Imagine the house that is not divided…the house which can stand strong against the flood…
Imagine a "politically neutral" super-coalition, a Network of individuals and organizations whose focuses include politics and economics, being able to afford quality public schools and universities with quality teachers,… law enforcement and fire protection, highway and bridge construction and maintenance,… Head Start and child nutrition programs, other governmental services that are being cut to the bone,...
Which includes concerns for the well being of our lovely planet, environmental, green energy, global warming, the loss of the last remaining rain forests that give us the oxygen we breathe, organic agriculture not depended on toxic petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides that are poisoning us, resource depletion and the growing world demand for energy, water, land and goods,…
Imagine a coalition of people who don’t understand why we are the only developed nation in the world without quality universal, single payer health care [without huge co-pays, lifetime caps or disallowance of pre-existing conditions – these ways that are the largest cause of bankruptcy, preventive health care and screening, inoculation programs and disease prevention,… why we pay more than any other nation, but are only ranks 37th in quality by the World Health Organization?
People who imagine that we can do better regarding poverty, social and economic justice,…caring for those who cannot care for themselves, the mentally ill...care for those injured in the military, including counseling PTSD,...
People of faith who believe we are called to be the good stewards of the bounty of God's creation and that God instructed them to "Welcome the stranger, for you were once a stranger in a strange land." Or who believe their Lord said to them personally,"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Or who told us to care for the widow and orphan and those who cannot care for themselves? "In so much as ye have done it to the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." People who are spiritual, but not religious or simply moral and believe that as a nation, we could do much better?
People who believe that generosity beats domination as a path to our own security, that programs like the New Global Marshall Plan building rather than destroying can turn our arch-enemies to our friends in a few short years as the Marshall Plan rebuilt war-torn Europe and Asia after World War II,... people who believe that the right kind of domestic and foreign policy is a better investment than arms,[End note 1)] ... that they can lift people out of poverty, who seek immigration policies that work, who are concerned about the effects of business practices on foreign nations,…
People who are unemployed and under-employed at no fault of their own and without a safety net, social security and other crucial programs, business and financial regulatory reform, health and safety, anti-trust, legal and labor issues, consumer protection, peace, civil rights and liberties, gender issues and reproductive rights, church organizations, civic organizations, electoral and legislative goals…. The list goes on...
That, my friends, is a lot of people! It's the majority of Americans. And that is not imagined!
Imagine if people who care deeply about healing our broken world found they could agree on a core issue that affect all of these issues and more,…and a plan to make them happen.
Imagine we found that our hopes and dreams are not communist or un-American or unconstitutional at all, but are rather exactly what our founders imagined however imperfectly. Imagine that we rediscovered that from the Great Depression up to the 1980s we were making great strides on most of these fronts -- i.e. it's been proven historically to work. Imagine that we are the ones who stand up for our flag and the very best of the American vision and calling,…a calling that we deeply want to be,…a vision that still inspires the world even when we fail in so many ways…
Imagine if this core of change included "finding the money" needed for all these programs and services providing for our common needs which the Wall Street brokers with their multi-million dollar bonuses tell us we can't afford while they laugh at us all the way to the(ir) bank. Imagine we stop buying their self-serving vision of "reality." No, if their view defines "realism," then we're not buying realism any more. We are going to have to show them what is real in the end…
Imagine that we could make the fundamental changes we need through a “Network” without giving up or compromising our unique individual or organizational identity and/or concerns, our membership lists or funding sources…or any of those other things which keep us from forming a common cause…
Imagine we could do this mostly through an Internet-based Network without forming yet another separate special interest organization with all the issues of licensing, membership and funding efforts, tax and accounting issues, and other steps necessary to function as an organization…whose purpose may be very important but further divides the attention and resources available to work on these issues…
Imagine we could create this Network virtually without monetary cost….
Imagine that this Network allowed signatories to continue to express their own concerns, in their own way,...
Imagine the Network would allow them to become known and available to others who share their particular concerns…
Imagine we used this Network to realize that we are not alone in this work or in this world and then focus all this energy this realization releases on determining only that issue which affect us all as the necessary starting point for all of our concerns,...
Imagine if we could agree to speak with "one voice" on moving from a world driven by greed and corruption to a world based on caring for each other “block of issues” – thousands of organizations, millions of people who know that only this fundamental change we all agree to will begin to solve these challenges …this fundamental change and nothing less.
Imagine we are the ones,...the ones we've been waiting for.
Imagine we can reach the tipping point to make this happen much easier than we might have believed It only takes securing that last 10% of the vote that tips the election every time. We have this number and far more. A recent Pew Research poll shows that 74% of Republicans, 81% of independents, and 85% of Democrats agree that it's past time for this sort of fundamental change in the way our government works. This is not just imagination! We only need to show a hopeful way on which we can all proceed…
Imagine having the faith to step out on our plan to create, not utopia, but a world that is far kinder and gentler then the one we have now...
Imagine that we could clearly show our representatives that we have the numbers, the organization and the commitment to make these reforms happen with or without them. [That's a message they understand!] Let them know that no amount of money is going to buy our vote any more. No fear, scare tactics or name calling will make us cower. It will only deepen our ardor. In fact, the more money they take in huge campaign contributions, the harder we will fight to replace them -- because taking that money IS the problem. We aren't going to stand for that any more. Not even now while most of it is still legal. We don’t care. Cut it out! Now! We’re tired of it and won’t tolerate it anymore…
Imagine this is an issue that can really grab all those voters we described above,...they are the votes on which elections always turn. Give them real hope, and they'll turn out to vote in even bigger numbers than they did for Obama or any candidate for any office. We're all getting on this team and we’re going to win this one big.
Imagine that these issues tap the young and minorities -- the same people who were largely responsible for Obama's "unimaginable" victory...
Imagine, just imagine…
But imagining is not enough! It needs to become more than just imagining. The catastrophes we see every day won't change as long as selfish interests control the decision making process. There has to be a game plan that we can understand,...a plan that can work and where we can all play a position.
We’ve got the right package of reforms to be enacted at one time,…with one comprehensive piece of legislation,…a package which the public will immediately see and say, "Yes, this is the change we need to begin to turn things around,"… This is what we need to energize the electorate to demand that change until our representatives make it happen. If they don’t, we’ll work and we’ll vote until we have replaced the entire lot of them who are more concerned with their own position of power than giving us the government we elected them to provide. We're calling them into account. Starting right now and going on for as long as it takes.
Approaching such reforms piecemeal will not work. There is a management principle about problem solving -- the question is: if you accomplish an action, will you be at your goal? If not, you have not defined the problem and the action necessary to solve it. Start over. Only fundamental change that takes big money interests out of the political process and fund our government can change that.
Or back to the levy analogy, it doesn’t work to fix just one hole in the levy. You’ve got to fix them all or the water still floods through. The reform package has to stem the entire flood of selfish private interests, and then to say – we will accept nothing less.
We are going to change the way things work.
That is our goal: To create that Network, to define these fundamental goals on which we can agree and which determine how our government conducts its business, to educate the public in support and to take political action to make it happen. And we are going to do this in a way that respects and protects the autonomy of all the participating people and organizations regardless of their own particular issues and beliefs. We will not let the little issues divide us on this most fundamental of issues -- getting big money out of our governmental process once and for all. Will anything less solve the problem? No. It will not get us to our goal, and therefore we defined the goal wrong. Only together can we make this magnitude of change possible. Will you with join us? We're ready to join with you.
If you agree with these goals, please sign our Petition
End notes: 1) If you doubt this because of what you have been told, or if you want to know more about how this kind of aid really works, please read Jeffrey Sachs’ revealing case studies in his book Commmonwealth. He shows how the intelligent investment in clean water, disease prevention, roads and infrastructure has made it possible for whole nations and cultures which were below the subsistence level were able to become self-supporting. The evidence is in. 2) For more on the Global Marshall Plan and what you can do to support it.
Annotated Table of Contents:
"Next: The Problem Why we feel so bad: Because the world is messed up and we don’t know what to do about it.
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