Category Archives: VA

The Monday Books and Other Resources

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So if you’re wondering about changes in our laws and governance in this next era, here are some resources I’ve pulled together that have given me a lot to think about. Enjoy:

A seven-minute synopsis with good advice:

Further Timothy Snyder series of 20 short videos from his book ON TYRANNY

Reporting standards tips, useful as self-standards: https://www.cjr.org/political_press/ten-tips-for-reporting-in-an-autocracy.php

Nonviolent resistance tips and techniques (contains additional resources):

https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGdcRFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHR3mUmSea-cIp0BRTk15IIgB4bLDwNJnG2V4zrHvXwDklJzORsBuWy9b2w_aem_uAt-HTmaxzfJDbvXbjvvSQ

Body language, projecting confidence

Centers the wisdom of older women to effect positive change, community building

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=grandmothers%20collective

Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum (short book, descriptive). Appelbaum also co-hosts a podcast called https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/autocracy-in-america/

“Eichmann in Jerusalem: The Banality of Evil” by Hannah Arendt is available free online from multiple sources by googling the full name. It is easy to misunderstand and has been widely misinterpreted. Sources that distill the information include: https://hac.bard.edu/about/hannaharendt/ (2 paragraphs) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY9wQebQAMM (2 hours, cartooned)

TED TALKS

https://www.ted.com/talks/fatma_karume_how_to_fight_for_democracy_in_the_shadow_of_autocracy?subtitle=en (Tanzania activist describes her fight)

https://www.ted.com/talks/gabriel_marmentini_how_to_be_an_active_citizen_and_spark_change?subtitle=en (individualized advice for personal activism and resistance)

https://www.ted.com/talks/samar_ali_and_clint_brewer_how_to_bridge_political_divides_from_two_friends_on_opposing_sides?subtitle=en (discarding the scare script in talking to people of different politics)

https://www.ted.com/talks/ivan_krastev_can_democracy_exist_without_trust?subtitle=en (a hard look at democracy’s difficult issues)

https://www.npr.org/2024/11/14/nx-s1-5183075/did-democrats-lose-on-the-economy-or-the-culture-wars-three-strategists-weigh-in a great analysis from some honest assessors

AND ONE FUN ONE https://www.facebook.com/gothtranssatyrdom/videos/1199807094430380/ great legal advice

A Mirror Darkly?

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After working the voting precinct last week, I’m still processing. But one thing that’s coming up over and over again, is how much people around me espouse a God who looks like them. Acts like them. Believes what they believe.

Not that they believe what God believes. Their God believes what they do. Their God has opinions on weaknesses, in particular, that don’t align with the New Testament Jesus. You only have to read the New Testament once to understand, God has been redesigned. And to my, well, frightened eyes, he sounds in their mouths like an angry white guy.

This freaks me out, because at first it made me feel superior; I was on the right side of God! Our God is an Awesome God, a Mighty God, a God we seek to know. To Know God and make God known -I am doing it correctly!

And then I started to drill down in my own life, what I believed about God, what God wanted from me, what I was meant to be doing…..

….and it sure looked a lot like what I wanted to do. Like what made me comfortable. Like what benefited me. Like everyone else should think like me, understand God with the depth that I do.

My God is ethnocentric? Help us, Jesus. God in the hands of angry sinners is a terrible thing to contemplate.

So these days my prayer is, Jesus, help me interpret what I’m seeing in front of me the way you want me to. You gave us all personalities, you say in the Bible that some are hands and some are ears (and that means at least one of us has to be the liver). So okay, we have to be who you formed us to be and we see the world through the eyes you gave us.

But dear Jesus, please don’t let me reform you into who I decided I needed you to be, rather than who you are. That’s going to be way more important soon. This is going to get ugly. Don’t let me believe in the angry white guy God, and please don’t let me redesign God into a tree hugger who thinks everyone could benefit from a warm chocolate chip cookie, either. I’m listening, carefully, and with a lot more humility now. Help, please. Thank you.