The Promise at Home
Some of the ways we can live our principles at home are through helping our children grow toward community and responsibility, sharing daily affirmations, and choosing local, sustainable goods and services to fulfill our needs.
Growing toward Responsibility and Community
Raising children—the very phrase affirms our common American sense of helping children grow into adulthood. We help them reach emotional, intellectual, and social maturity even as they grow, step by step, to physical maturity.
As progressives, we believe that all persons have an inalienable right to the freedom and opportunity to fulfill their human potential, as individuals and as citizens of the community. And we believe in helping our children grow toward responsibility and full participation in the community.
What does this mean for parenting? It means giving our children opportunities for exploration, inspiration, and learning, and it means giving them a gradually expanding freedom to make choices.
Affirmations
Regular affirmation of beliefs through words or rituals has been an essential part of family and community life throughout history and across the world, and no less here in America. The power of affirmations is twofold. They provide a chance for us to recall and express an important idea we don't want to forget. And, where two or more people are gathered, affirmations provide a chance to build social bonds through shared ideals and through the very act of affirming together. Affirmation can feel fake when it's an ideal we don't really understand or don't really believe—in fact, in those cases it is fake. But affirmation is real and meaningful when we choose it freely and when we mean it.
Natural times for affirmations are morning, meal time, bed time—any moment that defines the day, and that comes every day.
Thanks at Meal Time—religious version
Every day, when the sun is setting and the busy part of the day is done, we join together to share dinner and conversation. As we begin, we thank our God for bringing us into this world to make it a better place for all who live today and for all who will live after us. And we thank every person for the ways they bring God's goodness into our lives through the daily work they do. We thank [name] for preparing this delicious meal and everyone who helped. We thank everyone who keeps our communities through sustainable farming for good food and fair trade and fair pay for our work. And we thank everyone who expands our world through art and ideas. We always remember to thank people, because when God brings goodness into our lives, God usually brings it through people.
Thanks at Meal Time—humanitarian version
Every day, when the sun is setting and the busy part of the day is done, we join together to share dinner and conversation. As we begin, we thank [name] for preparing this delicious meal and everyone who helped. We thank everyone who keeps our communities through sustainable farming for good food and fair trade and fair pay for our work. And we thank everyone who expands our world through art and ideas. We always remember to thank people, because usually when something good happens in the world, there are people who helped to make it happen.
Choosing Local and Sustainable
Progressives can live their principles when buying products and services that promote local business, sustainable production, organic farming, and fair trade.
Local
Buy local products to support your local economy and build relationships where you live and work, thus helping promote the common good. You can find healthy foods and all kinds of high-quality American-made goods by shopping at farmers markets, local food coops, art and craft fairs, and local businesses that promote local merchandise. Once you find one place to buy locally-made goods, ask about other places they know of, and before long you'll realize there are lots of options.
Sustainable
Buy sustainable products to encourage production that is environmentally sound, socially equitable, and economically viable. Farms that practice sustainable agriculture are typically family farms that use local distribution networks including grocery coops and farmers markets. Sustainably produced food receives minimal processing before being sold to the consumer, thus retaining its natural nutritional value and avoiding the unhealthful effects of artificial additives. Sustainable production provides stewardship of our natural world, promotes a balance of power among citizens, and promotes the common good.
Organic
Buy organic products to ensure your food meets the US Department of Agriculture's minimum organic standards for farming that is healthy for the environment, thus satisfying at least one tenet of sustainability: production that is environmentally sound.
Fair Trade
Buy fair trade products to help ensure that the people who produce your products earn a good living from their labor, thus satisfying at least one other tenet of sustainability: production that is socially equitable.
Getting Started
To find farmers markets and food coops (which usually sell a variety of household goods in addition to food), search www.localharvest.org. For art and craft fairs, search festivalnet.com. For local businesses, stop into some of the little local places you may have passed by before; browse and ask if they have any locally made goods. One good find will lead to the next and the next. Along the way you're getting better-quality goods, building community relationships, and strengthening your local economy.
Learn about using the Promise to make the most of your day at work.