A bible and gun rest atop the United States Constitution and American flag. Guns, bibles and the American flag are often used emblematically, and for intimidation, by those who believe that participation in American democracy only belongs to those who embrace America as a country of white male Christian privilege.
Archie Bunker, the anachronistical central character of the 1971 sitcom All in the Family, liked to talk about “Real Americans” and fancied himself one of them. To Archie, and those who he satirically represented, being a Real American centered around embracing the concept of white male Christian privilege.
The entire MAGA movement in 2016 to “Make America Great Again” was of course centered on the idea of resurrecting an America that echoed Archie Bunker’s sense of privilege, while simultaneously destroying the boundaries between the (fundamentalist Christian) church and State.Continue Reading >>
Congressional Representative Eric Swalwell posted a note on Twitter yesterday that echoed some of the same sentiments we’ve shared on The Domino Principle before:
The fight for the future isn’t between liberal vs conservative. It’s between truth vs lies.
It isn’t between Democrat vs Republican. It’s between democracy vs autocracy.
I’m still traveling in Texas and visiting family there this week. A conservative family member introduced me to new acquaintances a few days ago as someone who is extremely liberal, and that resulted in my doing a double take, because it isn’t necessarily accurate and it misses the point.Continue Reading >>
Inscribed “John Harvard • Founder • 1638”, the statue of John Harvard is located in Harvard University’s Harvard Yard. It is often known at the “Statue of the Three Lies” because 1) it is not a likeness of John Harvard; 2) John Harvard was not the actual founder of the university that now bears his surname; and 3) the university was founded in 1636.
I travelled from California to Texas to visit family for Father’s Day this past Thursday, and missed viewing the third public session of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol while I was in flight. No worries, once I landed, a few minutes of review of my Twitter notifications quickly gave me the key points of what I had missed, and then I watched a replay of the full session on my laptop that evening.
So I was quickly up to date on the new horrors publicly disclosed about past (and alas, future) attempts to overthrow the government of the United States. Call me silly if you like, but for some strange reason, this is a topic I feel it is important to stay informed about.Continue Reading >>
Strategies for taking command of our lives through seeing "deep repercussions" in world events and realizing how chain reactions can produce future outcomes.
