ProgressiveSpirit.com
What are Progressive Values?
Documentary Project &
Study Group
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ProgressiveSpirit.com
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Daily Progressive Values Stories
A daily post of one of our Progressive Values interviews to the Blogs at:
Opednews.com,
Dailykos.com and
DFA Blog.
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| 50. Progressive Values Stories: Zeus Yiamouyiannis on Innovation and Caring | ||
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In this interview
Zeus Yiamouyiannis talks about how innovation is a progressive value. He
also sees caring and nurture as progressive values and talks about having
learned these values growing up on an organic farm and tending to the
animals. On one hand, conservatives talk about traditional values of
self interest and selfishness, on the other hand, innovation, caring and
nurture are some of the traditional progressive values.
View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 49. Progressive Values Stories: Jeremy Rothe-Kushel on Caring | ||
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In this interview,
Jeremy Rothe-Kushel talks about the progressive value of caring. He
recounts learning to care more deeply by being with his family at his
great-grandmother's death bed.
It's a
learning process to expand your sense of care beyond just thinking of
yourself - to caring for your family, community, nation and the world.
View @: DemocracyforAmerica - Opednews - Dailykos - Groups.Yahoo |
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| 48. Fatally Flawed Conservative Value of Hypocrisy | ||
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Several people I asked about the failure of conservative
values mentioned hypocrisy. Michelle, Owen and Steve brought
up examples of conservative hypocrisy in; family values, education,
finance, the economy, the occupation of Iraq and in human rights. While we
all may exhibit varying degrees of hypocrisy in our lives, it seems that the
conservative movement has embraced and institutionalized this value. View @: DemocracyforAmerica - Opednews.com Poll - Dailykos - Groups.Yahoo |
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| 47. Failed Conservative Values: Congresswoman Maxine Waters on Blame, Hate & Lying | ||
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I interviewed Congresswoman Maxine Waters and asked her about progressive and
conservative values. In this section, Maxine mentions that conservatives have
tricked people with the failed conservative values of blame, hate and
lying. These values are also failing because more people are not
following them anymore and in fact, people are starting to turn toward
progressives values. She goes on to talk about how the occupation of Iraq is a
metaphor for the failure of conservative values.
View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com (Poll) - Dailykos.com |
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| 46. Failed Conservative Values: Gordon Wright on Psychopaths and Fear | ||
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Gordon Wright
values freedom but was raised by a conservative autocratic, dictatorial and
bully of a father. He feels conservatives fear life's changes
and it's spontaneity. An example is how all of George Bush's public events
are totally choreographed and controlled events. He also thinks
that the corporate conservatives value of heartlessness and unfettered
self-interest, are the same values as a psychopaths. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com (Poll) - Dailykos.com |
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| 45. The Failed Conservative Values of James Dobson | ||
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James Dobson is a
major leader of the social conservatives. He is considered one of the more
moderate of the 'Value Voters' leaders because he doesn't support spanking
any child under the age of 18 months, while other conservative leaders do. Dobson is now attacking Barrack Obama for "deliberately
distorting the Bible" and "dragging biblical understanding through the gutter."
Isn't it time for progressives to start unmasking how the values of the
conservative movement have failed? Isn't it time to ask them some questions
about their values? How about asking your family, friends, neighbors, colleges,
etc, "Have Conservative Values Failed?" View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com (Poll) - Dailykos.com |
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| 44. Failed Conservative Values: Elaine Charkowski on Patriarchy Family Values | ||
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Elaine Charkowski
talked with me about how conservative values have failed. She says,
Conservative Family Values is about patriarchy and fear of authority. It’s
about not using your own mind and woman are to be subservient to the man.
The type of power used is random punishment and reward, which studies show
is the best way to drive animals crazy. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews (Poll) - Dailykos.com |
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| 43. Failed Conservative Values: Louise Specht on Hierarchy Authoritarian Narcissism | ||
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I asked Louise Specht about the the
failure of conservative values. She addressed the hierarchal and
authoritarian nature of conservativism and how this can lead to
narcissism for the people at the top. Steven Colbert does a great job of
imitating a conservative on the Colbert Report. I just saw him begin his
show lately by saying, "Did I tell you I love me lately?" He hit's the
nail on the head, as does Louise. (Poll) View @:DemocracyforAmerica - Opednews (Poll) - Dailykos.com - Groups.yahoo |
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| 42. Failed Conservative Values: Dona Ridgeway on Authoritarianism | ||
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Donna Ridgeway is
a blogger living in the Santa Cruz, California area. She was raised republican
and was in the military, but then started questioning.
She says the Failed
Conservative Value is authoritarianism, it's a lose lose situation because
if the
authoritarian
fails, everything fails. However she sees a lot of problems with
progressives as well. There's a lot of egos with progressives and herding
cats is hard. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews - Dailykos - Groups.yahoo |
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| 41. Failed Conservative Values: Arianna Huffington on Family Values Hypocrisy | ||
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Arianna Huffington is a well know progressive speaker and
activist. She started the popular Huffington Post website and it seems you
can't turn on a progressive TV show without her popping up on it and taking a
swipe at the conservatives. I saw Arianna at our local bookstore where she was
promoting her new book, The Right is Wrong. During the Q and A, I asked her how
conservative values have failed. She had plenty to say. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 40. Failed Conservative Values: They're Not Working - George Lakoff | ||
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George Lakoff is a
linguistics professor at UC Berkeley and author of numerous books on
metaphors, framing and politics. Howard Dean has called him, "one of the
most influential political thinkers of the progressive movement." George was
at our local bookstore talking about his latest book, The Political Mind.
During the question and answer period, I asked him if he personally feels
that Conservative Values have Failed and if so, how have they failed? View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com |
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| 39. Failed Conservative Values: David Sirota on Economic Darwinism | ||
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David Sirota came and talked about his new book,
'The Uprising' at the Oakland Democracy for America meet-up on June 11,
2008. During the Q and A, I asked David how conservative values have failed
and he talked about the failure of Conservative Economic Darwinism. The full
video of his 70 minute talk and slideshow is now online. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 38. Attack of the Anaconda - Failed Conservative Values Metaphors | ||
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Sometimes it helps to use a bit of
imagination and creativity to look at things in a different way to shake up
the status quo and change mindsets. I've been asking people to create
a metaphor for the Failed Conservative Values. For example, if
conservative values were a type of machine, or land, or animal, etc.,
what would they be like? Here are some of the images
people came up with; anaconda, meat grinder, quicksand and mud stuck
elephant. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 37. Failed Conservative Values: Nancy Kops on Selfishness | ||
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I interviewed Nancy
Kops and asked her about Failed Conservative Values and what are Progressive
Values. She feels caring is the most important liberal-progressive
value. She knows many conservatives and finds them to have
good hearts and be very caring
about the people around them. However, she
can’t figure out why they can be attracted to the Republican Party. She
thinks they just don't see the big picture. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 36. Failed Conservative Values: Arun Akkineni on Self-Righteousness | ||
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I interviewed Arun
Akkineni about Failed Conservative Values. He felt that self-righteousness
is a Failed Conservative Value and it's scary and dangerous. With
self-righteousness, you see the world as black and white and don't see the
nuances. You also don't incorporate other peoples ideas, which makes for
poor decision making. He points to the current conservative administrations
creation of the war and occupation of Iraq, as an example. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 35. Failed Conservative Values: Aris Harmon on Fear and Power | ||
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I interviewed Aris Harmon about the failure of conservative values. He
said conservatives can be very nice people but they try to maintain the status
quo and are afraid of change. For
this reason, their fear of change is easily manipulated by other conservatives
such as,
Grover Norquist and Abramoff,
whose
sole value is power at any cost. He also sees the failure of
critical thinking as the reason conservatives are so easily manipulated. |
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| 34. Failed Conservative Values: All about Greed | ||
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I interviewed people around the Democracy for America booth at the California
Democratic Party Convention in San Jose. I asked people how have
conservative values failed? It surprised me how many responded
that the conservative value of greed was the biggest failure. Here
are some of the comments. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - |
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| 33. Progressive Values Stories: Jim Dean on Responsibility and Participation | ||
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In
this second part of my interview with Jim Dean, Chair of Democracy for
America, Jim talks about the Progressive Values of responsibility and
participation. Progressives are now standing up to participate in and take
responsibility over the political process. Democracy for America
helps in supporting these Progressive Values of Responsibility and
Participation. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 32. Failed Conservative Values: Jim Dean on Corruption | ||
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I interviewed Jim Dean, Chair of Democracy
for America (DFA) at the Democratic Party Convention in San Jose,
California. I asked Jim how conservative values have failed. He says
current conservativism is like a
despotic dictator and is about
corruption, power and the rewarding of friends. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 31. Progressive Values Stories: Norman Solomon on We're All in it Together | ||
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I interviewed
Norman Solomon at the 2008 Democratic Party Convention in San Jose,
California. Norman is a columnist and his book "War Made Easy" was
recently made into a movie with Sean Penn narrating it. In this second part
of the interview, he talks about the progressive value of responsibility
for each other. This responsibility is the basis of the popular progressive
phrase, 'We're All in it Together' which stands in contrast to the Failed
Conservative Value view of 'Every Man for Himself'. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 30. Failed Conservative Values: Norman Solomon on Dog Eat Dog Greed | ||
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I interviewed Norman Solomon at the 2008 Democratic Party Convention in San
Jose, California. Norman is a columnist and his book "War Made Easy"
was recently made into a movie. He talked about how he sees 'dog eat
dog greed' as a Failed Conservative Value. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 29. Progressive Values Stories: Scott Henderson on the Common Good | ||
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I
interviewed Scott Henderson in Los Angeles. Scott who told me the Common
Good was the most important progressive value and 'we're all in it
together'. He tells a story about growing up in the 50's and feeling a
sense of community, but that we've lost that now. He thinks conservatives
characterize progressives as wanting to be supported by the state and thinks
conservatives have good intentions and mean well, but don’t fully comprehend
the importance of all of us supporting each other. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 28. Failed Conservative Values: Jeeni Criscenzo on Scapegoating | ||
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I interviewed Jeeni
Criscenzo in Sacramento, California. Jeeni brought up the prevalent use of
scapegoating by conservatives. I find it curios how a Conservative
Movement that preaches individual responsibility is so adept at finding
scapegoats and not taking true responsibility. I think it has to do with the
type of responsibility they preach. It is not the unqualified progressive
sense of responsibility, where you feel responsible for yourself and the
society around you, but rather conservatives always talk about a qualified
'individual responsibility' which actually is really no longer true
responsibility, but rather a value of selfish self-centeredness. It's like
taking the value of love or caring and saying we're for 'individual love' or
'individual caring'. The values lose their meaning and are turned into
nothing but the Failed Conservative Value of individual selfishness and
greed. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 27. Failed Conservative Values: Barack Obama on the Status Quo v Change | ||
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In his Pennsylvania
primary speech, Barack Obama talked about change and how the Status Quo
resists change. As I interview people about what are Progressive Values and
about how Conservative Values have Failed, the interviewees repeatedly talk
about the conservative fear of change and the promotion of the status quo.
We start off with this exploration of the Failed Conservative Value of the
Status Quo with Barack Obama's speech on change versus the status quo. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com - Groups.yahoo |
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| 26. Progressive Values Stories: Brianna Leavitt on Taking Back Family Values - Justice & Responsibility | ||
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I interviewed Brianna Leavitt at the First
Congregational Church of Berkeley. She feels conservatives have taken
over the term Values and Family Values, but she doesn't want to just give up
the words to them. She goes on to talk about the Progressive Values she
learned in her family. Her mother always reached out to the poor and
homeless. Brianna was taught empathy, justice and responsibility
by her parents and grandmother. These are in opposition to the Failed
Conservative Family Values that exclude people. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com - Groups.yahoo.com |
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| 25. Progressive Values Stories: Peter Harvey on Community versus Intolerance | ||
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I interviewed Peter
Harvey at a Oakland, California Democracy for America meeting. Peter
passionately talked about the progressive value of community and shared an
early memory of the community reaching out to him. However, he
thinks that conservatives have completely missed the mark of religious
teachings by going off into intolerance. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 24. Failed Conservative Values: Violence and Brutality | ||
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This article is a rather harsh critique of deeper
Failed Conservative Values. In interviews, Richard Wagner told me he thinks
thuggery is a failed conservative value and Herman Blackmon mentioned
the lynch mob. I didn't think that either the lynch mob or thuggery
were actually values. They seem more like manifestations of a value or
perhaps of multiple values. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com - Groups.yahoo |
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| 23. Failed Conservative Values: Barbara, Carole, Nina on Dogmatism | ||
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I'm starting a new series of articles on how Conservative Values have
Failed.
It's obvious that conservative ideas and policies have failed, but the failures go even
deeper to the very heart and essence of the conservative movement, to their
Failed Conservative Values. In this series, we will pull back the mask of
Conservative
Family Values, Conservative Traditional Values, individual freedom, individual
responsibility, individual liberty, Compassionate Conservativism, etc. to reveal the
underlying Failed Conservative Values of fear, authoritarianism, secrecy,
dogmatism, greed, indifference, self-righteousness, arrogance, hypocrisy, etc.
View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com - Groups.yahoo |
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| 22. Progressive Values Stories: Patricia Player on Security | ||
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Patricia Player volunteers for OneCareNow.org, the California
single payer health insurance initiative. I interviewed her at a street fair
in El Cerrito, California where she was staffing the One Care Now booth. She
didn't identify as being progressive because she doesn't like labels. She did
talk about the value and importance of security and from her talk, I realized
the relationship between security and caring. When people don't have health care
and are feeling anxious and insecure, it causes them to become more concerned
about themselves. When they feel secure, knowing they don't have to worry about
having health care, it's easier for them to care about others. If progressives
want to
create a caring society, we need Single Payer Health Care. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 21. Progressive Values Stories: Michelle on Values or Non-Values is Insulting | ||
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We interviewed Michelle on Earth Day when she was cleaning up Lake Merritt in
Oakland, California. She's a lawyer and was very careful about the definition
and meaning of the words; values, progressive, liberal, conservative, etc. She
sees complexity in these words and doesn't like to generalize. However, she did
see equality, fairness and social justice as core liberal values. Michelle also
talked about how she finds it insulting the way conservatives talk about values
and imply only they have them. |
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| 20. Progressive Values Stories: Carol Dipple on Caring | ||
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I met Carol Dipple at
a street fair in El Cerrito, California. She told me about learning to
care and have empathy for people from her mother. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 19. Progressive Values Stories: Kimon Kotos on Caring | ||
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From my 100 or so video interviews of people to date, I find the progressive
value with the greatest emotional impact is caring. People will often become
emotional and tear up when recounting stories about caring, having been cared
for, or how they offered care to others. I find it is one of the most
overlooked values mentioned by progressive leaders and politicians. I
interviewed Kimon Kotos in Los Angeles. He talked about the different ways
caring manifests itself. |
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| 18. Progressive Values Stories: Suzanne Kite on the Golden Rule | ||
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We continue with another story about the golden rule. In
this interview with Suzanne Kite, she says that progressives value the
Golden Rule, "Treat people like you’d like to be treated, and don’t
gossip." As she says, "The problem is in politics there’s always gossip".
I'm finding there seems to be a lot of different versions of the Golden
Rule. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 17. Progressive Values Stories: Mary L Jacobs on the Golden Rule and Respect | ||
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I interviewed Mary Jacobs in Los Angeles, California at a convention
for California Democratic Clubs. At first she brought up the Golden Rule as a
progressive value. She connected that to the importance of respecting all
people. She told a story of how, at the age of 9 years old, she used a bit
of violence to stand up to disrespect. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 16. Progressive Values Stories: More Creative Progressive Metaphors | ||
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I didn't get many responses
to my last post about creating a metaphor for progressive and conservative
values. Come on progressives, be more imaginative. Let's make
creativity a progressive value. I quite enjoy hearing and
seeing the metaphors. When I
individually sit down and ask progressives for a metaphor, after a little
prodding, they always come up with great metaphors. Here are some more. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 15. Progressive Values Stories: Metaphors of Progressive Values | ||
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When I interview people about progressive values, I've
also asked them to create a metaphor of those values. Sometimes creating
an image to represent some feeling or thought can shed some new light on
it. It can illuminate some aspect that you may not have thought of before.
I also find metaphors to be fun and creative. Here are several metaphors
of what Progressive Values are like. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 14. Progressive Values Stories: Mimi Kennedy on Nonviolence | ||
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Mimi Kennedy is an actress and Advisory Board chair of the
Progressive Democrats of America. I interviewed her at a conference in Los
Angeles, California. She told me that nonviolence is her most important
progressive value. She told me the story about having painfully learned
the importance of truth and transparency at a young age as well. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 13. Progressive Values Stories Rescue: Howard Dean on Values | ||
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Conservatives have done a good job of articulating their values and have
dominated the national discussion of values. Progressives are now playing
catch up and are working to reclaim the values debate. At the 2007
YearlyKos convention, Howard Dean addressed this values topic in his
speech. He described the problem and laid out his suggestions for the most
important Progressive Values. He suggested Fairness,
Responsibility and Toughness as his progressive values. |
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| 12. Progressive Values Stories: Jeremy on Responsibility | ||
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I met Jeremy at a Wellstone training in Sacramento,
California. He feels that responsibility is the most important progressive value
and that conservatives have falsely defined democrats, liberals, and
progressives as "tax and spend." He feels it's good that progressives are now
speaking out about their values and that they actually are about fiscal
responsibility. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 11. Progressive Values Stories: Ahjamu Makalani on Justice | ||
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Ahjamu Makalani is Vice Chair for the California
Democratic Party Progressive Caucus. I asked him about the whole progressive
values discussion and how he compares progressive and conservative values. For
Ahjamu, justice is personally the most important progressive value. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com - Groups.yahoo |
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| 10. Progressive Values Stories: John on Equality | ||
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I interviewed John at his house in Oakland,
California. John says progressives are looking for equality, for fairness and
for justice and that these are the same values that most Americans have. He went
to Berkeley schools in the 60's and 70's, and was excited about the overall
cultural search at that time of really trying to understand what equality might
be. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 9. Progressive Values Stories: Drew & Carol on Openness v Secrecy | ||
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I met Drew at an Obama event in Oakland, California
and Carol Hanelberg at a convention in Los Angeles. They both had in common a
value of openness. Drew is disturbed about the secrecy in government and feels
Barack Obama will bring transparency. Carol talked about openness starting at
home and extending out to family, friends and society. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com - Groups.yahoo |
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| 8. Progressive Values Stories: Attica on Caring | ||
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I met Attica at a house party in Oakland, California.
Attica talked about the progressive value of caring about our friends, our
communities, our families, our country, the world. I enjoyed hearing her
childhood 'funny moment' story of learning about caring from her grand View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 7. Progressive Values Stories: Chris Young on Opportunity | ||
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I attended an Obama house party in Oakland,
California and met Chris Young. Chris is a lawyer who gave up his high paying
corporate job to work on the Obama campaign. When I asked him what are
progressive values, he talked about the importance of opportunity. He told the
story of his African-American father who was in Folsom prison and how some
opportunities opened up for him. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 6. Progressive Values Stories: Stephanie Leaf on Open Mindedness | ||
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I met Stephanie Leaf at a Wellstone training workshop
in Sacramento California. She told me her progressive value of tolerance for
ambiguity and open mindedness, but also shared her frustration at how being open
minded, puts progressives at a disadvantage when talking to closed minded
conservatives. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 5. Progressive Values Stories: David Sirota On Values and Fairness | ||
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I attended and video taped a talk by David
Sirota at the Wellstone Club in Oakland, California. David mentioned economic
fairness as being the major progressive value. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 4. Progressive Values Stories: Joe Brewer on Empathy | ||
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I ran into Joe Brewer who was cleaning the streets of
Oakland on Earth Day. Joe works as a fellow at the Rockridge Institute in
Berkeley, California. He says empathy is the basic progressive value and tells a
personal story about his experiences growing up in a small town and his visit to
the squalor of India. View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 3. Progressive Values Stories: Loni Hancock on Empathy and Caring | ||
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This interview is with Loni Hancock, California
Assembly member representing the 14th Assembly District: Serving Berkeley,
Oakland, etc. Loni says that empathy and caring are the most important
progressive values to her. She tells a childhood story about empathy and her
visit to the zoo. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 2. Progressive Values Stories; Dotty LeMieux on Personal Liberties and Collective Responsibility | ||
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I am working on a documentary to answer the question,
What are Progressive Values? So far, I have interviewed over 100 progressives
and have placed over 350 video clips on YouTube with the various replies. I will
begin to post some of the transcribed interviews along with direct links to the
video taped interviews on Opednews.com. View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com |
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| 1. A Call For A Progressive Values Summit | ||
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A Call For A Progressive Values Summit: Whose Values
will Prevail in 2008? This article is a call for progressives to get together
and hold a Progressive Values Summit to confront the Conservative Values Voters
Summit head on. View @:Dailykos.com - Opednews.com - Openleft.com |
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