Believe We Can Transform America - introduction and invitation

Draft of a work in progress as of March 12, 2010 from
Phyllis Stenerson, Paideia LLC
3401 Colfax Avenue South, #106, Minneapolis, MN 55408
612.331.1929    phyllis@progressivevalues.org    www.ProgressiveValues.org

An open letter to the Progressive community:

For eight years we progressives lamented the direction in which our country was heading and worked fiercely to turn it around. Just over a year ago we celebrated the election of Barack Obama as president along with a Democratic majority in Congress. Our spirits soared and hopes were high. We knew it would be hard for the President and Congress to enact the major changes crucial to keeping alive the promise of America. And we knew it would take some time. But, we expected, and deserve, a stronger effort and better results from the Democrats we elected to represent all of us ordinary people than has been realized up until now.

President Barack Obama and the Congress need to be fully and constantly aware of the progressive platform on which they were elected and their responsibility to enact major changes on behalf of us ordinary people and future generations. They need to be held accountable. And, we need to support them by getting the progressive message into the public square.

Many of us know a top priority is a powerful, cohesive progressive narrative to let our leaders and the American people know what progressives stand for and what is at stake. We’ll never agree on every detail, word and priority but we share the core values and vision.

We have to be proactive in helping the American people know the progressive vision for America and the values, knowledge and history on which it is based. They need to be fully aware of the conservative extremism of today’s Republican Party and the stark contrast between the two major parties. Representative democracy is the only countervailing force for regular people against the power of special interest groups that dominate the Republican Party - particularly the alliance of big money, religious extremists and the military-industrial complex. I believe when people’s consciousness is raised they will choose to be part of the progressive movement and add their voices to urging the President and Congress to make the crucial changes America needs.

We need a progressive narrative that will: 1) influence the President and Congress; 2) motivate the progressive community and help it grow into a movement; and 3) persuade the American people to identify with the progressive worldview and become part of the movement for change.

When the Bush administration used the tragedy of 9/11 to enact one extremist conservative policy after another, I became outraged and determined to understand what was going on beneath the surface. Having been deeply involved in politics for a long time I have context for understanding the vast amount of information and opinion I’ve sifted through. I’ve shared some material through an e-newsletter and on my website, as well as writing some myself.

These past nine years have been so incredible, fascinating and transformative that I knew I needed to capture the experience and knowledge. I’m driven by two primary questions: “What will the world be like for my grandchildren?” and “What is democracy in America?”  So, I set out to write a book with the working title “Believe We Can Transform America” focusing primarily on worldview, spiritual politics and narrative.

The scope and content are overwhelming so to organize the material, I developed a framework. I needed to see the big picture, how the pieces fit together and the steps needed to reach our goal of justice, peace and sustainability. This book will be a work-in-progress for awhile but the framework may help others have public dialogues, communicate the progressive worldview and contribute to the narrative. So, instead of waiting until the book is finished or the framework is perfect, I’m putting it out into cyberspace via my website along with supporting material.

This is an invitation to the progressive community to check out the framework and other material. If you find it useful, use it. Feel free to make revisions so it better reflects your perspective within our diversity.

Go to www.ProgressiveValues.org and options on the left side of the home page. Included are the introduction to the project, the framework, concept summaries of components that include relevant quotations, articles and commentary plus excerpts from selected articles sorted by component. I’m working on a draft of a narrative and may post that soon.

I’ll appreciate hearing about how you use these materials and your ideas for how this project might move forward. Thank you for your work for a progressive America.

With audacious faith,

Phyllis Stenerson

“We must move forward in the days ahead with audacious faith. The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Democracy doesn't work without citizen activism and participation, starting at the community…What's right and good doesn't come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it – as if the cause depends on you, because it does." Bill Moyers

"What the American people want is very simple. They want a government as good as its promise." Barbara Jordan

"The government is us; we are the government, you and I." Theodore Roosevelt

Paideia (pu-die’-uh) is an ancient Greek philosophy
of educating for citizenship to create an ideal society.