Hi folks,

The enthusiasm of last Wednesday is still perking through the hallways as about 300 folk buzzed about the Seattle Call To Action.  Come Wednesday, REAL CHANGE, will print a short version of the Seattle Call to Action.  The larger address is at www.livingfaithnow.org.   You can see the speech this Thursday evening at 10pm on cable channel 29/77.  

Living Faith Now will also feature weekly updates (except for Aug. 17 show which is pre-recorded).   [“Living Faith Now” is Rev. Lang’s weekly radio show on 1150AM at 2pm every Friday – ed.]

We had a follow up meeting last night to start the process of strategy and organization.   After listening and consulting with several folk there does seem to be a (bit of a consensus& forming.   

1.)    Given that it is August with many people coming and going, given that college isn&t in session until late September which means small youth turn out, given that the high schools start Sept. 5th leaving little time for organizing a walk-out, AND given that 9/11 is a national day of mourning it seems that:

a.)    we probably cannot muster multiple thousands for a 9/11 mass action
b.)    BUT we can still do a small thing well

SO +. What we want to do is to create a toe in the water, first step (of many to follow) event on Tuesday 9/11.    We are naming it a FREEDOM FROM FEAR CAMPAIGN and will launch it on 9/11 downtown.  

The creative ideas pouring out of the group are better than fantastic.  It is these ideas that we want to organize and accomplish in the months ahead.

We thought we would start with a simple event downtown.  The event will center around a New Orleans type-funeral dirge as we drape the Constitution in black and mourn its death.  Our meetings in the next weeks will tighten down the nuts and bolts as we continue to shape the next steps.  Again, the 9/11 dirge is a limited but focused first step to get the FREEDOM FROM FEAR CAMPAIGN launched.   A do-able goal would be to bring a few thousand folk together, and later that night a celebration and reflection on our action.   In some senses the event is about building (our community& so that we can build trust, respect and affection for each other.

The larger intention is to create a series of creative direct actions, welcoming and inviting folks who don’t normally come to public events, so that we can build a base for a MASS ACTION that will, indeed, shut our city down.  Shutting it down because thousands and thousands of folks join us rather than a few hundred shutting the city down with clever but largely ineffective stunts.  Shutting it down to reclaim our power, and our self respect as a people who rule, rather than as a people ruled by forces beyond our control.

The goal is to awaken folks from their trance.  It is to awaken and energize folks to the constitutional crisis before us.   We do feel the pressure of time.  We do feel (something is in the air&.  We do feel that we are close, very close, to a traumatic seizure of power by this administration.  And, many of us feel that the opposition party, the Democrats, have simply betrayed the nation and forfeited the responsibilities of the offices they hold.    Many of us feel a new form of fascism is emerging in our nation.   

We will need focused, disciplined, creative and liberating actions that emerge from a people willing to reflect on their actions, willing to build trust and affection with each other, willing to think hard, think deeply, think strategically.  This will take some time but all journeys begin with a first step.

I want to invite you, as you are able, to join us on Monday evenings to do the (nuts and bolts& work of making this first step successful.   I also invite you to continue the conversation of creative actions that will lead up to a MASS ACTION.    Our politicians have failed us.   It is time to begin anew.

Rich lang