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Mary Mackenzie's avatar

Anthem, The People Have the Power--Patti Smith.

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Christina Wellman's avatar

I really appreciated the concrete ideas of entrance and exit ritual, and using song and movement to help us belong to each other. Thank you for your example!

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Nancy Bouffard's avatar

Hi Starhawk: Here's my idea for creating the Movement. It has to do with the Law of Attraction and everyone's power to create by forward visioning. Picture ourselves living peacefully joyously abundantly together, with all our needs met, in delight and gratitude for life on earth. Everyone in the movement commits to learning about, practicing, teaching and exercising this power. We call on Love from the Divine (whatever words you use) to show us our actions to take for our common goal. We allow ourselves to align with this goal in every way imaginable, and we allow our power to multiply, knowing it will be achieved. All our actions align with this vision which we each take responsibility to manifest. We know we are being transformed every day with Divine Spirit who is delivering to us because we have love in our hearts and this is our true desire. We commit to our own personal growth and transformation and are honest with ourselves when we put ourselves in the way of the goal. All is love and we believe in that power to direct us in new ways. We are full of gratitude for all we are given. We humbly respect all life. So many of us do this with such great joy that the obstacles fall away - we only see and believe that our vision will be delivered. Every day we notice how this is happening and it strengthens us. Every time we put out love we are empowered, as is our love (as we are all connected). Truth is with us.

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Ben Barclay's avatar

Hi Starhawk - I am assuming you are soliciting ideas, before a final edit. If so - for a previous chapter that included "letter writing", (13 things?), I would recommend making two differentiations:

One is for whether the activist is trying to influence local municipal, state, or federal governments, or corporations, etc. For instance writing letters to congresspeople is (now) useless, only personal meetings will work, but at the municipal level, letters can be part of a strategy.

The other is around where the activist is at in their journey. Someone new to activism might find it empowering to write a letter. An old veteran will likely focus their energies elsewhere. Apprentice, journeyperson, master, was how it went in the medieval trades. I'm sure you will find better words for these stages.

All this to say: "who is your audience". Writing books to "everyone" is hard. I would prefer understanding "who you are speaking to" on the fly.

Another thought arose from "writing letters to the editor". Mainstream media has been completely captured now. I don't even read their stuff, much less want to give them free content they can bury to appear "balanced". You could do a whole chapter on boycotting mainstream media, to protect our health, and alternatives such as Substack. Mentioning Noam Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent" would be helpful. Tough sledding as a read, but fabulous to help understand media in the modern world.

Anyways - great stuff. I'll drop ideas in as they surface. Much love. Ben

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