Joy Gilfilen

At the beginning of last year I had absolutely no interest in anything I am writing about in this article – I thought it had nothing at all to do with business, or my personal life really. Today I am the President of the Whatcom County ReEntry Coalition because I have learned that this issue is one of three core issues at the root of dysfunction in business, in our society, in virtually everything we do.

Back then, I was living my life rather in a ‘glass bubble’  looking out at the sea of life around me, rather insulated from the social decay issues that I could see but did not feel.

Today, I realize that the way we deal with ‘justice’  is probably the most significant problem we have locally and in America – in business, in politics, in our families, everywhere.  The problems that stem from our attitudes around this have become insidious in our lives…they are a no-seeum that leads to plausible deniability…but that doesn’t mean it disappears.

I believe we, the people of America, are on a collision course with the self-destructive structural patterns we have unwittingly set up to dominate and abuse us – all of us.  It is time for a change.  Here is an article that I just submitted to the Bellingham Herald Letters to the Editor.  I believe that this problem is sucking vitality right out of our community…and until we have the courage to have this conversation transparently, all the other political issues will pale in comparable impact.

The good news is that there are many solutions...all we have to do is know that we need them…and then take appropriate action.

My Letter To The Editor:

A few months ago, when talking to county officials, I realized the size of the mess we’re all in. As a businesswoman and Mom it would be irresponsible for me to spend 70% of my budget continually locking my family in boxes, then levying financial penalties on them when they have no money.  Adding restrictions and locking them up again when they fail doesn’t work.  It’s illogical and unsustainable.

Yet, this is effectively what we’re doing in our County. Currently 70% of your tax dollars go directly to pay for law and justice.  Yet the victims are not healed.  Plus, 80% of the people in our jail are essentially non-functional citizens – they are illiterate, homeless, mentally ill or dealing with addictions.

To me its systemic failure: Our tax dollars promote addiction, co-dependency and systemized abuse patterns; the ripple effect has our middle class in economic bondage.

It’s a no-win. (Sidenote:  It doesn’t have to be that way.) How to break the cycle?  Intentionally change course. Build a better vision and a diversified community business model that works.  Innovate. Support job reskilling, restorative justice, cooperation, recovery, functional literacy, sustainability, and economic revitalization.

You are invited to come talk about this with us at the ReEntry Coalition’s public forums:

• Thursday, August 25, and Thursday, Sept 22nd – at 7 PM  at St. Luke’s Community Center, 3333 Squalicum Parkway, Bellingham.

Then, YES! Magazine and my company, UnitingCreatives.com are co-sponsoring an event to raise awareness and money for the Whatcom County ReEntry Coalition.  The founders vision of building a ReStoreALife Center to inspire social change in a highly functional way I think is laudable.  I am doing everything in my power to support it.

I would invite all people from the community who are solution oriented and focussed on life-enhancing actions to please join us:

Community Opportunities Mastermind

and Concert Celebration of Community

(with Shawn Gallaway and Conscious Music!)

October 1, 2011 at the Bellingham High School.

We are inviting endorsements, Exhibitors and Sponsorships as well as philanthropic donations.  The Coalition is a 501C3 organization and does alot of prevention and functional literacy training and support work for the community.

The CCN Article about “In economic turmoil, US needs a leader like Churchill” caught my attention.  He has a point – and I think he is missing the greater story here.  We need a vision that is bigger than ourselves – one that challenges all of us to stop being victims and to become leaders ourselves.

In my opinion, the real question of leadership is that it is time to create Intentional Change:

• It is the time in history is to notice the self-destructive nature of the duality and drama  game.  What’s the replacement?
• It is time to start looking 100 years down the road to see the legacy and the state of the world we all are collectively leaving our children.  What’s our highest hope?
• It is time for Americans (and all of us in our communities) to make an intentional choice to accept the challenge of figuring out how we can each help change the course of human history.  What can we do individually and as part of a collective?
• It is time to notice that our self-destructive habits of game, blame, shame, and overconsumption are just habits.  Whether we are part of the media, the political process, the bureaucracy, the prison cycle, the religious positioning, the entertainment, consumerism and economic games – we can change our habits of emotional and physical domination and waste. What can we do to flip consumption into revitalization?
• It is time to notice that regardless of all the perceived roles we play,  we are simply humans who depend on our earth for our very life.  We love, we care, we want to take pride in who we are, what we have to give.  We want to be appreciated for doing the best we know how to do. We want the best for our families.  How can we get that without harming others?

We have never before been here at this time in history.  We have a great deal of challenges ahead – both manmade and physical.  What we do today really does make a difference.

I believe it is time to intentionally decide to reinvent all the infrastructures that don’t work.  We must redesign unsustainable business, political and social practices.  We must learn how to forgive ourselves (and each other) for all the ‘stupid’ things we may have done over the years. Often, we did not know, or did not stop to think through the consequences.

Today, we know the damage we are causing.  At this point it is time to break the cycles.

I have learned that the greatest question I can ask is:  ”How can we, as a collective group of people, unite creatively?”

• Why not share our wisdom and knowledge across sectors, and help us all figure out how to regenerate and rebuild our human world to be more life-enhancing?
• Why not invent new ways of social discourse so that we can help us all learn how to restore honor, dignity and vitality to each person so each of us is able to contribute our greatest gift to the community?
• Why not stop pretending that we are separate from, better than or less than the world around us?  Let’s appreciate that our very cells are made up of the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the minerals we consume in our food supply.  We are recycled elements of this earth connected through life force energy.
• Why not begin to appreciate that we each truly are part of a living, systemically interconnected organism.  We each can ‘feel in our bones’  the harm that we are doing to this earth.  We can change.

It is time we behaved as life-enhancing, honorable organisms who love deeply.   It is time for our inner leadership skills to be born.  We can do it.  The resources and tools are here.  Let’s use them.

I have done my best to bring forth a platform to help each one of you bring your skills and gifts to the table.  You are invited to join me and other trailblazers and pioneers at UnitingCreatives.com to start blogging for change.  You can help us form the future of the website.  It isn’t perfect…but it is what I have been able to do so far.