Hi, all, and happy Friday. I believe it was Plato who said: “Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” It’s a pretty accurate description of what we’re doing here, right? “Good actions give strength to ourselves.” How true! We do become empowered as we get more active. We grow more hopeful, too. And more balanced. More calm. More sure of our ability to make a difference.
OK Jess- part of your quote today “Good actions...more sure of our ability to make a difference” compelled me to write. I am privileged and I mean that- to be traveling in Morocco as I type. I have made it a point to check in with your daily CWCW when I can connect to Wi-Fi and send letters mostly through resist-bot or when you ask for emails to be sent. Whatever I can do from this distance. All calls to Senators were sent via resist bot too. Because it is important, we see results, and we will keep doing the slow steady march to good. Being here for Ramadan has been a marvel in its own right and to all our friends on this march who are celebrating the end of Ramadan-I wish them Ramadan Mubarak. Have a good weekend and give yourself some time.🙏
Apr 22, 2023·edited Apr 22, 2023Liked by Jessica Craven
I'm from MA and visited North Bridge yesterday, home of "the shot that was heard around the world," and was so inspired by our forebears of this country. Quoting Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The world has seen no grander movement than that of our Revolution...The people, to a man, were full of great and noble sentiment. It is marvelous to see how many powerful writers, orators, and soldiers started up just at the time when they were wanted...all made to unite in the one object of establishing the freedom and independence of America." Also, "Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind." Ralph Waldo Emerson. Timeless, and so applicable to all our efforts today.
If you haven't seen Heather Cox Richardson's blog today, I thought her conclusion was so inspiring. She noted the increasing focus on "transparency" and likened it to the muckrakers of the early part of the 20th century and the huge impact that had at the time.
" It hit me as I read through all this news that a key theme seems to be a new shift toward transparency and accountability. It jumps out at me that people are talking to lawyers and to the press about illegalities, irregularities, and, in the Sandy Hook case, horrors that in the past they have kept quiet.
Whether it comes from disgust at the excesses of those who are attacking our democracy or from fear of the law, that transparency reminds me of the pivotal importance of McClure’s Magazine in the early twentieth century. Reformers had expressed philosophical concerns about the concentration of wealth and power at the top of American society for decades, but those concerns could be ignored until the investigative journalists working for McClure’s began to explore the specifics of political corruption and its cost to ordinary Americans. Dismissed as “muckrakers” by politicians, those journalists nonetheless helped to shift the weight of social value from keeping secrets to spilling them.
When that shift happened, the walls protecting the country’s entrenched leaders crumbled fast."
Here's to spilling the secrets and crumbling the walls around our country's entrenched GOP leaders!
Great if you could put in a plug for Donna Deegan, running for mayor in Jacksonville FL! I "met" her on a zoom with Simon Rosenberg -- she is terrific.
I was in the same Zoom with the great Simon Rosenberg and second this! Right after the Zoom I mobilized our postcard team to write for Donna Deegan with PostcardstoVoters:
OK Jess- part of your quote today “Good actions...more sure of our ability to make a difference” compelled me to write. I am privileged and I mean that- to be traveling in Morocco as I type. I have made it a point to check in with your daily CWCW when I can connect to Wi-Fi and send letters mostly through resist-bot or when you ask for emails to be sent. Whatever I can do from this distance. All calls to Senators were sent via resist bot too. Because it is important, we see results, and we will keep doing the slow steady march to good. Being here for Ramadan has been a marvel in its own right and to all our friends on this march who are celebrating the end of Ramadan-I wish them Ramadan Mubarak. Have a good weekend and give yourself some time.🙏
What a wonderful note. Thank you and enjoy your trip! Jealous!
I'm from MA and visited North Bridge yesterday, home of "the shot that was heard around the world," and was so inspired by our forebears of this country. Quoting Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The world has seen no grander movement than that of our Revolution...The people, to a man, were full of great and noble sentiment. It is marvelous to see how many powerful writers, orators, and soldiers started up just at the time when they were wanted...all made to unite in the one object of establishing the freedom and independence of America." Also, "Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind." Ralph Waldo Emerson. Timeless, and so applicable to all our efforts today.
Love that. History is so clarifying, isn't it?
If you haven't seen Heather Cox Richardson's blog today, I thought her conclusion was so inspiring. She noted the increasing focus on "transparency" and likened it to the muckrakers of the early part of the 20th century and the huge impact that had at the time.
" It hit me as I read through all this news that a key theme seems to be a new shift toward transparency and accountability. It jumps out at me that people are talking to lawyers and to the press about illegalities, irregularities, and, in the Sandy Hook case, horrors that in the past they have kept quiet.
Whether it comes from disgust at the excesses of those who are attacking our democracy or from fear of the law, that transparency reminds me of the pivotal importance of McClure’s Magazine in the early twentieth century. Reformers had expressed philosophical concerns about the concentration of wealth and power at the top of American society for decades, but those concerns could be ignored until the investigative journalists working for McClure’s began to explore the specifics of political corruption and its cost to ordinary Americans. Dismissed as “muckrakers” by politicians, those journalists nonetheless helped to shift the weight of social value from keeping secrets to spilling them.
When that shift happened, the walls protecting the country’s entrenched leaders crumbled fast."
Here's to spilling the secrets and crumbling the walls around our country's entrenched GOP leaders!
I read it and found it similarly inspiring and encouraging!
Great if you could put in a plug for Donna Deegan, running for mayor in Jacksonville FL! I "met" her on a zoom with Simon Rosenberg -- she is terrific.
Did it today! Thansk!
I was in the same Zoom with the great Simon Rosenberg and second this! Right after the Zoom I mobilized our postcard team to write for Donna Deegan with PostcardstoVoters:
- VBM or early in person May 1 - 14
- Runoff Election Day: May 16