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Introduction of Dirk BURKHART
Dirk BURKHART
Sunday, October 27, 2002 1:23 PM
I am a life-long activist who works on many issues, from public transit to
peace and justice to global democracy. At present I am lead chair of the
Charter Committee of the Global Peoples Assembly Network, and my wife and I
are co-founders of the Seattle Local Peoples Assembly. In August we
conducted workshops on global democracy at the Johannesberg Earth Summit.
Two years ago we gave workshops on global economics and UN reform at the
Global Peoples Assembly in Samoa. This September we were instrumental in
getting the Seattle City Council to endorse the Earth Charter and its agenda
of sustainable development, peace and justice, and global citizenship.
Recently I took early retirement from Boeing (PhD in mathematics) to become
a full time activist. In January my wife, Mona Lee, will also retire. Then
we plan to begin a world "Bike Tour for Global Democracy", starting up the
US East Coast from Miami, Florida, to Bar Harbor, Maine. We will stop in
many cities to give talks on global democracy and the Earth Charter.
Besides promoting a global parliamentary assembly, we are also supporting
direct citizen and civil society participation, especially methods of
deliberation and dialogue and conflict resolution, or "deep democracy". This
includes various kinds of "tele-democracy" or "e-democracy", citizen juries
or panels, wisdom councils, and new kinds of voting and representation.
In addition we promote social and economic justice and global awareness with
the Unitarian-Universalist church community. Locally we advocate for light
rail transit, better bus service, bicycle and walking facilities, and
transit-oriented development as ways to increase sustainability and
livability within an urban environment.
At present we are heavily involved in trying to stop the US war against Iraq
and US unilateralism. As David Korten said at our recent Earth Charter
Summit in Seattle, the choice is between "Empire or Earth Community". We
expect to spend the rest of our lives working against the former and toward
the latter.
Dick Burkhart
Global Peoples Assembly Network
4802 S. Othello St.
Seattle, WA 98118-3851
206-721-5672
WP21 Alliance Forum on a World Parliament for the 21st Century
E-mail : world-parl@forums.alliance21.org
Fax 1 717 264 5036
Information, inscriptions, désinscriptions: germa@alliance21.org
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