HOUR Future - Issue #16 - Winter 2006

HOUR Future
By Blair Bobier

Shaping the future of your community is one of the most powerful things you can do as a citizen. Even one simple act can have profound and lasting implications. Planting a tree in your community, for example, will not only help combat global warming but could provide food and shade for generations to come. You could also plant a community garden to help feed your neighbors or teach someone to read or serve on a local board or commission. Whether the seeds you plant are literal or figurative, over time, your efforts will bear fruit.
Thanks to the dedication of some modern pioneers, a sustainable form of locally-based trade and commerce is blossoming here in Benton County. Like so many of the best ideas for the future, the HOUR Exchange is rooted in the past; taking us back to a time when neighbors bartered and traded fresh milk and eggs in exchange for a visit from a country doctor and got together for barn-raisings, dances and community celebrations. On one level, the HOUR Exchange is simply a community of people using an alternative form of currency to exchange skills, services and products. But in other ways, it’s much more than this.
The HOUR Exchange is creating a localized economy that’s not dependent on the dollar standard, Uncle Sam, Oil Wars or the corporatization of the global marketplace. Money is power and those of us who participate in the HOUR Exchange are taking one small but very significant step to use our power for the forces of good. It’s one thing to shun Big Box stores which drain local economies dry by sending their profits miles away to line the pockets of their mega-wealthy owners; it’s another to create a positive alternative. The HOUR Exchange is one puzzle piece of the emerging alternative.
I can’t say, of course, that everyone who participates in the HOUR Exchange feels quite the same way, but among our growing ranks you’ll find people who are very conscientiously creating a community and a sustainable local economy.
For me personally, the HOUR Exchange has opened up doors beyond putting my philosophy to practical applications. By trading my time and HOURS and by participating in the quarterly gatherings, I’ve made new friends, strengthened ties with old ones and been inspired by the skills and expertise of my neighbors. Using our local currency, I’ve gotten haircuts, lots of help with otherwise overwhelming projects, starts for my garden, an eye-opening forestry consultation and great locally produced food.
Since the HOUR gatherings mark the turning of the seasons, I know that I can always look forward to a genuine, non-commercialized winter holiday celebration as well as a place to swap seeds, starts and stories in spring. The summer and fall gatherings are times to salute sunny days and celebrate and share the bounty of the harvest.
No one knows what the future holds but we can do our best to leave a positive and sustainable legacy for the generations yet to come. If, as some analysts suggest, we are at or past the peak of worldwide oil production, then by necessity everything in our oil-dependent society will become more localized, including our economy. Before long, we may well see more and more communities using local currency, bartering and emphasizing local production to adapt to the coming changes.
In our community, here in the heart of the Willamette Valley, we have an abundance of riches and opportunities: fertile soil, plenty of rain, talented and compassionate people and viable alternatives to the omnipresent fossil fuel based corporatization of our lives. Biodiesel, a vegetable oil based fuel, is available at the pump and through a local cooperative. The Solar Creek project is also working to produce renewable energy and to reduce our dependence on the electrical grid. We have not one but two food cooperative outlets, lots of organic farms, a regular farmers’ market and our own community-based currency.
The future has already arrived for many of us in Benton County and we like what we see. If you aren’t already part of it, you can join the fun at any time.