North Sydney

June 21st  2000

"In what ways can we as individuals make a difference in our community?"

Yet again we welcomed a number of new participants to our ranks.  A healthy sign that we'er on a worthwhile journey somehow.  From the introductions it was clear that so many of our group have a refined sense of their own values and were in fact living and making decisions consciously.

Asked to write down what were the issues, resources, challenges and actions that ought to be addressed if we are to make a difference, our participants came up with a wide range of suggestions.  These were then sorted into some primary groupings which they titled;  Active Awareness,  Values, Issues and The Way Forward.

Here's our beginning list.

Active Awareness.
Write letters.
Debate values first
then facts.
Living with pollution
is not fun.
Use mainstream marketing
and related techniques.
Replace adversarial
argument with dialogue.
Emphasise good news.
Become informed.
Stop rent and property
increases.
What can I do for the
person in front of me?
Un-hijack debate on
public issues.
Talk about issues to neighbours.
Encourage co-operation.
Lowering quality of drinking water creates death.
Discriminate TV watching.
Share your wealth.
Community must print it's own money.
Plan action and target efforts.

 

The Way Forward
Challenge short term thinking.
Engage in personal growth.
Fear of change is nonsense.
Incremental change non threatening.
Do the next simple thing.
Activate every person towards goals.
Overcoming individual apathy/inertia.
Care about apathy.
Values
Peace is within
Rising awareness of spirit
Celebration of diversity
Choosing quality of life
Follow your heart
Meaningful
work recognition
Connect involvement with meaning
It has to be fun
Contentment is the greatest success
Regain the satisfaction of work

 

Issues
Male/Female relationship
Imbalances - Disrespect.
Neglect of our children.
Wealth divide.
Make known the massive
goodwill of the people.
Replace fundamentalism with phenomenological approach.
Rich/poor gap.
Recognise the unlimited.
Possibilities of people.
Future for young people.

As we, in no way exhausted the possibilities, it was decided that we will continue this process in July and you are invited to come along and add your suggestions.

If attendance is not possible, why don't you email your issue to us here and we'll pop it in the mill for you.  Remember, just 3 to 5 words as a working title and you can add your understanding of the other implications as a separate submission.

 

The next meeting at this venue in North Sydney will be on July 19th