OMNI
FROM 4THOF JULY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO 4TH OF JULY INTERDEPENDENCE DAY, INTERNATIONAL DAY OF INTERDEPENDENCE, NEWSLETTER #4, SEPTEMBER 12/July 4, 2020.
COMPILED BY Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
INTERDEPENDENCE DAY IS SEPTEMBER 12. In the essay that follows, Rabbi Lerner makes a case for replacing our 4th of July Independence Day with Interdependence Day. Already OMNI’s separate newsletters on 4th of July and September 12 have expressed a desire for a better society; both have rejected the hypocrisy of the US economic obsession with freedom disconnected from equality, cooperation, empathy, and compassion that has led to our present inequalities and so many US invasions and occupations. So starting this year Independence Day Newsletters are replaced by Interdependence Day, leading off with Rabbi Lerner’s excellent essay and attached poems and songs, followed by OMNI’s three earlier Interdependence Newsletters, and including immediately highly appropriate comments by Douglass and King sent to me this morning by Bob Billig.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.
Frederick Douglass, 1852.
In a sense we've come to our nation's Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds.”
Martin Luther King, 1962
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Tikkun Institute, Beyt Tikkun
- The Prophetic Jewish, Interfaith & Secular Voice to Heal and Transform the World, Donate, Subscribe Join our NSP Activist Community, About Tikkun, Community Activism ,
A Guide for How Progressives Can Transform July 4th into Interdependence Day By Rabbi Michael Lerner, June 29, 2020.https://www.tikkun.org/a-guide-for-how-progressives-can-transform-july-4th-into-interdependence-day
[See poems and songs at end. -D]
On July 4 hundreds of millions of Americans will celebrate all that is good in the history of the United States of America. Even though progressives know there is much to criticize about America (including the use of the word “America” as synonymous with the United States, thereby ignoring Canada, Mexico, Central and South America) there is also much to celebrate.
This is particularly important to do when we are seeking to get a majority of Americans to back major structural changes not only in how the police brutalize, selectively target for arrest, and, almost daily somewhere in the U.S., murder African Americans and other people of color, and also homeless or extremely poor people, but also in the economic structures of our society that create huge disparities between the top wealth holders and all the rest of us. I’ve found in my research as director of the Institute for Labor and Mental Health that many people whose economic interests are best served by liberal and progressive causes sometimes vote against those interests because they feel that we look down upon them, their culture, their religion and their intelligence–and suspect us of never seeing any good in America. That’s why I propose we celebrate July 4th, but transform it from a celebration of “independence” and make it a celebration of our interdependence with all people on the planet and with the earth.
Immediate caution: I do not suggest that we play down the horrors of American racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, antiSemitism, etc. Acknowledging them must be an important part of our celebration, as we affirm that Black Lives Matter to us. I propose that every celebration of interdependence day read aloud the article “How To Overcome Racism,” many of its points taken from the program of Black Lives Matter. Our celebration also needs a place to grieve all that has gone wrong (beginning with America’s genocide of Native Americans and enslavement of African Americans).
And if we want to actually win the level of support among our fellow Americans that would make it possible for us to pass constitutional amendments that could actually change the oppressive racist and classist institutions not just in a few progressives states, but for all of the U.S., then our mourning all the evil entrenched in America’s economic and racist institutions needs to be coupled with an affirmation of what is good, and a conscious attempt to bring our neighbors into this kind of celebration of July 4th.
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Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. [I could not get Lerner’s essay to copy with its links. –D]
That’s why we want to urge you to turn this holiday into something more meaningful than just a picnic watching bombs bursting in air during the evening fireworks.
[Suggested Actions]
Bring your friends together at a Zoom based picnic or luncheon or dinner, or in person please keep your masks on and keep 6 foot distance from each other. Take turns reading the following and singing the songs at the end—and help us re-focus this celebration from one that reinforces the militaristic version of American “exceptionalism” by replacing that with a commitment to the wellbeing of everyone else on the planet and the wellbeing of the planet itself. Turn this day into a celebration of our inter-dependence with all others on the planet, and inter-dependence with the planet itself.
Some of the distortions in the U.S. Constitution eventually got somewhat repaired in the ensuing two hundred plus years, though many remain and are an ingredient in American life. We can celebrate the instinct toward democracy, even as we witness how the anti-democratic, violent, and oppressive inclinations of some are now being championed and advanced by the U.S. President. As many have said in the past, democracy is the best possible political system if you can keep it, but we want to add that even democratic forms can serve oppressive purposes if enough people get misled into believing that others deserve to be victimized. Only a full democratization of our economic lives coupled with a sustained multi-generational transformation of consciousness away from every form of “othering” of those with less power can make democracy survive.There have been advances, most recently for women and for gays and lesbians, that can be built upon and extended. It is important to see what advances have been made so that we do not go into despair when the current set of demonstrations against racism does not immediately produce the kinds of changes that our call to overcome racism calls for.
The truth is, though, that much of what we love about America was created by ordinary citizens. Often they encountered resistance from those in power, their messages distorted by the media that has mostly been controlled by the rich and powerful, their activists sometimes beaten, jailed or even killed, their employment put in danger, their families suffering. On some occasions sometimes for struggles that did not threaten the class structure but only sought to widen the opportunities for people to compete in the marketplace, they found allies in some of the powerful who joined in the struggle. But we do so with caution. We saw last week how a majority of self-described “moderates” in the House ofRepresentatives Democratic majority managed to outvote the progressives in the Democratic party and endorse a bill to send $4.5 billion to the Administration for border aid, voting down the attempt by close to a hundred Democratic Party progressives who attempted to put strict restrictions on how that money would be used, including ending the incarceration of children under horrendous and inhumane conditions. The Bible warns us “Do not trust in the powerful”—and so we want to celebrate our democracy but reject those who always put being “realistic” above being principled even while congratulating those in both houses of Congress who rejected the Senate Republican “aid” package.
At this celebration, let’s give thanks for the ordinary and extraordinary Americans whose struggles brought about those changes.
WE ARE GRATEFUL:
To the waves of immigrants from all parts of the world who struggled to accept each other and find a place in this country {raise fork}
To the escaped slaves and their allies, particularly Quakers, evangelical Christians, and freedom-loving secularists, who build the underground railroad and helped countless people to freedom {raise fork}
To the coalitions of religious and secular people–women and men, black and white–who built popular support for the emancipation of the slaves {raise fork}
To the African Americans and allies who went to prison, lost their livelihoods, and were savagely beaten in the struggle for civil rights {raise fork}
To the working people who championed protections like the eight-hour day, minimum wage, workers’ compensation, and the right to organize, often at great personal cost to them {raise fork}
To the immigrants who fought against “nativist” tendencies and refused to close the borders of this country to new groups of immigrants, and who continue to support a policy of “welcoming the stranger” just as this country opened its gates to their ancestors when they were the immigrants and strangers
To the women who risked family, job security, and their own constructed identities to shift our collective consciousness about men and women and raise awareness of the effects of patriarchy {raise fork}
To gays and lesbians who fought and won the right to marry and who continue to struggle for full rights in housing, employment, and other arenas.
To transgendered people who are beginning a similar battle for respect, dignity, and equal rights
To all of those who risk scorn and violence and often lose their families to lead the struggle against homophobia and for the acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and queer people
To those who continue to work for equal access for people with disabilities
To those who advocate for sensitivity to animals and refuse to kill them
To all of the innovators and artists who have brought so much of beauty and usefulness into our lives
To those who fought to extend democratic principles not only in politics but also in the workplace and in the economy
To those who developed innovations in science and technology, in literature and art, in music and dance, in film and in computer science, in medical and communication technologies, and in methods to protect ourselves from the destructive impacts of some of these new technologies.
To those who developed psychological insights and increased our ability to be sensitive to our impact on others.
To those who developed ecological awareness and are now building strategies to replace a system that privileges growth and consumption over preservation of the life support system of the planet
To those who brought the insights of their own particular religious or spiritual traditions which emphasized love and caring for others and generosity towards those who had been impoverished—and sought to turn those ideas not only into a call for personal charity but also into a mission to transform our economic and political systems in ways that would reflect those values.
To those who fought for peace and non-violence, and who helped stop many wars
[Invite other attendees to offer “toasts” to other groups who have contributed to the things that are good about America. You can also mix up the reading with some of the songs at the end of this article—note that some of the words have been changed to make them more fitting for our celebration]. . . . MORE
Celebrating Global Interdependence
Part of the cherished myth of this country is the notion of the rugged individualist who makes his own way—the rugged individualist is almost always male in this myth—without anyone else’s help. This image was never true. Even on the frontier, people relied on their neighbors, on the animals that provided their food, and later on those who built and operated the railroads, bringing supplies to frontier towns. Today it is even less possible to be a rugged individualist. We can’t drive on a road, operate an appliance, run water, or make a phone call without benefiting from the work of countless other human beings, some here in the United States and some in other parts of the world.
With the advent of a deeper understanding of how our global environment works, and with the increasing integration of the economies of all countries into a global economy, we’ve come to see that our well-being is linked to the well-being of everyone else on the planet. Our well-being depends on their well-being, and their well-being depends on our well-being. We are all fundamentally interdependent. And we’ve learned the same thing about Nature—when we pour poisons into the air, the ground, or the oceans, those toxics eventually come back to hurt us and other people around the world, just as when they do the same it ends up hurting us and not just people who live near them. Yet the ideal of individualism persists, and we’re encouraged to act as if we need no one else, no community support.
Despite the persistence of this individualist mindset, our impact on others and theirs on us is huge, and manifests not only in personal and cultural terms but also in relationship to economic and political conditions. Today, close to 3 billion people (half the people in the world) live on less than $2 a day, and close to half of that number live on one dollar a day. Huge numbers of people are starving or very very hungry even as we are reading this and preparing for a good meal and playful celebration. Is it any wonder that some of these people, and those who care about them (even if they themselves are not poor), are very angry at the way the world’s politics and economics get set up? We don’t think it is good or legitimate when their anger gets expressed in violent ways. But we also have to take some responsibility for benefiting from a world order that is so unfair and so cruel. According to United Nations figures, somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 children under the age of five will die today, and again tomorrow, and again the next day, because they don’t have the food, and basic medical supplies, that could have kept them alive. That’s over 12 million children a year—the equivalent of two Holocausts per year!
We in the (interfaith and secular-humanist-and-atheist-welcoming NSP–Network of Spiritual Progressives want to change all this, both by changing the terms of global trade agreements so that they work on behalf of the poor and the hungry, and by establishing (first in the US, and then in all the advanced industrial societies) a Global and Domestic Marshall Plan that would allocate between 1-2% of our Gross Domestic Product each year for the next twenty years toward the goal of ending once and for all both domestic and global poverty, homelessness, inadequate education, and inadequate health care. On this celebration of our Inter-dependence, we want to reaffirm our shared commitment to these goals and commit to working with people all around the world, and building the Network of Spiritual Progressives on best ways to achieve these goals.
***
The key to our alternative, what we call the Strategy of Generosity, is our commitment to reestablish trust and hope among the peoples of the world so that we might begin to reflect and act coherently on ending world poverty in our lifetimes and saving the global environment from the almost certain destruction it faces unless we reverse our policies and give the highest priority to protecting the earth. Instead of asking “what serves the interests of American economic and political geo-power best?” we want a foreign policy that asks “What best serves all the people on this planet and best serves the survival of the planet itself?”
That is a question that very few people in politics today are willing to raise in that form, fearing that they will not be elected or re-elected because they are charged with not being patriotic enough (even though it is obvious to almost anyone who understands the inter-connectedness of all people on the planet that the best interests of America and the best interests of our children and grandchildren is best served by worrying about the best interests of everyone else, and the best interests of the planet rather than to frame things in terms that reinforce the nationalist fervors of the past and lead us toward selfishness and inability to think globally).
A world divided by nationalist struggles and vain fantasies of dominating the resources of the earth on behalf of one or a few of the more powerful nations must be recognized as increasingly insane and self-destructive for the human race. Yet very many decent and moral people, having been talked into accepting the current construction of politics as “the given” within which one must work, end up participating in this insanity and calling it “realistic.” It is an urgent necessity to break through that set of assumptions about what is and what is not realistic–so that people can look at the Strategy of Generosity not through the frame of existing inside-the-beltway assumptions or the “common sense” thrown at us daily by a corporate-dominated media, but rather through the frame of what the human race and the planet earth urgently need in order to stop the insane people who have power at the moment from continuing their disastrous path.
It is a huge delusion to imagine that the insanity of framing our foreign policy only in terms of narrowly conceived American interests is somehow confined to one political party or one set of candidates for office–it is a shared insanity that must be challenged in every part of our political thinking, and it is just as likely to be articulated by people with whom we agree on many other issues as by people who are overtly reactionary or overtly ultra-nationalistic.
Building that Strategy of Generosity requires that we reconnect with the human capacity to recognize the other as an embodiment of the sacred, or, in secular language, as fundamentally valuable for who they are and not as only instrumentally valuable for what they can do for us. This pre-reflective, pre-nationalist connection between people must become the center of our campaign for peace and environmental sanity. The bonds of caring among human beings can and must be fostered by our policies.
So although we can emphasize that it is in our own interests as humans to recognize that our individual and societal well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else on the planet, and sometimes will frame part of the argument for the Global Marshall Plan in those terms, www.tikkun.org, we have to emphasize as well that our commitment to the Global Marshall Plan is not only because it could save the planet from nuclear and conventional wars and jump-start the process of global environmental planning, but also because it reflects our deepest truth: the Unity of All Being and our commitment to care for each other as momentary embodiments of the God energy (or in secular terms, the goodness and love and generosity) of the Universe at its current stage of evolutionary development.
We wish to establish a New Bottom Line to foster an ethos of caring and love for others because it is ethically and spiritually right to do so, not only because it is instrumentally the only sane policy for saving the planet and saving the lives of our children and grandchildren.
Ironically, what turns out to be the most ethical path is also the most practical and self-interested from the standpoint of saving the human race and protecting the planet that sustains our lives.
Our Global Marshall Plan can’t work unless it is perceived by others as being more than a new, clever attempt to dominate the world through “aid” or some new way to open up the gates of their society for further penetration by Western corporate interests. It can only be perceived as a genuine attempt to change the terms of global interaction if the support for the Global Marshall Plan is transparently built around our ethical vision of world in which generosity and caring for others is valued because it is right, not only because it is smart and a savvy way to protect the United States.
Do not take these ideas and try to “win” with them by abandoning the core vision and only achieving support for some of the details. Our plan will only work if it is supported for the right reasons, with the global common good as the primary goal. In that sense, the Strategy of Generosity is really the core, and the Global Marshall Plan is only a particular way to actualize that new approach to human relations (which is actually the approach that our religious and spiritual and secular ethical traditions have been teaching for many millennia).
Our plan is not about throwing money at the poor of the world—it includes a way to help the most destitute on the planet that does not allow for corrupt governments to siphon off funds for corrupt elites. Our plan (read it at www.tikkun.org/gmp, creates a non-governmental mechanism for including the peoples of the world in shaping how the monies and support should be delivered and allocated and mechanism of accountability, reworking all international trade agreements so that they no longer favor the advanced industrial societies but instead help in the economic well-being of poorer societies as well, rejecting the current proposed TPP, providing hands-on opportunities so that the peoples of the world including the US get directly involved in helping each other and not just in donating monies. Our Global and Domestic Marshall Plan involves building capacities of people around the world, skills training (including training in nonviolent communication and respect for ethnic and religious diversity, family and parental support, stress reduction, child and elderly care, emergency health techniques, diet and exercise, and caring for others who are in need of help). It involves retraining of the armies of nations around the world to become experts in ecologically sensitive construction and agriculture and health care. It includes using market mechanisms where appropriate and mini-finance of local projects.
We must also insist that the plan be implemented with a clear message of humility and modesty. Although the West has superior technology and material success, we do not equate that with superior moral or cultural wisdom. On the contrary, our approach must reflect a deep humility and a spirit of repentance for the ways in which Western dominance of the planet has been accompanied by wars, environmental degradation, and a growing materialism and selfishness reflected in a Western-dominated global culture.
Finally, we must not talk about “development” using a Western notion that progress is defined as how many consumer goods you have or how much wealth a society accumulates. We want to eliminate hunger, homelessness, poverty, inadequate education, inadequate health care—but we don’t need a Western model on what this might look like. In fact, the planet cannot sustain a re-creation in the rest of the world of irresponsible forms of industrialization and consumption that characterized the West (in both capitalist and allegedly socialist or communist countries).
So, we need a fundamental rethinking of how to organize societies in ways that are sustainable and ethically coherent—and that will require the Western societies to make major changes, rather than preaching environmentalism to the rest of the world while living in environmentally destructive ways ourselves and benefiting from trade arrangements that have impoverished the rest of the world.
The key is humility. We have much to learn from the peoples of the world, their cultures, their spiritual and intellectual heritage, their ways of dealing with human relationships. The West’s superior technology and material success has not brought with it a superior ethical or spiritual wisdom. There is much to learn from societies that from a material standpoint are “under-developed” but from a spiritual standpoint may have within the teachers and cultures that are far more humanly sensitive than our own.
***
The Global Marshall Plan is the first step toward providing a sense of mutual trust that will allow for the next step needed by humanity in the 21st century: a global plan for how to allocate the world’s resources and regulate what is put into the environment by individuals and corporations. We cannot save the planet from ecological destruction if we are not willing to develop a coherent rational plan and then use it to guide our use of the resources of the planet. Such a global plan will not be workable until the peoples of the world truly understand their interdependence. So, our celebration of Inter-dependence Day is an important part of the process of building that new consciousness. For that reason, we need to ask each other now to make a pledge to bring more people next year into this celebration.
Yet our interdependence with the world goes deeper than that. Every human being on the planet is valuable, created in the image of God, fundamentally deserving of love, caring, kindness and generosity. We know that there is a huge cultural and intellectual richness in the variety of cultures, religions, spiritual practices, music, literature and shared wisdom of the societies that make up our world.
On this Interdependence day, we not only commit to helping improve the material conditions of the rest of the world, but also to learning from the rest of the world. We approach this task in a spirit of humility, aware that we in the United States have sometimes appeared to the rest of the world as a big bully and not as a society genuinely interested in sharing its cultural and intellectual and material gifts or in learning from others about their own particular cultural and spiritual heritages. The impression of arrogance is particularly intense at this historical moment when the war in Iraq and the attempts by the US to manipulate other countries is so visible to many of the people on our planet, but it will be a problem even after we stop the war in Iraq.
We want to communicate to the peoples of the world our own deep sorrow and repentance at the ways that our wonderful country has taken wrong turns in its foreign policy, and the ways that it has acted with arrogance and insensitivity to the needs of others, and supported an economic system whose insensitivity to the needs of the environment and its preaching of “me-firstism” and looking at everyone with a “what’s in it for me?” consciousness has already done immense damage.
[Sing here songs of other cultures and bring their poetry and fiction and spiritual practices as well, or go around the table sharing aspects of other cultures that you find inspiring.]
We are happy to celebrate this Interdependence Day on Independence Day for the U.S.
Some of us wish to invoke God’s blessing on our country, and will do so now. But before we go there, we also wish to invoke God’s blessings on all people on our planet and on the planet itself.
We know that nationalist chauvinism, thinking that we are or can be better than everyone else, the manic need to be “number one,” can lead us into wars and destructive behavior. That it has become part of the national discourse, and this year is taking the form of fear or hatred of Muslims and Mexicans, pains our heart. We will not let our Muslim, Mexican, or undocumented refuges in the U.S. or elsewhere become isolated and demeaned—part of our task as Americans is to defend all those who are subject to irrational hatred or are used to advance the political, economic or social interests of opportunists and haters. Instead, we want to bless everyone on the planet, to celebrate with everyone.
So we rejoice in the people of this country, to rejoice with them as we celebrate all that is beautiful and good in this country, and at the same time we affirm our deep connection to all people on this planet and invoke God’s blessing on all of us, together, and pray that we soon will see a triumph of a new spirit of kindness, generosity, love, caring for others, ecological sensitivity, and celebration with joy, awe and wonder at all the good that surrounds us and keeps us alive. This is our Interdependence Day—the day we affirm our deep dependence on and yearning for the well being of everyone on our planet and the well being of the planet itself.
Written by Rabbi Michel Lerner, Editor of Tikkun magazine and chair of the interfaith and secular humanist-and-atheist welcoming Network of Spiritual Progressives. Rabbi Lerner invites anyone who agrees with this vision presented above to join or make a tax-deductible contribution to the Network of Spiritual Progressives at www.tikkun.org/donate. If you prefer making a donation directly, call 510 644 1200 9:30 am – 1:30 pm Pacific daylight time, or by sending a check to Tikkun at 2342 Shattuck Ave #1200, Berkeley, Ca. 94704.
Songs for July 4—the Tikkun/Network of Spiritual Progressives Version
America the Beautiful (Tikkun’s version)
O beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain
For purple mountains majesties above the fruited plain
America America God shed Her grace on thee
And crown thy good with sisterhood from sea to shining sea
O beautiful for pilgrim’s feet whose search for freedom led
To murder of Native tribes and enslaving Africans,
America America let justice & equality reign,
Repent past sins, give reparations too, save the environment from pain.
O beautiful for working folk who forged the wealth we see
In farm and mill, in home & school, unsung in history
America America may race nor sex nor creed
No more divide, but side by side, transform the world, made free
Imagine (Tikkun version)
Imagine there’s all goodness It’s easy if you try
No Hell below us Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people…………Living for today …
Imagine there’s no countries….. It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for And no oppression too
Imagine all the people Living life in peace …
You, you may say I am a dreamer But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us And the world will be as one.
Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger A sisterhood of man
Imagine all the people Sharing all the world …
You, you may say I am a dreamer But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us And the world will be as one..
Imagine love is flowing No scarcity of care,
Holiness surrounds us The sacred everywhere
Imagine awe and wonder Replacing greed and fear
You may say we’re all dreamers, But we’re not the only ones
TIKKUN and Spirit soaring And the world will live as one!
We shall overcome
We shall overcome someday
Oh, deep in my heart I know that I do believe that we shall overcome some day.
We’ll walk hand in hand….
Blacks and whites together, gays and straights together…..
Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims Jews and Christians….
We will not despair, we are not alone, Spirit is unfolding through us…oh deep in my heart, I know that I do believe, love and justice shall prevail.
This land is your land, this land is my land
From [the] California to the [Staten] New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,
[God blessed America for me.]
As I went walking that ribbon of highway
And saw above me that endless skyway,
And saw below me the golden valley, I said:
This land was made for you and me.
Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property,
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing —
That side was made for you and me.
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw my people —
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
This land was made for you and me.
Ode Yavoe
Ode yavoe shalom aleynu, ode yavoe shalom aleynu, ode yavoe shalom aleynu, ve’al kulam. Shalom, aleynu ve’al kol ha/olam Salaam Shalom
I Ain’t Marching Anymore
By Phil Ochs
D G C D
Oh I marched to the battle of New Orleans
G C D
At the end of the early British war
G C
The young land started growing
G
The young blood started flowing C Am D
But I ain’t marchin’ anymore
For I’ve killed my share of Indians In a thousand different fights
I was there at the Little Big Horn I heard many men lying
I saw many more dying But I ain’t marchin’ anymore
It’s always the old to lead us to the war
C Am D
It’s always the young to fall
Now look at all we’ve won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
For I stole California from the Mexican land Fought in the bloody Civil War
Yes I even killed my brother And so many others
And I ain’t marchin’ anymore
For I marched to the battles of the German trench
In a war that was bound to end all wars
Oh I must have killed a million men And now they want me back again
But I ain’t marchin’ anymore
(chorus)
For I flew the final mission in the Japanese sky
Set off the mighty mushroom roar When I saw the cities burning
I knew that I was learning That I ain’t marchin’ anymore
Now the labor leader’s screamin’ when they close the missile plants,
United Fruit screams at the Cuban shore, Call it “Peace” or call it “Treason,”
Call it “Love” or call it “Reason,” But I ain’t marchin’ any more.
The New Internationale
Arise ye prisoners of starvation, arise ye wretched of the earth
For justice calls for liberation, a grand new world in birth
No more racism or sexism shall bind us
Throw homophobia out the door.
The earth we save from destruction
We give priority to the poor.
Tis the final conflict, let God’s spirit fill this place
The international working class shall free the human race
Tis the moment always ready to rebuild the world with love.
And in the place of violence we honor the peaceful dove.
Let There Be Peace on Earth
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on Earth,
The peace that was meant to be.
With God our Creator, we’re one family.
Let us walk with each other, in perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me, let this be the moment now.
With ev’ry step I take, let this be my solemn vow:
To take each moment and live each moment
in peace eternally.
Let there be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.
The Times They are a Changing
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be pas
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
There but for Fortune
by Phil Ochs
Intro: G Cm G Cm G Cm
G Cm G Cm
Show me a prison, show me a jail,
G Em Am D
Show me a prisoner whose face has gone pale
Em C Am
And I’ll show you a young man with so many reasons why
Bm G Am D
And there but for fortune, may go you or I
Show me the alley, show me the train,
Show me a hobo who sleeps out in the rain,
And I’ll show you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, may go you or go I — you and I.
Show me the whiskey stains on the floor,
Show me the dunken man as he stumbles out the door,
And I’ll show you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, may go you or go I — you and I.
Show me the famine, show me the frail
Eyes with no future that show how we failed
And I’ll show you the children with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or I.
Show me the country where bombs had to fall,
Show me the ruins of buildings once so tall,
And I’ll show you a young land with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I — you and I.You and I,There but for fortune, go you or go I — you and I.
NSP Song:
NSP, Join with me, as we transform the world’s reality,
Love and kindness, radical amazement, peace and generosity (2)
Save the planet from environmental crisis, stop wars , torture and poverty,
Let our voices cry out that we have no doubt that love and kindness will triumph, you will see
Our Network of Spiritual Progressives affirms science and spirit both!
Domination replaced by love, gentleness placed above the world of power and of might!
It’s time to end poverty and hunger, around the world and in the U.S. too.
We have enough to share, with humility and care, we care one with all humanity—it’s true!
Don’t let them tell you to “be realistic” in a world full of wars and poverty.
Only fundamental change can prevent a world deranged from destroying us and all the planet too!
The selfishness and greed that surround us lead many to despair that things can change,
Yet we know that people yearn for a world that can turn to love, peace and generosity.
Peace Song
LOE YISAH GOY EL GOY CHEREVE LOE YIL-MEH-DOO ODE MIL-CHA-MAH
Let everyone neath her vine and fig tree live in peace and unafraid
And into ploughshares beat their swords nations shall learn war no more.
I’m going to lay down my sword and spear Down by the Riverside, Study war no more!
I aint gonna study war no more (6)
A SHARED BLESSING AFTER THE MEAL HAS BEEN FINISHED
You shall eat, and be satisfied, and then you shall bless (x2) ve’achalta ve’savata uvey’rachta
We ate when we were hungry and now we’re satisfied
We thank the source of blessing for all that S/He provides
Hunger is a yearning in body and soul
Earth, air, fire, water, and spirit makes us whole…
Giving and receiving we open up our hands
From seedtime through harvest, we’re partners with the land…
We share in a vision of wholeness and release
Where every child is nourished and we all live in peace
Loving for the stranger, peace and justice too.
So all the goodness in our lives is shared with others too.
Mindless consumption threatens our planet earth
To a world of environmental justice we shall give birth
Transformation is our goal, loving is our way,
Humility, joy and gratitude, thank Goddess, every day
END INTERDEPENDENCE DAY JULY 4, 2020
OMNI
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF INTERDEPENDENCE,INTERDEPENDENCE DAY NEWSLETTER #3 SEPTEMBER 12, 2014.
OMNI NATIONAL DAYS PROJECT, COMPILED BY Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace
www.civworld.org
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:
http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/ Here is the link to the Index: http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/
OMNI’S NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT
The Interdependence Movement
SEE: UNITED NATIONS, CITIZENS WITHOUT BORDERS, INDEPENDENCE DAY, NATIONALISM, COOPERATION,
GLOBAL IS LOCAL, LOCAL GLOBAL
“Conflicts in our age have become both local and global, blurring the distinction between the two. We can no longer speak of local and national conflicts without considering their international implications, nor can we ignore the impact of global trends and relations on local issues.” Ibrahim Kalin, “Islam and Peace,” in Crescent and Dove, ed. by Qamar-ul Huda (USIP, 2010, p. 30).
OMNI
“As our hearts open to deeper understanding, our circle of compassion naturally enlarges and spontaneously begins to include more and more ‘others’—not just our own tribe, sect, nation, or race, but all human beings, and not just humans, but other mammals, and birds, fish, forests, and the whole beautifully interwoven tapestry of living, pulsing creation. All beings. All of us.” Will Tuttle, The World Peace Diet, p. 293.
Contents of #1 2011
Interdependence Day in Los Angeles
Global Movement 2011
Contents #2 September 12, 2012
Interdependence Day Los Angeles 2012
Global Declaration of Interdependence
New York City 2011
Film NYC 2011
Scranton 2011
Contents #3 September 12, 2014
AFSC, World Without Walls
Majid, We Are All Moors
Tuttle, World Peace Diet
J. William Fulbright, on Nationalism
Toward Peace and Justice, October 2013
[World without walls and low-intensity warfare. From AFSC. I missed this in 2013, but its powerful argument is just as applicable in 2014. --Dick]
|
James,
[MEXICO AND USA Pacific Ocean , bisecting a sloping mountainside in the desert. It marks the arbitrary line that divides what once were interconnected communities, an imposed boundary between “us” on the American side and “them”—everyone to the south.
That fence embodies an approach to immigration that relies on military-style enforcement, an approach that has created a human rights disaster along the U.S./Mexico border. Under the immigration policy reform proposals Congress is considering, the border now stands to become one of the most militarized borders in the world.
The American Friends Service Committee is hosting “Boots on the Border,” an hour-long discussion on border militarization, on Oct. 30. I hope you will tune in to learn more about these proposals for so-called “border security” that put at risk humane immigration reform, and our democracy itself.
Constructing barriers between people in the name of “security” ignores the reality of the global community—that our fates as individuals, nations, and the world are interdependent.
Using violence to enforce those arbitrary lines does more to threaten our security by further driving people apart. As with shows of military force at the border, drone strikes and threats of war in any part of the world create new enemies, making our country less safe, not safer.
The new issue of Quaker Action explores how, from Somalia to the West Bank, the U.S. could become a powerful force for healing a broken world, if we and other major powers choose to invest in shared well-being instead of national competition.
I hope that as you read the stories of young Somalis striving to make a living and repair ties between neighboring towns, you, too, will see how––when given the chance––youth can harness their creativity and energy to assert themselves, using the power of nonviolence to rebuild their communities that have lived so long in the shadow of violent conflict.
That fence embodies an approach to immigration that relies on military-style enforcement, an approach that has created a human rights disaster along the U.S./Mexico border. Under the immigration policy reform proposals Congress is considering, the border now stands to become one of the most militarized borders in the world.
The American Friends Service Committee is hosting “Boots on the Border,” an hour-long discussion on border militarization, on Oct. 30. I hope you will tune in to learn more about these proposals for so-called “border security” that put at risk humane immigration reform, and our democracy itself.
Constructing barriers between people in the name of “security” ignores the reality of the global community—that our fates as individuals, nations, and the world are interdependent.
Using violence to enforce those arbitrary lines does more to threaten our security by further driving people apart. As with shows of military force at the border, drone strikes and threats of war in any part of the world create new enemies, making our country less safe, not safer.
The new issue of Quaker Action explores how, from Somalia to the West Bank, the U.S. could become a powerful force for healing a broken world, if we and other major powers choose to invest in shared well-being instead of national competition.
I hope that as you read the stories of young Somalis striving to make a living and repair ties between neighboring towns, you, too, will see how––when given the chance––youth can harness their creativity and energy to assert themselves, using the power of nonviolence to rebuild their communities that have lived so long in the shadow of violent conflict.
In Peace,Shan Cretin, General Secretary
WE ARE ALL MOORS
Muslim Media Review
The goals of the Muslim Media Review are to highlight the books, audio and video programs from which Muslims in North American can benefit and provide information on how people can acquire them.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Review: We Are All Moors by Anouar Majid
We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades against Muslims and Other Minoritiesby Anouar Majid is a must-read for all immigrants and civil rights activists in Europe and North America .
I've previously reviewed A Call for Heresy: Why Dissent is Vital to Islam and America by Professor Anouar. I also have his book, Freedom and Orthodoxy: Islam and Difference in the Post-Andalusian Age, which I now have renewed impetus to read and review.
We Are All Moors is organized into an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion. The introduction lays out the thesis that the Iberian Peninsula's unified kingdoms of Aragon and Castile began the modern era of the nation-state with the policy of religious and ethnic purification and that the archetype Moors can represent groups all around Europe andNorth America which governments have viewed as obstacles to consolidation of the purified policy.
Chapter 1 examines the case of the Muslims and Jews inSpain Iberian Peninsula were subject to the state's sanctions. I also did not know that the Muslims were not expelled in 1492, but rather they persevered in the Iberian Peninsula openly for decades and secretly for longer and in the fears of the state for centuries.
Chapter 2, entitled "New World Moors," narrates stories of Muslims and those mistaken for Muslims in theAmericas United States
Chapter 3, "The Muslim Jews," shows how the Othering process developed in theIberian Peninsula provided the tools for the Othering of Europe's other significan religious minority, Jews. Moreover, leading Jews of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries often asserted a Muslim identity or affiliation as they were asserting Jews' rights in Europe . In fact, Dr. Anouar writes:
I've previously reviewed A Call for Heresy: Why Dissent is Vital to Islam and America by Professor Anouar. I also have his book, Freedom and Orthodoxy: Islam and Difference in the Post-Andalusian Age, which I now have renewed impetus to read and review.
We Are All Moors is organized into an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion. The introduction lays out the thesis that the Iberian Peninsula's unified kingdoms of Aragon and Castile began the modern era of the nation-state with the policy of religious and ethnic purification and that the archetype Moors can represent groups all around Europe and
Chapter 1 examines the case of the Muslims and Jews in
Chapter 2, entitled "New World Moors," narrates stories of Muslims and those mistaken for Muslims in the
Chapter 3, "The Muslim Jews," shows how the Othering process developed in the
If [contemporary conflicting Jews and Muslims] were to bracket off the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a serious but, in the end, political problem and explore the history and bonds they share, perhaps enough goodwill could be generated to help Israelis and Palestinians and other aggrieved Muslims work out a solution.
At the very least, I hope this chapter will convince Muslims to refrain from reproducing inane European anti-semItic rhetoric.
Chapter 4 is, in my mind, the most important chapter of the book for a generalU.S. Iberian Peninsula discussed in the introduction and Chapter 1.
This whole sad story is only lightened by the resilience of the "Moors" of each age, whose presence each successive wave of persecution fails to erase. Dr. Anouar concludes by relating several instances of acceptance of the "Moor" and the increasing realization that globalization is making the idea of Inquisitorial purity less and less tenable. TheUnited States
Chapter 4 is, in my mind, the most important chapter of the book for a general
This whole sad story is only lightened by the resilience of the "Moors" of each age, whose presence each successive wave of persecution fails to erase. Dr. Anouar concludes by relating several instances of acceptance of the "Moor" and the increasing realization that globalization is making the idea of Inquisitorial purity less and less tenable. The
Should we make a conscious effort to attain a state of irreversible mestizaje, there is no better group than the Mexicans to lead the way. It is not insignificant that it was a Mexican intellectual who coined the expression "cosmic race" early in the twentieth century. As ... Gregory Rodriguez has shown ..., although Mexicans are the "largest immigrant group in the history of the United States Mexico
Dr. Anouar movingly concludes:
It is far more sensible to start preparing for a new golden age when every human being on earth and every cultural tradition will be embraced with the love and care now accorded to any species threatened with extinction.
Lastly, the book has 26 pages of notes and 26 pages of index to facilitate review and further research. The University of Minnesota Press is to be congratulated for including these materials.
An idea whose time has come...  “Love is understanding...”   Dr. Will Tuttle, author of The World Peace Diet, is a pianist, composer, educator, and recipient of the Courage of Conscience Award. A former Zen monk, his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley focused on educating intuition and altruism. He presents ongoing events promoting peace through compassion for all life. More... | The World Peace Diet Eating For Spiritual Health And Social Harmony By Will Tuttle, Ph.D. Trade paperback, 350 pages, $22.00 Published by Lantern Books, No trees killed! - 100% post-consumer recycled paper Signed by author & includes free CD by author, when ordered from this website. Also includes "Intuitive Cooking" by Madeleine Tuttle.  WPD Facilitator Training Program -- New self-paced WPD course - 8-week online training in becoming a World Peace Diet Facilitator. Also 4-week WPD Mastery course. Find out more Please sign our email list:
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The missing book that illuminates the hidden core of our culture and helps us understand... The World Peace Diet, which became a #1 Amazon best-seller in March, 2010, offers a compelling and liberating new understanding of our food and our culture. It has been called one of the most important books of the 21st century: the foundation of a new society based on the truth of the interconnectedness of all life. It is the first book to make explicit the invisible connections between our culture, our food, and the source of our broad range of problems—and the way to a positive transformation in our individual and collective lives. The World Peace Diet is an award-winning book. If you want to understand the big picture of our culture and why we have the unyielding dilemmas we face, and how we can solve them, this book is for you. The World Peace Diet lists for $22. When you order from this website, your book is only $20, and will be signed by the author, and will include a copy of Living in Harmony With All Life, a 75-minute CD discourse by Dr. Tuttle on some of the main ideas in The World Peace Diet, with musical interludes. It will also include a free copy of Madeleine's “Intuitive Cooking.” Click here to order a printed copy of The World Peace Diet and have it shipped to your door, with the Living in Harmony With All Life CD and "Intuitive Cooking." Click here to download a complimentary mp3 sound file of Living in Harmony With All Life, the 75-minute discourse by Dr. Tuttle on The World Peace Diet and/or a PDF file of Madeleine's "Intuitive Cooking," or the book. J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT ON NATIONALISM Dislike of hyper-nationalism is a central theme in the books of J. W. Fulbright. OLD MYTHS AND NEW REALITIES. 1964. “Nationalism. . .is the most powerful single force in the world politics of the twentieth century, more powerful than communism or democracy or any other system of ideas about social organization. It is also the most dangerous. Dividing communities against one another, it has become a universal force at precisely the time in history when technology has made the world a single unit in the physical sense—interdependent for economic, political, and cultural purposes and profoundly interdependent for survival in the nuclear age “ [and age of global warming and climate change he would add today –D]. (p. 140). FIND AN ESSAY ON FULBRIGHT V. NATIONALISM |
END INTERDEPENDENCE DAY 2013
Sent to web site
OMNI INTERDEPENDENCE DAY NEWSLETTER #2 SEPTEMBER 12, 2012. OMNI NATIONAL DAYS PROJECT, COMPILED BY Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace
www.civworld.org
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:
http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/ Here is the link to the Index: http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/
OMNI’S NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT
The Interdependence Movement
SEE: UNITED NATIONS, CITIZENS WITHOUT BORDERS
Contents of #1 2011
Interdependence Day in Los Angeles
Global Movement 2011
Contents #2 September 12, 2012
Interdependence Day Los Angeles 2012
Global Declaration of Interdependence
New York City 2011
Film NYC 2011
Scranton 2011
The Interdependence Movement 2012 info@interdependencemovement.org via uark.edu
to Dick
CITIZENS WITHOUT BORDERS
INTERDEPENDENCE SYMPOSIUM TOMMORROW - SEPTEMBER 8
On Saturday, September 8, an Interdependence Symposium will be held at the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools in the Cocoanut Grove Theater from 1:00 - 6:30 pm. Titled "Culture, Justice and the Arts in the Age of Interdependence", and in collaboration with Prof. Nicholas Cull of USC's Center for Public Diplomacy and Dean Travis Preston of CalArts School of Theater, this symposium will include leading filmmakers, academics and public intellectuals, as well as a number of film screenings. Participants include LA Deputy Mayor Aileen Adams, Director of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas Mary Lou Aleskie, Interdependence Movement founder Benjamin Barber, SDS founder and activist Tom Hayden, German-American Institute Director Jakob Köllhofer, Yolanda Moses of UC-Riverside, Mexican playwright Alejandro Pelayo-Rangel, Civil Rights activist and attorney Connie Rice, filmmaker and founder of the Webby Awards Tiffany Shlain, Director of the Annenberg Innovation Lab Prof. Jonathan Taplin, and many more.
In addition to musical performances and a short film from Dance Camera West, this event will also feature the world premiere of the film "Engage," directed by Tiffany Shlain as part of the Let It Ripple short film series.
This event is FREE and open to the public. To ensure your place, please register by emailing RSVP@interdependencemovement.org
INTERDEPENDENCE WEEKEND CONTINUES ON SEPTEMBER 9
On Sunday, September 9, following afternoon events with Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) in Lafayette Park with youth performances and film screenings from 1:00 - 3:00 pm, an Interdependence Day Festival and Concert will be held at the Levitt Pavilion MacArthur Park , Los Angeles
These events are FREE and open to the public. More information on the Levitt Pavilion MacArthur Park
INTERDEPENDENCE WEEKEND LOS ANGELES SPONSORS
www.InterdependenceMovement.org
NEW CONTACT INFORMATION FOR CIVWORLD
CivWorld at CPCS
The Graduate Center
+1 (212) 817-2012
info@interdependencemovement.org
www.InterdependenceMovement.org
Dr. Benjamin R. Barber
Senior Research Scholar, Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society
The Graduate Center , The City University of New York
Founder and President, The Interdependence Movement
BBarber@gc.cuny.edu
www.BenjaminBarber.org
Harry Merritt
Executive Manager, Interdependence Movement
Executive Assistant to Dr. Benjamin R. Barber
HMerritt@gc.cuny.edu
+1 (212) 817-2012
alternate phone +1 (212) 247-5433
Daniel London
Research Coordinator, CivWorld at CPCS
daniel@interdependencemovement.org
Copyright © 2012 The Interdependence Movement, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you signed the Declaration of Interdependence or another list from CivWorld or the Interdependence Movement.
The Interdependence Movement
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interdependencemovement.org/iday-2011.php
INTERDEPENDENCE DAY IX - New York City
FILM
interdependencemovement.org/
On September 12, 2011, the short film "A Declaration of Interdependence" premiered in front of a live audience at Interdependence Day IX in New York City
interdependencedaynepa.org/
Interdependence Day2012. Interdependence DaySeptember 12, 2012. The 2012 Interdependence DayAward will be. presented to Jeanne Bovard ...
http://interdependencemovement.org/iday.php
END INTERDEPENDENCE DAY NEWSLETTER #2 September 12, 2012
INTERDEPENDENCE DAY NEWSLETTER #1 SEPTEMBER 12, 2011.
OMNI NATIONAL DAYS PROJECT, COMPILED BY Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace
www.civworld.org
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:
http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/ Here is the link to the Index: http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/
See Independence Day July 4, increasingly called Interdependence Day
OMNI’S NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT
The Interdependence Movement
CITIZENS WITHOUT BORDERS
FROM INDEPENDENCE
As the United States
On Sunday, September 9th, CivWorld http://www.interdependencemovement.org/ and Levitt LA celebrate Interdependence Day Los Angeles in multicultural MacArthur Park MacArthur Park
This concert will be preceded on Saturday, September 8th by "The Movies, Cultural Communication and the Art of Interdependence", a symposium hosted by Prof. Nicholas Cull of USC's Masters Program in Public Diplomacy and Dean Travis Preston of CalArts School of Theater, to be held at Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools in the Cocoanut Grove Auditorium. On Monday, September 10th, a closing ceremonial event will be held at LA City Hall with Mayor Villaraigosa and Deputy Mayor Aileen Adams, where the Declaration of Interdependence will be signed and the prestigious Interdependence Prize and Interdependence Film Award will be presented.
While the main events are concentrated in LA, other celebrations will be held in Singapore , Melbourne New York , Berlin , Istanbul , Brussels , Mexico City, Casablanca , Paris , Rome , and Philadelphia
HOW YOU CAN HELP MAKE THIS POSSIBLE
Making Interdependence Day a global reality involves the work of a dedicated network of volunteers and funders. No amount is too small, and your tax-deductible donations will help sustain our efforts to build interdependent consciousness and advocate for practical global governance solutions worldwide. DONATE HERE (be sure to select “CivWorld” from the drop-down box)
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INTERDEPENDENCE DAY
In a world where global interdependence is not simply an aspiration of idealists, but a brute fact of the forces that bind us together— global warming, financial capital, AIDS, telecommunications, crime, migration, and terrorism—many people still think in narrow, insular terms.
Reality is global, but consciousness too often remains local — constrained by town and nation.
In the year 2000, a small group of scholars, civic and political leaders, and artists from a dozen nations met to design a program that might help raise consciousness around the realities and possibilities of interdependence. Their efforts were given impetus by the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and the group agreed to create a project that would :
> Make September 12, the day following the memorial of 9/11, an international celebration of interdependence “Interdependence Day”
> Draw up a “Declaration of Interdependence”, making clear that both liberty and security required cooperation among peoples and nations and could no longer be secured by sovereign nations working unilaterally;
> Develop a Civic Interdependence Curriculum that would make interdependence a central concept in Civics and Social Studies programs in middle and high schools in as many schools around the world as possible.
The Declaration of Interdependence
We the people of the world do herewith declare our interdependence as individuals and members of distinct communities and nations. We do pledge ourselves citizens of one CivWorld, civic, civil and civilized. Without prejudice to the goods and interests of our national and regional identities, we recognize our responsibilities to the common goods and liberties of humankind as a whole.
We do therefore pledge to work both directly and through the nations and communities of which we are also citizens:
To guarantee justice and equality for all by establishing on a firm basis the human rights of every person on the planet, ensuring that the least among us may enjoy the same liberties as the prominent and the powerful;
To forge a safe and sustainable global environment for all - which is the condition of human survival -- at a cost to peoples based on their current share in the world's wealth;
To offer children, our common human future, special attention and protection in distributing our common goods, above all those upon which health and education depend;
To establish democratic forms of global civil and legal governance through which our common rights can be secured and our common ends realized;
and
To foster democratic policies and institutions expressing and protecting our human commonality;
and at the same time,
To nurture free spaces in which our distinctive religious, ethnic and cultural identities may flourish and our equally worthy lives may be lived in dignity, protected from political, economic and cultural hegemony of every kind.
CITIZENS WITHOUT BORDERS
AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM INTERDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT FOUNDER BENJAMIN BARBER
I am very pleased to announce that I have been invited to join the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the Graduate Center Graduate Center Fifth Avenue 365 Fifth Ave 35th Street
I look forward to this new collaboration with my friend and professional colleague -- Center Director and Professor of History Kathleen McCarthy -- as well as with the many colleagues in the Political Science, Sociology, and History departments at the Graduate Center
The new Executive Manager of the Interdependence Movement and my Executive Assistant, Bill Trub (who is replacing Harry Merritt), will be moving with me, as will our research coordinator Daniel London. Harry will continue part time as our media and web manager, and Deirdra Stockmann will continue as my personal research assistant. We look forward to continuing our work under the generous oversight of our Executive Committee chairperson Jacqueline Z. Davis (Executive Director of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center
At a moment in history when bickering parties, parochial nations and selfish private interests are putting democracy and justice at risk, I feel privileged to be a colleague at the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and lucky to be part of our growing Interdependence Movement.
-Benjamin
END INTERDEPENDENCE DAY NEWSLETTER #1, SEPTEMBER 12, 2011