Posts in Social
Talk With Your Enemy? Dialogue about Dialogue

By Alan Levin

…I have to admit to being a slow learner in being able to talk with people who disagree with me politically, especially if they are conservative or right-wing. A helpful teaching for me is that we are not our ideas. I am not my beliefs and therefore neither is anyone else. People are far more than any particular idea that they happen to believe. This is especially true of political thinking involving abstractions, complex sets of ideas that often have little to do with the deeper values and intentions that move a person through life….

Read More
SocialWade Lee Hudsonrelationships, compassion, politicsComment
Creating Positive Community Information Exchange

In 2001, Hector E. Garcia attended a St. Paul meeting between a Minnesota immigrant group and the INS (Immigration & Naturalization Services — federal agency charged with handling immigration matters, which was converted after 9/11 into three separate departments — CIS, ICE and CBO). The meeting was one of a series of tense interactions between INS and the immigrant community in person and through the media. Hector observed that community members left angrier than when they arrived and no solutions had been identified.

After the meeting, Hector suggested to Curt Aljets, District Director of INS, and to a Pastor who spoke for the community that it was possible to attain more constructive results from such meetings. Hector, at that time, was MN/Dakotas District Director for NCCJ (National Conference for Community & Justice). He offered to hold an interactive session with Mr. Aljets' staff. Out of that session, evolved a group decision to start the Twin Cities Immigrant Community Roundtable.

Read More
SocialWade Lee Hudsoncommunity, communicationComment
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on Identity Politics: Ezra Klein Interview
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on Identity Politics: Ezra Klein Interview

An important recent Ezra Klein Show podcast is the interview with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an associate professor of African-American Studies at Princeton University and the author of How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, which traces the origins of the term “identity politics.” In the podcast, Taylor argues that the weakening of social movements in the 1980s contributed to a distortion of the term’s original meaning.

Read More
SocialWade Lee Hudsonpersonal, social, cutural, political, transformation, identity politicsComment
Mutual Support for Self-Improvement

Supportive, joy-filled communities that provide safety help us rise above our negative emotions. Families, extended families, close friendships, neighborhoods, churches, synagogues, mosques, sanghas, community-based organizations, and workplaces nurture growth. We can use fear and anger to stop injustice, spread positive emotions, and help each other become better human beings.

Intentional commitments strengthen self-improvement efforts. Wedding vows and mission statements illustrate the value of placing commitments in writing. These affirmations remind people of their commitment, help them hold each other accountable, and spread their values to others. By adopting clear, written policies, organizations can encourage their members to support each other with their self-improvement…

Read More
SocialWade Lee Hudsonpersonal, social, cutural, political, transformationComment