Overheard (October 2020)

Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.

John Lewis, former U.S. representative and civil rights leader, in an op-ed he wrote to be published on the day of his funeral.

The New York Times, 7-30-20

Because the dominant framing of face coverings is that they are foreign, a sign of submission, and an assault to American values, our country is now unable to cover when it is literally an issue of life and death. Islamophobia has long been a danger to Muslim Americans’ health, but COVID-19 has made it clear that misperceptions about Muslim practices affect the health of non-Muslims as well.

Liz Bucar, in the article “Islamophobia and American’s problems with face masks.” Bucar is a professor of religion at Northeastern University.

TheRevealer.com, 9-3-20

I say this lovingly — not as an ideologue, but as someone who prides himself on being open to argument, interested in evidence — but I quite literally have no patience for climate change deniers. It’s completely inconsistent, that point of view, with the reality on the ground, the facts as we are experiencing.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, discussing how the state will continue to pursue policies that combat climate change as California battles another round of deadly wildfires.

Politico.com, 9-8-20

QAnon community construction, from the start, has emphasized a traditionalist American morality that is closely aligned with popular Christianity. “Q” himself posts in a style that both invokes evangelical talking points and encourages deep scriptural research.

Brian Friedberg, a senior researcher at the Harvard Shorenstein Center’s Technology and Social Change project, in the article “Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead.”

TechnologyReview.com, 8-26-20