Empathy
An Activist's Penitence
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Even in our journey to walk the path of love, truth, and unity, we can miss the mark. In “An Activist’s Penitence”, Simon Mont shares the wounds and missteps that can occur on one’s path to healing and peace.
General News
#MeToo–I Didn't Tell Either
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No one wants to tell about their own sexual assault, but I feel compelled to do so in solidarity with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who is being viciously maligned for speaking out about being sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh so many years ago. These years of Donald Trump’s presidency will go down as a dark and shameful period in our nation’s history. A known sexual predator holds the highest office in the land. (We’ve all heard the Access Hollywood tape.) Now he has nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and he continues to stand by Kavanaugh while insinuating that Dr. Ford is lying because she waited so long to tell her story, saying, “I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents…” This same theme is being reiterated by other Republicans and across the internet: the implication that she is lying because she didn’t tell years ago.
art
Fahrenheit 11/9: Two Lessons We MUST Face
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I saw Michael Moore’s new film on Friday. This is not a review (I liked this, didn’t like that, who cares?), but an extraction of two main points Moore makes in ways that set my heart pounding. See Fahrenheit 11/9 if you can (it’s playing in three different theaters here in Santa Fe, a small city, so I’m guessing you have the opportunity close to hand). But whether or not you do, I am urging—begging—you to consider and share these lessons. How we act on them will make the critical difference between life and death for democracy.
General News
Power and Knowledge Then and Now
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I was interested in the Clarence Thomas Hearings before Anita Hill came forward with her allegations of sexual harassment. As I watched the hearings in the early 1990s, I was already a PhD student in the religion department at Temple University. My initial question was: why do people fight wars in the name of God? As I took the foundational courses required in the program I became interested in hermeneutics which led me to think about how people find meaning inside texts. As I watched the Thomas hearings, it occurred to me that what was happening was a matter of text interpretation.
General News
Who is America and the Ethics of Going Undercover
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While “Gotcha” techniques can be entertaining to watch on television shows, should we be laughing? Larry Atkins takes a deeper look into the ethics of using of undercover techniques by the Right and Left.
General News
The Politicization of Murder in the U.S. and U.K.
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With the recent murder of U.S. teen Mollie Tibbetts, many people have been using her murder for political gain. Frankie Wallace investigates the ways in which murder has been politicized throughout history, in both the U.S. and the U.K.
Culture
A Permaculture for Plants and People
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After spending some time doing a work exchange on an up and starting permaculture farm run by quirky, fearless, one-of-a-kind Elizabeth Medgyesy, author, Hannah Arin, is brought to a new understanding of the give and take shared between herself and life’s own ebbs and flows.
Gender and Sexuality
PINK Armenia: Some Personal Reflections
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Paul von Blum shares his experiences with PINK Armenia, an organization dedicated to serving the LGBT community, and the need for deep social change in Armenia and beyond.
General News
What is Soul? The Artistry of Aretha Franklin
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In 1970, the P-Funk music group Funkadelic asked the question: What is soul? There answer was “I don’t know.” Then they made some suggestions: ham hocks in corn flakes, bathtub ring, a joint rolled in toilet paper; rusty ankles and ashy kneecaps, chitlins foo yung, woman, and funk. What is soul? Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, defined it: “Soul to me is a feeling a lot of depth and being able to bring to the surface that which is happening inside, to make the picture clear.
art
By Our Dreams Will You Know Us: Impeachment Edition
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“In dreams begin responsibilities,” wrote the poet Delmore Schwartz. What do our dreams reveal about our responsibilities to the body politic? Everyone I know is ecstatic that two individuals have been definitively revealed as guilty of serious criminal action in direct service to the Present Occupant of the White House. As Michael Cohen’s attorney said, “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?” The New York Times editorial sums it up nicely and links to the relevant details.