I first logged onto the internet in 1998. That year I also stumbled across White supremacist networks, and I backed away from their dumpster fires as quickly as I could. I also kept the lessons they demonstrated for me. Effective organizing requires that people have direct access to information, regardless of their education status, and direct […]
The portal of language
I’m a few chapters into the recent film Arrival. (I intend to finish watching over the next two weeks so if you’ve seen it and are going to see me, please: no spoilers!) The story begins with Dr. Louise Banks, a linguistics college professor who’s in class the day that 12 giant pods from an extraterrestrial civilization […]
Throwing our voices in public communications
The ventriloquist is an entertainer whose performance involves throwing their voice so that it appears to come from another source, like a puppet. Think Jeff Dunham. The stage actor is an entertainer whose performance includes conducting conversations with peers on stage but projecting those conversations out into the theater audience. Think Shakespeare. And then there’s […]
Mutuality meets self-interest
Obviously no single church can deal with the vast social problems that exist in the world… Even with the help of governments, this an impossible task. Adventists must move away from the idea that they should do good only if it helps to convert. They must also move away from helping only where it serves […]
Simplify: Heart First
“Just look through the microscope.” It’s a phrase based on now-mythic stories about Galileo’s unsuccessful debates with the religious leaders and church-governed philosophers of his time who, he said, refused to look at the natural world’s evidence because of their presuppositions about it. Particularly in times of stress and conflict, one of a leader’s most important skills is the ability to simplify, […]
Editing Means Reality Shaping
Black History Month means unearthing grainy black-and-white photos of Black people from archives, backrooms, and attics everywhere. The New York Times played this storyline literally this year, announcing a month-long series of photos never before published in the print newspaper or digital site. The newspaper’s photographers once wandered Black neighborhoods and followed Black civil rights leaders and […]
