| INTERVIEW |
| Wholeness
In your opinion, what most needs to be redressed to make the country whole again?
The restorative/reparative justice side of this question is for participants to suggest how the needs of the victims of the injustice can be addressed to make them whole again in addition to holding the perpetrators accountable. Reparative justice frameworks address the victims needs being satisfied as well as holding the offender accountable. |
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Internal Organizational Mission
What can we do to develop a decentralized movement of groups that work together for mutual aid and community resiliency?
What can we do to effectively develop our network?
(This will suggest actions such as "consciousness raising activities, leadership development, group facilitation exercises, etc., or anything else that will help to develop us into a viable and effective network)
What resources/skills do we need?
What goals can we set for ourselves?
How do we build an effective network?
Who needs to be represented in this network in order for us to truly say "we are the 99%"?
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Internal Organizational Vision
How will we know we have succeeded as a network?
What is our highest vision for a thriving Evolve Santa Barbara project? |
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External Mission
What do we do to effect change in our local community?
What service/role do we provide/serve our greater local community with?
Example answers to this question will include stuff like: we will feed the homeless, we will occupy homes of people who are being threatened with foreclosure, we will carry out campaigns to hold our elected officials accountable, we will advance 'parallel institutions' (such as co-ops) throughout our community. The goal of these initiatives is so that when the community speaks of our network they do so with positive regard for the work we do in our community as an network/organization. Such as, Evolve SB is so awesome they hold trainings in leadership development that all organizations in SB can participate in and benefit from, or, they're so awesome they feed the homeless every Saturday at their Occupy rally, or, they're so awesome they succeeded in developing community gardens in all the available land in churches throughout our community, etc. |
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External Vision
By serving our community in this way what world are seeking to create? What is our highest vision for our world that we seek to realize by serving our community? What is our vision for the world and what do we do in our community to help realize that global vision?
This question corresponds to our "highest vision" for our network, how will we know we are successful as a network, but asks it at the global level "How will we know we have achieved our vision our creating a parallel society, founded on justice, to supplant the old broken system?" For example, we will have ended world hunger, all wars, ended poverty, our society will practice sustainability in all we do, parallel institutions will hold power, there will be an international of local and national grassroots councils modeled after our local network and working together for mutual aid and resilience on a national and international scale. |
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Core Values
What are our Core Values that we will demonstrate in all we do to fulfill our Mission and Vision?
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| INTERVIEW |
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One: restorative justice
We subsidize motor vehicles at appx 500 billion/year
This has split communities and created forced dependence on private motor vehicles
called "feebate"
instead charge the true cost of driving (equivalent to $10/gallon)
give everyone a transportation allowance - most will use if for transit
tax user rich and tax high consumption
use that to invest in the "green jobs" program that never happened
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Election reform
Take $ out
transparent elections
preferential voting
3 or more parties
reform banking laws
remove perks for bad behaviors
transpartisan
Reach out to as many folks as possible - groups
invite them in to the dialogue in a structured safe environment
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Whole again?
Organism, not organization.
Awareness of our wholeness is what's missing/lost/yet to be discovered
Review Echart's poem "when I was the forest"
What I am doing is to bring awareness of wholeness we are to design with together.
When I Was The Forest, Meister Eckhart
When I was the stream, when I was the forest, when I was still the field, when I was every hoof, foot, fin and wing, when I was the sky itself,
no one ever asked me did I have a purpose, no one ever wondered was there anything I might need, for there was nothing I could not love.
It was when I left all we once were that the agony began, the fear and questions came, and I wept, I wept. And tears I had never known before.
So I returned to the river, I returned to the mountains. I asked for their hand in marriage again, I begged—I begged to wed every object and creature,
and when they accepted, God was ever present in my arms. And He did not say, “Where have you been?”
For then I knew my soul—every soul— has always held Him.
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Energy solutions - develop clean renewable energy, because the wars are about this
Tax changes - the wealthy pay more
Civil liberties - repeat Patriot Act and laws like NDAA, abolish Homeland Security
Amend Constitution - repeal Citizen's United
Repeal War on Terror and War on Drugs
Affordable housing
Mass transit
Audit the Federal Reserve
Stop loaning money to govt with interests - creemissionst
Reduce emisions that cause global warming
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It's not absolutely clear that this country was once whole at some previous time, but today, if we are to become whole, or more whole, there are hundreds or thousands of "external" issues that must be addressed/redressed.
My perspective is -- the first issue we all have to face is our own personal role in creating this wholeness. We need to be shining lights, examples of how to live -- and let justice and balance flow through us as naturally as breath...
If we become living embodiments, our social and political activism will become inspired, and inspiring...
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My first thought: why limit this to this country? Second thought: again, I am not sure it was ever whole. But we acknowledge a sense of loss.
- Sense of community
- Sense of belonging from the beginning of life
- Dignity for each being
- Rights for mother earth
- Everyone's basic needs cared for
- Everyone sharing/caring for each other, but still wllowing for privacy, uniqueness, self-expression
- Economic justice - totally redefining financial system
- Back to meeting people's needs
Community of care for babies, children, elders and everyone in between
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Ending capitalism and transitioning to a participatory democracy
This question sounds like -- what is the root of the problem?
And to that I'd say, capitalism. I'd say that this distribution of wealth and labor causes so mcu of our problems.
How to help?
Educate people; attack capitalism and private property directly, and build alternatives.
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To make the country whole, we must build a framework of communication based on
- respect
- empathy
- integrity
- personal responsibility
all participants must agree to framework to participate
once the framework is in place the stories will forgivenessd forgivenes and transformation can take place
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Provide attractive contexts in which people come together to learn how we are the same, how we are different, and to appreciate them both. Then contexts in which we can work, play, and learn together to live in ways that are restorative.
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