We Have a Choice: Let’s Just Do It

We Have a Choice: Let’s Just Do It
Author: Sharon Thompson
Publisher: Texianer Verlag
Total Pages: 271
Release:
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

How the western worldview of progress has resulted in global inequality and threatens the health of the planet: A Study Guide for Discussion Group These lessons represent Sharon Thompson’s personal long-term process of trying to understand the true nature of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. This quest included enrolling in seven college classes-one at Metro State University taught by local peace activist, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, and six at the University of St. Thomas in their Justice and Peace Studies program under the direction of Rev. David Smith. She also gleaned much valuable information from library books, from Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now! and from various other alternative media. Sharon wrote the original version of these lessons for use in a discussion group in her home congregation, Christiania Lutheran Church, Lakeville, MN. The church had hosted a visiting pastor, Benito Madembo, from the Iringa Diocese in Tanzania for a period of three weeks. For most of them, it was their first contact with a person from the Global South. They were impressed with his graciousness and beauty of spirit, but were troubled by the poverty that he and the majority of people in his homeland experienced. One of their responses was to initiate a study group seeking to understand why poverty persists in the Global South. Sharon volunteered to lead the group, feeling it would give her an opportunity to synthesize and organize the information she had gathered from her six years of study.

The Nation Guide to the Nation

The Nation Guide to the Nation
Author: Richard Lingeman
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2009-01-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0307387283

The essential lifestyle guide for the millions of progressives on both coasts, The Nation Guide to The Nation will help left-of-center types find left-leaning shops, cultural institutions, and gathering places in their own hometowns and on the road. CULTURAL: Art collectives / activist documentaries / political circuses / film festivals / writers' colonies / left-brained bookstores / arts advocacy groups / indie book publishers / the 25 greatest political movies / detective stories for liberals SOCIAL: Organic and slow food restaurants / political saloons and bars / bookshop cafés and conversational coffeehouses / sexy singles meet-ups / reading clubs and discussion groups / camps for radical kids / parades and festivals / parks and preserves ENVIRONMENTAL: Activist groups / monkey wrenchers and sea shepherds / eco-friendly products / favorite green markets / super co-ops / eco-tourism / farm communes / energy solutions ORGANIZATIONS: Peace and anti-nuclear / feminist / GLBT / economic policy / immigrant rights / labor issues / campaign finance reform / civil liberties / radical mouthpieces / liberal think tanks MEDIA: Left-talk radio / press watchdogs / anti-corporate media / regional and local papers / alternative weeklies / a guide to the blogosphere GOODS AND SERVICES: Natural food stores / no-sweat clothing / socially conscious mutual funds / political tours / eco-beers and hemp pretzels / funeral homes and cemeteries (for a green send-off!)

Roots to Power

Roots to Power
Author: Lee Staples
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 510
Release: 2016-02-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1440833664

The third edition of the manual for community organizers tells readers how to most effectively implement community action for social change, clearly laying out grassroots organizing principles, methods, and best practices. Written for those who want to improve their own lives or the lives of others, this thoroughly revised how-to manual presents techniques groups can use to organize successfully in pursuit of their dreams. The book combines time-tested, universal principles and methods with cutting-edge material addressing new opportunities and challenges. It covers basic concepts and best practices and offers step-by-step guidelines on things an organizer needs to know, such as how to identify issues, formulate strategies, set goals, recruit participants, and much more. The work focuses on six organizing arenas: turf/geography, failth-based, issue, identity, shared experience, and work-related. It offers new or expanded material addressing community development, use of social media, internal organizational dynamics, electoral organizing, evaluation/assessment, and prevention of burnout for key leaders. There are also nuts-and-bolts articles by experts who address topics such as action research, lobbying, legal tactics, and grassroots fundraising. Numerous case examples, charts, worksheets, and small group exercises enrich the discussion and bring the material to life.

States of Confusion

States of Confusion
Author: Don Waisanen
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2023-01-03
Genre: Law
ISBN: 147980794X

Shows the maddening difficulties that voter ID requirements create for participants in US democracy and offers concrete solutions for every person’s vote and voice to count Over the past decade, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of voter ID laws has skyrocketed, limiting the ability of nearly twenty-five million eligible voters from exercising their constitutional right to cast a vote. In States of Confusion, Don Waisanen, Sonia Jarvis, and Nicole Gordon explore this crisis and the difficulties it has created for American voters, offering practical solutions for this increasingly important problem. Focusing on ten states with the strictest voter documentation requirements, the authors show how people face major barriers to exercising their fundamental democratic right to vote and are therefore slipping through the cracks of our electoral system. They explore voter experiences by drawing on hundreds of online surveys, audits of 150 election offices, community focus groups, and more. Waisanen, Jarvis, and Gordon call on policymakers to adopt uniform national voter identification standards that are simple, accessible, and cost-free. States of Confusion offers a comprehensive and up-to-date look at the voter ID crisis in our country, as well solutions for practitioners, government agencies, and citizens.

The Nation

The Nation
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 684
Release: 1887
Genre: Current events
ISBN:

Politics of Fear

Politics of Fear
Author: Manuel G. Gonzales
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2015-12-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317253914

"Lucidly written, widely informed, and uncompromisingly honest -- a valuable expose." Michael Parenti "Documents the stunning success of a network of wealthy donors and corporations in creating and sustaining a set of think tanks, legal action groups, and media strategies." Gary Orfield, Harvard University What explains the electoral success of Republicans, particularly of the ascendant neoconservatives who now dominate the Party? Based on a thorough and up-to-date examination of the New Right over twenty-five years, The Politics of Fear proposes some provocative answers, including globalization, new technologies, and a far-reaching network of right-wing think tanks and foundations. As the authors show, all have opened the doors to a new politics of fear successfully waged by the neoconservatives. By manipulating insecurity, the New Right has created an extraordinarily successful populist conservative movement. Utilizing extensive documentation, the authors argue convincingly that the fear of immigrants and racial minorities has served as the most effective tactic in the GOP arsenal, while their approach also implicates gays, feminists, and terrorists. The book explains why Americans have willingly supported a party that promises them security, just as it delivers greater economic and political insecurity. The authors argue that, despite their striking political successes, neoconservatives have delivered to voters a set of policies harmful to working Americans in the way of regressive tax measures, military exploits, tort reform, deregulation, and environmental destruction.

The Eagle's Shadow

The Eagle's Shadow
Author: Mark Hertsgaard
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2003-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0312422504

On September 11, 2001, Hertsgaard was completing a trip around the world, gathering perceptions about America from people in 15 countries. He now exposes truths that force natives and outsiders alike to see America with fresh eyes.

Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense

Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense
Author: Alan Curtis
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 538
Release: 2005
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780742542174

Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense is a new strategic analysis of common-sense alternatives to the public policies America has pursued since September 11, 2001. This important book features more than three dozen internationally known experts in economics, foreign and domestic policy, media, and political action.

If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates

If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates
Author: Jim Hightower
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2010-11-02
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 0062036793

If anything, in this presidential election special, he's madder than ever! In his earlier bestseller, There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos, Hightower only began to tap into the deep yearning that Americans have for a new politics that speaks to them from a real-world, kitchen-table perspective. Now, with the year 2000 being an especially significant marker for contemplating our country's direction, not only for the new year but for the new century and the new millennium, it's time for citizens to reclaim their political, economic, and cultural heritage. Leading the way with his hilariously irreverent yet profoundly serious book is our name-naming, podium-pounding, point-them-in-the-right-direction populist, Hightower himself. He whacks conventional wisdom right upside the head,showing,with startling facts and compelling personal stories, that despite a so-called period of prosperity, America's middle class is getting mugged, and that far from being ordained by the gods,globalization is globaloney! Hightower rips the mass off of the candidates, the parties, the consultants, and especially the moneyed powers whoa re supporting all of the leading presidential hopefuls. he's mad about them all--but what he's maddest about, what really gets his goat,is that they are all the same! To paraphrase Jim, American politicians are alike because they don't come cheap. In fact, they're all very expansive. which is why only the rich can own them and why their allegiance is definitely not to regular,worka-day citizens. No one is spared in this insightful and engaging blend of horror and success stories, hard-hitting commentary, laugh-out-loud humor, useful facts, and sparkling language. An equal opportunity muckraker and conscientious agitator for "We the people," Hightower inspires us to take charge again, to build a new politics, and, together, to build a better tomorrow. Jim Hightower's If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates proves yet again that his is a uniquely wise and peerlessly singular voice in the maelstrom of political prattle.