The new Congress is going to be a catastrophe for the environment and for those most dependent on everything from social security, safety and health protections for our food and work places, safety for our personal deposits in banks and financial institutions, and Obamacare to social programs that provide some minimal protections from the worst impact of the competitive marketplace, not only the poor and the powerless, but also most of us in the middle class. So please come to our strategizing conference Dec. 14, or at least send this info to everyone on your Facebook page, please, or if you dont like this kind of stuff, please de-friend yourself from my list! After the 2014 Elections and Facing a Congress determined to dismantle environmental, health and social benefits for middle income Americans and the poor in 2015-2016, it’s critical that ethically sensitive people develop a strategy to: RECLAIM AMERICA CONFERENCE (you are invited) A Town Hall Meeting & Strategy Discussion Sunday December 14, 1 p.m. At the University of San Francisco McLaren Hall (Golden Gate Ave near Roselyn Terrace) Speakers include: GEORGE LAKOFF Prof of Cognitive Science and Linguistics, author of Don’t Think of an Elephant and Moral Politics, Rabbi MICHAEL LERNER Editor of Tikkun, rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue, Author: The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right and Spirit Matters MARIANNE WILLIAMSON Author: Healing the Soul of America, A Return to Love, and Imagine What America Could Be in the 21st Century, MATTHEW FOX Liberation Theologian, Author of Original Blessing, and The Coming of t he Cosmic Christ REBECCA KAPLAN Oakland City Council President, , CAT ZAVIS Attorney, Executive Director, the Network of Spiritual Progressives, and teacher of Empathic Communication Other speakers that day include: Reginald W. Lyles (from Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland former advisor to Assemblyman Sandre Swanson) and liberation theologian Jorge Aquino (of the Theology and Religious Studies Dept. of USF), But the most important person there will be you--and the strategy ideas you bring to this event. Pre-registration necessary at: spiritualprogressives.org/reclaimAmerica Whether you are a secular humanist, militants atheist, or religious person, this is a moment when we all have to realize that we have an obligation to develop strategies to prevent the Right, now in control of the US Congress, from effectively dismantling environmental protections and the social support system for middle class Americans. They can do this by refusing to allocate monies for any of these programs. Every major religious community has a wide variety of injunctions to care for the poor and the powerless, and to care for the earth, so this ethical and spiritual crisis is also a religious crisis. And after Ferguson, with white people all over the country demonstrating by their comments how little they know about the daily life experience of people of color, we should be particularly aware that the Rights program is covertly an anti-people-of-color agenda, since people of color will be a disproportionate part of those that will be suffering as government programs are dismantled or severely crippled by budget cutbacks. Our goal is not a call for money or to back some particular candidates for office. We have to start by recognizing that the liberal and progressive forces, and the ethical and spiritual people in this society, have failed so far to sustain, build upon and expand the open-hearted, caring-for-each-other-and-caring-for the earth consciousness that was the foundation that made possible the New Deal, the Great Society legislation of the 1960s, and the environmental legislation of the 1970s. Not to deny that important advances have been made, particularly in relationship to the status of women, glbtq people, and the upper middle classes of minority communities, we still need to explore where we have missed the boat in not having been more successful in countering the materialism, selfishness, militarism and looking-out-for-number one consciousness that is foundational to the present moment in American history and the willingness of large swaths of the population to either support the politicians who wish to dismantle social programs to protect the environment and the needss of middle income and poor people, or at least to be passive and uninvolved as this is happening. Of course we know about the disproportionate wealth and economic and media power by the 1% and the multinational corporations and the capitulation of people in both major parties to the agenda of the super-rich. But we are not getting together to rehearse how unfair everything is--we know that already. Nor are we writing you to suggest personal repentance, but to invite you to participate in a serious rethinking and strategizing a new direction. Let us explain. Even if Obama suddenly grew a backbone, it wouldnt be sufficient to offset what the ethically-challenged extremists in Congress are planning to do by refusing to fund government services. The political leadership of so much of the liberal and progressive world has been unable to get together to build a coherent alternative to the Rights ascendency. Thats why ordinary people have to develop a strategy for the coming years. If you cant come to this one in Northern California, can you set up a similar one in your area? Some of us in the Network of Spiritual Progressives might be able to participate as speakers, either in person or on a conference call, and we might be able to help you identify some potential allies in your area ot work with you on this task. If you are interested, contact our Executive Director of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, Cat Zavis: [email protected] Would you please help us by asking everyone you know to come to this 6 hour gathering, ----including anyone involved in your Facebook page or in any of your lists, (because people on your lists even if they live far away from the West Coast will have people on their lists who live in northern California) Sunday afternoon Dec. 14th at the McLaren Hall in San Francisco at University of San Francisco on Golden Gate Ave. Cant come? Perhaps youd like to organize a similar event wherever you live? If so, conatct Cat Zavis, executive director of the Network of Spiritual Progressives : [email protected]. We may be able to provide some assistance and some of us might even be able to come to your area. Cant come and cant organize one in your own community? Ok, then, how about making a tax-deductible contribution to tikkun.org/donate to help us continue our work challenging the ethos of materialism and seflishness in our world,wherever these appear, including in all of the major poltical parties, economic institutions and corporations, religious institutions, professional organizations, educational institutions, the media, and the worlds of science and technology. Or send a tax-deductible donation check to Tikkun, 2342 Shattuck Ave, #1200, Berkeley, Ca. 94704. Pre-registration necessary at: spiritualprogressives.org/reclaimAmerica
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:30:55 +0000
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