Oct. 17th: Immigrant Play & No Kings Vote Early
The Detention Lottery: An Immigration Courtroom
Shoreline Unitarian Church, Oct. 17th at 6:30 PM,
Register at Eventbrite
The Detention Lottery is a play that immerses the viewer in an immigration detention center courtroom. The play opens up the covert, capricious, and byzantine immigration enforcement system to public scrutiny.
Trump Abandons Ukraine
Former Ambassador Michael McFaul
Trump has not helped end the war in Ukraine. He has prolonged it. In doing so, he has sided with autocratic Russia and against democratic Ukraine. That pivot has deeply undermined America’s reputation as the leader of the free world. That outcome is depressing for me. I want my country to stand for values, not just economic transactions. I want my country to be on the side of democracy and against dictatorship, for sovereignty and against imperialism, for good and against evil. I don’t want my government doing business deals with terrorists. But that’s just me….
But even if you don’t care about these moral issues, Trump’s embrace of Putin and betrayal of Ukrainians are damaging American long-term security and economic interests. Abandoning Ukraine makes the United States look weak in Europe and around the world. Leaders of NATO countries bordering Russia now fear that Trump will not honor America’s Article 5 commitment of the NATO Treaty and come to their aid if Putin attacks them now. Similar fears are growing in Taiwan, where leaders understand how their fate and Ukraine’s fate are intertwined. If Putin can annex parts of Ukraine while the United States watches from the sidelines, then what will prevent Xi Jinping from thinking he can do the same with Taiwan? Nothing could be more damaging to American security and economic interests than an expanded war in Europe or a new war in Asia. The economic pain these larger wars would inflict on Americans would be far greater than the higher diesel prices now. They must be avoided at all costs. … American leaders seeking to avoid getting pulled into future wars should be enhancing deterrence in Europe by aiding, not abandoning, Ukraine. The best way to avoid American soldiers having to fight Russian soldiers in a NATO country is to help Ukrainian warriors defeat the Russian army in Ukraine – more weapons for Ukraine, more sanctions for Russia. Helping Ukrainians stop Russian occupiers makes a larger war in Europe or Asia less likely.
Film: How To Live On Earth
Free to watch on Youtube (96 min.) The film explores how humanity can transition to a more sustainable future by working with nature rather than against it, examing three critical challenges: valuing the natural world, feeding a growing population, and finding human connection.
There’s an excellent Film Guide. Where can we have influence?
As individuals
As Educators / Schools
As Universities
As a Business
As a Political Leader
Strategic Responses To The Metacrisis
from the Earthkind Collective
Polycrisis - the entanglement of crises (food, water, ecosystems, economics, geopolitics …) that reinforce each other.
Metacrisis - the underlying breakdown in sense-making and institutional capacity reinforced by narrow metrics, simplistic solutions to non-linear complex issues, polarization, inequality, concentrated power ….
Credible Future Visions - Clear alternative futures help people make sense of complex dynamics, identify leverage points, and coordinate action toward what we want to build, not only what we fear losing. Without compelling and hopeful visions, societies tend to extend failing paradigms or drift into nihilism.
Leverage Points:
Redesign the economic operating system (goals and financial rules) - e.g., wellbeing frameworks, planning within planetary boundaries, debt restructuring, climate–debt swaps, global risk-buffer institutions, ...
Strengthen governance for coordination under uncertainty - e.g., citizens’ assemblies, participatory budgeting, polycentric governance, international systemic-risk coordination ...
Build collective intelligence and information integrity - e.g., early warning systems, cross-sector data sharing, strategic foresight units, horizon scanning, transparency tools, counter-disinformation, structured public sense-making ...
Renew the social contract for resilience and legitimacy - e.g., universal basic services, progressive taxation, resilient safety nets, employment guarantees, investment in care infrastructure, community resilience hubs, inclusive narrative-building ...
Redesign incentives and accountability in markets and firms - e.g., ecological tax reform, carbon pricing, mandatory due diligence, fiduciary duty reform, stakeholder governance, antitrust enforcement, mission-oriented industrial policy ...
Renovate primary industry infrastructure - e.g., renewable scaling and grid modernization, storage and demand response, just transition policies, regenerative agriculture and agroecology, indigenous land stewardship, forest protection, resilient supply chain redundancy and circularity, distributed local capacity (energy/food) ...
Strengthen peace architecture and conflict mediation capacity - e.g. preventive diplomacy, climate-conflict risk mapping, conflict-sensitive investment, peace-building networks, mediation and early action mechanisms ...
A Different Way To Live
Rev. Cameron Trimble
(excerpts)
Our culture is very good at shaping relationships around competition, consumption, status, and power. We learn to measure our lives by what we achieve, what we own, and how we stand out from others. Even religious groups can get caught up in survival, influence, growth, and protecting themselves. … We often focus on what’s broken in our world and forget about the communities quietly working to heal it. Some are religious, some are not. They are people learning to share, care for the Earth, welcome strangers, solve conflicts peacefully, and build lives where everyone belongs. The Franciscan tradition is one especially beautiful example of this bigger human possibility. … The Sisters of St. Francis begin their direction statement with a commitment to ongoing conversion through contemplative living, respectful dialogue, and nonviolent action. For today’s practice, choose one of those commitments and allow it to shape an ordinary part of your day. … If you choose contemplative living, set aside fifteen minutes to be fully present to something you usually rush past. …If you choose respectful dialogue, seek out someone whose experience or perspective differs from yours. Ask a sincere question and listen without preparing your response. Notice what it feels like to approach another person with curiosity rather than the need to persuade them. …. If you choose nonviolent action, consider where your words, habits, or decisions might be contributing to unnecessary harm. Perhaps you can interrupt a pattern of contempt, support someone experiencing exclusion, make a choice that reduces harm to the natural world, or take one concrete step toward repairing a strained relationship.
