What are your principles? How about the following:
1. Attack poverty and world hunger as if our life depends on it. It does.
2. Champion the rights of every child, woman & man.
3. End our obstructionism to the world's treaties.
4. Reduce our dependence on oil and lead the world to an age of renewable energy.
5. Close the book on the Cold War and ease the nuclear nightmare.
6. Renounce Star Wars and the militarization of space.
7. Make globalization work for, not against, working people.
8. Ensure equal treatment under law for all.
9. Get money out of politics.
10. Close the gap between rich and poor kids at home.
Do you know of any people and organizations in your world who embrace these principles? Yes, but you wouldn't know that through anything in Cleveland.
You have been supporting these principles if you ever bought Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, as these are the principles set forth by True Majority, championed by Ben Cohen, who co-founded Ben and Jerry's, made it a phenomenal success, with social consciousness, and has taken his wealth from selling Ben and Jerry's to further social consciousness in many important ways changing the world.
Ben Cohen has always been my greatest hero in business, and, after seeing him interviewed on July 22, 2006, on Tavis Smiley [1], Ben is a life hero. In addition to True Majority, which you should join at their website here [2], Ben has founded Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities (BLFSP), which I encourage all NEO business leaders to champion as well... found on-line here [3]. So, whether focused on being a business leader or part of the True Majority, Ben Cohen offers a flavor of global social activism for you... and it's nice to see NEO is responding, as demonstrated with this quote on True Majority: "You guys do a real good job on these alerts. They're simple, and to the point. Makes it easy to do..." Linda, Cleveland Heights, OH
From their website, "True Majority's underlying philosophy is contained in the True Majority Principles (above), a positive blueprint for moving forward in the post 9/11 world. These principles reflect the American values of compassion, charity and justice - the same values we must adhere to in order to build a safer, more secure home and world. These principles are also revenue-neutral, meaning the investments proposed are entirely funded by reductions in unnecessary spending on Cold War-era weapons that no longer contribute to our national security."
In brief, both True Majority and BLFSP propose taking a small slice of the budget for defense spending (which is 50% of the US Government budget) and realocate that to education, health, child services and world hunger. This is not a proposal to shift money away from core military spending but rather clear waste of resources, like extraordinary excessive nuclear missile arsenals, cold-war era weapons programs, and waste. From the interview on Travis Smiley, Ben indicated Americans polled about such defense spending reductions would like to see significantly more reductions than Ben's initiatives propose - which are validated by defense departments experts - so it is safe to say these are very conservative objectives that will have a major impact on the future of the Earth, and the lives of billions of people in very short time.
Both True Majority and BLFSP are nonpartison and not political action committies but social change communities - it appears they effectively use Internet communications to educate citizens (see http://truemajority.org/fun/ [4]) and encourage activism (through email alerts on such issues as Net Neutrality). With nearly 1,000,000 already becoming activists, and a remarkably effective communications manner, True Majority is clearly positioned to have a powerful impact
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