The Tenth day of Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas my YAV year gave to me ten inches of snow (it wasn't really nine feet).

For part of the snowed in community day we watched a documentary called Save the Farm. It shows the struggle of a very successful community farm in the south central neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/265201?playlist_id=1040&asset_scope=movies

Some very sly politics allow a very rich man to buy the community land from the farm. The film tells of the long time community who relies on the farm to feed themselves, and their battle to save the farm from the rude rich man who evicts them and attempts to develop the land.

There is much drama on the weeks leading up to the eviction.

It makes me angry that a 14 acre farm that feeds hundreds of people in an industrialized, polluted neighborhood can just be bought and snatched away from them by someone who just has the money to make more industirialization and pollution to make more money. The story is a battle between history and attachment to the land vs power and money. Watch the film and see who wins. And watch the crazy hippie protesters who camp out in a tree.  It speaks to nonviolent protests and community organizing.

Why do we give so much power to money?  Why does ownership of land and resources come down to those who have the most power instead of those who’ve put in the most work, or have depended on it for generations.  Why were we Europeans able to claim land from the natives and other clans in the development of this nation?  Why can we say it is ours?  Is it ours? What are we doing to each other?

Please watch the film and feel free to answer one or two of these questions for me.