I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him, it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused — a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love — then we wish for knowledge about the subject of our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting meaning. It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.
From Rachel Carson's remarks at her acceptance of the National Book Award for Nonfiction
Environment Call on June 3: In addition to publishing this newsletter, we have been facilitating conference calls each week for the various sectors that are part of the Charter. The call on June 3 will be on Environment, and we hope anyone who is interested will join us. Our speaker will be philosopher, nature writer, public speaker, and defender of all that is wet and wild, Kathleen Dean Moore. Her newest book is Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril. It gathers testimony from a hundred of the world’s moral leaders, who call us to honor our obligations to future generations. Moore and co-editor Michael P. Nelson speak widely to audiences of interested citizens, scientists, church groups and others about the need for a moral response to climate destabilization and species loss.
Calls are 90 minutes long, and you need to register for the call with Maestro Conference. We have the capacity to have up to 500 comfortably on the call. Before you go to Maestro, you'll want to check to see what time the call will happen in your part of the world. Consult the World Clock—Time Converter. Start with Seattle at 6:00 AM and enter your city in the field and click on convert.
If you click on this link you'll be taken to Maestro where you'll be asked to register and given a pin number. When you are at the site, please let us know your interest in the environment.
Kathleen Moore Dean on Occupy the Moral Ground. The Occupy Wall Street movements and climate action movements stand on the same moral ground and affirm the same moral principles: It's wrong to wreck the world. It's wrong to wreck the health and hopes of others. An economic system that forces the people to bear the risks of the recklessness of a few powerful profiteers, to assume the burdens of others' privilege, and to pay the real costs of destructive industries in the currency of their health and the hopes of their children -- that system is immoral. And when, to enrich a powerful few, that system threatens to disrupt forever the great planetary cycles that support all the lives on Earth? This is moral monstrosity on a cosmic scale.
Both movements affirm that all flourishing is mutual. The world is deeply interconnected and interdependent; damage to any part undermines the thriving of the whole. Accordingly, every person, no matter how rich, and every system, no matter how entrenched, has the responsibility to honor affirmative obligations of justice and compassion to present and future generations of all beings. Not only in principle. On the ground. Read More.
The Charter is very pleased to welcome the SALISH SEA MARINE SANCTUARY as our new Environment partner. The Salish Sea Marine Sanctuary is North America’s First International Marine Sanctuary: A partnership of the people and governments of Coast Salish First Nations, British Columbia and Washington State coming together in unprecedented unified action to cooperatively designate, design and implement the Salish Sea Marine Sanctuary & Coastal Trail.
The Salish Sea is an ecological treasure of truly global significance! Located in southwest British Columbia and northwest Washington State, it encompasses the Strait of Georgia, Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan De Fuca, and all the tributary rivers and creeks flowing into them. The Salish Sea’s intricate networks of islands, estuaries, rivers and creeks are home to thousands of phenomenal natural animal species, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth.
The proposed Salish Sea Coastal Trail will provide a world-class hiking and biking path circumnavigating the Salish Sea Marine Sanctuary.
Check Out Our Charter Membership
The Charter for Compassion Initiates a Membership Challenge. This is our first ever membership campaign. Up to now we've been able to build a database of supporters who have contacted us as individuals, signed up for newsletters, or signed the Charter and made contributions to the work of the Charter. We've relied on a few generous friends to help maintain our small staff and budget. In the last year, however, we've grown over 200%, increasing our partners from 150 to 800 and our city initiatives from 60 to 230, but our staff size has remained the same. At the same time, we have increased our on-line presence, the delivery of our newsletters, and weekly conference calls.
Now we need your help to grow a movement that continues to gain momentum daily. We need to increase our staff, work to refine some of our on-line tool-kits, and begin to offer education programs and on-line courses. If you've been with us during the last year, you have witnessed our growth, and many of you have benefited from our outreach. We have great plans for the next years, including establishing geographic hubs for the Charter’s work in several places in the world, supporting pilot projects of cities working across geographic boundaries, offering webinars on Compassion, and increasing our outreach to include the development of new sectors in the arts, social services, and restorative justice. Please join our membership challenge by giving at any level you can, and if you can't give, help us in other ways.
Compassion Today! A New Mobile App for 3D Compassion: The native app is available now, for free, for iPhones, iPads, and Android smartphones, tablets and Kindle Fire. It can be downloaded now via Apple and Google Play app stores. Click here to learn more.
Meeting with other Compassionates in San Francisco: That's right! The Charter is joining with the Empathy and Compassion in Society Conference in San Francisco November 13-15. The conference days are on November 13-14, but there will be a special Charter Day on November 15. We'll be getting out a special newsletter to let you know all the details, but we wanted to make certain it is on your calendar. We hope to meet as many of you as possible during this time. Learn more and the conference.
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