Activist or Re-activist?

If the actions we take to further our causes are for the most part directed to oppose that which we dislike, it would mean most activists are actually re-activists. So much life energy goes into opposing the things we don't want, instead of creating what we do want that we get burned out and cynical simply from being immersed in struggle. Fewer connections between potential allies can occur as a result. Often there are great areas of material agreement that get displaced by oppositional language.

My years in the construction industry as a progressive with some appreciation of conservative qualities, I needed to learn how to communicate effectively with many people holding strong views. Some of their ideology and language is derived, like mine, from listening to media figures diametrically opposed to each other. We can become like word traps drawn and set to spring at the use of various keywords and tones of voice. Yet, I knew them as good, hard working people that I could trust with my back; to jump in to help me on a moments notice in the dead of night.

Being personally diligent in my research and fact checking, I could see that many are, as I put it, making the wrong decisions for the right reasons. By this I mean that their true values are often far more aligned with mine than our political languages suggest, as each "side" uses information and truisms to win at "shorthand politics" expressed in slogans and catchphrases. 

The absence of agreement on facts, supported with receipts, seems to be a cause of heated exchanges. The unexplored areas of common ground instead become a battlefield in the usual politics of division and destruction. The greater good is the casualty.

Common Agenda USA is an exploration of the possibility of building an American consensus founded on our common values . We can see ourselves in others that we thought we were fighting. We can start to listen to each other  to begin pushing in the same direction instead of pushing back all the time. It is as simple as that. 

We need conversations between the willing and well intentioned to craft trusted data sets and ways to work together where we can. Documentation of shared topics of agreement combined with receipts of fact grounds the consensus that empowers our unity. When we are clear about everything that a majority of Americans hold in common, then we can get to the common sense solutions we have been seeking.

True activism can be fun, inspiring, and visionary because building relationships deepens our lives. It can draw out new affinities with those we thought we were against. It can replace anger with inspiration. Without denying differences, we focus where we agree, and develop the words and descriptions to bring the Common Agenda together as a proposed legislative act.

Call it, if you like, a social media collaboration through sharing of data, and refinement of the language to distill the widest Platform of of Common Agenda Declarations possible. Let's build an online hub to solicit, sort, filter, and refine into common language each suggested Declarations by curating an inquiry designed to find proposals that appeal to diverse people. 

We can document all the obvious sensible things - voiced by the "right" and "left" and the "in-between" minus the rants and rhetoric of those motivated by division. We could even compile threads into a system of National, State, and local group issue hubs. Legislative mark-up tools can then be integrated to open up the public access to the governing process.

This project is a proposal that is intended to fill in the gaps between the legislative process and the public. It combines fact finding, markup and proposal conversations with voting and rating of comments, backed with robust curation. What if we found a way to really come to our common senses? That would put a smile on many faces.

Join the movement at Common Agenda USA!