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What are our shared beliefs in a divided Nation? In 2018 The Washington Post published an interesting project “What Unites Us? in an attempt to find some answers. They interviewed 102 people (2 in each state and Washington D.C.) and asked people “to contemplate what it means to be American in this time of upheaval and rapid change.” They used “census data to assemble a group of Americans that closely resembles the overall U.S. population in terms of gender, race, age, and class…. and included the same mesh backdrop in each portrait to create a unifying element in 102 different locations.” Spend some time reading these 102 portraits of Americans. Seven unifying themes: Community and empathy Opportunity and drive Diversity Fundamental rights A responsibility to engage Faith in the nation Fear for the future What do you think unites us? What words would you use? Note: The Washington Post article is behind their paywall.

According to David Vine, author of Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World (American Empire Project), the USA maintains approximately 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad; see Vine’s maps for these base locations in 2015. And this does not include the military bases within the borders of the United States. Politico has a colorful map showing military bases and lily pads (military base locations with less than 200 personnel). It may not be politically correct to call it empire, but Abby Martin’s 2015 documentary refers to it as “The Rise of History’s Biggest Empire.” Journalist Abby Martin is the creator of The Empire Files @EmpireFiles and founder of @MediaRootsNews, Her Twitter account proudly proclaims that she was “accused by US govt of fomenting ‘radical discontent’ at RT’s @BreakingTheSet.” The Empire Files “explores the U.S. Empire, its rise to world hegemony and its impact on people and the planet… recording a world shaped by war & inequality.” Videos can be watched on TheEmpireFiles.tv or YouTube. You can also find some content from The Empire Files at TheRealNews.com. The Empire Files podcast can be heard on Apple Podcasts or SoundCloud. One might think that Abby Martin’s sensibilities are because she experienced political oppression, but Wikipedia says that she “grew up in Pleasanton, California, where she attended Amador Valley High School, graduating in 2002. She became interested in journalism when her old high school boyfriend enlisted in the military after the September 11 attacks in 2001. ‘I didn’t want him going to war, let alone fighting in one’, she recalls. ‘I began to critically ask ‘What is really going on?’ By the time she was a sophomore at San Diego State University, she began questioning what she called the ‘selling’ of the Iraq War by the media.” Millennial Magazine portrayed Martin in 2014 as an “unfiltered” media representative for the Millennial generation who reports “stories that deserve public recognition”. This 25 minute YouTube video traces “the rise of the U.S. empire to world hegemony and its impact on people and the planet.” Find out more on the subject from the series of books referred to as The American Empire Project. #AmericanEmpireProject #Geopolitics #TheEmpireFiles #AbbyMartin #BaseNation

Covid-19, Zoom, social media, the internet, and political polarization have changed the fabric of "community," Businesses, schools, churches, and other institutions are struggling to adapt and rebuild, but some things will not return to a prior "normal." Robert D. Putnam’s (2000) book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community chronicles the rise of civic participation during the fifties and sixties, followed by a decline in social capital over the next three decades. Social capital refers to connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them. Social capital is simultaneously a “private good” and a public good”. As Claude S. Fischer puts it: “Social networks are important in all our lives, often for finding jobs, more often for finding a helping hand, companionship, or a shoulder to cry on.” Some small groups and clubs exist primarily for the private enjoyment of their members, although they may also serve public ends. “When economic and political dealings are embedded in dense networks of social interaction, incentives for opportunism and malfeasance are reduced.” As L. J. Hanifan notes: “Social networks and norms of reciprocity can facilitate cooperation for mutual benefit.” Civic engagement and social capital entail mutual obligation and responsibility for action. Frequent interaction among a diverse set of people tends to produce a norm of generalized reciprocity. Probably the most important dimension when discussing social capital is the distinction between bonding (or exclusive) and bridging (or inclusive) Quoting Putnam, “Some forms of social capital are, by choice or necessity, inward-looking and tend to reinforce exclusive identities and homogeneous groups. Examples of bonding social capital include ethnic fraternal organizations, church-based women’s reading groups, and fashionable country clubs. As noted by Xavier de Souza Briggs. “while networks and the associated norms of reciprocity are generally good for those inside the network, the external effects of social capital are by no means always positive for those outside.” Other networks are outward-looking and encompass people across diverse social cleavages. Examples of bridging social capital include the civil rights movements, many youth service groups, and ecumenical religious organizations. Churches have a tendency to emphasize the bonding needs of their members and miss the missional calling for bridging. Some emphasize pietistic, individualistic experience and personal salvation and underplay or entirely miss the church’s social responsibilities, except perhaps to their own. Some are rigidly exclusive, particularly on doctrinal matters, as if to protect their purity from the taint of the world. Other churches are overtly inclusive, welcoming all. Where is the balance in our community? How can we be both bonding and bridging? Is it possible to create bonding around the idea of bridging? I think so. #Bonding #Bridging #Community #Socialcapital

9/11 was over 20 years ago, but it still seems like just yesterday. Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues after a year and a half. The Global Conflict Tracker lists 27 current conflicts around the world. Will homo sapiens ever establish peace among peoples and nations? Sunday on Global Public Square (GPS) Fareed Zakaria took a deep dive into Artificial Intelligence: Its Promise and Peril, interviewing Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. Schmidt said AI needs to be given human-like behavioral rules as it moves toward recursive self-improvement, perhaps within the next five years. Google's DeepMind details some AI risks. September 8, 2023, from 6:15 a.m. - 7:15 a.m. PDT the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is having an online conversation on AI and the Next Generation of Peacebuilders. The rapidly evolving world of AI offers "potential as both a beacon for peacebuilding and a challenge for global stability. The discussion will feature perspectives from USIP’s Youth Advisory Council and shed light on AI’s transformative implications for conflict resolution, societal structures, and the role of youth in shaping this digital future." Register here. About the United States Institute of Peace United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is "a national, nonpartisan, independent institute, founded in 1984 by Congress and dedicated to the proposition that a world without violent conflict is possible, practical and essential for U.S. and global security." The USIP works “to save lives, increase the government’s ability to deal with conflicts before they escalate, reduce government costs, and enhance our national security.” USIP has a Global Peacebuilding Center that has education programs, multimedia exhibits, and a Building Peace website with resources and activities. They focus mainly on students and educators, and seek to introduce the key concepts and skills in conflict management, and to the challenges and importance of peacebuilding. The website includes an interactive Virtual Passport experience and ways for young people to engage and connect as peacebuilders. It also features a Peacebuilding Toolkit for Educators – middle school and high school volumes – including lessons and activities to bring peacebuilding into the classroom. USIP concerns itself with three phases of conflict:  prevention, mediation and resolution, and post-conflict stabilization. The Institute is made up of three centers, with a fourth set of centers whose issues cross each phase of conflict. USIP identifies and applies best practices in twenty topical areas whose issues cross each phase of conflict through this series of Centers.

The mission of the World Association for Christian Communication is to “promote communication for social change. It believes that communication is a basic human right that defines people’s common humanity, strengthens cultures, enables participation, creates community, and challenges tyranny and oppression.” The Good News needs to be constantly reinterpreted from the perspectives of the poor and oppressed. This challenges church hierarchies to disassociate themselves from the power structures which keep the poor in a position of subservience. In this sense, the Good News for the poor embodies genuine reconciliation by means of which the dignity of all people can be reaffirmed. A Christian communicator proclaims God’s Kingdom rather than dividing our churches. Churches do not exist for their own sake, but for the sake of the Kingdom. For this reason, the Christian communicator gives preference to ecumenical communication so that Christians of different denominations can speak with one voice, thus bearing witness to the one body of Christ.”

PRAYER FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA by  Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk Creator, please help us to remember that the burden of responsibility for freedom means caring enough to not ignore the things that are hard to witness in the news. Please help us to remember that if others are living through the difficulties reported, We owe it to ourselves as a nation to witness and harness both knowledge and empathy to guide us. Creator, we recognize that there is never a guaranteed “someone” to fix every problem, but rather we are the ones who must seek solutions. Please help us to recognize that those solutions may arise from where and whom, we least expect. Please help us to respect each other, no matter what race, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, economic station, or culture, enough to recognize the value we each can provide our community. Creator, please help our intellects to see past our prejudices, Please help our dreams to not be limited by our ignorance, Please help us face our fears with wisdom and not hatred, Please help us recognize there is strength in non-violence, Please help us fulfill the dream of collectively providing opportunity for all while remembering acting upon opportunity is our individual responsibility. Please help us in remembering we are tomorrow’s ancestors, so that we are the land where people are brave enough to break through the ignorance of old. And free enough to build upon the legacy left to us, so that one day, generations from now, America will still be the land our descendants love. Please help us remember that when we pray for your guidance through the night, That Night is born of our own ignorance and hate. Please help us remember when we pray for the Light Above to guide and protect America, that Light that is You, is only and always found in our ability to recognize our common humanity. Creator, please help the people living in the states we have drawn upon this blessed land, to rediscover that it is only through recognizing our common humanity, that we can truly be the United States of America in our hearts once again. Please help us remember that when we cover our hearts, we are pledging to safeguard this sacred pact with each other, in honor of those who came before,and for the generations yet to come.  Amen #Patriotism #Prayer