The final push for Jim Nichols for State House

This truck loader put his name on the ballot for State House this year to address a number of issues, but for only one purpose: To prove to those that have given up on the political process that participation is not futile. That money and connections are beatable when you have better ideas, a better grasp of the challenges facing your community, and you are willing to put in hard work.

Not voting, not voicing your preferences about our collective future, is not rebellion, but victimhood, at a time when we need to be working together to move our state forward.
I have lost too many friends over the years to drugs, hopelessness, and the jail cell; and we as a community have too much potential that is needlessly being wasted, to just allow out of touch power brokers to steal our future through shortsightedness and greed.

When people organize, participate, and vote in the political process the politicians will follow their lead--everytime. It is how history has always moved forward and it is how we will not only overcome these challenging times in front of us, but how we will come out on the other side a stronger, healthier, more educated, and more prosperous society.

Tonight is an important fundraising deadline.  Please chip in what you can to help me get my message out to voters these last few days of the campaign.  No matter if it is $3, $25, or $500--every dollar truly does make a difference.

Fox News reporting doesn't make one a religion of peace and the other not.

The three major Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are fundamentally the same--in their core structure and historical and metaphorical linage.  

To lift up one as a religion of peace is tautologically to lift up the other two as religions of peace as well. You can't have it both ways just because Islam is portrayed in the media another way.  If you don't believe me go read Karen Armstrong or Karl Jaspers and then come back and lets talk.  

Fox news may report otherwise but they do so with sloppy sources and biased talking heads promoting militarism and death at a time when we should go back to the Golden Rule and lift up what we share with one another across geography and human history.

Enjoy your Sunday... 

The Submerged State and American democracy

Going door to door has opened my eyes to the importance of this book.

So rather than sleep I was reading my copy of The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Policies Undermine American Democracy



Here is a talk I just tracked down...
 
 If you think our elected officials should understand and think about these issues chip in a few $$$'s to my State House campaign and help send a truckloader to the Gold Dome in Atlanta Georgia.

Now I'm going to go load some trucks.

What I learned on 9/11...

Paul Tilich wrote that the first duty of love is to listen. Try to be thoughtful to your social media friends and followers, however they may choose to reflect and remember 9/11. Trauma's cut deep and the response, no matter in what form they appear, are vitally important--in that they need to be heard and respected.

As I've read friends FB posts I can't help but wonder what my Dad would say today, and how he would want me to remember.

The memory of that morning is still clear as yesterday, as Dad and I watched the second plane hitting the Twin Towers. The fear, anguish, anger and powerlessness of watching from a TV screen in real time swell up from deep inside me, even now. That morning taught me that in politics there is no left and right in the small details; there is only Tyranny and Freedom.

It also taught me that in the day-to-day affairs of the human spirit; there are those who use fear and hatred and fly planes into buildings, and there are men and women who without second thought run towards burning buildings or at hijackers with boxcutters, to protect and help those in need.

The lives lost that day must never be forgotten; but it is important to also do a quick head count and recognize we have nothing to fear from those trying to destroy civil society and attack what we hold dear. There are way too many good people standing in front of Freedom, defending it from tyranny and hatred, in whatever form it heads our way.

The fabric of our nation and the character of our people is quite strong.

That is what I'd tell me Dad as I look back. I'd tell him that the fabric of our nation, and the character of our people, was stronger than I had ever realized before that day. It was a lesson about the American experience which Dad had always tried to articulate to me; which I'm only now appreciating.

So lets just say I think he's smiling down on me today; with that enthusiastic wag of a finger and grin he'd get when he was excited, saying to me, "now you see what I've been trying to teach you!"

Those simple but profound details of fact about our nation and the character of our people, that one simple lesson is something I feel like many of us learned for the first time that day. Sadly its a truth about our nation and our people that doesn't get a lot of attention in our consumer driven media culture. It is a truth we learned that day in the actions of so many brave men and women, many of whom lost their lives as we watched on our TV screens.

It is a lesson our culture seems to have already forgotten; but it still remains true about our nation and our people nevertheless, I am certain of it. And for that, I am thankful.