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PBS Newshour reports that only “11% of Republicans and 37% of Democrats say they trust National media organizations.” In 2017 the term “fake news” was used 174 times in tweets by President Trump. Perhaps that’s why? Wikipedia defines fake news as “a type of yellow journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media. Fake news is written and published with the intent to mislead in order to damage an agency, entity, or person, and/or gain financially or politically, often using sensationalist, dishonest, or outright fabricated headlines to increase readership, online sharing, and Internet click revenue.” By such a definition, many think that much of Fox “News” should qualify as fake, but instead, last week President Trump had his own list of “fake news” awards for the New York Times, ABC News, CNN, Washington Post, and Newsweek. Some inaccurate reports by these media have been acknowledged as a mistake, which is different than fake. Now the Pope is warning the world against “fake news and likens it to the “crafty serpent” in Genesis in his 2108 World Communications Day Message: Fake news “has to do with false information based on non-existent or distorted data meant to deceive and manipulate the reader. Spreading fake news can serve to advance specific goals, influence political decisions, and serve economic interests… It appeals to the insatiable greed so easily aroused in human beings. The economic and manipulative aims that feed disinformation are rooted in a thirst for power, a desire to possess and enjoy, which ultimately makes us victims of something much more tragic: the deceptive power of evil that moves from one lie to another in order to rob us of our interior freedom.” On the one hand, there clearly are some malicious deceptions intended to increase online advertisement revenue and foreign attempts to influence political elections. Facebook and other social media have been implicated in spreading fake news and are changing their focus in response to such criticism. On the other hand, there are “alternative facts” and other untruths coming from politicians and political-opinion-personalities on cable TV who masquerade as purveyors of objective, unbiased news. Those who regularly watch Fox News “live inside an entirely different worldview bubble” than those who get their news from the PBS Newshour and NPR! And how does one label the deliberate attempt by some members of Congress and the White House to discredit the integrity of our Justice Department and Special Counsel investigating possible Russian collusion? It’s an orchestrated “cycle of distraction.” Shouldn’t we just call this all yellow journalism or propaganda? The Pope is imploring a “rediscovering the dignity of journalism and the personal responsibility of journalists to communicate the truth.” Unfortunately, I expect the dignity of journalism will not be rediscovered until the Oval Office is occupied by someone with more respect, restraint, decorum, and humanity, appropriate to the high office of the President of the United States, instead of someone who cries “fake news” as a counter-punch to divert attention. In the opinion of most people I know, journalists are not the problem! Thank you, to the majority of professional journalists who have the courage to speak truth to power, in spite of continued insults from those currently in power who attempt to distort the truth. Thank you Snopes and Poynter! Neiman Labs publishes weekly Real News About Fake News. RAND Corporation has released a 300-page report entitled Truth Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life. “Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts” – Patrick Moinahan The Truth Will Set You Free ~ John 8:32 Image Credit: “Fake News” from an 1894 illustration by Frederick Burr Opper #Poynter #yellowjournalism #FakeNews #cycleofdistraction #Propaganda #Snopes #TruthDecay

The film Walk With Me is about Zen Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh and Plum Village. It is being shown on Saturday, January 27, 2018 at 7 p.m. in the Sanctuary of the Center for Spiritual Living. The film is about a community of Zen Buddhist monks and nuns who have dedicated their lives to mastering the art of mindfulness under the wisdom ways of Thich Nhat Hanh. River Oak Sangha meets Wednesdays from 6:30-8 p.m. in the Meditation Pavilion art Center for Spiritual Living to practice mindfulness in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. They welcome everyone with an interest in mindfulness practice, including first-time visitors and guests. A sangha is a community that supports people in the practice of meditation, ethical living, and the development of wisdom. They aspire to apply mindfulness to everyday life while balancing practice and study. Such a path can decrease suffering, increase happiness and ultimately lead to the natural development of compassion and wisdom. There is no dogma to believe in. Instead, practicing mindfulness with a sangha is an opportunity to explore our own life experiences using the tools of meditation and reflection in the context of a supportive community of fellow practitioners. River Oak Sangha includes Buddhists and non-Buddhists.

The 7th Parliament of the World’s Religions was held from November 1-7, 2018, in Toronto, Canada. The theme was The Promise of Inclusion & the Power of Love. The Parliament of the World’s Religions creates the opportunity for people of faith and conscience from around the world to assemble and to hear from wisdom leaders, which in the past have included His Holiness the Dalai Lama, President Nelson Mandela, President Jimmy Carter, and UN Messenger of Peace Dr. Jane Goodall. Over the years more than 50,000 participants from 200 unique spiritual backgrounds have traveled from more than 80 nations around the world to past Parliament conferences, bringing their attention and action together to dialogue, forge solutions and build networks of action. “Open to anyone interested in experiencing a fresh and sometimes boundary-pushing multi-faith encounter, the Parliament leaves a lasting legacy of cooperation in its hosting cities and changes the lives of all who are drawn into attendance— this extends into the spheres that are also represented in the Parliament, including academia, government, media, business, NGO leadership, and grassroots activism.” The world’s oldest and most diverse global interfaith event marks its 125-year anniversary in 2018 by bringing together leaders and followers of more than 200 spiritual and secular traditions to “pursue global understanding, reconciliation, and change” in the world’s most culturally diverse city. More than 12,000 delegates are expected to convene in Toronto later this year. “The Parliament of the World’s Religions is an international, non-sectarian, non-profit organization, established in 1988 to host the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions. The international office of the Parliament of the World’s Religions is located in Chicago, Illinois. Its periodic Parliaments and ongoing initiatives cultivate harmony among the world’s religious and spiritual communities and foster engagement with the world and its guiding institutions in order to achieve a just, peaceful, and sustainable world.” Image Credit: Photo of Basilica de Notre Dame, Montreal, Canada by Diego Delso, delso.photo, License CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikipedia #harmony #sustainableworld #justice #WorldReligions #engegement #peace #interfaith

from: https://www.womensmarch.com On January 21st thousands of women, femmes, and allies came together to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Women’s March and to launch our collective 2018 Women’s March agenda: #PowerToThePolls. This anniversary event in Las Vegas was the kick off a national voter registration and mobilization tour targeting swing states to register new voters, engage impacted communities, harness our collective energy to advocate for policies and candidates that reflect our values, and collaborate with our partners to elect more women and progressives candidates to office. Where will you be to make your voice heard?

Google is getting more aggressive about “helping you make searches faster and get customized experiences in Search, Maps, Now, and other Google products.” This “translates” into monitoring your search activity in order to monetize you – YOU are the product. These are not your friends just trying to be caring, so beware of your privacy settings. Have you noticed ads repeatedly popping up elsewhere on your browser for items you have comparison searched on Google after you clicked several of the convenient picture shopping links? Google’s privacy policy enables the company to share data across a wide variety of services. These embedded services include millions of third-party websites that use Adsense and Analytics. In the summer of 2016, Google quietly dropped its ban on personally-identifiable info in its DoubleClick ad service. You can control your Google Experience and turn off the blue toggle switches to protect your privacy, although you may also lose some functionality you enjoy. If you don’t want push notifications from Google+ you can just say “NO THANKS!” In addition, you should control what information is collected through a Privacy Checkup of what you share on YouTube. Facebook also has Basic Privacy Settings & Tools you should visit and use. Here’s a handy link to Epic.org’s Online Guide to Privacy Resources.

AARP’s Bulletin has an article about how to Boost Your Brain Power. Here are some key research findings regarding boosting your cognitive reserve: Activity –  brisk walking for 40 minutes four times a week, increases blood flow to the regions of the brain shown able to grow new cells. Eat a Mediterranean Diet and maintain good gut bug flora. Mindfulness – pay attention to what you’re doing. Meditation, yoga, a walk in the woods: focus your mind and relax. This may build clearer memories. Unplug and don’t let your smartphone hijack your attention span. Watch your numbers – keep cholesterol and blood pressure numbers in an acceptable range; limit sugars and prevent or treat diabetes. Don’t smoke tobacco. Don’t fall and get a head injury. Prioritize sleep. Learn something new – remain curious and continue to grow as a person. Socialize – Don’t live alone and party with others to avoid depression. Cognitive reserve is “the combination of a person’s innate abilities and the additional brainpower that comes from challenging the mind. Studies show that diverse, mentally stimulating tasks result in more brain cells, more robust connections among those cells, and a greater ability to bypass age- or disease-related trouble spots in the brain. The more you work your mind, the greater your cognitive reserve. And the greater your reserve, the greater your ability to withstand the inevitable challenges of aging.” "Unfortunately, there is no pill or procedure to help you maintain your memories (yet). Forget digital-brain-games and don’t sweat using antiperspirants with aluminum. Vitamin supplements such as E and Ginsing won’t help either and the efficacy of Prevagin is questionable." Check out Brainblogger for the best and worst of Neuroscience and Neurology.

Locavesting is “a call to rethink the way we invest so that we support the small businesses that create jobs and healthy, resilient communities.” Just as “Buy Local” campaigns have found that a small shift in purchasing from chains to locally owned enterprises can reap outsized benefits for a community, so, too, can a small shift in our investment dollars. The phrase Locavesting was coined by journalist Amy Cortese in 2008 (and the title of her book published in 2011) to capture the ‘citizen investor’ phenomenon she saw taking hold in the wake of the financial crisis.” The Local Crowd is crowdfunding like Kickstarter, except with a distinct local investment focus. The Local Crowd is a Wyoming, LLC founded on the belief that strong local economies hold the key to a strong national economy. Their model “combines the power of Internet crowdfunding with a strong educational focus designed to increase the knowledge base and sophistication level of rural entrepreneurs and investors in using the Internet to raise money and make investments in local companies.” They offer a “full-service package including locally-based crowdfunding software, consulting and instruction–including webinars, seminars, workshops, retreats, classes (in-person and online), and courses for groups and individuals.” Local Futures, also known as the Economics of Happiness, is a pioneer of the new economy movement, dedicated to the renewal of community, ecological health and local economies worldwide. Local Futures is offering a FREE webinar on Wednesday, November 29, 2017 at 1:00 p.m. PST – a deeper dig by Shaun Chamberlin and Helena Norberg-Hodge into the work of the late Dr. David Fleming, author of Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy – a different vision for a post-growth society. Register Here. This event is jointly organized by Local Futures and Transition US. Check out DarkOptimism (Shaun Chamberlin’s blog), which “offers a better future for a troubled world… unashamedly positive about what kind of a world humanity could create, and unashamedly realistic about how far we are from creating it today.” This 2 ½ minute YouTube video highlights the benefits of localization. “Now is the time to repair and restore the atrophied social and ecological structures on which most human cultures were built – not only because we miss them dearly, but also as an absolute practical priority, for they are the only basis for a nourishing and cohesive society that might survive the turbulent times to come. This work could become the story of our times, and living it imbues our days with joy and meaning.” #LocalInvesting #LocalFutures #Locavesting #GlobalEconomy #Localization #TheLocalCrowd

Empathy and respect. That is what will result in better conversations between conservatives and liberals according to 2015 research by Robb Willer, sociologist at Stanford University and Matthew Feinberg, Assistant Professor of organizational behavior at the University of Toronto, co-authors of How to Make Effective Political Arguments. “Research suggests such moral rhetoric is largely ineffective for persuading those who do not already hold one’s position because advocates advancing these arguments fail to account for the divergent moral commitments that undergird America’s political divisions.” Willer cited a 2007 study by Jesse Graham, Jonathan Haidt, and Brian A. Nosek: Liberals and Conservatives Rely on Different Sets of Moral Foundations. They found that liberals consistently showed greater endorsement and use of the Harm/care and Fairness/reciprocity foundations compared to Ingroup/loyalty, Authority/respect and Purity/sanctity foundations, whereas conservatives endorsed and used the 5 foundations more equally. Put another way, liberals should appeal to values of moral purity, patriotism, respect for authority and loyalty in trying to persuade conservatives, while appealing to the values of fairness, preserving the environment and doing no harm are more likely to persuade liberals. Daniel Schultz writes about How Liberals Should (and Should Not) Talk about Values: “Start with a story. Drop the labels, the identities, the principles, and tell a story. As it unfolds, let the values come through…People will listen to a concrete story and absorb its message much more quickly than an abstract argument. The goal is to find powerful stories that prompt people to understand the world in a different way. It’s really hard to do.” “Morality contributes to political polarization because moral convictions lead individuals to take absolutist stances and refuse to compromise.” But moral reframing (being more careful about how we communicate) can lead to greater cooperation and collaboration. After all, we are all in this together. #conservatives #communication #liberals #moralvalues #Respect #storytelling #politicalpolarization #Empathy

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

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.”

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.