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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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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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April 30 to May 6, 2018 is SCREEN-FREE WEEK

April 28, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Every year in late April or early May people — ESPECIALLY YOUNG PEOPLE — are urged to get away from screens and do activities during “SCREEN-FREE WEEK.”  Life is much more than addiction to screens.  Get outside!  Enjoy nature!  Connect face-to-face with people!  Read books!  Work in the yard or garden!  Do volunteer work!  Live!  Say no to persistent commercialism and distraction and superficiality! Information:  www.screenfree.org Information:  www.commercialfreechildhood.org  There are Screen-Free Week events all around the world, at libraries, schools, and museums, like the Original Children’s Playhouse Museum in Frederick, MD, which is partnering with 7 elementary schools to help […]

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Saturday April 14: Participate in Olympia’s March for Science!

April 9, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

11:00 a.m. at Washington State Capitol steps. Hear a few brief speakers. 11:45 Proceed down Capitol Way, turn left (decision pending on whether to turn left on Legion Way or 5th Ave), and enter Heritage Park. Visit informational booths until 2:00 p.m.. • Stop the denialism and corruption that interfere with honest science and good public policy. • Demand that public officials respect honest science and enact evidence-based public policies. • Human beings and our natural environment need this! Background and more information: • The head of the U.S.’s Environmental Protection Agency does not “believe” in climate change and works […]

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“Teenagers Organize Peace and Justice Activities”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Our culture wants us to be afraid of Muslims, homeless people, immigrants – and young people. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s August 2011 TV program gives you an opportunity to meet four teen-agers and a 21-year-old who is working with them. You can decide whether to fear them – or to respect them. But don’t decide until you have had the opportunity to get to know them during this hour. Every year starting in 2001 the Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation’s staff and volunteers have developed and carried out some creative and ambitious training for a select number of Puget […]

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TV: Igniting a Grassroots Compassion Movement”

November 20, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

To watch this 1-hour interview, click HERE. To read the following summary in .pdf format, click Program Description — June 2014. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s June 2014 TV program explores the potential of applying compassion to a wide range of social problems. Our four guests (listed near the end of this article) are active in Compassionate Seattle, which began in 2008, when the Dalai Lama visited Seattle and promoted the Seeds of Compassion, which Archbishop Desmond Tutu also supported. Another boost came in late 2009 when Karen Armstrong won a TED award for her Charter of Compassion movement based […]

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TV: “Human Trafficking: Problems and Solutions”

November 20, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

To watch this TV interview, click HERE. To read the following information in .pdf format, click Program Description — February 2015. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s February 2015 TV interview explores an issue that most of us do not see. The problem is largely hidden from most of us, but it is very real. This is the problem of human trafficking. Some people are trafficked as workers to be abused, and some people are trafficked to be exploited for sex. This 1-hour interview looks at the problems and also proposes solutions. We lift up the work of several non-profit organizations, […]

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TV: “Young People Downtown: Realities and Opportunities”

November 17, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s June 2015 TV program provides fresh insights into the realities experienced by young people who spend a lot of time downtown. We debunk the myths and offer constructive ways for our local community to address problems and include everyone. While this program focuses especially on young people, much of our conversation will pertain also to people of other ages whom we see downtown. The most common way that governments and social service agencies deal with disadvantaged people is from the top down. In contrast, all three of our guests on this TV program practice solidarity […]