UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR
More about the Organization or the President, Founder, and Editor… (biography)
Macrocosm USA, Inc., founded in 1989, has been a nonprofit (501 3-c), tax-exempt, educational clearinghouse for progressives since 1992. Its purpose is to compile and edit materials into utilitarian formats such as handbooks, databases, a databank, and newsletters. The organization has maintained a database of over 6,000 organizations, periodicals, publishers and businesses, media contacts, and other resource guides.
Macrocosm USA strives to present solutions and holistic approaches to urgent social and environmental problems and provide materials to aid in understanding the social and environmental sciences. As an electronic networking hub, it will endeavor to become a vital international network of people, projects, and organizations. A strong core of activities will center around its publishing, database, and computer networking. A small staff and interns will be necessary to ensure the continuation of its efforts: a directory/reader, computer network (MacroNet), periodic reports, online support, and supplemental updates. Tax-deductible contributions and memberships are are welcome. Macrocosm USA has relied on no grant monies. It seeks to work with individuals and organizations who desire to reduce duplication and merge efforts. Perhaps by reducing redundancy we may, with many hands, make light work – as well as save time and money in the face of dwindling resources.
A Personal Letter From the Editor, President, and Founder of
Macrocosm USA:
Our database, from which our directory
was formed, was used by Jerry Brown’s campaign staff in 1992. Please read this first hand account about this historical moment written by Gregory Wright. Brown Campaign computer staff members told us that they deem us, Macrocosm USA, highly instrumental for Jerry
winning in Colorado, Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut. Ultimately, they say, the Democratic
Party had to realize, after Jerry’s wins, that environmental
grassroots coalitions were powerful allies. Hence, Gore, after the success of EARTH IN THE BALANCE, was appointed Clinton’s running mate. Several boxes of our handbooks were shipped to the Clinton-Gore
Transition Team following the election. As a result, we received the Gore blurb we use on our home page. There is perhaps no way to estimate what good it has done. Like most progressive work the rewards are little and the result rarely calculable.
Grassroots activism can be powerful. It
must be provided the tools to grow. Small, large, and diverse
forces must come together to create a new agenda, one based on
clear, cooperative and wholistic approaches that recognize interdependence.
Above all, people need to know how and where to get involved. Furthermore, we need to create new role models for future generations.
The Macrocosm USA directory is the only book of
its kind. We kept our prices low so more people would buy them
and students would find them affordable. We also have a database
available on and off the Internet. I am available at the following
email address brockway@macronet.org for questions
concerning addresses. I would like
to continue to improve upon this work. The circumstances of the
last 15 years years have made this very difficult work.
I started and maintained this project as a private individual. I spent my entire savings and
took loans in order to do this project. We established nonprofit
status. School interns, friends and volunteers did some of the
work. Grants and the sale of the book were to eventually get us
out of the red. But then, two months after the book was printed
an arsonist burned us – twice. The first fire was attempted murder.
Investigations, insurance problems, contractor problems, family
and health problems, all interrupted the marketing of our book.
We had to go into hiding for a period of time.
We operated a BBS (MacroNet) for the Macrocosm database and forums
for related issues (it was in redesign phase, going from TBBS
to Excalibur). At first we were led to believe Excalibur
would develop a database module by June 1994. It proved to be too complicated and expensive for us to continue with the
TBBS system. Because of financial cut-backs and serious
health problems with our SYSOP (gang-inflicted brain injury),
The MacroNet BBS was halted. At this time the Internet appears to have matured
enough to handle the work we propose to do. We have successfully mounted the database online so it may be used for searches and keyword queries.
There are many magazines that regularly used our book as a reference
and reader. I recently discovered that some believed it is their
best-kept secret. Ms. Magazine,
The Nation, Lies of Our Times and
Utne Reader, Co-op America, use and/or recommend our handbook, as
do many others. Please read reviews. Ben Cohen (Ben & Jerry’s), named as one of the most influential baby-boomers by Life Magazine, is a long-time member and has bought several copies of our handbook foor use in his nonprofit foundation.
The editor and founder, Sandi Brockway [left], being arrested in below freezing
temperatures with unknown participant [right] at the Nevada Nuclear
Test Site, February, 1990, with a group of approximately 100 individuals
from All Saint Episcopal Church in Pasadena.
BIOGRAPHY & OTHER BACKGROUND DETAILS
Ms. Brockway holds a B.A. in the Social Sciences and is a long
time activist, artist and free-lance writer. Among other
things, she protested the Vietnam War, did volunteer work for
Welfare Rights Organization and taught nutrition classes to children
at the Eureka Projects back in the 70’s. She thanks her high school
Art teacher, Paul Diffley III; her college History teacher, Verne
Smith; an Art History teacher, Sir Leonard DeGrassi; and extends
posthumous thanks to Dr. Carl Sauer for inspiring, through his
teaching, two of her most remarkable Geography teachers. She thanks
also, Chuck Whitaker, the Physics and Philosophy major at Berkeley,
who gave her a dictionary and a copy of Emerson’s Essays, and,
in 1973, with minor success, explained her first viewing of a
holograph at Berkeley University.
During the 80’s, she committed civil disobedience at Diablo Nuclear
Power Plant, in favor of renewable and less toxic forms of energy;
Livermore Labs, in support of conversion from nuclear weapons
research to peace time endeavors; Concord Naval Weapons Station,
in protest of arms shipments to Central America that have resulted
in the killing of thousands of innocent peasants and further destabilized
the region; and Vandenberg, in order to convince others that unbridled
military expenditures only further violates human rights, in this
case – the test launch of the MX missile which targeted Kwajelien,
a small island in the Pacific whose inhabitants have been relocated
and contaminated by past experiments. The education that these
liberating experiences provided were invaluable and epiphanous.
During the early eighties, she, Henry Tewksbury and Fred Bazlen,
with the assistance of other members of Moonstone Alliance, an affiliate of Abalone Alliance, produced
a monthly newspaper called Appeal To Reason of San Luis
Obispo County in an attempt to alert the public about
nuclear, chemical and human rights issues. It is then that she
first was inspired to do what was then referred to as World
Concern Directory. After a long hiatus as an antiques
and second hand store owner, sensing the time was ripe, she started
plans to compile and edit the Macrocosm handbook in July, 1989.
She thanks an associate and long-time friend, Lorraine Schulmeister,
for her support and inspiration.
Other special thanks for their encouragement, support, and continued vision to:
Franz Nahrada, founder of G.I.V.E.
and Dr. George Regas, former rector of All Saints Episcopal Church whose spiritual passion gave me courage to continue