Wade’s Journal

Now that I’m healthy again after a series of illnesses including pneumonia, I’d like to report on some recent developments.

Even while sick, I continued updating Reform-Wall-Street.org. I feel it’s a good site and has the potential for ever more becoming a resource that concerned individuals will find valuable. I spend at least 2-3 hours a day following the news, conducting research, and incorporating what I learn into the site.

Lately, I’ve been posting a daily “Big Bank News” with highlights and links to particularly interesting items. When appropriate, I also incorporate new information into the Problems, Solutions, Strategy, Resources, and Action pages, which are relatively static.

By the end of this week, I hope to publish the first edition of a monthly newsletter summarizing recent developments. The working title for the lead article is “Big Banks Face Growing Heat.” The opening paragraph includes, “Among elites, the month of March witnessed a major increase in the growing demand to break up the big banks. But still no grassroots organization has undertaken an effort to amplify this pressure.”

I’m also working on writing Transform America: A Declaration for Action. This document will summarize my thinking, drawing on the fruits of the re-evaluation of the progressive movement in which I've been engaged for several years. When I convened the Strategy Workshops, the Compassionate Politics Workshops, and the Social Transformation Using the Three-Fold Path Workshop, I mostly listened and learned.

Now I want to present my conclusions as briefly as possible and get feedback. The current sections are: Preface, Introduction, The System, Social Control, The United States, A Transformative Worldview (Compassion, Humility, Collaboration), Vision, Goals, Strategy, Tactics. I feel good about how it’s proceeding and hope to share a draft with you and others soon.

Ideally, afterwards we’ll form a co-equal team to re-write the declaration using wiki collaborative software (or write a similar statement starting from scratch!)

In the meantime, I’ve placed my autobiography on the back burner.

Also, I’m planning to sell my property and bungalow in Mexico. When I bought the land, it was primarily as an affordable, emergency backup retirement home. But now that I’m in an excellent, one-bedroom senior-subsidized unit, I feel secure and will be able to use the money that comes from the sale.

On a personal level, when I was sick, I often felt sad and lonely, which led me to resolve to try to improve my friendships. I persist with those efforts. The results are uncertain. I feel like I’m swimming upstream against a current of dehumanization that makes close friendships more and more difficult. At least for me.

Fortunately, being a workaholic, I feel better when I’m productive. So I’m still doing well.