(RNS) — The State Department no longer is making publicly available a number of statistics about refugees admitted into the United States, including their religious affiliation.
A spokesperson for the department cited two main reasons for the changes, which took place Friday (Oct. 9): the development of a new information technology system, which won’t be completed until December 2021, and concerns about privacy.
The department eventually will produce more reports after the system is completed, but the spokesperson could not confirm whether they would include religion data. Meanwhile, the “interactive reporting feature” that contained religion-related data on refugees already has vanished.
“The interactive reporting feature will not return due to privacy concerns,” the spokesperson told Religion News Service. “The specific reports that will be available are yet to be confirmed but will take into account data protection and refugee privacy concerns.”
The shift has raised concerns from at least one of the faith-based organizations tasked with resettling refugees in the country. The data helped groups such as World Relief track whether the federal government is living up to its pledges to help those facing religious persecution.
“It certainly will make it more difficult to hold our government accountable to its commitments to protect those fleeing violations of their religious liberty globally,” said Matthew Soerens, U.S. director of church mobilization and advocacy for World Relief and national coordinator for the Evangelical Immigration Table.
Matthew Soerens. Courtesy photo
This image is available for web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.
Soerens also said he has never heard privacy concerns raised about the information previously shared by the State Department. All of that data, he said, was aggregated and anonymous.
World Relief, an evangelical Christian organization that works with the U.S. government to resettle refugees, relied on State Department data to document what it calls “the startling reduction in the resettlement of persecuted Christians and other religious minorities” in a report it issued last summer with Open Doors USA, Soerens said.
The data showed a precipitous drop in recent years in the number of Christian refugees admitted to the U.S. from the 50 countries at the top of Open Doors USA’s World Watch List. The annual list tracks the places where Christians face the worst persecution.
President Donald Trump promised in his first days in office to make helping persecuted Christians a priority for his administration.
But the last numbers made available by the State Department — which Soerens downloaded Friday before they disappeared from the department’s website — show the number of Christians admitted from those countries dropped 83.2% from fiscal years 2016 to 2020.
Just 2,811 Christian refugees were admitted to the U.S. from the countries on the World Watch List in fiscal 2020, which ended last month. By contrast, 16,714 Christians from those countries were admitted to the United States in fiscal 2016, former President Barack Obama’s last full year in office.
Overall, 8,720 Christian refugees were admitted to the U.S. this past year, nearly a 77% drop since 2016. At the same time, 2,600 Muslim refugees were admitted, more than a 93% drop since Obama’s last full year in office.
This year’s sharp decline in refugees is partially attributable to the ongoing pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, but the change predated the virus: Trump has repeatedly slashed total refugee admissions to historic lows each year he has been in office and this year he proposed only allowing a maximum 15,000 refugees into the U.S.
By comparison, Obama set that number at 110,000 his last year in office.
Soerens said the State Department now will only broadly release how many refugees have fled their countries based on “religious persecution.”
That includes those who qualify under the Lautenberg Program, which admits citizens of former Soviet-bloc countries who are members of certain religious minorities and have family in the U.S. They are not required to demonstrate the same individual fear of persecution other refugees do, he said.
The work of helping refugees find a home in America is largely done by faith-based organizations such as World Relief.
Of the nine groups authorized by the U.S. government to resettle refugees, six claim a religious affiliation. Others include Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.
Oct 13, 2020 (AB Digital via COMTEX) --
According to MarketsandMarkets, the “Meat starter cultures Market by Application (Sausages, Salami, Dry-cured meat, and Others), Microorganism (Bacteria, and Fungi), Composition (Multi-strain mix, Single strain, and Multi-strain), Form, and Region – Global Forecast to 2025″ size is estimated to be valued at USD 62 million in 2020 and projected to reach USD 76 million by 2025, recording a CAGR of 3.9%, in terms of value. The functional properties of meat starter cultures and their benefits while incorporation in a wide range of applications are driving the global meat starter cultures market.
The sausages segment accounted for the largest share in the meat starter cultures market
Based on the application, the sausages segment dominated the meat starter culture market. The dominance of this application can be attributed to the rising demand for sausages as a breakfast meat, as consumers in various countries such as the US, Canada, the UK, and Germany, are inclined toward the consumption of sausages. Meat starter culture provides additional safety and delays spoilage by shifting the uncontrolled fermentation. The segment is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.8% during the forecast period.
The bacteria segment is projected to account for a major share in the meat starter cultures market during the forecast period
By microorganism, the meat starter cultures market is segmented into bacteria and fungi. Bacteria has been the most widely used microorganism as a starter culture, due to its large-scale application in meat products. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) are the most used bacteria-based starter cultures in the industry. These are the main microorganisms used in meat products in order to prohibit pathogens and spoilage microorganisms during the pre- and post-processing of meat products. Therefore, this segment is projected to grow at a higher CAGR of 4.0% during the forecast period.
The European region dominated the meat starter culture market with the largest share in 2019.
The meat starter cultures market in Europe is dominant due to the increasing demand for processed meat products with higher shelf-life because of a shift in lifestyle trends. People are looking for ready-to-cook meal options as they are leading a busy life. The consumption of sausage has been prominent in these countries, resulting in a rise in demand for meat starter cultures for their production. The leading companies dominating the meat starter cultures market include Chr. Hansen (Denmark), Kerry Group (Ireland), and DSM (Netherlands); have a robust presence in Europe due to higher demand for packaged meat in these regions.
North America is the fastest-growing market as the technological advancements involved in monitoring and using meat starter cultures are available in the region, and meat manufacturers have been adapting to the changing technologies. The demand for meat starter cultures is increasing as consumers have been inclined toward organic and clean-label meat products. Also, key players are increasingly investing in the North American meat starter culture market.
Key Players:
This report includes a study on the marketing and development strategies, along with the product portfolios of leading companies. It consists of profiles of leading companies, such as Chr. Hansen (Denmark), DSM (Netherlands), Kerry (Ireland), DuPont (US), Frutarom (Israel), Galactic (Belgium), Lallemand (Canada), Proquiga (Spain), Westcombe (UK), Biochem SRL (Italy), RAPS GmbH (Germany), DnR Sausages Supplies. (Canada), Sacco System (Italy), Canada Compound (Canada), Biovitec (France), Genesis Laboratories (Bulgaria), Meat Cracks (Germany), THT S.A. (Belgium), Stuffers Supply Co. (Canada), MicroTec GmbH (Germany), and Codex-Ing Biotech (US).
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According to newspaper VG, figures from the European Infection Control Agency (ECDC) show that no country in the EU and EEA has as low an infection rate than Norway.
In the last 14 days, the number of infected per 100,000 inhabitants in Norway is 34.3, according to VG.
The next best country is Cyprus, where the number is 38.1.
The highest infection pressure has been registered in the Czech Republic, Belgium, and the Netherlands, with 521.5, 429.5, and 387.0 infected per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively, during the period.
Assistant health director Espen Rostrup Nakstad believes that Norwegians should use the numbers as motivation to persevere.
“The figures are uplifting for Norway because they show that it is possible to keep the infection down at the same time as large parts of society function relatively normally,” he told VG.
Jean-Claude Juncker addresses the European Parliament during a debate on The State of the European Union in Strasbourg, France. — Reuters/Files
BRUSSELS: Three committees of the European Parliament (EP), the Human Rights, the Civil Liberty, and the Gender Committee have decided to conduct a hearing on the Lahore Motorway gang-rape case on 28th October 2020 at the EP.
At the hearing, women from all over the world, including Pakistan, will address the joint session of the three committees in the EP via a video-link, Samira Rafaela, a member of the European Parliament, told Geo.tv from Netherlands.
“Such incidents are indeed happening all over the world, and that is why we are raising our voices against them,” she said, responding to a question.
“We are trying to make these states particularly sensitive to incidents that are somehow connected to our aid system,” Rafaela said.
Rafaela, referring to CCPO Umer Shiekh’s victim-blaming statement, said: “The comments made by a local police officer regarding the incident had also caused distress [to women in particular]. ”
She said this statement is tantamount to ridiculing women. Therefore, “such incidents must be made a topic of discussion”.
MEP Rafaela said that there have been several cases of “barbaric sexual violence against women in Pakistan” and called for practical steps towards police reforms.
In European parliamentary institutions such as the European Commission and the parliament where women are in leading positions, women-related issues are given importance.
Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany and the head of the most powerful state in Europe, as well as the head of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyden, are women, and 40% of members of the European Parliament are women as well. In this scenario, women-related issues can not be ignored.
He highlighted how the pandemic represents “a double crisis” for the world’s poorest people.
“First, they have the highest risk of exposure to the virus, and least access to quality healthcare”, said Mr. Guterres.
“Second, recent estimates show the pandemic could push up to 115 million people into poverty this year – the first increase in decades. Women are at greatest risk because they are more likely to lose their jobs, and less likely to have social protection.”
The UN chief underscored the need for extraordinary efforts to fight poverty at this time.
As the pandemic demands strong collective action, he called for Governments to accelerate economic transformation by investing in sustainable recovery.
Additionally, countries need “a new generation of social protection programmes”, that also cover people who work in the informal economy.
“Joining together in common cause is the only way we will emerge safely from this pandemic”, said the Secretary-General.
“On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, let’s stand in solidarity with people living in poverty, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.”
The International Day was established by a UN General Assembly resolution adopted in December 1992.
The theme this year is ‘Acting together to achieve social and environmental justice for all’.
For the UN, this focus recognizes “the multi-dimensionality of poverty”, meaning that social justice cannot be fully realized without also working to address environmental injustices, including those due to climate change.
In a joint statement, the International Labour Organization (ILO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted that tens of millions are at risk of falling into extreme poverty.
“Now is the time for global solidarity and support, especially with the most vulnerable in our societies, particularly in the emerging and developing world”, the statement said.
Smallholder farmers need to be linked to markets so that they can improve their farming and sell their products.
— International Fund for Agricultural Development (@IFAD) October 13, 2020
“Only together can we overcome the intertwined health and social and economic impacts of the pandemic and prevent its escalation into a protracted humanitarian and food security catastrophe, with the potential loss of already achieved development gains”.
The pandemic has decimated jobs and placed millions of livelihoods at risk, the UN agencies attested.
Pointing out that “millions of enterprises face an existential threat”, they indicated that nearly half of the world’s 3.3 billion workforce risks losing its livelihood.
Unable to earn an income during lockdowns and without sufficient social protections or health care, informal economy workers are particularly vulnerable – many powerless to feed themselves and their families.
Agricultural workers
At the same time millions of wage-earning and self-employed agricultural workers face high levels of poverty, malnutrition and poor health.
With low or irregular incomes and no social support, many are spurred to continue working in unsafe conditions, exposing themselves and their families to additional risks.
Moreover, amidst income losses, the agencies flagged that they may resort to unwise strategies, such as panic-selling of possessions, predatory loans or child labour.
“Migrant agricultural workers are particularly vulnerable, because they face risks in their transport, working and living conditions and struggle to access support measures put in place by governments”, the statement detailed.
Food systems
The pandemic has also laid bare the fragility of the entire food system.
Border closures, trade restrictions and confinement measures have disrupted domestic and international food supply chains and reduced access to healthy, safe and diverse diets.
The UN agencies underscored that long-term strategies must be developed to “address the challenges facing the health and agri-food sectors” with priority given to underlying food security, malnutrition challenges, rural poverty and social protections, among other things.
Coming back stronger, together
The UN is committed to pooling its expertise and experience to help countries respond to the crisis and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“We must recognize this opportunity to build back better”, the statement stressed.
The only way to protect human health, livelihoods, food security and nutrition while ensuring a ‘new normal’, is to “rethink the future of our environment and tackle climate change and environmental degradation with ambition and urgency”, the joint statement declared.
WFP/Vanessa Vick
The World Food Programme (WFP) assists local farmers with maize crops in Kapchorwa, Uganda.
In a now deleted retweet, the European Council’s president on Tuesday posted a cartoon on Twitter of Boris Johnson as a ‘joker’ during Brexit negotiations, as seen in The New European.
Charles Michel shared the illustration by Andy Davey of the UK Prime Minister playing what looks like poker with EU negotiator Michel Barnier and president Ursula von der Leyen, whilst Johnson holds a series of Joker cards in his hand.
“So will Boris Johnson do as Charles Michel wishes and lay his cards on the table? I’m not sure anyone would be wiser”, the caption of the tweet.
The post was eventually removed but not before netizens had time to join in the joke.
Others described the cartoon as showing Johnson with a “straight flush”.
Time for the UK to put its cards on the table. #EUCO #15-16October
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) October 7, 2020
”The EU is doing its utmost to find an agreement with the UK, but not at any cost”, Michel said, following news that the prime minister threatened to withdraw from talks within the coming week.
Contrary to official word from Trump’s mouthpieces, Olivia Nuzzi of New York Magazine reports that Trump was at one point severely ill and at substantial risk of not surviving:
Donald Trump was on the phone, and he was talking about dying. It was Saturday, October 3, and while his doctor had told the outside world that the president’s symptoms were nothing to worry about, Trump, cocooned in his suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, was telling those close to him something very different.
“I could be one of the diers,” he said. …
Nine months into the pandemic and one month away from Election Day, the president considered for the first time that the disease killing him in the polls, threatening his political future, might just kill him, too. On the phone he remarked sarcastically, “This change of scenery has been great.”… Then he admitted something scary. That how he felt might not mean much in the end.
“This thing could go either way. It’s tricky. They told me it’s tricky,” the president said. “You can tell it can go either way.”
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More incredibly, the New York Times reports that Donald Trump planned to dress as Superman on his release from the hospital, reveling in his pretend-Übermensch status to thrill his supporters:
In several phone calls last weekend from the presidential suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Mr. Trump shared an idea he was considering: When he left the hospital, he wanted to appear frail at first when people saw him, according to people with knowledge of the conversations. But underneath his button-down dress shirt, he would wear a Superman T-shirt, which he would reveal as a symbol of strength when he ripped open the top layer. He ultimately did not go ahead with the stunt.
Trump is an expert political performance artist, a professional wrestling heel who is also the (illegitimate) president of the United States. Contrary to the hopes of too many members of the chattering class, Trump’s brush with death has not humbled him or caused some type of personal revelation that would cause him to become less cruel, vile and tasteless.
While in the hospital and during his supposed convalescence, Donald Trump has continued his fascist authoritarian behavior, demanding that leading Democrats like Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton be charged with treason for their supposed “coup” attempt. During a phone interview with Fox News last Thursday, Trump continued his attacks on Sen. Kamala Harris, the first black woman to be nominated on a major-party presidential ticket, calling her a “monster” and a “communist,” among other slurs.
Several of Donald Trump’s followers were recently arrested by the FBI for plotting to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and perhaps kill her. These right-wing terrorists also planned to attack police and other law enforcement agents if need be. The Trump regime has never explicitly disavowed the right-wing militias and other terrorist groups who serve as the president’s foot soldiers and hooligans.
What do such emotions and reactions — including the obligatory demands that Trump must be sent positive wishes and prayers — reveal about America’s culture at present? Is there a “right” or “wrong” way for the American people to react to Trump’s illness? Given their professed values, should liberals and progressives be held to a higher standard in their reactions to Donald Trump’s encounter with a life-threatening disease?
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In an effort to answer these questions, I recently spoke with Dr. Cornel West. He is a philosopher, public intellectual, activist, scholar and author of several bestselling books, including “Democracy Matters,” “Race Matters” and “Black Prophetic Fire.”
West is professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard and a professor emeritus at Princeton. In this wide-ranging conversation he also shares his thoughts on democracy and the recent presidential and vice-presidential debates, as well as how the American people should best focus their emotions and energies once Trump is no longer president.
You are a philosopher. How should people manage their feelings about Donald Trump having been sickened by the coronavirus? Is it wrong to be happy at the possibility of Donald Trump receiving his comeuppance and karmic punishment from COVID? He has done so much evil.
What you are feeling is Janus-faced. Your feelings have two sides to them. Any kind of love and justice has to have serious accountability. In that way, Donald Trump has been unaccountable. As such, death would be a certain kind of accountability. There is nothing wrong with that conception of accountability. But the other side is a certain kind of contempt and revenge in the form of “You did it to us. Now we’re going to do it to you. You’ve been doing us in. Now somebody — God, providence, fate, fortune — is going to do you in.”
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Democratic accountability is not same thing as revenge or divine retribution or the like. It is of a different register. Democracy is about human justice. Democracy is for we mortals. It’s for we finite folk. And we finite folk, we’ve got to have some control over our propensity toward contempt and revenge, or it just adds more to the contempt and revenge in the world. But if we lean into love and justice and there’s some accountability — with Trump getting sick, it may have been a certain kind of accountability, in terms of the virus coming back to haunt him — there is a different kind of spirit at work, one that you want to preserve.
Are liberals and progressives allowed to enjoy schadenfreude, those feelings of joy at another person’s just and deserved misfortune? Or is that sentiment outside of what it should mean to be a progressive?
The best of what it means to be a progressive is that one never succumbs to any kind of bitterness, revenge, hoping somebody collapses or even laughing at somebody’s misfortune or downfall. You are using that person, such as Trump, as a point of reference for your own sense of who you are and what you’re doing. Don’t surrender those values.
That’s the reason why Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” If you are really concerned about poor people and the wretched of the earth, then when you love your enemy, you’re not loving the part of them that are gangsters. You’re not loving their hatred. You’re not loving their domination. You are just recognizing that they too are made in the image of God. Therefore you are using the point of reference for who you are, in the best of your own tradition as a barometer and guidepost. There is nothing sadomasochistic about loving one’s enemies. Do not ever let them set the terms upon which you define yourself and your reality. If you do such a thing, you will be reacting to their hatred your whole life.
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What of this expectation that the American people should send Donald Trump goodwill because he was hospitalized and apparently in perilous condition? As some have pointed out, such an expectation is emotionally abusive, in which where the victim is somehow supposed to empathize with and care for the person who is hurting them.
You must ensure that you are living a high-quality life in your own mind, heart and soul. When you are wishing Donald Trump goodwill, all you are saying is, “I refuse to be the gangster you are because you have been giving us ill will.” I do believe that the golden rule is still worthwhile. And if a higher power takes Donald Trump away, then he’s gone.
How does one resolve an expectation that they should wish goodwill on an evil person such as Trump?
There is an element of a person’s humanity that is never fully reducible to one’s gangster and thuggish activity. That’s why the golden rule still has some applicability. Donald Trump still has loved ones. He still has folks who care for him. That means he is still a human being. Once you completely remove someone from the human family, you end up doing the same things that have been done to Black people with racism and white supremacy. If you let yourself be seduced by such forces and put people outside the human family, than you end up in the gutter along with the people who committed that first wrong. I refuse to go there.
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The type of conversation we are engaging in is very rare in America’s public discourse. The Age of Trump and this season of death has created a moral test for the United States and its people.
We saw that during the vice-presidential debate. The spiritual decay is so deep. Donald Trump has contributed to such a debased public culture and political culture that you have someone like Mike Pence, who can rationalize American fascism with a smile and be calm doing it. The moderator, Susan Page, made no attempt to keep Pence accountable whatsoever. Kamala Harris was doing the best she could to preserve her dignity. She knew Pence would be lying nonstop. She knows the disrespect is coming at her and the arrogance is flowing from Pence right at her. The condescension is flowing. The haughtiness is flowing against her too. Pence was trying to seize control of the debate and no one was trying to impose accountability on him. Kamala Harris tried several times. She did the best she could.
Pence’s behavior during the debate was just the culture of neofascism in real time, done with a smile. We should not be overwhelmed and surprised by such an assault. We must be honest and candid about the depths of the decay and decrepitude that we as a nation are dealing with, in the form of Trump and Pence and their allies and movement.
When I see Mike Pence I think of Indiana, which was a fortress for the Ku Klux Klan during the early 20th century. In another era, Pence would be the type who could go from the Klavern to the boardroom of a bank. I worry that too many people believe that evil does not wear a business suit.
I believe that Mike Pence has been Trumpified. He has been shaped even more in the image of Donald Trump since becoming vice president. Pence loves the power. He loves the visibility. He loves the position of being vice president. In that way we can see the deepening corruption of Mike Pence’s soul. That is why Pence was overflowing with toxic masculinity during the debate. Pence acted like he does not have to listen to anyone. Somebody asks Pence a question and he responds like they are nonentities. Pence just decides to ignore them and say what he wants to say. When Kamala Harris would try to interject and have her time, Pence looked at her like, “Do you really expect me to respect you? I’m Mike Pence. I’m part of the neofascist culture. We don’t respect people like you.” In doing that, Pence was also disrespecting the American people as the audience for what should have been a very important dialogue.
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Any discussion of Mike Pence should also include “Christian fascist” in how he is described.
Eighty-one percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump. He got 65% of white men and over 50% of white women. That is another sign of the cultural decay in this country. White supremacy is the public face of American neofascism. From the Ku Klux Klan to the White Citizens Councils, white Christians have always played a fundamental role in promoting white supremacist attitudes and practices.
In terms of deliberative democracy or communicative democracy, what did you see when you watched these first two debates?
Public life in America has become so emptied out and vacuous that the very notion of there being a public conversation, let alone a high-quality public conversation, is gone. The debates are an empty theatrical spectacle of talking points, at their best, and at their worst just bully-driven attacks and assaults on each other. I mean, Harris is much more intellectually talented than [Pence] is. In that way Joe Biden did not have any chance at all in his debate with Donald Trump.
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Trump’s debate with Biden was an exercise in fascism and authoritarianism. Trump won that debate, by those criteria. Unfortunately, too many people in the mainstream media and the general public keep applying old, comfortable standards, and in doing so frame their understanding of Trump’s strategy, and this political moment more generally, around polls and focus groups. Trump’s goal was to mock the premise of even having a debate. It was all the worst sort of demagogic, authoritarian political theater for him.
I would go even farther. I would say that Trump was not only was mocking, but fascist. One of the rhetorical strategies of a fascist is to beat your audience down, make the people feel as though there is no hope. The people must be made to feel that there is no other possibility. They may hate you, the authoritarian fascist and demagogue, but they hate the whole political process too. The people then become downtrodden in spirit: Their spirits are so crushed they cannot be moved to vote for anybody.
When Trump left the debate, he and his people likely said, “You not only won, you achieved your objective. You beat Biden down. You beat the moderator down. You beat the audience down. You beat the American people down.”
We are in a world-historical moment. As Election Day approaches, and whatever may happen next in this country it feels exhilarating, scary and exhausting all at the same time. As human beings we do not see a moment of such consequence very often, if ever, in our lifetimes. Please help me navigate those feelings – feelings which I am sure many other people in this country and around the world are also experiencing. It is like rollercoaster of sorts.
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It is like living in the 1960s in Africa, Asia, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and the apartheid American South. Between 1955 to 1970 was to live in the most world-historical transforming moment in a very long time. At present, we are living in a similar moment, with the Age of Trump and this upcoming election. But in this moment as compared to the previous one, there is ecological catastrophe, economic catastrophe, social catastrophe and spiritual catastrophe. There is a lack of ability for too many to imagine a world and reality that is worth fighting for, sacrificing for and even dying for.
Let us assume that there is some type of justice in the universe and Donald Trump is voted out on Election Day or otherwise removed from office. When that happens, there are going to be parties and celebrations in the streets. A joyous wave will sweep over the United States. What should good Americans do with that energy going forward?
If the leader of a neofascist movement dies, that is the easy victory. Now we have to deal with the source of the fascist movement itself. To do that here and now, American society must reshape a whole discourse and public conversation to make sure that poor people and other vulnerable people are at the center of the conversation and the agenda for change. If we maintain our core values and commitments, then if we are killed in the struggle we can say, “Here’s the gift. Something bigger than me, because my life itself was a gift that came from something bigger than me.” That sacrifice helps to sustain and create the positive change.
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