All material posted for non-commercial purposes only.
http://philosopherswheel.com/activism.html
moveon.org Support powerful progressive advocacy and election campaigns
Eric the Green's Global Warming blog
Election 2012 poll averages and results in swing states
Get involved here (see links)
Original 10 Key Values of the Green Party
Politics and Pollution: In the USA, political parties decide the fate of the Earth A new narrative for a new greener world by E. Alan Meece
President Obama clearly and eloquently laid out the activism we need in one of his finest speeches
The Plague of Free-Market Ideology by E. Alan Meece. Read about the greatest and most-powerful ongoing threat to our lives today; the biggest delusion ever perpetrated on America, and the root cause of our failure and decline. Unless we break its grip on the American mind, all other causes will suffer profoundly. Let us get back to an approach to our lives and society where we cooperate and work together for the good of all; where we understand that each one of us is special and divine. Competing against others for money for ourselves alone is only at best a means to an end. What fulfills us is a society full of life and culture, where we feel we belong. We need to switch to ideals that support, promote and provide for this.
Learn about the neo-liberal philosophy that is ruining our lives and our planet since 1980
above: Bruce Bartlett on Where the Right Went Wrong from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
Bruce Bartlett on Where the Right Went Wrong with full text
see also Eric the Green's Global Warming Blog, compiled by Eric Meece: Part 2, articles and videos found since 2023
Part 1, articles and videos found and posted from 2015 to 2022
Scientists forecast more extreme weather
The climate is changing 10 or 20 times faster than ever before in Earth's history, due to human impacts: using fossil fuels, ranching, deforestation, concrete-making. Never before have so many extreme weather disasters occured. As of 2011 we have had unprecedented devastating floods in Pakistan, Thailand, Phillippines, China and the Mississippi River, among other places. We have had huge fires in Austrailia, Russia and New Mexico, droughts in Africa and Texas and CA and all over the USA. And much more! How many Joplins and Katrinas does it take before we start taking action? How long before the glaciers and ice caps melt and we have no more water and food? How long before our beautiful beaches erode? How long before our land is inundated? And we have to suffer all this just so that a few energy and car company executives are not inconvenienced? All this because we don't understand that the alternatives to fossil fuels exist, and could be available to all virtually tommorrow if the money were invested there instead of in more oil wells, tar sands and pipelines?
As I write here again in 2021, extreme weather has gotten worse. Cities have burned in California, and elsewhere. Historic heat waves kill thousands. Droughts and unprecedented floods and storms have struck all over the world. The ice in Antarctica is collapsing. The tropical rainforests are diminishing. Tropical climates are moving north and south, but the life here is not adapted to this new climate and cannot contain the floods, fires and droughts.
We need to act now to preserve and protect this beautiful unique planet for ourselves and those who come after us. Celebrate and revere our Earth home. Ask your representatives to act now. Vote out Republicans, so we have a congress willing to act when it IS asked, and require the car and energy companies to switch. Change your energy use where you can. Eat less meat. Don't live in vulnerable areas.
David Roberts on coal dependence
The great race: Coal vs. the Climate by Ken Ward Jr.
The reality is this, folks. Some politicians, fossil-fuel apologists, and petty-minded pundits say that we can't stop producing energy from coal, and that we can't quickly convert to electric cars. But the vast majority of scientists say we have about 8 years to do just that. We'd better tell these people to smell the coffee and change their tune, right now. We can't afford to lose our water and our food, nor our beautiful beaches and thousands of living species. Inform yourself on the issues, and don't be deceived by the lies put out by the fossil fuel companies and the right-wing conspiracy wackos.
Make sure you know which US political party supports actions on the climate crisis and the environment, and which one does not. Take a look at the scorecard of members of congress issued by the League of Conservation Voters. This is the card for 2020. LCV scorecard
See Doug McConnell give an eloquent defense of Coyote Valley just south of San Jose
Help, at Stop Global Warming.org
Home: popular new video on our endangered Earth
A movement that advocates, as Mario Cuomo said, no more government than we need, but all the government that we need.
A movement for campaign finance reform and lobbying reform to take money out of politics, and to stop defining political spending as "free speech." Ending gerrymandering.
A movement to end corporate personhood, regulate dealings by big financial companies, reduce corporate influence in government, and end corporate welfare when it is not constructive investment for the people.
A movement to end the religious right's culture war, and instead support tolerance and women's rights and protect freedom of speech and religion.
A movement to secure civil rights and voting rights, and end police brutality, racial profiling and militarization of police. Make sure funding is increased, or shifted from police as needed, for social and health work and youth programs that have been cut and shoved onto the police, who are unqualified to do these jobs.
A movement to control access to guns and to outlaw all semi-automatic military weapons and large ammunition magazines for civilians.
A movement for an internationalist foreign policy that is multi-lateral and peaceful, and supports advancement of freedom instead of corporate and fossil-fuel interests.
A movement to end global warming and other pollution, and supports new laws and energy sources to quickly clean it up.
A movement that supports and protects efficient social programs that help the poor and middle class, and to invest in vital infrastructure.
A movement to lower the cost of living by bringing down the high price of education, transportation and health care, now being driven up by greedy free-market policies.
A movement for much greater pay equity at work.
A movement for a fair and progressive tax system instead of a flat tax or other tax breaks for the wealthy. A movement to reduce the debt in sensible ways, instead of using it as an excuse for the government not to do the things we need it to do.
A movement to create and foster a climate of free inquiry, creativity, the arts, idealism, health and fitness, relationship and connection, ethics, community, local economies, sensibility, spirituality, and cultural ferment. A true attitude and cultural shift to match a true political program-- even involving the government where appropriate!
Finally, a movement that is willing to use any effective and ethical means necessary to achieve these goals, not declare up-front that it refuses to use any of these means in order to protect its "purity" from feared co-option.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. Let's revive the vision!
-- E. Alan Meece, Jan.3, 2012; revised
Is is really "American" to let greedy and violent people do whatever they wish, in the name of "individualism" and the misguided ideological belief that "government is the problem?"
On April 20 1999, at 11:19 AM, the Columbine High School massacre began. Twelve students and a teacher were killed and twenty-five more were wounded. On April 16, 2007, at 7:15 AM, the Virginia Tech massacre began. Thirty-two students and teachers were killed and twenty-three more were wounded. The massacre of 26 including 20 young children at Sandy Hook CT in 2012 made our president cry when he found the congress refused to act. The murder of 17 students at Parkland FL in 2018 inspired a nationwide March for Our Lives. A madman killed dozens attending a concert from his Las Vegas hotel window. Another huge toll was taken at a Florida nightclub.
Those images are seared into our minds. Now there is a steady drumbeat of new images. New tragedies. The American Civic Association in Binghamton, N.Y. where thirteen people were murdered and four wounded on April 3, 2009. A paranoid young man in Pittsburgh who believed his guns were going to be taken away, killed three police officers and then himself on April 4. The list of killings and injuries by guns goes on and on. And what has the U.S. Congress done? Virtually nothing. For decades.
The Columbine killers used two shotguns, an assault rifle and a TEC-9 assault pistol. All four guns went through sales at gun shows. A friend of the killers bought three of the guns for them from unlicensed sellers at a gun show. After the massacre, the friend stated that had she been required to undergo a Brady background check, she would not have purchased the guns.
The massacres never stop, because we as a nation would rather allow anyone who wants a gun to get one, and politicians succumb to the propaganda by the gun lobby. Just like with global warming, Republicans and hesitant Democrats refuse to act.
Urge your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative to Close the Gun Show Loophole. Tell them our national policy should be: No Background Check, No Gun, No Excuses. Tell them to outlaw all assault weapons and large magazines.
Contact the Brady campaign here for more info
It is a great guide to the future direction that politics needs to take, and an outline of what I call the "Green Revolution," which is the latest cycle of Revolution that began in 1966 (and the 60s).
THE ENTIRE ORIGINAL TEN KEY VALUES STATEMENT
Introduction
This list of values and questions for discussion was composed by a diverse group of people who are working to build a new politics, which has kinship with Green movements around the world. We feel the issues we have raised below are not being addressed adequately by the political left or right. We invite you to join with us in refining our values, sharpening our questions - and translating our perspective into practical and effective political actions.
Ecological Wisdom
How can we operate human societies with the understanding that we are PART of nature, not on top of it? How can we live within the ecological and resource limits of the planet, applying our technological knowledge to the challenge of an energy-efficient economy? How can we build a better relationship between cities and countryside? How can we guarantee the rights of non-human species? How can we promote sustainable agriculture and respect for self-regulating natural systems? How can we further biocentric wisdom in all spheres of life?
Grassroots Democracy
How can we develop systems that allow and encourage us to control the decisions that affect our lives? How can we ensure that representatives will be fully accountable to the people who elected them? How can we develop planning mechanisms that would allow citizens to develop and implement their own preferences for policies and spending priorities? How can we encourage and assist the "mediating institutions" - family, neighborhood organization, church group, voluntary association, ethnic club - to recover some of the functions now performed by government? How can we relearn the best insights from American traditions of civic vitality, voluntary action and community responsibility?
Personal and Social Responsibility
How can we respond to human suffering in ways that promote dignity? How can we encourage people to commit themselves to lifestyles that promote their own health? How can we have a community-controlled education system that effectively teaches our children academic skills, ecological wisdom, social responsibility and personal growth? How can we resolve personal and intergroup conflicts without just turning them over to lawyers and judges? How can we take responsibility for reducing the crime rate in our neighborhoods? How can we encourage such values as simplicity and moderation?
Nonviolence
How can we, as a society, develop effective alternatives to our current patterns of violence at all levels, from the family and the street to nations and the world? How can we eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth without being naive about the intentions of other governments? How can we most constructively use nonviolent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and in the process reduce the atmosphere of polarization and selfishness that is itself a source of violence?
Decentralization
How can we restore power and responsibility to individuals, institutions, communities and regions? How can we encourage the flourishing of regionally-based cultures, as distinct from a dominant monoculture? How can we locate the power of our political, economic and social institutions closer to home in ways that are efficient and practical? How can we reconcile the need for community and regional self-determination with the need for appropriate centralized regulation in certain matters?
Community-Based Economics
How can we redesign our work structures to encourage employee ownership and workplace democracy? How can we develop new economic activities and institutions that will allow us to use our new technologies in ways that are humane, freeing, ecological, and responsive to communities? How can we establish some form of basic economic security, open to all? How can we move beyond the narrow "job ethic" to new definitions of work, jobs and income that reflect the changing economy? How can we change our income distribution pattern to reflect the wealth created by those outside the formal, monetary economy - those who take responsibility for parenting, housekeeping, home gardening, doing community volunteer work, etc.? How can we restrict the size and concentrated power of corporations without discouraging superior efficiency or technological innovation?
Postpatriarchal Values
How can we replace the cultural ethos of dominance and control with more cooperative ways of interacting? How can we encourage people to care about persons outside their own group? How can we promote the building of respectful, positive and responsive relationships across the lines of gender and other divisions? How can we encourage a rich, diverse political culture that respects feelings as well as rationalist approaches? How can we proceed with as much respect for the means as the end, the process as well as the product? How can we learn to respect the contemplative, inner part of life as much as the outer activities?
Respect for Diversity
How can we honor cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity within the context of individual responsibility toward all beings? While honoring diversity, how can we reclaim our country's finest shared ideals - the dignity of the individual, democratic participation, and liberty and justice for all?
Global Responsibility
How can we be of genuine assistance to the grassroots groups in the Third World - and what can WE learn from such groups? How can we help other countries make a transition to self-sufficiency in food and other basic necessities? How can we cut our defense budget while maintaining an adequate defense? How can we promote these ten Green values in reshaping our global order? How can we reshape the global order without creating [the equivalent of] just another enormous nation-state?
Future Focus
How can we induce people and institutions to think in terms of the long-range future, and not just in terms of their short-range selfish interest? How can we encourage people to develop their own visions of the future and move more effectively toward them? How can we judge whether new technologies are socially useful - and use those judgments to shape our society? How can we induce our government and other institutions to practice fiscal responsibility? How can we make the quality of life, rather than open-ended economic growth, the focus of future thinking?
Bruce Bartlett on Where the Right Went Wrong
Learning From Europe by Paul Krugman
Lakoff on Congress' abdication of authority on Iraq
powerful Bill Moyers June 2005 speech on our sordid economic situation and grim future if Bush and Co. get their way, and what we can do
It's Tough Nowadays Being a Republican (22 basic self-contradictions)
War Issues including the Israel/Palestine issue and its solution
Environmental and other Domestic Issues
Election Watch: polls, results, predictions
Let the Golden Rule Overule the Rule of Gold, by Swami Beyondananda
Holistic Politics of Peace, by Marianne Williamson of Global Renaissance/Peace Alliance
Bringing God Into It, by Rabbi Michael Lerner
My Spin on the election disaster of 2004, by E. Alan Meece
Check back as I add more articles and info to these pages!
Organize! You can get involved here:
moveon.org
Green Party
Common Dreams
Truthout.org
Avaaz.org
Bill Moyers program website
People for the American Way
Democracy for America
Democratic Underground
Repower America.org
Greenpeace USA
Our Future.org
Democrats.com (progressive Democrats)
Health Care for America.org