Activism

20091119th-us-southern-command-ussc-disaster-relief-el-salvadorSummary. In tough economic times, it’s even more essential to achieve the greatest value from money spent on defense and national security. A nation’s armed forces and military personnel must be fully trained and equipped to meet modern threats to national security. The threats we face today are like none we’ve ever faced before. For this reason, leaders in defense are redirecting resources and funding to humanitarian aid and sustainability efforts because such initiatives produce the greatest return on the investment.

Three-Pronged Approach. Natural disasters have now eclipsed terrorism as the greatest cause of death, damage, and injury. Scarcity of resources is resulting in conflicts, terrorism, and war around the world. A three-pronged approach is needed: (1) humanitarian aid to those impacted by natural disasters, and (2) development of sustainable energy solutions to reduce our negative impact on the planet, (3) creating communities of economic and agricultural abundance. The military establishment recognizes this and is taking immediate action.

New Military. At this very moment, thousands of people serving in the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, National Guard, and other special forces are being rapidly redeployed to build schools, build clinics, assist in disaster relief, offer support with agricultural development, deliver humanitarian aid, and develop sustainable energy solutions. Combined military forces are now working on campaigns to deliver humanitarian aid such as the disaster relief to El Salvador. Hundreds of thousands of tons in food, water, and clothing, are being delivered and various forms of shelter are being constructed.

New Marching Orders. In the winter of 2009, one of the top leaders of the elite United States Special Operations Command  (USSOCOM) located at MacDill Aif Force Base in Florida gave the following words as marching orders [source] for those in military service as well as civilians:

Maximize family time if at all possible
Renew old friendships
Do fewer things, but do them thoughtfully
Avoid the tyranny of the ‘hustle & bustle’

Look back to the history of our great national celebrations
teach the children

Rethink and Rediscover the truly valuable things of life

Try to recognize and accept family members as friends, just as they are

Be intentional in ‘random acts of kindness’

Choose to love, accept and forgive
Read the scripture
Pray for your military, your community, and your country

Sustainability. It seem that the armed forces and military leaders have accurately identified and responded to the greatest threats to humanity. Below is an image from the Army Sustainability website. The Army has placed Sustainability as a top priority because if humanity doesn’t survive due to scarcity of resources, then there’s nothing left to defend.

20091120fr-army-sustainability-website

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Activism

20091119th-nuru-logoSummary. Nuru International works to end extreme poverty by focusing on empowering people through programs in agriculture, education, and healthcare, as well as water and sanitation. In the Kiswahili language of Kuria, Kenya, the word Nuru means light.

Ending Poverty to Eliminate Terrorism. Nuru was founded by Jake Harriman, an ex-Marine platoon commander who, after 7 years of military service around the world, observed a strong connection between poverty and the increase in world terrorism and war.

Jake Harriman served over seven years as a platoon commander in both the Infantry and an elite unit of Marines called Force Recon. After completing two tours of duty in Iraq (receiving the Bronze Star for actions in combat) and fighting the war on terror all around the world, Jake came to the realization that the only chance we have of ending terrorism is to end extreme poverty. Jake left his career in the Marines to start an organization to end extreme poverty. He enrolled at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, and with the help of his classmates, professors, and some Silicon Valley venture capitalists, Jake formed Nuru International.

20091119th-us-southern-command-ussc-disaster-relief-el-salvadorA Mightier Military. It’s appropriate that there be an independent civilian non-military initiative such as Nuru, to raise awareness about the effectiveness of humanitarian aid as a means to ending and/or preventing war. Others in the military have also seen the connection between poverty and war. For this reason, official branches of the U.S. military, such as the United States Southern Command, are focusing on humanitarian aid. In November 2009, the US Southern Command delivered over 370,000 pounds of food, water, medical aid, and other supplies to El Salvador as part of a humanitarian aid effort called New Horizons:

Humanitarian assistance exercises such as Neuvos Horizontes (New Horizons) involve construction of schools, clinics, and water wells in countries throughout the region. At the same time, medical readiness exercises involving teams consisting of doctors, nurses and dentists also provide general and specialized health services to host nation citizens requiring care. These humanitarian assistance exercises, which last several months each, provide much needed services and infrastructure, while providing critical training for deployed U.S. military forces. These exercises generally take place in rural, underprivileged areas. USSOUTHCOM attempts to combine these efforts with those of host-nation doctors, either military or civilian, to make it even more beneficial. [source]

Hopeful Future. As millions and even billions of dollars are redirected toward civilian and military initiatives focusing on humanitarian aid and relief, we will get better results (in terms of world peace) for the same money spent. In the future, defense budgets may increasingly be spend on building schools, health clinics, and assisting with agricultural development rather than blowing people up.

Video. Below is a video with Jake Harriman sharing how Nuru began.

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Effective Living > Iowa City

20091026mo-servcie-sidewalk-chalk-IMG_2064-high-mediumSummary. The Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce has created a new initiative with a publicity website called What Is The Spark.

Sidewalk Chalk. The promotional campaign began in October 2009 with the somewhat mysterious appearance of chalk drawings on the sidewalks of downtown Iowa City. Colorful asterisks were drawn, sometimes accompanied by words such as Service, Knowledge, or Connect. The photo shown here was taken on 26 October 2009. The campaign inspires people to ask What’s the Spark? and search for more information.

Spark Leadership Award. On 5 November 2009, the ICACC announced winners of a Spark Leadership Award.

No US Bank Affiliation. Because a well known US Bank campaign refers to Five Stars of Service, it was thought that this campaign may have been something instigated by US Bank. However, it seems this isn’t true.

Official Website. The WhatIsTheSpark.com website (registered to the ICACC) offers the following list that describes what the Spark is and does.

  • Nurtures leadership in Johnson County
  • Represents all sectors of our community
  • Contributes to the vision of Coralville, Iowa City, North Liberty and Solon
  • Equips leaders with skills to mobilize positive change
  • Reaches decision-makers and influences policy
  • Builds relationships to share innovative ideas, viewpoints and approaches
  • Promotes collaboration and resource sharing
  • Creates opportunities to champion a cause
  • Engages established and emerging leaders
  • Raises awareness of the critical issues and systems that make up Johnson County
  • Develops open-minded, proactive leaders
  • Provides dynamic, meaningful and relevant partnerships
  • Serves as an invaluable resource to your community
  • Introduces individuals to diverse community themes including arts & culture, health care, government, economics, agriculture, human services, education
  • Inspires participants to become actively engaged in their own city
  • Provokes intellectual curiosity and debate
  • Educates constituents about the power they have to make an impact
  • Encourages participants to get involved
  • Generates dialogue about key issues

More Information. If you have more information about the Spark campaign, please contact us so we can update this page.

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Activism > Environment | Health

20091105th-food-inc-movie-dvd-coverSummary. Food Inc., available on DVD or Blu-ray, is a documentary about the production of food in the United States.

Overview. The movie shares startling facts about the corporate ownership of genetically modified soybeans that represent 80% of the soybeans in the nation. Those who grow these soybeans without authorization, will be prosecuted. Those who speak out against the potential dangers of meat consumption, are also prosecuted. The film also details the political leaders who are regulating the companies they previously worked for.

CommentaryGregory Johnson describes it as, “Muckraking that’s breathtaking. The visuals, graphics. and authenticity are amazing. Not for the faint of heart. An excellent example of documentary that offers discouraging truths, yet hopeful and practical action points people can take to make a difference. What’s most startling is that a company like Monsanto can own the patent to a genetically modified soybean plant, and then prevent anyone from growing it. Presumably this could happen with animals and other life forms. What’s even more disconcerting is that our government is helping defend Monsanto. The agricultural industry also receives substantial government funding. This tax payer funded support of the agriculture industry ends up being a hidden cost we don’t see in the grocery store. This results in nutritious foods being costly while fast food and processed foods are inexpensive. We’re essentially creating a socialist state where we all help fund the meat industry and Mc Donald’s is the one to benefit.”

Official Website. More information is available at FoodIncMovie.com. Below are some excerpts from the website.

Food, Inc. exposes America’s industrialized food system and its effect on our environment, health, economy and workers’ rights. … High calorie, sugar laden processed foods coupled with our sedentary lifestyles is growing our waistlines and contributing to serious health issues like diabetes, heart ailments and cancers. One-third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Tell Congress that kids should be served healthy meals, not soda and junk food. … Approximately 10 billion animals (chickens, cattle, hogs, ducks, turkeys, lambs and sheep) are raised and killed in the US annually. Nearly all of them are raised on factory farms under inhumane conditions. These industrial farms are also dangerous for their workers, pollute surrounding communities, are unsafe to our food system and contribute significantly to global warming.

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Technology > Resources

20091009fr-apple-email-icon-hero_mailservicesSummary. The distribution of email newsletters typically requires mailing list management software or service providers. Below are some options to consider. Programs such as QuickBooks allow for mailings to go out to customers and supporters, but sometimes an online service works better.

  • ConstantContact.com – “Constant Contact®, Inc. helps small businesses, associations, and nonprofits connect with their customers, clients, and members. Launched in 1998, Constant Contact champions the needs of small organizations and provides them with an easy and affordable way to build successful, lasting customer relationships. Constant Contact’s leading email marketing and online survey tools—supported by its expert personal coaching and support—help all types of small businesses and organizations create professional-looking email newsletters and insightful online surveys and begin a dialogue with their customers. Today, more than 250,000 customers worldwide trust Constant Contact to help them connect with their audience.”
  • Google Groups – This is Google’s free online community building and collaboration discussion board service. When configured properly, it’s possible to use a Yahoo Group as a newsletter subscription service.
  • iContact.com – “iContact has whitelist agreements with major ISPs so our clients can enjoy industry-leading deliverability. A third-party company, Pivotal Veracity, scores our email deliverability rates between 98%-99%. Track the performance of your email blasts at a glance with our charts and graphs that are populated in real time. Use one of our 300+ professionally designed email newsletter templates or one of your own for beautiful permission-based email marketing campaigns. Easily set up, organize, and leverage your mailing list to boost your email marketing into overdrive! iContact combines sophisticated features such as surveys, autoresponders, and RSS feeds into one easy-to-use all-inclusive product.”
  • inJesus.com – Primarily designed for churches and ministries, the about page explains that “inJesus provides a web service that makes communication easy for Christian ministries.  Ministry Groups on inJesus keep their members informed and involved using simple, powerful tools like: e-mail group management, message archives on your site, and placement in our searchable directory.”
  • MailChimp.com – “We make it easy to send email newsletters to your customers, manage your subscriber lists, and track campaign performance. Unlike some of our competitors, we don’t ‘dumb things down.’ We take extremely powerful tools that sophisticated marketers use (like segmentation, a/b testing, and ROI tracking), and we make them accessible to anyone. And because our platform uses an open API, it’s easy to integrate internal systems (like Salesforce) and web applications (like Magento and Drupal) with our email marketing engine. That’s why over 175,000 users, who range from small 1-person startups to Fortune 500 corporations use MailChimp.”
  • Mailman – Open source Linux/Unix mailing list software. This is a server-side application that should be installed and managed by advanced users.
  • PHPList.com – A free open source newsletter management application. This is a server-side application that should be installed and managed by advanced users.
  • Yahoo Groups – Yahoo offers a free online community building and collaboration discussion board service. When configured properly, it’s possible to use a Yahoo Group as a newsletter subscription service.

Video. Below are two videos with Gregory Johnson discussing mailing list management.


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Activism

20090609tu-send-your-love-stingSummary. The music video Send Your Love by Sting shows examples of the future impact of our kindness today. Also known as love activism, this form of outreach is often overlooked or considered schmaltzy. However, it can have a huge impact. Click the play button here to listen to just the song, or watch the video below.

Future impact studies allow us to see the long-term and repercussive impact of the domino effect in activism.

From this perspective, In a sense, time travel is possible. It is possible to travel forward in time and impact a future moment through present action.

This music video is being studied in the course on creative activism.

Lyrics. The lyrics to Send Your Love are below.

Finding the world in the smallness of a grain of sand
And holding infinities in the palm of your hand
And Heaven’s realms in the seedlings of this tiny flower
And eternities in the space of a single hour

Send your love into the future
Send your love into the distant dawn

Inside your mind is a relay station
A mission probe into the unknowing
We send a seed to a distant future
Then we can watch the galaxies growing

This ain’t no time for doubting your power
This ain’t no time for hiding your care
You’re climbing down from an ivory tower
You’ve got a stake in the world we ought to share

You see the stars are moving so slowly
But still the earth is moving so fast
Can’t you see the moon is so lonely
She’s still trapped in the pain of the past

This is the time of the worlds colliding
This is the time of kingdoms falling
This is the time of the worlds dividing
Time to heed your call

Send your love into the future
Send your precious love into some distant time
And fix that wounded planet with the love of your healing
Send your love
Send your love

There’s no religion but sex and music
There’s no religion but sound and dancing
There’s no religion but line and color
There’s no religion but sacred trance

There’s no religion but the endless ocean
There’s no religion but the moon and stars
There’s no religion but time and motion
There’s no religion, just tribal scars

Throw a pebble in and watch the ocean
See the ripples vanish in the distance
It’s just the same with all the emotions
It’s just the same in every instance

There’s no religion but the joys of rhythm
There’s no religion but the rites of Spring
There’s no religion in the path of hate
No prayer but the one I sing

Send your love into the future
Send your precious love into some distant time
And fix that wounded planet with the love of your healing
Send your love
Send your love

There’s no religion but sex and music
There’s no religion that’s right or winning
There’s no religion in the path of hatred
Ain’t no prayer but the one I’m singing

Send your love
Send your love

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Activism

Women at desk with world map in the background.Course Summary. This is a distance education online course with a workshop format. In the course, we explore the use of creativity for more effective activism and desired social, economic, political, and cultural outcomes.

Registration. To register for the course, please use our contact form. Because some of the course content and presentation takes place in our Webex virtual meeting center, you’ll need a high-speed Internet connection to take this course.

Instructor. This course is taught by Gregory Johnson. Questions or comments about the course can be directed to him via his contact page.

Syllabus and Assignments. Assignments will be presented here in the order they are due.

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