NEWSLETTER - Winter 2011-2012

100th Anniversary of the “Bread and Roses” Strike
Get involved in The Happiness Initiative
Year End Funding Appeal
Take Back Your Time in the Media
New campus initiative—The American Commonwealth Partnership/DemocracyU to debut at White House January 10th
Executive Director’s Speaking Schedule
Your Letters

100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE “BREAD AND ROSES” STRIKE THIS COMING JANUARY 11TH

Whether you work on campuses or in your communities, don’t forget to find some way to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the “Bread and Roses” strike this coming January 11th. There was hardly an event in American history more relevant to the Take Back Your Time movement than that strike, when tens of thousands of workers, most of them immigrant women, walked out of their textile mills to march in the snowy streets of Lawrence, Massachusetts, demanding a raise in wages (from 16 to 18 cents an hour) and a decrease in work hours (from 56 to 54 per week).

The story has it that several of the women carried a banner which read: WE WANT BREAD, AND ROSES TOO! The bread symbolized higher wages—money—as we often use the term colloquially today. The roses represented shorter working hours—time to smell the roses—time for “art and love and beauty their drudging spirits” never knew, according to the famous song about the strike. I particularly like Judy Collins’ anthem-like version (read the words and listen to the music at: http://www.blight.com/~scarlett/traditions/songbook/breadandroses.html) but there are many wonderful renditions on You Tube.

Wikipedia has a short history of the strike: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_Roses and there is a moving novel about it for teenagers: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/books/review/Deutsch.t.html which contains a fanciful (but perhaps true in spirit) account of the making of the Bread and Roses banner.

Until the 1960s, American unions fought for both bread and roses, but in the consumer society, higher wages to buy goods became the central focus of organizing. The roses (shorter hours) were left to wilt. Yet the women of Lawrence reminded us that we do not live on bread alone and that we need all the non-material things the roses represent—time for health, for family, for community and social connection, for art and beauty and nature, time to be stewards of the environment and to volunteer in our community, time to grow food and flowers, to sing, to dance. We have sacrificed all of these things to the gods of work and money. It’s time we become gardeners of the roses once again.

CELEBRATE THE LAWRENCE CENTENNIAL

If you teach, find a way on Wednesday, January 11th to honor the Bread and Roses centennial, especially if you teach high school civics. If you are in a union, suggest its workers celebrate the strike, which won the sympathy of the majority of Americans—after two months during which the strikers faced bayonets, and imprisonment, beatings and even, in the case of Annie LoPizzo, martyrdom, they won their demands. If you are a librarian, showcase the children’s book. If you are in the field of recreation and leisure, point out that we still need roses, we still need time.

Table of Contents

GET INVOLVED IN THE HAPPINESS INITIATIVE

All of this also offers a segue into The Happiness Initiative (www.happycounts.org), with which Take Back Your Time is now working closely. The Happiness Initiative measures how well we’re watering the roses. It’s a challenge to our main measure of wellbeing in America, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which measures the flow of money—bread—in our society and counts as positive everything that brings in money, while not counting at all the important non-material things that make us happy and for which money is not exchanged.

Do you volunteer to make your community better? Garden with others and give some of the produce to the homeless? Walk in the woods for beauty and exercise? Spend time with friends and family consuming little but food and drink? If so, you are wasting your time as far as GDP is concerned. But burn lots of gasoline, crash your expensive SUV, spend a lot on the damages and on your injuries, and then come home to divorce papers and expensive legal bills and you’ve had a stellar GDP day!

As Bobby Kennedy explained our prime American indicator of national success: "It measures, in short, everything but that which makes life worthwhile."

TAKE THE SURVEY!

It measures bread alone. The brand new Happiness Initiative survey measures material wellbeing, but it also measures how well you are doing in nine domains of the "roses." It only takes 12-15 minutes and has been fully updated and validated by Dr. Ryan Howell and his wonderful team in the psychology department at San Francisco State University. Try it! You’ll like it. A national random sampling using the survey found Americans scoring second-lowest (of 10) in time balance, a measure of overwork and time stress. Only our confidence in government score was lower. When you take the test you’ll immediately get a score in all 10 domains, showing you how you compare to the average American.

The Happiness Initiative carries the Take Back Your Time movement forward to the next level, showing clearly how, in comparison to other needs, people feel particularly pressed for time in their lives.

DO YOUR OWN HAPPINESS INITIATIVE

You can do a Happiness Initiative in your city or town or on your campus. Toolkits for colleges are available at http://www.happycounts.org/higher-ed-toolkit/ and for communities at: http://www.happycounts.org/conduct-a-happiness-initiative/ . Already, many American cities have signed on and Seattle has already received its first Happiness Report Card. The city of Eau Claire, Wisconsin has brought many community organizations together with city government to conduct an initiative. You can find out what they’re doing at: www.eauclairehappiness.com .

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS DAY COMING APRIL 13, 2012

Nearly a hundred colleges and universities have also begun using the Happiness Initiative survey, or plan to in the near future. On April 13, 2012, Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, cities and campuses involved in the Initiative will celebrate the first Pursuit of Happiness Day. This is a wonderful opportunity to raise the issue of time balance as a key element of a good and happy life. Dr. Dave Gould at the University of Iowa, who has been a big supporter of Take Back Your Time over the years, is collecting materials to use in classes on Pursuit of Happiness Day as part of a nationwide campus teach-in. If you have ideas along this line, you can reach him at david-gould@uiowa.edu .

Table of Contents

YEAR-END FUNDING APPEAL

If you check out The Happiness Initiative Web site you’ll see how much is being done on a shoestring budget. We truly need your support to carry both the Initiative and Take Back Your Time (we are working together now) into the New Year. Your financial contribution at this time will help us survive a very tight fiscal situation and move on to even greater accomplishments. Please give as much as you can, but every little bit helps... Really!

You only have a few days left to get a tax exemption for this year’s donations to charity. Please consider a contribution to Take Back Your Time and/or The Happiness Initiative. Donate now. Thanks so much for your support. Our goal is to raise $10,000 from this appeal. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. If you wish to write a check, please send it to Take Back Your Time, c/o Sustainable Seattle, 1402 3rd Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101.

Thanks so much for your contribution and for all you do!

Table of Contents

TAKE BACK YOUR TIME AND THE HAPPINESS INITIATIVE IN THE NEWS

COVERAGE OF THE HAPPINESS INITIATIVE IN THE ATLANTIC!

from How Happy is Seattle?, The Atlantic

Last week The Happiness Initiative, a Seattle-based organization determined to determine the city’s well-being, presented the results of its first survey. During the first half of 2011 more than 2,600 Seattle residents took the survey, which examines nine happiness domains, including health, community, and psychological well-being. The initiative’s measurement pairs broad questions with more objective indicators; the health domain, for instance, looks at self reports of general physical fitness as well as documented obesity rates.

On overall well-being, Seattle residents received a rather rainy score of 66 out of 100. (Abbreviated results here; much more useful full report here [PDF].) They scored particularly low on measures of "time balance" and environmental well-being: roughly 43 and 46, respectively. They don’t appear happy with government, either—though who is these days—scoring a 58 on that domain.

Still there were a few traces of sunlight: The city scored best on psychological and material well-being — nearly 78 and 73, respectively. On three other domains — health, community, and cultural vitality (which asks about things like discrimination and recreation) — Seattle scored in the 60s.

Read the whole story and look at the graphs...

The Atlantic, November 25, 2011
How Happy is Seattle?

The Center for a New American Dream, November 2011.
Does Your Town Need a Happiness Initiative?

Earth Island Journal. “The Pursuit of Happiness”
Featured Story Autumn 2011

WholeLifeWellbeing, December 13, 2011
Seeking Happiness At Middle Age—by Laura Musikanski

WEAU, Eau Claire Wisconsin, November 21, 2011.
Interview with City Manager Mike Huggins about Eau Claire’s Happiness Initiative:
part 1, part 2.

seattlepi.com, November 21, 2011.
Survey reveals whether Seattleites are happy

KING-5, Seattle, November 18, 2011.
Are Seattleites happy? Survey says kind of

Real Change, Seattle.
Community Editorial, October 25th

CSR Wire, October 14th, 2011
Happy in Hungary

Joe Robinson on CBS News:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=16270422n

New Movie Happy and Take Back Your Time
http://www.takepart.com/article/2011/10/24/filmmaker-roko-belic-projects-%E2%80%98happy%E2%80%99

More fuel for the fire:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/blog/automaton

Interview with John de Graaf about Time and Happiness and new book, WHAT’S THE ECONOMY FOR, ANYWAY? on Santa Fe Public Radio
http://www.santaferadiocafe.org/podcasts/?p=1765

Interview with John about Bread and Roses on Virginia Public Radio
http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2011/12/affluenza/

On second blush, we should use more vacay time » Opinion » The Duncan Banner
It's positively un-American,” John De Graaf, head of Take Back Your Time, asks on the Web site of the Seattle-based outfit that addresses issues of overwork ...
duncanbanner.com/.../On-second-blush-we-should-use-more-...

PATRICK'S PEOPLE: Time is on John de Graaf's side - Pittsburg, KS ...
www.morningsun.net/.../PATRICKS-PEOPLE-Time-is-on-John-de-G..

Table of Contents

NEW CAMPUS INITIATIVE—THE AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH PARTNERSHIP/DEMOCRACY U TO DEBUT AT WHITE HOUSE JANUARY 10^TH

From Harry Boyte: On January 10th, the American Commonwealth Partnership (ACP) and other partners will begin involving students, among others, as agents of change, in a White House launch that begins a year of activity to strengthen the civic purposes of education. ACP is a broad alliance of higher education, P-12 schools and educational groups, philanthropies, businesses and others, and it is partnering in the launch with the White House Office of Public Engagement, the Department of Education, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities. ACP’s role is to “deepen the civic identity” of educational institutions, moving from activities to identity, education as a public good which educates citizens.

The Happiness Initiative has been invited to be part of ACP/DemocracyU

This is an exciting project and will enhance our outreach on college campuses. For more information:
http://www.civicyouth.org/democracyu/

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S SPEAKING SCHEDULE

January 14, 2012: Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival, Nevada City, CA
(with Happiness Initiative Executive Director Laura Musikanski)

January 27, 2012: American Association of State Colleges and Universities annual meeting , Washington DC

January 30, 2012: Poets and Busboys Bookstore, Washington DC
(book event for WHAT’S THE ECONOMY FOR, ANYWAY?)

March 8-9, 2012 Consumerism conference, Vancouver, BC

March 16-17, 2012: Open University of New York City
(with Happiness Initiative Executive Director Laura Musikanski)

March 27-28, 2012: Colby-Sawyer College, New Hampshire

May 4-5 Washington Parks and Recreation Association state meeting (keynote), Bellevue, WA

Both Laura and I would love to do more speaking about The Happiness Initiative! Contact us as happy@happycounts.org .

Table of Contents

YOUR LETTERS

From Gary Ruskin, CA:

Dear friends, The new and improved version of the late Jonathan Rowe's ( a founder of Take Back Your Time) website is now online at http://jonathanrowe.org/. It contains more than 270 of his articles and radio shows. We'll add more in the coming weeks.

A short contribution from The Netherlands:

The Dutch so-called New Working Movement goes for flexible working hours, time and location independent work and smart travelling. I recently gave a presentation introducing the biological clock as an innovation (although it is not really an innovation). More and more we learn from the neurosciences (chronobiology) about our best times to concentrate, achieve, create, be alert, to relax, eat etc. We also know that in general there are 15% morning, 60% day and 25% evening people. That’s what we mean about focusing on the best working and traveling hours. Even more important for school children (you know about the adolescent brain; about the best short and long term memory times). So, debating about shorter and flexible working times you can easily create your own best working hours, in a natural, healthy cheap and effective way; an win-win situation for employers, employees, working parents (referring to your discussion about working moms), the traffic, the environment, public health, economy etc. It is very easy to find out what kind of type you are. The profit is immense. As German experts say, living 24/7 and neglecting our biological rhythm makes us stupid, fat and ill.

I hope you will include these aspects into your debate, into the new economics.

Best regards,
Conny Bergé, coörd. Project Time for time
PEP International - 'personal politics' - Foundation
www.pepinternational.nl

From Berkeley, CA

While doing international comparisons, I found these interesting facts: German per capita GDP is 80 percent of America's, and German work time per employee is 82% of America's. Considering that Germans also retire earlier, their reduced work time accounts for their entire reduced GDP per capita. Despite the lower national income, they have a much higher rate of household savings and a lower rate of public debt than we do (not to mention longer life expectancy, lower infant mortality, and higher educational achievement). The average German also has only 60% of the ecological footprint of the average American. They are known for their commitment to recycling and clean energy, but their shorter work hours contributes about as much to reducing their ecological footprint as their clean technology does. It is interesting to compare German and American workhours historically. In 1950, Germans worked about 20% more than Americans. German work hours have gone down steadily since then, while American work hours have stagnated. Today, Germans work 20% less than Americans. The contrast between the two curves is dramatic.

Charles Siegel

From Scarsdale, NY:

I wanted to make sure you knew that, on November 7, 2011, Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) reintroduced the Telecommuter Tax Fairness Act (S. 1811). Below is a commentary concerning the legislation that was recently posted on the Telework Coalition's website:

Using Telework to Create Jobs and Reduce the Deficit I would be very grateful if Take Back Your Time would publicize the reintroduction of this crucial legislation and encourage its constituents to write to their congressional delegates in support of swift enactment. Please do not hesitate to let me know if I can be of any assistance to your organization on this issue. Many thanks for your consideration.

Nicole Belson Goluboff, Esq.

Dear Editor,

My spouse (a retired RN age 46) and I (a retired System Analyst age 46) have a story that I think would be of great interest to your readers. We really Took Back Our Time! We believe that American lives are extremely unbalanced when it come to personal time and work time. So we developed a plan to retire young at age 45 (we were one year ate). We saved and lived below our means. We purchased a home that we could afford on a fraction of our income to be paid off in 8 years. This home was built new by MI-Homes, a major top ten home builder in the United States. We then in December 2008 after the home crash purchased a home out west in which we know reside. Now we enjoy the freedom and happiness of spending our time as we choose. We are not living the American Dream, we are living our dream. Yes we make sacrifices but we enjoy time with those we love, good meals, vacations, exercise, swimming pool, gym member ship, and sleeping in each morning without ever having to fight traffic of again put ourselves in a position of driving into work upon icy roads. In short, it's amazing what's to gain by giving up stuff. Eventually we may come out of our own self financed retirement and again work, but this time it will be balanced (2 or 3 out of 7 days a week) and enjoyable without the militant "Dilbert" like atmosphere that has left so many fellow American's shouting TGIF. We are contemplating a documentary that demonstrated and illustrates not only how to duplicate what we have done but also that shines a light upon the features of the tradition work 5 days, do chores on Saturday and get ready to start another work week on Sunday versus work 2 or 3 days a week and enjoy your God given time doing what you value.

Best Regards and Happy Saturday (that's everyday for us),
Jon & Diane

From Palm Desert, CA:

I read a great article at cnn.com about American workers not having enough time off. I agree completely. And your site was listed on the article. Well, I am very happy there are some people out there (you guys) that are trying to do something that is so important to our existence; vacation time. I work 200 hours a month and have 10 days of vacation a year. The story of many of us, we work too much and not enough time off.

I just signed up for your email list and hope I can help in some way and hope to get involved in this crucial cause. Together we can make a difference!

Thanks,
Eduardo.

Send your letters to me at: jodg@comcast.net --John de Graaf

Table of Contents