A co-worker at a former job once described me by saying, "there's no one left of damali."

So what's a radical lefty like me doing participating in capitalism by starting a company?

Yes, I agree that parts of our system will work much better in a socialized form --health care, police, fire, trash and recycling-- but I have always been fascinated by the potential of capitalism --here's why.

I'm not afraid of money. Money has amazing potential --in fact I see it as the greatest 'shape shifter' we have among us today. Though legends tell us of animals’ abilities to shape shift (i.e.: the crow) we can see the power of money to become any object at any time based on anyone's will. This is powerful and something we can embrace in the most positive ways.

An easy example --my neighbor hired a service to cut down the enormous laurel hedge between our properties.  At the end of the day I offered them a tip as they were kind, generous, and very respectful of my home and garden. When I was giving the cash to one of the guys he said, "oh, I’d usually turn this down, but I'd never turn down a beer..." and I said,  "if you won't turn down a beer, don't turn down money --that money can become that beer."

So when I started CROW, I created a company where our customers' money not only transforms into beautiful clothes delivered directly to their doorsteps, but also into jobs for independent women contractors, healthier products for our environment, art that catalyzes social change, and services and resources for the customers themselves. Even further --we are always open to our customers giving suggestions as to what they want us to offer--giving them even more participation in the forms their money takes.

In addition to that, I didn't enter this without reading on capitalism itself. After much research I decided that for CROW we would operate under what I call a "closed loop" capitalism --which means that instead of growing up and out in a straight line the way we envision most businesses, we would consider a triple bottom line of profit-environment-community- so that our success is governed not only by the growth of our profits, but by the impact we have on the world around us.

This gives the money you spend at CROW the greatest impact, and means you can spend money with us and consider it an investment in community and the environment all while getting cool clothes to wear. So, though in some places money may seem like the root of all evil, at CROW it is the start of many, many good things.