Copies of the book "The Small-Mart Revolution" by Michael Shuman are available for borrowing from the Progressive Wayne County resource library. We currently have 20 copies available for use by discussion groups, classrooms, businesses, and other organizations. More about this important book:  continue reading »

A few people have asked me recently about the state of ProgressiveWayneCounty.org, and given the ups and downs of site activity, it's only fair that I provide a bigger-picture update on its status. About a year ago, this site was created to promote and chronicle the efforts of progressive people around Wayne County. It's been successful in the sense that now a medium exists with that focus, and anyone can easily submit their news and events, start a blog, or join in our discussions and chat.

However, as we've noted a few times, the site's usefulness and interestingness depends a lot on those activities actually happening - we need people to use the site as intended in order for it to fulfill its purpose. It's kind of a chicken and egg problem...people tell me "I would visit more often if it there were more activity," but I suspect there is an equal number who also think, "I would submit news and events and blog entries more often if there were more people visiting and participating."  continue reading »

There's a new feature available on ProgressiveWayneCounty.org: Chat Live. When you click on this link, you'll be taken into a chat room (after "accepting" a Java applet certificate, which is fine) where you can interact in realtime with other Progress Wayne County site users. We hope you'll find this useful for having more useful exchanges with others who frequent the site. In the future, we'll be scheduling some chats to cover specific topics and meet progressive personalities from around the community. Let us know what you think!

On Friday's episode of Fresh Air, resident linguist Geoff Nunberg discusses the current use of the term "progressive." He asks the question: Are today's "progressives" claiming to be the philosophical descendants of the original American Progressive Party, or are they just a bunch of Volvo driving "Liberals" too gunshy to call them selves "the L-word."

We know there are lots of websites out there to visit, and Progressive Wayne County may not be at the top of your list yet for a resource to check in on regularly. So we've just started our new e-mail newsletter, a regular (but not more than weekly) recap and update of news and events posted on the site, as well as some related thoughts about "being progressive" in our area. You can subscribe to it using the subscription form on the left side of this page - just enter your e-mail address (or, if you already have an account here, just click on the Subscribe button). We promise not to send you junk mail, or to give your address to anyone else, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Enjoy!

Welcome to Progressive Richmond and Wayne County, Indiana. This is an interactive community that will promote and chronicle the progressive efforts of individuals, organizations and businesses in the area.

We're still in the process of adding new content and filling out the basic features of the site, so stay tuned as updates will happen regularly. And if you know about progressive news or events happening in our area, please use the "Submit" links on the left to tell us about them.  continue reading »