Next year, I plan to undertake four new projects:
- Wade’s Monthly, a listserv to which I’ll send one email each month reporting on my work, as well as my inner experience.
- A Causes.com campaign calling on the federal government to guarantee a living-wage job opportunity.
- A “The Personal, the Social, and the Political” survey to gauge interest in developing a network of “personal-political support circles.”
- A road trip. Beginning March 25, I’ll travel throughout the United States meeting with friends, old and new, to have a cup of tea and discuss whatever’s on our minds at that time. If you want to meet, please let me know.
The first step will be to invite more than 1,000 individuals
in my Address Book to subscribe to Wade’s
Monthly. That invitation will also include information about my other
projects. Later, I’ll submit articles to various websites for publication and
do other outreach.
Below are the latest drafts of content for those projects,
including:
- The invitation to subscribe to Wade’s Monthly.
- The content for the Causes.com campaign.
- An essay promoting that campaign.
- The content for the survey.
- An essay promoting that survey.
I would appreciate your feedback. Words of encouragement
would be appreciated. Suggested changes and additions are welcome. Though I
suspect the basic thrust of these projects will remain the same, I frequently
edit these materials. So if you want to offer considerable specific feedback,
you may want to get the latest drafts beforehand. If you schedule a time and
let me know, I’ll email you the latest drafts as an attachment at the time you
specify. Or you can Skype me at "wadehudson" or call me on Vonage at 849-624-5928 and I’ll send you the latest draft immediately.
Thanks much for whatever help you can provide. If you want
to collaborate more fully beyond offering feedback, please let me know.
Regardless, I hope you participate in some way next year!
Stoking the fire,
Wade Lee Hudson
+++
“Wade’s
Monthly” Invitation
NOTE: Underscores indicate links to
be added later.
SUBJECT: “Wade’s Monthly” (Please Subscribe)
Dear
Please reply YES to
this email if you want me to subscribe you to Wade’s Monthly, a new listserv to which I’ll send one email
concerning my work each month. I very much appreciate our previous connection
and would like to stay connected in this way.
Please reply REMOVE if
you want me to remove you from my Address Book so that I never again send you
an email except in reply to an email from you.
While staying here on the north coast of the Dominican
Republic since mid-October, some new conclusions and a new attitude have formed.
My primary commitment remains the same. I still want to foster communities that
facilitate individuals supporting one another in their self-development,
community building, and political action – in order to help make our society more
just, democratic, and compassionate.
However, in the future I will:
- Engage with greater self-confidence.
- Worry less about how others react.
- Feel less need to prove myself (to others or myself).
- Stop trying to do so much so quickly and accept that I can only do what I can do.
- More frequently remember to love the Universe and take time to enjoy myself.
- Engage more from my heart, be more present and responsive to those I encounter, and listen more carefully, while being less judgmental.
- Trust more deeply that humanity will eventually evolve into a caring community dedicated to the common good of the entire human family.
As the New Year begins, I’m concentrating on these new
projects:
- The “Tell Congress to Guarantee Living-wage Job Opportunities” campaign on Causes.com. To consider supporting this campaign, click here.
- A Guaranteed Living-Wage Job Opportunity: Support the Cause,” an essay promoting that campaign.
- “The Personal, the Social, and the Political” questionnaire. This survey is designed to gauge interest in self-development, community building, political action, and methods for individuals to support one another in those efforts. To complete the survey, please click here.
- “Let’s Get Real: A Call for Personal-Political Support Circles,” a manifesto that sums up my current thinking.
- A road trip. I’ll be in Scottsdale, AZ for Giants spring training February 26-March 25 and in New Orleans for the French Quarter Festival from April 11-14. Otherwise, I’ll be driving throughout the United States into May to have tea and discuss whatever’s on our minds with friends, old and new. Please let me know if you want to meet.
If you subscribe to Wade’s
Monthly, you will receive reports with highlights about these efforts
and others that develop. I’d really like to stay in touch. Please consider
subscribing.
To subscribe to Wade’s
Monthly, reply YES to this
email.
Stoking the fire,
Wade Lee Hudson
PS. I also continue to work on these projects:
My autobiography, draft chapters of which will
be posted here. So far, I’ve completed first drafts of 12 of 32 chapters
with about 50,000 words, or 100 pages, approximately half of the projected total.
I hope to finish the first draft prior to Spring Training and then turn it over
to an accomplished editor.
Wade’s
Weekly. The blog I’ve been doing for a few years.
Wade’s
Wire. A new blog to which I most no more than one item of interest each
day.
Reform-Wall-Street.org,
to which I post information and analysis about the need to restructure our
financial system.
Again, to subscribe to Wade’s
Monthly, reply YES to this
email.
Causes.com Campaign
NOTE: The text in italics below
indicates content that can be changed. Underscores indicate links.
Goal (limit: about 60 characters): [I want to] tell Congress to guarantee living-wage job
opportunities.
Short Description (limit:
about 100 characters): Everyone needs the opportunity to work at a
living-wage job in order to develop themselves and serve their community.
Category (one): Economics
Issues (four): jobs,
economic security, living wage, public service.
Full Description (no known limit):
This
campaign calls for the federal government to send funds to local governments to
hire public-service workers to meet pressing needs that are being neglected.
These jobs include teachers’ assistants, in-home caregiving, nursing home
staff, child care workers, park and recreation staff, substance abuse
counselors, neighborhood center staff, and environmental cleanup.
Those
funds could be generated primarily by increasing taxes on the top 1%, roughly
1.2 million households whose average income before taxes in 2012 was
$1,873,000. So their total income was $2, 250 billion. Their effective tax rate
(what they paid in taxes as a percentage of their income) was 20.6%. In the
late 1970s, they paid 35%. If they had paid 40% instead of 20%, that would have
generated an additional $450 billion in revenue.
About
10 million individuals are officially unemployed, but if living-wage job
opportunities were available, another 10 million might take those jobs, or 20
million total. A full-time worker paid
$10 per hour earns $20,000. So with $450 billion we could hire 25 million
workers at $10 per hour.
These
numbers indicate that achieving full employment is achievable. Additional costs
not detailed here would be involved, but additional revenues would also be
available, including taxes paid by the newly employed and reducing wasteful
military spending (cutting the military budget by 10% would free up $60 billion
per year).
Sources:
Democracy
and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans
List
of countries by number of households
Effective
tax rates
The
Obsession with Nominal Tax Rates or the Twinkie Romanticism
Twitter profile: @LivingWageJobs:
Supporting the Causes.com campaign to tell Congress to guarantee everyone a
living-wage job opportunity.
Primary Leader (more can be added later; let me know if you’re
interested in helping to administer the site): Wade Hudson
PETITION:
Who Are You Petitioning: The
United States Congress
What Should The Petition Say: We, the undersigned, call on Congress to assure everyone a living-wage
job opportunity.
How will this petition help? By signing this petition you can demonstrate support for the 68% of
Americans who believe "the government in Washington ought to see to it
that everyone who wants to work can find a job" and the 78% who believe
that the minimum wage should be "high enough so that no family with a
full-time worker falls below [the] official poverty line." And you can
indicate to organizations that push Congress to guarantee everyone a living-wage job opportunity that you will be available to support their efforts.
PLEDGE:
What do you want people to do? I pledge to share this campaign with people you know.
How will this pledge help? You
can help gather support for this campaign as a way to encourage activist
organizations that decide to push Congress to guarantee everyone a
living-wage job opportunity.
FUNDRAISER:
Who are you raising money for? [I’ve asked the Movement
Strategy Center to receive such donations.}
How will this fundraiser help? [To be determined by the
recipient.]
BACKGROUND:
The new Causes.com tool enables campaigns to email
supporters. (I don’t know how frequently.) There currently is no campaign on
Causes.com related to “jobs” or “job.”
The campaign is activated with the first post. There are four
types of posts:
Photo: Explain the story behind
this photo.
Video: Add YouTube link. Explain
why people should watch this video.
Story: Tell a story about why this
campaign matters
Article: Explain why this article
matters.
I plan to activate the campaign early next year with the
following article.
Causes.com Article
A Guaranteed
Living-Wage Job Opportunity: Support the Cause
NOTE: Underscores indicate future
links
Most Americans believe that our society should assure
everyone a living-wage job opportunity. In a March 2013 report, “Democracy
and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans,” Benjamin I. Page, Larry
M. Bartels, and Jason Seawright reported that 78% of the general public believe
that the minimum wage should be “high enough so that no family with a full-time
worker falls below [the] official poverty line,” and 68% believe “the
government in Washington ought to see to it that everyone who wants to work can
find a job.”
So far there’s little grassroots pressure demanding action
to achieve this goal. But some signs suggest that such movement may emerge in
the near future. You can help encourage this development by supporting the “Tell Congress to Guarantee Living-Wage
Job Opportunities” cause on Causes.com, which includes a petition
directed to Congress that states: “We, the undersigned, call on Congress to
assure everyone a living-wage job opportunity.”
If you do, the campaign will keep you informed concerning organized
efforts along this line as we become aware of them. (We will not share your
email address.)
As we see it, the best way to achieve full employment is for
the federal government to:
- Increase the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit to the level necessary to assure that workers earn a living wage and index those measures to inflation.
- Increase taxes on the top 1%.
- Send funds to local governments to hire public-service workers to meet needs that are currently being neglected.
Those needs include teachers’ assistants, in-home
caregiving, nursing home staff, child care workers, park and recreation staff,
substance abuse counselors, neighborhood center staff, and environmental cleanup.
By relying on revenue sharing with local governments, we
could avoid problems associated with “big government” and give citizens a
greater opportunity to have a voice in how funds are spent. Citizens can more
easily impact City Hall than they can the federal government.
By requiring local governments to maintain current spending
levels, we could assure that they did not simply use the new funds to reduce
local taxes.
By steadily increasing such funding until jobs go begging
due to lack of applicants, we could assure full employment.
The principle argument against full employment is that it
would create excessive inflation. But given global competitive pressures, it’s
unclear that serious inflationary pressures would result. Regardless, as I argue
in the “Controlling Inflation” section of Economic Security for All, multiple measures are available
to handle any such excessive inflationary pressure, including indexing Social
Security to inflation.
As former union leader William Winpisinger argued:
Official government policy declares
unemployment is necessary to combat inflation. For two decades we've used high
unemployment to combat inflation. We've had mini-recessions, mild recessions
and severe recessions. We've sacrificed the unemployed and their families on
the altar of fighting inflation and managing the economy. All we have to show
for it are a decline in real incomes for American workers and their families, a
growth in poverty-level jobs, and the wasted lives of nearly 10 million people
marking time in the ranks of an army of unemployed.
Trading unemployment for price
stability is like burning down the barn to get rid of the rats. We lock up
people who practice arson as a rodent control policy. Those who promote the
conscious use of unemployment to manage the economy are even more dangerous. As
a national policy it is hypocritical, bankrupt and bereft of intelligence. It
is long past due for this nation to commit, absolutely and unequivocally, to
full employment as its number one priority.
Another argument against guaranteeing a living-wage job
opportunity is that it would be too expensive. But that argument does not hold water. There are roughly 1.2 million households in the top 1%.
According to wikipedia, their average income before taxes in 2012 was
$1,873,000. So their total income was $2, 250 billion. Their effective tax rate
(what they actually paid in taxes as a percentage of their income) was 20.6%. In
the late 1970s, they paid 35%. If they had paid 40% instead of 20%, that
would have generated an additional $450 billion in revenue.
A full-time worker paid $10 per hour earns $20,000. So with
$450 billion we could hire 25 million workers at $10 per hour.
About 10 million individuals are officially unemployed, but
if living-wage job opportunities were available, another 10 million might take
those jobs. So 20 million people might take living-wage jobs if they were
available.
These numbers indicate that achieving full employment is
achievable. Additional costs not detailed here would be involved, but
additional revenues would also be available, including taxes paid by the newly
employed and reducing wasteful military spending (cutting the military budget
by 10% would free up $60 billion per year).
The remaining question is how to build a movement to achieve
it. If you support the ““Tell Congress
to Guarantee Living-Wage Job Opportunities” cause, you’ll encourage
activist organization to take on this issue. We’ll keep you informed about
opportunities along that line.
LINKS TO BE ADDED LATER:
Holistic Support Circle Survey
NOTE:
Ample space will be provided for the open-ended questions. The yes or no
questions will be followed by:
___Yes ___No ___Not sure
Comments:
The Personal, the
Social, and the Political: A Survey
Introduction
This questionnaire is intended to gauge interest in personal
growth, community development, and political action.
Responses will be kept confidential unless otherwise
indicated.
A report on the results will be shared with all respondents
who ask to receive it.
Respondents will also be invited to participate in a
follow-up online discussion about how we might improve our society so that it
better supports personal growth, community development, and political action.
The Survey
MUTUAL
SUPPORT
Do
you have close friends with whom you:
- Feel free to be yourself
- Have fun
- Express deep feelings
- Listen carefully
- Give and receive support
- Get to know each other
- Share happiness
- Discuss the meaning of life
- Evaluate what’s right and what’s wrong
- Help each other become better human beings
- And consider how to improve governmental policies and our social institutions
If you do
have close friends of that sort, would you like to have at least one additional
close friend of that kind?
If
you do not want to have at least one additional close friend of that kind, why?
If you do
not have any close friends of that sort, would you like to?
If
you do not want to have any close friends of that sort, why?
Do
you have a group of close friends
with whom you gather to engage in the kind of activities described in question
#1?
If you do, please describe the group,
including how often you meet.
If you do not, would you like to
participate in that kind of group?
If
you would not like to participate in that kind of group, why?
Do
you believe that other individuals could benefit from the opportunity to
participate in that kind of group?
Do
you believe that our society should support the development of those kind of
groups more than it does?
Do
you believe our society should assure everyone a living-wage job opportunity,
partly so that people could more easily participate in those kind of groups?
PERSONAL GROWTH
In the last month, have you worked on your personal growth?
If yes:
What issues have you addressed?
How have you addressed them?
If no, would you like to do so in
the future?
If
you would not like to do so in the future, why?
During the next month, do you plan to work on your personal
growth?
If yes:
What issues do you plan to
address?
How will you address them?
If no, why?
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
In the last month, have you tried to help improve a social
institution (or organization), such as a workplace, spiritual community,
school, neighborhood center, or an informal community of friends?
If yes:
With what organization have you
been engaged?
How did you try to contribute to
that community?
If no, would you like to do so in
the future?
If
you would not like to do so in the future, why?
During the next month, do you plan to engage in efforts to
help improve a social institution or informal community?
If yes:
With what organization or
community do you plan to be engaged?
How will you try to contribute?
If no, would you like to do so in
the future?
If
you would not like to do so in the future, why?
POLITICAL ACTION
In the last month, have you engaged in efforts to impact
public policy?
If yes:
What issues have you addressed?
How have you tried to impact
public policy concerning that issue?
If no, would you like to in the
future?
If
you would not like to do so in the future, why?
During the next month, do you plan to engage in efforts to
impact public policy?
If yes:
What issues will you address?
How will you try to impact public
policy concerning that issue?
If no, would you like to in the
future?
If
you would not like to do so in the future, why?
FOLLOW-UP
Would
you be interested in participating in an online discussion about how to
encourage the development of mutual-support groups that foster personal growth,
community development, and political action?
Will
you tell others about this survey by sending them this link: [link].
Please tell us something about yourself and why you are
interested:
May we identify you as the author of your comments?
Would you like to receive a report on the results of this
survey?
Name / Email (we won’t share your email)
Holistic Support Circle Article
Let’s Get Real: A Call for Personal-Political Support Circles
Human beings are freedom-living and compassionate. But society
suppresses our ability to be true to ourselves and act effectively to help
improve the world. Small circles of trusted friends can help us deal with those
realities. Members of such circles can support one another other in their
efforts to be more fully human and help create a more just, democratic, and
caring society.
Most people want to be happy and want others to be happy. We
want to speak from the heart and listen carefully when others do the same. We
want to be open, honest, and full of life, and we want the same for others. We
realize that if others do well, we benefit. We love others as we love
ourselves. We affirm neither selfishness nor self-sacrifice. We want to
steadily improve ourselves and the quality of our lives, partly so that we can
better serve others, and we want others to fulfill their potential as well. Most
of us want to nurture spiritual growth and enhance self-confidence, both in
ourselves and in others. Because we believe in personal responsibility,
liberty, and self-empowerment, we want our society to maximize democracy and offer
everyone a real voice in affairs that affect them. We want to protect our
environment, relieve and reduce suffering, and help make the world a better
place for everyone. We want our society to assure everyone a living-wage job
opportunity and nurture caring communities whose members support one another in
their efforts to be fully human. Even if we only have limited time for
activities beyond our work and immediate family, we would like to help improve
governmental policies and our social institutions (such as our workplace,
spiritual community, school, food bank, or neighborhood center).
But with its rapid pace, constant pressure, hyper-specialization,
and fragmentation, the modern world makes it increasingly difficult for many of
us to live our dreams. We learn to do what those with power over us want us to
do, often so that we can get a good job and keep it. We stuff our feelings and
learn to censor what we say because others might use what we say to hurt us. We
wear masks and stop being present, spontaneous, and transparent like young
children. We compete with others so much, we’re constantly trying to prove
ourselves to others (and ourselves) and don’t develop the self-confidence we
need to be free because we always fall short. We see so many others become so
greedy and immoral, we’re tempted to start looking out only for ourselves and
our families. Ever more it seems, people just talk and talk, without really
listening. Most Americans have only one or two people, or no one, with whom
they can discuss personal matters. Those with work are worried about losing
their job, and the unemployed are struggling to survive. It’s hard to get the
government to listen to ordinary people. Most of our social institutions fail
to empower their workers or their clients.
In the face of these realities, many of us would like to
have a safe place where, with a small circle of close, trusted friends, we could:
- Be real.
- Feel free to be ourselves.
- Have fun.
- Express deep feelings.
- Listen carefully to each other.
- Give and receive support.
- Get to know each other.
- Be happy.
- Discuss the meaning of life.
- Evaluate what’s right and what’s wrong.
- Help each other become better human beings.
- Consider how to improve governmental policies and our social institutions.
- Reflect on how we might better achieve those goals.
In a personal-political refuge like that, even if members met only once a month to
share a meal and have a two-hour focused conversation, they could explore how
to cope with the modern world. By articulating deep feelings and listening to
others do the same, they could learn better how to take care of themselves and their
loved ones and improve the world by having a positive impact on public policies.
They could become better, happier, more responsible human beings. Without a trained
facilitator, they could simply meet face-to-face to have soulful conversations,
enjoy life, and steadily deepen friendships.
Most people want to have a voice in improving public policy,
beyond voting. They want to devote some time to trying to have a positive
impact on our government, because they feel it is their responsibility as a
citizen. They know that if more people spoke up, it could make a big difference.
They realize we need strong activist organizations with committed members who
help build and sustain effective campaigns on concrete issues, like climate
change and the need for living-wage job opportunities. But many of these Individuals
aren’t currently engaged in such activity.
One reason is that most activist organizations are
impersonal, top-down machines that use people as objects to be mobilized, rather
than growing compassionate communities that empower their members and help them
develop their potential. Activist organizations, for example, rarely facilitate
their members consciously, intentionally supporting one another in their personal
or spiritual work. A personal-political support circle could counter these
tendencies, add a human element to activist activities, and attract new members
with contagious happiness and rewarding social activities.
Another reason for inactivity is discouraged individuals don’t
see how they can be effective. If they found a meaningful way to do so, they
could easily become engaged. A
personal-political support circle could help them find those opportunities.
At the same time, in our busy world, many of us don’t take
time to care for ourselves and strengthen our abilities. We need to acknowledge
mistakes and resolve to avoid them in the future. From time to time, we need to
reconsider our approach and try to improve it. This introspection is often
private, internal. But it helps to express our thoughts verbally and share them
with close friends. Even if others only listen, putting important thoughts into
words is usually beneficial. A personal-political support circle could help
facilitate honest self-reflection.
In addition, those groups that do engage in personal or
spiritual work rarely support people in their desire to be politically active. Tax-exempt
organizations, like churches and social-service organizations, are limited in their
political activity. But they can encourage and support their members or clients
to determine on their own their own political activity, whether as an
individual or in small unaffiliated groups. Some informal groups like book
clubs or study groups might want to expand their focus a bit. A
personal-political support circle could nurture focused political activity.
Likewise, many individuals who are not currently engaged in volunteer
efforts to build or strengthen community-service projects, such as food banks, Meals
on Wheels, homeless shelters, and environmental cleanup, would like to become
engaged in such efforts. A personal-political support circle could help them
get more plugged into that kind of compassionate action.
In these ways, personal-political support circles could help
counter hyper-specialization by addressing the whole person, including our personal,
social, and political responsibilities. They could enrich our lives, enhance
our friendships, and help us be more involved in our community.
If participants knew that other small circles elsewhere were
engaged in similar activities and connected with one another through a loose
network, it could provide a rewarding sense of community rooted in a shared
commitment and help inspire others to create their own circle and affiliate
with the network.
A network of personal-political support circles could
welcome diversity with regard to ideology and theology. Members could merely agree
on general principles and values like those articulated in this essay.
This project would not aim to create a new organization.
Rather it would encourage and support participation in existing organizations –
in order to help make those organizations and our society more democratic and
compassionate.
Some of these personal-political support circles might
consist of members who belong to the same organization and support each other
with their efforts to strengthen their organization. Other circles might consist
of individuals who are active in various organizations. Yet other circles might
consist of people who aren’t regularly involved in any particular organization
but want to exercise their social and political responsibilities as
individuals.
The potential value of a network of personal-political
support circles seems clear. The dilemma is how to foster them. What principles
should they share in common and how should they structure, or organize, their
activities?
Unfortunately, so far I only know of one example of a current
project that clearly, explicitly focuses
on providing mutual support for both personal growth and political action (if
you know of others, please let me know). That example is Mujeres Unidas y
Activas, which has “a double mission of promoting personal transformation and
building community power for social and economic justice.” Their program
includes “mutual support meetings that provide a space for women to tell their
own stories in a safe and confidential environment and receive support from
other women who have had similar life experiences.”
When I return to San Francisco in late May, I’ll once again
try to convene a personal-political support circle. In the meantime, I’ll
continue to discuss these matters online while I’m here on the north coast of
the Dominican Republic. And in April and
May I’ll travel throughout the States to investigate what folks are doing in
this vein, whether or not it is explicit and intentional, and discuss these
ideas with interested individuals.
If you would like to experiment with methods for conducting personal-political
support circles, please do so and let me know the results. Also, please tell me
if you would like to discuss these matters via Skype or in person. And please
consider answering the brief The Personal, the Social, and the Political survey.
If those of us who share these concerns put our heads
together, perhaps we can develop a network of personal-political support
circles, unless we find an already existing network with which we can affiliate.
One way or the other, we must try to fundamentally re-form
our society into a truly compassionate community dedicated to the common good
of the entire human family.
+++
NOTE: That completes the draft of materials that I plan to have ready in early 2014. Your feedback would be most welcome.
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