Our Common Table

The longer this era has lasted, the more convinced I've become that rage baiting, memes, paid media influencers, and their kissing cousins are bad for our collective mental health. As I write this, there are three fingers pointing back at myself! I'm just as guilty as the next person for seeking impressions, views, followers by ramping up the vitriol, by taking partisan shots for what? A few more free subscribers?

Those posts are coming down.

Believe me, I will still stand as strong as I know how on the side of liberty and justice for all. I'll still promote 'leaflets of our resistance,' where resistance equals informed dissent. I'll still speak up on behalf of those whose voices are marginalized.

If you catch me straying into rage baiting, please call me out on it. Extremism in any form is harmful to our most precious democracy.

Please join me at this table, at our common table, where our family-ness takes precedence.

Topics covered: Mighty Writers. Injustice. Hate speech. Abuse of power. International relations. The historical record. From generation to generation. Potpourri.

Mighty Writers. The power of the pen. How can we use our voices to speak truth to power, to protect the defenseless?

Injustice. Specific instances of injustice observed. Whether unlawful deportations, lethal force, bullying, we've all been there, done that, where injustice takes place right under our collective noses.

Hate speech. Homophobia. Antisemitism. Islamophobia. Racism. Denigration of women. Xenophobia. Do we keep silent, or do we speak up? It's our choice.

Abuse of power. It doesn't matter whether it's the president of the United States, a menber of the clergy, a crossing guard at an elementary school... Anyone who uses their power, their authority to harm others is fair game. Democrat, DSA, Republican, MAGA, socialist, Communist, or centrist.

International relations. I'm especially interested in the value of international exchange and how living abroad changes a person's outlook.

The historical record. Setting the record straight about historical and current events, based on primary sources.

From generation to generation. We are handing our world off to the next generation. Are we leaving it better or worse?

Potpourri. Sometimes thoughts just pop into my head...

Note: I am avoiding "DEI" or other current, politically-correct speech. I won't write about misogyny; instead, I will write about denigration of women. I won't write about the oligarchy or MAGA or critical race theory or great replacement conspiracy theory or the patriarchy. But I most definitely will write about wealthy men who subvert freedom and justice; about extremism; about racism; about antisemitism; about conspiracy theories; and, about denigration of women.

The principles are important. But we should not use words as a weapon, especially toward people who agree with us.

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