Given the somewhat intimate nature of these gatherings, some clubs might choose to start small and invite only close, trusted friends to join. One person could recruit one other person and the two of them could recruit a third.
A club could be defined as a team of three or more individuals who affirm the network's mission, primary method, and specific requirement. This commonality among all the clubs could nurture a sense of community, while allowing for maximum flexibility and self-determination.
A commitment to work consistently in each of the three areas addressed -- the personal, the social, and the political -- is important, because efforts in each area can reinforce and strengthen efforts in the other two.
For club members, the emphasis would undoubtedly shift from day by day. The members might engage in political action only occasionally. But it seems they could reasonably be asked to dedicate at least an hour or two each month to help improve public policies. After all, we vote because we feel it is our duty, even though one vote is rarely decisive. We need to feel a similar obligation to be politically engaged between elections.
It also seems reasonable to ask others to devote at least an hour or two each month to strengthen a community in their home town, thereby helping to establish examples that can point the way to a better future.
Each day members can also work on becoming better human beings, if only by paying attention to how they operate, acknowledging mistakes, and resolving to avoid them in the future. Such honest self-evaluation enables activists to steadily become more effective.
With consistent efforts in these three areas, members could fulfill their obligation to do their fair share to secure for all people the human right to a living-wage job opportunity.
These full-employment clubs could also help combat growing social isolation by nurturing soulful, authentic, face-to-face relationships that help people fulfill their potential. Members could expand and deepen their circle of close, trusted friends. In these safe havens, they could feel free to be themselves, have fun, express honest feelings, listen carefully, give and receive support, get to know one another, discuss the meaning of life, evaluate what's right and what's wrong, help one another become better human beings, and consider how to improve social institutions and governmental policies. The network could exchange information about opportunities for social and political action, without endorsing or lobbying for any specific legislation.
Most people learn from and are inspired primarily by peers they know and trust. To build a popular movement in this country at this time, we need to learn how to reach out to our friends, enrich those friendships, provide meaningful opportunities for social engagement, and cultivate compassionate communities. Given the dehumanizing pressures of modern life, merely relying on spontaneity and the development of natural human friendships is not sufficient. We also need conscious, skillful efforts to cultivate compassionate community. We need to offer time-challenged people easy, attractive ways to have more rewarding experiences that are rooted in open, transparent, mutually respectful collaboration.
I am available to help get this kind of network off the ground. If you want to gather in San Francisco August 15-18 to discuss this possibility, please let me know. My associates and I could find free housing for a good number of individuals who need it. At our gathering, we could discuss efforts along this line, brainstorm about future possibilities, have some fun, and explore some hidden gems in San Francisco that most tourists never see (plan your vacation now!). In the meantime, if you're interested in experimenting with these ideas, feel free to do so. As I travel this spring and when I return home in late May, I will.
If others want to organize a broader range of activities to help build a national full employment movement during those days in August, I'd also be available to help with that as best I can.
IMMEDIATE OPTIONS
The full employment movement is beginning to blossom. You can help build this movement in your hometown and on the Internet. Your options include:
*Support the Jobs for All Campaign.
*Donate to the National Jobs for All Coalition.
*Encourage your Congressperson and Senators to join the Congressional Full Employment Coalition.
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