We all have power. The question is how do we use it? The most powerful thing that any of us can do is combine our power with the power of others. Collectively we can accomplish more than any one person, nonprofit or business can ever accomplish, regardless of how great their wealth, or how prominent their position. The ultimate power is a movement.
Eleanor Lives! aids each of us, every person, nonprofit organization and for-profit business to participate in a movement together.
As a facilitator for a movement started by Eleanor and others, Eleanor Lives! is not judgmental: we offer a coalition of everyone. As Eleanor said: “We all go ahead together, or we all go down together.”
Eleanor continuously sought out participation from others to support an International Bill of Rights, even if their actions, be it as an individual, organization, business, or government included a past violation of rights. She did not judge whether they were suitable to participate – so it is with Eleanor Lives!
For our two program pieces, our Lights for Rights Campaign, and our Drafting Through Dialogue, any person, nonprofit or for-profit can become a light for rights, and any person, organization or business can submit their suggestions for the wording of an International Bill of Rights.
Becoming a light is supporting the idea of an International Bill of Rights. It’s coming to the table, not a commitment to a particular document or set of rights that is on the table.
Eleanor Lives! has placed a draft document upon the table. It is not an epiphany, it is an amalgam – including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all United Nations human rights instruments and the Bill of Rights of all states and countries that have them – which is most of the countries on Earth.
Every suggestion made for adding to, removing, or changing the wording of the document on the table is given equal consideration, even if it comes from an anonymous source. When a suggestion is made by a person, nonprofit or for-profit as to the wording of the IBOR document, it is an offer, there is no guarantee of acceptance, but there is a guarantee that it will be considered and that there will be a response on the website so that the suggestion and answer are observable to all – complete transparancy. Every suggestion is given equal weight; it is the weight of the idea, not the source of it, that matters.
The same is true for those who fund Eleanor Lives! to build a coalition and draft an International Bill of Rights. We do not judge funders as people, nonprofits or for-profits, but they should understand that whether they give a small amount or a large amount, in any currency, or in art or items of value, their suggestions carry equal weight as to the content of the IBOR document, even equal to those who do not give funding at all.
Buckminster Fuller, one of the great thought leaders of the 20th century, liked to think of himself as a “trimtab,” the small piece on the rudder of a huge ship that can help it steer and change direction.
Bucky was indeed a trimtab. There are millions of trimtabs out of billions of people, nonprofits and businesses. It’s time for them, and for the rest of us, to focus together using the new technologies that empower us all to simultaneously read and write together at the table of humanity. As we do, since we are the one species with the ability to read and write, we have an obligation to include all life on Earth as we draft and implement our agreement to live together, so that we may include all life and live as an Earth community.
Eleanor guides us as we become lights – increasing our intensity with each new light: “We must do the thing we think we cannot do.” Use your power.
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