The 2017 Sister Giant Conference was held in Arlington Virginia on February 2-4th. Marianne Williamson and Derrick Harkins convened this conference. (www.sistergiant.com) You can view the speakers here.
Its purpose was to explore the intersection of spirituality and politics and to impart the need and urgency for everyone in the audience – 1500 there and 3000 people on livestream to get the message that our civic duties need to go way beyond just voting. All of the speakers pointed out why and how to get involved in the political scene at your local level on up to the national level.
On Thursday evening it was kicked off by Marianne, who was joined by Senator Bernie Sanders, and a host of experts (35 in all) speaking on the most critical spiritual and political issues of our day.
You are not going to believe the format and the time we all devoted to this event. It went from 6:00 – 10:00 PM on Thursday night. On both Friday and Saturday, it went from 9:00 am – 10/11:00 PM. We all sat in one big ballroom at a Marriott Hotel and speaker after speaker came on the stage many of them followed by Q&A’s on that speaker’s session. We only broke for maybe an hour for both lunch and dinner on both Friday and Saturday.
I never thought I and everyone else would sit there riveted in our sits as one speaker left and another came on. There was no real set agenda. However, there was never any noticeable exodus – really.
I kept waiting for someone to be introduced that I would say – okay I’m tired – I’m not going to listen to this one. Nope.
“And now our next speaker has written 29 books on the Constitution and our Founding Fathers and what their goals and motivations were when they wrote the Declaration of Independence.” Or here’s the only Democratic woman who just won a seat in the House in an area that has always gone Republican.
Here’s a spiritual leader who played a key role in the Civil Rights movement. Here’s a lawyer who is considered to be the foremost authority on legislation, the nuances of executive orders, etc. Oh and yes he has written 40 books.
Key Event Takeaways – we want to get as many of you (all in fact) to understand when you leave here – what is going to work for you in terms of running for office – at all levels (local, state, & national). And how we will have your back in providing resources, training opportunities to help you launch campaigns and become highly educated on the key issues we are about to face.
Pat’s Preamble on how I got There – So, for a few months, I have been following Marianne Williamson’s work and Tuesday night sessions where she speaks on the book – A Course in Miracles (another future post topic). Marianne put out Facebook posts on the conference.
Two days before the conference started, I woke-up at 4:30 am and I made the mistake (I rarely ever do this) of looking at some posts on Facebook. Yes they were related to the fiascos of the day on the national political scene. Late January – executive orders, lunatic after lunatic, nominations to the Cabinet and inner circle roles. I thought well IF it is meant to be – the Sister Giant event and near-by hotels will not be sold out, and I can get a flight without paying an outrageous amount for it. By 6:30 am – I had worked everything out. Woo-Hoo –I’m going!
Pat’s Post Conference Actions thus Far
1) I am attending and educating myself on the City Council of Portland. I am requesting to be considered for committee and board support membership.
2) I am pursuing the idea of becoming part of the campaign team for a woman who is considering running for the Governor of Maine. Yes, she did also attend the event.
3) I have joined a national level advocacy group that is focused on issues related to hunger and poverty.