Hello Fellow Progressives,

The Breaking the Silence conference event this week provides a great opportunity to grow our progressive movement in general and our Kansas Progressive Caucus in particular. The fee for this conference is $1 for each event: Cultural event Friday evening, November 2; and the all day conference on Saturday on November 3. People can financially sponsor the event with $50 and get a lunch on Saturday, November 3.

The intent of this event is to connect people from multiple cultures—young and old; multiple places; and especially people of color and progressive groups—so we as a progressive movement here in Kansas and Missouri, can unite, help one another, and break the silence about whatever divides us. And author David Korten is speaking.

David Korten's recent book, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, offers one of the most cogent, insightful, clear narratives of our progressive story, including its early origins. I'm excited about it. And I hope you will look into it and consider participating. I'd love it if our Kansas Progressive Caucus Members would participate in big numbers and represent our Caucus at this event.

The central idea is for people of color and progressive groups to come together for dialogue to find common ground and the means to grow our power through solidarity.

The website for this event is here:

http://bseckc.org/

When this event is over, Richard Mabion, its local organizer, and many other co-organizers, including me, plan to continue the process of dialogue towards multicultural solidarity to help grow the progressive movement, and for supporting our people of color with our movement and its groups, including groups such as the Kansas Progressive Caucus. There is a follow up meeting with David Korten in 2008.

Check it out below and on the website.

And there is time for the KPC to be a sponsor of this event.

Kelly

Kelly Patrick Gerling
Kansas Progressive Caucus Member

BREAK THE SILENCE
Starting in Kansas City, Kansas

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE EARTH COMMUNITY
THROUGH MULTI-CULTURAL SOLIDARITY

Featuring David Korten, Author of "The Great Turning"

Website of this event:
http://bseckc.org/

WORKSHOPS • EXHIBITS • BOOK & ART FAIR

Cultural Evening: 7-9 p.m., Friday November 2
Main Program: 8 A.M. to 4 p.m., Saturday, November 3
Reardon Center — 500 Minnesota
Kansas City, Kansas

Supporter Registration: $50 per person (includes lunch)

GENERAL ADMISSION TO THE EVENTS: $1.00 !!!
(Bring your own lunch)

Registration and information
can be accessed through
People's Culture, P.O. Box 5224, Kansas City Kansas 66119
or contact Fred Culver at 913-342-6379.

Break the Silence

The Building a Sustainable Earth Community Coalition is breaking the silence by bringing internationally known guest speaker and author of The Great Turning, David Korten, to Kansas City, Kansas.

The conference will begin on Friday, November 2, 2007 with a sustainable business discussion starting at 1:00 p.m.. followed by multi cultural event from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and the main program, featuring David Korten, will be held on Saturday November 3, 2007 between 8am-4pm at the Jack Reardon Convention Center, 500 Minnesota, Kansas City, Kansas 66101. Advance registration of $50.00 per person reserves access to Friday night’s event and lunch on Saturday with continued dialogue with David Korten. General admission is $1.00 per day and does not include lunch, but we will provide a list of restaurants in the area.

“We Are Who We’ve Been Waiting For!”

This simple phrase conveys the essence of a global movement to rebuild local communities - wherever they are - from the inside out, from the bottom up. It is a rallying call to create livable, self-sustaining places for our children and grandchildren to inherit. It is an acknowledgement that the dominant culture – the Empire, System or Establishment – does not protect, sustain or nurture the majority; rather it dominates, condemns to misery and divides us.

This simple phrase – We Are Who We’ve Been Waiting For - debunks the perceived need for handouts and government support (in order to progress), and necessitates that we the people organize our communities in ways that really work, in ways that historically worked for humankind - via partnerships, creative cooperation, shared resources, and most of all, by friendships that extend to all who share our spaces, our planet, our predicament.

We Are Who We’ve Been Waiting For!

“Progressive” Groups

As all Empires eventually do, “ours” creates such appalling conditions globally that legions of folks who once embraced the System now abhor it and look for solutions. They organize to stop the wars, to impeach Bush, to rid our environments of life-threatening toxins, to seek social justice, to extend health care to all citizens, to restore a balanced ecology, to create urban food gardens and Buy Local initiatives. The issues they champion are universal in their relevance, yet members of these organizations of dissidents in the U.S. are mostly white. Their efforts, though admirable, are diminished by reason of this exclusivity. This conference – Break the Silence – is an effort to bring people of all colors together to confront and resolve our common dilemma.

Building Sustainable Earth Communities

The plethora of information available on “sustainable earth communities” runs the gamut from energy conservation to social justice to healthy living, economic independence and beyond. To capsulize the earth community movement, it might be said that a model community is one that is economically prosperous, environmentally sound, socially equitable and interconnected. Each community must determine its own strengths and needs and structure its revitalization programs accordingly.

Fortunately, many models exist as cities around the world create new paradigms for development in blighted communities and utilize technology in creative new ways. Traditional examples of earth communities include the social and cultural patterns of tribal villages and Indigenous American constructs, and in some ways, the close-knit African-American communities that existed when interdependence was necessary for survival in a highly segregated society.

In his defining book, The Great Turning from Empire to Earth Community,
Break the Silence conference guest speaker, David Korten, explains that “a turn to Earth Community is neither about self-sacrifice nor about renouncing technology or progress. It is about getting clear on our values, setting new priorities, redefining progress, and consuming less.”

Registration and information can be accessed through People's Culture, P.O. Box 5224, Kansas City Kansas 66119 or contact Fred Culver at 913-342-6379.