Organizing & Activism (Also see Nonviolence, Outreach)

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Many individuals add up to strong “people-power!”

July 25, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

I enjoy sharing with people a story I heard about 40 years ago.  We need to internalize this story’s message, let it inspire us to persist in organizing nonviolent grassroots movements for peace, human rights, the climate, and so forth — and share this story with other people. Here is the story: Two birds were enjoying a conversation while perched on a branch.  One of them mentioned that each individual snowflake weighs practically nothing.  A snowflake can land on a branch, and the branch does not move at all.  Another snowflake can land without the branch noticing it.  And another […]

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3 existential crises need our vigorous action now!

July 25, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Many issues demand our attention and action.  Right now, THREE stand out as EXISTENTIAL CRISES.  We must solve these in order to protect human civilization from destruction: #1:  Nuclear weapons are increasingly likely to destroy the world: Decades after the Cold War ended, nuclear weapons still persist.  Giant corporations and the politicians they own have convinced Obama and Trump to BUILD ALL NEW NUCLEAR WEAPONS to replace the U.S.’s ENTIRE ARSENAL with new bombs, missiles, submarines, bombers, etc.  They are projected to cost $1.7 TRILLION cost over the next 30 years, so to pay for this, Congress will be slashing […]

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Climate organizing must range from global to local levels

July 21, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

This morning I attended Olympia WA’s “Zero Hour” climate rally that was organized by young person.  The main organizer is 13 years old, and she spoke briefly and capably.  All over the world — and in many U.S. locations — young people organized “Zero Hour” rallies and marches to convey the urgency of the climate crisis.  Young people mobilized to demand an end to the abuses that are curtailing their futures — and to demand sustainable solutions.  For more information see www.thisiszerohour.org –> The climate crisis is a WORLDWIDE crisis. –> Decades ago Tip O’Neill, the Speaker of the U.S. […]

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URGENT!!! Info AND ACTION ALERT: Protect the 2020 Census from Trump’s abuse!!!

July 17, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The U.S. Constitution ABSOLUTELY REQUIRES a census that will count EVERY person in the U.S. Presumably, it must be HONEST. But Trump is planning to distort the 2020 census for blatantly racist and highly partisan purposes. Trump is planning to add a question about citizenship in order to intimidate and undercount America’s immigrants. Read this information.  Then keep going down the page and SEND ALL FIVE E-MAIL MESSAGES. Thank you! Trump’s scheme would likely cause millions of persons to be uncounted. The census is used for figuring out how to draw lines for state legislative districts and federal congressional districts. […]

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Avoid the anti-Russia hype that promotes a new Cold War.

July 17, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Both of the big political parties — Republicans and Democrats – are stuck in their own agendas.  Neither of the big party really supports peace.  Each wants confrontation with Russia for different reasons.  Ordinary people must resist the anti-Russia hype and a new Cold War.The American people must assert that we want peace, not a new Cold War. Norman Solomon’s article at this link shows smart insights: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/climb-down-from-the-summit-of-hostile-propaganda/

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How to really STOP Trump’s horrible nominees

July 17, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Trump keeps throwing HORRIBLE, CORRUPT, and DANGEROUS nominees at us, one after another. Democratic U.S. Senators think it is sufficient to merely vote “no” to one Trump nominee after another. That is NOT ENOUGH!  We and the Senators need to actually MOBILIZE PUBLIC OPINION to PUSH BACK! Senators have a “bully pulpit” that almost all of them fail to use.  They should use their “bully pulpit” and take other actions to PUBLICLY EXPOSE the nominees’ corruption, cruelty, and horrible track records, in order to MOBILIZE PUBLIC OPINION TO PUSH BACK AGAINST TRUMP and the Republicans! Until Democratic Senators push back […]

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Smart insights to distinguish “conflict” from “abuse.”

July 17, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Someone sent me an e-mail expressing support for “Conflict is Not Abuse” from Sarah Schulman.  I searched for information about the book and found this very insightful article.  It offers smart, practical and compassionate ways out of the traps that many people — especially progressives — get into regarding how we deal with social justice issues at an interpersonal level. Rather than try to summarize her helpful insights here, I encourage you to read this information about her book: https://www.thestranger.com/books/2017/01/10/24792575/sarah-schulmans-conflict-is-not-abuse-is-a-guide-to-keeping-the-peace      

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Universal Single-Payer health care is the real solution! Debunk the myths and lies about it.

July 17, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The U.S. is virtually alone among rich modern democracies in failing to provide decent health care for all of its people.  The U.S. ranks low among these nations in many indicators of health (life expectancy, infant mortality, deaths from preventable diseases, etc.). A major reason is that while other nations regard health care as a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT, the U.S. pretends that it is a COMMERCIAL COMMODITY for private profit. The real remedy — UNIVERSAL SINGLE-PAYER health care — is explained in the “Health Care” part of my blog, www.parallaxperspectives.org.  I encourage you to read several posts about it. Please […]

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Impeachable offense: Trump kidnaps children and imprisons families without due process.

July 17, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

U.S. law and international law recognize the rights of refugees and persons seeking asylum, but Trump deliberately violates those laws. Trump continues to COMMIT CRIMES that are IMPEACHABLE OFFENSES, but Congress does not seem to care. Separating little children from their families is yet one more kind of child abuse that Trump is committing.  The Trump regime has lost track of many, many of the children that he has kidnapped. Kidnapping anyone is a federal felony.  So is transporting kidnapped victims across state lines.  It is a felony to unlawfully imprison someone. Trump is denying people their constitutional right to […]

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“A New Dawn for Guatemala?”

July 14, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The August 2018 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” informs us about an interesting and inspiring community in Guatemala where refugees from the previous dictatorship have settled into a new community. These people are empowering themselves at the grassroots to meet their needs for education, clean water, social justice and democracy. About 300-400 people live in Nuevo Amanecer, the Spanish words for “New Dawn.” The community was founded in 1998 by refugees who had fled the genocide and “scorched-earth” campaign of the 1980s and 1990s. The U.S. funded and trained Guatemala’s brutal military to commit those crimes. Now the “New Dawn” […]

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What “gaslighting” means — and how Trump uses it to confuse and dominate the U.S.

July 10, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

First, read a brief definition (but not too much detail) at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting Then read these three articles and recognize how Trump is DELIBERATELY GASLIGHTING us: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/here-there-and-everywhere/201701/11-warning-signs-gaslighting https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article129199504.html https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/opinions/donald-trump-is-gaslighting-america-ghitis/index.html We need to recognize what Trump is doing. We need to devise strategies to inform the American people. We need to devise strategies to expose and resist Trump’s abuses.

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To protect immigrants, let’s de-polarize the U.S.’s political culture.

June 30, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Many problems that are plaguing the U.S. are rooted in various kinds of polarizations.  Oppressors use a “divide-and-conquer” strategy to disempower ordinary people so the oppressors can grab more power and enrich themselves financially.  They polarize us by pitting race against race, religion against religion, straight people against LGBTQ people, and native-born people against immigrants. They also polarize us by emphasizing nationalism, so they pit nation against nation.  They promote wars and nuclear weapons. All of these polarizations draw from the same roots.  In order to protect immigrant rights — and all people’s rights — and in order to prevent […]

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Great home-made signs from immigrant rights rally

June 30, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

On Saturday June 30 a huge crowd — certainly more than one thousand, and perhaps two thousand — attended the immigrant rights rally at the Washington State Capitol Building in Olympia WA.  The initial focus was “Keep Families Together,” because the Trump regime has kidnapped more than 2,000 children (including toddlers and infants) from their immigrant parents because their parents had crossed the U.S. border without the necessary documentation.  Trump was holding those children as HOSTAGES in order to pressure their parents to “self-deport” and pressure Congress to pass a cruel law against immigrants.  The Trump regime has lost track […]

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Abolishing nuclear weapons would help immigrants’ rights.

June 28, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

To protect immigrants, STOP POLARIZING PEOPLE IN ANY WAY: Stop dividing people by nationality, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, economic class, etc. The problems we face are huge, deeply rooted and interconnected. Because these problems are linked, we can make progress toward solving any of the divisive problems by starting with any one of these problems and showing how it connects with the other problems. The problems already existed before Trump made them worse. Nationalism and racism polarize “us vs. them.” For more than 70 years nuclear weapons have expressed the nationalism that is one root of anti-immigrant feelings. […]

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“Base Public Policy on Honest Science”

June 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The July 2018 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” TV program helps us understand how science works. It also helps us push governments to use honest science as a basis for smart and wise public policies.  Governments should make decisions based on what is actually true, not corrupted by financial greed or ideological pressures. To watch the interview, click this link:  WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE. To read the thorough summary of what we said in the interview — and see a list of excellent sources of information, click this link:  2018.07 Program Summary — SCIENCE. People in Thurston County who have […]