As with the first three gatherings, the fourth National Conference on Media Reform went conspicuously missing on the pages, screens, airwaves, and cables of what attendees nowadays refer to as the MSM, mainstream media. My recent search of the New York Times website for their coverage of the conference went unrewarded. In spite of recent successes for the media reform movement and burgeoning numbers at the annual event, the MSM silence alone tells us there’s a lot of work yet to do.

There are some books so important and insightful that they become instant classics and "must reads." Dave Wheelock, The Pencil Warrior, tells us of his pick for the must read of the year, if not the decade.

Congratulations, graduate. Now that you’re grown up enough to move on to the responsibility of a job, the challenge of college, or the promise of a career, I’m sure you can appreciate the story of how a lot of your elders still believe in the Easter Bunny. Hopefully sooner rather than later, you’ll discover the way the world beyond the textbooks really works – and about the economic fairy tale that currently dominates the everyday lives of virtually everyone on Earth.

I dare not mention the candidate’s name. To do so in public brings derision from conservatives and causes those who call themselves liberals to blanch with a combination of fear and loathing. Yet the fact that his message to America is swept aside with the same callousness as is his distinctly non-Hollywood style is a perfect indictment of the miserable state of affairs in which we find ourselves today.

On Feb 11 of this year two groups of American Indians left San Francisco on foot with Washington, DC in their sights. Five months and 2,700 miles later travelers of the Southern and Northern routes will walk into the town where their collective fate is kept. If you know anything about the relationship between native people and the government of this country, you’ll expect the walkers to be greeted with a smile and a handshake from a distracted presidential appointee and briskly shown the door. Indians. They’re so . . . irrelevant.

Dave Wheelock shares the story of Bill Koonz of the Oneida Nation and demonstrates, once again, that we have a lot to learn from our Native American friends and neighbors, especially when it comes to respecting and preserving the earth.

Getting tired of peak oil yet? No? Ok, good! This week's Pencil Warrior brings us yet more information about how society may adapt to the upcoming challenges that loom on the horizon.

Our city is not prepared for the great changes coming our way. I am not referring to the pressures posed by rapid population expansion in the western states, a nationwide economic recession, or the buildup of pollutants and toxins in our life systems. While these large scale issues have the capacity to greatly affect our community, we remain like the proverbial frogs sitting in the pot of heating water. Rather than jumping out (or finding a way to turn off the flame), we compromise our quality of life to stay in the pot.

Only when the last tree has died, the last river poisoned, and the last fish caught will we realize that we cannot eat money. ~ Cree observer Dave Wheelock again tackles the question of peak oil and whether or not our society will have the courage to tackle the problem.

Dave Wheelock, a.k.a. The Pencil Warrior, asks why the leading presidential candidates never mention - nor are ever asked about - peak oil and the impending oil crisis that looms. He argues the topic is too important to be ignored and we do so at our own peril.