Donald's View

Mission: Our Core Values:
• Diversity
• Bridging
• Consciousness
• Communication.

Consciousness is the base of Diversity and Bridging. Bridging is built by consciousness and makes diversity sustainable. Communication sustains all three.

We intend our community and our selves to be bridges. We bridge:
• within ourselves as consciously as possible accepting all our inner diversity and the greater self-unity and inner peace and joy this gives us, and the more joyful and peaceful energy that results in our relating to others.
• to each other as members of the Donald’s View intentional community by using the bottom-up, 100% democratic problem-solving methods of the Assemblies pioneered by Donald Anderson with the National Association of the Southern Poor.
• as a community, with
o our neighbors and society at large to move forward to a livable future.
o towns, counties and communities surrounding us geographically
o other intentional communities region-, nation-, and worldwide
• from the old, “taker” paradigm in which corporations have the same rights as individuals without the accountability to a new, planetary community of harmony paradigm which future inhabitants will view as an aesthetic and practical enhanced, including considerations for geological orientation, geological sustainability, and golden mean in construction
• from a calculated cost-benefit paradigm to an artisan paradigm where all acts are of beauty in spiritual alignment with a mutually respectful future
• from work that harms others as it sustains us to work that sustains others as it sustains us.
• from a problematic present to a peaceful future, to our better tomorrow as a multi-cultural community living to thrive with no ecological footprint with all our neighbors: humans, animals and plants.

From www.ic.org/directory/donalds-view/:

Donald's View is a forming intentional community in rural southern Virginia. We are actively seeking passionate founding members who
1. read this description carefully;
2. read, and feel resonance with our Core Values: http://www.michaelbrickler.com/donaldsview/docs/DonViewVisState.pdf
3. are ready to invest in every way (including financially), in our development;
4. communicate with us to discuss next steps.

We feel no one should be turned away for financial reasons _and_ everyone in the community, plus allies and other donors, contributes financially.

Origins of the Community
The Original Founding Member is Michael Brickler. The land has been connected with Michael's family since his ancestors were enslaved on the land. This intentional community is multicultural to honor the African and Native American heritage of the land. It is also a bridge for the larger surrounding community to cross to a future where our region can live in a more conscious, democratic, sustainable and fulfilling way.
Our name comes from Michael's uncle Donald, who through his organizing work with the National Association of the Southern Poor was one of the main people who helped Michael develop this view of life and who was responsible for our family keeping this land which was a part of the plantation where my great-great-grandfather was born.
Donald started a celebration of friends, family and neighbors that we have kept going for over 48 years called "Usufruct." He explained Usufruct as "honoring the fruit of the land without owning the land." We want this idea of Usufruct to be part of our daily life at Donald's View.

A service of the Data Commons Co-op. The project has been supported by Equal Exchange, the Cooperative Charitable Trust, the USDA, and many others - thank you! Tech volunteers over the years include: Benjamin Bradley with support from GAIA Host. Ben Mauer with support from Quilted. Paul Fitzpatrick. Ronin Tech Collective, Brattleboro Tech Collective, Sligo Computer Services. Jason Lemieux. Default map tiles courtesy of MapQuest. Default map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA.