It all started with a little girl who wanted to fix a broken world…

Verdant Square Network is the little leftist news site that keeps fighting. VSN is the creation of Grateful Dread Peace Media, an independent multimedia news and information portal founded by writer, editor, and activist Natalie Davis in 1996 to serve the peace-left community in the public interest. Over the following two decades-plus (of a 40-year mainstream and alt-media broadcasting and print journalism career) we have won honors and earned respect for our enterprise, investigative, and public service reporting, blogging (from our still-missed All Facts & Opinions), interviewing, progressive/LGBTQ+/anti-racism activism, and singular broadcast offerings. Motivated by a dangerously polarized nation in desperate need of people- and planet-centered solutions, we continue working to fix this broken, white-supremacist country and capitalism-strangled world with determination and an always unwavering devotion to truth, facts, humanity, and fairness, plus our own commitment to promoting anti-racism, radical kindness, Revolutionary Love, green living, citizen action, and pacifist socialism within the frame of small-d democracy.

Mission

To educate, inform, challenge, entertain, and inspire by presenting and producing peace-left-green-themed news and culture multimedia content, resource information, and programming in the public interest. 

To amplify voices and views maligned and/or ignored by the corporate media and mainstream society.

To present a relentless education- and history-focused rejection of  white supremacy, theocracy, and inhumanity.

To work against the greed- and fear-based elevation of a status quo that is the product of more than 400 years of ongoing US-mandated and society-enabled oppression.

To spread the ethos of Revolutionary Love.

Right now, we’re maintaining our Mastodon-based Verdant Square Network leftist newswire, Verdant Square MD – DC – VA newswire, and  curated obituary service, Rest in Paradise; developing our cannabis information and community website and Mastodon instance, The CannaClub VS; and preparing for the umpteenth revamp of our nearly 29-year-old 24/7 streaming community service radio station, Verdant Square Radio (soon come). We’ll get there with the help of those who share our principles, see the need, value the services we provide and the work we do, and want to partner in the effort in whatever way they can.   Verdant Square presents aggregated and original news reports and commentary on issues of political, social, and cultural consequence to lefties throughout the US, and by extension, Canada, the UK, and the world. While the 5Ws journalism will be by the book and conform to Associated Press style — though we reject false equivalences and supremacist givens accepted by the MSM — our commentary represents a peace-left but anti-duopoly viewpoint.  

Commenting: Kindness Leads

All are welcome to comment on articles where commenting is permitted (pending registration and moderation) or to contact us, regardless of political or ideological stripe. Only civil responses, however, will see print/air or receive a reply.   And that’s another thing: While we are beyond through with the mandated faux civility, bigot coddling, and inappropriate equivalencies demanded by mainstreamers, centrists, the Unwarranted Default, and a political establishment that does not represent yet seeks to exploit pacifists and leftists, Verdant Square Network will be led by kindness. Though the site is openly leftist and socialist, HERE and on the @VerdantSquare Twitter feed and other social media, we will do our best to treat everyone with respect and empathy.   The philosophy we employ is a tweak on Gandhi: We will say what’s TRUE, what’s INTENDED POSITIVELY, and what NEEDS to be said. There is a corollary: Sometimes snark is needed and a call-out is required. We hope to have fun here as well, when possible and appropriate.

Leftists often fail at self-care: Verdant Square Network also hopes to encourage us all to do better in this vital area of life so that society — once it becomes decent — can thrive and we can as well, both while we’re working for a better future and once we arrive in the Green New World.

Submissions If you are interested in submitting a guest article, artwork, or commentary to Verdant Square Network, we would love to consider it for publication. Send a pitch to our editor, and use SUBMISSION as your subject header.

Republishing and Remixing If you wish to republish original GDPM/VSN material, you may do so under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you wish to republish aggregated material, check the end of the article, which will include a direct link to the source material, where you can find information regarding sharing and republishing. Any questions, check with the original source of the article to ensure that you ethically may reuse and/or remix it.

To remain the little leftist news site that keeps fighting, this independent media news outlet needs YOU to survive and continue its public service mission. Please donate, visit the Verdant Square Shop, and/or join our Patreon.