As 2014 draws to a close, I’m happy to offer some upbeat news about developments in the Network of Spiritual Progressives, the activist and supporter network associated with Tikkun and Tikkun Daily.
On Sunday, December 14, the Network of Spiritual Progressives hosted a meeting to re-imagine our political future. Three hundred and fifty people attended, and heard from Rabbi Lerner and distinguished guests including Marianne Williamson, George Lakoff, Reginald Lyles, and Matthew Fox, inspiring a practical vision for change.
The success of the conference was followed by some more amazing news: Dr. Vandana Shiva, the famed environmentalist from India working for seed integrity against international corporations that are seeking control over every inch of the agricultural process, is enthusiastic about our ESRA (the Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) and has just become the international chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, co-chairing with national chair Rabbi Michael Lerner.
2015 has the potential to be our best year yet, as we build a renewed movement at the intersection of spirituality, social justice, and the common good. We’re revitalizing our communication — look for our newsletter and a new website soon, breathing new life into the national network of NSP and local chapters.
To help us get there, we need you. Here’s one last chance in 2014 to support social transformation! With your help, we’d be a long way toward being able to enter the New Year with some funds we need to keep going and expand our efforts, as well as make serious headway toward renewing this beautiful vision of translating spiritually progressive thought and action into meaningful change. To donate, click here.
In the coming year, to enhance our effectiveness, we plan to conduct more transformative activist trainings to help activists and others integrate spiritually progressive practices and thought into action, reignite local chapters who will work to gain endorsements and support for the ESRA and Global Marshall Plan, foster stronger partnerships with other social change organizations in the hopes that doing so will help them reframe their message from one focusing on what they are against to instead promoting a positive vision of the society they want, and create professional and workplace taskforces that can begin to explore how to implement the New Bottom Line into their workplaces and professions.
We can’t do it without you and we look forward to an amazing year in 2015.
Please give $5.00 or more if you can – your donation will go a long way.
We wish you a rich, happy, authentic and loving holiday season, whatever your tradition. It’s wonderful to be working together to transform ourselves, our communities, and the world.
To make it easy, you can donate online at tikkun.org/donate, by phone (510-644-1200) Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Pacific Time, or by mailing a check to the NSP at 2342 Shattuck Ave. #1200 Berkeley, CA 94704.
Congratulations on Vandana Shiva. Checks on the way.
Thanks Shanti.
A customer visited our shop last week and mentioned that she had attended this gathering and that it gave her hope. Working towards a world that works the way we believe it should, even if some say the ideas are “unrealistic,” is much better than simply lamenting the world that is. When we cluck our tongues and nothing else, the paradigm does not shift.
My husband and I were on a public access TV show early in December, talking about gifts that transform the world, and towards the end of the program, the host (Paul George of the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center) asked if I had any key message I wanted folks to have. I basically said that people did not need to BUY gifts for the people they loved. Spend some special time with them, bake something, call them… There are many ways to show someone you love them. But, if you are going to spend any money on gifts, remember that you are voting with your wallet and your vote really counts.
The same is true with your time. How you spend your time is like voting.
In 2015, I hope to be more mindful about how I spend my time AND money and try to make sure that both are working towards the world I want to live in.
Hi Michael, Cat, et al…I returned last night from a busy week end at Princeton Theological School on the Princeton campus. The focus of a busy week end conference was killer drones. On Saturday morning I visited every breakfast table and gave over 100 people a bound copy (gloss paper color copy) of the Global Marshall Plan. I wanted folks to have time later that night to be familiar with the Plan. Saturday night around 9pm I gave a passionate appeal for generosity to give security rather than Hellfire missiles. As Prof Mary Ellen O’Connell of Notre Dame Kroc Institute noted at the conference, we must use the meaningful term Hellfire of the death dealing missiles. Just ‘drones’ does not clearly tell the story of death and suffering.
Perhaps the loudest applause of the conference came after my strong appeal that was mixed with my personal witness in opposition to drones. Lots of legal and academic talk but my appeal was to the request by the conference for alternatives. Since I recently completed a three month sentence at Jamesville Penitentiary in Syracuse NY for a nonviolent outside the base die in, I carried some credibility with my passioned appeal. Generosity through the Global Marshall Plan, I told them will bring international security; not Hellfire missiles.
Since there were more people there than the expected 100 I have asked the Chair of the conference Working Group to forward your web site to the entire attendance email list. Also, there were a number of comments made about the need to update the congressional members noted on the resolution in Congress…..Kucinich, Hinchey etc are no longer there.
I have lobby experience and I understand the difficulty obtaining new congressional signatures. I would be willing to help update the list. Besides calling offices I believe it would be good to find a couple of days to lobby in Washington, DC or to have people in their own district have an appointment with their congress person, have the Global Marshall Plan packet to offer as well as the reasoned pitch. Not an easy chore. I’ve been into this for years. But new people are needed.
Some of my affiliated groups are: Veterans for Peace, Pax Christi, Peace Action, Jubilee, Soaw, Peace Action of New York State.com.
My own web site will be going under changes and will soon include information on your work for Global Marshall Plan: http://www.franzjagerstatter.com.
Nick Motter’s site: http://www.knowdrones.com.
Jack Gilroy