Attention Editor:

I would applaud you for publishing more articles such as "Exploring the Hidden Connections: Toward a Sustainable Future" with Fritjof Capra (OPEN EXCHANGE, January-March 04.)
With the election coming soon, we need an awareness of why we are fighting for oil when we should be fighting for a clean, wholesome, and economically stable environment.
Thank you for this public "wake up call."
Marsha M. Lord
Apache Junction, AZ

Read our second installment of the Fritjof Capra interview this issue. The entire interview is posted on our website at www.openexchange.org. From the home page click on "Articles."

Can't Find OPEN EXCHANGE?

Will you please tell me locations where I can find your wonderful and informative magazine? Could I get a subscription?
Patricia Rivas

OPEN EXCHANGE MAGAZINE is distributed in over 1,800 stores and streetracks throughout the Greater Bay Area. If you don't find copies nearby, contact us for a free subscription by mail. Or log on to www.openexchange.org where you'll always find our listings, calendar of events, and feature articles!

Branch Office Without Roots?

I would like to see a Central Valley version of OPEN EXCHANGE here in Merced. We have a very large and growing population here now with the introduction of a brand new University of California Merced. My wife Jean and I are both from the Berkeley area and miss this type of publication. Jean has been educated in Naturopathy. We have friends who are into massage therapy and we are all into organic, natural/health foods. We are vegetarian and we want to share our health food based lifestyle with so many people here. A publication like yours would help immensely.
Ron Aragon
Merced

Ron, why don't you and your friends start a publication? We've always believed that a magazine such as OPEN EXCHANGE is best created and sustained by having roots in the community, not by expanding a chain. Why outsource if you can go local? Ask each and every person you know who has a skill to share if they'll contribute, say $100, toward a publication about their services. If you only get five or ten responses, you still have more than enough money to print a circular at your local copy shop. (OPEN EXCHANGE started this way in 1974.) Once you get started, let things develop organically. Printing a collective flyer might be no more than a weekend project for promoting your own services. Or it might become a fulltime publishing venture if you're right about Merced's expanding possibilities. If it happens, please send us a copy!

Free Subscription Priced Right

I like your offer for the free subscription—I think it's well worth it!!!
Robert Anderson
Sunnyvale

Your free subscription is in the mail. ! We promise you'll get at least what you paid for!

Free Classes But No Free Lunch?

Hello. I was just reading your magazine, and it is great.
Do you know of any resources in San Francisco for free movement/dance/excercise classes, and/or free movement space where people can come in and do whatever physical activity they want? Please help!
Thanks a lot.
Kathy
San Francisco

Sorry, we don't know of any free spaces or free classes! There's no free lunch, either! However, many of our services are quite affordable. Most listings in OPEN EXCHANGE are not supported by tax dollars but are private programs which rely wholly or in large part on your tuition fees. OPEN EXCHANGE, in turn, relies on the support of the individuals and organizations that list within these pages. So, when you take a class or use a service listed in these pages, you strengthen community ties and help us all build a sustainable economy.

Subject: Diet

Cannot eat beef... mad cow
Cannot eat chicken... bird flu
Cannot eat eggs... cholesterol
Cannot eat pork... bacteria
Cannot eat fish... mercury
Cannot eat fruit... insecticides
Cannot eat vegetables... herbicides
Now, the way I see it, that only leaves...
CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alan Gordon
San Francisco

Al, send us a sample of that unsweetened, vegan, nonfat, low carb, organic chocolate!