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Democracy's Edge, New Work by Author of Diet for a Small Planet, Getting Big Response on PBS

Democracy's Edge, New Work by Author of Diet for a Small Planet, Getting Big Response on PBS

Published 12-13-05

Submitted by Small Planet Institute

Thin Democracy - what America has now - is weak and failing, warns Frances Moore Lappé on PBS Now with David Brancaccio, first aired December 9th. But a more powerful practice of democracy is emerging that engages regular citizens in problem solving, she argues. In making her point, Lappé uses Rainforest Action Network's successful campaign that convinced Home Depot to stop using old-growth wood. The PBS program also features an interview with shrimper Diane Wilson, author of An Unreasonable Woman, who stood up to a corporate polluter, even risking her life, and won.

Wilson's story is evidence of the power of regular citizens to bring democracy to life, says Lappé. "It's our feeling of powerlessness that is our greatest enemy, and people like Diane show us we have power," she asserts.

Lappé is the author of the 1970s 3-million copy Diet for a Small Planet. Her Now interview features her latest and fifteenth book Democracy's Edge: How to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life. The program is being rebroadcast on PBS stations around the country this week.

The emerging, more effective democracy she calls Living Democracy. It means withdrawing the power of wealth from political life and infusing the power of democratic values into economic life, she says. Lappé fills the interview and her new book with real stories of Living Democracy arising schools, the media, food and faming, economics and politics.

"Democratic engagement isn't the spinach we eat in order to enjoy our dessert of personal freedom. It's the essence of the good life," says Lappé

For more about Living Democracy, excerpts from Democracy's Edge and stories, visit www.democracysedge.org

See email below from a viewer:

My wife and I watched your segment of the Now program this evening and found your interview by David Brancaccio very refreshing. Your message of becoming more active within our "democracies" or risk falling into a totalitarian state is a wake-up call for every thinking person. Given recent manipulation of the people by most institutional power centers
makes me think we're already on that slippery slope. We have a Canadian Federal election coming up in a few weeks and I've become cynical about the political process and results. You've made me re-think those thoughts and maybe I can awaken my previous enthusiasm about these issues. Thanks.


Jack Century
Calgary

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