12/16/16
Dear Van, Dream Corps, and the #LoveArmy
Thanks much for today’s report. I’m glad to hear that 60,000 people have already signed up for the #LoveArmy.
In reply to your request, I would like to see the #LoveArmy:
- Organize Congressional Action Teams. Based in each Congressional district, #LoveArmy teams engage regularly with their Congressperson’s staff, develop relationships with them, brainstorm possibilities together, and communicate #LoveArmy recommendations to them when the #LoveArmy develops such recommendations.
- Convene Community Dialogues with Elected Officials. Persuade elected officials and/or their chiefs of staff to convene open-ended monthly Community Dialogues to receive input from and report to constituents. Structure those forums to insure that the official does not dominate them. Use an outside moderator.
- Unlearn negative conditioning. The #LoveArmy needs to encourage its members to engage in critical self-examination and support one another in efforts to overcome tendencies that undermine effectiveness. As you said years ago at an Alternet.org book release party, Van, “We need to be less pro-fessional and more confessional.”\
- Develop a positive vision for systemic reform. Interest in “the system” is increasing. But when most people talk about the system, they usually only talk about the economy and the government. My colleagues and I are developing a more comprehensive analysis that sees the System as consisting of all of our major institutions, our culture, and ourselves as individuals. From that perspective, we present a path to systemic transformation. We welcome help with writing our statement of principles, “Transform the System: A Call to Action.” The latest draft will always be at https://goo.gl/fSX9Cc.
Those are some suggestions for your consideration off the top of my head.
I look forward to contributing to the #LoveArmy as best I can. Next Tuesday I’m hoping a Circle of like-minded people comes together with me as a participant.
Please let me know if you have other ideas concerning how I might help.
Yours,
Wade Hudson