The best way to stop the growth of a fascistic Right in the U.S. and the know-nothingism of the Tea Party fanatics and right-wing fundamentalism is to rebuild the movement that Obama managed to put together in 2008, based on a vision of caring for others and the world that he has failed to embody adequately in his presidency. It is not about bashing Obama, but about building on the hopeful energies and the suddenly visible manifestation of humanity craving for a new way of being in the world, the disappointment of which now leads to deep disillusionment and despair. We can't indulge that else we face far worse.

Support Obama To BE The Obama Americans Thought They Were Voting For!

TIKKUN/NSP 2010 CONFERENCES

(co-sponsored by The Nation Magazine, Yes Magazine, Peace Action,Pace e Bene, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Code Pink, The Institute for Policy Studies, and 350.org )

February 15, 2010 San Francisco CA
USF - Fulton Street in SF

June 11-14, 2010 Washington DC
Church of the Reformation
212 E. Capitol St. Washington, DC

Foci of the conferences:

1. "Support Obama to BE the Obama We 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." This is the most effective way to stop the rise of potentially fascistic right-wing movements and religious fundamentalists who unwittingly serve the interests of America's elites of wealth and power. Those elites, in turn, have allowed their own selfishness, materialism and cynicism about the possibility of a different kind of world lead them to rob America blind, in the process throwing millions out of work or even out of their homes.

We need to be both supportive and lovingly critical of this administration—about the escalation of war in Afghanistan; its ﬂawed health care plan; its capitulation on human rights and gay and lesbian rights; and its dumping hundreds of billions into the coffers of the banks and insurance and pharmaceutical companies while doing way too little for the poor, the powerless, and those suffering from the current
economic meltdown.

We understand that Obama faces a Washington, D.C., reality that is heavily shaped by Wall Street, the military-industrial complex, and the elites of wealth and power that control most of the media. But the 2008 election campaign demonstrated a potentially powerful counter-force: the yearning of Americans for genuine connection to each other and for a society that embodied higher values of caring, generosity, peace, and an attitude of idealism toward the world.

One year later, many people are confused, demoralized, or even deeply depressed that Obama did not energize the latent idealism of Americans he touched in 2008 to create a different political discourse in this country that would have empowered him and millions of Americans to remain active and ﬁght for “change we can believe in.” Doubting that he could count on the very forces that had elected him, he turned to the "realistic" insider politics of Washington and Wall Street, with huge subsidies to the banks and capitulations to the health care profiteers and pharmaceuticals, thus making it possible for the Right-wing to present itself as a quasi-populist voice in contrast to his seeming subservience to the elites of power and wealth. What could he do? He could have told the truth about the power relations as he saw them, as he had promised he would when he was on the campaign trail. True, the opposition might have been even more outraged. But telling the truth is the one power that the President has which does not depend on the support of a legislative majority, and would have been more important than passing pieces of legislation that are so severely compromised that they may have been worse than nothing at all.But as we learned during the Clinton years, even the good things done by one president can quickly be overturned by the next unless the President builds a strong and ongoing concensus around a shared world view. More important than winning any particular legislative battle (because any legislation can always be undone by the next administration), the empowering of a progressive, populist, ethically-based, love-and- generosity oriented social movement would have isolated the Right
and given Obama the kind of popular support that would have actually made him stronger in dealing with the Blue Dog Democrats and hence more likely to be legislatively effective.

We recognize that many who worked hard for Obama are now depressed and moving toward passivity or cynicism. But it is not too late to change the dynamics before the deep disenchantment with Obama’s failure to build on the hopeful energies his election reﬂected becomes the new political reality.

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, and ideas about how to put single payer health care back into the national conversation to amend whatever faulty proposal has been passed by Congress.

3. We will develop our inner resources both intellectual and spiritual for the long-process of building fundamental transformation in our global and domestic policies so that we can save the planet and ourselves from the various lurking environmental, military, economic and political disasters we face. 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-ing (healing and transforming the world) a joyous and nourishing experience.

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: do you agree with our 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 is, and by how much they nurture our capacity to respond to other human beings as embodiments of the sacred who can and do respond to the universe with gratitude, awe, and wonder at the grandeur of all that is. If you are supportive of our New Bottom Line, you are a spiritual progressive. Please read who this plays out in political policy terms by going to www.spiritualprogressives.org and reading out Spiritual Covenant with America and the details of our Global Marshall Plan.

Registration

The San Francisco Conference

Speakers for February 15th Conference, USF, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the McLaren Hall rooms 250-252, on the USF campus near Fulton and Clayton not far from the SF Panhandle:

Rabbi Michael Lerner
Peter Gabel
Riane Eisler
Reese Ehrlich
Rev. J. Alfred Smith Sr.
Medea Benjamin
Bill Moyer
Steve Bhaerman (Swami Beyondananda)
Miki Kashtan
Drew Dellinger
Donald Rothberg
9:30 Prayer and meditation outside the building!
10 a.m. McLaren Hall rooms 250-252 open for us
10:10   Spiritual Messages from Religious Leaders:
a. Rev. J. Alfred Smith Sr. Allen Temple
b. Other faith leaders

10:30   Medea Benjamin: How Spiritual and Political Consciousness can Blend in social Change work as we think about the Obama Administration
10:50   Keynote Address (I): Peter Gabel
11:10   People turn to another nearby and express their reactions
11:20   Speaker on Health Care
11:40   Reese Ehrlich on Iran and Afghanistan
12: 00   Riane Eisler on A Humane and Caring Economy
12:40    Lunch break
1:10      Swami Beyondananda
1:25      Rabbi Lerner gives Keynote Address on How to Best Support Obama to BE the Obama Americans Voted For
2:25     small group conversations in place
2:30     Q&A with Rabbi Lerner and Peter Gabel
3:00   Strategy Workshops for Building a Movement in the Era of Obama:
1.     Local Organizing Bill Moyer
2.     Afghanistan
3.     Legitimating Critique of Obama’s Policies even though he is an African American and the smartest and most decent US President we’ve had in many decades—without demeaning him. Plus Getting Beyond our own Humiliation at Having Believed He would follow through on bringing significant chance. –Miki Kashtan
4.     Health Care
5.     Beyond Capitalism and Socialism: A Caring and Cooperation Based Economy
6.     The Global Marshall Plan.
7.     Campus-based organizing
8.     Saving the Environment
 
4:30- Drew Dellinger: Poetry and more.
4:45 -6:00 Summing up from workshops, plus strategic directions for a Bay Area based Network of Spiritual Progressives and presentation of Youth Leadership

The Washington Conference

(Tentative) Agenda for Washington DC June 11-14th Friday, June 11

Speakers, Presenters and Workshop Leaders include: Congressman Keith Ellison, Rev. Brian McLaren, Chris Hedges, Sister Joan Chittister, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Peter Gabel, Riane Eisler, Rev. James Winkler, Rev. Conrad Braaten, John Dear S.J., Rev. Graylan Hagler, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, David Korten, Jonathan Granoff, Robert Thurman, Marianne Williamson, Paul Wapner, Bill McKibben, Svi Shapiro, Josh Weiner, Bob McChesney, John Nichols, Sheri Shapiro, Rabbi Debora Kohn, Medea Benjamin

*Focus on How we can Support Obama to BE The Obama We Voted For

Workshops on

*Afghanistan/Pakistan/Iraq Wars, *Economic Recovery, *Nuclear Disarmament *Growth of a Potentially Violent Right Wing Force in the U.S., *Non-Violent Communication, *Healing Israel/Palestine, *the 2010 Elections, *How to Help Congress Develop a Back Bone, *Building Supportive Ties Between Clergy, *A New Bottom Line in our Professions and Businesses

Shabbat Celebration

Saturday, June 12

Drawing on Spiritual Wisdom of our Diverse Spiritual and Religious Traditions

*For Social Transformation and Healing

*For Personal Transformation and Healing

Workshops on 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, Trasforming Media

Musical Celebration

Sunday, June 13

Sunday morning Worship

Sunday Afternoon: *Training for Congressional Sessions

*Building Spiritual Progressive Activities in Your Home Region

Sunday Evening: Celebration of Spiritual, Religious Diversity

Monday, June 14

Morning: Sessions with Congressional Leaders and Representatives of the Obama Administration

Monday Afternoon: Debriefing and Training for Continuing this Work

Conference will open Friday morning, June 11 and continue through Monday, June 14

All sessions will be held at the Church of the Reformation 212 E. Capitol St. Washington, DC

Registration