A blog about life as seen by a retired Middle School Science Teacher from California
Author: Bruce Halen
I am a retired Middle School Science Teacher that loves to sing, ride bicycles and write. I am a Unitarian Universalist by religion and thrive on exercise to keep mentally and physically healthy and happy. I am an Ovo-Lacto vegetarian.
https://newslit.org/
Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).
How to Debunk:
1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.
2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.
3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.
4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.
5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.
"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.
"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."
"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."
Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge
Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
The 23rd Psalm from the King James Version of the Christian Bible
Donald Trump's performance at CPAC on behalf of the Russsian dictator was an open act of sedition. Ask these 16 Republican Senators that supported reauthorizing the Civil Rights Act in 2008 how they feel about supporting federal voting rights legislation now!
Sens. McConnell, Grassley, Shelby, Crapo, Collins, Burr, Inhofe, Graham, Thune, Cornyn, Blackburn, Blunt, Boozman, Capito, Moran, and Wicker.
It takes a little longer the first time that you make email contact, but once you've done it, the process goes pretty fast.
Sample Message: "Donald Trump spoke out in favor of Vladimir Putin at CPAC. Trump supports tyrants and tyranny. What side do you stand on?"
Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
Voltaire
I didn’t know much about the frenchman Votaire until Congressman Jeremy Raskin invoked the above quote at the second Trump impeachment trial. But, how painfully meaningful it is now as we watch Vladimir Putin, the embodiment of evil in the world, wreak destruction on the little country of Ukraine simply because it shares a border with Russia. Maybe the fact that it is a democracy also has a little to do with it .
It’s also not surprising that China has jumped in to help Russia by buying the oil that the West will no longer buy from the Russian oligarchs. Oligarchs and Communists don’t like Democrats. They just can’t be bothered by the opinions, wishes and needs of their citizens.
Blaming the Russian people for their ignorance is naive. They are subjected to disinformation and often times no information from the Kremlin elite. The old saying “Garbage in, Garbage out” applies. Putin lies and Kiev burns.
Ukrainian bravery and the willingness to fight tooth and nail for Democracy is a an example that those of us in the West, particularly the United States, should take to heart. Their democracy is hard earned and recent. Our democracy has gotten stale. Perhaps because we haven’t had to fight for it lately. It’s time to fight for it now.
Russia and China have found that time is ripe to try and end representative democracy as a political system. COVID disinformation, climate change denial, the injection of Putin’s poison directly into the veins of American democracy through social media disinformation campaigns during our 2016 and 2020 election cycles and the spreading of propaganda and flat out lies from Fox News and other wealthy, white, right wing Communist sympathizers acting as Putin’s assets within our own borders.
Don’t forget Putin’s campaign to arm Americans with automatic weapons and foment racial discord. Remember Maria Butina, the Russian agent that infiltrated the NRA? She’s now busying herself by saying that Ukrainian children should not be given guns because they don’t know how to use them.
Then there was the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016. Where did Donald Trump come from? Putin had his asset in Trump. Trump loves money. Putin knew Trump wanted a Trump Tower in Moscow. Putin say a way to inject his poison using Trump’s greed and thusTrump became the needle.
Voting rights. What happened to voting rights? A cornerstone of the American Constitution. The latest effort to strengthen voting rights was unilaterally denied, maybe sabotaged is a better word, by the American Republican Party en masse. Why? Did Putin have anything to do with it? You can likely guess how I would answer that question. That’s when my conspiracy theory goes to another level, but that will have to wait for another day.
One more thing and then my rant is done. Why didn’t Putin invade Ukraine while Trump was in office? Why didn’t they finish what they started in 2014 in the Crimea? After all, Trump had already made clear that he didn’t want the US to honor its NATO commitments and his propensity to mysteriously take the side of the Oligarch supported Authoritarian thinly-veiled Communist Putin over his own government seemed a golden opportunity for Putin to do exactly what Hitler had tried to do in the 1930s and 40s. Continue his march beyond Ukraine and on into the rest of Europe.
Well, maybe one more thing. Where does the wealthy, white, elite right Billionaire class fit into this scenario? People like Paypals Peter Thiel or The Koch Brothers (now brother)? What do they have to gain from the fall of democracy? More absurdities and atrocities await exposure to the light of day. More on those later.
In the meantime, let me leave you on a positive note just to remind you that I express my support for democracy through other platforms as well. Check out this song composed by John M. Ector and performed by the Alegria Singers of the First Unitarian Church of San Jose. It is titled “Love is.” I think you will recognize some familiar musical themes in it. Enjoy.
“Love is” performed by the Alegria Singers of he First Unitarian Church of San Jose (2022)
Remember to read the underlined text. I have linked the text to additional information.
“Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
Voltaire
(Note that underlined text are links to more information to help you understand my opinion better)
Max Wilner-Giwerc, a law student at the University of Chicago makes the point in an Op-Ed published this morning in the San Jose Mercury News, that the current work stoppage in Major League Baseball could be solved with one revolutionary change in the conflict resolution process between players and owners.
Let the fans decide.
Former MLB Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, a former professor of Renaissance Literature and the Seventh Commissioner of MLB for way too short a time, said during the
“[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”
1981 Baseball strike in a statement directed at both players and owners: “Remember that you are custodians of an enduring public trust.” He was suggesting that the public, the fans should be the arbitrator in resolving the “mercantile spats,” and “squalid little squabbles” that stood in the way of getting on the field and playing the game.
Wilner-Gewerc disagreed with Giamatti in that we, the fans of the game, do care about the “mercantile spats” and “squalid little squabbles” because they are about fairness, equity and justice and we deeply care about those things in baseball and in the wider world outside baseball (what? world outside baseball? Absurd notion).
The way baseball arbitration works is that in certain salary disputes where a player and a team cannot agree on a salary, both sides can submit their proposals to a third party arbitrator who must choose one of the two proposals as the final solution to the standoff. There is no splitting the difference, it is either this one or that one. Their choice will be made between the two proposals.
Wilner-Gewerc suggests that applying this concept to the current MLB lockout might stand to benefit from this system of baseball arbitration as a way to moderate the proposals from each side and facilitate a faster resolution to the issues standing in the way of starting Spring Training this year. Wilner-Gewerc suggests that the arbitrator assigned to decide on which proposals are to be implemented should be…drum roll please…THE FANS!
I agree with Mr. Wilner-Gewerc. We, the public, should be the final arbiters of the public trust.
Here is a link to watch the documentary film ” Mission : Joy” made of the 2015 meeting between the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu in Dharamshala, India. It is a film based on Douglas Abram’s book “The Book of Joy..” This link is good until Tuesday, February 15. It is just under 90 minutes long. Please find time to watch it.
https://newslit.org/
Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).
How to Debunk:
1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.
2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.
3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.
4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.
5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.
"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.
"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."
"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."
Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge
Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021
So reads the headline on the back page of the San Jose Mercury News Business section of. Ferbruary 8, 2022. So, who is Peter Thiel and why does he have the distinction of making it into my self-esteemed blog?
You can read more about Thiel in the link attached to his name in the first paragraph, but briefly, Thiel is a German American Billionaire who was the founder of a little company that you might know, Paypal.
I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around all of the craziness going on in the world in general and in the United States in particular over the last two decades.
Disinformation, Voter suppression, COVID deaths in the U.S. that are unexplainable in a country of our status in the area of medical science, the election of a red headed puppet, allowing climate change to go on unabated despite even the most skeptical of climate scientists agreeing that it is real, conspiracy theories that boggle the mind, a Supreme Court that has forgotten that it’s job is to rule on laws based on the Constitution and not on partisan politics.
You can go from section to section in the newspaper or from tweet to tweet, text to text, blog to blog, podcast to podcast and Facebook post to Facebook post in search of an answer that will help make sense of this craziness.
Well, this news that the 54 year old Billionaire Thiel is leaving his seat on the Board of Mark Zuckerburg’s Meta/Facebook adds a little more credence to my (it’s probably not just my) theory that all of this mess that we are in right now is the result of people like Trump and Thiel who stand to lose a great deal in the new world of multiculturalism and Democracy where the wealthy will have to, don’t cry please, pay their share of the bill in making the United States of America the place where there is “liberty and justice for all.”
This article came from the New York Times article by Ryan Mac and Mike Isaac. A statement in the article attributed to a person “with knowledge of Thiel’s thinking” who declined to be identified, said that “Thiel sees the midterms as crucial to changing the direction of the country,” this person said, and he is backing candidates who support the agenda of former president Donald Trump. Candidates like Senate candidates Blake Masters in Arizona and J.D. Vance in Ohio who each received $10 Million donations to their campaigns last year.
Could it be that Thiel does not like that his adopted country is moving in the direction of multiculturalism, justice and equality? Could it be that he doesn’t want to part with a bit more of his fortune to help bring about that equality? Could it be that having more people of color voting for future American leaders that stand for a more diverse American representation in the institutions of government just doesn’t fit Thiel’s world view? Could it be that Thiel is throwing good money in the wrong direction? The answers to all of those questions in “Yes.”
I think Thiel’s story is a microcosm of the story of America’s wealthy white elites and their role in this unnatural mess. Make no mistake that it is their money that is supporting the demons of disinformation, the darlings of doubt and. the harbingers of hatred coming from the far Right of the. Republican Party . The disinformation, doubt and hatred that is the mess created for the self serving purpose of maintaining wealth and power.
It will be hard to beat these people back and truly change the direction of the country away from Thiel’s vision and towards the vision that most of us have in our hearts and souls. A vision of a country where there truly is liberty and justice for all.
See through the Peter Thiels’ and the Donald Trumps’. They represent the direction that the rich and powerful have always led us. Now is the time to go in the other direction.
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
If an elephant has it’s foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Writing comes naturally for me. What i mean by that is that I write when I get the call to write. It isn’t forced and since i’m not paid to do it, I am not subject to creativity-inhibiting enforced deadlines which constrict the flow of oxygen my the brain.
I know it is natural when the thoughts transcend my plodding hunt-and- peck style of typing and get the words on the screen in a continuous, flowing manner despite my attempts to constrict it with my limited typing skills.
I’m typing with one hand right now because I am donating platelets at the Stanford Blood Center and I have a rather large needle in my left arm. But that isn’t slowing my thought process. The thoughts just get in line behind the thoughts that came first and patiently wait their turns as I search for keys on the laptop keyboard.
This post is titled ‘Stories” because of the role that my writing plays in giving me access to the life stories of others when I share the blog on Facebook.
I don’t routinely look at Facebook unless I have my own story to share. In so doing, I have sort of conditioned myself to only listen to other stories when I have one to share myself. Since I like reading the stories of my friends and family, I tend to write more regularly because I want to hear their stories.
It is a cycle amplified during COVID by the imposed limitations on face-to-face contact due to safety measures designed to slow the spread of the virus. Although I am getting out more now and seeing my local neighbors, friends and church family more often these days, I find that I crave the stories of my more distant loved ones even more now than I did earlier in the Pandemic.
That craving has unconsciously increased the volume of my writing. Because the writing only happens when I feel the call to write, the call to write is happening more often, I’m reading more of your stories. Does that make sense? I share because you share.
My most recent example of this synergy is Maurine’s story about the scattering of a dear friend’s ashes in her yard. Since Maurine is in Arizona, I wouldn’t have heard this story had it not been for social media and the coded bits and bytes that make the transport of her story possible.
So, the cycle continues. And as it continues, I am better equipped to deal with the slings and arrows of the outrageous behaviors around me (and us) because i can hear you, listen to you and respond to you in a timely way. Literary nature is calling more often these days and that makes me happy!
Keep your stories coming. I look forward to hearing them. If you enjoy my posts then pat yourself on the back because you are the inspiration and joy behind stories.
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side fo the oppressor.
If an elephant has it’s foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality,.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
The issue of voting rights legislation lights me up. And when I get lit up I can be a real pain in the ass. I’m totally ok with that. When we feel pain, we take action to treat it.
I’m directing my attention away from Senators Manchin and Sinema in my attempt to sway Senate opinions on the need for codifying voting rights into federal law. They are intransigent, indignant and immoral on the subject.
There are sixteen Republican Senators that voted in 2006 to renew the Voting Rights Act of 1964 for another 25 years. That means that the provisions of the ’64 Voting Rights Act should be in effect until the year 2041, if I did my math right.
You might ask, as I did, why do we need new federal voting rights protections when we already have the Voting Rights Act. Read this linked NPR piece for why it is needed.
So, I’ve made it a mission to write to each of the sixteen senators who supported the Voting Rights Act in 2006, but for some reason don’t want to face up to voting Yes or No on the two bills that they just filibustered to death here in 2022.
Will it do any good. I have hope that it will especially if enough people do it. In case you decide to write to any or all of these sixteen senators, I’m including a list of the senators and a sample
It’s time to get the elephant off the tail of democracy. This might help a little. It gives me hope to feel like I’m doing something to effect change and that I am doing my part to make love visible.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has it’s foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Legend has it that on October 31, 1519, a priest and scholar named Martin Luther walked up to the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany and nailed a piece of paper to the door with 95 “revolutionary” opinions that ultimately led to the Protestant Reformation.
Luther was particularly against the Roman Catholic Church practice of asking for payment in exchange for the forgiveness of sins, a practice called an “indulgence.”
In the spirit of Martin Luther, I have my own set of 55 Theses to be nailed (or taped) onto the entrance to the chamber of the United States Senate:
No more automatic weapons in the hands of private citizens
Voter suppression efforts must be stopped
Re-establish truth; no more counter revolutionary alternative propaganda.
Anti government sedition efforts will be tried in a court of law
Address reactionary conservatism in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government
Federal government institutions are to be protected and encouraged.
Re-establish Democracy through law.
Once and for all “Make America Great.”
Face racism and act on it.
Participation in tough love and altruism by encouraging grass roots activism
End COVID disinformation and hold the dis-informers responsible in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Re-flip the message back at the political Right.
Call out any disinformation when you see or hear it.
Speak truth to untruth; Wash away untruth with overwhelming amounts of truth.
Government works; the Supreme Court must return to the Constitution.
The American Flag belongs to all Americans; fly yours with pride in the Constitution that it represents.
Subscribe to any publications that promotes journalism and reports factual information.
Call out authoritarianism as undemocratic.
Corporate America will use their money to promote and strengthen Democracy.
Hold the Republican Party responsible for causing COVID death and institutional disruption through an intentional campaign to spread disinformation and division.
All politicians will make decisions to protect their oath which is to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Celebrate diversity; lionize multiculturalism
Encourage courage
Celebrate our “citizen civic sentries” that stand guard to protect our institutions; poll workers for one.
Encourage artistic expression
One person never has all the answers.
Listening is more than hearing.
Talk, email, tweet and listen
Educate not indoctrinate
Anticipate disinformation and get out in front of it; once it’s out, it is extremely hard to undo.
Individual actions matter…write that letter, post or hold that sign, share that humor. It all helps.
Celebrate the real heroes: Abraham Lincoln, Desmond Tutu…
Life is Beautiful
If it feels wrong, it is.
If it feels right, it is.
Think, but avoid overthinking. trust your soul
The climate is changing (Ask Boaty McBoatFace)
Listen to Science
Trust your heart, your head can be manipulated
Seek out knowledge and truth; listen to stories as they will educate your heart.
Be observant and vigilant
Be open to the truth of others; be willing to reconsider your own.
Have experiences
Fear is real but it is defeatable.
Hope conquers fear
Work hard, stay occupied with doing what you can do.
Sometimes it’s ok to just be.
Wear a clown nose
Sing in the shower
Write a blog or a journal. It helps to ease the moments of fear and frustration.
Accept change and act to make that change be the change that you wish it to be.
Have the courage to make change
Recognize the frauds, learn how to recognize them and call them out.
https://newslit.org/
Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).
How to Debunk:
1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.
2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.
3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.
4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.
5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.
"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.
"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."
"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."
Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge
Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021
These times are hell on the mental health of social activists. There are lots of us out here including many of you. COVID by itself would offer sufficient challenges to the level of engagement needed to bring about the necessary societal changes in the United States of America, my home country.
But thanks to the propagandists on the right spewing out disinformation on COVID, Climate Change, Inflation, and just about anything that could remotely be considered as fodder for fueling the divisions in the country on a daily basis, anxiety levels have been magnified to unnecessarily high levels.
That’s not to mention the treatment of the law at the highest levels of the judicial system. Why is law breaking all of a sudden the law of the land? The Supreme Court is apparently now in the business of making up the law that it using as legal precedence. Just today they ruled that OSHA does not have the legal authority to mandate vaccinations in the workplaces of large employers.
The agenda of this handpicked right-wing court is to weaken and ultimately kill the United States government through a concerted case-by-case destruction of any precedent that allows government to serve it’s citizens. The Right calls this the “Nanny State.” B.F.S. This is yet another in the continuing saga of someone, somewhere not wanting the United States to exist anymore. They have their media in place, they have their figure head in place, they have the top judicial institution in the United States in their hip pockets in order to attain their means.
Wow, I didn’t start this out to be a rant, but it is starting to read like one. I guess that I can justify it by saying that it my a pressure release valve, part of my mental health maintenance plan. It’s time for a song. This one is from the Unitarian Universalist Hymnal and is one that I will be performing (virtually) in a quartet a week from Sunday. This recording is of the UU Choir of Baltimore, Md.
Once to Every Soul and Nation performed by the Choir of the First UU Church of Baltimore
Oh no! I’m starting to sound like Mark Thiessen or Victor Davis Hanson! Those of you reading this that are Republican, I think it is high time that you hold your leaders accountable for their conscious or unconscious complicity in this most obvious American Coup de’etat. I don’t know what to do besides write, offer financial support to organizations trying to strengthen democratic institutions or commiserate with people that believe as I do. You need to take action.
Republicans need to change. It’s not Democrats that are going to change them. It’s that simple. Democrats can and will listen to you (at least this one will), but y’all need to come back to Earth One and speak rationally and factually with us. I’m not hearing or seeing any of that now.
I suppose that is what the forces residing in the depths of that life force sucking black hole on the political Right don’t want you to do. Just go along. Don’t question, just trust those feeding you the Constitution-less, Republican, Anti-Patriotic pap (C.R.A.P.). They want you to march along in lockstep in a state of fear, ignorance and reverse truth.
Break free. I don’t know what you need to do. I think that you are capable of figuring it out.
You have your models. The Lincoln Project, Congresswoman Elizabeth Cheney. I’ll bet as sure as Henry Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record, that there are others. Find those others, emulate them, influence them, follow them.
The answer is that simple.
I thank my wonderful wife for sharing the wider world of news with me because without her bringing to my attention to stories that are literally right under my nose in our local hold-it-in-your-hand newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News, and the news from the New York Times digital edition, I would become just another partisan political hack like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck and anyone that has been sucked into the anti-American personality cult that is the Republican Party. I wish that Mrs. Carlson, Mrs. Hannity, Mr. Ingraham, Mrs. Beck and Mrs. America would speak reason into their ears as Mrs. Halen has into mine.
I also confess that as much as I respect the journalists at MSNBC and the regular dose of Earth 1 that I absolutely must hear, I find myself needing to back off of Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes and Lawrence O’Donnell just a little bit. Maybe if I were better at filtering the reality of real life, I could continue to take it in. But the normal news, the normal everyday news that they accurately report with a liberal bent that I acknowledge, accept and enjoy, has me on a daily roller coaster ride that simply more than my socially conscious mind can handle right now. I need to back off of TV news for awhile.
In no way am I backing off of my activism and social commentary. I am going to continue ignoring right wing, shock-jock, anti- journalism entertainment sources. I will continue to listen to my wife as she filters the news for me. I will watch MSNBC, but just less of it. I will investigate the rational right-leaning commentators that you suggest.
I’m going to do more yoga, keep up with my 100 mile a week goal on my bicycle and get out with my wife for hikes in the marvelous state and county parks that surround us. And play a little more golf with my friends. I need some peace of mind.
I love being a social activist. I also love being alive. I love life. Will you stick with me? Oh, and I do have a movie recommendation. It’s called “Don’t Look Up.”
https://newslit.org/
Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).
How to Debunk:
1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.
2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.
3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.
4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.
5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.
"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.
"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."
"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."
Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge
Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021
“Be The Light” by Lea Morris. This song was written the day after Inauguration Day 2020 and was based on the poetry of Amanda Gorman. Performed by the Alegria Singers of the First Unitarian Church of San Jose under the direction of John M. Ector.
Be the light. What epic words those are.
Be the light indicates to me that light is what we all need right now. At this time of the year when light, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, takes a back seat to darkness, it is of more then just theoretical importance
The December Solstice has passed and daylight is slowly, minute by minute each day, beginning to seek equality with the darkness. This light of the world of Science is the movement of energy from atom to atom, molecule to molecule, vibrating electron by vibrating electron until it reaches light sensitive sensory neurons of life forms that can detect changes in light.
The light that Lea Morris is referring to in “Be the Light” is not the light of the physical world rather it is the light of the soul, the spirit, the mind. The darkness that Lea refers to is the darkness of the soul, the spirit, the mind.
The brightest light emerges out of the darkest dark. In the physical world it is theoretically possible for light to be trapped in never ending darkness simply because the force of gravity is so strong that light cannot emerge from the darkness. I am referring here to the “Black Hole” of astrophysics.
The Black Hole of astrophysics does not have an equal in the non-physical light of the soul, spirit and mind. Light cannot, and I will boldly claim, will not be trapped by darkness in the world that humans have the ability to change.
The soul light will emerge out of this time, a collective “dark night of the soul” for all of us because that is how it is meant to be. How do I know that it is meant to be? Maybe I do and maybe I don’t. However, I believe that I instinctively know that we will emerge from this dark period based on the paths of man-made evil and darkness from the 20th and early 21st centuries. The darkness of Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, and Milosevic appeared in their times to be inescapable.
It must seem to many of us that the past five years has matched the level of darkness from the times associated with the above names. Yet, the periods of evil that we as imperfect beings are bound to experience based on our imperfections, have their moments in time and then are ultimately exposed by the greater light of the true human spirit and the light of goodness outshines the light of evilness simply because…
Maybe this is nothing more than unsubstantiated hope. Yet, I believe in unsubstantiated hope. In religious circles, it is called faith. I am a person of faith therefore I believe in hope. I believe that out of hope comes that human construct called love. I believe that love wins.
In the physical world light energy can temporarily disappear. In the human world, the light of the mind, spirit and soul will never disappear. It is timeless and forever.
Listen one more time to the music of Lea Morris as performed by my small but mighty church choir. Music speaks louder than words.
As we emerge into 2022, may this be so and may the new year be a happy one as we emerge from the darkness.
