1 Before continuing further, allow me to express the purposes behind this article.

2 Quick Topic's highly acclaimed, easy to use format, enable Catalyst 4 Change articles to be completely open for all readers to freely voice their opinions and make comments directly related to each and every paragraph that may move them to do so. No need to register - or record your real name unless you wish to.

3 There is another aspect to the brief article I am about to present that has me excited. C4C may eventually become part-and-parcel of a joint grassroots project currently being designed by Dianne Renton of ebiznet.ca and www.connectniagara.com, and myself – Bernie Slepkov of DreamTEAMS International. Our joint initiative will seek to provide online environments and resources within which individuals can freely express their opinions; participate in surveys and polls related to grassroots issues of concern, and to establish and/or participate in online community-building collaborations able to span various sectors of our society.

4 It is too soon to reveal anything about these efforts other than to express our excitement regarding the unique approach we are planning to take towards recruiting and creating online communities of empowerment. We hope that you will join us in making these ambitious undertakings, a means of affecting profound changes within our Canadian societies - and beyond. Meanwhile, we hope you participate in …

Thought Provoking Action

5 At the Canadian Prime Minister’s webpage, an in-depth article entitled The Canadian Way in the 21^st Century claims that Canadian life and values "contain the seeds of what we and our friends are calling the Third Way".

6 I have no desire to refute the issues or challenges set forth in the article. Like countless of other Canadians in today’s society now under the unbelievably heavy, dark clouds of September 11^th, I am concerned about our immediate future. Unlike many however, I have obsessively dedicated the past 7 years towards defining future strategies, processes and models likely to contribute towards our collectively attaining sustainable futures. The aftermath of the WTC’s [World Trade Center] horrific collapse intensifies the urgency of realizing these objectives.

7 Since starting out on my arduous, lonely path, I have held the firm belief that Canadians in particular, hold the keys to becoming one of the 21^st Century’s top international leaders of true sustainable development. Already cut by previous generations, we have only to insert the keys into their respective locks, although to do so effectively, requires considerations that challenges normal conventions.

8 I am a self-made futurist with a particular focus on societal transformation. As such, I take a very big picture view of how we will need to operate in order to strengthen and maintain connections with generations of Canadians yet unborn. Taking a wholistic view, is an essential aspect to giving our lives deeper meaning and purpose.

9 The harshest reality of Tragic Tuesday’s aftermath is that we must begin to change in earnest every aspect of our lives and work so that they eventually become attune with the way of life we are all soon destined to experience. The spin-off ramifications of the September 11^th events will have brought into existence the crisis needed to push our societies on to the vast 'sea-change' upon which we must now sail. The collective ‘we’ are fast realizing that our future generations - starting with our own - have too much to lose if we do not institute the profound changes needed to restore our societies to a higher quality of life and work.

10 Despite intentions over the years to close them, the gaps between the ‘haves and have nots’ have reached a critical state of excluding too many individuals from playing productive roles within society. Falling headlong into the deepest of recessions, the experts are finally admitting the severity of a global economic problem. The toll of living in debt ridden societies will very quickly be felt across the gaps. We must now make serious, concerted efforts to close, if not remove these gaps completely.

11 For our part, we want to find out where your concerns about building sustainable futures lay. To those ends, Dianne, I and anyone who may partner with us in the future, wish to afford ways for getting you to record and register your voices so that they might be heard by our policy makers. We soon hope to enable you to find and participate in community-focused initiatives intended to resolve localized issues crying out for resolution. Eventually, we hope to foster thought provoking action! Until then, making this article available at Quick Topic is but a menial step to our arduous task ahead.

12 To be kept abreast of our developments, please feel free to email me at bernies@mergetel.com.