Dear friends,
There is need for bright news on the democracy front — and, luckily, there is some. (I'm also working to create some in the background, but I've got nothing to announce yet. Cross your fingers.) So I thought I'd share a bit of it the good stuff I've seen.
The first article is an announcement that the Vermont legislature is planning to become the first state to ban corporate personhood statewide. This is a move in the right direction to balance social power — a topic specifically addressed by the most popular article on the Co-Intelligence Institute website, “Democracy: A Social Power Analysis“, written by my father, John Atlee. (Perhaps you'll get a sense of how my upbringing influenced my choice of career when you read it.)
Vermont Is Gearing Up to Strike a Major Blow to Corporate Personhood, Ban It Statewide
AlterNet by Christopher KetchamJanuary 22, 2011
The second article below is an interview with Frances Moore Lappé, one of my early mentors (see “Living Democracy“) exploring themes in her new book GET A GRIP 2. She invites us to both work wholeheartedly on the issues that concern us AND to work on changing the systems (such as money's influence in politics) that create the problems we are trying to solve.
Organic Connect Magazine Interviews Frances Moore Lappé
The last item is not an article, but a video interview with Joseph McCormick, a visionary leader in the “transpartisan” movement. Joseph was a former right wing militarist candidate for Congress from Georgia who dropped out of politics in disgust, his life in shambles. I met him as he was videoing the Rogue Valley Wisdom Council — which Dynamic Facilitation and Wisdom Council founder Jim Rough and I had inspired in some local radio interviews. Joseph's history and political vision, which I find quite inspiring, are explored in both the videos. Joseph played a significant role in my life in 2004: I attended his first effort to bring together leaders from the left and right, and it was a transformative experience, which I reported in detail in the second-most-popular article on the Co-Intelligence Institute website “A Personally Transformational Encounter of Left and Right” . Joseph has since held many other such gatherings and initiated a number of other democratic innovations, pushing the envelope of transpartisanship.
MISSING
May you find all these informative and inspiring.
Blessings on the Journey.
Coheartedly,
Tom.
Phi Beta Iota: Tom Atlee is the only person or cause that we endorse from this website. We urge one and all to visit his Donations Page and make any contribution at all from $5 upwards. Suggested amount: $25. Vermont is calling the federal Emperor naked. From Hawaii to Vermont, nullification of federal taxes and federal regulations is about to begin. We are not about to see a new actual Constitutional Convention anytime soon, but a virtual Constitutional Convention is in the works and likely to dramatically restructure the power connections between citizens, their money, local to national governments, and corporations. The lack of integrity within the judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court that gave us two stolen Presidential elections and corporate personhood twice over, and within Congress and the Executive, is now clearly understood by the public. Integrity & legitimacy are the foundation for democracy, and we in the US Government have failed to display the first or earn the second. The times, they are a-changing.
