Declaration Project

25 years making our world more connected, caring, inclusive

“Wonderful and groundbreaking work. A labour of love in the common search for knowledge and meaning. You’ve experienced one of the most incredible years of your life and still more to accomplish,to both express yourself and assist others. Your father would have been proud of you as we all are.  All the best, Yosef”These moving […]

An homage to Benjamin Barber — and a woefully belated note of gratitude

Never put things off. That was drilled into my noggin at a young age, and I’ve practiced it as best I can ever since. Usually. But on one occasion, I dropped the ball terribly, and I’ll always regret it. I had given a presentation in a while back about our Declaration Project at a ‘Civic Collaboratory’ […]

A way cool visionary Declaration — for the sake of our future

I hardly know where to start — I guess first, with this amazing declaration — a Declaration for the Future — that was posted in the wee hours to our MyDeclaration page.  Mark my words, if anything this captivating and compelling, imaginative and forward-looking comes my way, almost surely it bears the unmistakable stamp of civic […]

Constitution High School Students’ MyDeclarations Rock

On October 5, I paid a visit to Constitution High School, and held my latest exchange with students from the class of teacher extraordinaire Carl Ackerman. As always, it was among the most meaningful and memorable I’ve had, the students’ insights uncommonly perceptive, their stores of wisdom uniquely profound. I’ve been holding Socratic exchanges on the Constitution […]

Three Books on the Declaration: Chris’s recommendation

It was heartening to receive today a supportive email from David Armitage, chair of Harvard’s vaunted history department, and author of The Declaration of Independence: A Global Perspective. Dr. Armitage called our Declaration Project as “an important enterprise.” Such an endorsement from one of the most respected scholars on our Declaration of Independence means a […]

Partnering Rocks

Before I spend the rest of the day (after a near-sleepless night catching up on work) celebrating my birthday with family (my 9-year-old wants to spend the day with me doing “whatever Daddy wants to do” — as long as it includes seeing the movie “Inside Out” followed by bowling — I thought I’d jot down […]

On New Declarations, Blindspots and Our Better Angels

On July 4, Congressman Alan Grayson from Florida’s 9th district issued “a new declaration” that built on FDR’s January 6, 1941 declaration of four freedoms that people the world over should enjoy — freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear (which inspired Stewart Harris, Democracy Cafe advisory board member […]

How do I write a personal declaration for MyDeclaration?

It looks like we’re getting a lot of hits on our site, but that so far most visitors are passing on writing their own personal declaration for the MyDeclaration part of our project. Our hunch, though, is that most visitors to our site want to write one, but that sometimes it can be a little intimidating […]

I get by with a lot of help from my friends, Part II

Now let me tell you about some of the other wonderful and dedicated souls who are part of the Democracy Cafe team, and are committed to fulfilling our vision of making ours a world in which everyone matters and counts in my next blog. I met Charlynn Duecy, fellow Virginian and senior public relations strategist at […]