I was working on the Appalachian Trail in Southern Vermont. I remember that afternoon, as there were no planes in the sky and the sky was beautiful and clear, it was an absolutely gorgeous day in the hills of Southern Vermont. Eventually, it was time to hike out, get back to my truck. And when I hiked out, I didn't get out until maybe it was like Sept. 16th or so. And after my truck, I started driving down the road. And I was almost instantly pulled over by the local sheriff. The sheriff walked up to my door, and kindly asked me to step out of the vehicle. And I complied. And I was, quite honestly, a little nervous. And he asked me if I knew what happened. So he was there to break the news to me, he told me that he always saw my truck parked at the trailhead, and assumed that, you know, I was working on the Appalachian Trail and assumed I did not hear the news, broke the news and broke down in tears. And I tried to be upbeat, and help the sheriff and tell him it's going to be okay. Because we Americans are great people, and we're going to look inward, and we're going to look at the causes of why the Twin Towers were hit. And why the Pentagon was hit. And we're gonna come out of this, a greater country and a greater world, because we're not just going to rush off to war, we're just going to really take a look and look at the injustice. He then sort of chuckled and told me that that was a pipe dream. And the reality is that he was saw - he was a Vietnam vet - the future would be tons of hatred and tons of division, anger towards people of different cultures, especially Muslims around the world, whether they're from the countries there were responsible or not, that there just be a great division, that it would divide our country just like Vietnam. And that we would go into a long war. We both sat there in tears. As you know, time passed. Over the next month or so, and understanding that the drumbeat of war was pounding loud across the nation, there were very few of us who asked to slow down and just take a look and realize we're going into countries that actually did not participate in 9/11. didn't even have countrymen who participated in 9/11. But due to the ignorance in many ways, but especially in geography, that whole Middle East was lumped together. And people felt very justified going and starting to bomb the Middle East. So it was very clear to me that the United States was going to invade the Middle East with a focus on profiting from oil and disassembling the infrastructure that Iraq and other countries had and establishing that infrastructure and giving private industry a crack at that oil. So my form of activism against what I found was injustice was trying to displace petroleum in my personal and professional life. I conceived of a plan to just make my life a little bit simpler, and build a home, a sanctuary, off the grid at home that did not require petroleum, a home that would not use petroleum in its construction, and would not use petroleum after it was constructed. And I was like, Well, I've shouted from the rooftops and it's time to just look inward and move forward with the plan and a vision. It took three months of digging a foundation, two shovels. a foundation that was seven feet deep, 26 feet across by 14 feet. And another three months of shoveling in stone for drainage and hand stacking giant local rocks to build up a foundation above grade. And we were able to get over that first summer, over 350 people to come out and mix the material of clay, sand and straw. Because we weren't going to use power equipment, we're only using hand tools, we weren't using petroleum. So we had a hand crank radio, and play music and our friends are DJs at the local radio station and would give shout outs all the time, during their reggae shows and hip hop shows. And there would be people all across our hillside, mixing the material by foot, which traditionally, in parts of Africa and Middle East, they would mix the materials, those same materials to build their homes. So we had many dance parties, mixed materials, throughout the summer and hand sculpted a house made of clay, sand and straw and off the grid. And during those couple of years without paying rent, and just camping out, saved up enough money to buy a wind turbine and solar panels and fuel the dream of living off the grid, living with purpose. living with intent. So, during that time, we had to figure out how do we move our material if we're not using petroleum? So we started recycling used cooking oil, so we retrofitted diesel vehicles to run on vegetable oil and hauled materials for that project. When that project was done and that home was created, found ourselves ready for what's next. So, you know, fast forward to today, we created Black Bear Biodiesel and we recycled from 600 restaurants across the state. We displace about three-quarters of a million gallons of petroleum each year. And, you know, it all started with that conversation and wanting a better world and knowing that the sheriff was probably right that we might be going in the wrong direction. And I mean, here we are 20 years today, and it's current news, about the mess in Afghanistan and but, you know, stay focused and undeterred to at least create a better world in my bubble, and hopefully it makes an impact with others.

Jim Malloy