“We wanted to help them in awakening to their personal qualities and strengths before setting out to change the world. While engaging with others and creat- ing a global society for all beings to flourish is a goal to strive for, we came to recognize that it takes a collective and collaborative approach within a community of practice to keep the message alive and implement what’s learned in the 12-week training.” A love for social justice prompted
AWAKENING THE GLOBAL HEART
Compassionate Activists Unite to Write Earth’s New Story by Linda Sechrist
A
s individuals and in groups, more people today are express- ing deep inner caring and com-
passion for fellow humans and all life on this planet by hitching their heartfelt energies to powerful actions that hold the promise of a sustainable future. In This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, author Naomi Klein attests that the power of ferocious love is underestimated by companies and their government advocates. Suggesting that climate change be considered a framework for broader social improvements instead of a single issue, she invites “seizing the moment of discontent” to advance healing the planet and its broken economies and communities. Stories about how ordinary people are energizing local and online com- munities of practice to improve inter- generational communication, eliminate
32 Lehigh Valley
monetary influence in politics and restore democracy, and support social justice, community wealth building, independent media, sound health care and clean food and water are frequently missing from mainstream media. Pio- neering efforts by activists such as Mario Tigueros, Pachamama Alliance program manager for the Game Changer Intensive; Joshua Gorman, founder of Generation Waking Up; and Cole Kleitsch, founder and director of Walking Civics, warrant widespread attention and support.
Hearts Afire
When hundreds of participants in Pachamama’s Awakening the Dreamer symposium, held in cities throughout the U.S., kept asking “What’s next?” Tigueros facilitated the creation of Game Changers, which explores pres- ent challenges and possibilities and ways to create a new future. He says,
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Tigueros to recognize the corporate capture of America’s democracy. “Sug- gesting that symposium participants work with Move to Amend and Citi- zens’ Climate Lobby made sense,” he explains. One is a nonpartisan coali- tion of organizations and individuals seeking to end corporate personhood and demand true democracy; the other empowers individuals to exercise their political power. It takes love to inspire the youth
of GenY, Generation We and the Digital Generation, all names for the Millenials, to create a new story and transform their lives and communities. Gorman is counting on his peers to help make it happen. “We’re writing a different story
than the worn-out one we’ve been led to believe is inevitable,” he says. Some of Generation Waking Up’s young leaders have formed local communi- ties of practice that campaign to get big money out of politics, pressure universities to divest fossil fuel in- vestments, build local and just food systems, end mass incarceration, enroll residents to go solar and inspire everyday citizens to live in more just, sustainable ways. “Young people have a leadership role in spearheading the change our world is calling for. Ultimately, it will only come about with every generation working together,” observes Gorman, who operates from Oakland, California. He’s encouraged when Generation Wak- ing Up members say they want to learn from older adults that spent decades struggling for positive social change. A deep love for the potential of
civic engagement prompted Gladstone, New Jersey, resident Kleitsch’s Walking Civics initiative. The intergenerational
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