Tag Archive for: America 2.0

Has the Moment for a New America Arrived?

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heart of a new america

Has the time for a new America—America 2.0—arrived?

A growing number of people think so. Civil rights leader Al Sharpton announced a second historic March on Washington for August 28, the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

But what if, instead of a demand for unfulfilled justice, this event becomes a victory march?

In tandem with the March on Washington, we can rise together in a peaceful protest that surrounds the U.S. Capitol. We can demand an amended Constitution that ensures our government finally and fully realizes its promise to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Yes, we are serious. Yes, we believe it can be done. We know it can heal America. The time for this sweeping, revolutionary change is now.

Let me explain.

A crumbling democracy calls for a New America

We have entered our fourth year of “Making America Great Again,” yet by all measurable criteria, the United States of America is anything but. It’s not great, not united, and is broken beyond repair.

Consider what this vision of a “great America” has brought:

●       A failed response to a global pandemic that has needlessly cost tens of thousands of lives, swiftly crushed the economy, and displaced millions of workers.

●       A rampant string of falsehoods from our highest leaders that have left the entire populace without institutions to believe in.

●       A heightened distrust in medical science at a time when our communities need to depend on it.

●       A police and justice system that is bigoted to its core and open to presidential and partisan interference, while black and brown people are targets of institutional violence.

●       A failed public policy that has accelerated the climate emergency that looms as the greatest threat to humankind in our known history.

It’s time for a little rebellion

In recent weeks, our nation’s highest-ranked military leaders have shattered long-standing norms to speak out against the president and his threat to use military force to quell the voices of dissent pouring into streets nationwide.

Former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell objected with crystal-clear clarity: “We have a Constitution. And we have to follow that Constitution. And the president has drifted away from it.”

Since making America great has failed, why shouldn’t we shift our efforts toward making a New America instead? Perhaps a moment like this is what President Thomas Jefferson had in mind in his letter to James Madison when he wrote, “A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.”

Think back, just a few months ago, to the 2020 State of the Union address. Climate change was finally an issue (sadly, not the issue) for the coming election in November. Words like coronavirus and pandemic were unfamiliar to most. The Green New Deal seemed ridiculous with its cost. And Black Lives Matter had been relegated to a minor point of recent history.

Does this seem like a lifetime ago? A different world? An alternate reality?

Remember when Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden told Bernie Sanders, “People are looking for results, not a revolution”?

“Now, in virtual town hall meetings, media interviews, his own podcast, and in a rare formal address Tuesday, Biden has pointed toward a transformational era in which government would play a bigger role in curing the country’s public health, economic, and racial woes,” the Washington Post reported.

This is a moment crying out for historic, revolutionary change

During the pandemic, people often spoke about returning to “normal.” Two months of quarantine, 44.2 million newly unemployed, and weeks of dramatic and determined protests for racial justice have ensured we’ll never go back to that world again, even if we wanted to.

Whatever comes next will not be normal. This upheaval sets the stage for a revolution that changes how the American government functions.

“Revolutions do not necessarily erupt at the moment when people are most oppressed. Rather, revolutions have more often been the result of ‘rising expectations,’” author Christine Adams recently wrote in the Washington Post. “Periods of progress followed by crushed hopes can be especially dangerous, leading to rage and violence.”

I launched Build a Movement 2020 on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2018 with one purpose: to create a grassroots movement committed to solving our country’s biggest challenges. One we haven’t shied away from is the need for America 2.0, which starts with sweeping constitutional reform that finally realizes the great call for liberty and justice for ALL people.

In our 244-year history, the United States has never realized this vision.

The protests that have grown over the past weeks demand this. If we can come together around these common bonds and keep the pressure on through August, we can secure sweeping constitutional changes to heal America, restore our climate, and responsibly end COVID-19.

Now is our moment for a little rebellion.

Healing America: Waging Optimism

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If you were sick and your physician said you had to take urgent action to remain alive, would you sit around and debate it? Not if you wanted to get well. If I were your doctor I’ll tell you to start by waging optimism and taking action! 

Well, here we are, at the conclusion of this Healing American series. The time for debate is over. The next government of the United States will be elected in less than 400 days. This is the time for action. 

In part one of this Healing America series, we recognized the urgency and illness. 

In part two, we diagnosed the cause. 

In part three, we decided to become a miracle cure.

In part four, we set a course for bold action, with America 2.0. 

So, how do we get from where we are today, a sick and dying nation embroiled in political scandal and ineffective government to where we will be upon signing an America 2.0 constitution as soon as possible? 

We start WAGING OPTIMISM and taking action. 

  • We build a movement together. Click here now to take our pledge and get started.
  • We call all justice-hearted Americans mobilize in mass, peaceful, non-violent demonstrations between now and Constitution Day.
  • We make our presence felt at the Democratic and Republic Conventions when the candidates for the President are formally chosen.
  • We demand candidates that will support our America 2.0 Constitution.

Now, it’s time for action.

waging optimism

Who am I to call you to action?

I’m a doctor and the father of five sons.

I am committed to ensuring that my family and all of your families have the opportunity to pursue the American ideal of liberty and justice for all.

My work for the last 30 years has been to hold the United States government accountable. I’ve been waging justice for all Americans and I want you to join me.

I’m an optimist to the core. I’m Waging Optimism now because I’ve seen what happens when people come together, like the time we changed the course of the AIDS epidemic. Like the Climate Justice movement that is making a huge push to save our planet.

On Martin Luther King’s birthday earlier this year, I launched Build A Movement 2020 (#BAM2020) to spark a patriotic revolutionary political movement. The pillars of BAM2020 can be seen here. (Link to blog with pillars). 

I commit my life to healing America and I know we can do it. 

But who I am isn’t as important who you are. 

Will you be the person who at this moment in history took bold action to demand life, liberty and justice for all? 

Will you wage optimism with me? 

Let Justice Ring!

Healing America: A New Constitution Day

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Can greed be cured? Can the cancer that has stalled our government, bred hatred and division, eroded our Constitution, and exploited hundreds of millions for the betterment of a few be changed? 

Of course, it can. History is full of such movements where the voice of the people was all that was needed to topple corrupt governments, crush systematic oppression like Apartheid and Segregation, and elect new leaders committed to the will of the people.

Our government was formed by the people, for the people, which is exactly what we must do again. And this time, we ensure ALL people are represented, not just those in power who can most benefit from the current illness of greed. 

Think of it like America 2.0. We need a complete change, a political movement that disrupts the current system of greed with a new government for a modern era.

I am convinced that over the next 265 days, in the time between now and the next election on November 3, 2020, several years we can bring a powerful movement, a cross partisan movement,  of people together to enact a new chapter of American government that finally fulfills the promise of our forefathers. 

Constitution

A bold proposal for America 2.0

I propose that justice-hearted Americans work together to urgently convene a National People’s Convention before the next election in Philadelphia, the birthplace of our constitution. 

I propose that justice-hearted Americans join forces and commit to create an America 2.0 Constitution and to have it signed as soon as possible.—with a demand that our leaders enact it.

I propose that our new America 2.0 Constitution is co-created with a diverse array of American that can together crafts a constitution order that authentically ensures racial, gender, social, economic, and environmental justice for all Americans.

I propose that our new America 2.0 Constitution ensures that all of government institutions — our Supreme Court, our Congress, and the Executive Branch — are structured to guarantee the equality of gender, racial, and geographic representation.

I propose that our new America 2.0 Constitution insures that the America people can fully unleash our innovation, ingenuity, and ambition to ensure the survival and flourishing of all of humanity, and our natural world–for ourselves and for all future generations.

A bold proposal for a new Constitution

Most importantly, I propose that, upon the signing of the America 2.0 Constitution in Philadelphia, we assemble at Independence Mall, we arrange for the Liberty Bell to be placed back up in the bell tower at Independence Hall, and we ring the Liberty Bell, two times, as we usher in Chapter 2 of the United States of America.

Does this sound impossible? 

Well, it’s not, because it’s happened before. America 1.0 was equally unfathomable at that time. We can do it again. We may need a miracle (link to past blog) but we can create it in less than one year, together.

The time for bold action to radically and rapidly dismantle injustice is now and all it takes are a couple of clicks: 

  1. Sign the BAM2020 pledge to demand a government that works for all
  2. Share your pledge with others on social media and invite them to do the same.

You can help shape the next chapter of America.

Healing America: Greed is the Disease

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Remember Scrooge? The story of the crushing misery brought to all by the greed of one powerful man remains within the American culture. It has been made and remade in ways to many to count. 

A story with a bitter lesson of greed, how ironic that it shown only during the holiday season. 

Why? 

Perhaps, because of the ending, the one happy part of the story, shows what happens when the disease of greed can be cured.

This lesson is relevant because I believe, the disease that is killing America is the disease of greed. 

 

greed

The deadly virus of greed

I’m a physician. It has long been my job to diagnose based on facts in front of me. And I’m convinced that despite all the symptoms of our failing government, the disease runs deeper. 

Greed is a deadly virus that is infecting and destroying American ideals and the promise of our collective future.

Let’s diagnosis this together: 

  • Three percent of the U.S. population has a net worth of one million dollars or more. As one newspaper headline put it, we have more millionaires in America than Greece has people.
  • At the same time, some 40 million Americans, maybe more, live below the poverty line.
  • More and more young people in America do not want to start families because of economic insecurity and their justified fears about the unaddressed climate emergency. Many young people are crippled by huge amounts of school debt. Others feel they can’t afford the basics.

While working as a physician in all parts of our country, I have been at the front lines of inner-city and rural, poverty and injustice — which only seems to worsen now as millions remain suffering under the shackles of systemic poverty.

Too many Americans are living their lives soaking in a toxic bath of racial, economic, social, gender and environmental injustice — at hands of the greed disease.

A system of greed run amok

I would guess many of our greatest leaders from the past, the faces on Mount Rushmore, or great statesmen of Congress, social leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King, Jr. would recognize the current state of our government has become. 

All of these leaders expected the government to lead, to act. 

Yet listen to just one of the latest congressional leaders, Francis Rooney, who recently announced his retirement:

“This is kind of a frustrating job for me,” he added. “I come from a world of actions, decisions, putting your money down and seeing what happens. This is a world of talk.”

It’s a phrase we’ve heard more and more in the past decade, because we elect to take action for us are working in a political system run amok with personal interests.

Some greedy business leaders are putting profits over people, and some of our politicians care more about their own self-aggrandizement than they do about their constituents.

While headlines seem to focus on the latest silly twitter spats, a real deadly virus of greed is left unchecked in America.

A dangerous greed force has grabbed the hearts and minds of so many of our leaders.

Instead of working for us and with us, they are bound and bought out by the greed machine.

What happened to “By the people for the people?” It’s become, “By the greedy, for the greedy.”

Now, I admit, this may not feel like “breaking news,” but what are we doing to defeat the deadly virus of greed? Our country will no more live with greed unchecked than a cancer patient will live if the tumor goes untreated.

Frankly, I believe that greed is killing our nation.

Our leaders who are caught in the greed machine can’t save us.

That’s our job. That’s why we’re building a movement in 2020. That’s why we need you to help us take action, which you can start today just by adding your name to this pledge (Link to Pledge Campaign). 

If you want a country by the people, for the people, you must act. Together we can save our nation.

Healing America: The Heart of America is Dying

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The heart of America is dying!

As a physician, I know well when I see sickness. It invades every aspect of the person. It consumes everything, which may be why we so often hear the phrase, “health and vitality.” Without health, vitality is impossible.

Our country is diseased because our government is diseased. The heart of America is clogged. Our government is like the heart of the country, and we are desperately in need of a heart transplant.

Our diseased government affects every aspect of our civic lives. We are all rattled by the rancor and failure of our government.

America promises liberty and justice for all.

But our leaders are not living up to that pledge.

When we were healthy

Over the past year, I’ve found myself dreaming about the extraordinary drama of the fall of 1787, 232 years ago.

Members of the Constitutional Convention debated, wrote, and signed the Constitution, proposing an entirely new form of government.

It’s awe-inspiring to imagine the individuals from across the 13 colonies — from Massachusetts to North Carolina — who came together in Philadelphia, my hometown. They spawned a valorous miracle: the birth of the American dream, a vision to ensure liberty and justice for all.

Our leaders spawned a brilliant system of government that created the vitality of America to grow and emerge into a leading nation and symbol of democracy (and stability!) for people everywhere. 

But it wasn’t perfect. Not even close. 

Unfortunately, the leaders of that time did not represent all of the people.

The drafters of our first Constitution were all white and all male.

Many were landowners, and many were slaveowners.

As well-intentioned as they may have been, the Constitutional Order of the last 232 years was designed to protect their greedy personal wealth and privilege, while aggressively subjugating others.

The truth is, as path-breaking as our Constitution was, inherent in its design is a systematic obstruction of the promise of liberty and justice for all.

Think about that. The very thing our government was designed to create, is blocked. 

Which might explain why the sickness of our country is now a threat to our country. The disease has gone untreated too long to where it can no longer be avoided.

Call 9-1-1 for America

When a patient is in critical condition, doctors don’t sit around and debate. They diagnose, they prepare a course for healing, and they execute it. They take action.

Which is exactly what we need the American people must do now. We must take action. 

Our founders took an oath to uphold and defend the United States Constitution. The preamble states:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

Today’s leaders are failing America. They’re not upholding their pledge. 

The heart of democracy is dying.

The American promise — of liberty and justice for all — is in jeopardy.

This is an urgent existential threat to our way of life and the potential for future generations to flourish under American ideals.

Over the course of the next few blogs, we will diagnosis the sickness, create a plan for healing and join together to execute it. I’ve been waging justice for thirty years and I know together we can make a difference. We can save America. 

Because liberty and justice for all must now really be, for all.