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You can speak out through the Return2Respect movement and bring a focus on fairness, equality and civility. Join with fellow Americans in a mission that can have a positive impact on your future. Respect has no boundaries, political or otherwise. Trust, inspiration, common sense and decency will only flourish with respect in place.
We’re asking you to help us spread Return2Respect signs and window clings across the nation. This is an all out effort to return respect because:
- Society loses creativity, harmony and initiative unless we trust one another.
- Government cannot develop solutions unless our leaders think and work together.
- Communities will not thrive unless there is a sense of belonging and freedom from fear.
which means it all begins with respect and
Returning respect is what we’re all about.
Our Mission
Choose respect, revive trust
ULTIMATE GOAL: To keep our “united states” united, safe and respectable for all and foster a stronger, more responsive and democratic government by making a return to respect the hallmark for 2024 and beyond.
WHY?
A loss of respect and common decency is evident throughout society, including at the governmental level. People are exhausted and exasperated from polarization and politics.
This mission puts a focus across the country on the word “respect”. Returning respect is the only way to regain peace of mind. Equality, civility, and trust cannot develop in any meaningful way without respect first being put in place. We’re asking our leaders to help. We need to be more than our politics.
Our Elected officials impact attitudes and behavior everywhere. A reduction in toxic polarization, developing respect for each other, and avoiding harmful rhetoric and bickering can help to reduce division and anger. This could also have a positive impact on the media that tend to exploit and enflame others. We know there will always be issues. With respect in place, disagreements can center on the issue, not the personalities. Motivation and innovation toward solutions can also follow.
Every time a respect cling or sign appears on a lawn, in the back window of a car (truck, SUV, bus), in a window of a home, on the wall in an office, in a store, on a laptop or refrigerator:
- there is more of a chance of being heard,
- more of a chance to make a difference in your community
- more potential to be recognized by the media,
- more opportunity to impact our legislators
- just plain more of a chance to change the tone in someone’s voice
To sum it up:
With respect, common sense solutions, dignity and decency can return, and cooperation, collaboration, initiative and, most of all, trust can begin to increase.
Without respect, society and democracy cannot function properly, trust and motivation disappear, fairness and equality bow to prejudice, and stress and violence increase..
HOW RETURN2RESPECT WORKS:
WE FOCUS ON GETTING VOICES HEARD: YOU are the most important element. Every person who joins in advances the return to respect. You help to bring us back together, to return trust and pave the way for a more positive future.
Individuals, communities, organizations, businesses everywhere are essential. You focus attention on the word "respect" by displaying signs everywhere. In homes, cars, offices, restaurants, at musical concerts, barber shops, hairdressers, stores, nursing homes, on lawns, everywhere. Your photos on our Instagram page bring it all home.
RESPECT
Return2Respect works from the top down and the bottom up. We develop local support by displaying signs in communities everywhere. We ask our elected leaders to help us by displaying an air of respect at the top. Their actions in turn impact the nation as a whole.
We’ve raised our first $1000. With donations beginning at $6, we will send you some window clings for your home and car windows. The more you donate, the more clings we can spread across the country. The more the word “respect” is seen, the more it can enter people’s minds and hearts.
- We’ll let your elected representatives and the media know you are watching and waiting for their vital assistance in leading the way back together.
- The photos on our Instagram page serve as a visual reminder of our impact in numbers.
- Through this movement, organizations devoted to unity and trust also receive greater recognition and empowerment.
It took a long time to get this low in respect. It will take a long time to bring us back but the sooner we get started, the sooner we can reverse the downward trend.
Let’s make respect a vision for 2024 and beyond.
Endorsements for
Return2Respect:
“The idea is strong and has the potential for impact, almost like a fundamental part of an operating system for putting the country back on track from social fabric that is frayed or political processes that divide us. It captures an important fundamental aspect that is missing in society today—equality, human dignity, fixing what’s broken in politics and society. We need to appreciate each other and appreciate that there will be differences. Another way to say this is, we need to “return2respect.” ~Walt Roberts, Change Management Consultant, Co-founder of Inter Movement Impact Project, Healthy Democracy Movement, Co-creator of Critical Connections Forum, Transpartisan Alliance Leadership Team, Sustainability Movement facilitator
“Return2respect is a campaign to make visible that which most Americans want. Backed by our own actions, it becomes a call to our leaders and elected officials to act in a manner more fitting their office. It’s time to stop with the public melodrama and begin acting like adults.” ~ Debilyn Molineaux, long-time leader in the bridging movement, co-founder of the Coffee Party and Living Room Conversations, past President/CEO of the Bridge Alliance, co-publisher of The Fulcrum, currently heading up AmericanFuture.us and Terrified Nation podcasts
“As a country, as a culture, as Americans, regardless of our political affiliation or ideologies, we can ”return2respect”. However we describe ourselves -- as children of God, of Nature, of the Ineffable or just of our parents, whatever – we all inherently deserve respect. This initiative calls upon everyone without exception, to recognize the dignity of the other and of ourselves as an essential element to engage together in building a functioning society.” ~ John Steiner, co-founder Search for Common Ground, trustee of the SteinerKing Foundation, Director at the Boulder Institute, Past Chair of Reuniting America, and current Advisor to Business for America and Listen First Project and its more than 500 organization members.
It won’t happen without you.
Help in the goal to return to respect
before time runs out?
Volunteer
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A Message from Brenda, Return2Respect’s Creator
Return2Respect is a movement, a loosely knit collaboration of all of us who don’t want to be polarized, don’t want to hate each other, and want to do our part in bringing back trust and common decency.
The damage to our society, our union, is clearly visible. Trust in our leaders has fallen to 15%. In 1984 58% of us agreed our representatives cared about serving us. Now 58% disagree. Common decency is #1 on the list of “things we used to respect, but no longer do.” Journalists and the American presidency also made the list. Our media has to take some of the blame for distrust and fear, too. Too much information can be just as harmful as too little.
I’ve been around for a long time and have observed, with sorrow, the changes in common decency and respect. We cannot change history by destroying all structure. We can only improve on the past and leave something better for the future.
I graduated from high school in 1958. During the 50's, our government had lots of issues on its plate. But 72% of us still trusted our elected representatives to do the right thing. Sure, we might have been a little naive and we didn’t have the instant information available today, but only 15% under any condition is something that cannot be ignored.
Last 4th of July my 4 year old great-grandson entertained at a celebration. He loves to sing and play guitar and closed with This land is my land, this land is your land, asking people to be happy together. It struck me that it’s been 60 years since Woodie Guthrie first wrote that to try to bring people together. Sadly a 4 year old child still feels the need to keep trying. We owe the children something better.
Please do this one small thing - place a “respect” window cling in your car (truck, bus) window and become part of the change. Think about this: Where are we headed if we don’t get together and begin to build the road back to civility and trust? Would you really want to end up there?
