About

I’m Caspar. I’ve been blogging here at iCaspar since July of 2009. Up to now, it’s been a kind of catch-all for just about everything and anything, from what was for dinner, to where we were on vacation, from book and movie reviews, to serious issues like human trafficking.

In July, 2011 my family and I moved from our home of five years. With the move came the opportunity to reassess a lot of things. I started writing as a full-time occupation. And with that change it became apparent to me that, while some of the material that had accumulated here over two years was interesting to a wider audience, there was a lot that was only interesting to a few close family members and friends.

(Don’t get me wrong. I love my family and friends, and I appreciate their support over the last two years. But now it’s time to retool this space for a wider audience. To those who, for whatever reason, are curious about what we had for dinner, I’ve pulled an old idea out of the dustbin for that. You’ll find it at my other resurrected old blog, Caspar World.)

So, what’s this new iCaspar going to be about?

Let me put it this way. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of some amazing movements.

• I’ve worked with survivors of domestic violence, and with people who have been doing ground-breaking stuff on not just intervention, but prevention.
• I’ve had the chance to participate in the fair trade movement, and meet a few of the people who have been responsible for it’s success on the inside.
• I’ve helped take groups of teenagers to the United Nations to study the use of children as soldiers and sex slaves.
• I’ve spent time with all kinds of labor agitators, peacenicks, hippies, envorionmental protestors and children’s advocates.
• I’ve spent time in City Council hearing rooms making a case for low-income housing opportunities, and I’ve spent time in the proverbial “smoke-filled” closed meetings where candidates for office are chosen.

I guess you could say I’ve been a kind of accidental activist. Because I never intended for my life to have unfolded in this way. When I got through with my first year in college I was a physics major. I thought I wanted to be a civil engineer. What I discovered, looking back, is that there are a lot of people, no matter what they do for a “day job,” who end up getting caught up in issues that are bigger than what they planned for.

• Like the homeowner who all of a sudden can’t rely on clean well water because of the hydrofracking operation in the next town.
• Like the mom whose kid gets sick from lead paint on his Thomas the Tank Engine toys.
• Like the people whose jobs are all of a sudden moving to China, or Bangladesh, or Sri Lanka.
• Like the teenager who thinks he might be gay and isn’t sure whether he should tell his parents.
• Like the town in the mountains whose economy is built on skiing, when it stops snowing.
• Like the dad who sees a “No Lot Lizards” bumper sticker on a pickup truck as he’s driving down the highway and wonders what that possibly could be about.
• Like the grandmother who all of a sudden can’t visit her grandchildren because they have gone with their mother to live in a safe house.

The new iCaspar is one accidental activist sharing his experience with other accidental activists in the hope that something I’ve seen or heard or done or picked up along the way can help someone else who’s wondering how to get through it.

Obviously, what I write here is just from my own experience. I’m not claiming to be any better than the next person. But I do hope that together we can help each other and future accidental activists to leave the world a better place than when we found it – and still have time for all the other things we thought we wanted to do in the first place.

Well, that’s my idea. I hope that you’ll find the information helpful, and that you’ll feel free to chime in with your responses, reflections, experiences, and advice whenever you can.

Cheers!

Caspar