Engage – Page 23 – Confluence Daily

April 20, 2018 Confluence

Women You Should Know: The Next Greatest Generation – An Interview With Madison Hayes and Sneha Kollu

Reading Time: 7 minutes Alyssa Alhadeff, 14. Scott Beigel, 35. Martin Duque, 14. Nicholas Dworet, 17. Aaron Feis, 37. Jaime Guttenberg, 14. Chris Hixon, 49. Luke Hoyer, 15. Cara Loughran, 14. Gina Montalto, 14. Joaquin Oliver, 17. Alaina Petty, 14. Meadow Pollack, 18. Helena Ramsay, 17. Alex Schachter, 14. Carmen Schentrup, 16. Peter Wang, 15

These are the victims of the shooting of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14th, 2018.

Since the February shooting, students across America have been standing up for themselves and their classmates by speaking out about the lack of change concerning school shootings in the last few decades.

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April 19, 2018 Confluence

The Starbucks Incident Demonstrates the Connection Between Privilege and the Police

Reading Time: 6 minutes I have to believe the majority of white people do not understand the relationship between privilege and the police. How can they? You can only see the world through your own eyes. If you’re not trying to understand another person’s experience, as in really making an effort, you won’t. And white people don’t like to talk about things like implicit bias and privilege.

However, when those Starbucks employees picked up the phone and 911 to report two black men loitering, they were legitimately putting the lives of those two black men at risk. Additionally, they were putting lives of everyone else in the store at risk.

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April 19, 2018 Confluence

The Soul of Starbucks

Reading Time: 2 minutes Let’s try something different. Let us try the communal concept of accountability and believing that Starbucks has not yet evolved into her highest expression of herself. Let us recognize our own responsibility as a community to hold her up to a higher standard and remind her of who she really is Let us be witnesses to her that she is capable of being better.

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April 18, 2018 Confluence

How Russian Trolls Operate

Reading Time: < 1 minute Russian meddling is the biggest attack on our democracy since 9-11. Here’s how it works and what we can do about it.

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April 17, 2018 Confluence

All white people look alike – A lesson from the border

Reading Time: 7 minutes Whom do you render invisible?
How are you getting your education about people who do not look like you or who you view as part of a blurred whole?
Do you expect marginalized people to educate you about themselves, their communities and their lives?
Do you sense the power differential in that demand?

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April 16, 2018 Confluence

The Real Danger for Sex Workers and Your Privacy – Understanding FOSTA + SESTA

Reading Time: 2 minutes GoogleDrive and Skype are now monitoring people’s data and conversations for signs of “obscenity”. This is what happens when you make laws that do not distinguish between sex work + sex trafficking. (Senator Ron Wyden understood that #FOSTA would push marginalized workers more underground by making their method of labor illegal, and voted against it. Thank you.)

The DOJ even stated that trafficking victims will not be impacted by its passing. Because when you direct resources and attention away from those who need it most, that population goes unserved.

Stop criminalizing the consensual activities of adults. Sex trafficking should be illegal, but I am not a person who does not give consent to my work. Who are you really hurting when you pass laws like these?

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April 16, 2018 Confluence

Why White Evangelicals Cling to Trump

Reading Time: < 1 minute White evangelicals are scared, and their support for Trump will not diminish until we address the root cause of their fears.

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April 14, 2018 Confluence

Why Royal Weddings Matter Part 2 – The Scent of Love

Reading Time: 3 minutes In early Christian lore, the “mysterious” rose was so cherished (despite its sensual past) that it came to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary; red roses symbolized her suffering, white roses her joy. Did Diana intuitively know this? According to the former head gardener at Kensington Palace, the princess always favored white flowers over red ones. Unfulfilled in her own search for love, yet Diana found joy in the love of her sons and encouraged them to be true to their heart’s desire. As though she was leaving them with an inner directive to move thoughtfully through the ‘suffering’, then live gratefully inside the ‘joy’.

The memory of love, indeed—with the lingering scent of roses. ~

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April 14, 2018 Confluence

After the Worst Week of His Presidency, Trump Gets His Military Parade After All By Bombing Syria

Reading Time: 4 minutes War is a thing. Missiles are real. What happened on Friday happened, but it wasn’t shock and awe. It was a well-executed distraction. The media has to cover it, but we don’t have to buy it. What we have to do is get to the polls and vote in numbers like we’ve never seen before. November 2018 isn’t that far away. You might start making a plan to get to the polls to vote now in case you have to do it in the dark.

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April 13, 2018 Confluence

A Liberal’s Guide to Staying Sane in a Trump Presidency

Reading Time: 6 minutes At the end of the day remember, nothing is permanent. The Buddhist concept of impermanence is often associated with loss. For many of us right now, the law of impermanence is a promise that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.