More gift suggestions for the holidays

Consider the environmental cost of imported goods before you buy. (Did you know that most products are now flown overseas, rather than shipped in freighters?)

Google “union made USA goods” for a list of items made by sisters and brothers whose employers haven’t run away and who negotiate with their workers.

Always bring a cloth bag or two or an old-fashioned market basket with you to schlep your goods and save paper/plastic. It raises other shoppers’ consciousness at the same time, too.

Make as many of your gifts as possible from stuff you have around the house: wine cork bulletin boards; tin can luminarias; collages or calendars using fabulous, courageous, inspiring photos, cartoons and headlines from your favorite magazine or newspaper. (Like from People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo, of course; then you could give a gift sub!)

Original poems, stories, songs, performances of any type are gifts, too.

Give the gift of time shared with friends or family by arranging a potluck-everybody-dress-up-in-the-best-of-their-old-clothes dinner or reserve a night or two at a public lands lodge or green bed and breakfast; take a train to get there instead of driving.