OMNI
FROM 4TH
OF JULY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO 4TH OF JULY INTERDEPENDENCE DAY, INTERNATIONAL
DAY OF INTERDEPENDENCE, NEWSLETTER #4, SEPTEMBER 12/July 4, 2020.
COMPILED BY
Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
INTERDEPENDENCE
DAY IS SEPTEMBER 12. In the essay that
follows, Rabbi Lerner makes a case for replacing our 4th of July
Independence Day with Interdependence Day.
Already OMNI’s separate
newsletters on 4th of July and September 12 have expressed a desire
for a better society; both have rejected the hypocrisy of the US economic obsession
with freedom disconnected from equality, cooperation, empathy, and compassion that
has led to our present inequalities and so many US invasions and occupations. So starting this year Independence Day
Newsletters are replaced by Interdependence Day, leading off with Rabbi Lerner’s
excellent essay and attached poems and songs, followed by OMNI’s three earlier
Interdependence Newsletters, and including immediately highly appropriate
comments by Douglass and King sent to me this morning by Bob Billig.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of
July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the
year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To
him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your
national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and
heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of
liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and
thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere
bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up
crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the
earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the
United States, at this very hour.
Frederick
Douglass, 1852.
In a sense we've come to our
nation's Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the
magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American
was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well
as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on
this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of
honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad
check; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds.”
Martin
Luther King, 1962
Rabbi
Michael Lerner
Tikkun
Institute, Beyt Tikkun
- The Prophetic
Jewish, Interfaith & Secular Voice to Heal and Transform the World, Donate,
Subscribe Join our NSP Activist Community, About Tikkun, Community Activism ,
A
Guide for How Progressives Can Transform July 4th into Interdependence Day By
Rabbi Michael Lerner, June 29, 2020.
https://www.tikkun.org/a-guide-for-how-progressives-can-transform-july-4th-into-interdependence-day
[See poems and
songs at end. -D]
On July 4
hundreds of millions of Americans will celebrate all that is good in the
history of the United States of America.
Even though progressives know there is much to criticize about America
(including the use of the word “America” as synonymous with the United States,
thereby ignoring Canada, Mexico, Central and South America) there is also much
to celebrate.
This is
particularly important to do when we are seeking to get a majority of Americans
to back major structural changes not only in how the police brutalize,
selectively target for arrest, and, almost daily somewhere in the U.S., murder
African Americans and other people of color, and also homeless or extremely
poor people, but also in the economic structures of our society that create
huge disparities between the top wealth holders and all the rest of us. I’ve
found in my research as director of the Institute
for Labor and Mental Health that many people whose economic interests are
best served by liberal and progressive causes sometimes vote against those
interests because they feel that we look down upon them, their culture, their
religion and their intelligence–and suspect us of never seeing any good in
America. That’s why I propose we
celebrate July 4th, but transform it from a celebration of “independence” and
make it a celebration of our interdependence with all people on the planet and
with the earth.
Immediate
caution: I do not suggest that we play down the horrors of American racism,
classism, sexism, homophobia, antiSemitism, etc. Acknowledging them must be an
important part of our celebration, as we affirm that Black Lives Matter to us.
I propose that every celebration of interdependence day read aloud the article “How To Overcome Racism,” many of its
points taken from the program of Black Lives Matter. Our celebration also needs
a place to grieve all that has gone wrong (beginning with America’s genocide of
Native Americans and enslavement of African Americans).
And if we want
to actually win the level of support among our fellow Americans that would make
it possible for us to pass constitutional amendments that could actually change
the oppressive racist and classist institutions not just in a few progressives
states, but for all of the U.S., then our mourning all the evil entrenched in
America’s economic and racist institutions needs to be coupled with an
affirmation of what is good, and a conscious attempt to bring our neighbors
into this kind of celebration of July 4th.
We need your
support to bring the kind of analyses and information Tikkun provides.
Click here to
make a tax-deductible contribution. [I
could not get Lerner’s essay to copy with its links. –D]
That’s why we
want to urge you to turn this holiday into something more meaningful than just
a picnic watching bombs bursting in air during the evening fireworks.
[Suggested
Actions]
Bring your
friends together at a Zoom based picnic or luncheon or dinner, or in person
please keep your masks on and keep 6 foot distance from each other. Take turns reading the following and
singing the songs at the end—and help
us re-focus this celebration from one that reinforces the militaristic version
of American “exceptionalism” by replacing that with a commitment to the
wellbeing of everyone else on the planet and the wellbeing of the planet
itself. Turn this day into a celebration of our inter-dependence with all
others on the planet, and inter-dependence with the planet itself.
Some of the
distortions in the U.S. Constitution eventually got somewhat repaired in the
ensuing two hundred plus years, though many remain and are an ingredient in
American life. We can celebrate the instinct toward democracy, even as we
witness how the anti-democratic, violent,
and oppressive inclinations of some are now being championed and
advanced by the U.S. President. As many have said in the past, democracy is the
best possible political system if you can keep it, but we want to add that even
democratic forms can serve oppressive purposes if enough people get misled into
believing that others deserve to be victimized. Only a full democratization of our economic lives coupled with a
sustained multi-generational transformation of consciousness away from every
form of “othering” of those with less power can make democracy survive.
There have been advances, most recently for women and for gays and lesbians,
that can be built upon and extended. It is important to see what advances have
been made so that we do not go into despair when the current set of
demonstrations against racism does not immediately produce the kinds of changes
that our call to overcome racism calls for.
The truth is,
though, that much of what we love about America was created by ordinary
citizens. Often they encountered resistance from those in power, their messages
distorted by the media that has mostly been controlled by the rich and
powerful, their activists sometimes beaten, jailed or even killed, their
employment put in danger, their families suffering. On some occasions sometimes
for struggles that did not threaten the class structure but only sought to
widen the opportunities for people to compete in the marketplace, they found
allies in some of the powerful who
joined in the struggle. But we do so with caution. We saw last week how a
majority of self-described “moderates” in the House of Representatives
Democratic majority managed to outvote the progressives in the Democratic
party and endorse a bill to send $4.5 billion to the Administration for border
aid, voting down the attempt by close to a hundred Democratic Party
progressives who attempted to put strict restrictions on how that money would
be used, including ending the incarceration of children under horrendous and
inhumane conditions. The Bible warns us “Do not trust in the powerful”—and so
we want to celebrate our democracy but reject those who always put being
“realistic” above being principled even while congratulating those in both
houses of Congress who rejected the Senate Republican “aid” package.
At this
celebration, let’s give thanks for the ordinary and extraordinary Americans
whose struggles brought about those changes.
WE ARE
GRATEFUL:
To the waves of
immigrants from all parts of the world who struggled to accept each other and
find a place in this country {raise fork}
To the escaped
slaves and their allies, particularly Quakers, evangelical Christians, and
freedom-loving secularists, who build the underground railroad and helped
countless people to freedom {raise fork}
To the
coalitions of religious and secular
people–women and men, black and white–who built popular support for the
emancipation of the slaves {raise fork}
To the African
Americans and allies who went to prison, lost their livelihoods, and were
savagely beaten in the struggle for civil rights {raise fork}
To the working
people who championed protections like the eight-hour day, minimum wage,
workers’ compensation, and the right to organize, often at great personal cost
to them {raise fork}
To the
immigrants who fought against “nativist” tendencies and refused to close the
borders of this country to new groups of immigrants, and who continue to
support a policy of “welcoming the stranger” just as this country opened its
gates to their ancestors when they were the immigrants and strangers
To the women
who risked family, job security, and their own constructed identities to shift
our collective consciousness about men and women and raise awareness of the
effects of patriarchy {raise fork}
To gays and
lesbians who fought and won the right to marry and who continue to struggle for
full rights in housing, employment, and other arenas.
To
transgendered people who are beginning a similar battle for respect, dignity,
and equal rights
To all of those
who risk scorn and violence and often lose their families to lead the struggle
against homophobia and for the acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual,
transgendered, and queer people
To those who
continue to work for equal access for people with disabilities
To those who
advocate for sensitivity to animals and refuse to kill them
To all of the
innovators and artists who have brought so much of beauty and usefulness into
our lives
To those who
fought to extend democratic principles not only in politics but also in the
workplace and in the economy
To those who
developed innovations in science and technology, in literature and art, in
music and dance, in film and in computer science, in medical and communication
technologies, and in methods to protect ourselves from the destructive impacts
of some of these new technologies.
To those who
developed psychological insights and increased our ability to be sensitive to
our impact on others.
To those who
developed ecological awareness and are now building strategies to replace a
system that privileges growth and consumption over preservation of the life
support system of the planet
To those who
brought the insights of their own particular religious or spiritual traditions
which emphasized love and caring for others and generosity towards those who
had been impoverished—and sought to turn those ideas not only into a call for
personal charity but also into a mission to transform our economic and
political systems in ways that would reflect those values.
To those who
fought for peace and non-violence, and who helped stop many wars
[Invite other
attendees to offer “toasts” to other groups who have contributed to the things
that are good about America. You can also mix up the reading with some of the
songs at the end of this article—note that some of the words have been changed
to make them more fitting for our celebration]. . . . MORE
Celebrating
Global Interdependence
Part of the
cherished myth of this country is the notion of the rugged individualist who
makes his own way—the rugged individualist is almost always male in this
myth—without anyone else’s help. This image was never true. Even on the
frontier, people relied on their neighbors, on the animals that provided their
food, and later on those who built and operated the railroads, bringing
supplies to frontier towns. Today it is even less possible to be a rugged
individualist. We can’t drive on a road, operate an appliance, run water, or
make a phone call without benefiting from the work of countless other human
beings, some here in the United States and some in other parts of the world.
With the advent
of a deeper understanding of how our global environment works, and with the
increasing integration of the economies of all countries into a global economy,
we’ve come to see that our well-being is linked to the well-being of everyone
else on the planet. Our well-being depends on their well-being, and their
well-being depends on our well-being. We are all fundamentally interdependent.
And we’ve learned the same thing about Nature—when we pour poisons into the
air, the ground, or the oceans, those toxics eventually come back to hurt us
and other people around the world, just as when they do the same it ends up
hurting us and not just people who live near them. Yet the ideal of
individualism persists, and we’re encouraged to act as if we need no one else,
no community support.
Despite the
persistence of this individualist mindset, our impact on others and theirs on
us is huge, and manifests not only in personal and cultural terms but also in
relationship to economic and political conditions. Today, close to 3 billion people
(half the people in the world) live on less than $2 a day, and close to half of
that number live on one dollar a day. Huge numbers of people are starving or
very very hungry even as we are reading this and preparing for a good meal and
playful celebration. Is it any wonder that some of these people, and those who
care about them (even if they themselves are not poor), are very angry at the
way the world’s politics and economics get set up? We don’t think it is good or legitimate when
their anger gets expressed in violent ways. But we also have to take some
responsibility for benefiting from a world order that is so unfair and so
cruel. According to United Nations figures, somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000
children under the age of five will die today, and again tomorrow, and again
the next day, because they don’t have the food, and basic medical supplies,
that could have kept them alive. That’s over 12 million children a year—the
equivalent of two Holocausts per year!
We in the
(interfaith and secular-humanist-and-atheist-welcoming NSP–Network
of Spiritual Progressives want to change all this, both by changing the
terms of global trade agreements so that they work on behalf of the poor and
the hungry, and by establishing (first in the US, and then in all the advanced
industrial societies) a Global and
Domestic Marshall Plan that would allocate between 1-2% of our Gross
Domestic Product each year for the next twenty years toward the goal of ending
once and for all both domestic and global poverty, homelessness, inadequate
education, and inadequate health care. On this celebration of our
Inter-dependence, we want to reaffirm our shared commitment to these goals and
commit to working with people all around the world, and building the Network of
Spiritual Progressives on best ways to achieve these goals.
***
The key to our
alternative, what we call the Strategy of Generosity, is our commitment to
reestablish trust and hope among the peoples of the world so that we might
begin to reflect and act coherently on ending world poverty in our lifetimes
and saving the global environment from the almost certain destruction it faces
unless we reverse our policies and give the highest priority to protecting the
earth. Instead of asking “what serves the interests of American economic and
political geo-power best?” we want a foreign policy that asks “What best serves
all the people on this planet and best serves the survival of the planet
itself?”
That is a
question that very few people in politics today are willing to raise in that
form, fearing that they will not be elected or re-elected because they are
charged with not being patriotic enough (even though it is obvious to almost
anyone who understands the inter-connectedness of all people on the planet that
the best interests of America and the best interests of our children and
grandchildren is best served by worrying about the best interests of everyone
else, and the best interests of the planet rather than to frame things in terms
that reinforce the nationalist fervors of the past and lead us toward
selfishness and inability to think globally).
A world divided
by nationalist struggles and vain fantasies of dominating the resources of the
earth on behalf of one or a few of the more powerful nations must be recognized
as increasingly insane and self-destructive for the human race. Yet very many
decent and moral people, having been talked into accepting the current
construction of politics as “the given” within which one must work, end up
participating in this insanity and calling it “realistic.” It is an urgent
necessity to break through that set of assumptions about what is and what is
not realistic–so that people can look at the Strategy of Generosity not through
the frame of existing inside-the-beltway assumptions or the “common sense”
thrown at us daily by a corporate-dominated media, but rather through the frame
of what the human race and the planet earth urgently need in order to stop the
insane people who have power at the moment from continuing their disastrous
path.
It is a huge
delusion to imagine that the insanity of framing our foreign policy only in
terms of narrowly conceived American interests is somehow confined to one
political party or one set of candidates for office–it is a shared insanity
that must be challenged in every part of our political thinking, and it is just
as likely to be articulated by people with whom we agree on many other issues
as by people who are overtly reactionary or overtly ultra-nationalistic.
Building that
Strategy of Generosity requires that we reconnect with the human capacity to
recognize the other as an embodiment of the sacred, or, in secular language, as
fundamentally valuable for who they are and not as only instrumentally valuable
for what they can do for us. This pre-reflective, pre-nationalist connection
between people must become the center of our campaign for peace and
environmental sanity. The bonds of caring among human beings can and must be
fostered by our policies.
So although we
can emphasize that it is in our own interests as humans to recognize that our
individual and societal well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else
on the planet, and sometimes will frame part of the argument for the Global
Marshall Plan in those terms, www.tikkun.org, we have to emphasize as well that
our commitment to the Global Marshall Plan is not only because it could save
the planet from nuclear and conventional wars and jump-start the process of
global environmental planning, but also because it reflects our deepest truth:
the Unity of All Being and our commitment to care for each other as momentary
embodiments of the God energy (or in secular terms, the goodness and love and
generosity) of the Universe at its current stage of evolutionary development.
We wish to
establish a New Bottom Line to foster an ethos of caring and love for others
because it is ethically and spiritually right to do so, not only because it is
instrumentally the only sane policy for saving the planet and saving the lives
of our children and grandchildren.
Ironically,
what turns out to be the most ethical path is also the most practical and
self-interested from the standpoint of saving the human race and protecting the
planet that sustains our lives.
Our Global
Marshall Plan can’t work unless it is perceived by others as being more than a
new, clever attempt to dominate the world through “aid” or some new way to open
up the gates of their society for further penetration by Western corporate
interests. It can only be perceived as a genuine attempt to change the terms of
global interaction if the support for the Global Marshall Plan is transparently
built around our ethical vision of world in which generosity and caring for
others is valued because it is right, not only because it is smart and a savvy
way to protect the United States.
Do not take
these ideas and try to “win” with them by abandoning the core vision and only
achieving support for some of the details. Our plan will only work if it is
supported for the right reasons, with the global common good as the primary
goal. In that sense, the Strategy of Generosity is really the core, and the
Global Marshall Plan is only a particular way to actualize that new approach to
human relations (which is actually the approach that our religious and spiritual
and secular ethical traditions have been teaching for many millennia).
Our plan is not
about throwing money at the poor of the world—it includes a way to help the
most destitute on the planet that does not allow for corrupt governments to
siphon off funds for corrupt elites. Our plan (read it at www.tikkun.org/gmp,
creates a non-governmental mechanism for including the peoples of the world in
shaping how the monies and support should be delivered and allocated and
mechanism of accountability, reworking all international trade agreements so
that they no longer favor the advanced industrial societies but instead help in
the economic well-being of poorer societies as well, rejecting the current
proposed TPP, providing hands-on opportunities so that the peoples of the world
including the US get directly involved in helping each other and not just in
donating monies. Our Global and Domestic Marshall Plan involves building
capacities of people around the world, skills training (including training in
nonviolent communication and respect for ethnic and religious diversity, family
and parental support, stress reduction, child and elderly care, emergency
health techniques, diet and exercise, and caring for others who are in need of
help). It involves retraining of the armies of nations around the world to
become experts in ecologically sensitive construction and agriculture and
health care. It includes using market mechanisms where appropriate and
mini-finance of local projects.
We must also
insist that the plan be implemented with a clear message of humility and
modesty. Although the West has superior technology and material success, we do
not equate that with superior moral or cultural wisdom. On the contrary, our
approach must reflect a deep humility and a spirit of repentance for the ways
in which Western dominance of the planet has been accompanied by wars,
environmental degradation, and a growing materialism and selfishness reflected
in a Western-dominated global culture.
Finally, we
must not talk about “development” using a Western notion that progress is
defined as how many consumer goods you have or how much wealth a society
accumulates. We want to eliminate hunger, homelessness, poverty, inadequate
education, inadequate health care—but we don’t need a Western model on what
this might look like. In fact, the planet cannot sustain a re-creation in the
rest of the world of irresponsible forms of industrialization and consumption
that characterized the West (in both capitalist and allegedly socialist or
communist countries).
So, we need a
fundamental rethinking of how to organize societies in ways that are
sustainable and ethically coherent—and that will require the Western societies
to make major changes, rather than preaching environmentalism to the rest of
the world while living in environmentally destructive ways ourselves and
benefiting from trade arrangements that have impoverished the rest of the
world.
The key is
humility. We have much to learn from the peoples of the world, their cultures,
their spiritual and intellectual heritage, their ways of dealing with human
relationships. The West’s superior technology and material success has not
brought with it a superior ethical or spiritual wisdom. There is much to learn
from societies that from a material standpoint are “under-developed” but from a
spiritual standpoint may have within the teachers and cultures that are far
more humanly sensitive than our own.
***
The Global Marshall Plan is the first step
toward providing a sense of mutual trust that will allow for the next step
needed by humanity in the 21st century: a global plan for how to allocate the
world’s resources and regulate what is put into the environment by individuals
and corporations. We cannot save the planet from ecological destruction if we are
not willing to develop a coherent rational plan and then use it to guide our
use of the resources of the planet. Such
a global plan will not be workable until the peoples of the world truly
understand their interdependence. So, our celebration of Inter-dependence Day is an important part of the process of
building that new consciousness. For that reason, we need to ask each other now
to make a pledge to bring more people next year into this celebration.
Yet our
interdependence with the world goes deeper than that. Every human being on the
planet is valuable, created in the image of God, fundamentally deserving of
love, caring, kindness and generosity. We know that there is a huge cultural
and intellectual richness in the variety of cultures, religions, spiritual
practices, music, literature and shared wisdom of the societies that make up
our world.
On this
Interdependence day, we not only commit to helping improve the material
conditions of the rest of the world, but also to learning from the rest of the
world. We approach this task in a spirit of humility, aware that we in the
United States have sometimes appeared to the rest of the world as a big bully
and not as a society genuinely interested in sharing its cultural and
intellectual and material gifts or in learning from others about their own
particular cultural and spiritual heritages. The impression of arrogance is
particularly intense at this historical moment when the war in Iraq and the
attempts by the US to manipulate other countries is so visible to many of the
people on our planet, but it will be a problem even after we stop the war in
Iraq.
We want to
communicate to the peoples of the world our own deep sorrow and repentance at
the ways that our wonderful country has taken wrong turns in its foreign
policy, and the ways that it has acted with arrogance and insensitivity to the
needs of others, and supported an economic system whose insensitivity to the
needs of the environment and its preaching of “me-firstism” and looking at
everyone with a “what’s in it for me?” consciousness has already done immense
damage.
[Sing here
songs of other cultures and bring their poetry and fiction and spiritual
practices as well, or go around the table sharing aspects of other cultures
that you find inspiring.]
We are happy to
celebrate this Interdependence Day on Independence Day for the U.S.
Some of us wish
to invoke God’s blessing on our country, and will do so now. But before we go
there, we also wish to invoke God’s blessings on all people on our planet and
on the planet itself.
We know that
nationalist chauvinism, thinking that we are or can be better than everyone
else, the manic need to be “number one,” can lead us into wars and destructive
behavior. That it has become part of the national discourse, and this year is
taking the form of fear or hatred of Muslims and Mexicans, pains our heart. We
will not let our Muslim, Mexican, or undocumented refuges in the U.S. or
elsewhere become isolated and demeaned—part of our task as Americans is to
defend all those who are subject to irrational hatred or are used to advance
the political, economic or social interests of opportunists and haters. Instead, we want to bless everyone on the
planet, to celebrate with everyone.
So we rejoice
in the people of this country, to rejoice with them as we celebrate all that is
beautiful and good in this country, and at the same time we affirm our deep
connection to all people on this planet and invoke God’s blessing on all of us,
together, and pray that we soon will see a triumph of a new spirit of kindness,
generosity, love, caring for others, ecological sensitivity, and celebration with joy, awe and wonder at
all the good that surrounds us and keeps us alive. This is our Interdependence
Day—the day we affirm our deep dependence on and yearning for the well being of
everyone on our planet and the well being of the planet itself.
Written by Rabbi Michel Lerner, Editor of Tikkun magazine and chair of
the interfaith and secular humanist-and-atheist welcoming Network of Spiritual Progressives.
Rabbi Lerner invites anyone who agrees with this vision presented above to join
or make a tax-deductible contribution to the Network of Spiritual Progressives
at www.tikkun.org/donate. If you prefer making a donation directly, call 510
644 1200 9:30 am – 1:30 pm Pacific daylight time, or by sending a check to
Tikkun at 2342 Shattuck Ave #1200, Berkeley, Ca. 94704.
Songs
for July 4—the
Tikkun/Network of Spiritual Progressives Version
America the
Beautiful (Tikkun’s version)
O beautiful for
spacious skies for amber waves of grain
For purple
mountains majesties above the fruited plain
America America
God shed Her grace on thee
And crown thy
good with sisterhood from sea to shining sea
O beautiful for
pilgrim’s feet whose search for freedom led
To murder of
Native tribes and enslaving Africans,
America America
let justice & equality reign,
Repent past
sins, give reparations too, save the environment from pain.
O beautiful for
working folk who forged the wealth we see
In farm and
mill, in home & school, unsung in history
America America
may race nor sex nor creed
No more divide,
but side by side, transform the world, made free
Imagine
(Tikkun version)
Imagine there’s
all goodness It’s easy if you try
No Hell below
us Above us only sky.
Imagine all the
people…………Living for today …
Imagine there’s
no countries….. It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill
or die for And no oppression
too
Imagine all the
people Living life in
peace …
You, you may
say I am a dreamer But I’m not the
only one
I hope someday
you’ll join us And the world
will be as one.
Imagine no
possessions I wonder if you
can
No need for
greed or hunger A sisterhood of man
Imagine all the
people Sharing all the world …
You, you may
say I am a dreamer But I’m not the
only one
I hope someday
you’ll join us And the world
will be as one..
Imagine love is
flowing No scarcity
of care,
Holiness surrounds
us The sacred
everywhere
Imagine awe and
wonder Replacing
greed and fear
You may say
we’re all dreamers, But we’re not
the only ones
TIKKUN and
Spirit soaring And the
world will live as one!
We
shall overcome
We shall
overcome someday
Oh, deep in my
heart I know that I do believe that we shall overcome some day.
We’ll walk hand
in hand….
Blacks and
whites together, gays and straights together…..
Israelis and
Palestinians, Muslims Jews and Christians….
We will not
despair, we are not alone, Spirit is unfolding through us…oh deep in my heart,
I know that I do believe, love and justice shall prevail.
This land is your land,
this land is my land
From [the]
California to the [Staten] New York Island,
From the
Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,
[God blessed
America for me.]
As I went
walking that ribbon of highway
And saw above
me that endless skyway,
And saw below
me the golden valley, I said:
This land was
made for you and me.
Was a high wall
there that tried to stop me
A sign was
painted said: Private Property,
But on the back
side it didn’t say nothing —
That side was
made for you and me.
One bright
sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief
Office I saw my people —
As they stood
hungry, I stood there wondering if
This land was
made for you and me.
Ode
Yavoe
Ode yavoe
shalom aleynu, ode yavoe shalom aleynu, ode yavoe shalom aleynu, ve’al
kulam. Shalom, aleynu ve’al kol ha/olam
Salaam Shalom
I Ain’t Marching Anymore
By Phil Ochs
D G C D
Oh I marched to
the battle of New Orleans
G C D
At the end of
the early British war
G C
The young land
started growing
G
The young blood
started flowing C
Am D
But I ain’t
marchin’ anymore
For I’ve killed
my share of Indians In a thousand
different fights
I was there at
the Little Big Horn I heard many men lying
I saw many more
dying But I ain’t marchin’ anymore
It’s always the
old to lead us to the war
C Am D
It’s always the
young to fall
Now look at all
we’ve won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me is it
worth it all
For I stole
California from the Mexican land Fought
in the bloody Civil War
Yes I even
killed my brother And so many others
And I ain’t
marchin’ anymore
For I marched
to the battles of the German trench
In a war that
was bound to end all wars
Oh I must have
killed a million men And now they want me back again
But I ain’t marchin’
anymore
(chorus)
For I flew the
final mission in the Japanese sky
Set off the
mighty mushroom roar When I saw the cities burning
I knew that I
was learning That I ain’t marchin’
anymore
Now the labor
leader’s screamin’ when they close the missile plants,
United Fruit
screams at the Cuban shore, Call it “Peace” or call it “Treason,”
Call it “Love”
or call it “Reason,” But I ain’t
marchin’ any more.
The
New Internationale
Arise ye
prisoners of starvation, arise ye wretched of the earth
For justice
calls for liberation, a grand new world in birth
No more racism
or sexism shall bind us
Throw
homophobia out the door.
The earth we
save from destruction
We give
priority to the poor.
Tis the final
conflict, let God’s spirit fill this place
The
international working class shall free the human race
Tis the moment
always ready to rebuild the world with love.
And in the
place of violence we honor the peaceful dove.
Let There Be
Peace on Earth
Let there be
peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
Let there be
peace on Earth,
The peace that
was meant to be.
With God our
Creator, we’re one family.
Let us walk
with each other, in perfect harmony.
Let peace begin
with me, let this be the moment now.
With ev’ry step
I take, let this be my solemn vow:
To take each
moment and live each moment
in peace
eternally.
Let there be
Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.
The Times They
are a Changing
Come gather
’round people
Wherever you
roam
And admit that
the waters
Around you have
grown
And accept it
that soon
You’ll be
drenched to the bone.
If your time to
you
Is worth savin’
Then you better
start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink
like a stone
For the times
they are a-changin’.
Come writers
and critics
Who prophesize
with your pen
And keep your
eyes wide
The chance
won’t come again
And don’t speak
too soon
For the wheel’s
still in spin
And there’s no
tellin’ who
That it’s
namin’.
For the loser
now
Will be later
to win
For the times
they are a-changin’.
Come senators,
congressmen
Please heed the
call
Don’t stand in
the doorway
Don’t block up
the hall
For he that
gets hurt
Will be he who
has stalled
There’s a
battle outside
And it is
ragin’.
It’ll soon
shake your windows
And rattle your
walls
For the times
they are a-changin’.
Come mothers
and fathers
Throughout the
land
And don’t
criticize
What you can’t
understand
Your sons and
your daughters
Are beyond your
command
Your old road
is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out
of the new one
If you can’t
lend your hand
For the times
they are a-changin’.
The line it is
drawn
The curse it is
cast
The slow one
now
Will later be
fast
As the present
now
Will later be
pas
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first
one now
Will later be
last
For the times
they are a-changin’.
There but for Fortune
by Phil Ochs
Intro: G Cm G
Cm G Cm
G Cm G Cm
Show me a
prison, show me a jail,
G Em Am D
Show me a
prisoner whose face has gone pale
Em C Am
And I’ll show
you a young man with so many reasons why
Bm G Am D
And there but
for fortune, may go you or I
Show me the
alley, show me the train,
Show me a hobo
who sleeps out in the rain,
And I’ll show
you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for
fortune, may go you or go I — you and I.
Show me the
whiskey stains on the floor,
Show me the
dunken man as he stumbles out the door,
And I’ll show
you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for
fortune, may go you or go I — you and I.
Show me the
famine, show me the frail
Eyes with no
future that show how we failed
And I’ll show
you the children with so many reasons why
There but for
fortune, go you or I.
Show me the
country where bombs had to fall,
Show me the
ruins of buildings once so tall,
And I’ll show
you a young land with so many reasons why
There but for
fortune, go you or go I — you and I.You and I,There but for fortune, go you or
go I — you and I.
NSP Song:
NSP, Join with
me, as we transform the world’s reality,
Love and
kindness, radical amazement, peace and generosity (2)
Save the planet
from environmental crisis, stop wars , torture and poverty,
Let our voices
cry out that we have no doubt that love and kindness will triumph, you will see
Our Network of
Spiritual Progressives affirms science and spirit both!
Domination
replaced by love, gentleness placed above the world of power and of might!
It’s time to
end poverty and hunger, around the world and in the U.S. too.
We have enough
to share, with humility and care, we care one with all humanity—it’s true!
Don’t let them
tell you to “be realistic” in a world full of wars and poverty.
Only
fundamental change can prevent a world deranged from destroying us and all the
planet too!
The selfishness
and greed that surround us lead many to despair that things can change,
Yet we know
that people yearn for a world that can turn to love, peace and generosity.
Peace Song
LOE YISAH GOY
EL GOY CHEREVE LOE YIL-MEH-DOO ODE MIL-CHA-MAH
Let everyone
neath her vine and fig tree live in peace and unafraid
And into ploughshares
beat their swords nations shall learn war no more.
I’m going to
lay down my sword and spear Down by the Riverside, Study war no more!
I aint gonna
study war no more (6)
A SHARED BLESSING AFTER
THE MEAL HAS BEEN FINISHED
You shall eat,
and be satisfied, and then you shall bless (x2) ve’achalta ve’savata
uvey’rachta
We ate when we
were hungry and now we’re satisfied
We thank the
source of blessing for all that S/He provides
Hunger is a
yearning in body and soul
Earth, air,
fire, water, and spirit makes us whole…
Giving and
receiving we open up our hands
From seedtime
through harvest, we’re partners with the land…
We share in a
vision of wholeness and release
Where every
child is nourished and we all live in peace
Loving for the
stranger, peace and justice too.
So all the
goodness in our lives is shared with others too.
Mindless
consumption threatens our planet earth
To a world of
environmental justice we shall give birth
Transformation
is our goal, loving is our way,
Humility, joy
and gratitude, thank Goddess, every day
END INTERDEPENDENCE
DAY JULY 4, 2020
OMNI
INTERNATIONAL
DAY OF INTERDEPENDENCE,INTERDEPENDENCE DAY NEWSLETTER #3 SEPTEMBER 12, 2014.
OMNI NATIONAL
DAYS PROJECT, COMPILED BY Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace
www.civworld.org
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:
http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/ Here is the link to the
Index: http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/
OMNI’S
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT
The
Interdependence Movement
SEE: UNITED NATIONS, CITIZENS WITHOUT BORDERS,
INDEPENDENCE DAY, NATIONALISM, COOPERATION,
GLOBAL
IS LOCAL, LOCAL GLOBAL
“Conflicts
in our age have become both local and global, blurring the distinction between
the two. We can no longer speak of local
and national conflicts without considering their international implications,
nor can we ignore the impact of global trends and relations on local
issues.” Ibrahim Kalin, “Islam and
Peace,” in Crescent and Dove, ed. by
Qamar-ul Huda (USIP, 2010, p. 30).
OMNI
“As
our hearts open to deeper understanding, our circle of compassion naturally
enlarges and spontaneously begins to include more and more ‘others’—not just
our own tribe, sect, nation, or race, but all human beings, and not just
humans, but other mammals, and birds, fish, forests, and the whole beautifully
interwoven tapestry of living, pulsing creation. All beings.
All of us.” Will Tuttle, The World Peace Diet, p. 293.
Contents of #1 2011
Interdependence
Day in Los Angeles
Global Movement
2011
Contents #2
September 12, 2012
Interdependence
Day Los Angeles 2012
Global
Declaration of Interdependence
New York City
2011
Film NYC 2011
Scranton 2011
Contents #3
September 12, 2014
AFSC, World
Without Walls
Majid, We Are All Moors
Tuttle, World Peace Diet
J. William
Fulbright, on Nationalism
Toward Peace
and Justice, October 2013
[World without
walls and low-intensity warfare. From AFSC.
I missed this in 2013, but its powerful argument is just as applicable
in 2014. --Dick]
|
James,
[MEXICO AND USA Pacific Ocean , bisecting a
sloping mountainside in the desert. It marks the arbitrary line that divides
what once were interconnected communities, an imposed boundary between “us” on
the American side and “them”—everyone to the south.
That fence embodies an approach to immigration that relies on military-style enforcement, an approach that has created a human rights disaster along the U.S./Mexico border. Under the immigration policy reform proposals Congress is considering, the border now stands to become one of the most militarized borders in the world.
The American Friends Service Committee is hosting “Boots on the Border,” an hour-long discussion on border militarization, on Oct. 30. I hope you will tune in to learn more about these proposals for so-called “border security” that put at risk humane immigration reform, and our democracy itself.
Constructing barriers between people in the name of “security” ignores the reality of the global community—that our fates as individuals, nations, and the world are interdependent.
Using violence to enforce those arbitrary lines does more to threaten our security by further driving people apart. As with shows of military force at the border, drone strikes and threats of war in any part of the world create new enemies, making our country less safe, not safer.
The new issue of Quaker Action explores how, from Somalia to the West Bank, the U.S. could become a powerful force for healing a broken world, if we and other major powers choose to invest in shared well-being instead of national competition.
I hope that as you read the stories of young Somalis striving to make a living and repair ties between neighboring towns, you, too, will see how––when given the chance––youth can harness their creativity and energy to assert themselves, using the power of nonviolence to rebuild their communities that have lived so long in the shadow of violent conflict.
That fence embodies an approach to immigration that relies on military-style enforcement, an approach that has created a human rights disaster along the U.S./Mexico border. Under the immigration policy reform proposals Congress is considering, the border now stands to become one of the most militarized borders in the world.
The American Friends Service Committee is hosting “Boots on the Border,” an hour-long discussion on border militarization, on Oct. 30. I hope you will tune in to learn more about these proposals for so-called “border security” that put at risk humane immigration reform, and our democracy itself.
Constructing barriers between people in the name of “security” ignores the reality of the global community—that our fates as individuals, nations, and the world are interdependent.
Using violence to enforce those arbitrary lines does more to threaten our security by further driving people apart. As with shows of military force at the border, drone strikes and threats of war in any part of the world create new enemies, making our country less safe, not safer.
The new issue of Quaker Action explores how, from Somalia to the West Bank, the U.S. could become a powerful force for healing a broken world, if we and other major powers choose to invest in shared well-being instead of national competition.
I hope that as you read the stories of young Somalis striving to make a living and repair ties between neighboring towns, you, too, will see how––when given the chance––youth can harness their creativity and energy to assert themselves, using the power of nonviolence to rebuild their communities that have lived so long in the shadow of violent conflict.
In
Peace,Shan Cretin, General Secretary
WE ARE
ALL MOORS
Muslim Media Review
The goals of
the Muslim Media Review are to highlight the books, audio and video programs
from which Muslims in North American can benefit and provide information on how
people can acquire them.
Monday,
October 11, 2010
Review:
We Are All Moors by Anouar Majid
We
Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades against Muslims and Other Minorities
by Anouar Majid is a
must-read for all immigrants and civil rights activists in Europe and North America .
I've previously reviewed A Call for Heresy: Why Dissent is Vital to Islam and America by Professor Anouar. I also have his book, Freedom and Orthodoxy: Islam and Difference in the Post-Andalusian Age, which I now have renewed impetus to read and review.
We Are All Moors is organized into an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion. The introduction lays out the thesis that the Iberian Peninsula's unified kingdoms of Aragon and Castile began the modern era of the nation-state with the policy of religious and ethnic purification and that the archetype Moors can represent groups all around Europe andNorth America
which governments have viewed as obstacles to consolidation of the purified
policy.
Chapter 1 examines the case of the Muslims and Jews inSpain Iberian Peninsula were subject to the
state's sanctions. I also did not know that the Muslims were not expelled in
1492, but rather they persevered in the Iberian Peninsula
openly for decades and secretly for longer and in the fears of the state
for centuries.
Chapter 2, entitled "New World Moors," narrates stories of Muslims and those mistaken for Muslims in theAmericas United States
Chapter 3, "The Muslim Jews," shows how the Othering process developed in theIberian Peninsula provided
the tools for the Othering of Europe's other significan religious minority,
Jews. Moreover, leading Jews of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
often asserted a Muslim identity or affiliation as they were asserting Jews'
rights in Europe . In fact, Dr. Anouar writes:
I've previously reviewed A Call for Heresy: Why Dissent is Vital to Islam and America by Professor Anouar. I also have his book, Freedom and Orthodoxy: Islam and Difference in the Post-Andalusian Age, which I now have renewed impetus to read and review.
We Are All Moors is organized into an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion. The introduction lays out the thesis that the Iberian Peninsula's unified kingdoms of Aragon and Castile began the modern era of the nation-state with the policy of religious and ethnic purification and that the archetype Moors can represent groups all around Europe and
Chapter 1 examines the case of the Muslims and Jews in
Chapter 2, entitled "New World Moors," narrates stories of Muslims and those mistaken for Muslims in the
Chapter 3, "The Muslim Jews," shows how the Othering process developed in the
If
[contemporary conflicting Jews and Muslims] were to bracket off the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict as a serious but, in the end, political problem and explore the
history and bonds they share, perhaps enough goodwill could be generated to
help Israelis and Palestinians and other aggrieved Muslims work out a solution.
At
the very least, I hope this chapter will convince Muslims to refrain from
reproducing inane European anti-semItic rhetoric.
Chapter 4 is, in my mind, the most important chapter of the book for a generalU.S. Iberian Peninsula discussed in the
introduction and Chapter 1.
This whole sad story is only lightened by the resilience of the "Moors" of each age, whose presence each successive wave of persecution fails to erase. Dr. Anouar concludes by relating several instances of acceptance of the "Moor" and the increasing realization that globalization is making the idea of Inquisitorial purity less and less tenable. TheUnited States
Chapter 4 is, in my mind, the most important chapter of the book for a general
This whole sad story is only lightened by the resilience of the "Moors" of each age, whose presence each successive wave of persecution fails to erase. Dr. Anouar concludes by relating several instances of acceptance of the "Moor" and the increasing realization that globalization is making the idea of Inquisitorial purity less and less tenable. The
Should
we make a conscious effort to attain a state of irreversible mestizaje, there is no better
group than the Mexicans to lead the way. It is not insignificant that it was a
Mexican intellectual who coined the expression "cosmic race" early in
the twentieth century. As ... Gregory
Rodriguez has shown ..., although Mexicans are the "largest immigrant
group in the history of the United
States Mexico
Dr.
Anouar movingly concludes:
It
is far more sensible to start preparing for a new golden age when every human
being on earth and every cultural tradition will be embraced with the love and
care now accorded to any species threatened with extinction.
Lastly,
the book has 26 pages of notes and 26 pages of index to facilitate review and
further research. The
University of Minnesota Press is to be congratulated for including
these materials.
|
An idea whose time has come...
“Love is understanding...”
  Dr. Will Tuttle, author of The World Peace Diet, is a pianist, composer, educator, and recipient of the Courage of Conscience Award. A former Zen monk, his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley focused on educating intuition and altruism. He presents ongoing events promoting peace through compassion for all life. More... |
The World Peace Diet
Eating For Spiritual Health And Social Harmony
By Will Tuttle, Ph.D.
Trade paperback, 350 pages, $22.00
Published by Lantern Books, No trees killed! - 100% post-consumer recycled paper
Signed by author & includes free CD by author,
when ordered from this website. Also includes "Intuitive Cooking" by Madeleine Tuttle.  WPD Facilitator Training Program -- New self-paced WPD course - 8-week online training in becoming a World Peace Diet Facilitator. Also 4-week WPD Mastery course. Find out more
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The missing book that illuminates the hidden core of our
culture and helps us understand...
The World Peace Diet, which became a #1 Amazon
best-seller in March, 2010, offers a compelling and liberating new
understanding of our food and our culture. It has been called one of the most
important books of the 21st century: the foundation of a new society based on
the truth of the interconnectedness of
all life. It is the first book to make explicit the invisible connections
between our culture, our food, and the source of our broad range of
problems—and the way to a positive transformation in our individual and
collective lives.
The World Peace Diet is an award-winning book. If you want to understand the big picture of our culture and why we have the unyielding dilemmas we face, and how we can solve them, this book is for you.
The World Peace Diet lists for $22. When you
order from this website, your book is only $20, and will be signed by the
author, and will include a copy of Living in Harmony With All Life,
a 75-minute CD discourse by Dr. Tuttle on some of the main ideas in The
World Peace Diet, with musical interludes. It will also
include a free copy of Madeleine's “Intuitive Cooking.” Click here to
order a printed copy of The World Peace Diet and have it
shipped to your door, with the Living in Harmony With All Life CD and
"Intuitive Cooking."
Click here to download a complimentary mp3 sound file of Living in Harmony With All Life, the 75-minute discourse by Dr. Tuttle on The World Peace Diet and/or a PDF file of Madeleine's "Intuitive Cooking," or the book.
J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT ON
NATIONALISM
Dislike of hyper-nationalism
is a central theme in the books of J. W. Fulbright.
OLD MYTHS AND NEW REALITIES.
1964.
“Nationalism. . .is the
most powerful single force in the world politics of the twentieth century,
more powerful than communism or democracy or any other system of ideas about
social organization.
It is also the most dangerous. Dividing communities against one another,
it has become a universal force at precisely the time in history when
technology has made the world a single unit in the physical
sense—interdependent for economic, political, and cultural purposes and
profoundly interdependent for survival in the nuclear age “ [and age of
global warming and climate change he would add today –D]. (p. 140).
FIND AN ESSAY ON
FULBRIGHT V. NATIONALISM
|
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END INTERDEPENDENCE DAY 2013
Sent to web
site
OMNI
INTERDEPENDENCE DAY NEWSLETTER #2 SEPTEMBER 12, 2012. OMNI
NATIONAL DAYS PROJECT, COMPILED BY Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace
www.civworld.org
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:
http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/ Here is the link to the Index: http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/
OMNI’S
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT
The
Interdependence Movement
SEE: UNITED NATIONS, CITIZENS WITHOUT BORDERS
Contents of #1 2011
Interdependence
Day in Los Angeles
Global Movement
2011
Contents #2 September
12, 2012
Interdependence
Day Los Angeles 2012
Global
Declaration of Interdependence
New York City
2011
Film NYC 2011
Scranton 2011
The Interdependence
Movement 2012 info@interdependencemovement.org
via uark.edu
to Dick
CITIZENS
WITHOUT BORDERS
INTERDEPENDENCE
SYMPOSIUM TOMMORROW - SEPTEMBER 8
On Saturday,
September 8, an Interdependence Symposium will be held at the Robert F. Kennedy
Community Schools in the Cocoanut Grove Theater from 1:00 - 6:30 pm. Titled
"Culture, Justice and the Arts in the Age of Interdependence", and in
collaboration with Prof. Nicholas Cull of USC's Center for Public Diplomacy and
Dean Travis Preston of CalArts School of Theater, this symposium will include
leading filmmakers, academics and public intellectuals, as well as a number of
film screenings. Participants include LA Deputy Mayor Aileen Adams, Director of
the International Festival of Arts and Ideas Mary Lou Aleskie, Interdependence
Movement founder Benjamin Barber, SDS founder and activist Tom Hayden,
German-American Institute Director Jakob Köllhofer, Yolanda Moses of
UC-Riverside, Mexican playwright Alejandro Pelayo-Rangel, Civil Rights activist
and attorney Connie Rice, filmmaker and founder of the Webby Awards Tiffany
Shlain, Director of the Annenberg Innovation Lab Prof. Jonathan Taplin, and
many more.
In addition to
musical performances and a short film from Dance Camera West, this event will
also feature the world premiere of the film
"Engage," directed by Tiffany Shlain as part of the Let It Ripple
short film series.
This event is
FREE and open to the public. To ensure your place, please register by emailing
RSVP@interdependencemovement.org
INTERDEPENDENCE
WEEKEND CONTINUES ON SEPTEMBER 9
On Sunday,
September 9, following afternoon events with Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) in Lafayette Park
with youth performances and film screenings from 1:00 - 3:00 pm, an Interdependence Day Festival and Concert
will be held at the Levitt Pavilion MacArthur
Park , Los Angeles
These events
are FREE and open to the public. More information on the Levitt Pavilion
MacArthur Park
INTERDEPENDENCE
WEEKEND LOS ANGELES SPONSORS
www.InterdependenceMovement.org
NEW CONTACT
INFORMATION FOR CIVWORLD
CivWorld at
CPCS
The Graduate Center
+1 (212)
817-2012
info@interdependencemovement.org
www.InterdependenceMovement.org
Dr. Benjamin R.
Barber
Senior Research
Scholar, Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society
The Graduate Center ,
The City University
of New York
Founder and
President, The Interdependence Movement
BBarber@gc.cuny.edu
www.BenjaminBarber.org
Harry Merritt
Executive
Manager, Interdependence Movement
Executive
Assistant to Dr. Benjamin R. Barber
HMerritt@gc.cuny.edu
+1 (212)
817-2012
alternate phone
+1 (212) 247-5433
Daniel London
Research
Coordinator, CivWorld at CPCS
daniel@interdependencemovement.org
Copyright ©
2012 The Interdependence Movement, All rights reserved.
You are
receiving this email because you signed the Declaration of Interdependence or
another list from CivWorld or the Interdependence Movement.
The
Interdependence Movement
interdependencemovement.org/iday.php
INTERDEPENDENCE DAY In a
world where global interdependence is not simply an aspiration of idealists,
but a brute fact of the forces that bind us ...
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interdependencemovement.org/iday-2011.php
INTERDEPENDENCE DAY IX -
New York City
FILM
interdependencemovement.org/
On September 12, 2011, the short film
"A Declaration of Interdependence" premiered in front of a live
audience at Interdependence Day IX
in New York City
interdependencedaynepa.org/
Interdependence Day
2012. Interdependence Day
September 12, 2012. The 2012 Interdependence Day
Award will be. presented to Jeanne Bovard ...
http://interdependencemovement.org/iday.php
END INTERDEPENDENCE DAY NEWSLETTER #2 September 12, 2012
INTERDEPENDENCE DAY NEWSLETTER #1 SEPTEMBER 12, 2011.
OMNI NATIONAL DAYS PROJECT, COMPILED BY Dick Bennett for a Culture
of Peace
www.civworld.org
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:
http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/ Here is the link to the
Index: http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/
See
Independence Day July 4, increasingly called Interdependence Day
OMNI’S
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT
The
Interdependence Movement
CITIZENS
WITHOUT BORDERS
FROM
INDEPENDENCE
As the United States
On Sunday,
September 9th, CivWorld http://www.interdependencemovement.org/ and Levitt LA celebrate Interdependence Day
Los Angeles in multicultural MacArthur
Park MacArthur
Park
This concert
will be preceded on Saturday, September 8th by "The Movies, Cultural
Communication and the Art of Interdependence", a symposium hosted by Prof.
Nicholas Cull of USC's Masters Program in Public Diplomacy and Dean Travis
Preston of CalArts School of Theater, to be held at Robert F. Kennedy Community
Schools in the Cocoanut Grove Auditorium. On Monday, September 10th, a closing
ceremonial event will be held at LA City Hall with Mayor Villaraigosa and
Deputy Mayor Aileen Adams, where the Declaration of Interdependence will be
signed and the prestigious Interdependence Prize and Interdependence Film Award
will be presented.
While the main
events are concentrated in LA, other celebrations will be held in Singapore , Melbourne New
York , Berlin , Istanbul ,
Brussels , Mexico
City, Casablanca , Paris ,
Rome , and Philadelphia
HOW YOU CAN
HELP MAKE THIS POSSIBLE
Making
Interdependence Day a global reality involves the work of a dedicated network
of volunteers and funders. No amount is too small, and your tax-deductible
donations will help sustain our efforts to build interdependent consciousness
and advocate for practical global governance solutions worldwide. DONATE HERE
(be sure to select “CivWorld” from the drop-down box)
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2012 The Interdependence Movement, All rights reserved.
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INTERDEPENDENCE
DAY
In a world
where global interdependence is not simply an aspiration of idealists, but a
brute fact of the forces that bind us together— global warming, financial
capital, AIDS, telecommunications, crime, migration, and terrorism—many people
still think in narrow, insular terms.
Reality is
global, but consciousness too often remains local — constrained by town and
nation.
In the year
2000, a small group of scholars, civic and political leaders, and artists from
a dozen nations met to design a program that might help raise consciousness
around the realities and possibilities of interdependence. Their efforts were
given impetus by the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and the group agreed
to create a project that would :
> Make
September 12, the day following the memorial of 9/11, an international
celebration of interdependence “Interdependence Day”
> Draw up a
“Declaration of Interdependence”, making clear that both liberty and security
required cooperation among peoples and nations and could no longer be secured
by sovereign nations working unilaterally;
> Develop a
Civic Interdependence Curriculum that would make interdependence a central
concept in Civics and Social Studies programs in middle and high schools in as
many schools around the world as possible.
The
Declaration
of Interdependence
We the
people of the world do herewith declare our interdependence as individuals and
members of distinct communities and nations. We do pledge ourselves citizens of one CivWorld, civic, civil and civilized.
Without prejudice to the goods and interests of our national and regional
identities, we recognize our responsibilities to the common goods and liberties
of humankind as a whole.
We do
therefore pledge to work both directly and through the nations and communities
of which we are also citizens:
To guarantee justice and equality for all by establishing on a firm basis the
human rights of every person on the planet, ensuring that the least among us may
enjoy the same liberties as the prominent and the powerful;
To forge a
safe and sustainable global environment for all - which is the condition of
human survival -- at a cost to peoples based on their current share in the
world's wealth;
To offer
children, our common human future, special attention and protection in
distributing our common goods, above all those upon which health and education
depend;
To
establish democratic forms of global civil and legal governance through which
our common rights can be secured and our common ends realized;
and
To foster
democratic policies and institutions expressing and protecting our human
commonality;
and at the
same time,
To nurture free
spaces in which our distinctive religious, ethnic and cultural identities may flourish
and our equally worthy lives may be lived in dignity, protected from political,
economic and cultural hegemony of every kind.
CITIZENS WITHOUT BORDERS
AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM INTERDEPENDENCE
MOVEMENT FOUNDER BENJAMIN BARBER
I am very pleased to announce that I
have been invited to join the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the Graduate Center Graduate Center Fifth Avenue 365 Fifth Ave 35th Street
I look forward to this new collaboration
with my friend and professional colleague -- Center Director and Professor of
History Kathleen McCarthy -- as well as with the many colleagues in the
Political Science, Sociology, and History departments at the Graduate Center
The new Executive Manager of the
Interdependence Movement and my Executive Assistant, Bill Trub (who is replacing Harry Merritt), will be moving with me,
as will our research coordinator Daniel London. Harry will continue part time
as our media and web manager, and Deirdra Stockmann will continue as my
personal research assistant. We look forward to continuing our work under the
generous oversight of our Executive Committee chairperson Jacqueline Z. Davis
(Executive Director of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center
At a moment in history when bickering
parties, parochial nations and selfish private interests are putting democracy
and justice at risk, I feel privileged to be a colleague at the Center on
Philanthropy and Civil Society, and lucky to be part of our growing
Interdependence Movement.
-Benjamin
END
INTERDEPENDENCE DAY NEWSLETTER #1, SEPTEMBER 12, 2011
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