A friendly reminder that our upcoming rally is scheduled this Wednesday, March 20, between 5:30-6:30 pm. 
Following our meeting, we encourage you to attend Citizen Marin’s forum on housing at 6:30 to get informed about this issue in Marin.
Also, below is a link that may be of interest to you. Marin IJ columnist Mr. Dick Spotswood, reports the following (excerpted from Homeowners Gather to Push for Local Control:
ON WEDNESDAY, the new Citizens Marin alliance will host its first “town hall” meeting. The topic of the 6:30 p.m. event at San Rafael’s Al Boro Community Center is “Planning and Affordable Housing Challenges in Marin.”
Citizen Marin is comprised of neighborhood and town homeowners organizations, along with some environmentalists, inflamed over the efforts by alphabet agencies including the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to abrogate public control of local land-use planning.
The meeting is another sign that increasingly large segments of Marin care enough about their communities’ quality of life to devote time and energy to oppose regional governments’ power grab.
Combine those groups and potentially real ballot-box power is amassed. If this alliance stays focused, perhaps adding Ross Valley and Twin Cities allies, and then crafts common legislative policies, it will serve Marin homeowners as their so-far underrepresented political voice.
Expect housing advocates and developers who favor One Bay Area’s one-size-fits-all planning model to show up; they will attempt to dominate the open-microphone period that Citizen Marin’s organizers scheduled at the program’s end . . .
These folks should resist the tactic by some on the far political left denouncing opponents of One Bay Area as racists. That tired stunt lost its power to intimidate by the early 1990s. These folks need to take a deep breath, lighten up and understand there are legitimate arguments on both sides of the housing debate.
Several dynamic speakers will talk about the importance of our work and attempt to educate the audience about the nature of racism, classism and NIMBYism around the housing issues. Housing activists seem to assume that if you don’t believe in their particular solutions, then you really don’t care about the people they claim to help.
Citizen Marin’s task is to prove the “housers” and the alphabet agencies are wrong. They must demonstrate far better and more environmentally sensitive methods to create inclusive communities than following the failed high-density housing project model.
We urge you to continue to join us and to inform others about the peaceful rally on Wednesday, March 20, at 5:30 at Pickleweed Park Community Center at 50 Canal Street, San Rafael. Let’s learn and let’s get our voices heard!
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If you are unable to join us, the following books from noted community educators from around the United States are worth reading:
The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods
We need our neighbors and community to stay healthy, produce jobs, raise our children, and care for those on the margin. Institutions and professional services have reached their limit of their ability to help us.
The consumer society tells us that we are insufficient and that we must purchase what we need from specialists and systems outside the community. We have become consumers and clients, not citizens and neighbors. John McKnight and Peter Block show that we have the capacity to find real and sustainable satisfaction right in our neighborhood and community.
This book reports on voluntary, self-organizing structures that focus on gifts and value hospitality, the welcoming of strangers. It shows how to reweave our social fabric, especially in our neighborhoods. In this way we collectively have enough to create a future that works for all.
- “This book challenges the conventional wisdom about what you and I can do as citizens to shape our future. It offers concrete examples of what citizens can do and have done by drawing on resources in their families and communities.”
~ David Mathews, President, Kettering Foundation
- “This book is the basis for health and happiness in any society. A must-read.”
~ Quentin Young, Chairman, Health and Medicine Policy Research Group.
Former President, American Public Health Association
- “‘What we need is here.’ That line from a Wendell Berry poem sums up the theme that runs through this vital and timely book. This book is a treasure. And it can help us recover the treasures hidden in plain sight within and among us, renewing ourselves and our democracy as we go.”
- “Don’t wait for a politician, scientist, infomercial, or lottery ticket to come to the rescue. Read this powerful book and help yourself, your neighbors, and your planet to satisfying and sustainable solutions found only in community.”
Marin Family Action’s HSBC Financial Literacy Workshop was sponsored by Union Bank and hosted by Monica Brazil, Vice President of their Kentfield Branch. Monica is also Marin Family Action’s Board President. 
To start the day, Judy Arnold, Marin County Supervisor for District 5 welcomed attendees. 
In light of (current) problems, we are reminded of how critically important it is for individuals to become financially literate at an early age so that they are better prepared to navigate an increasingly complex financial marketplace. Choosing a credit card, saving for retirement or for a child’s education, or buying a home requires more financial savvy than ever. Financial literacy and consumer education—coupled with consumer protection—makes the financial marketplace effective and efficient. Only eight states require personal finance before highschool graduation. I believe more states should consider making personal finance a requirement for all students . . . this is vital to the future of our economy and all its citizens: Financial literacy must be a high priority. 
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