Saturday, October 27, 2012


Get my new Kindle book now!

Become a Change Agent:

Drive the positive change you want for yourself and the world!

Part One Understanding Change


 

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Friday, October 26, 2012

Be the change...

Review of Become a Change Agent: Drive the positive change you want for yourself and the world! Originally posted on Amazon.com on October 25
- by Occupy Texas

There are some very interesting positions posted here. Unfortunately, some are posted without reason or explanation. For example, he stated that our founding fathers believed, rightly, that democracy was undesirable. He offers no justification or explanation. What is desirable? A Plutocracy? An oligarchy? Who gets a voice? The rich? The college educated? Who decides who gets a voice, the ones with the largest guns? One aspect of our lack of direct democracy(The author errs in saying that direct democracy is undesirable, not in saying that we lack it.)is the Electoral College, which resulted in a candidate who had received fewer popular votes than his opponent being pronounced president by the Supreme Court. Thanks to that lack of direct democracy, the whole world paid and hundreds of thousands died. The people will make themselves heard, if not through the democratic process, then some other way.

Which brings me to the second disagreement I have with the author. He called the Occupy Movement disorganized and without goals. Like above, the author was partially correct. The Occupy Movement began as a reaction to what the people saw as grievous wrongs and the uprisings in the Middle East and Madison Wisconsin. The resulting anger caused Zucotti Park and the subsequent occupations of 1500 other towns and cities. As the author said, there was no planning or organization before the occupation, just a spontaneous expression of anger and passion.We went on that way for over nine months, but during that time, Occupy Philadelphia was organizing a national gathering in Philly, scheduled for Independence Day. At that gathering, the Visioning Statement was drafted. This was a list of our demands. The top ten demands, which are rank ordered, are (1)clean water, air and food, (2) free education for all, (3) no war, (4)a sustainable human society, (5) a culture of direct democracy, (6)free universal healthcare, (7)local food production, community gardens and permaculture agriculture, (8)economic equality, (9)localized economies and (10) a world where basic needs are met.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Cultivate an attitude of Gratitude


It is said that gratitude is the single most important ingredient in happiness. How can you be happy if you are not grateful for the people in your life and the things you have? This question may be a clue to the general state of malaise I have seen in my experiences with suburban America where "keeping up with the Joneses" and "getting ahead" are the expected behaviors.

Being grateful has lots of other positive side affects. Anger and fear cause your body to manufacture chemicals that have long-term negative consequences.

Cultivate an attitude of Gratitude. Learning to focus on what you are grateful for will allow you to face the inevitable challenges of life with a much more positive attitude. This will actually help you focus on solutions rather than expending effort assigning blame.

Author DL Hart wrote a great book on this subject!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006FRAVJ2