Organizing & Activism (Also see Nonviolence, Outreach)

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“A Creative, Practical Way to Fund Jobs, Infrastructure, Climate Cures”

May 20, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The June 2018 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” presents an exciting way for the federal government to fund the creation of jobs and solutions to many nationwide problems (housing, climate, etc.).  You can watch Glen Anderson interview Randy Mandell (an expert on Modern Monetary Theory — MMT) at the first link below, and/or read a thorough summary of what we said at the second link.  Near the end of the thorough summary you can see links to many excellent sources of information. To watch the interview, click this link:  WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE. To read the thorough summary and see […]

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Profound Nonviolence for a Truly Just Society

May 15, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

In slightly more than three pages, the article at this link provides wisdom, compassion, insights, and encouragement to fix our society’s problems. I believe you will find that reading this is a good use of your time. Here is the link: Profound Nonviolence for a Truly Just Society

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We urgently, desperately need HONEST SCIENCE so we can solve problems

May 7, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Do you remember the decades-old saying, “Garbage in — Garbage out”?  It referred to the problems with computer systems that receive inputs that are not accurate and — as a result — produce inaccurate outputs. The remedy, of course, is to make sure we have valid, accurate inputs in order to produce good results. Nowadays, the Trump/Republican federal government and many state governments are stuffed with climate deniers, dogmatic religious extremists, and other people who are subservient to special interests.  Instead of open-mindedly and honestly trying to solve problems, they exploit governments in order to distort public policies for corrupt […]

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The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty + other orgs do very good work.

May 7, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

For several decades the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP, www.ncadp.org ) has been doing very good work, including working with state-level organizations working to abolish the death penalty.  They recently moved to new office space shared with other organizations at “WeWorks,” so they  have a new mailing address and a new address for receiving donation checks. Mail correspondence to: NCADP c/o WeWorks 80 M Street S.E. Washington, DC 20003. Mail donation checks to a different new address: NCADP P.O. Box 829846 Philadelphia, PA 19182-9846. Other great organizations include the ACLU (at nationwide and state levels), the Death […]

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U.S.’s long history of anti-intellectualism is bearing rotten fruit now

May 7, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

In 1962 the great historian Richard Hofstadter published his book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life.  I bought it in about 1970 and always wanted to read it.  Now I am starting to read it because its message is so horribly relevant now. A long stream of anti-intellectualism has hurt the U.S. in various ways throughout our history.  It seems to be worsening now, as the federal government has made the U.S. a “rogue nation” that denies science in many aspects of public policy (environment, climate, health issues, etc.) and deletes honest, accurate scientific information from the federal government’s websites.  Under Trump […]

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This powerfully insightful article helps us understand progressives’ infighting over race, gender, etc.

May 5, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The article at this link — https://www.alternet.org/activism/progressive-infighting — offers many very fresh insights that can help us move forward. I urge people to read the entire article. I’m summarizing a few key points below (and identifying which additional comments are my own). The entire article fleshes these out and adds more insights. I highly recommend reading the article at the link in this paragraph. The article’s title – “Here’s Why Some Progressives Are Tearing Each Other Apart” – is bold, accurate, and highly relevant to the organizing crises many of us have been experiencing in the past few years. The […]

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Gain insights and solve problems by seeing entire systems, not immediate assumptions.

May 2, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

People tend to make the assumptions that are easy.  But we gain fresher insights and solve problems better when we see the entire SYSTEMS, not only the immediately observable facts. Here is an example that I learned decades ago and still think of often.  It illustrates how to improve functioning by seeing the whole SYSTEM, not simply making the easiest assumption. Decades ago some offices employed Data Entry Operators to type data (names, addresses, other words, dollar amounts, code numbers, etc.) from paper forms into computer systems.  These were high-speed operations that needed fast, accurate typing. It was crucial that […]

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Here is how to link nuclear weapons with other hot issues

April 23, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

We are committed to vigorous grassroots organizing to abolish nuclear weapons. A smart strategy is to link this issue to other hot issues that people care about. I wrote – and am attaching – 3 flyers that accomplish this.  See these 3 links: Stop gun violence — Stop nuclear weapons Climate crisis and nuclear weapons are two existential threats.docx Many scientists oppose nuclear weapons We could replicate this kind of strategy for other issues we are working on. I printed hundreds of copies and handed out (and recruited some other volunteers to hand out) a great many copies of the […]

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URGENT: Phone Heck, Murray, Cantwell to prevent attack on North Korea

April 23, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The leaders of North and South Korea want peace!  They will hold an historic summit this Friday April 27 that should lead to further steps toward peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula. But Trump wants war instead.  He has been hiring notorious war-hawks to advise him and run federal agencies. Only a few U.S. Congress members are vigorously promoting diplomacy instead of war.  They have introduced the “No Unconstitutional Strike against North Korea Act.”  The Senate bill (S. 2016) has only 3 co-sponsors, and the House bill (H.R. 4837) has 69 co-sponsors. We must phone U.S. Representative Denny Heck […]

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Here is a creative nonviolent way to protest: Women are marrying trees in Mexico.

April 22, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Here is a creative nonviolent way to protest: Women are marrying trees in Mexico. This takes the “tree-hugger” image to a whole new level. They are concerned about illegal logging and deforestation in the state of Oaxaca, so they are doing this to raise public awareness. See the article at this link: https://www.treehugger.com/conservation/why-are-women-marrying-trees-mexico.html

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The real problem of violence is NOT mental illness. The real problems are ANGER and ACCESS TO GUNS.

February 25, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

When mass shootings occur, many politicians try to shift attention away from the gun and blame the shooter for mental illness.  Yes, our society should provide more adequate funding and services for mental health.  But the problem is not “mental illness” per se.  The problem is ANGER.  Our society needs to explore and implement a wide variety of ways to reduce anger throughout our society. Consider this article about ANGER:  http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/04/anger_causes_violence_treat_it_rather_than_mental_illness_to_stop_mass_murder.html Do not let gun supporters avoid responsibility for the too-easy access to guns.  They want to blame mentally ill persons.  Instead, we must reduce access to guns, so consider […]

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Let’s correct the misunderstanding of the Second Amendment

February 25, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The gun lobby and other conservatives have grossly misled the American people about what the Second Amendment really means. In order to reduce gun violence — and reduce the power of the gun lobby — decent people must change the public’s misconceptions about it. The U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment says:  “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Some years ago Warren Burger, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (who happened to be conservative) understood the reality and wrote […]

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U.S.’s violent foreign policy leads to gun violence WITHIN the U.S.

February 25, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

We keep seeing how ALL ISSUES are INTER-CONNECTED. Among the reasons why the U.S. has so much gun violence is that the U.S. government sets a bad example with our violent militaristic foreign policy. On July 9 2016, I wrote about how President Obama was in Poland meeting with heads of NATO nations and expanding NATO provocatively to Russia’s borders and expanding NATO’s militarism into other part of the Eastern Hemisphere and pushing NATO’s member nations to spend more on militarism. During his press conference there during that visit, Obama praised those military escalations and at the same time he […]

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We must DEBUNK “the Myth of Redemptive Violence.”

February 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

U.S. culture has long perpetuated what has been called “The Myth of Redemptive Violence.” Look at the plots of movies about the Wild West, about cops & robbers, about spies, etc. Nearly every movie ends with a big shoot-out in which “the good guys” use violence to defeat “the bad guys.” The U.S. assumes that our military is “the good guys” and we can use violence to defeat “the bad guys” just like in the movies. The problem is that reality does not work that way. The U.S. LOST the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Violence is also PROFOUNDLY […]

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A smart, unexpected way to move voters to our side

February 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Liberals and progressives keep expressing amazement and confusion when working-class people vote for people like Reagan and Trump, whose economic policies and other policies actually make things worse for working-class people. George Lakoff, an expert in how people think, says voters vote their VALUES, not their interests. Typically, we assume that if we explain how a political issue pertains to people’s objective interests (e.g., their economic well-being), they will act or vote the way we want them to. However, Lakoff says we would be more effective if we would pay attention to people’s VALUES and frame our arguments to appeal […]