Last night I had this crazy little dream... really.

I somehow found a way to get a motor home, diesel of course, packed up all my junk and I took off across country toward Arizona. Don't ask me how I got the motor home cuz I have no idea how I would acquire such a thing with no money and a credit score approaching a negative number. Anyway, I painted my cell phone number all over the thing touting my services for computer repair and my love of alternative energy, strapped a 55 gallon drum on the back and the first chance I had, I converted the thing to run on biodiesel fuel. Every time I stopped for food or sleep, I looked until I found a restaurant to supply used cooking oil to fuel my trek. Along the way I made money for necessities by fixing PC problems and setting up wireless networks for people. Before long, I was setting up wi-fi hotspots and websites for restaurants & hotels along the way, all the while educating people on the alternatives to fossil fuel. Offering to show them how they could save money by converting to biofuels (which can actually be made easily and safely in their own backyard or garage) and how they can use solar or wind power to reduce their dependence on the local utility company. By the time I got to AZ, I was able to afford to get settled AND I was able to convince my friend that we could start our own electric car conversion company. She's a very special lady, not only because she can put up with me for more than a day, but also because she used to be an aircraft mechanic and has experience & knowledge that makes her indispensable. At first, she & I simply built our own little electric car from junkyard parts, and in less than a month ended up with a snazzy little racer that would blow the doors off anything else in the state both off the line and in the quarter mile. From there we had people coming to us from all around the city to build them one too. Kids looking for an awesome 'tuner', neighbors hoping to save money since the price of gasoline had gone through the roof, and even local news celebrities were putting us on the six o'clock news and asking if we could convert their news vans. Soon enough we had a list of advance orders so long that we knew we'd have to turn it into an "real" business with a production facility, employees and everything. With the help of other friends, family and people that we had helped, I soon found a run-down shopping mall, converted it into our new production facility, and with our newfound success we were able to build a new kind of company... rather than a publicly traded corporation that siphoned profits to pad the pockets of a privileged few, we fed the profits back into the company and employees providing them with much better than a 'living wage', benefits that surpassed even the top 5% of the corporate CEO's and we built such a strong working community that we began to actually take a toll on the oil & car companies. It happened within such a short time that they never knew what hit them. We didn't try to introduce some new type of automobile since reinventing the wheel is just a bit too much to ask. We simply converted anyone's 'gas guzzling' junker to a clean 100% electric or biofuel enhanced serial hybrid that could be plugged in & charged via the grid or by plugging into solar/wind power (which we began to sell and install as well). We began buying up entire junkyards full of old gasoline jalopies and refurbishing them into electrics, not to sell outright for profit, but to offer to employees and eventually to charities and public transport companies. And the more we made, the more our employees shared in our success.

Soon we were providing educational benefits to cover entire families, tearing down old broken down neighborhoods and rebuilding energy efficient, bio-friendly homes in their place and 'giving' those homes away at cost to those people who needed them most, as well as providing them to employees of the company at cost as well. Whole communities were built on the concept of distributed power production and eco-friendly design and soon we had created what once was called a 'boom-town' with family owned shops and businesses, and a place where families could live without stress or fear because everyone had what they needed & wanted, and if they didn't there was no reason to take from others because all they had to do was ask for the help they need.

Ever hear of Utopia Colony? (Yes, I'm a HUGE Star Trek fan... even DS-9) What's to say it's not possible?

Ok... maybe that last part wasn't in my dream. I just added that part as I wrote this because I want desperately to believe it could work. If we could collectively work toward such a goal, it's really NOT impossible. I don't believe that such a place or plan can solve ALL of the problems throughout our society, but I do believe that it could make it MUCH easier for us to handle what problems that would be left for us to tackle. I know it sounds more like some cartoon fantasy than a plan for the future, but tell me something... where would you rather live if you had a choice? All it would take is the belief (faith) in ourselves to work together and create that reality. Are you willing to be one of the few that believe in something better and work for it, rather than spend the rest of your life following the rules of the corporate pigs that keep us working for their benefit rather than our own? It is all a struggle, no matter which you choose, but why struggle to make their lives easier and keep our lives the same, or condemn our children to that same life? Let's put our energies into working for a future that our prodigy can enjoy and be proud of rather than dooming them to the same day-to-day, worthless grind that we've grown to believe is the only way to get by. What do you say? Ready? Ok... now I'm gonna hit you with the big 'sales pitch'... where I tell you how I need your help to get started. So, how much am I gonna beg you to pry out of your already overstretched budget? How about a buck? (two if you're willing) I don't think anyone else should break their bank account to help me, but if this reaches even 1% of the people throughout the country, and if only a small portion of those people can find an extra 4 quarters that they can contribute, I should be able to make this dream a reality, or at least get a good start. The goal isn't to take the money & run, the goal is to start a small, grass-roots movement to help educate as many people as possible to the benefits of using alternatives to fossil fuel while building a new kind of company. Not a profit driven megacorporation dedicated to the almighty greed of a few suit wearing power mongers that couldn't build anything with their own hands, but a community driven company dedicated to the people that actually do the work to build something special. Got a buck you can spare for a truly good cause? Give up a mocha latte or buy a small fry next time you're out and then log on to http://theFuture.YouHelpBuild.com and find the DONATE button. Or better yet, take a look at some of the neat stuff that you can buy there. Anything you purchase through the site gives us a small commission which is the same as a straight donation, and you can find some really cool gifts and alternative energy stuff too! Solar cell phone chargers, DIY home wind generators, T-shirts, bumperstickers, and even toys for the kids. Either way, any help you can provide will get us that much closer to making a true difference.