December 26, 2018

Dear Commonweal Friends:

I hope this Fall Letter finds you well. You recently received the Commonweal News. This is the personal letter I write to you twice a year. I can’t touch on all Commonweal programs, but I want to give you a sense of the breadth and depth of what we are doing.

Paradise Lost

My friend Elizabeth Evans lost everything in the Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise—the California town of 28,000 where 90% of homes burned. She lives in Concow, just north of Paradise. Her community was among the first to burn. She escaped in her RV with her four dogs and one cat. Elizabeth writes: “My son Ean lived in Paradise. He drove through worse flames than I, feeling the heat of the flames on both sides as he drove out in bumper-to-bumper traffic to Chico.”

Elizabeth has provided massage in the Cancer Help Program for more than 20 years. She works on a reservation giving massage to Native American diabetics. I have been under her skillful hands on her table at least one hundred times. Continue reading →