Practicing Democracy with Your Money
What factors determine how you earn, spend, invest, and give away your money? The answer reflects your cultural background, your values, your ideals, and even your perspective on democracy. Bringing thoughtful awareness to your relationship with money can lead to a fulfilling life and deepened civic commitment. Here are nine ways you can approach your finances in ways that promote democratic values like equality, freedom, and justice, as well as democratic virtues like fairness, integrity, and consideration of others.
July Practice: Lessons in Unlikely Pairings
“Since its inception, Nuns & Nones [which brings together religiously unaffiliated young adults and Catholic sisters] has garnered intense interest and widespread media coverage.
The Sympathizer Reading Guide
Explore the themes of identity, representation, and power in this guide to Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer.
June Practice: Contemplative Walks
This spiritual practice takes walking from an experience of observation and listening to a contemplative experience to increase your self-awareness and your feelings of deep connection to your neighborhood. It is designed to encourage such democratic values and virtues as caring, generosity, service, and consideration.
What We Fear and Hope for the United States
As an ongoing inquiry for our democracy initiative, we recently posted a poll on fetzer.org asking about your greatest fears for the United States. We received thoughtful and passionate responses from a variety of perspectives. We received advice, honest self-reflection, prayers, and helpful questions. We didn’t ask, but some of you told us about yourselves: that you’re parents and grandparents, history teachers, immigrants, and Swedish. Someone even sent a poem.
Practicing Democracy in Your Neighborhood
Democracy begins locally—not only within the city or county government nearest you but even closer, within your neighborhood. Philosopher and activist Grace Lee Boggs observed: “We can begin by doing small things at the local level … That is how change takes place in living systems, not from above but from within, from many local actions occurring simultaneously.” That process is how we can strengthen our democracy. Here are 12 starting points.
Ceremony Reading Guide
Explore the themes of destruction, healing, and connection in this guide to Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony.
May Practice: Use Right Speech
This practice is from The Practicing Democracy Project's "Practicing Democracy at Work" guide. While it is framed for the workplace, right speech is important in every aspect of our life!
Wendell Berry on what we have in common
A democratic approach to the Earth asserts that not only are all humans created equal—as the U. S. Declaration of Independence proclaims—but also that all humans are citizens of the same community, the Earth community, and other species also have rights that should be preserved. Find practices to encourage the strengthening of democratic values and virtues in our relationships to the Earth and its current inhabitants in Practicing Democracy with the Earth, available here.
Free Speech AND a More Loving World
Free expression is a hallmark of our democracy, and at the Fetzer Institute we believe it is foundational to our vision of a more loving world. We believe that we all have the power to shape a democracy that supports the common good. Working together, we can transcend the labels that polarize us and realize what unites us. We can cultivate sacred connections with our neighbors to help build a shared vision for our communities and our country.