In this article, I report on an inspiring effort by two nonprofits in West Virginia that, in the face of anti-renewable energy policies from a state government that believes the Obama administration is waging a war on coal, are training young under-employed coalfield workers in solar installation. This is how we should be dealing with distressed communities and generational poverty.
Can Solar Shine in Coal Country?
This essay, A Love that Transcends Trump, by Omid Safi, Director of Duke University’s Islamic Studies Center, is a provocative meditation on what a spiritual perspective on the Trump candidacy might look like. In the article’s comments section, I wrote:
I love your advice to start a “spirit-based response” to Trump by “standing in loving solidarity with those who would be marginalized and victimized by the policies of Trump” and then extending that love outward from there to include all, including Trump supporters. And never demonizing Trump and his supporters in the process. Very hard to do, but that’s our challenge.
Safi’s admonition to begin an enlightened response to Trump’s divisive rhetoric by “standing in loving solidarity” with the objects of Trump’s disdain – Muslims, Mexicans, Syrian refugees – really hit home, validating and extending my growing understanding of how we can work toward a better world.
This is so good, and so important. The man calling in to CSPAN, admitting he is prejudiced and asking an African American woman how he can overcome his learned bias, is remarkably insightful and very courageous. And Heather McGhee, president of Demos, gives a beautiful, nuanced answer. Four very worthwhile minutes.
Lucia started pulling her pillow and blankets down from her bed to the floor, so she could plug the iPad into the wall socket. I said, you don’t need to plug it in, Lu, it has plenty of power. (It was at 87%, more than enough to watch a movie as she falls asleep.)
She insisted that the iPad needed to be charged. “That’s my opinion,” she said, as she plugged in the cord.
“It may be your opinion, Lu, but your opinion is wrong.”
“Well,” she said, snuggling into her makeshift bed on the floor, “it’s my opinion, so it’s right for me.”
And with that simple statement, my 6-year-old granddaughter elucidated all we need to know about the difficulty of trying to convince anybody of anything.
The depth of insight and wisdom in this timely article by Parisa Parsa, Executive Director of Essential Partners (formerly Public Conversations Project), is extraordinary. I love how Parsa, based on this well-known maxim from Elie Wiesel …
“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
… eloquently makes the case for a bigger vision of what we typically mean by “taking sides.” Instead of choosing one side over another, she speaks of making a commitment to “being present with the many perspectives that reside around any issue that matters.”
Further elaborating, Parsa says:
“We don’t take a single side, because true liberation is a choice made from seeing the whole.”
Many more insights in this short, brilliant essay: