Voices of Humanity: UN Goals as a Scaffold for Local-to-Global Organizing

Posted on September 29, 2015 by admin

Speech for UNA Council of Organizations Sep 28, 2015 “Achieving the Goals of the UN” event at the Unitarian Universalist Church at Franklin and Geary in San Francisco.

by Roger Eaton UNA-SF Communications Chair. rogerweaton@gmail.com 415 933-0153

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets were adopted at a United Nations Summit, Friday, September 25, 2015. The finalized text of the SDGs is only 30 pages – must reading, please! And we must not forget the other great goals of the UN: to end the scourge of war, complete and general disarmament, nuclear disarmament, human rights, global security and a fully respected system of international law. Indeed, achieving the great earlier goals of the UN would seem to be a prerequisite for achieving the SDGs or at least go hand in hand with them. How can the world cooperate wholeheartedly on anything so long as major countries have nuclear arms at hair trigger, targeted at each other’s major cities?

Together, the goals of the UN are a formidable platform for local-to-global organizing. Achieving them will require a huge common effort at every level. Skepticism abounds, but achieve them we must for the sake of Earth and humanity, so people everywhere will be looking for ways to connect and cooperate on the venture.

Government and civil society organizations at every level will see the momentum building and will think in terms of aligning themselves with the SDG/UN Goals movement. And what is true of government and civil society is also true of private investment. Consider, please, if you had money to invest, would you put it in oil or coal or weapons companies? Or would you put it in currently under-invested SDG related sectors such as renewable energy, transportation, water and sanitation — sectors which especially in developing countries currently have low levels of socially responsible private investment? If you have a ten or fifteen year plan, better go with the SDGs. There is going to be a global push targeting the SDGs especially in developing countries, and there is not enough public investment to get the job done, so government and civil society are going to create partnerships with socially responsible for-profit companies. It is a huge opportunity.

There is a missing element, though, if we look just at the SDGs. To achieve the SDGs, we need to redirect military investment into the SDG sectors. It is partly a matter of the cost of the weapons, which is immense, but even more importantly, nuclear weapons divide the world creating an overall sense of distrust and fear. With the nations in us-vs-them mode, thinking how to turn every immediate situation to their own best advantage, we will never be able to cooperate as we must to achieve the SDGs. And without moving towards complete and general disarmament, we will never get nuclear disarmament because the U.S. has such a commanding lead in conventional weapons and military bases around the world. The only way forward is to build a sense of human unity that can override the fear (and the greed) that underpins the military sector.

This is where Voices of Humanity finds its role as a local-to-global network facility for the SDG movement which at the same time will build a heartfelt sense of human unity.

Voices of Humanity is an online community where the genders and generations will weave a crowd-sourced tale of love and wit, remaking humanity’s vision of itself in the process. Through this new lens, the human race will see itself as the intelligent, generous and capable species that we are, building the trust and confidence we need to cooperate on pressing global matters.

Each month, community members write messages in response to the winning messages from the previous month. They trade these messages around and vote to elect six messages to represent Humanity-as-One, Women, Men, Youth, Middle-age (Voice of Experience) and Seniors (Voice of Wisdom). Each of these Voices has its own perspective and at the same time fully participates in our larger unity.

Voices of Humanity will fulfill our great unmet social need for a global consciousness that builds unity and morale while respecting diversity. The crowd-sourced Voice of Humanity-as-one is central to the design, but the dialogue between the Voice of Humanity and the Voices of Women, Men, Youth, Experience and Wisdom, will be a spirited and suspenseful exchange, not a series of pronouncements from above as it might be if we had only a single Voice of Humanity instead of the six Voices of Humanity.

People are ready. Everywhere we are looking for a way to unite which opens up our options instead of closing them down. We very much do recognize our interdependence. We are all part of the web of life (thank you, Fritjof Capra), but we want to maintain our independence as well, individually, nationally and in our many cultural and religious identities. Voices of Humanity is designed for the job.

The positives and negatives of the Voices of Humanity software need mention. The software is open source, which is a positive, but it is also very much a prototype needing lots of work. At its heart is the monthly cycle of crowd-sourced messages, which needs a complete makeover of its user interface. Then there is the social media setup with the ability to follow people and to post to your “wall” and so forth, which is very rudimentary at this point. Finally, there is a listserve capability for groups and their sub-groups, which also needs many additional features if it is to be adopted by established nonprofits.

Amongst the positives are a structure that a) has gender equality built in and b) naturally tends to marginalize hardliners of all sorts. Indigenous, Minority, Interfaith, Refugee and Veterans check boxes along with a local-to-global geographic levels are expected in the next month or so. Also, coming soon, hierarchical hashtags that can be applied by the participants to themselves as well as to their postings. These hierarchical hashtags will enable the SDGs to be handled systematically. Winning messages from the six voices of humanity will be consistently intelligent, kind and spirited because these are the messages that people everywhere appreciate. This is us, people will say each month as they read the highly rated messages, and that recognition of humanity’s good nature is at the top of the list of positives for Voices of Humanity.

Together, the six Voices of Humanity, the Indigenous, Minority, Interfaith, Refugee and Veteran check boxes, the hierarchical hashtags and the local-to-global geographic levels make the Voices of Humanity software a flexible tool for uniting humanity. The tricky thing to realize is that the six Voices will have winning messages each month at every level. Thus, the Voice of Women from the Central African Republic will have something to say each month, and so will the Indigenous Youth of Quebec. Moreover, winning messages will often be in reply to winning messages written the previous month by an entirely different group at a different level.

It is worth saying it again: Voices of Humanity is an online community where the genders and generations will weave a crowd-sourced tale of love and wit, remaking humanity’s vision of itself in the process.

There are a couple more hurdles. We need funding, and we need a better incentive for the individual to participate, especially here at the beginning stages before critical mass is achieved and before the user interface has been upgraded. The plan is to implement a crowdfunding initiative called “Make Your Gift Work Twice”. Money donated under this plan will be tax deductible. Ten percent will be retained to fund development of Voices of Humanity. The author of the winning message for the Voice of Humanity-as-One each month will name a nonprofit to receive the remaining ninety percent of the money. This plan will incentivize both individual and organizational participation. Over time a system of participant points will be implemented and the crowdfunded income each month will be distributed to the nonprofits according to the points earned by their “champions”.

Voices of Humanity has already launched. You can easily find it online. See http://ugc.sfcoo.intermix.org. You are more than welcome to participate. The first month’s winners will be selected at the new moon on January 10, 2016. We have a way to get the winning messages onto the desk of Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Executive Director of UN Women, though at this point we cannot be sure she will respond.

Thank you so much!

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Rewiring our Neural networks: Two Kinds of Mysteries by George Wolfe

Posted on August 9, 2015 by admin

Rewiring our Neural networks: Two Kinds of Mysteries
by George Wolfe

George Wolfe

George Wolfe

My mother loved to watch the television show “Murder, She Wrote” starring Angela Lansbury. Mom loved a good mystery, especially the kind that could be solved. Solving mysteries, I maintain, is a desire we all have, and mysteries that can be solved comprise one category of mystery. This category consists of things we don’t know but which are within our reach to uncover and understand.

Why were the giant moai statues on Easter Island carved, and how were they moved and set in place? Or, did microbial life ever exist on the planet Mars? These are examples of mysteries that could one day be solved.

Often, when these kinds of mysteries are solved, their solutions give rise to more questions and hence, more mysteries. One only needs to marvel at the most recent achievement of NASA and the New Horizon spacecraft’s flyby of the planet Pluto to appreciate this (Pluto is too a planet!).

But there is another category of mystery that people often overlook. This second category consists of things that are known, can be experienced, and can be appreciated, but when they are experienced, one recognizes there is something within them that is incomprehensible. One has encountered a phenomenon that is well beyond the human mind to fully grasp, the meaning of which is best expressed through poetry and art.

A good example is what scientists are saying now about the “Big Bang” that gave rise to the universe.  Not only was all the matter and energy in the universe compressed into a “singularity” as a result of a force of “infinite gravity,” but time and space were also were contained within the singularity. Astrophysicists now envision the universe as “inflating,” much like a balloon, with time and space existing on the “surface” of the balloon. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity demonstrates how space and time are interconnected. Space is “warped” by gravity, and time speeds up or slows down depending on the intensity of the gravitational field and the speed at which we are moving.

For the human mind, these conceptions defy our daily experience. While Scientists can verify them and know them to be valid, the human brain is not constructed in a way that can fully comprehend them. Our brains evolved to function in a universe where space has three dimensions and time is perceived as marching along as a separate, consistently steady variable. We evolved to survive in a universe as described by Isaac Newton, not Albert Einstein.

In his book on black holes and string theory (The Black Hole War, published by Back Bay Books), Stanford University Physicist Leonard Susskind writes of the need for us to “rewire” our brain’s “neural networks” to appreciate and recognize the illusory nature of the universe in which we live. More and more, the universe, and perhaps other universes as well, is taking shape to be what Carl Sagan referred to as “the grandest of mysteries.”

Fortunately, our brains have two “sides”: the one side consists of our rational cognitive faculties, while the other houses the faculties of intuition and insight. To the everyday pragmatic perception of the intellect, the universe of Einstein is paradoxical, even irrational. But to the intuition and faculties of insight, Einstein’s universe is fascinating and is draped in wonder.

Underlying the cosmos is a reality that stretches well beyond our imagination. It is a reality and a consciousness that humbles us and will be forever beyond our complete comprehension. And it is in the experience of incomprehensible mystery that the Omnipotent is revealed and we are able to glimpse the “Mind of God.” The words of the Sufi poet Rumi best apply to what should be our response: “The real work of religion is permanent astonishment.”

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus and former director of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He also chairs the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship, is a trained mediator, and the author of Meditations on Mystery: Science, Paradox and Contemplative Spirituality.

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Embracing Uncertainty by George Wolfe

Posted on August 9, 2015 by admin

   Embracing Uncertainty
by George Wolfe

George Wolfe

George Wolfe

Recently, I was driving my eight-year-old grandson, Orion, to Apple Tree day care. On the way, he asked me a question about a dream he had the previous night. “How do we know,” he inquired, “that where we are now, driving along in this car, is not just another dream? How do we know this is real?”

I was delighted by his curiosity and replied by paraphrasing a Chinese Taoist tale attributed to Chaung Tzu.

Once Chaung-Chou dreamt he was a butterfly. He didn’t know he was Chaung-Chou. Then he awoke and was himself again. But he didn’t know if he was Chaung-Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chaung-Chou. This is called the transformation of things.  

My grandson was at the perfect age to contemplate such a parable. As a second grader, he is much freer to question reality in creative ways.

Not long ago, I attended an adult discussion group at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Muncie. The topic was “Soul Work” which considered the question of how we define our “core being.” Some individuals in this group are atheists who do not believe in anything beyond the physical. They immediately got stymied on how to define “soul.” They saw the word as ambiguous and insisted on being given some specific, scientific definition to convince them it was real.

One problem we have in knowing what is “real” is that there is only one word in the English language for the verb “to know.” In French, there are two words. If you are speaking about being aware of something or knowing a piece of information, you would use the verb “savoir.” But if you are talking about knowing a person, or being familiar with something that requires deeper understanding, you would use the verb “connaître.”

Why? Because knowing a person or being deeply familiar with someone is much different than simply knowing a piece of information. Once you know a phone number for example, your knowledge of that information is complete. But when it comes to knowing a person, you never really know them completely. A person potentially has the depth of mind that enables them to respond thoughtfully and behave in unexpected ways.

If someone is mature psychologically and spiritually, there will always be part of that person we have yet to discover. There is a mystery, a living essence at the depths of everyone. It is like a wave on the ocean of consciousness, the deepest part of ourselves that lies beyond the senses. It cannot be known as a tangible object. We must look inward using a meditative practice to tune into its presence and be receptive to the epiphanies that can dawn from this source within us.

Letting go of the rational, however, is challenging for many because we find security in concrete answers, whether they be answers found through science or religion. It feels secure, believing that creation behaves in rational, predictable ways. I call this egocentric knowing. We think we know, and rest momentarily in a false sense of knowing as it fulfills a need within us. But our present–day understanding of the universe, which is characterized by physicist Leonard Susskind as being more like a hologram, is very much illusory and rooted in uncertainty. Or to quote Nobel Prize winning physicist Neils Bohr, “Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.” We are left with accepting and embracing uncertainty.

I had to admit to my grandson that I did not have an answer for whether or not this was a dream. His question however, showed he was not a slave to his senses. He was able to perceive and entertain the possibility of there being more to life than the material world. It is this gift of insight that many of us lose as we age. Perhaps this is why both the Tao Te Ching and the Gospel of Matthew challenge us to “become like a child again.”

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus and former director of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He also chairs the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship, is a trained mediator, and the author of Meditations on Mystery: Science, Paradox and Contemplative Spirituality.

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LET’S REMOVE SYMBOLS THAT POLARIZE by George Wolfe

Posted on August 9, 2015 by admin

LET’S REMOVE SYMBOLS THAT POLARIZE
by George Wolfe

George Wolfe

George Wolfe

Symbols are powerful. The meaning they carry accumulates as people make associations with them over time, much like a picture is said to be worth a thousand words.  In some cases, these accumulated associations render them offensive.

In 1990, during my first trip to India, I recall seeing a swastika in a photograph of a Hindu sage. In Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religious traditions, the swastika is a sacred symbol that conveys the meaning of good luck and well-being and is considered auspicious. It became stigmatized however, when Adolph Hitler chose it to be displayed on the Nazi flag. As a result, the swastika is now associated with racism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy. The Nazi Holocaust turned the swastika into a symbol of terror, hatred and oppression.

During the 1920s, my father changed the spelling of his last name to conceal his Jewish heritage so as to elude the anti-Semitism in the United States. I can therefore personally relate to why Jews find the swastika offensive.

A similar fate has befallen the confederate battle flag, as it is associated with slavery and decades of ethnic prejudice and racial discrimination in America. Recently my brother and I discovered that we have within every cell, sub-Saharan African DNA. So I can understand why the confederate battle flag that flies above the South Carolina state capitol offends African Americans.

In the late 1960s, as humans began to venture into space, there were individuals who proposed that we adopt a flag that would represent all the people of the world.

Earth Flag - Blue Marble

What became known as the Earth Flag was first proposed and designed in 1969 by John McConnell based on the famous NASA photo of the Earth as captured by Apollo astronauts. It was created for the first Earth Day where the Earth appeared as a “Blue Marble” on the dark backdrop of space.  Eventually there was a discussion on what country or continent should appear on the face of the flag.  After some debate, it was decided, since the flag was to represent all of humanity, that Africa should be on its face since that is the continent where humans first appeared.

Flag of Earth

In 1970, an Illinois farmer named James W. Cradle made another proposal for what he called a “Flag of Earth”. Cradle’s design resembles more of an icon, with a plain blue disk overlapping a larger yellow disk representing the sun, and a small white disk in the lower right hand corner depicting the moon.

Given our attachment to nationalism and political sentiment, it would seem as yet impossible to have the Earth Flag or the Flag of Earth replace all national flags. But it should certainly be within our reach to have every nation fly one of these flags above its own national flag. This would serve as a constant reminder that we are one human family, sharing a common ancestor and the same genetic code.

Let us remove all flags that polarize us and replace them with the Earth Flag or the Flag of Earth to celebrate our shared humanity, and that we are all citizens of planet Earth.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus and former director of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He also chairs the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship, is a trained mediator, and the author of The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence: Interfaith Understanding for a Future Without War.

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Google Impact Challenge Bay Area 2015 grant application

Posted on July 25, 2015 by admin

 

Current Level of NGO Coordination

Current Level of NGO Coordination by Sandy Chaves

Collective Communication, Inc with UNA-SF as its major partner has applied for a Google grant in the amount of $100 to $500k.  See below for the text of the grant application. Our thesis is that our Gender / Generation Crosstalk will build morale for a social movement bringing together the NGO community beginning here in the Bay Area.

———————

What is the name of your organization? Collective Communication, inc.
I certify O
What is your organization’s Employer ID (EIN)? 95-3794897
What is your organization’s website URL? http://www.intermix.org/cci.htm
What is the address of your organization? 355 Serrano Dr Apt 4F
City San Francisco
State California
Zip Code 94132

In which county is your organization’s primary Bay Area office located? San Francisco

When was your organization founded? 1982

What is your organization’s mission? The mission of CCI is to fund research programs, surveys, and other projects to test the suitability of survey procedures as a means of communications between forums with a view toward improving communication between communities with different social and political backgrounds and to create a social atmosphere that is more beneficial to the various communities throughout the state of California.

How many full-time employees does your organization have? [N/A]

Who is the best person to contact at your organization? Roger Eaton
What is that person’s title at your organization? President
What is their contact email address? rogerweaton@gmail.com
What is their contact phone number? 415 933 0153

Have any Google staff, officers or directors (or to your knowledge, immediate family members thereof) been members of your organization’s board or officer group within the last 12 months? No

If Yes to the above question, explain here: [N/A]

Does your organization have any business dealings or ongoing negotiations with Google? No

If Yes to the above question, explain here: [N/A]

To your knowledge, are any current government officials, employees or civil servants employed by your organization or are they members of your organization’s board or officer group? No

If Yes to the above question, explain here: [N/A]

Annual operating expenses: 10000.0

2014 11000.0

2013 18000.0

Annual revenues: 10000.0

2014 11000.0

2013 17600.0

Total assets: [N/A]

2014 [N/A]

2013 [N/A]

Total liabilities: [N/A]

2014 [N/A]

2013 [N/A]

Which sector best describes your project? Community Development

If you selected “Other” in the previous question, please describe in the space below. [N/A]

Summarize your proposed project using this format: The [name of project] will address [major challenge] for [target beneficiaries]. Our [innovative idea] will provide [key problem-solving capability], unlike [current alternatives]. Over [time period], our project will [impact of project on major challenge].

The United Nations Association (UNA) Voices of Humanity Project will enable implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for everyone in the Bay Area. Our one of a kind Gender / Generation Crosstalk open source technology will provide the sense of human solidarity that such an ambitious project requires. In three years we will have an active SDG network in the Bay Area with 5000+ active members. Over the next 15 years, our project will build a global as well as a local sense of heartfelt community. The Bay Area will have SDG success when the world does!

What phase is your proposed project in?

The project is in prototype stage for its software development and at the beginning stage of building a community of highly motivated users. The grant money will be used to develop both the prototype and the user community. We are moving ahead with a design for a mobile app for the project. The app design has been taken on by a General Assembly User Experience class. A team of students will develop a design for this app this summer. Then, the grant money will be used to code the app itself from the design. Also coming this summer are a geographic slider and hierarchical hashtags, which will help profile the members and their discussions by SDG and its targets. The concept is tested on web platform http://ugc.unasf.intermix.org. In September we expect to test the Crosstalk technology, which is our key innovation, with 100+ participants.

For the following set of questions, please be as specific as possible and, if you have them, use numbers to make your case. The more clear your answers are, the better we can imagine and evaluate your proposal.

A) On the technical side, hire Ruby-on-Rails programmer(s) to 1) Implement a phased roll-out of SDG facilities in the software: * hierarchical hashtags to reflect the three levels of the SDGs: goals, targets and indicators; * repository of hashtagged annotated resources; * a calendar, also hashtag accessible; 2) Implement android and iphone apps; 3) Implement “Make your gift work twice” feature where participants accumulate points that translate into dollars for eligible Bay Area NGOs of the participant’s choice; 4) Implement automated software testing; 5) Begin implementing internationalization; 6) Work down the existing list of desired improvements; 7) Begin designing next generation software.

B) On the community side, hire a combination publicist and outreach coordinator of unpaid interns to find and connect with Bay Area NGOs, companies and government agencies that want to track and encourage local SDG success. Also, hire part-time a fund-raiser.

If selected as a winner, how would your project utilize the $500k funding received? Provide a budget for how your organization would spend this amount.

Three year budget, $200k first year, $150k each of next two years: $45k – for part time project director 290k – for one full time and one part-time Ruby on Rails / app programmer 70k – part time publicist / intern coordinator for outreach 25k – part time fund raiser 35k – for office, meeting, event space and costs 20k – to fund the new “Make your gift work twice” Crosstalk feature 4k – for web server 5k – for email server 6k – for office supplies / postage / miscellaneous $500k total

There are 3 possible grant sizes. How would your project change if you received:

At the $250k level we should reduce the expectation of active members to 2500+ at the end of two years instead of 5000+ at the end of three years. Two year budget, $125k each of two years, split evenly across the board: $10k – for part time project director 155k – for two part-time Ruby on Rails / app programmers 40k – part time publicist / intern coordinator for outreach 10k – part time fund raiser 15k – for office, meeting, event space and costs 10k for “make your gift work twice” 2.5k – for web server

$100k?

At the 100k level we should reduce the expectation of active members to 1000+ at the end of two years instead of 5000+ at the end of three years. Two year budget, $67.5k first year, 32.5k second year: $5k – for part time project director $20k – for part time publicist / intern-coordinator 40k – for two part-time Ruby on Rails / app programmers the first year 10k – for one part-time Ruby on Rails / app programmer the second year 5k – part time fund raiser – first year only 7k – for office, meeting, event space and costs 5k for “make your gift work twice” 2.5k – for web server 3.5k – for email server 2k – for office supplies / postage / miscellaneous $100k total

What is the problem your proposed project aims to address? How big is the problem?

The NGO community is coming around to the belief that it needs much better cooperation across issues, but the structure of the community, with organization into legal entities that can hardly cope with their own issues has made that cooperation elusive, to say the least. It is a huge problem because the issues are entangled with each other in a chaotic web, so progress on just one or another of the issues is extremely difficult to achieve and maintain. The SDGs cover a wide spectrum that involves the greater part of the NGO community, so they offer a scaffold for cooperation, but the problem of disunity remains and if anything is even greater because the SDGs require global and national cooperation as well as local.

What is the expected impact of this project if successful?

The Crosstalk technology marries a social media experience targeted at individuals with a cyclical bottom-up collective experience where each lunar month the participants write and select messages to represent basic demographics of humanity: women, men, youth, middle-aged, seniors, humanity-as-one, indigenous, other minority, with breakout also by nation, by group and hierarchical hashtag and with a local to global slider. Love, wit and spirit are what we all appreciate, so messages selected in the Crosstalk process are reliably generous, intelligent and lively. Read the top rated (as of July 21, 2015) message in the Crosstalk here: ugc.unasf.intermix.org/items/1827/view. Sharing such messages on a monthly basis will build the sense of solidarity the SDG community will need. If it works as intended, the Crosstalk will build morale and unite the Bay Area NGO community in a movement for the local, national and global implementation of all of the Sustainable Development Goals.

What are the 1-3 key indicators you will use to track progress toward the impact you described above? How will you measure these indicators?

There are two indicators. First the number of active Bay Area participants in the Crosstalk who mark their profile with an interest in the SDGs. Second, the amount of donations that are circulated via the “Make your gift work twice” feature of the software. The software will track these numbers with breakout by gender, age, metro region, nationality, etc.

What geographic region does your project impact?

Foremost, the project will impact the San Francisco Bay Area. By implementing a scaffold for sustainability networking, the Bay Area SDG community will grow and solidify to include corporations and governments as well as NGOs. Such an SDG community in the Bay Area will both move towards implementing the SDGs locally, and will reach out at the state, national and global levels to encourage and join with the larger movement towards SDG implementation.

What other organizations are tackling this issue and what approaches have been tried in the past?

The UN is itself putting together a Sustainable Development Fund (sdgfund.org). At the global level you have to work top down, so we may expect great interest from the SDG Fund in the SDG Crosstalk as a bottom-up partner. The Fuji Declaration group is looking to build a similar movement. “The mission of the Fuji Declaration is to ignite the full potential of the human spirit in service to humanity and the web of life.” (fujideclaration.org) This mission mirrors the goal of the Voices of Humanity project. Again, our Crosstalk technology will be of interest to the many sponsors of the Fuji Declaration as a bottom-up partner.

What’s the core insight or innovation that differentiates this project from others? How is the proposed answer significantly better than what currently exists?

The Voices of Humanity project adds a cyclical collective communication process to more standard social media. It enables groups to select messages that represent the groups, and then gives the process a rhythm, so that each lunar month, new messages are chosen. Participants will be able to write “candidate” messages in response to the winners of the previous month, resulting in a conversation between the groups capped by the voice of humanity-as-one. Sharing the winning messages from the previous round will create a collective consciousness. Since the shared messages will always be kind, intelligent and spirited, the participants will come to see humanity in a new, more positive light, encouraging them to work together to solve humanity’s problems locally, nationally and globally. As far as we know, there are no other social media projects that are quite this ambitious in their undertaking for positive social change.

How will your project scale beyond what you’ve proposed here?

Locally we can hope that the SDG network will take off on its own. That is, while still using and supporting the Voices of Humanity Crosstalk software, the Bay Area SDG network will organize itself, find its own leadership, and remake Bay Area society so we are much more able to implement the SDGs. Also locally, we can hope that other networks, such as Rotary, or women’s groups will use the process to strengthen their sense of community, and that new networks, as between high-schools across jurisdictions, will arise, giving students and others a positive additional dimension to their lives. If we do well locally, the process is likely to go national and global quickly.

What are the 2-3 most significant risks you foresee in this project? How has your team planned to address them? 

The greatest risk is that there is not enough individual benefit for participants, so that even though the collective benefit looks worthwhile, participation feels like a civic duty at best. To address this, we will have a “make your gift work twice” crowd-funding initiative, where donations are used to reward active participants, not for themselves but for participating Bay Area nonprofits of their choice. This should help us enlist non-profits, who would then motivate their own membership to participate. A second big risk is that the software will not hold up to the increased load that we are looking for. 1) We must put the Ruby-on-Rails automated software testing in place. And 2) we need to raise funds for more programmers so we can a) locate and fix bottlenecks and b) begin work on the next generation of the software.

Who is the core project team? What makes them poised for success?

The core team consists of Roger Eaton, long time project leader, and Flemming Funch, programmer of the software. Flemming is highly experienced with Ruby on Rails and many other programming tools. Roger has programming experience and Bay Area outreach experience with connections via the United Nations Association and other local nonprofits that support the goals of the UN, including several women’s groups. The plan is to hire a second Ruby programmer, a PR / outreach person and a fund-raiser and add one or two unpaid interns as possible. The core team of two has shown great persistence, but it is the design of the software that gives us a real chance of success. We are finally at the point where the basic design is working. People are looking for a way to integrate across the silos. The Crosstalk technology is worth a try!

Who do you consider your 3 most significant partners (e.g., funders or others that have worked with your organization) from the past 3 years? If none, list none. 

The 501(c)(3) California nonprofit, Collective Communication, Inc. has funded the software development to this point. Outreach has been largely through our major partner, UNA San Francisco, also a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with offices in Marin. UNA-USA, the national UNA organization has expressed interest in the project by way of a communications award to UNA San Francisco for the project and help with a Thunderclap.

Please include links to up to 3 articles or publications related to your work.

ugc.unasf.intermix.org – this is the public face of the project
github.com/VoicesOfHumanity/InterMix – open source repository for the project
voicesofhumanity.org/a-new-intermix-feature-is-on-its-way-gender-crosstalk – the theory behind the project

Anything else we should know? [N/A]

How did you hear about the Challenge? via the web, but cannot recall exactly

Terms and Conditions: By submitting an application, I certify on behalf of my organization that: 1) The organization agrees to be contacted by Google for purposes of carrying out the Challenge, 2) The organization agrees to the Challenge Rules, 3) All information contained in this application is true and accurate, 4) That the organization meets the eligibility requirements specified in the Challenge Rules, and 5) That none of the information in this application is confidential or proprietary. O

I would like to receive updates on future Google Impact Challenges and other Google charitable initiatives. O

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IS WAR IN OUR GENES? by George Wolfe

Posted on May 19, 2015 by admin

IS WAR IN OUR GENES?
by George Wolfe

George Wolfe

George Wolfe

Each Memorial Day I join America’s Hometown Band under the direction of Roger McConnell to provide music for the remembrance service honoring veterans at Beech Grove cemetery in Muncie, Indiana.  After the service, I walk among the many graves of the soldiers who died on the battlefield. I notice that one grave has a Star of David, rather than a cross, etched on its marker. This lone gravestone reminds us that every May memorial service should include at least one interfaith prayer. Americans from all faiths have made the ultimate sacrifice.

I ponder the young lives lost, but also the human potential, intelligence, creativity and inventiveness that never blossomed. Every war has been a disastrous economic and cultural setback for human progress and civilization.

Some evolution theorists have maintained that the reason for war is that violence is in our genes. They insist that because humans evolved from a lower primate, we have inherited aggressive defense and survival mechanisms that enabled us to successfully compete as hunter-gatherers in the pre-civilized world. These aggressive traits still influence human behavior, causing us to have a predisposition for violence and revenge. Referred to as “biological determinism,” this view asserts that war is inevitable, intrinsic to the human condition and like the poor, will always be with us.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), studies in the 1980s revealed this notion to be prevalent, with roughly 50 percent of the people surveyed believing that humans are predisposed to war and violence. In response, leading behavioral scientists representing twelve nations produced The Seville Statement on Violence, which was published in 1991. This document refutes the dangerously simplistic generalizations of biological determinism.

While primates, including humans, do possess aggressive traits, they also exhibit cooperative and altruistic behaviors. Many of these altruistic behaviors are believed to have evolved out of the need for mothers to nurture their young. It is a mistake to assume that aggressive traits have been selected through evolution more so than other kinds of behaviors. The scientists concluded “that biology does not condemn humanity to war, and that humanity can be freed from the bondage of biological pessimism.”

On January 13, 1982, an unassuming man demonstrated a level of altruism that defies the popular view that survival is the underlying determinate in human evolution.

Arland Williams was a passenger on Air Florida flight 90. Soon after takeoff, the airliner lost altitude and crashed in Washington DC, hitting the Fourteenth Street bridge before plunging into the icy waters of the Potomac River.

Williams, along with five other passengers to survive the crash, were spotted in the river in desperate need of help. A police helicopter arrived and dropped a rescue line. Arland Williams grabbed the line and handed it to one of the flight attendants. He did this a second time, and perhaps a third time as well. When the helicopter returned a final time, Williams had disappeared under the frigid waters.

The following year, President Reagan honored Williams, posthumously awarding him the United States Coast Guard’s Gold Lifesaving Medal.

The actions of Arland Williams on that bitter January day reveal the altruistic side of human nature, one that is inherently sacrificing, compassionate and responsive to the needs of others. Awakening this selfless human potential, which is one purpose of spiritual practice, is what enables us to overcome our primitive survival defensive mechanisms.

We will find genuine security when we recognize that it is in the interest of all developed nations to build peace through education, economic development, spiritual practice and cultural understanding. Promoting such strategies provide humanity with constructive alternatives to violence, and perhaps one day will relegate war to the dark legacy of an unenlightened past.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus and former director of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He also chairs the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship, is a trained mediator, and the author of The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence: Interfaith Understanding for a Future Without War.

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Narcissistic Injury and the War on Terror By George Wolfe

Posted on May 4, 2015 by admin

 Narcissistic Injury and the War on Terror
By George Wolfe

George Wolfe

George Wolfe

In November of 2002, I received a phone call from a Chicago resident concerned about what I taught in my peace studies class on nonviolence. During the course of the conversation, the caller, when referring to the 9/11 terrorist plot, exclaimed, “We were attacked!” Such a reaction is an example of what Sigmund Freud called narcissistic injury.

The caller was not in New York City or Washington D.C. on 9/11. He was not personally attacked physically, but nevertheless saw himself as threatened because he was identifying with the Americans who were in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon.

Narcissistic injury occurs when you take as a personal attack an injury to a member of the group to which you belong or self-identify. A person perceives that one’s expanded or inflated sense of self is being attacked, either verbally or physically.

If someone attacks a member of your family and you react as if it were an attack on either your own life or your personal self-identity, you are experiencing narcissistic injury. And if, in your anger, you decide in return to attack a member of your aggressor’s family (other than the person who was actually responsible for the original attack), you are engaging in a calculated form of “narcissistic rage” or what may be called narcissistic revenge. The group to which you belong however, can be much larger than your family. It can be defined by the race to which you belong, your nationality, or your religious sect.

Immediately after 9/11, there were instances where U.S. citizens sought revenge against Muslims living in the United States solely because the 9/11 hijackers were Muslim. Not only were these Americans experiencing narcissistic injury, they were engaging in narcissistic revenge.  In one outrageous instance, a Sikh named Balbir Singh Sodhi, who was wearing his turban but was mistaken for a Muslim, was gunned down on September 15, 2001, in Mesa, Arizona.

Once a conflict is elevated to this level of psychological intensity, the number of people that join the conflict can increase exponentially because revenge is being taken against individuals who were not initially part of the dispute. One can see this at work in Europe as revenge is taken against Jews in France and other countries because of last year’s Israeli invasion of Gaza which killed over 2000 Palestinians.

In seeking such narcissistic revenge, the conflicting parties broaden the scope of the conflict, drawing into the fray relatives, friends, and associates who then experience feelings of narcissistic injury that motivate future attacks. We thus have a psychological model that explains why insurgencies, such as those encountered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, battle defiantly to sustain themselves and at times grow stronger. What is at work here is a kind of group neurosis that is fed, not defeated, by violence.

Because of these psychological underpinnings, we have little reason to be optimistic that groups like ISIS can be defeated militarily. The more terrorists we kill, the more we create, especially when our military incursions along with our air and drone strikes kill innocent civilians, particularly women and children.

The long-term solution in the case of ISIS must include freezing assets, disrupting the arms trade, bolstering humanitarian efforts to help displaced civilian families, and building coalitions with moderate Arab leaders who can work to marginalize militant extremists and thwart their ability to radicalize and recruit new members.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus at Ball State University and former Director and Coordinator of Outreach Programs for the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He also chairs the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship, is a trained mediator, and is the author of The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence: Interfaith Understanding for a Future Without War.

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Archaic Views fuel Same Sex Debate by George Wolfe

Posted on May 4, 2015 by admin

Archaic Views fuel Same Sex Debate
by George Wolfe

George Wolfe

George Wolfe

In 2010, the movie “The King’s Speech,” staring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, enjoyed considerable popularity and won several academy awards. Prince George, whose daughter is the present Queen Elizabeth, reluctantly assumed the throne after his brother King Edward, gave up the throne to marry a divorced woman.

From childhood George suffered from a speech disorder which manifested as a serious case of stuttering. His therapist, who coached him once he became King of England, ascertained that his impediment could have resulted from his parents forcing him to write with his right hand when George was naturally left-handed. Learning disorders, such as dyslexia, have also been associated with forced right-handedness.

For ages, it has been a belief among many Hindus and Muslims that the left hand is unclean. In addition, Jewish texts often favor the right hand (see Gen. 48: 12-20), and some Christian sects have viewed being left handed as diabolical. This Christian belief was rooted in a literalist interpretation of biblical passages and other religious documents that refer to the chosen of God as being seated at His “right hand” (see Matt. 25:32-33). It also says in the Apostle’s Creed that Christ is “seated at the right hand of the Father.”

Fortunately, we now have grown to understand such archaic anthropomorphic interpretations as misguided and very detrimental when they are used to justify forcing naturally left-handed people to write with their right hand.

Today we see striking parallels to this within the same sex marriage debate. In conservative religious circles, homosexuality has long been considered sinful and contrary to religious teachings. Efforts by scholars to develop a theology that is inclusive of gay marriage have not been convincing to orthodox and fundamentalist believers in many of the faith traditions.

There is significant evidence, however, to indicate that biology, as well as social factors, plays a role in determining sexual preference. Homosexuality has also been observed in other primates and in numerous other species (see Homosexual Behavior in Animals: An Evolutionary Perspective by V. Sommer and P. Vasey, Cambridge University Press, 2006).

For many people who are drawn to same sex relationships, expecting someone who is gay to change their sexual preference is as unnatural and psychologically detrimental as forcing a child who is left-handed to change and write with the right hand.

Rather than passing laws against same sex marriage, politicians should be passing laws against domestic violence and abusive relationships. Rather than taking a stand against lesbian couples adopting a child, we should take a stand against deadbeat dads.

The efforts to craft laws and amendments against same sex marriage have been a distraction for our lawmakers. Voters need to send a convincing message this November that lawmakers should focus on clean energy, reducing carbon emissions, utilizing renewable resources, raising the minimum wage, health care for the underemployed and other pressing issues.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus and Coordinator of Outreach Programs for the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He also chairs the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship and is the author of the soon to be published book Meditations on Mystery: Science, Paradox and Contemplative Spirituality.

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Selma James of Global Women’s Strike in Berkeley April 26, 2015

Posted on April 28, 2015 by admin

On Sunday, April 26, 2015 at the St. Paul AME Church in Berkeley, Selma James, Pierre Labossiere and Danny Glover spoke about “UJAMAA: The Hidden Story of Tanzania’s Socialist Villages – to Today’s Black Jacobins in Haiti”.

Nina Lopez and Selma James of Global Women's Strike in Berkeley, April 26, 2015

Nina Lopez and Selma James of Global Women’s Strike in Berkeley, April 26, 2015

Selma James is International Coordinator of the Global Women’s Strike network based in London. GWS takes as its slogan “Invest in Caring not Killing” and calls for a massive shift of national spending away from the military to the care givers, most definitely including women who care for their own family. The idea of a “living wage for mothers and other caregivers” is meant to catalyze a movement for a (non-capitalist) world community to implement social justice across gender and racial lines, peace, and a sustainable economy.

I attended the event in Berkeley in order to find out more about Selma James and the Global Women’s Strike. Her talk was about Tanzania’s Nyerere and the socialist villages he encouraged until they were destroyed by the anti-socialist wing of Tanzania’s government. Under the heading of Ujamaa, community-ism, these democratically run cooperative villages were successful in educating the children, greatly reducing domestic violence and raising living standards.

Selma James had been brought to my attention by Alicia Dorsey, a member of the UNA Gender Crosstalk outreach group. I signed and brought the GWS “Petition to ALL governments for a living wage for mothers and other caregivers” to the UNA San Francisco Board to see the if Board would like to sign on as an organizational supporter. However the Board felt that we needed more information and that perhaps such an idea was not suitable for the UNA.

As I thought over the question, I wondered if a living wage for mothers would not push the birthrate up, thus working against the goal of sustainability. I was able to ask Selma James this question before the panel began and her reply gave me a good idea of what she is about. She told me that it will take a democratic world community to tackle the big issues such as the birth rate. I understood her to mean that the Living Wage for Caregivers campaign is how we can rally the global movement we need, and that any tendency to raise the birthrate would be more than compensated for by the end result. Makes sense to me!

When I presented the petition to the Board, the idea of a “Global Women’s Strike” was enthusiastically received by a number of Board Members. As a result, the Women’s Committee has decided to brainstorm the idea at our next meeting coming up soon.

Having met Selma James in person now, I maintain my support for the petition and would like to see the UNA-SF Board sign on. However, the Board does need to realize that a living wage for mothers is quite a radical notion, and we might get some negative feedback (;-). The panelists at the Berkeley event were vocally very unhappy with the United Nations role in Haiti, and I feel it fair to say that the general feeling was that the UN is not living up to its promise. But that is actually the case, isn’t it? We have lost momentum toward nuclear disarmament, the Paris Climate Change conference is not shaping up, tho we can hope it will, and no one even whispers about general disarmament. So my feeling is that we should look at the living wage for mothers idea on its merits, and support it.

Thanks, all!

— Roger Eaton
rogerweaton@gmail.com

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Achieving Harmony

Posted on April 5, 2015 by admin

On Thursday, April 2, Professor George Wolfe spoke to 20 student from several African Nations (including Kenya) on the topic of “Achieving Harmony between Ethnic and Religious Groups” (see photo below). Dr. Wolfe made his presentation at Ball State University on behalf of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, the United Religions Initiative (URI) and the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship which is a Cooperation Circle within URI. Much time was spent having these bright and enthusiastic students discuss wisdom teachings from various religious and philosophical traditions. One purpose of his presentation was to encourage the students to return to their home countries and start a URI cooperation circle in each of their local communities. This presentation was part of the Pan-African program which has been organized by the Ball State Center for International Development (CID).

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