Tag Archives: deepening democracy

The Power of Government

The power of government is the people.
This has always been so.

We are being told that money
is the power in our government.

Money is only powerful
because we the people have created,
promoted and allowed it to be so.
Money is a great means of exchange.

The power of government is the people.
We decide how money is used.

We know there is great disparity
between the rich and poor
in our country and all over the world.

We are the ones who
can change life for the better.
There is plenty for all.
We can change how things are
structured and distributed.

The power of government is in the people.
In the United States we have the power of voting.

WE ARE THE MAJORITY!

We can run for office.
We are the ones who have the power
to make a difference.

Do you remember the young man who stood
stopping the tank in Tiananmen Square?
Repressive governments
are most afraid of the power of the people.

Great power comes with great responsibility.
We now know we are responsible for climate change.

We are making our environment deadly.
This awareness brings us the most awesome responsibility.
We know better now and we can do better.

We have all the tools we need to have the greatest,
healthiest, most prosperous and joyous lives
humans have ever had on this planet.

President Obama has said that
if the same number of folks came out to vote
in the midterm elections
that came out in the general elections
the middle class would be enjoying
a solid majority in government,
rather than being swamped
by the worst conservative elements.

The ruling majority in the United States
continues to sleep during campaigns,
confusing its own real interests
with the cosmetic interests of the rich.

We’ve got it damn it, we’ve got it.
All we have to do is get out the vote.

UP, UP majority. Vote.Vote!

Vote for Democrats!

Make all government do the will of the people.

Support Obama in making voting mandatory!

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The Game Changer

From my clear mountain view I see a new game. People come here looking for refuge from crowded polluted cities and electromagnetic frequencies (EMF’s) and Fukushima radiated salmon that are making them sick.

Meanwhile the Koch brothers are spending, spending, spending to make the reality of climate change appear to be a myth. Imagine having so much money you could attempt to fool all the people all the time. The Koch brothers are trying to avoid their oil investments becoming worthless.

The Arabs are a little smarter and trying to get ahead of the game. They are selling off their oil at a loss. They don’t have to worry. They have plenty of solar sunshine for sale. There is enough sunshine in the Sahara to power all of Europe.

Wouldn’t it be great if the Koch brothers invested in solar instead of myths? Wouldn’t it be great if they worked with us to deepen democracy instead of against us?

The new game is about the true value of what is important to people: air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat; being able to afford the necessities for a healthy life for your family; feeling safe in your community; being able to educate your children. This is not too much to ask.

The old game has terrible consequences. Pew research tells us that since our Great Recession, black’s net worth is now 1/13 of white’s. Hispanic’s net worth is now 1/10 of whites. When all your wealth is tied up in your home, losing it to corrupt banks is devastating.

There are consequences of having an oppressive governor of Wisconsin and ignorant Southern senators. When young black men from Milwaukee move to where there are jobs, they come back to the drug filled Milwaukee ghetto after discovering they do not have the education to get hired.

A southern Senator said his Mississippi delta school which was rated inadequate was “Good enough for the workers.” One form of perpetual slavery is to have an uneducated populace. Uneducated people create poverty for all. People are our most valuable resource. Such slavery holdover thinking is the reason his beautiful state is one of the poorest in the nation. The new game is valuing the dynamic worth of every person on earth. The new game is investing in our most precious resource – the brilliance of our people.

Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela and Gandhi have shown us the way. We marched in Selma to give black people the right to vote. Folks today feel hopeless toward government. A vote seems like a useless thing. A vote like a drop of water may seem of little value, but when votes are gathered together they are mighty. We still have the right to vote. We must use that right and vote damn it Vote.

President Obama said that if the same number of folks came out to vote in the midterm election that voted in the general election, the middle class would be enjoying a solid majority in government instead of being swamped by the worst conservative elements of the GOP.

Ordinary people are the ruling majority in the United States. Don’t let the media separate us into groups. Laborers are beginning to wake up. Women, civil rights advocates and environmentalists need to join the laborers. Stop sleeping during campaigns confusing our own real interests with the selfish and frivolous interests of the rich. We’ve got the majority damn it, we’ve got it! All we have to do is run for office and get out the vote.

UP, UP majority. Vote. Vote! Vote for Democrats! Support Obama in making voting mandatory.

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Foundations of a Prosperous Peace

We call forward every person on earth to come together as one magnificent force.

Together we can move toward peace and life sustaining policies. The present state of our world requires an uplifting transformation of consciousness, an opening of our hearts and minds. Democracy is about cooperating to create policies which serve the highest good for all concerned.

We can do this. 

We propose the radical idea that sustaining life itself is our most important priority.  The first step in that effort is just compensation of workers for the investment of their entire lives in their work.  It is time we  give workers ownership of what they create and pay living wages.   This justice is the beginning step toward peace.  Deep peace ensures the climate of cooperation trust and brotherly love necessary to address our most challenging tasks. 

 We now have the tools to create life sustaining transformation.  Our growing awareness that we are all interconnected is a beginning step. Public policies which support life itself are essential.  Here are a few of the primary agendas for us to address together.

 Air, water, food, clothing and shelter in that order are essential to human existence.  We do not know how many humans our planet will sustain.  We only survive for minutes without air, and days without food or water.  Our planet is designed to naturally purify the air, water and soil through recycling.  Each of these basic components of life is now too contaminated to function properly. The earth is so desecrated that species are becoming extinct and life itself is threatened.  We do not know if we have already exceeded the limits for the continuation of life itself.  Together we can create policies which promote life.

 Bedrock is fundamental to our continued existence on earth.  Bedrock is what we stand upon and build upon.  Not long ago we thought nothing of blowing up bedrock with nuclear bomb explosions later realizing besides the environmental contamination, we were self destructing through changing the seismic pressures in the very bedrock of the earth creating earthquakes.  Scientific evidence now shows fracking is creating seismic pressures in the moving continental plates of the earth fracturing the thin layer of bedrock covering earth.  Scientific evidence now points to fracking as the cause of an increase in major earthquakes, irreversible toxic contamination of ground water, and the depletion of water needed for agriculture and human consumption. Protecting our bedrock is fundamental to life on earth.

 Atomic energy is not clean energy.  It is dangerous, destructive, and contaminating.  We do not know how to process or safely store toxic atomic waste which remains lethal for centuries.  Non-polluting energy sources are already available.  We must rapidly replace the energy gained from fracking, atomic energy and fossil fuels.  We need energy policies which promote life itself.

 These are a few of our great challenges. These challenges call for us to summon the greatness within ourselves. These challenges and many more are our opportunities to take a tremendous leap forward for all human kind.  We can through joining together with one another, unite our efforts to create a joyful life sustaining future for our children and ourselves beyond our wildest dreams.

Peace is the foundation and the result of facing our challenges.  Justly rewarding workers worldwide for the investment of their entire lives is the foundation of peace. Democracy today is the vehicle for us to unite our efforts as one to sustain life on earth.  No one of us is exempt from this task.  This is a call for every person on earth to come together as one magnificent force.

 We can do this.

 

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Ed Ponder

In 1980 I had a powerful dream unlike any other I have had before or since that time.  When I awoke I told a friend, that I would be the first woman president of the United States.  His reply was that he didn’t think so.

I had to agree with him that it was an unlikely possibility.  The vision stayed with me over the years.  In 1989 I was attending a visioning workshop for coaches to assist the Chicago Public Schools to come up to national standards.  The vision workshop facilitator said that to implement your vision you have to share it.  I realized I was terrified at the thought of sharing my vision of becoming the first woman president.

Shortly after the visioning workshop I was at an organizational meeting for Earth Day ’90.  A stranger came up to me and asked me, “What do you do?”  I thought this was my chance to lean into sharing my vision.  I told him that I was running for president of the United States.  He asked me, “When?”.  I quickly calculated that the soonest I could be ready was 2004.  He responded that I looked like I was ready now.  He offered to take me home and gave me his card.  A year later I called him up telling him I decided to run for president in 1992.  We spent the next 9 years living and working together.

It turned out that man was Ed Ponder.  Ed is credited in the Illinois Blue Book as being the founder of the Environmental   Protection Agency.  He was instrumental in founding the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency which was used as the blueprint for founding the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  Ed became my mentor.  We worked for 9 years on technology to take all organic waste and turn it into products.  This technology is now being used all over the world to empower people to use their own waste as their source of energy.

  Ed supported my presidential campaign in 1992.  I ran for president again in 2004.  I have no intention of campaigning now for the presidential office. I am deeply committed to doing whatever I can do to assist our nation and the world toward healing solutions to the challenges we are now facing.  I believe a tremendous transformation is coming forward on all levels of our society.  Together we are the ones who can and will make that transformation wonderful.  I have given 34 years of thought to the changes which will make a lasting positive difference in our lives.   Which solutions we choose will make all the difference for our futures.  Deepening democracy is the key.

 

 

 

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Deepening Democracy Begins

Deepening Democracy Action Steps

The word “democracy” comes from the Greek words “power” and “people”.  Deepening Democracy is a movement taking place all over the world.  Deepening democracy in the financial sector brings greater wealth for all.  Deepening Democracy is not against corporations or against the wealthy. Empowering people is the purpose of democracies.  Cooperatives are about empowering people.  Deepening Democracy is about everyone thriving, everyone benefitting.  It is about abundance for all.

For hundreds of years there were kings and queens, royalty and serfs or peasants. The royalty controlled most of the wealth. Remember Robin Hood, even the animals in the forests belonged to the king.   In those days the serfs and peasants barely had enough wealth to clothe and feed themselves while royalty feasted. We inherited this system. Today there are full time workers who do not earn enough to feed themselves, and cannot pay their bills while CEO’s and stockholders feast. People are losing their homes while their pensions which the company promised them disappear. Just as in those olden times, those at the bottom are proportionally taxed the most.  This system is not democratic.  It does not support the power of people.

A democratic solution to our financial inequality today is cooperative action in the financial sector. There are many forms of cooperatives. A wonderful example of cooperative enterprise is the successful Mondragon Cooperative in the Basque region of Spain. Mondragon is the 10th largest corporation in Spain with 289 companies and cooperatives, 800,321 people and 15 technology centers. There are many companies in the United States which are successfully implementing cooperative practices. Southwest Airlines is an example of a successful employee ownership culture. My local grocery in Seattle includes the customers in its cooperative governance and profit sharing.  Our Silicon Valley geniuses set up companies with employee centered cultures. Cooperatives are a sign of economic wisdom and even brilliance.  The heart of cooperatives is respecting and valuing workers.

The beauty of cooperatives is that we can start them ourselves. Cooperatives can be worker owned and managed businesses. Cooperatives are a method for creating fairness in the distribution of financial wealth.  In the Basque Mondragon Cooperative the workers hire the CEOs of their enterprises and determine their salaries. The workers select the board of directors. Workers decide what products to manufacture or services to provide. They create the policies which will best serve their intentions.

Cooperatives increase social and environmental responsibility. Because the workers live in the community, they are most likely to choose policies which are for the benefit of the community and the environment. The shift toward worker responsibility becomes a shift toward greater product quality and financial equity, healthier work conditions and thriving community and environments. Enthusiasm and pride in accomplishments increase when workers are the ones making the decisions.

The government can encourage cooperatives through incentives and favorable legislation. For instance when a company decides to close its operating facility to move somewhere else, local governments can have in place legislation which supports, promotes and facilitates the use of the abandoned infrastructure for and by the employees. Such legislation benefits the employees as well as the health of the entire community.  It is important to elect persons who support cooperatives.

We have tremendous genius and power among us. We can create a beautiful healthy peaceful future for all.  Deepening democracy into all aspects of our lives is a key to greater loving caring and sharing, health wealth and happiness, abundance prosperity and riches for all.

 

 

 

 

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