goat from a meat farm to an animal shelter, is so much more than one animal’s life. It’s who we are as a species: caretakers of the life around us (human or non-human), or profiteers who ignore the suffering of others. I’m betting my freedom on the idea that, even in rural, Trump-loving North Carolina, there are many who believe we are caretakers and not profiteers. 

And that’s how these two bits of news intersect. A platform for community organizing will only work if we find people who believe deeply and genuinely in the idea of mutual care. The trial in North Carolina will only succeed if we inspire jurors to side with compassion over killing. The more we can spread the ethic of care, the more powerful our communities will become. The more powerful our efforts to change will become. The more powerful we will become. 

This is, perhaps, my campaign’s biggest mistake. We sought political change before building sufficient community power. Over the next few months, with this new project and the mobilizing power of  the narrative of these upcoming trials – documentary makers and national journalists are planning to tell that story – I hope we can correct that mistake. 

And I hope you will be a part of it. 

Best,
Wayne

PS Logistically, two things will happen, one more quickly than the next. First, I plan to transfer all these emails over to the Simple Heart substack. It’s a free tool for mailing list management, but if you don’t like the new theme, it’ll be very easy to unsubscribe. Second, I’ll be launching a WhatsApp group for folks interested in community organizing -- for its own sake. Look out for an invitation soon, whether I’m in prison or otherwise.