August this year will be busy for me, both in my work and my personal life:

On the morning of Thursday, August 13th, the Casa Grande Mayor's Committee on Disability Issues will be reconvening after the summer break. I've been on the Committee since early this year, and hope to convey the message that the struggle for rights for disabled people should include people with all manner of physical and mental conditions.

The evening of Thursday, August 13, will mark the first meeting of PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) in Casa Grande, at 7:00 p.m. at St. Michael and All Angels Liberal Catholic Cathedral, 545 E. Palm Parke Blvd., Casa Grande, AZ 85122. This will be the second support group for members of the LGBT and their loved ones in the Casa Grande/Pinal County area. The first is Central Arizona Rainbow Equality (C.A.R.E.), which meets at the Signal Peak Library of Central Arizona College in Coolidge.

Thanks to founding member and past president of C.A.R.E., Christopher Hall, and the other members of C.A.R.E., PFLAG, and members of St. Michael's, September 26 will be the date for the second Gay Pride event in Casa Grande this year, Casa Grande Gay Day. (More about that in this space later. Promise!) We should also recognize The Very Reverend Mother Maria C. "Sally" Jose, Pastor of St. Michael's and Vicar General of the Liberal Catholic Diocese of Arizona; The Reverend Gilda Eakin, Deacon and Youth Pastor of St. Michael's; and The Most Reverend Bennett D.D. Burke, Pastor of Our Lady of Peace and Hope, Mission of the Liberal Catholic Church in Tucson, and Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Diocese of Arizona. All of these people have worked tirelessly to advance the support network and services for members of the LGBT community and their loved ones in Pinal and Pima Counties, especially Casa Grande, Coolidge, Florence, and Tucson, Arizona.

And once I get to that first PFLAG meeting, I'm looking forward to meeting people from PFLAG Phoenix, as well as more people right here in our local community of Casa Grande who are also laboring to make the world a better place for everyone by standing up for civil rights for all.

On the personal side, August will mark the beginning of my ability to see better. I'll have my first cataract surgery on my right eye on Thursday, August 20th. I'm not sure how soon after that they'll do the left eye, but they promise I'll be able to see what I'm writing on my computer screen, read the crawl on the TV news stations so I can keep up with what's going on in the world, and even see the baseball scores on TV! Now, if the Diamondbacks will just start winning every game for the rest of the season--and the Dodgers and all those other teams in the NL West croak, we can enjoy another fantastic World Series in October! It could happen!

Love and peace to all,
Debbie Jordan

This is my first post shortly before the launch of my redesigned website. I hope the ideas I share on this page about finding creative ways to end the greatest scourges of our society--poverty and war--will spark discussion among visitors who want to share their own win-win-win ideas for achieving the idyllic goals of peace and plenty in our society. The key should be that anything we do must solve several problems at once without causing any more unforeseen problems. Too much of that is the way things are done now!

That's the way I wrote my book, The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace. While detailing simple methods of dealing with social problems, such as taking a more comprehensive approach to education, I explained how such changes would have positive and profound effects in other areas, such as employment and juvenile delinquency. In fact, my book is full of cross references that show how and why problems in every area of our society are interconnected, and so should be the solutions.

So, if you think you've got a good idea, think carefully about how many problems it could solve. And just as important, make sure the changes won't bring about any other problems that you don't intend. If you can do that, then share the idea with me. I might post the informaton on this blog.

Love and peace,
Debbie Jordan

Debbie's Jordan Peace Blog

Debbie Jordan is the author of "The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace" and "Lion's Pride." She is currently working on her second essay collection on peace: "Keep on Imagining: Spreading the wings of peace," and she is Phoenix Progressive Examiner for Examiner.com.