Is this really the message we want to give our youth and our community? That they need to escape Lake County, any way they can, even if it means exposing them to the casualties of war to do so? Or is there a better answer? Could it be that we are at the point where we are lacking personal responsibility, creativity, knowledge and wisdom to the detriment of our community and our children?

I do not believe it is a mistake that the Chinese word for “crisis” is written with two simple but opposing characters, one symbolizing “danger” and the other symbolizing “opportunity.” As terrible as the unemployment crisis, the economic crisis, the oil crisis and the mortgage crisis is, each crisis has given us the chance to begin exploring new avenues of awareness and opportunities.

The question we need to be asking ourselves is whether we will choose awareness and opportunity over ignorance and abandonment. Will we jump ship and encourage others to jump ship just because the storm is approaching and the seas are getting a bit rough or will we take command of the wheel and navigate our ship into a vast sea of opportunity? The opportunity is out there, if we just take a moment to look for it. I took a few moments, myself, to look for the opportunity within the crisis and I found some opportunities I would like to share.

First, we can all begin by buying and selling local. One of the best ways to stimulate a local economy and local jobs is to support local business owned and operated by local people who will in turn do the same.

Here’s an idea, instead of going to a corporate-owned chain where fat corporations get paid and very few local people ever see the money, allow your purchasing power to strengthen the local economy by supporting locally owned businesses so the jobs produced are long-lasting. You may be surprised that the new Starbucks has hired and fired more people since it has opened than any of the locally owned coffee shops. So, why not invest in a neighbor who actually cares about keeping their employees and customers happy? It definitely couldn’t hurt.

Shopping local not only makes good economic sense, it also makes good green sense, especially when you are buying local products from local people. That is because when you support local people, such as artisans, farmers, winemakers, etc., you are also creating less pollution and saving more oil because neither you nor the items have to travel very far for the transaction to be made. With all the talk of the oil crisis at hand, it just makes sense to begin to support and maintain our local resources.

We can also use one of our greatest technological resources to find new sources of income. Did you know the fastest-growing job market is right in your own home? Home businesses are surging, due to gas prices, traffic and the accessibility of the Internet. Your computer is probably one of the best job resources you have, when considering a home business. There are boundless opportunities, just waiting for you, over the Internet. Places like Elance (www.elance.com/p/landing/buyer.html?rid=1121E) and Worldwide Work At Home (www.worldwideworkathome.com/freelance.html) reveal a vast amount of leads for freelance work which can be done entirely at home.

As well, the technology of the Internet takes us one more step into the future. Social networking is no longer social but professional, thanks to places like Wowzza (www.wowzzapower.com/index2.php?siteID=227262) and DirectMatches (www.directmatches.com/default2.asp?site=shamancola) which list a multitude of online business opportunities.

In addition, blogging has gone professional, as well, having the potential to earn hundreds of thousands a year (www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/21/BUVJSNSTC.DTL), especially, if you are a blogger who takes advantage of affiliate marketing programs like Clickbank (www.clickbank.com/index.html) and Commission Junction (www.cj.com/) for affiliate leads.

Amazingly enough, the newest craze is surrounding resurgence of network marketing and MLM businesses. They are popping up everywhere and they are popping up for a reason. The old network marketing and mlm businesses have a new and improved twist on them these days, and are definitely worth looking into. This is because, due to the latest technologies, network and mlm marketers no longer need to turn to friends, family and neighbors in order to succeed. In fact, there is even an e-report and book (http://mss.the7greatliesofnetworkmarketing.com/) about how network marketing has evolved and what you can do to take advantage of the evolution. There is an entire world out there to generate leads from, today.

In addition, some of them have little to no startup costs and don’t require any needless buying or selling. Solutions like The Spiderweb System (http://myspideysense.com/) offer e-products and e-tools both you and your network actually need when conducting network marketing, professional networking, affiliate marketing, mlm marketing, blogging or any other online business which allows while you to earn money through affiliate commissions rather than sales. The best part, all of these opportunities and solutions are as close as the nearest computer.

In addition, there are now a multitude of “green” opportunities just waiting to be discovered and implemented. Urbanhabitat.org (http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/528) has listed a few. Before looking for a job or a business opportunity, why not take some time to focus on “green” jobs and “green” businesses within Lake County which would offer you and others something unique?

I visited Hopland’s Solar Living Institute this weekend for their Solfest which was a tremendous success. People came from all over the world to come to this “green” event. Now, there is a plan in the works for a “green” motel, right across the street. Where are our green motels, our green gift shops, our green businesses and green jobs? These things would not be too difficult to create, considering Lake County is actually one of the last few places in California that has some “green” left in it and already attracts a decent amount of tourists.

We could use the example of San Mateo County (www.recycleworks.org/green_business/index.html) to learn from and we could even create a green guide (www.greensantabarbara.com/) as Santa Barbara has to promote green businesses within the community. With eco-tourism on the rise, we could boost our economy and help our preserve and protect our precious natural surroundings simply by going green and creating a buzz about it through places like Green Vacation Hub (www.greenvacationhub.com/) and GreenBiz (www.greenbiz.com) which would not only attract eco-tourists but ecologically minded residents and businesses. We could we create a multitude of green businesses and green jobs, we could possibly a green community and a green economy, which could serve as a model for others and a terrific green eco-tourist destination, all at the same time.

Throughout history, some of the most successful people are the ones who see opportunity where others do not. Perhaps, we need to simply open our eyes more to the possibilities rather than opening our mouths about the impossibilities.

If we truly begin to see the “opportunity” in our crisis, we would realize that we don’t need to leave Lake County (or encourage anyone else to do so) just to find work. In fact, I would encourage people to stay in Lake County and utilize the incredible resources we have which allow us the opportunity to build a better place for future generations.

Andrea Anderson lives in Lakeport.

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Raphael - Thanks Author | 08-27-2008 02:12:43 for this interesting and positive article, worth printing and keeping for its practical information, to be investigated... A few years ago I was shocked, moving here from "happy" Southern California, by what I perceived to be a lot more negativity in Northern California, and especially in Lake County...a lot of grumpy people. And then I became one of the voices that too often added to the negativity, criticizing and not offering solutions...I had an excuse, King George had been appointed, twice...that was enough to ruin the mood. But there seems to be a real sense of rut about Lake County, even neighboring Mendocino seems to be populated by far more dynamic people...What is it? Perhaps we need a lot of new blood from other areas, people who are not apathetic but enterprising, creative and solution oriented, in a green, progressive way. I think we have come to a time when Americans all have to roll up their sleeves and become active at the community level to reclaim their lives and control of their destiny, while the government has attempted to become this authoritarian state that no longer serves our real needs, so disconnected from us and so drunk on power and wealth.

purplegirl - It happens Registered | 08-27-2008 11:47:32 "But there seems to be a real sense of rut about Lake County, even neighboring Mendocino seems to be populated by far more dynamic people...What is it?" I think this happens when people have lived in a small rural community for so long they forget that there is a whole world out there. I have lived in big cities for most of my life and (living here only three years) I can see that people here don't seem to realize how incredible Lake County is. Less crime, less polution, less traffic, less of the bad stuff out here than any place I have ever been. And more of the good stuff. Much more. We have a vast resource of good stuff to utilize. Everyone comes up here to vacation from the cities. You can bet there is a reason for that. I think, maybe, we just need to spend a weekend or two in a big city to remind ourselves of what a precious jewel we have in Lake County.

Raphael - I agree Author | 08-28-2008 06:26:25 with you purplegirl, this place is special. But it is isolated, a sort of cocoon, with all the advantages and disadvantages...will it metamorphose into a butterfly? It will take vision and creativity, because the entire nation is changing, the culture is changing. We are moving from a highly competitive system to more community cooperation and sharing of information, and more local self-determination and sustainability...The "powers that be" are forcing us to do so, by abandoning us to the wolves (catering exclusively to power and wealth). I think we should start listening to younger people and see what they envision for their future...rather than asking them to fit into a rapidly disintegrating system, why don't we ask them what kind of society they want?

Donna Christopher - You forgot our Author | 08-27-2008 12:00:18 school system which force feeds 4 years of college en masse. Bring back vocational education, tho I've heard it referred to as Industrial Arts nowadays. Call it what you want but when my water pipe bursts in the middle of the night I am calling a plumber, not a Bachelors degree in hydrology. You also forgot that most people enlist in the military to serve their county. Nothing more, nothing less.

purplegirl - Donna Registered | 08-27-2008 12:46:59 You are right, we do need to consider more alternatives like vocational training, internships and trade schools. However, with budget cuts to our schools leaving us with less and less vocational and "elective" studies, and the lack of trade and vocational schools within Lake County, I didn't see that as a very viable option. Maybe, though, I should have included it, as it is an option to be considered and an option I would encourage. We do need more expansion of alternative education. As for people who serve in the military as a result of family honor or serving their country, I was not speaking to them or about them, in my article. I understand for some it is a family tradition and an honor and I respect that. I was speaking to the people who are considering pushing their children into the military as a way to escape Lake County which I find a bit irresponsible when there are other options.

aiydlewild - Locally Made Registered | 08-27-2008 14:21:38 As the owner of a local business who carries about 85% locally made products, I want to thank you for your article. I hate the commercials that say Spend less, live better (or whatever), that should also say...until it breaks and you have spend your time at the customer service counter. Is that living better? And don't forget the attitudes of people stuck in a job they really don't like, forcing themselves to answer your questions about a product they don't really know. You're also generally paying top-dollar for it in a so-called discount store.

DDean - Raphael Registered | 08-27-2008 23:22:19 your last sentence is so true, its hard for some to accept.Ive been rolling up my sleeves for some time now.Trying times we live in.

purplegirl - alydewild Registered | 08-28-2008 10:23:25 You are right about the attitudes of people stuck in a job they hate and the lack of customer service that goes along with it. Nothing is worse than getting someone who has no pride or passion in what they do.

Tony - Most bang for your buck Registered | 08-28-2008 16:07:56 Face the reality. Lake County is rural. The price of fuel to bring product and produce to local markets is expensive, and that in turn, brings higher prices at check out. Wal-Mart in Clearlake offers many of the same products our local businesses have, such as Mendo Mill, or Four Corners, or food items carried at Safeway, Foods, etc., but, yet, at far lower prices. I would say the majority of Clearlake's population shops at Wal-Mart, and why? To get the most for your money. That is the bottom line.

DDean - Sad Fact Registered | 08-29-2008 01:24:24 Growing up in Lake Co.Everything we used or needed came from Lucerne,Nice,Upper Lake,Lakeport or Ukiah.Everything.All of the good old businesses are gone.Replaced by Wal-Marts and hamburger hills.Super size me,you bet.

purplegirl - Getting The Most IP:208.106.99.xxx | 08-29-2008 11:51:03 Trying to get "the most for your money" (quantity rather than quality) comes at a pretty high price, these days, though, wouldn't you say? I believe, it is time to start becoming aware of that price. It has cost us our jobs, our economy, our health and (in some cases) even our pride in our country/state/cities. When will people realize, cheap is not always good? In fact, it rarely is. It is convenient,yes. It is easy, for sure. Though, it is rarely good. To put this into a simpler perspective, consider the "reality", of how the "average American" consumer has consumed their way into the obesity corner. Obesity is a huge problem in America. Though, it was not always like that. Only in about the past 50 years or so the population has become morbidly obese. If you do a little research, you will also find that the consumption of fast food and pre-prepared and packaged food has also risen, since then. So has heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Why? Because people have made the (seemingly rather unconscious) decision to buy cheap and easy quantity over quality. Add that on to the consumerism where we have to buy every new gadget that comes out and keeps us distracted from even a little exercise, we have not only become lazy of the body we have become lazy of the mind, thinking no further than what our little fingers can grab quickly and cheaply. Cheap now has become a major ingredient in the recipe for the destruction of our health. No matter how you cut it, we still pay dearly for "cheap" consuming without a conscience. We pay for it, as our population rises in rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and a host of other ailments. We pay for it in joblessness, economical crisis and a dependency on foreign trade. We pay for it in countless ways, which makes "cheap" hardly worth it. We even pay in customer service. When you visit a large corporate store you are being served by employees who have no invested interest in the company. Many of them have no interest whatsoever, as to them it is just a "job" which requires nothing more than to be there for the alloted time. Take into consideration any locally owned store. Local store owners have both a pride and a passion, when it comes to their stores. They are not going to allow just anyone to work for them (because, often times, they have to work right alongside of them). They are going to hire people who also have a passion and a bit of knowledge of what they are selling. I will never forget the day a Home Depot moved into an area where I lived awhile back. The little local nursery announced within a month that they were having to shut down due to the cheaper competition. I reluctantly went to Home Depot for my plants. However, what I found was quite different. I waited around for about 20 minutes to be helped as employees saw me and continued to gab with eachother. Then, when I asked a few simple questions about the plants they looked at me dumbfounded and then attempted to check the tag for the information. (Which I could have done and in fact did do twenty minutes before.) When they couldn't find the answer to my question (which was fairly simple) they told me they just sell them. If it had been the local nursery, they would not only have found my answer they would have provided me with additional information and tips. That is the kind of customer service we sacrifice when we allow big corporations to move in. Going back to the "obesity" example (and I use this example because there is a typical stereotype of the "fat American" by other countries), if we shopped even for our basic food needs more consciously we would be saving both our money, our health and our economy. This is because the reason we eat so much is mainly due to the lack of nutritional value of the "cheap" food we eat which often comes from other countries. If Americans actually ate healthier (and wiser) they would eat less and spend less because they would be getting what they need nutritionally which would in turn make them healthier with more energy and less desire to eat more. In addition, by buying local (or even buying American) you are supporting your community not someone else's which allows your economy (not someone else's) to grow. It is the same with anything you consume. If you consciously buy only what you need (not what you want) with the sense of not only the good of yourself but the good of your family and community in mind, you will have what you need and you will cut out a whole lot of the stuff that is holding you down and literally making you a "slave" (and a very unhealthy slave, at that) to corporations and foreign Masters who literally "feed" off of the "fat Americans".

Raphael - What ever happened Author | 08-30-2008 16:47:32 to the "Buy American" slogan of the previous decades, when Japan was getting competitive?...Oh that was before the Bushes and their new world order, before globalization... Strange how "fast food" slows American down (with a lot of added weight) in the long run, isn't it? You are right purplegirl about mental and physical laziness...people in this nation have become hooked on effortless convenience and instant results, I am surprised they haven't come up with a gadget that ties our shoes! They certainly already have a gadget that tells us what and how to think (or rather to avoid thinking at all cost), and it's call television.

lcnewsadmin - Wasn't it Super Administrator | 08-30-2008 19:16:53 Marshall MacLuhan who said "they call it programming for a reason."

Raphael - Before Author | 08-31-2008 00:21:11 watching television, everyone should read "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" by Jerry Mander...first published in 1978 but more relevant than ever, particularly with the introduction of rapidly flashing images (also used in movies) and their effects on the brain and central nervous system.

purplegirl - Television Registered | 08-31-2008 11:02:48 "They certainly already have a gadget that tells us what and how to think (or rather to avoid thinking at all cost), and it's call television." So true, Raphael. I was watching an old seventies movie the other day called "Network" and I found a quote from one of the main characters pretty interesting... "The whole world's people are becoming mass-produced, programmed, wired, insensate things useful only to produce and consume other mass-produced things, all of them as unnecessary and useless as we are." Now, I don't believe by any means that we as human beings are useless but I do believe the rest of the quote is a fairly accurate one to describe our modern society even today. And, that quote was written 30 years ago. Sad that not much has changed even 30 years later. Maybe, it will change, by the next 30 years. I went for a little over a year without television, once. It was probably one of the best things I ever did for myself. After going back to watching it, I found myself more aware and less tolerant of the B.S. and I wouldn't have television now if it weren't for DVRs (to cut out the vast amount of commercials) and some of the new more independent viewer content channels like Link, Current and a few others which makes it tolerable. Plus, these days, I use it as more of a tool to research the B.S. and fight it in my own little way.

Raphael - Network is Author | 09-01-2008 01:21:18 a great movie...I worked in the advertising industry in LA for a while and free-lanced as a storyboard artist for the major agencies, and I got to see the belly of the beast...how commercials are put together. Television programmers actually call regular programs "fillers", as the "main course" is considered to be commercials. If you read the book by Jerry Manders, you'll see that there is more to television than poor programs...It does affect the brain and might be a cause of ADD in children...It greatly speeds up the central nervous system (unnaturally fast imagery and events to process) while slowing down the neo-cortex, or critical thinking, causing stress, imbalance, possibly anxiety, and at any rate a disconnection from self from visual input overload. It certainly causes an imbalance between right and left brain. (There is no time to appropriately process the imagery and information at a feeling level, so there is also right brain overload, meaning disconnection, and desensitization...we become capable of watching ever more gruesome spectacles without flinching). (Curiously, in America, a bloody cadaver laying on an autopsy table in a cop show is deemed acceptable, but a glimpse of a living woman's naked breast would be considered a danger to civilization as we know it! Very strange!) The new wave of rapidly flashing images that began to be used in the 90's has even more detrimental effects, being somewhat hypnotic. It is like being slapped around, as far as the brain is concerned (chock treatment, to even further incapacitate the critical brain, the neo-cortex, which also negatively affects the ability to concentrate...studies have shown that the more television children watch the less they are able to concentrate, even with appropriate sleep). Television also blurs the difference between reality and fiction, as all visual information is processed in the same way. Television is a very toxic instrument of control of the population...it's not just about getting people to buy things, but about keeping them down and passive. There is no doubt in my mind that there would never have been an American revolution if television had existed in the 18th century. People would have complained about British rule, and then would have been "entertained" by television into forgetfulness and lethargy, as they are today.

purplegirl - So True Registered | 09-01-2008 10:09:01 "There is no doubt in my mind that there would never have been an American revolution if television had existed in the 18th century. People would have complained about British rule, and then would have been "entertained" by television into forgetfulness and lethargy, as they are today." It truly is a mind numbing machine, not to mention the world's most powerful weapon.

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