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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	430
Proposal	GPUS co-sponsorship of A New Bottom Line for Western Societies
Presenter	GPUS Steering Committee
Floor Manager	Sanda Everette
Phase	Closed
Discussion	12/01/2009 - 12/06/2009
Voting	12/07/2009 - 12/13/2009
Result	Failed
Presens Quorum	34 0.6666
Consens Quorum	43 A Majority of Yes and No Votes

Background

GPUS has received an invitation from Michael Lerner, acting on behalf of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, to co-sponsor a national conference in Washington, D.C. in June, 2010, "A New Bottom Line for Western Societies."

From the invitation:

"Here is what we are asking of co-sponsors: promote the conference to your
membership between now and mid-May 2010; let us send you promotional
material for email and print communications for distribution to your
audiences; and/or provide us with distribution lists to which we can send
conference material. In exchange, we will use your organization's name as
a cosponsor in promotional literature and conference material, we will
offer reduced rates on tables, and we will offer you free passes to the
event for your leadership or key staff.

"The primary focus of our work is on A New Bottom Line for Western
societies, so that institutions, corporations, government policies, and
social welfare systems would be judged efficient, rational or productive
not only to the extent that they maximize money or power (the Old Bottom
Line) but also to the extent that they maximize love and caring, kindness
and generosity, ethical and ecological sensitivity, enhance our capacities
to respond to other human beings as embodiments of the sacred, and to
respond to the universe with awe, wonder and radical amazement at the
grandeur of all that is.

"To give concrete political focus for that New Bottom Line we developed a
Spiritual Covenant with America and also a campaign for a Global Marshall
Plan, introduced last year as HR 1078 by Congressman Keith Ellison of
Minnesota and cosponsored by twenty other Congresspeople including Jim
Moran, Barney Frank, John Conyers, and Barbara Lee. ..."

This invitation was received on November 18th. It didn't make it into the voting queue earlier, because the SC was occupied with work on the budget. The Steering Committee believes there is a substantial benefit in GPUS determining co-sponsorship as soon as possible, as this will ensure our participation is known to the organizers, and to be included in planning and publicity as soon as possible. Therefore, the Steering Committee has designated a 1 week discussion period, followed by a 1 week vote. (Per proposal 393, section 6-3.2(a)http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=393)

The full letter is included, below, under References.

Proposal

The Green Party of the U.S. accepts the invitation to co-sponsor the national conference, "A New Bottom Line for Western Societies."

Resources

Promotion of the conference among Green membership, involving members' own effort and communication tools (email lsits, website, e-blast, possible mailings). No funds requested.

References

November 18, 2009

Tikkun Magazine and our education arm the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives are holding our national conference in Washington, D.C. June 11-14, at the Church of the Reformation on Capitol Hill, and we are writing to ask if The Green Party would agree to be a co-sponsor. The primary focus of our work is on A New Bottom Line for Western societies, so that institutions, corporations, government policies, and social welfare systems would be judged efficient, rational or productive not only to the extent that they maximize money or power (the Old Bottom Line) but also to the extent that they maximize love and caring, kindness and generosity, ethical and ecological sensitivity, enhance our capacities to respond to other human beings as embodiments of the sacred, and to respond to the universe with awe, wonder and radical amazement at the grandeur of all that is.

To give concrete political focus for that New Bottom Line we developed a Spiritual Covenant with America and also a campaign for a Global Marshall Plan, introduced last year as HR 1078 by Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota and cosponsored by twenty other Congresspeople including Jim Moran, Barney Frank, John Conyers, and Barbara Lee. During the conference we will visit Congressional offices to talk about the underlying idea of the GMP-our view that "homeland security" is better achieved by a Strategy of Generosity than a Strategy of Domination. We hope to thus introduce a different paradigm that might be helpful for those who are seeking to challenge militarist perspectives for solving the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine, and other places where conflict erupts. We believe that our detailed vision of the Global Marshall Plan meets the objections that have been raised to various partial measures to "alleviate" global poverty, and while we fully support the Millennium Goals and the One Campaign, we believe that the GMP's plan to eliminate global poverty, precisely because it is more visionary and holistic, is more likely to engender the enthusiasm that will be needed to make a global and domestic assault on poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education and inadequate health care politically viable.

Headlining the conference is our campaign to "Support Obama to BE the Obama Americans Voted For" - not the "Inside-the-Beltway" realist/pragmatist whose many compromises have led to a decline in popularity and a revival of the political Right as they appropriate the role of expressing populist upset at the government handling of the economic meltdown and high levels of unemployment. But we will not play into the hands of right-wing critics or allow this to become a "bash Obama" event--our goal is not to weaken but to strengthen the Obama Administration by calling it back to its highest potentials.

Here is what we are asking of co-sponsors: promote the conference to your membership between now and mid-May 2010; let us send you promotional material for email and print communications for distribution to your audiences; and/or provide us with distribution lists to which we can send conference material. In exchange, we will use your organization's name as a cosponsor in promotional literature and conference material, we will offer reduced rates on tables, and we will offer you free passes to the event for your leadership or key staff.

I have included below the initial framing for the conference plus a very tentative agenda and speaker list. We are open to considering your suggestions for workshop leaders, and additional speakers and for conference meetings or sessions that would fit well with our core objectives. We are also sending you a print package with a copy of Tikkun Magazine and material describing the Global Marshall Plan and the NSP. If you haven't visited our sites recently, please look at www.tikkun.org and www.spiritualprogressives.org to check out our core documents, my current thinking, and our new blog, Tikkun Daily (www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily). For questions about our conference and to explore ways that you can support our work, please contact conference organizer Wendy Kenin at wendy@tikkun.org or 510-644-1200.

Would you engage in whatever consultation process is necessary and let us know as soon as possible if you would agree to co-sponsor? Thank you very much.

Blessings for a world of peace, justice, love and generosity,

Rabbi Michael Lerner
Editor Tikkun and Co-chair with Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister of the Network of Spiritual Progressives

Tikkun/NSP Conference Foci:
1. "Support Obama to BE the Obama Americans Voted For-Not the Inside-the-Beltway Pragmatist/Realist whose compromises have led to a decrease in his popularity and opened the door for a revival of the just-recently-discredited Right wing."

We believe that a spiritual progressive movement needs to be both supportive and lovingly critical of this Administration-about Afghanistan, its weak health care plan, its capitulation on human rights, and its dumping hundreds of billions into the coffers of the banks, insurance companies and pharmaceuticals while doing way too little for the poor and the powerless.

But we understand that Obama faces a Washington D.C. reality which is so heavily shaped by Wall Street and similar forces that he often has little room to maneuver. Challenging that control by America's elites of wealth and power, rather than beating up on a President who is, when all is said and done, one of the most intelligent and decent people ever to serve in the office, is the real agenda-and how to do so in a way that empowers Obama to be the man Americans voted for is a key part of our focus.

Instead of beating up on Obama, and thus unintentionally giving aid or comfort to the racists and right-wingers who are already abusing this incredible human being, we will focus on how to support him to do what he can do-including, very importantly, a focus on democratic reform of the US electoral system to reduce the power of money and to increase the capacity of ordinary citizens to have a real impact on the outcome of primaries, referenda, and general elections at every level of government. This must include mandating free media time for candidates to present their views.

2. We will focus on developing positive ideas and programs for an economy and society that more fully embodies your highest values, as well as concrete ideas for what we could do for global (including Middle East) peace and reconciliation. We will also address how to decrease the power of the military, how to create an economy and polity that is fully dedicated to saving the planet from environmental destruction, how to put single payer health care back into the national conversation to amend whatever faulty proposal has been passed by Congress, and how to address issues of human rights, homeland security, and global and domestic social justice. As always, we will apply our central notion that all of the world's societies need a New Bottom Line, defined below, and explicated in our Spiritual Covenant with America at www.spiritualprogressives.org.

3. We will develop our inner resources, both intellectual and spiritual, for the long-term process of building fundamental transformation into our global and domestic policies to heal and transform the planet from the environmental, military, economic and political disasters we face. At the same time, we will also strengthen our capacities to recognize and rejoice at all the goodness and love that is available to us and that can sustain us and make the process of tikkun olam (healing and transforming the world) a joyous and nourishing experience.

Registration for the conference will be available at our website this week. Please note:

You DO NOT have to be religious or believe in God to be a "spiritual progressive." We welcome people not only from every religious community but also those who are "spiritual but not religious," including some who are militant atheists or agnostics. Our criterion for membership is that you agree with our goal of a New Bottom Line for Western societies. Our New Bottom Line urges people to judge institutions, corporations, legislation, social practices, health care, our educational and legal systems, and our social policies (as well as our personal behavior) by how much love and compassion, kindness and generosity, and ethical and ecological sensitivity they inculcate within us, and by how much they nurture our capacity to relate to other human beings as embodiments of the sacred who can respond to the universe with gratitude, awe, and wonder at the grandeur of all that is. If you support our New Bottom Line, you are a spiritual progressive. Please read more about us by going to www.spiritualprogressives.org and reading our Spiritual Covenant with America and the details of our Global Marshall Plan.

Tikkun / NSP Conference Schedule at a Glance
(Very tentative and will change depending on speakers' schedules)

Friday, June 11
Conference Opening
Interfaith Celebration: Rev. Conrad Braaten, Muslim religious figure, Rev. Graylan Hagler
Keynote Speakers: Chris Hedges, Sister Joan Chittister, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Congressman Keith Ellison
*Focus on How we can Support Obama to BE The Obama We Voted For

Workshops
*The Legacy of Racism and How It Manifests in Assaults on Obama and His Administration *Love and Power in American Politics *The Environmental Crisis *Afghanistan/Pakistan/Iraq Wars *Non-violent Communication *Economic Recovery *Poverty and Class Oppression in the US *Nuclear Disarmament *Growth of a Potentially Violent Right Wing Force in the U.S. *Healing Israel/Palestine *The 2010 Elections *How to Help Congress Develop a Back Bone *Food Policy *Building Supportive Ties Between Clergy *A New Bottom Line in our Professions and Businesses

Shabbat Celebration

Saturday, June 12
Morning: Drawing on Spiritual Wisdom of our Diverse Spiritual and Religious Traditions
Rev. James Winkler, John Dear S.J. and many others
*For Social Transformation and Healing
*For Personal Transformation and Healing

Workshops
Environment, Sexuality, Reproductive Rights, Aging, Facing Sickness and Death, Human Rights, Spiritual Ways to Deal with Religious Fundamentalism, Psycho-Spiritual Techniques for Overcoming Societal Denial and Fear, Empowerment for Social Activists, Transforming the Practice of Medicine, Transforming the Practice of Law, Transforming our Educational System, Transforming the Universities, Transforming Media

Afternoon: Positive Alternatives
Keynote: Peter Gabel on Non-Alienated Human Relationships
David Korten on the Economy
Riane Eisler on thinking Beyond Capitalism and Socialism
Jonathan Granoff on Disarmament
Focus on what economic policies and foreign policies could be if we reconstructed American society

Musical Celebration

Sunday, June 13
Sunday morning Worship

Afternoon:
*Training for Congressional Sessions
*Building Spiritual Progressive Activities in Your Home Region
*The Global Marshall Plan

Evening: Celebration of Spiritual, Religious Diversity
*Marianne Williamson speaks

Monday, June 14
Morning: Sessions with Congressional Leaders and Representatives of the Obama Administration
Afternoon: Debriefing and Training for Continuing this Work

_

Copyright � 2009 Network of Spiritual Progressives�.
2342 Shattuck Avenue, #1200
Berkeley, CA 94704
510-644-1200 Fax 510-644-1255

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