We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Prepare the Child For the Path: Banning Charlotte's Web and Native Son

Click here to access article by Abby Zimet from Common Dreams.

Unlike mainstream media, Zimet and Common Dreams does us a favor by informing us that we are in the middle of Banned Books Week. The event is about the banning of many books from libraries and schools with emphasis on the worst offender, Texas. This is worrisome because, as an article from The New York Review of Books explains, Texas has crucial influence over textbooks selected for classrooms across the country.