Some timely precious news,
Surely worth your good time...
And more of your self as well...
Dear friend - 

I'm wanting to bring you up to date on my life and work – 
-to tell you what I'm up to these days
-to share with you the very good - audacious - news I have discovered
-to invite you to partner with me in turning around our ships of state (starting with California)

I hope to do this clearly and effectively within 2 pages of text, 10 minutes of your time.

Section A: 10 Statements regarding how come everything has come so far apart in our world

1 - About 1970, my mentor the brilliant futurist Willis Harman recognized and pronounced the emergence of “The New Copernican Revolution” - over these succeeding 40 years, that has grown amazingly, and best explains both “how come?” nothing's working well today and “how cure?” all of it and us going forward.

2 - It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that our ships of state are not working well: we find ourselves beset by a politics that divides, and governments that are largely dysfunctional.

3 - In a sentence: we boast of our “new economy,” we cherish our “new demography,” we relish our “new consciousness” - yet we find ourselves stuck in the same old politics!

4 - Our system looks to be broken beyond fixing by traditional means.  We can't solve problems utilizing the very same dysfunctional assumptions that underlie their creation in the first place.  Per Albert Einstein: “Doing the same things and expecting to get different results is the definition of insanity!”

5 - We owe it to ourselves - to wake ourselves up, step up to the plate, take responsibility and whole-heartedly enlist our entire selves in inspired, effective, concerted action to turn it all around.

6 - To really work our work plan must include all the essential components of a smart pragmatic timely set of analyses of what's gone wrong and why, plus syntheses of the essential components for a new start.

7 - In particular, we've got to identify the root causes of our problems if we are to have any hope of coming up with solutions that are fitting, effective, and sustaining.

8 - The best clue for explaining all this is the thesis of conservative Republican political economist Thomas Sowell his book “A Conflict of Visions” – that “at the root of just about every one of our most deeply contested political and social issues today is to be found 'a conflict of visions' - between those who believe our human nature is inclined toward evil, and those who believe we are good.”

9 - While I agree he's discovered the very most basic question we must ask, Sowell and I came up with entirely profoundly contrary answers.

10 - That's crucial because our vision of our selves serves to inform (even to determine) our every expectation and approach and our engagement in every relationship - from the most intimate to the most international - and our vision will surely lead toward self-fulfilling prophecy! This is most important part.

Section B: 10 Statements regarding how we can turn around our ship of state now

1 - What especially qualifies me to see and to speak all this truth is that (so far as I know) I’m the only person in the world who's been combining the experiences and learnings of 38 very full years engaged in both public elective office (representing the heart of Silicon Valley in our California Legislature) and in ever more deepening embodying therapy.

2 - Last August, upon returning from a month-long total rest with family in France, and finding our precious state of California almost on the rocks, I found myself experiencing an amazing series of “Eureka Moments” - bringing together - in substance and in writing - all of what I now know.

3 - I’ve grown to recognize during my 40 years of experiencing life that our emotions are real, valuable, operational components of becoming a whole person and leading a life of integrity and community.  So too are our bodies (heretofore repressed and unknown, and whose repression most likely becomes the roots of each and all of our insatiable addictions).  A new resurrection of our bodies is already much afoot.

4 - We begin by recognizing that what we're experiencing throughout the world today is not the breaking down of society and its institutions, but their fragmentation as we break out of their old negative confines.

5 - Each of us owes it to ourselves to adopt and live the vision of pioneering psychologist Carl Rogers: “that we humans are inclined toward becoming life-affirming, constructive, responsible and trustworthy!”

6 – This is already happening in our society with the growing movements that make up our “16-point Expanding Human Agenda” - which have as their common unifying ground in Carl Rogers’ vision.

7 - In fact, we've already designed and published several Blueprints for a Golden State that translate it into everyday pragmatic practices in our daily lives.

8 - And I have discerned and pursued a resultant 3-major-step (24 smaller steps) pathway toward my own, and if you so desire, your own 'Eureka Moments' - unfolding and proceeding in an entirely integrating manner – “24 step pathway into our future.”  From experience, I can assure you I’ve been there, done that, and it's both promising and safe!

9 - We owe it to ourselves and to the persons and causes we hold dear, and to assure we have any future at all, to wake up and live up to our own faithful vision of ourselves, our human nature and potential, both individually and altogether - and as well recognize that “each of us is a politician” (per Gandhi) and that “the politics we do is who we are!” (per friend Stanley Commons).

10 - We ought to heed Harman’s further insight: “In times of profound pervasive change and utter chaos, only the idealistic will prove to be/come realistic!” We ought to live up to our fitting dual roles: to be/come hospice workers for our dying vision and its culture, and to be/come midwives for our faithful vision and emerging culture.

I want to conclude right here (though only for now):

Trusting you share my concern regarding our perilous status today - 
- if you know of a more promising movement and total scheme - pursue it whole-heartedly and share it with us!
- if you don't, come join us now - with all your self and your smarts and your resources!

I'm ready to get together and hasten both our day of turn-around - since our time is short - I’m hoping I’ll hear from you - in the positive - soon!
 

John Vasconcellos
California State Senator (Retired-not yet entirely)
Co-Founder of Vasconcellos Legacy Project—Advancing The Politics of Trust!