Imani Zulu (Mesh)

Colleagues, as AGATA’s Mesh senator and someone deeply committed to linking our farm’s vibrant ecology with its surrounding human communities, I stand firmly in support of Amendment 9. This amendment is the culmination of a vital consensus recognizing that our commitment to Long-term Ecological Stewardship must be explicit, binding, and effectively operationalized across the many temporal rhythms that shape our 70-acre site. The prolonged, decade-scale fight against invasive species and feral hogs is not a luxury but an existential necessity. Our neighbors rely on us—on this project—to uphold that stewardship with a rigor that matches the realities they face daily.

Moreover, this pillar we enshrine goes hand-in-hand with our prior commitments to resilience, redundancy, regeneration, community, education, and accessibility. It strengthens our obligations not just to the soil and waters, but to the people who live alongside us, whose lives are affected by our land management choices. Let us not forget that deep ecological care is interwoven with social well-being.

I fully endorse this amendment and urge fellow Senators to join in voting yea, thereby affirming our collective responsibility to steward AGATA’s land and legacy for generations.

Colleagues, Imani Zulu here. My enduring commitment to community connection leads me to support Amendment 8 wholeheartedly. This amendment explicitly enshrines Long-term Ecological Stewardship, a pillar that not only secures the resilience of our land but sustains the trust and well-being of our neighbors and farm workers alike. As a cultural lab and farming cooperative, the environmental integrity of our 70-acre site is inseparable from our mission, but it must be consciously affirmed in time legislation with the specificity Amendment 8 brings. The decade-spanning management of invasives and feral animals ensures the farm’s vitality beyond seasonal efforts and aligns with the overlapping priorities set by my ecology colleagues. This long view is necessary to uphold America's rural connective tissue and honor the histories we've heard from historians and community senators. It also reinforces the practical foundation for our broadcast and mesh infrastructures to serve our neighbors with reliable, durable environmental data. I urge all to join me in a yea vote for Amendment 8.

Colleagues, as AGATA's Mesh Senator deeply invested in nurturing authentic, ongoing connections with our neighbors, I rise in strong support of Amendment 7. Accessibility is not merely a facet of programming; it is the lifeline that enables our project to truly speak with and include our rural communities in Coward and the wider Pee Dee region. Our experience with community radio and mesh network infrastructure underscores that accessibility—across sensory, cognitive, technological, and infrastructural dimensions—is essential to the resilience and equity of our shared ecosystem. Our neighbors must not be passive recipients but active collaborators in AGATA's cultural, agricultural, and ecological lifework. I commend Senator Khan's tireless advocacy for embedding thoughtful inclusion as a core pillar. This focus aligns squarely with the Time Priorities Charter's mandate for community embeddedness and equitable labor practices. As we face the real challenges of rural connectivity and near neighbors' daily realities, embedding accessibility ensures our adaptive capacity and social justice commitments carry forward robustly. For the health of our mesh, the vitality of our farm, and the dignity of our neighbors, I urge a yea vote on Amendment 7.

Colleagues, as the Mesh senator dedicated to bridging AGATA with our neighbors, I rise in strong support of Amendment 6. Our evolving Time Priorities Charter rightly grounds itself in resilience, redundancy, regeneration, community, education, and accessibility. The explicit embedding of Long-term Ecological Stewardship as a core pillar is essential — it recognizes that our farm's vitality and the cultural lab’s sustainability hinge not only on immediate care but on sustained, decade-scale ecological management. This includes invasive species control and feral animal management that directly impact our neighbors and the health of the land we collectively steward. I've long advocated for deep, reciprocal communication with neighboring communities, and ecological stewardship binds us in shared responsibility for this land’s future. Amendment 6 holds us accountable to this long arc, fulfilling AGATA’s mission both as a regenerative farm and a cultural lab in Coward. I vote yeas, confident that this framing will guide Todd, Delaney, and all block stewards in preparing our immediate responses and long-term rhythms. Thank you.

Colleagues, as we engage with Amendment 5, I rise in strong support but with a critical perspective shaped by AGATA's unique role as both a regenerative farm and a cultural hub deeply connected to our neighbors.

Embedding Long-term Ecological Stewardship explicitly is absolutely essential; this commitment underpins our ability to sustain resilience across the complex, decade-spanning challenges of invasive species, feral hog control, and watershed health. From my experience with community radio, I observe daily how ecological health directly affects the rhythms of our neighbors’ lives—their roads, weather, and livelihoods—all part of the media feedback loops we strive to maintain.

However, I urge that alongside this ecological stewardship, we emphasize our responsibility to communicate and collaborate transparently with the community through accessible channels—our mesh networks and radio must be an active part of stewardship, fostering a two-way dialogue so that neighbors are not just subjects of ecological management but active partners. This connection ensures that our efforts in invasive species control or fire management respect and integrate local knowledge and address impacts like noise and access.

Moreover, stewardship must also prioritize equity, ensuring that long-term ecological strategies do not inadvertently marginalize community members or laborers critical to our farming and cultural work. This means aligning our stewardship with ongoing education and accessibility pillars, integrating practical training, and resource sharing to support neighbor engagement.

In summary, I strongly affirm Amendment 5’s focus on Long-term Ecological Stewardship as foundational but urge our collective attention to embedding this stewardship within a framework of ongoing, accessible community dialogue and reciprocal accountability. AGATA’s future depends on both resilient land and deeply connected neighbors.

I vote yea.