The name of the blog is Nov30 because that’s my birthday, and this is what I was born to do… work for a more just and peaceful world. It’s kind of like an ongoing birthday present for myself.
I started www.nov30.org in 2006 (this was one of my first WordPress websites), when Portland City Council considered and eventually passed a resolution to bring U.S. occupying forces out of Iraq and redirect resources back towards urgent local needs. The hearing was scheduled for November 30 (my birthday), so I set a personal goal of mobilizing 1,000 people in support of the resolution, with a lot of help from my friends.
I collected about 200 signatures, got ten people to the hearing. What then? I kept doing little peace things here and there. I started using this site to share information about different things that folks could do about ending the current U.S. invasions. At some point I hit the 1,000 person interaction mark. But I didn’t want to stop writing about peace and justice.
Over the years, I’ve stopped and started blogging a few times, including around the time I moved from Portland to Brooklyn, NY. Periodically I talk to people who say, “you should write about that.” And when I do, it’s difficult sometimes, but ultimately I enjoy it.
I’m still committed to writing and sharing action opportunities on all sorts of issues that I see as connected. Here’s a list of some of the issues that I think about/talk about/do something about almost daily (this list is fluid). I won’t write about all of them… or maybe I will.
- Rethinking justice/supporting transformative justice. An end to the overuse of prisons and punishment. An end to the death penalty and to extra-judicial killings.
- Protecting the right to a stable, well-funded and equitable public education system that supports lifelong learning for every person in every community who wants to access it.
- Ensuring that human rights are for human beings and not corporations. Specifically protecting the right to free speech, freedom to migrate, freedom of religion, and freedom from intimidation.
- Ending war. Si, se puede.
- Many issues of peace and justice are related to the ways we poorly share our natural resources. It’s imperative to move away from “landfill” thinking that we can treat the earth like it’s one massive trashcan and that we can use up any resources we can get our hands on for short-term gain. Yes, fracking corporations, that means you.
- Rethinking energy so that we are less reliant on fossil fuels, and so we can stop subsidizing massive corporations to exploit energy reserves. (yes, fracking corporations, that also means you). I support solar and other distributed ways of harnessing and using energy that are sustainable for a planet with 7 billion people on it.
- There’s more… but I’ll stop there. For now.
Separate from these more personal posts, you can get also read my small advice for social justice nonprofits on using the web at www.kathleenpequeno.com. And yes, I am Edward Pimental’s sister.
Let me know what you think — why, look, a contact form to do just that is below.
Thanks for visiting!
Kathleen