My favorite March chant was This is what democracy looks like. Amen. Zoe Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Randy Williams via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> Date: 2017/01/24 11:35 AM (GMT-07:00) To: oe@lists.wedgeblade.net Subject: [Oe List ...] Fwd: Saturday's Global March ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Randy Williams <randycw1938@gmail.com> Date: Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 9:33 AM Subject: Saturday's Global March To: Order Ecumenical Community <OE@wedgeblade.net> Dear Colleagues and Cohorts, Saturday's Women's March, which I call a Global March, was for me unique in three ways. One was its size and scope; millions of people across the U.S. and around the world. Another was that, even though it highlighted the plight and determination of women, there were participants representing concerns ranging from environmental justice to student debt and everything in between. Third, was the diversity of the participants. For example, older men and women from my community who I know to be life-long conservative Republicans were front and center. This verifies my claim that though what happened can, and I believe must, have political ramifications, it was about concerns far deeper than politics. Trump himself is not the root problem, but a symptom of something that lies deeper within the culture itself. The question has arisen, will this Global March become a movement? Pondering the question, I remembered a book some of us read and talked about. In 2007 Paul Hawken wrote Blessed Unrest, which he subtitled How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. Hawken spoke of millions of "mini-movements" that have sprung up around the globe and suggested that if they should ever discover each other and coalesce, what we now see only vaguely could become massive enough to have significant positive impact. Here are a couple of paragraphs in which he explains what he means. "In contrast to the ideological struggles currently dominating global events and personal identity, a broad nonideological movement has come into being that does not invoke the masses' fantasized will but rather engages citizens' localized needs. This movement's key contribution is the rejection of one big idea in order to offer in its place thousands of practical and useful ones. Instead of isms it offers processes, concerns, and compassion. The movement demonstrates a pliable, resonant, and generous side of humanity. It does not aim for the Utopian, which itself is just another ism, but is eminently pragmatic. "And it is impossible to pin down. Generalities that seek to define it are largely inaccurate. ...the movement defies conventional typologies. Its liberal leaders are often devout; its conservative leaders propose radical solutions. The movement crosses over hoary, razor-wired political boundaries. ... If the movement in all its diversity has a common dream, it is process--in a word, democracy, but not the democracy practiced and corrupted by corporations and modern nation-states. It is, rather, a reimagination of public governance emerging from place, culture and people. ... Groups with varying outlooks and discrete goals cooperate on key issues without subordinating themselves to another group." Whether what happened on Saturday makes visible what Hawken is talking about, or whether it emerges in some other form, or not at all, will be largely dependent upon local initiatives. For those who have read Hawken's book, I encourage you to read it again, and for those who have not, please do so. Perhaps in a variety of formats we in this community could begin a dialogue that would direct our action and potentially make a significant contribution to what appears to be emerging. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter. Randy -- "Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you can't breathe the air and drink the water. Don't sit this one out. Do something."--Carl Sagan