[Dialogue] A proposal for corporate research and writing

[David Dunn]

Dialogue proposal

I¹ve been thinking about our conversations about Bush and Company and the
importance of the November election. I believe that we¹ve got to apply our
collective brain power to come up with resources that move the human and
social history of the USA forward. You¹ll see what I mean as I speak about
my experiences of the last few weeks.

I¹m painfully aware that I do not have a way to speak in any Œuseful-to-
life¹ way to my daughter Sarah and son-in-law Tyler--Sarah the sincere,
true- to-her-savior fundamentalist and Tyler the conscientious conservative
ideologue. They¹ll vote Republic as a matter of conviction and principle.
There¹s no way I can change their vote, so I¹m looking for ways to commend
and support an opening that helps them see what is happening in American
society with greater clarity and sophistication. I¹m also looking for ways
to commend the development of heart and mind that leads beyond religious
fundamentalism toward an opening, deepening, and broadening the spirit
journey.

More to the point with respect to the November election, the American scene
is so complex and the sins of the Bush administration so egregious that I
find myself quite ill-prepared to speak effectively to the people I run
into, my son-in-law Bill, for example, who might vote Democrat but for now,
have questions about the adequacy of the Kerry-Edwards ticket.

I know that there¹s a world of value assumptions and images of the meaning
of faith, civic responsibility and personal virtue lurking inside those
statements. Bottom line, I believe that between us we know a lot about the
social and individual contradictions that the debate in the larger society
misses or ignores and we know a lot about the promise of a journey that
enlarges and transforms us.

In the short term, I think that we ought to do some corporate research and
writing so that we have at our disposal thoughtful ideas that come out of a
well documented commentary on the Bush administration, not in a good versus
evil posture, but through contradiction analysis, a contrast of approaches
that highlights the short comings and/or violations of the Bush
administration, the likely unintended consequences of the Bush
administration¹s narrowness and short-sightedness, and I believe most
importantly, a declaration of the values and principles that provide a more
adequate context for and a more effective approach to national leadership.

I picture a kind of white paper that takes the form of a position statement
that I could hand to my son-in-law. We might also create a sort of talking
paper for our own personal use with suggestions for how we might cut through
the fog of political campaign rhetoric in conversations with others. I need
talking points that I can bring to conversations that I have with 'the
undecided.'

In the long term, I believe that we have a lot to say about fundamentalism
as an obstacle to and potentially the beginning point for the spirit
journey. We need to distill some of our life experience and learning into a
form that would awaken, enlighten and beckon the fundamentalists who are
looking for an emerging relationship with the Mystery.

Two notes about how those who are interested might approach this sort of
work. One, we might start by brainstorming topics that need to be addressed
and points that need to be made vis-a-vis the political debate. I may get to
a suggestion for an outline over the weekend.

Two, we might experiment with using a web log ('blog') to facilitate this
kind of corporate writing and reflection. Tim Wegner, do you know about
blogs? Anyone else knowledgeable or experienced with blogs? I've been doing
some homework, but have zero experience.

Comments? Suggestions?

David Dunn