Letter to the Editor
Sunday, April 15th is the deadline for paying our taxes. My partner and I celebrating this Sunday as “Generosity Sunday” and will be inviting our neighbors into our home to get better acquainted with them and also to talk to them regarding how they feel about how our federal taxes are being used.
Our local chapter of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) believe that generosity is a more effective and ethical approach to human security than is military aggression and other, “softer” means of using U.S. power to serve our own interests. We are proposing “The Global Marshall Plan: A National Security Strategy of Generosity and Care.
This plan calls for using 1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the world’s developed nations every year for distributing aid in a way that is environmentally sensitive and respectful of native cultures to help empower the people. To learn more about celebrating Generosity Sunday and this plan, see our website, nsp.madisonwi.us. We invite you and your neighbors to join us on Sunday the 15th in your own neighborhoods to celebrate “Generosity Sunday.”
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Celebrate Generosity Sunday!
Network of Spiritual Progressives
Madison Chapter
We believe that we need a deeper and more positive vision of the world we want to see. We see a world in which the “domination and control” strategy is replaced by a “generosity and caring” focus at every level of our society. Such a vision or strategy should also replace our Homeland Security and National Defense strategy.
Most briefly, the counter strategy that we are proposing would call for a “Global Marshall Plan (GMP),” which would have the United States and the other G-8 countries dedicate 5% of their GDP for the next twenty years toward eliminating global and domestic poverty, inadequate health care and education, all toward repairing our global infrastructure and environment.
Your local chapter believes that a GMP strategy will gain greater support of the American people and the world than our nation’s preemptive defense strategy. We believe that such a “defense” policy is merely a self-interest strategy that threatens world peace and ignores the peoples’ desire for world peace with justice.
In clear contrast, the GMP initiative is a challenge to all sides of the current debate about the war because it shows that peace can be coupled with real involvement in the world. We urge everyone to consider the Generosity and Caring strategy. If we want a world without war and sustainable we need a generous nation that treats all the peoples of the world with love, caring and respect.
We would like for you to consider celebrating with us on “tax” Sunday, April 15th, 2007, by inviting your neighbors in for a discussion of this issue. For more information go to nsp.madisonwi.us, www.spiritualprogresives.org and www.globalmarshallplan.org.
We encourage you to celebrate with us by beginning this dialogue on how we could better achieve security in our world.
Madison Chapter
We believe that we need a deeper and more positive vision of the world we want to see. We see a world in which the “domination and control” strategy is replaced by a “generosity and caring” focus at every level of our society. Such a vision or strategy should also replace our Homeland Security and National Defense strategy.
Most briefly, the counter strategy that we are proposing would call for a “Global Marshall Plan (GMP),” which would have the United States and the other G-8 countries dedicate 5% of their GDP for the next twenty years toward eliminating global and domestic poverty, inadequate health care and education, all toward repairing our global infrastructure and environment.
Your local chapter believes that a GMP strategy will gain greater support of the American people and the world than our nation’s preemptive defense strategy. We believe that such a “defense” policy is merely a self-interest strategy that threatens world peace and ignores the peoples’ desire for world peace with justice.
In clear contrast, the GMP initiative is a challenge to all sides of the current debate about the war because it shows that peace can be coupled with real involvement in the world. We urge everyone to consider the Generosity and Caring strategy. If we want a world without war and sustainable we need a generous nation that treats all the peoples of the world with love, caring and respect.
We would like for you to consider celebrating with us on “tax” Sunday, April 15th, 2007, by inviting your neighbors in for a discussion of this issue. For more information go to nsp.madisonwi.us, www.spiritualprogresives.org and www.globalmarshallplan.org.
We encourage you to celebrate with us by beginning this dialogue on how we could better achieve security in our world.
Friday, April 13, 2007
A vision for my children and grandchildren
I envision a world when a fine newspaper like the Wisconsin State Journal will no longer have a market for a columnist that weekly provides the op-ed reader with caustic political cynicism and bellicose support for war and domination versus peace and cooperation. This week (4/12/07) James Lileks ridicules the Quaker’s peace message and emasculates those European nations that prefer a foreign policy of peaceful cooperation and negotiation over military domination or intimidation. I envision a time when love and generosity will replace domination and selfishness.
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