The First Meeting

Margaret Mead said: “Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world.  Indeed, it is all that ever has.”  I believed her.  When I got back to Tampa from Assisi, I called five friends and invited them to my home to help me brainstorm how to bring a global people’s treaty for a better world to Tampa and the United States. Naturally, we did it over wine and food.  I hung post-it easel paper on the wall and we got started.  In the room were Genie Skypek, big picture thinker and close friend for over 20 years; Susan Edwards, a creative writer I had known for almost as long; Pam Iorio, who was then Supervisor of Elections and went on to become mayor of Tampa; and Anne Dougherty, a Franciscan Sister and strong community activist. 

I did not know what I was doing but I plunged in by telling the story of the Earth Charter. Then, we began brainstorming how to bring it here.  It was not a smooth process...lots of starts and stops but we kept going.  In the end, it was agreed that we did not want the Earth Charter to come from “on high”, we wanted to be invitational and have people join us not because we had the answer, but because this was something that already “fit” for them.  We thought mostly about organizations and not individuals, possibly because we thought that would spread the word more quickly.  It was suggested that we approach organizations that were already fulfilling different principles in the Earth Charter and ask them to join us in our task of bringing it to Tampa and to the U.S.  This approach shifted, as time went by, from a focus on social change organizations to one that was focused on “ordinary people”.  Interestingly, the large majority of people who were becoming involved did not even see themselves as activists. Instead, they saw themselves simply as people who wanted to make a difference and who felt that their values were aligned with those of the Earth Charter.

After that meeting, an Earth Charter steering group just kind of evolved with some folks coming in that had worked previously with me and my organization, Institute for Ethics & Meaning, on creating a community spirit of caring in Tampa. Others just heard about it as word spread. At our meetings, we continued to educate folks about Earth Charter and asked them to share with their families, friends and whatever groups they were connected to that might be interested.  Interest grew and we made plans for a speaker’s bureau to help get the word out about the Earth Charter.