Website: Omega Institute, Omega Center for Sustainable Living
Twitter: @omega_institute, @SkipBackus
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Brooklyn United Marching Band
Website: Brooklyn United Marching Band
Twitter: @BKunitedMB
Facebook: @Brooklyn United Music and Arts Program
Sister Joan Chittister
Website: Joan Chittister, Monasteries of the Heart
Twitter: @joanchittister
Facebook: @sisterjoanchittister
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: "Our strength lies in speaking the truth clearly, courageously, faithfully, fearlessly." "Presence may not be much. But it is all we have to bring. And it may be all that matters." "Charity and justice are not the same. Charity sustains people, only justice changes the evil in their lives." "We can't settle down. We must go fearlessly, faithfully on." "If we want to win the game of our lives, we must be willing to risk it all."
Elijah Coles-Brown
Website: Dreamers Imagine
Twitter: @Elicolesbrown
Facebook: @DreamersImagine
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: "My mom might be my advocate, but then I decided it was time for me to stand up for myself."
Omékongo Dibinga
Website: Omékongo Dibinga
Twitter: @omekongo
Facebook: @omekongo
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: "We need to focus on the quality and quantity of giving attention." "We can’t accept fear. We should be fearful more of our inaction than our action." "Life doesn’t care about your excuses, only about your results."
Amy Goodman
Website: Democracy Now
Twitter: @democracynow
Facebook: @democracynow
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: " 'We will not be silent.' That should be the Hippocratic oath of the media." "People who care are not a fringe minority, not even the silent majority, but a silenced majority."
Tristan Harris
Website: Tristan Harris, Time Well Spent
Twitter: @tristanharris
Facebook: @tristanharrisTWS
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: "Facebook wants to tell you that Facebook is just a neutral tool. I am here to tell you why this is not true." "Never before in history have 50 to 100 people working at a handful of tech companies shaped what a billion people are going to think." "What is best for business and capturing attention is not the same as what is best for people." "Let's couple profit with choices we are proud of."
David Hasbury
Website: Neighbours International
Twitter: @cocreationca,
Facebook: @NeighboursInternational Check out Dave's Facebook page to see some photos from Being Fearless, among his other recent projects & events.
Paul Hawken
Website: Paul Hawken, Project Drawdown
Twitter: @PaulHawken
Facebook: @PaulHawkenAuthor
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference References: Book: The Invention of Nature. Alexander von Humboldt's New World
Conference Quotes: "The idea that we want to mitigate climate change or global warming is the most underwhelming goal I’ve ever heard of." "The only goal that makes sense is not to reduce, but to reverse." "When you set bigger goals, everything opens up. Innovation. Creativity. Ingenuity. Genuis. Possibilities."
Van Jones
Website: Van Jones
Twitter: @VanJones68
Facebook: @vanjones
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference References: Video: A Deeper Patriotism
Conference Quotes: "We have to be the beating heart of this democracy." "Too often we forget that we need each other." "The problem we’re having is acting like democracy is an app we can download every 4 years. Democracy is hard work." "Change is hard for people. We can’t cut the cord of empathy." "People with a spiritual practice are essential to the conversations we need to have today." "Hoarding your spiritual capital is like hoarding your financial capital. You are supposed to spend it." "Our spirituality, our practice, should be designed to give us the strength to face reality not run from it."
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Website: Jon Kabat-Zinn
Twitter: @jonkabatzinn
Facebook: @kabatzinn
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference References: Book: Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America Book: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
Conference Quotes: "When the doing comes out of being, it’s an entirely different kind of doing." "Mindfulness is cultivating intimacy. It’s actually a love affair with the full dimensionality of your humanity." "We are Stone Age minds with nuclear weapons." "We know a lot about the brain, but it is nothing compared to what we don’t know." "The first action I would propose for transforming the planet is in some sense to drop in on ourselves and be still."
Rhonda V. Magee
Website: Rhonda V. Magee
Twitter: @rvmagee
Facebook: @RhondaVMagee
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference References: Book: Beloved
Conference Quotes: "For African Americans, and particularly African-American women, there is this messaging that we don’t come from any place. And we have to constantly prove our value." "Each of us has different kinds of troubles in this society. And it is important to pause, to know that we are all one, and to know that there is a way in which those senses of identity dissolve into nothing."
Jon Meacham
Website: Jon Meacham
Twitter: @jmeacham
Facebook: @meachamjon
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: "I think if we are curious, humble and empathetic, we will have a better chance of listening to our better angels." "Empathy is essential in politics." "In a democracy we are only as good as the sum of our parts." 3 Characteristics of great presidents: Intellectual curiosity. Humility. Empathy.
David W. Orr
Website: Oberlin Project
Twitter: @OberlinProject
Facebook: @OberlinProject
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference References: Event: The State of American Democracy
Conference Quotes: "Government is where you and I say 'ours' and 'we' and 'us.' " "Why not include other life forms as part of the constituency of democracy?" "There are better ways to think of rights. How about the right to a stable environment?" "We cannot demonize the other side."
Climbing PoeTree
Website: Climbing PoeTree
Twitter: @ClimbingPoeTree
Facebook: @climbingpoetree
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: "If I told you what I know: Love is stronger than hate/and truth is more enduring than any form that lies can take/If you are not willing to change, I know nothing will change."
Ali Smith, Atman Smith & Andres Gonzalez
Website: Holistic Life Foundation
Twitter: @HLFINC
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: "Send love to people you care about. Send love to people that stress you out. Send love to yourself." "Life was a lot more stressful without meditation, that centering and inner peace." "The one thing that conquers fear is love." "Let’s stop placing blame, pointing fingers and complaining. Let’s be the solution."
Opal Tometi
Website: Opal Tometi
Twitter: @opalayo
Facebook: @OpalTometi
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: "I have the right to exist wherever I am, however I am, however I choose to be." "Dissent is critical and essential to a healthy democracy." "I believe people of conscience are the majority. And even if we are not, it only takes a few to transform the world." "Justice is never ever having another mother, brother, sibling bury their loved one."
Truthworker Theatre Company
Website: Truthworker Theatre Company
Twitter: @SamaraGaev
Facebook: @SamaraGaev
Sarah van Gelder
Website: The Revolution Where You Live, YES! Magazine
Twitter: @sarahvangelder @yesmagazine
Facebook: @yesmagazine
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: "We are in a time of multiple systems failure. We are at a time when almost anything we take for granted is up for grabs." "It’s a time when we are running out of time, especially the climate crisis. I think of my granddaughter. Her name is Justice." "We have the power to change the stories of our time when we start in the places where we live."
Cornel West
Website: Cornel West
Twitter: @CornelWest
Facebook: @drcornelwest
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: "You have to be open to make yourself vulnerable so you can be empowered in a way you may not have expected." "Never confuse justice with philanthropy. Never confuse justice with charity." "Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself." "In America we like to talk about problems. But when it comes to catastrophe, we are in denial." "We've got more than spiritual work to do, we've got to turn our lives upside down." "Joy is about learning how to die." "We have to muster the courage to be a wounded helper rather than a wounded hurter."
Water Protectors: Andreanne Catt & Lauren Howland
Website: Seeding Sovereignty
Twitter: @SeedSovereignty
Facebook: @SeedingSovereignty Lauren and Andreanne are also part of the International Indigenous Youth Council.
Conference Quotes: "Stand tall with no fear. Be tall with no fear." "The front lines are everywhere, whether they are in school, changing policies, or whether it is in Standing Rock fighting a pipeline." "When you are on those front lines, you stand tall with no fear and you speak the truth even if your voice shakes." "We are all talking about resistance, but we fail to include the people who have been resisting for the last 500 years." "As indigenous people who have been fighting forever, we have the knowledge. We have fought the battles. Our existence is resistance."
Laura Weiland
Website: Omega Center for Sustainable Living
Twitter: @leweiland32
Facebook: @Omega.OCSL
Conference References: Omega's 4-week Ecological Literacy Immersion Program (ELIP) July 1-27, 2018
Jamia Wilson
Website: Jamia Wilson
Twitter: @jamiaw
Articles & Videos on eOmega.org
Conference Quotes: "Community organizing is how we show up for each other." "Protesting, marching and tweeting truth to power may not be immediate but it’s impactful. We need to play the long game." "Shared values can build momentum, shift culture, and affect policy."
© 2017 Omega Institute for Holistic Studies