Common Ground: Our Common Ground

March 2004 | Editor’s Note

Our Common Ground

When I moved to the Bay Area from Boston five years ago, I had in my heart the dream of starting a magazine here. My vision then was of a publication that would resonate with the diverse voices and traditions concentrated here. That is the very essence of what I believe makes Northern California such a fertile community for cultural creatives, risk takers, and people whose values and vision look beyond Main Street and the mainstream media. Historically, this has always been a place where people came to re-invent themselves, a place for those who, as Robert F. Kennedy once said, “dream of things that never were and say ‘Why not?’”

So when Dragonfly Media’s visionary founder Ron Williams offered me the chance to be the new editor of Common Ground, there wasn’t much hesitation on my end. As we discussed possibilities for growing the magazine editorially, what impressed me was Ron’s commitment to a new kind of journalism — one that looked beyond the conformist media’s fixation on celebrities, violence, and the politics of corruption; one that focused instead on real visions of change and people engaged in creating sustainable futures and communities. We shared the idea that this publication should continue to be a resource for practical visionaries and socially responsible entrepreneurs; for activists working for social justice and sustainable environments (not just in the wilderness but in the inner city); and for pacifists walking the middle path of spiritual growth and healthy living in this world (not just the next).

The mission of Common Ground is to foster conscious community. Thanks to its founder Baha’uddin Andy Alpine, it has always been a publication whose core values reflected a generous notion of community. For thirty years, it has helped build that confluence of seekers and doers, meditators and marchers — a presence that has evolved and grown to an exceptional degree in Northern California. Engaging, informing, and inspiring that community in thoughtful and provocative ways is our challenge and goal. We will meet it by expanding CG’s editorial content and expression as reflected in the new features and look of the magazine that we are introducing in this issue and in the months to follow. They include new sections such as Co-op America’s Green Living column; our local news and gossip round-up, Dock of the Bay; personal reflections such as “Journeys”; and a photo essay, which this month features our cover photographer Saïd Nuseibeh’s stunning images of Moorish Spain. Nuseibeh’s work evokes a time when Muslims, Christians, and Jews together created “a culture of inclusivity,” an era known in Spain as the time of convivencia, or “living together.” His essay speaks about connectedness and what it means to actively pursue better social interrelations; that, for us, is the essence of conscious community.

Beginning in May with our next issue, Common Ground will become a monthly publication. Our core coverage will feature stories and columns (both local and national) devoted to social justice, the environment, spiritual and personal growth, integrative medicine, healthy food and organic farming, and socially responsible business. We will profile and interview local heroes and heroines the major media overlook — those pioneers, eco-neers, activists, artists, and visionaries who are already making a difference in the quality of our lives, our schools, our public spaces, our businesses, and our neighborhoods. This month CG interviews Nina Simons, co-founder with Kenny Ausubel of the Bioneers conference in Marin, the annual gathering of eco-visionaries. Our coverage will reflect the Bay Area’s deep palette of communities — Asian, Latino, Afro-American, Middle Eastern, European, Native, Migrant, and Transported American — that nurture this cutting edge of mind and spirit gathered around the Bay. We will also be looking to increase coverage of the remarkable array of non-profit organizations whose cutting-edge research and engagement are helping to shift values in our culture and change public policy on health care, housing, the environment, and a host of social issues. This month CG spotlights Global Exchange, and its efforts to promote fair trade practices in corporate America.

Our mission is not just happy talk or advertorial puffery. Indeed we embrace and aim for high values of journalistic integrity. We remain a free magazine, supported by advertisers and private funders, but the editorial and advertising content of this magazine are separate resources and must not be confused if individually they are to benefit our readers. Integrity applies as well as to two often misused words, “objectivity” and “balance.” For us, fairness applies to what the media chooses to emphasize and cover, not just how. And for us, “objectivity” also means understanding what’s inside the human heart and mind, not just the “facts” an editor or writer chooses to arrange and emphasize according to often unstated, covert values.

It may seem strange to hear talk of “values” in a journalistic enterprise. As both an editor and writer, I have spent twenty-five years of my life working in both alternative and mainstream media in print and broadcast. I have learned from both worlds. As a reporter for the PBS series Frontline, I learned what it means to bring the craft of investigative reporting to a visual documentary medium; writing for The New Yorker, I learned how great editing can sharpen thought and style. I am glad to be using that knowledge here, because Common Ground offers something that rarely appears even in the best of mainstream journalism: they may look at the world as it is and ask, why? We will also look at alternative worlds they ignore or miss and say, why not? — Carl Nagin

Recommend this page to a friend

Top Ten pages recommended to friends: