Power to the People. Action Plan for 2017 & Beyond.
Power to the People! An Action Plan For 2017 and Beyond.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen a long list of “I Will Not” circulating on the Internet. Muhammad Yunus, the creator of Grameen Bank and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, says that when we see a problem, we should create the solution. (All Nobel Peace Prize winners do that.) There is exponentially more power in action than in resistance. So, I turned the “I Won’t” list inside out into an “I Will” list. If you don’t agree with every single line item, that’s okay. Make your own I Will list.
I will…
• Educate myself on the financial challenges we face with regard to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, and support sustainable solutions that protect the elderly and the most vulnerable in society.
• Promote civil rights for everyone, and look for ways to strengthen this into a level playing field for any person or group who is being discriminated against today, or has historically been discriminated against.
• Celebrate marriage equality, and the love and commitment that any two people share.
• Support freedom of health care choices to women and all citizens.
• Work to provide health coverage to everyone, while also seeking ways to reduce the costs, without denying people with pre-existing conditions their access to treatment.
• Support free enterprise, and abolish government handouts to wealthy, profitable corporations.
• Support an immigration policy that is fair and reasonable.
• Uphold our Founders tenets and protect freedom of religion.
• Educate myself and change my own actions, so that I’m not personally supporting terrorist regimes, dictators and hostile regions of the world with my consumption choices and money.
• Work to improve and strengthen the Middle and Lower classes of the United States, so that we have a more equitable system that promotes meritocracy and allows for upward mobility to those hardworking, innovative, talented, brave Americans who have always been the hallmark of the American Dream.
• Lower taxes on the middle class and poor, and make financial literacy core K-12 curriculum, so that all Americans will have access to improving their lives with smarter energy, budgeting, investing and tax-sensitive choices.
• Support, promote and share truth, truthful reporting and facts, however inconvenient those facts might be to my own life or the lives of others.
• Protect, fund, empower and applaud those in high positions who speak truth to corruption, and investigate the attacks on American democracy that are occurring from oppressive regimes with nefarious motives.
• Do everything in my power to abolish cronyism in our nation’s capital and corporations.
• Protect our environment, love Mother Earth, share sustainability information with my family and friends, and take a fresh look at my own consumption to be more Earth-friendly.
• Preserve and protect native American lands, especially National Parks, so that our children/grandchildren and generations well beyond can enjoy the wild and free natural environment of this beautiful, blue planet that we call home.
• Protect and conserve the world’s animals, particularly those endangered and threatened, such as our iconic elephants, rhinos, bees, birds, turtles and more.
• Support a strong military, but not the nonstop aggression and war that the U.S. has been embroiled in since 2003. I will elect, support, applaud and share the ideas of leaders who promote peace.
• Promote peace in my own actions, and share the good works and words of leaders from other nations who promote peace. This includes listening to the concerns of people I disagree with, to find common ground for moving forward toward solutions that are mutually beneficial.
• Work hard to increase the funding of the K-12 educational system in the U.S., to reform the broken college debt racket, and to make state colleges free to qualified students.
• Promote and contribute to funding of the arts and public broadcast networks.
• Support research into better solutions for people who are at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.
• Reform the crisis of our prisons and the communities that are vulnerable to falling into this pit. That commitment includes taking a more active role in funding proven models, such as Head Start and other programs that assist underserved children and youth.
• Walk, ride a bike, take public transportation or drive an electric car to reduce my personal oil consumption by half or more this year. If my community doesn’t offer public transportation, safe bike paths or walkable communities, then I will vote in people on my city council who will make this a priority.
• Support background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of irresponsible, violent and mentally ill people and felons.
• Support increasing the minimum wage.
• Support Unions and people working together to affirm and promote their rights.
• Support a strong Environmental Protection Agency and a U.S. Department of Energy that is focused on the future, preserving our resources and powering the grid with clean energy. I will vote in leaders who will place sustainability and preserving the planet above the insatiable greed of those with ties to the fossil fuel industry.
• Support a ban on nuclear weapons.
• Support clean politics and will work, through the power of social media, to promoting truth, and exposing lies and deceit as quickly as possible. I will educate myself to know the difference between truth, propaganda and spin-speak, to spot the warning signs of politically motivated hate and rumors.
• Promote freedom of speech and denounce hatred, violence and discrimination.
• Work to promote a stronger voter turnout, especially in communities where it is more difficult to get people to the polls.
• Denounce tyranny and applaud our nation’s system of checks and balances. I call upon our Congressional leaders and independent policymakers to act on behalf of the American people to oust tyrants, cheaters and criminals from their office as expeditiously as legally possible.
• Applaud the intelligence community for their strength and willingness to speak truth to power. I support the investigations into Russian meddling of the 2016 election and the potential collusion with the current Administration.
• Denounce anyone in a position of power who admires and praises tyrants, hatemongers and dictators, and insults hard-working, honest and admirable men, women and children around the world.
• Denounce the current Administration’s policies of stoking fear, blaming minorities and maligning smart, hardworking politicians and Americans.
• Stand for honesty, love, respect for all living beings, and for the compassion and humanity that is the center of Life itself.
• Use my voice and my hands with kindness, compassion and love, knowing that at heart all of us want clean water, clean air, clean food, better jobs, higher pay and the American Dream. When we speak to one another with respect, and listen to one another’s perspectives and concerns, that is when dialog and solutions are possible.
• Follow The Dalai Lama’s vision that the 21st Century will be the Century of Dialog, so that this can be the Century of Peace. That dialog begins with me having greater compassion, and listening, to the concerns of my fellow citizens, as we work together to solve the very real and daunting challenges that face this great nation. We have faced great challenges before and come out on the other side stronger together, and that is my vision today — that together everything is possible.
We cannot allow the politics of greed and spin, or the bipartisanship that has split our political system and this nation in two, to dismantle the foundation of truth, courage and democracy that underpins this great nation. The sound bytes of “winning,” “being great again,” “rich” or even “beautiful” are simply slick sales-speak used by someone to drag us into something that makes them great at our expense. We are all in this together. Let truth, freedom, compassion, fellowship and justice win the day. Quickly!
Consider this an opportunity to make a declaration of commitment, to bring Power to the People. It’s our choice to make a difference. It’s our choice to work with our neighbors, and those who want the same things that we want, but have a different idea of how to get there.
Write a comment on this blog to show your support. Please feel free to make suggestions on things we can add, or to start a dialog on a topic that is near and dear to your heart and your skill set. Share this blog freely, so that others can activate People Power in their homes and communities. If you want to post this Power to the People Action Plan on your social networking page, please feel free to, with attribution to Natalie Pace and a link back to http://www.nataliepace.com/ so that people can easily learn more about sustainability and financial literacy. It’s easiest to just share the link, as most social networks will populate your post with the title and an image (which helps it to get seen and shared more widely).
The truth is that many of us profit from the companies we picket. That’s why financial literacy has to be a part of any true reform and anti-greed action plan. Many of us say we love Mother Earth and are actually using up the resources of 3 or more planets in our lifestyle. That is why sustainability and environmental literacy has to be a part of our conservation plan.
There is great power in people power. Don’t be distracted by the lies. Be pro truth. Don’t be distracted by the tweets. Work to dismantle the bad policy. When we stop making billionaires and last-century, dirty-energy companies rich at our own expense, we deflate their power, and their power to control the agenda at the White House level.
There are many great environmental organizations offering a treasure trove of wisdom. That is why I co-created Earth Gratitude — so that we can all easily see exactly what to do in many different areas of sustainability, from greening our schools, to organic gardening, to electric vehicles, planting trees, energy efficiency, bike-able communities and more. You can download your free Earth Gratitude ebooks at http://EarthGratitude.org/. EarthGratitude.org/ features the wisdom of The Dalai Lama, The Earth Day Network, The Prince of Wales, Elon Musk, Global Green, Ron Finley, Arianna Huffington, The NRDC, The Duchess of Northumberland, Deepak Chopra, Lynne Twist and more.
Most of the financial literacy programs are created and taught by companies that profit from your financial naivety. That is why I started my financial literacy project in 1999, and have written three books to help each of us learn The ABCs of Money that we all should have received in high school. Below are links to each of the audio books. If you’d like to protect your retirement, save thousands annually in your budget and put your money where your heart is (to ensure that you are not profiting from companies that you picket), then join me at my next Investor Educational Retreat. Call 310–430–2397 to learn more.
Thank you for your time, for your support and for reading and enacting this Power to the People Action Plan.
Natalie Wynne Pace
August 27, 2017
August 27, 2017
