Robert C. Jastad's Page

How are you currently involved in the Transition?

From having been involved peripherally a short while with Fertile Ground during '08 & '09; making me aware of Transition Whatcom then. Now via the internet. I'm a Bellingham resident; as of early in '08 where I worked for the USPS in a ninety day student temporary job while getting a BA from Evergreen College; and also lived summers of '78 & '79 as part of Antahkarana Circle of healers, begun by former '60s radicals trying to survive the political repression of the '70s with the "back to the land/voluntary simplicity" movements, sort of morphed with the more reactionary right-wing New Age phenomena. Michael "Skeeter" Pilarski is a friend from that era of my life I notice is still popular in the region. We survived together having to work at agribusiness jobs in the orchard economy east of the Cascades; as one of the few sources of any cash income in those days.

In what ways do you identify with the Transition movement? Why are you interested?

I'm just a lonely elder; seeking community and friends. Driven from Humboldt county and Eureka, CA early in '08 for being too much of a leftist radical; where I lived almost a dozen years longer than anyplace else in my life by far. Prior to then I was in the east bay during the mid '90s where I landed suffering mild frost bite on all my toes sleeping in my car in Spokane January of '93. I still like the bay area more than anyplace else I've ever been. Now I'm attracted to the Santa Rosa/Sebastopol area of the north bay; from discovering in '98 I'm a Romani, so-called "Gypsy" person; who since then has been involved in half a dozen California Herdeljezi Festivals, often as a volunteer helping to produce those as fundraisers to make money in an effort to help Kosovar Romani impacted by the Balkan war, one of the least known genocidal atrocities current on the planet now.

Do you have particular interests, skills, talents or resources you would like to bring to Transition Whatcom?

Lots of contemplative awareness of peculiarly unusual things; with an off-the-wall elder's spritely cynicism. "The place advantaged yuppies come to breed" my one sentence description of my impression of Bellingham. I think local sustainability has to go hand in hand with global defeat of capitalist imperialism; or people end up creating exclusive community with little resonance, attractive to the sort of right-wing reaction used to exploiting an allowed liberal veneer in places like Whatcom county or Humboldt county where I've come from.

In what neighborhood or part of the county do you reside?

At the Cedar Glen Apartments, corner of Texas & Toledo in Bellingham's "apartment ghetto" whose reputation as the tough part of town is local redneck propaganda and racist pandering.

Your Personal Website (if you have one)

http://people.tribe.net/bobstad

Where did you hear about Transition Whatcom and how did you find our community network website?

Through Fertile Ground; and a web search just now.

Please note that you do not have to answer all of the above questions in order to join, and you can always come back later to edit your profile. If it's all too many questions for now, please provide a short answer below on why you'd like to join this site (or a summary of the above, if answered).

Need for relevant friends and community; as someone with mobility problems from physical disability; as well as being an environmentalist all my adult life.