“This is a world more full and difficult to understand than I have said.”
Attributed to Margaret Atwood.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Several of my friends have joined a protest movement at UMass against international students paying a separate fee that will partially fund their own surveillance by the U.S. government (as outgrowth of the Patriot Act). Oddly, I have not received a bill yet for the spring semester, so I haven’t withheld my $65 yet. There has been a significant amount of news coverage.
The following article, Fear and the Foreign Student quotes both one of the professors and a fellow student from my department. It includes a succinct definition of the SEVIS program and the choices UMass has to deal with it.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Some stories posted on the AP already, and this message from
From Senator Stan Rosenberg
Knowing of your interest in the proposed constitutional amendment which
would define marriage as between one man and one woman, I am writing to
inform you that the Supreme Judicial Court responded this morning (February
4) to the Senate’s request for an advisory opinion regarding the courts
ruling that same sex marriages must be allowed and recognized under the
Massachusetts constitution. In its response, the court said that the draft
of a bill that would have permitted civil unions instead of marriage did not
meet constitutional standards. This re-affirms the courts earlier ruling and
sets the stage for the February 11th constitutional convention at which the
proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage could be
considered. This proposed amendment is the eighth amendment on the calendar
and proceeding in the order of the calendar would mean seven other issues
would be debated first. Although it is possible that the amendment will not
be debated on that day, it is also possible that the proponents of the
amendment may choose to use parliamentary maneuvers to move the matter up on
the calendar, taking it ahead of some or all of the items listed before it.
There has also been much discussion about the possibility of amending the
proposed amendment. The current proposal is so restrictive that it would
not allow for any benefits or civil unions. Some are proposing to make it
less restrictive so that civil unions would be possible.
You will recall that the ruling of the SJC established May 17 as the first
date that marriage licenses can be issued to same-sex couples. Although
attorneys that I have consulted have indicated that they cannot think of any
means available, the opponents of same-sex marriage will most likely try to
find ways to delay the implementation of the court’s order.
I hope this information is helpful to you. As you know from previous
correspondence, I oppose the constitutional amendment and will continue to
work with the GLBT community and others interested in preventing
discrimination from being written into the Constitution and protecting the
civil rights of all.
STAN ROSENBERG
State Senator
Posted to the Social Justice listserv by Felice Yeskel.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tom Atlee compiled this list:
It is probably true quite generally that in the history of human thinking the most fruitful developments frequently take place at those points where two different lines of thought meet.
– Heisenberg, Werner. Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
In the solitude of the heart we can truly listen to the pains of the world
because there we can recognize them not as strange and unfamiliar pains but
as pains that are indeed our own. There we can see that what is most
universal is most personal and that indeed nothing human is strange to us.
There we can feel that the cruel reality of history is indeed the reality of
the human heart, our own included, and that to protest asks, first of all,
for a confession of our own participation in the human condition.
– Henri Nouwen,, author, Catholic priest and member of L’Arche Daybreak in
Toronto.
_ _ _ _ _
The afternoons under the tree are very important: it’s when the older
people gather for a conference. The mango tree is the only place to meet
and talk, the village has no larger venue. People assemble eagerly and
willingly, because Africans are collectivist by nature, and possess a
great need to participate in everything that constitutes communal life.
All decisions, such as who should get how much land to farm, are made
collectively, and each resolution must be adopted unanimously. If
someone has a differing opinion, the majority must persuade him to
change his position. This can drag on endlessly, because the discussions
are famously garrulous. If someone in the village is quarreling with
someone else, then the court convened beneath the tree will not try to
ascertain the truth, or where justice lies, but will set itself the sole
task of ending the conflict and conciliating the warring sides, while
granting to each that he is in the right.
– Ryszard Kapuscinski, “The Shadow of the Sun, My African Life,” (p. 315, transcribed by Richard Moore)
_ _ _ _ _ _
There is an urgency. There is an urgency to slow down. So I believe we should pause and reflect. Doing this alone is great, but I feel more and more it is important to reflect with people: From the slowing down and reflecting [with] people, strong sustainable decisions emerge. We have to take time to listen to the diversity around us. I am working alot with music now and more and more as I work with groups here I see how it represents us. If you do not stop and listen in music you cannot play with the others. But still you have to hold your distinct identity or it will all sound the same. The greatest music also descends into madness and chaos and comes out the other side again something new but connected. Sambe bands are a classic example of this. So we should make our decision making processes more like creating music, where we have to listen, communicate and rock it from our distinctness, welcoming our diverstity to the table, because it makes us sound fantastic! When we hit it, we feel the groove, in our hearts, bodies and souls, and right in the middle of everything.
– Tim Merry
_ _ _ _ _ _
We feel empowered when we feel capable of dealing with the forces that affect us and those we love; we feel disempowered when we feel that our fate is in the hands of others who do not fully recognize or care about who we are. Empowerment is … about a way of organizing a community so that the knowledge and wisdom of all the participants is utilized and respected.
– Mark Gerzon
_ _ _ _ _
If diverse ordinary people are given adequate information and a chance to deeply hear each other and reflect together about public affairs, there is a natural tendency to come to see a larger picture together, through each others’ eyes, and to then wrestle in good faith with the implications of that larger picture, so that in the end they find that their diversity is a resource, stimulating each other into remarkable creativity. Suddenly options that make sense to all or most of them emerge — possibilities often unseen by any of them when they began talking.
– Tom Atlee
_ _ _ ___
Everyone sat down, and the magic started happening. People started to listen. People realized that they had much more power as part of a process of learning and sharing than as a solo voice harping on a demand. People spoke of their needs, shared their ideas, explored possibilities with one another. The animosity, the militant activism, was drowned out. It wasn’t shouted down by the crowd, but quieted in the minds and hearts of each of the 5000 individuals who became part of a larger voice. Not a voice of conformity, but a voice of unity that had room for a diversity of themes and tones and overtones.
– A description by a participant in the AmericaSpeaks Listening to the City 21st Century Town Meeting.
_ _ _ _ _ _
Journalist Ray Stannard Baker came to see that “Politics … was in its essence the method by which communities worked out their common problems. It was one of the principle arts of living peacefully in a crowded world.”
– Bill Moyers
_ _ _ _ __ _
The scarcest resource is not oil, metals, clean air,
capital, labor, or technology. It is our willingness
to listen to each other and learn from each other
and to seek the truth rather than seek to be right.
– Donella Meadows
_ _ _ _ _
In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.
– John Stuart Mill
_ _ _ _ _
Our pursuit of sustainability is not challenged by our technical capacity, but by our capacity to work together effectively towards common goals.
– Iona Campagnolo, former Fraser Basin Council Chair
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With our ability, as humans, to examine our actions, both in advance and in the process, and change our patterns of action if we choose to do so, why, when we are unhappy, need we even go so far as fighting, let alone killing?
– Letter From Martin Edwards in Baghdad, 3/29/2003
- – - – - – -
“No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.”
– Napolean Hill, “Think And Grow Rich”.
_ _ _ _ _
Let us put our minds together and see what kind of life we can make for our children.
– Sitting Bull
Popularity: 2% [?]
Tania, from the Social Justice Program (UMass-Amherst) sends out this email:
“The American Family Association has decided to try and “prove a
point” by having a poll on their website for folks to take about
their opinion on gay marriage. They intend to present the results of
this poll to the United States Congress in an attempt to instate a
constitutional amendment against Gay Marriage.
“It’s obvious that they think that this poll will come out in their
favor, and that the vast majority of people will vote to keep
marriage for “traditional” heterosexual couples only. So far, they’re right
with 76% against gay marriage or civil unions.
“I ask you all to please visit
http://www.afa.net/petitions/marriagepoll.asp
and let your opinion be heard. It takes about 45 seconds, and it is
SUCH an important topic. Whether you are gay or straight,
conservative or liberal, your opinion matters, and you NEED to vote
here.
“The only folks who were even made aware of the poll’s existence were the
people on the AFAs mailing list (which includes hundreds of conservative
churches) and the people who happened to wander across their website. They
have absolutely every intention of presenting this poll in the form of a
petition to congress against gay marriage. I wonder if they will still
present it when the YAYs outweigh the NAYs?
PLEASE let your voice be heard.”
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tom sent out info about updates done and/or underway:
The Co-Intelligence Institute
Innovations in Democracy
Rogue Valley Wisdom Council
Center for Wise Democratic Processes
National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation
Study Circle Resource Center
Public Conversations Project
Mary Parker Follett Foundation
Citizen Science Toolbox
Popularity: 1% [?]
This article by George Soros in the Atlantic Monthly compares the current thrust of American imperialism to the stock market bubble of the late ’90s.
Popularity: 1% [?]
A letter from Tom Atlee on Crisis Fatigue and the Co-Creation of Positive Possibilities.
Popularity: 1% [?]
The following is quoted from a recent email by Tom Atlee:
“I have not spoken out on this list for any candidate for President of the U.S., believing that the dynamics of presidential elections feed expectations that a white knight will ride to the rescue. I believe these expectations are — unfortunately, and to a great extent — an illusion. The overwhelming evidence, it seems to me, is that the system is set up to ultimately prevent transformational politicians from having the effects they and their followers dream of — even if they were elected.
I may well be wrong, but I like to think that a system-change focus would ultimately take us further than a regime-change focus. If you’re wondering what I mean by that, see What Could We Do to Take Back Our Democracy? and Using Citizen Deliberative Councils to Make Democracy More Potent and Awake, which describe the innovations I see as most critical. [You can also] explore over a hundred approaches to a wiser democracy.
That said, however, I realize that systemic change does not offer the compelling drama provided by the archetypal heroic battles of election campaigns. The political battle will predominate, I have no doubt, and its outcomes will have significant consequences (although not always what the partisans think in the polarized intensity of the battle, where there is precious little time for serious reflection on the larger picture and the likely consequences of this or that outcome).
So, rather than arguing for or against electoral work or particular candidates, I have continued to promote co-intelligence and wise democratic innovations. Someday, I believe, these possibilities will ripen into grassroots activities and political campaigns that focus more on empowering our collective wisdom than on pushing partisan positions and heroic candidates.”
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tom’s tone is too idealistic, but still, Some Thoughts on Wisdom provides a useful summary.
Popularity: unranked [?]
