Aaron Perry
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Angela Maria Ortiz Roa, community leader at the Foundation for Leaders Organizing for Water & Sustainability (FLOWS), is interviewed by author Aaron William Perry in this episode. Angela discusses global citizenship in the context of local action. She discusses the importance of kindness and intention as we celebrate diversity and mobilize the multidimensional social and environmental strategies that are helping to create a better world and culture. Angela reminds us that “solutions to big problems lie in many small changes.”
Transcript
(Automatically generated transcript for search engine optimization and reference purposes – grammatical and spelling errors may exist.)
Hi friends, welcome to another edition of the YonEarth Community Stewardship and Sustainability
podcast series.
I’m so excited you could join us today and especially excited that Angela Maria Roa Ortiz has been able to join us to talk about her work at the community level through
an organization called Flos and Angela welcome.
Thank you for having me, so excited to be with you and with everybody watching this show.
It’s so great to have you here.
Very excited.
And Angela, I’m so thrilled we connected several months ago through Flos and to let folks
know Flos is a project with the University of Colorado’s Environmental Center in partnership
with the Boulder Housing Program here in Boulder, Colorado.
And Flos stands for Foundation for Leaders Organizing for Water and Sustainability.
Correct.
You did it.
That’s how he shows the water painting behind that.
And Angela has such an interesting and I would say a unique perspective in a lot of
the various conversations and encounters I have with your background coming from
Columbia, Bogota, now being in Colorado where you’re a mother, a linguist, a community organizer
and activist and educator.
And you’re working with folks particularly in the low income communities in this area helping
them connect more with food, gardening and soil, water, opportunities and really working
through a lens of social justice in the context of ecological sustainability.
And of course you’re certifying permaculture and what a wonderful background that we shared
there.
And you work as a translator and interpreter both in English Spanish interpretation and
also American Sign Language, which is really cool.
Correct.
Not certain five point yet for Sign Language Interpreter, but I’m working on it again.
That’s amazing.
You speak many languages and Angela is so great having you here.
Thank you.
I’m excited to be here.
So I thought I’d kick it off by asking you, how did you get into all this?
Oh, I like that question.
It’s hard to answer.
I feel, you know, it’s interesting because I got asked this question two days ago and
my answer, my goal to answer is that I feel like it’s in my blood.
I feel like it’s just, because I was a child that I was just fascinated playing outside.
I think I’m older.
I remember standing in front of my classmates and just kind of in tears being like, girls,
if we could just like each one of us picked up some trash and every day the whole world
would be better.
I remember doing this at a really young age.
So it’s just escalated from there and it’s been growing and growing.
And it’s never been like, this is what I’m going to do for a living, this is what I’m
going to do for my profession, but it just slowly evolved to be and it’s just something
that I cannot deny that is just really rooted inside of me.
I think maybe my indigenous love from the Colombian background, it’s just, it’s just
both sides inside of me.
And so slowly, you know, I’ve been getting engaged with, I started with my own healthy
living, wanting to change it and especially as I got pregnant and I wanted to provide healthy
people with my child and I was, you know, starting to understand the food industry in
this country and how hard it was to find good food, even if it’s a label certified organic
or whatever, you know.
So to add open my eyes, then I got engaged with community guardians and then I got, I searched
for my from my culture education and then I got to close and it just continues to evolve.
So I think it’s just something that is very rooted, which I think you have too.
Right.
I think we share that.
I really do.
I want to ask you a question about that, that sense that we carried something in our blood
that we’ve known since an early age, but before going there, I wanted to ask you about,
you mentioned your indigenous roots coming from Colombia and I’m both European and Native
American with Mohawk Indian background and thought maybe you could share a little about
your heritage with us.
Sure.
Well, it’s very interesting, because I have never done the DNA test, so I’m never usually
what I’m saying is true, but it feels like to be like it’s true.
Growing up in Colombia, just in general, I feel like the habits of consumption of resources
are a little bit different here.
This country is more, you know, excessive, quick, fast, you know, in Colombia, I remember
growing up and we had something called rastiana miento, you know, so there were days that
we had, maybe no electricity, like, certain days a week, we didn’t have electricity, or
certain days a week, we didn’t have any water.
So we had to prepare, we had to be more conscious of how we use those resources when we had
them available.
So that was something of my, just, I remember from my childhood, I think we, before that,
my grandmother, I found my mother’s side, she grew up in the Zarian Colombia Colos Janos,
which is closer to the border with Venezuela.
And, you know, just kind of like my grandmother has never one choose very often.
She’s always some her little sandals or her, you know, bare feet and always very connected.
I remember her having all kinds of animals and just cooking and it was not like little
cooking, it was like she had 15 children.
I have them just on that side, I don’t know if I’m only just 15, so it was like very kind
of cooking.
So, I don’t know, just very communal, very collective, very together, very, just, not never
thinking about us, not as an individual, but how could, what do we need to do to all
be good?
So, so that’s where I wrote my, my, my sense of indigenous background, but I don’t really
know.
I hope by the way, I’m a little scared of doing this and finding out that maybe I’m like
European.
Well, that’s kind of funny because I guess it’s something I’ve thought about so as well
and in the book Why On Earth, I actually wrote about the fact that at the end of the day
we’re actually all indigenous.
And it’s really, in terms of when we’re accessing what we would call indigenous wisdom, indigenous
knowledge that is kept in different ways by different cultures, it’s more a question
for many of us as to how far back in time we have to go to see that in our own lineages
versus whether we are or not indigenous.
I like that person.
And because, you know, on my, on my grandma’s side who also I love thinking about her whenever
I’m cooking in the kitchen and that’s where I would often hang out with her when I was
a kid.
And she is Slovenian from the southeastern region of the Alps near the Adriatic
and there’s a beautiful deep traditional culture there that isn’t to be keeping and gardening
and you know, we find this really I think all over the world.
And of course the modern western capitalist milieu in which many of us have grown up and
are working has an incredibly fast pace but also a very real disconnection from nature.
So to hear do you talk about your grandmother close with shoes off, close with the ground.
I think there’s something there that is actually such an important piece for each of us to
reclaim and start to practice more.
I really like that.
I really like that.
And I feel like the moment that we view ourselves and recognize those roots, I think we will
stop arguing some of that.
And I feel like there’s wisdom everywhere and it’s just how can you reconnect to that
and social wisdom that we all carry in our blood.
It’s just that I feel like for some of us it’s like the umbilical cord, it kind of like
stops pulsating you know after a while and I feel like how can we revive that and feel
that connection again?
Because I feel like it is inside of all of us, it’s just that some of us feel it stronger
than others.
Well I’m totally convinced that you and people like you doing the kind of work you’re
doing in community is really bringing that back to life.
Yeah, thank you.
And that’s so needed.
It’s really I think an essential piece of what we need in our culture right now.
Yes, I agree with you very much.
So can you share with us a little about what you’re doing with the community work that
you’re doing through flows?
Sure, I would love to.
So flows like you said stands for foundations for leaders organizing for water and sustainability.
So this is a partnership that is generated between the Boulder Housing Authority, which
is Boulder Housing Partners and the Environmental and CEO Boulder.
Okay, so they’ve got together and they decide that they want to create this program that
mimics the spirit of your education.
There’s already a program that exists within the university where students go to student
homes.
Not necessarily student housing, but student homes and talk about sustainability solutions
and that they want something like that that will translate into the community.
So they thought about something called flows and flows started in 2016 during the summer
of 2016.
I was one of the first group like group members to be recruited.
And it was a very experimental program, you know, when we stayed in the pilot program
for a while there and it was the whole goal of this program is to have resident members
of low-income housing here in Boulder partner up with the students of the university.
So that’s the first condition that we make, right?
Because for many of us that live in the city of Boulder that are low-income, we never
knew that the university was there.
I mean, we know that there’s a university, but I never, you know, many of us have never
been there, you know?
And for the students, they forget that there is a low-income population, you know.
So there’s the first connection that we make, right?
The student and the residents.
Then we together go into other low-income housing units and we talk about sustainability.
But in the maybe to change a little bit how you phrase what we do instead of helping because
that’s the thing that we’re maybe trying to to change is rekindle, restart, reconnect
those people with the knowledge that they already have.
It’s very interesting because many of this population members are either immigrants,
are people color, are, you know, they have a lot of knowledge already and things that
we tend to not see that knowledge, you know, we are the experts there, the people that
need to follow us.
So we wanted to change a little bit that narrative and just always keeping in mind that
asset-based perspective, you know, there’s so much knowledge in those communities already
and the fact that we are low-income makes sense of that we have to be extra careful on
how we use resources, how we consume.
So that makes us already leader since sustainability more than people that don’t have to think
about how much money they’re going to pay in water or under utilities in general.
So people can have every single line of their house on, have a fountain, you know, like
and have pools and you know lots of and they use a lot more and they don’t even think
about it because they can’t afford it.
So that makes us leaders within the lowering community and that’s something that we want
in a highlight, you know, because we get, I say we because I’m a BHP resident myself.
So we get, you know, tolls and unfortunately in this political climate over right now
either we’re part of the problem, we’re the cause of the problem.
We are, you know, so this is very negative, you know, narrative that we’re exposed to
constantly like we’re draining the system and we receive any sort of, you know, assistance
from the government and you’re just draining them, you’re like, you know, couch potatoes,
like, you know, all this kind of stuff and in what we found, first of all, first-hand experience,
I am a hard worker, I work at work at work, you know, I go, go, go, go, and I’m going into
other people’s homes and seeing that that is, that’s the norm, like we are hard working and we
have a lot of knowledge from where we come from. People from Africa, people from Mexico, people from,
Europe, like there’s just a lot of knowledge there and we go in and we’re like, hey, so,
you know, it’s having a bit of sustainability, we find a lot of those little things,
highlight them, learn them ourselves because I know they’re nothing else more than anything.
And also we provide free water and energy upgrades, so that’s something that we do, that is
like the principal work, which is going in and we check labels, change LED, we put LED lights,
we change positive radars to lower GPMs, gowns for a minute, and we check refrigerators,
we check toilets so there’s no leaks, so little simple and basic audits that we’re performing,
but I feel like the value of our work is more in the interaction that we’re having with it.
It’s cultural, that’s really interesting, so specifically around the light and the water use,
it sounds like you’re bringing in some strategies and sometimes even technology upgrades that
increase efficiency, so basically folks are able to experience more light, more use of water
without consuming as much energy or as much water. And what a beautiful model to share with folks,
and it’s really a model of abundance, it turns out.
Exactly, and be very careful too, because we don’t also want to be, we want to encourage certain
behaviors, but then we’ve noticed, or example, when somebody’s like, oh, take five minutes showers,
the moment you’re like, oh, great, five minutes showers are what we want, people are like,
oh, I’m doing great, I want to experiment with showers. So we have to be very strategic on how we
talk to people to really highlight the work that we’re doing and at the same time support them with
new strategies on how to maintain or improve what they’re already doing.
Yeah, beautiful, beautiful.
Yeah.
Well, I am totally struck by how your energy exudes a joy in doing this work and to be so effective
in the community and to provide so much joy and also hope, I think is really powerful in one of
the things we probably need most in our culture. And I’m wondering, can you just speak to this,
going back to this sense, some of us have had since childhood in our blood of somehow being in
service to the living world, to the planet, to each other, to society, and how do you carry that
with you day to day when you’re encountering all kinds of different people?
That’s a great question. So my mom, and I think this is rooted in my childhood,
because my mom always said to me to smile, right? And smile in the street, I remember,
and I’ll be walking with her and she’ll be in her hand and I’ll be like, you know, and somebody will
come by and smile and I’m like, what do you mean? And she’s like, just smile, and I’m like, you know,
and I think from like forcing myself to smile so much, I think that it’s just became
Hawaiian. And I really, I tried to promote that with my child and with people. I feel like really
change is, I know that there’s like, we have big problems and we need to come up with big solutions,
but I feel like big solutions are rooted in small kinds of changes. So the more we smile, the more
we smile, the more we’re kind, the more we’re intentional, the more we give our hearts,
then all those bigger solutions are going to, you know, unfold. And we’re going to be able to tackle
these big problems that we have. But just so it’s true, I also struggle a lot because I go
into people’s homes and we encounter people that are like, yes, I want to do this or I already do
this and whatever, you know, it’s excited, they feel their commitment, their responsibility.
And I also walk into people’s homes that are like, I’m a phone, I don’t care. And then I walk
out of there and I’m like, gosh, we deserve all we get, you know, like so it’s a really interesting
dynamic and just juggling on emotions that I have to do inside. But I’m very thankful to my mom
because she was only like, smile, smile. And you make it, you know, I get so you make it, you can’t
probably. Well, I have to ask, so do you do that for your son? I do. Well, it sounds like a very good
and effective. And it’s funny because he’s really shy, so he’s always kind of like, you know, more
rejected and I’m like, he sees it in me, I model it. So hopefully, yeah, they imitate what they see,
right? Hopefully. Well, I thought I might ask you a question that maybe might seem a little bit
off topic given what we’re talking about, but I’m really curious as a parent, as a dad,
um, my son recently turned 16. And I’m curious, as a mom, I know that there’s such a profound
connection obviously to one’s child. And I’m really curious about that period that your son
is entering when a boy starts to turn into a man and how the mom experiences that. Oh my goodness.
That definitely being a mom is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Yeah. The hardest emotional job
I’ve ever done. It’s like having a piece of your heart with no protection, just walking around
in the world, right? And so, but, uh, I feel very blessed, I feel like I was just given a very
beautiful human being, beautiful spirit that lives in that little body of his. And he, he has a kind
heart. I’m very lucky because I have a lot of friends. I always, you know, I’ve always,
baby said, and I always thought, like, it’s a parent’s fault, it’s a kiss, it’s a baby,
and then we all started having babies. And all my cool friends started having, like,
them a child, and I’m like, oh my god, you’re a cool guy, what happened? You know, like, so,
and then I realized that we’re just giving this spirit that comes and there are who they are,
and it doesn’t really matter sometimes on how it doesn’t matter a lot of how we teach them,
but they are who they are before we teach them. And so, in this form, I feel really lucky,
and I was just telling you recently that I also know that my job as a mother is limited because
I cannot teach him how to be a man. I can show him the kind of man that his mother respects
and looks up to and feels safe with and likes to embrace and likes to connect with,
but I cannot quite teach him how to be it. So, you know, be him. So, I’m lucky to have beautiful
men in my life that are role models and that show him back, because, you know, I feel like I can
only walk him to the bridge and then he’s going to have to. I have to find somebody to help
and walk that bridge because I cannot do it myself. Well, it’s such a beautiful metaphor,
and in some respects, you know, some of the rights of passage experiences I was able to give
to my son Hunter, and of course, couldn’t in the same way to my daughter, Oshah,
is really setting us up, I believe, for their lifetime of adulthood where they’re really
traveling their own bridge, regardless of whether it’s my daughter or my son. And it’s beautiful
to watch that. It’s an amazing process, and it reminds me actually a friend recently, in fact,
it was Stephanie Seisen, who’s one of our other podcast guests, an incredible herbalist up in the
mountains here in Colorado, growing amazing biodynamic herbs. And within two or three days, both
she and my mom both mentioned that poem by Rumi about parenthood, where we as parents are the
bows and the kids are the arrows, and they go through us, but once they’re launched, they’re their own
arrow, basically. I’ve seen it, I read it somewhere. It really feels amazing. Oh my goodness, yeah,
it’s beautiful. It’s amazing. But yeah, that raw exposure of the heart, I can relate to that.
Yeah, that’s incredible. And I’m in general very open person emotionally, so just to see him
struggle and having those days, and like the kids who don’t want to play with him, and you just want
to like, you know, and then you have to act from your higher self and be like, this is the pain
that is going to strengthen you. So you have to feel it now, because if I try to shelter,
then he’s missing out the opportunity to learn how to deal old so hard. So it’s to learn.
Yes? Well, I think in a sense, that’s a beautiful segue to a couple of other things I wanted to
ask you, because when we say we have so much to learn, I think that’s really true for us as
individuals, but also as a as a culture. And I’m talking now about our sort of modern Western might
even say sort of cultural wisdom and knowledge. And it seems to me that in terms of a fabric of
society, it is strengthened by having threads from all sorts of different cultures. And obviously,
you in your day to day are crossing all sorts of cultural bridges. And I was wondering if you
could expand a bit on this idea that when we’re talking about diversity and culture, we’re really
talking about a whole bunch of cultural assets. And it’s a way of thinking about our
wealth and well-being culturally, if you will, to recognize that diversity adds so much.
100%. And I wish some of our leaders will see it that way too. But I want to speak to the fact
that our core team are people that work with flow slow, just so you know, it’s not work as volunteer.
We have volunteer program. And these people that go with us to visit other people’s homes
are very diverse. They’re very diverse in backgrounds and cultures and races and languages
and viewing the problems and the solutions. So I feel like that, like you said,
Bill’s strength, Bill’s resilience, you know, the more it’s just it’s just strength and
goes. You know, as part of why we are successful right now as a group. And so I agree with you 100%
that it’s very important to understand that, especially now, even me, like living here in this
country, that we don’t have the answer for everything, right? Not for the sustainability issues
that we’re facing, not for the political issues, not we don’t have the answer. We need to look at
problems for multi-dimensional approach, right? So the more that we can tackle this problem,
as either it’s a water problem or you know heating planet, whatever it is that we’re looking at,
if we were able to view it from a multicultural lens, we will be more effective. Because sometimes
we try, we view ourselves as the ones with the answer and the solution and everybody else around
the world should follow. When really it is, it’s going to perpetuate the problem because I feel like
we will, the whole world trying to accomplish what the US has accomplished economically, you know,
it’s work, it’s the problem. So we need to preserve that diversity of thought and that diversity
and solution, I think too. I feel like it’s very important to tackle problems from different angles.
It’s not going to work if it’s just, we’re just going at it from one direction. And there’s
something and I want to add anything that’s connected, flows something that what we try to do is not
only go into the, the units to provide those water and energy upgrades and to provide that
exchange of knowledge with the residents, but also what we’re trying to do is with our technicians,
we are promoting education, right? We’d want to try to build capacity so that we support
these people that are volunteering their time with tools so that we are the ones that have the
skills and the abilities to perform the green jobs that are necessary for our economy in a
little city and in our big role to transition into healthier, cleaner practices. So we tried to
promote education so far, we’ve had a rain barrel installation workshops, we’ve had solar
installation, solar panel installations, we actually install all the BHP’s roots at the office,
we did that ourselves. We’ve done, we’re wanting to do a biochar training, just all kinds of tools
so that as a lower income community, we have what we need to become leaders,
entrepreneurs, that’s a hard work for me, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs. But you know, so that’s really
cool about the program too, because not only do you go in and you connect with people on the
community, but you also build in your own skills and it’s going to help, it’s going to build your
resume, it’s going to build your capacity and your confidence to go on a fly for these jobs
and hopefully go and own some of this business now instead of like writing back what?
Yeah, absolutely, well that’s so beautiful, so empowering. Yeah, super important too,
because you know like and that’s something that in flows we talk about because as our city and
as our world is forced to transition into cleaner ways, the people that are going to continue to
be in control are the people who are already in control, you know, because those people are going
to be able to change their technology to really quick to provide cleaner services, but it’s going
to be the same in people, so in a way we’re going to perpetuate the cycle, so it needs to shift,
it needs like the people that are in the bottom, the people that are always the workers and the labor
need to be, it needs to be shuffled. Right, shuffled. Yeah, okay, so that’s our goal, we want to empower
more residents or community members to take on real leadership. Well, that’s beautiful. I
am so excited to ask you the next question on that note, but let me before I forget,
let me mention to our audience and listeners, you’re tuned into the Wire Earth Community
Stewardship and Sustainability podcast series, and I’m here with my guest, on Hela Maria,
what’s T’s Roa, and she is the coordinator for flows, the foundation for leaders organizing
for water and sustainability, right here in Boulder, Colorado, and I want to mention to our
audience and listeners, for tuning in, we want to give you a thank you gift, which is a code,
the word podcast. If you would like, you can go to WireEarth.org slash market, that’s our marketplace,
where we have several electronic books and an audio book version of WireEarth, and if you use
that code podcast, you can get those out of discount. Also, if you’d like to learn more about flows,
you can go to Colorado.edu slash eCenter slash flows. This will all be in the show notes as well,
and if you’d like to reach out to on Hela, her email is on Hela.org T’s Roa at Colorado.edu. Again,
that will be in the show notes. I want to take up that last point, that last note you were striking,
and I think it is so powerful, especially here in the United States of America. That is
understanding the relationship between entrepreneurship, shuffling the deck, capacity building,
indigenous and cultural diversity, because in this country we have an incredible tradition of
folks from all parts of the world innovating and developing amazing new products and ways of
approaching life, and it’s not at all to be an apologist for some of the great industrial
tycoons, for example. I’m not going there necessarily, but I am going to say that a lot of the
those incredibly successful industrial tycoons were themselves immigrants, and that’s the reality.
My mom often talks about what it was like for her growing up in upstate New York as a child
of immigrants, effectively, where her mother’s first language, Slovenian, made her very shy
out in the public sometimes, and often her experience, but this is my grandmother now in school,
with some of the teachers was that she wasn’t bright because she didn’t understand the language,
the way a native speaker understood English in her case. She’s incredibly bright. Now she kicked
my butt in the game’s gravel a bunch growing up among other things, so it’s not at all a reflection
of her intelligence these experiences she had as a kid, but a reflection of what happens when
cultures are colliding or coming together, and you know in our history we’ll see all kinds of
different examples. Some good, some are horrific, but I think the point is the true reality, the way
to understand the history for real in this country is that it is a whole bunch of immigrants,
and even our indigenous population, even by Native American ancestors, came here thousands of
years ago from Asia. The way we humans have been coming to this continent is a really interesting
and rich story, and I am struck that there is so much strength and hope to be had in understanding
the richness of what happens when we have multicultural exchanges.
Wow, so it’s very interesting because I believe in that just blindly, I think that the more
that we embrace where we come from, the more that we accept and explore what all the people come
from, you know, our minds are just going to, you know, we’re really going to use our
full potential over brains. But you know something that I say constantly when I go into this
home business is, especially when I encounter immigrants, is the fact that I tried to install
this concept of global citizens, you know, because I really do believe, like you said, like we’re just
never from where we come from, like we just like you said, even Native American like here came from
other places, we just, we have constantly been moving around this globe, so we really don’t
belong to anywhere except the whole planet, you know, like that’s where we belong from, so I do
like this concept of like forget, I mean, I know that’s very, you know, I don’t even know the name
for English, but you know, like it’s impossible to forget the boundaries and the front, you know,
borders and all that stuff, but if we were to feel like we are global citizens, like we belong to
the planet as a whole, then that sense of belonging will guide our decisions, right? Because if you
like that’s what happens. I feel like that’s for example for the immigrants and I’ve seen it with
the people that I interact with on my daily, you know, my daily life. I feel like people are
scared or people don’t want to take advantage of the resources and the services that are provided
because they feel like they don’t belong. They don’t want to, you know, like for example, I see it
along with with my friends that have migrated from Mexico because they don’t want to go hiking because
it just doesn’t feel like it’s their space. So I feel like the moment that you developed that
sense of belonging to the space of where you are, then you want to get it, right? The moment is
yours, does you look trash or house? Well, it’s something else I think. But you know, most most of us
like to take care of our homes and we keep it beautiful and we don’t just throw your trash in
the floor of our homes. So if we were to make the planet our home, then we would take care of it,
you know? And I really do believe that immigrants have more that capacity to feel like
global citizens because we already cross some borders. We already cross some of those, you know,
imaginary lines that we created for ourselves. And we, I wasn’t Colombia, but I’ve been here for 17
years. So now from there in here, and you know, like, and then it makes me care for that place
as much as I can for this space now because this is my home, this is my home, this is my child,
this is, you know, so I feel like the moment that we can feel at home wherever we are. And we
try to beautify those spaces for however long we’re going to be there for and it doesn’t matter
that we’re there for a little bit and then we’re going to move on because we leave that space
beautiful and then you come and the place is beautiful and then you want to take care of it because
you feel at home and then it makes sense, right? I believe in it, I believe in it. So I try to promote
that and I believe that I’ve seen that our immigrant population here receives that concept with a lot
more, you know, they can digest it because they’re like, yeah, because I feel from there and I’m from
here, you know, like, I feel like if you feel that way, that would be great. That’s so beautiful. Well,
it was so struck coming across the ancient Greek word wikos or ecos, which is a word that means
home, it means home. And it’s the word from which we get economy and ecology, which is so interesting
because at the deepest level of understanding those two words, economy and ecology, they really
mean how we relate to and take care of our home. And it seems that what you’re speaking to is the core,
the kernel, that precious golden nugget we can each cultivate inside of ourselves that will help
us understand situated as an individual in the context of this complex society that’s in the process
of profound change right now. And if we can truly come to understand the essence of economy,
the essence of ecology is all about us taking good care of our homes and our shared home
earth. Well, it seems that that might be a good thing. That’s a good idea, Henry. Yeah.
Well, on Hela, it has been so wonderful talking with you. And thank you so much for joining us.
I want to make sure before we sign off today that if there are any additional calls to action
or points that you’d like to make, and I want to be sure to make a plug for flows,
certainly benefits from donations from the community. This helps you amplify the work that you’re
doing and that your colleagues and peers are doing. My hope is that this type of model will also
inform and inspire people all around the country and communities all over and even outside
of our own country here. And donations help make that happen. So I want to encourage listeners
and viewers to donate if that’s something that you feel like you’re able to do today. And other
than that, I wanted to mention one quote from Caesar Chavez that was on your website.
And he in this great tradition of multiculturalism and of the dignity of the human being,
you know, that makes me think of Martin Luther King Jr. Makes me think of Mahatma Gandhi,
makes me think of Abraham Lincoln. He said, we need to help cherish and preserve the ethnic
and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community and this nation.
And it seems to me that on Halo, that is very much at the heart of the work that you’re doing.
And thanks for everything you’re doing. Thank you. I appreciate your work too. I’ve been very
inspired to see you talk several times. I learn from you every time that I share space with you,
so I’m very lucky that we connected and we’re still here now doing our work together.
I’m excited about that. I feel like my call to action, besides, you know, at a local level call to
actions, which is what he said donations, which help us, it provides stipends because we have,
we only work with low income residents. So when you are low income residents, you are fighting
for your life, especially when you are living in Boulder, Colorado, this place is not very cheap.
So what we want to do is for these people to be able to come to the volunteer work, do the,
you know, what they’re hard selling them to do, which is provide their time to create community
and from awareness and share knowledge with other residents. But we also want to be able to
alleviate some of the stress that we carry as well in terms of income residents. So, you know,
we provide them with gift cards. So after several weekends that they come out, we’re able to turn
around and give them a gift card that they can use to pay bills, to take their kids’ prize
cream, whatever it is. So that’s, that’s, that will be fantastic. But I feel also at a, a larger scale,
I feel like my call to action and like it is like wish for my heart would be for people to really
embrace this diversity that we have. I think this, this country has the blessing of having people
from all over the world. We have knowledge concentrated at its max here and we just live life and
we don’t recognize it. So that will be my call to action would be I will invite you, I will invite you
and I try to remind myself every day to do the same to connect to somebody who you wouldn’t connect
on their regular basis. Somebody that it could be a homeless person, it could be the person that
drives your Uber. It could be anybody and just reach out and just be kind and talk about the
planet and from this idea of global citizenship because they really think that that is the key,
it’s for us to all feel like this is our home and that we don’t have to take care of it.
And ask questions and learn from others. I think that will be my call to action for everybody.
Beautiful.
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Very much.
Absolutely. Thank you.
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