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Spencer Critchley, managing partner for Boots Road Group, is hosting a discussionthe fourth in an ongoing seriesthat seeks to improve communication across political divides, but the true goal of the discussion is more profound, as evidenced by its title, Saving Democracy.

Its finding the people wherever they sit on the ideological spectrum who believe in civil debate, says Critchley. The members of this partythe party of democracyhave to find each other.

The next Saving Democracy installment is Tuesday, May 26 from 6:30-8pm, streaming on Facebook Live.

Past Saving Democracy events have spanned ideologies, with voices from both the right and the left. Critchley says Tuesdays event will focus on the conservative perspectives and on political moderates. It will be titled What Would Lincoln Do. Guests will include former California Republican leader Kristin Olsen and Dan Schnur, who once served as media chief for Senator John McCains 2000 presidential campaign and who now teaches at both USC and UC Berkeley. Another guest will be Mike Madrid, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, a conservative group aiming to defeat President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box, according to the organizations website. None of the guests are fans of President Donald J. Trump.

Critchley will moderate the talk.

He says the thing that makes Trump so dangerous is his corruption. That includes the presidents self-dealing, his firing of anyone who gets in his way, his efforts to solicit help from foreign governments, and his persistent lies, which are intoxicating in and of themselves, Critchley elaborates.

The point is not to get away with the lie. The point is to do away with the concept of truth, Critchley says.

He says Americans should not give in to their differences, or else those who are driving divisions will get their way by making groups of people hate each other more. Critchley says many of those who pursue a divisive brand of civil discourse are Trump supporters, but not all of them.

Theres a brand of liberal intolerance. Its a different brand. It takes a different shapeif you disagree with me, then youre corrupt, he explains.

Critchley, author of the new book Patriots of Two Nations: Why Trump Was Inevitable and What Happens Next, traces the central schism in American political discourse back to the founding days of United States. There was a group that supported the ideals of the enlightenment and another, which he calls the counter-enlightenment, that did not.

In order to win elections in the 21st century, Critchley says, Democrats will need to learn to better communicate with those they disagree with.

The problem is not Trump, he says. The problem is that someone like Trump could become president.

Saving Democracy: What Would Lincoln Do will air on Facebook Live on Tuesday, May 26, from 6:30-8pm. Attendants may register in advance, to get a reminder when the event goes live. Visit bootsroad.com/democracy for more information.

UPDATE May 22 7:50pm: A previous version of this headline misspelled Spencer Critchleys last name.

Jacob, the news editor for Good Times, is an award-winning journalist, whose news interests include housing, water, transportation, and county politics. A onetime connoisseur of dive bars and taquerias, he has evolved into an aspiring health food nut. Favorite yoga pose: shavasana.

Originally posted here:
Spencer Critchely, Never-Trumpers Look to Save Democracy - Good Times Weekly

A note from the British Marxist literary critic Terry Eagletons 2008 Terry Lectures at Yale University, published as Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009):

Dawkins falsely considers that Christianity offers a rival view of the universe to science. Like the philosopher Daniel C. Dennett in Breaking the Spell, he thinks it is a kind of bogus theory or pseudo-explanation of the world. In this sense, he is rather like someone who thinks that a novel is a botched piece of sociology, and who therefore cant see the point of it at all. Why bother with Robert Musil when you can read Max Weber? . . .

Dawkins makes an error of genre, or category mistake, about the kind of thing Christian belief is. He imagines that it is either some kind of pseudo-science, or that, if it is not that, then it conveniently dispenses itself from the need for evidence altogether. He also has an old-fashioned scientistic notion of what constitutes evidence. Life for Dawkins would seem to divide neatly down the middle between things you can prove beyond all doubt, and blind faith. He fails to see that all the most interesting stuff goes on in neither of these places. Christopher Hitchens makes much the same crass error, claiming in God Is Not Great that thanks to the telescope and the microscope, [religion] no longer offers an explanation of anything important. But Christianity was never meant to be an explanation of anything in the first place. It is rather like saying that thanks to the electric toaster we can forget about Chekhov. (6-7)

One can hardly fail to be reminded in this context of an exchange in C. S. Lewiss early novel The Pilgrims Regress a book that seems to me more prescient with each passing year. The conversation revolves around the Landlord, who, in Lewiss allegory, represents God:

But how do you know there is no Landlord?

Christopher Columbus, Galileo, the earth is round, invention of printing, gunpowder!! exclaimed Mr. Enlightenment in such a loud voice that the pony shied.

I beg your pardon, said John.

Eh? said Mr. Enlightenment.

I didnt quite understand, said John.

Why, its plain as a pikestaff, said the other.

Your people in Puritania believe in the Landlord because they have not had the benefits of a scientific training. For example, I dare say it would be news to you to hear that the earth was round round as an orange, my lad!

Well, I dont know that it would, said John. feeling a little disappointed. My father always said it was round.

No, no, my dear boy, said Mr. Enlightenment, you must have misunderstood him. It is well known that everyone in Puritania thinks the earth flat. It is not likely that I should be mistaken on such a point. Indeed, it is out of the question.

(C. S. Lewis,The Pilgrims Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason, and Romanticism[Grand Rapids, MI.: Ecrdmans. 1992], 20-21 .)

See the original post:
Scientism versus Scientism's Caricature of Christian Theism - Patheos

Should you follow your instinct or follow the rules and guidance set in place by the government? That is the assessment we were invited to make by the PM at the daily press conference on Sunday in the case of Dominic Cummings and his trip to Durham with his family.

Our lockdown has been comparatively relaxed compared to those imposed in France, Spain and Italy. We have been able to exercise once a day and we do not need papers to leave our houses. By contrast, the slogans have been highly aggressive: stay home and save lives; or to put it another way, leave home and risk lives.

We have been invited, again and again, to follow the rules and the guidance and to ignore conclusions derived from common sense, both before the legal lockdown was instituted and throughout its most intense period. For some of us, thankfully, those dilemmas have presented in trivial ways; for others, those dilemmas have been deeply, deeply painful.

Common sense has a great place in the history of ideas. It is the guiding spirit of the Enlightenment and the animating force of the most significant liberal ideals. The maxim We hold these truths to be self-evident cannot make any sense to men who do not share in reason. But we were asked by the UK government to put our common sense aside for several months. Indeed, that it was in our best interests to do so.

We were invited to take part in a national effort, to protect the NHS and save lives. We were asked to direct all our behaviours in light of that effort our contact with family, friends and loved ones, our exercise habits, even the number of times we shop and what we buy in the supermarket.

This was a project that the vast majority of the British public participated in, however grudgingly. If a fundamental question of politics is who has the right to tell me what to do? in normal times; then in a national crisis, this question has a far more potent and urgent set of associations: Who do I trust with my freedoms? Who do I trust to take care of my security?.

And while the public may have held with the government on these questions in the first phase of this crisis, the Cummings argument sets the scene for the next act mass unemployment on a scale that many have not seen in their working lifetimes, a destitute hospitality sector and the potential for a deflationary death spiral.

It is vital for the survival of his administration that Boris Johnson comes up with a far more assured response to this central question: Who has the right to tell me what to do? He may find that in future he has far fewer voters prepared to give him a fair hearing.

Read more from the original source:
Boris is taking the public for fools - Reaction - Reaction

For Prime Minister Narendra Modis vast demography of admirers, he cannot say anything that they wouldnt agree with. Therefore, when he speaks, they do not pay sufficient attention. For his very wide circle of detractors, he cannot say anything that would rouse their cheer. Hence, memes of censure in their quiver are always ready to take aim.

Essentially, in this polarised ecosystem, nobody listens to Modi because they are pre-decided on his message. One wonders if this is a logjam or a paradox? There is a predictability to the reaction we see, but Modi himself is not so predictable at times in his communication. For instance, the May 12 lockdown address he delivered was the most layered of his speeches in recent times. Speeches may do nothing, they may just buy time until action, or the absence of it, begins to speak louder, but nevertheless it is important to grasp the intent of words since they navigate action.

Modi appeared to be advocating self-reliance all through his latest lockdown speech, but interestingly, he was creating a complicated global circuitry to his concept of atmanirbhar. He kept emphasising that Indias self-reliance is not a self-centred game, but generously accommodates the happiness of the world. He imposed a kinship on the world when he borrowed the idea of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. He also spoke of Jai Jagat and Vishwa Kalyan. He emphasised more than once that India was firm on its global path. He said the world has begun to trust Indias ability to help mankind, and mentioned its recent medicine exports, and of course yoga and Y2K. He told us how much the world needs India. There was unabashed flair and zero circumspection in placing India at the centre of global action. Here, his facts may fall short, but he knows emotion and pride can never be fact-checked.

Also Read: The Simple, and Simplistic, Messaging of Modis Lectures Is a Big Hit With His Audience

Amazing certainty

Modi always speaks with amazing certainty. He leaves no doubt in his words because to sound doubtful is to appear human. Speaking to his constituents in Varanasi, on March 25, after the first lockdown announcement, he had said the Mahabharata battle was won in 18 days but the Covid one would take 21 days. There was no solution in sight to the pandemic nor was there a vaccine in production when he spoke of victory in 21 days, but that did not deter him from giving definite goals. When definite goals are a bulb of mythical layers then the discourse is not scientific or a rational one. It is always a satsang, a darshan, a vision in a very Indian sense. Time too is in a puranic cycle, not what is shown on the ultra-slim Movado wristwatch that he is said to wear. Therefore, the 21 days meant something else. More infinite than what an ordinary watch can measure. If one recalls his famous demonetisation address on November 8, 2016, then too he was sure of its consequences. In Ayodhya as well, his party was sure that Lord Ram was born at that very spot where the masjid stood.

Anyway, returning to Modis idea of self-reliance in his recent pandemic address, it does not emanate from 20th century economic thinking, either eastern or western, but comes from cultural thinking from a very distant past. A past that again escapes temporal calculations and is imagined to be in the spartan realms of the Vedic divine. To enhance this, there was a gentle sprinkling of Sanskrit to give a varnish of antiquity to his utterances. That appeared to be a deliberate act. That was a differentiator and a response to all those accusing him of not consulting experts like Rahul Gandhi has been doing to improve his score. It was a more euphemistic way of saying that this ancient civilisation has known it all, like it has flown airplanes in the glorious past, conceived IVF babies, and has performed plastic surgeries. Again, he knows faith cannot be fact-checked.

Rahul Gandhi and Abhijit Banerjee. Photo: Screengrab

Amidst this thread of glorious past, not unexpectedly, cropped up Indias subjugation in more tangible history. There was first glory, and then there was ghulami, he said. But now, in the 21st century, glory was destined to return. It appeared he pictured himself as the chosen one, to transition India into that glorious amorphousness. What lay for him between the golden glory of the past, and what is magically shaping up in the present is stygian darkness. In this dark phase of his understanding, India had been subjugated because it neither had atmanirbharta, atmabal nor atmashakti, he interpreted. Therefore that was the real stimulus he was now offering, bigger than the zeroes one could count after twenty. It was the most unusual address in a pandemic season. But Modi presented himself as an epoch maker who was seizing time to bend it to his needs.

Science and technology

In the past, his critics have weighed his COVID-19 addresses against that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel or Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for whom brevity and science make up communication. But Modi never speaks of science or deliberates through science. It is only technology that fascinates him. Science is a philosophy that clashes with all his training, but technology does not challenge anything. It will take the direction of the mind that deploys it. It can function outside reason. In the May 12 speech technology had a distinct velvet position.

Modi speaks like most Indians converse in their mother tongues. Every conversation is a faux spiritual discourse. It is like a retelling of the epics, where sub-plots are as riveting as the main plot. Where each narrator is allowed his own sub-plot, like it often happens with news on WhatsApp; the detours are more delectable. Hence, speaking only about the trajectory of COVID-19 in a lockdown address is boring, and unengaging. Not surprisingly, he took nearly 18 minutes to come to the point.

A municipal worker sprays disinfectant on the bags of people, as they maintain social distancing while sitting in a line to receive free food distributed by Delhi government, in a school during an extended nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New Delhi, India, April 21, 2020. Photo: Reuters/Anushree Fadnavis

In line with this is state policy to replay the pop version of epics on television. It keeps people in a familiar loop in uncertain times. It constantly reminds them of their karma. That helps the state abdicate responsibility. The individual is responsible for his fate. That is atmanirbharta too. The play on the word atma is anyway an indirect invocation of fate. The anglophone liberal who follows the linearity of a beginning-middle-end narrative may scoff at the meandering, figurative, non-linearity of Modis narratives, but the majority identifies with it.

Any counter to Modi will need the superior skills of an M.K. Gandhi, who knew how to blend European Enlightenment with the enlightenment of Indias loaded past. In an essay by novelist Raja Rao, republished recently, Nehru says: Weve had enough of Rama and Krishna. Not that I do not admire these great figures of our traditions, but theres work to be done. And not to clasp hands before idols while misery and slavery beleaguer us. It may be honest and true, but Gandhi would never clinically segregate the two streams. Therein perhaps lies a clue to all those who intend to bait Modi.

Read more:
If Only People Listened to Modi, They'd Understand Him Better - The Wire

The greatest performance in MLB history happened 18 years ago today.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were facing the Milwaukee Brewers in the finale of a three-game series. Dodgers right fielder Shawn Green, a two-time All-Star, was struggling in the early going of the 2002 season, hitting just .231 through the first 42 games.

Los Angeles lost the opener in Milwaukee 8-6, but Green broke out of his slump with a pair of solo home runs. The next day, Green hit a triple in the Dodgers' 1-0 win, but the best was yet to come. In the third game, Green had arguably the greatest offensive game in the history of baseball.

Not long before his epic game, Green had started studying Buddhism. He applied what he'd learned on the field that day in Milwaukee -- and his focus on Eastern philosophy helped inform and inspire a performance for the ages. In his own words, Green recounts what happened at the plate during that game and how his newfound mental approach helped him perform as no baseball player had before.

Thursday, May 23, 2002

We had a 12 o'clock game in Milwaukee. I got to the ballpark around 9 a.m. to take batting practice. I hadn't been playing well that spring, and I was struggling to get my timing down. I think a big part of it was because I'd had my best season in 2001, when I hit a career-high 49 home runs. I struggled at the start in 2002 because I felt like I needed to exceed it.

I wasn't. A quarter of the way through the season I was on pace to hit 13 homers. I got booed for the first time in my career, during our last homestand before our trip to Milwaukee. I was the No. 3 hitter, and I was 0-for-18 [on the homestand]. It's definitely painful when your home crowd turns on you. That Saturday, our manager, Jim Tracy, came up to me and said, "You really need a break, because you're not playing well." He benched me for a game against the Montreal Expos. I was a guy who wanted to play every day. So it's kind of a big deal when the manager says, "You really need a break."

2 Related

In Milwaukee, I just wanted to ground myself with my tee work. Set up the tee, put the ball on the tube with the four seams facing the right way. Take a swing and kind of get my body where I feel the movements and I can connect with my breathing.

This wasn't just my batting practice. This was my meditation.

At some point in high school, a friend of mine read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and turned me on to it. It resonated with me. Both my parents are Jewish, but my household wasn't religious. I liked Eastern philosophy because it was about finding a way to stay in the moment, be focused and stay present. I devoured other books after that: "Way of the Peaceful Warrior," "Zen in the Art of Archery," "Siddhartha." All of them contributed to how I perceived baseball, especially by the time I was a professional. You know that old Zen koan, "Chop wood, carry water before enlightenment. Chop wood, carry water after enlightenment"? It really made sense to me because baseball is such a process-focused game. A lot of times the results don't add up, so you just have to stick with the process, succumb to the daily routine and sort of let go of what the results are going to be.

That's what I was trying to do on the tee that day in Milwaukee: listen to the sound of the ball as it hit the back of the net. It sounded like the swish of a basketball going through the net, a perfect shot. And I tried to connect with that sense. Something I really liked from "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" was when Dan Millman writes, "You'll have to lose your mind to come to your senses."

The thing about Zen and baseball and how I tried to play -- it's not like you do it all the time. You have to remind yourself to do these things right. And way more so than any other time in my career, that day in Milwaukee was when I was good about remembering to be present.

When I left the cage, I was in a place where my timing, my stride, everything was starting to feel in sync. It was the feeling I'd been searching for the whole season.

Top of the 1st, 1 out, no score

Glen Rusch was on the mound that day for the Brewers. I knew he would try to get me to chase a slider away. When I came to the plate for that first at-bat, we had a guy on second, Cesar Izturis, and I fell behind 0-2 in the count. I thought, "Here we go again, right?"

I took a breath. I wanted to take the doer out of the equation. I thought, "I'm just going to watch and then trust that the pitch is actually a good pitch to hit."

It was down and away, and I just kind of stayed on it -- my front shoulder didn't turn really fast out of the way -- and hit a hard ground ball down the first-base line, just inside the bag, for a double. We scored a run. I was standing on second thinking, "That's a nice, quality at-bat right there." I'd hit a triple the night before and we'd won 1-0. So standing on second the next day, I felt like things were at last starting to turn.

Top of the 2nd, 2 outs, 3-1 Dodgers

The second time up, we had runners on first and second and two outs, but I didn't want to press. So much of Eastern philosophy is just staying relaxed and in the moment. I knew Glen was gonna try a fastball in. I took it for a ball. I didn't overthink, but I knew what Glen was going to throw next: He was gonna come inside.

He threw a fastball on the inside corner. I swung at it. It broke my bat, but the ball took off toward right field. Home run. A three-run shot.

When you do that [homer with a cracked bat], you sort of just want to joke around, show off the bat to the guys: Look how strong I am! But the truth was, I didn't shatter the bat. There was just a crack in it.

What the at-bat really showed me was that I was dialed in. Just completely relaxed. It was me trying to practice everything I'd read.

Top of the 4th, no outs, 8-1 Dodgers

I led off the fourth inning against a rookie I'd never faced before, Brian Mallette. I studied him as he warmed up. Once I was at the plate, I thought one pitch coming my way was a slider. So I waited back a little longer and crushed the ball for a home run. It landed on the walkway in right-center field. I didn't even feel my legs moving as I jogged around the bases.

With each at-bat, I was getting deeper in the zone -- to the point where it really started to feel like I was a spectator, where the pitcher's throwing and it's like I'm just watching how I react. What was even more interesting was that I didn't feel the pressure to analyze my performance or try to hold on to this state. I was just a witness to it.

Top of the 5th, 2 outs, 9-1 Dodgers

The fifth inning was the easiest at-bat of the day. Same pitcher: Mallette. I knew he'd probably throw a two-seam fastball that ran away from me. He was young, and I'd already hit a double and two home runs, so he was going to keep everything to the outside part of the plate. He didn't want anything to do with me. But the outside part of the plate is actually what I wanted. I have long arms and could extend them through the zone. He threw it exactly where I thought he would. I just crushed that one, deep to left-center field.

At this point, I'm 4-for-4 with six RBIs. So yeah: You could say I no longer feel like I'm in a rut.

Top of the 8th, no outs, 10-2 Dodgers

I lead off the eighth inning and I want to hit another home run -- but I'm not over-trying either. I don't change my approach. I'm facing a new pitcher, Jose Cabrera, and on a 1-1 count I swing at a pitch at probably mid-shin level. It was the hardest ball I hit all day. I just couldn't get any air under it. A base hit to center field.

After the inning, Jim Tracy came up to me and said, "Greeny, why don't you hit the showers?" I usually would have taken him up on it. The game was a blowout, and I wouldn't have normally wanted to gear up for another at-bat -- especially after a 5-for-5 day and when we were facing Curt Schilling the next day in Arizona -- but I told him, "Hey, if we get a couple guys up in the ninth, I could get up again."

Part of the reason I wanted to stay in was that I was surprised at being this spectator and not feeling any anxiousness to maintain that feeling, any pressure to hold on to this incredible wave that I'm riding. It was almost this Eastern-inspired curiosity: How is this not changing?

Top of the 9th, 2 outs, 14-2 Dodgers

Cabrera was still the pitcher. I wanted a pitch up in the zone, up above the shins where I'd hit the last one. He threw me one, and I swung as hard as I could. But I foul-tipped it.

So I just waited for the next one. It was on the inner part of the plate, and this time I swung even harder.

The ball landed above the walkway in right-center. The farthest shot of the day. I was just trying so hard not to smile so I didn't show up the Brewers, but the fans in Milwaukee gave me a standing ovation. Me, the guy who'd just been booed at home.

Green goes 6-for-6 that day with six runs, seven RBIs and a record 19 total bases. ESPN's David Schoenfield later picks the performance as the greatest by a hitter in MLB history.

I hear that a lot: the greatest performance ever. It's wonderful to hear. I could get very streaky. The first pitch I saw in the next game -- in Arizona, against Curt Schilling -- I hit for a home run. I ended up with two more hits that day. And the day after that, I had two more home runs and six RBIs. Later that year, I had four home runs in four at-bats across two games against the Angels. Crazy, crazy streaks. The point is: I think studying Zen and Eastern philosophies all those years, they allowed me to go deeper in the zone than other guys.

It made me a better player. It's helped to make me a better person, not think about what you should or shouldn't have done. Just take this moment in front of you. Focus on that.

Green played for five more years, retiring before the 2008 season, and at one point was one of four active players -- the others being Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr. and Gary Sheffield -- with 300 homers, 1,000 RBIs and 150 stolen bases. In 2011, he published a book about the game and his study of Eastern philosophy called "The Way of Baseball." He lives in Southern California.

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Shawn Green and the greatest offensive game in MLB history - ESPN

Events dont create enlightenment; people do

I read the April 26 letter of Dennis Taylor (Potential for enlightenment has never been greater) several times in an effort to determine exactly what point he was trying to make. I could not determine if he was writing about individuals or our nation when he mentioned the hoax of independence and self-reliance.

Only a person who is blind to his surroundings could believe that we are independent as a nation or as individuals. I have been preaching for years that, at least as a nation, we should once again become independent as we were 80 years ago.

Reliance upon other nations for critical material is folly. Global harmony would be great, but it will never happen as long as humans are running things. Too many people believe their way is the only way and want to make everyone conform to their standard.

What defines the worth, character or essentiality of an individual? I agree that money, possessions, education and title are not in themselves the measure of a person, but they are an indication of the qualities necessary to achieve these things. Some of these qualities would be honesty, willingness to work and accepting responsibility.

Everyone should have the opportunity to work, and they should be paid a living wage. We need available jobs to accomplish this. It would also be nice to provide everyone with the opportunity for a quality education, quality medical care and quality social services.

How do you propose to pay for this? We are already $24 trillion in debt, because our government programs were instituted to get votes, and that will never change as long as we keep electing career politicians.

I totally disagree with the third paragraph (to be or not to be). I dont believe in the whatever it takes philosophy. There is no such thing as absolute safety in any endeavor. So what is the proposal for accomplishing this whatever it takes? I dont know anyone who likes to parade around in public with an assault rifle hanging off his chest, and I spent 20 years in the military during the cold war.

On Aug. 26, 2016, I wrote, When all of our people have a decent home; when all of our people have nourishing food; when all of our sick have the best medical care available; when all of our children get a quality education; when none of our children are afraid; when we provide a rewarding and meaningful life for our elderly and our people with disabilities; when our people respect all others; when our well-off people help those in need; when our country is out of debt; when our government takes care of its citizens rather than itself; when we have eliminated crime, poverty, abuse, bigotry and strife; when we do what is right even when no one is looking; when we are a country that other countries respect rather than hate; and when we are strong enough to prevent war rather than foster it; then we will be great.

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Events don't create enlightenment; people do - SCNow

Saturday May2,2020at2:00AM

There is a theory gaining traction on fringe, right-wing websites that we are in a "civil war" caused by Democrats. The theory is vastly misplaced so let's get it right. No doubt there is cultural and political conflict today but it is the product of Trump's authoritarianism, fueled by his lies, and fear mongering.

To retain power Trump is perpetrating a "moral inversion" on his followers. This is a tactic of dictators where truth becomes falsehood, fact is fiction, right is wrong. The follower must obey the authoritarian leader rather than previously held moral beliefs. Hence, they "Liberate Michigan" despite the governor of Michigan's stay-at-home order.

America is the product of Enlightenment thinking, not authoritarianism. The Enlightenment thought is an optimistic belief that people are capable of self-government. It is a belief in individual freedom, reason, science over superstition. The Enlightenment philosophers influenced Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin. Their influence is found in the Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution. It made America a beacon of freedom for the world.

Trump wants to change that so he exploits his followers through a campaign of fear, lies and distortion. He seeks to accumulate more power. He surrounds himself with fools and yes-men. He does not trust people to make political decisions so he lies.The conflict today is between the Enlightenment tradition and pessimistic authoritarianism practiced by Trump. For the sake of all that is decent, the Enlightenment must prevail.

Peter Eriksen

Walden

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Enlightenment thinking must prevail in America - Opinion - recordonline.com - Middletown, NY - Times Herald-Record

Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanti is celebrated with great fervour in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet and numerous other South East Asian countries including Thailand, Tibet, China, Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Mongolia, Cambodia and Indonesia.(UNSPLASH)

The birth anniversary of Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, is celebrated as Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanti with much fervour across the world. It falls on a full moon day in the month of Vaisakh (April/May) according to the Hindu calendar. This year Buddha Purnima will be celebrated on May 7. In Theravada Buddhism, it is also observed as the day when Buddha, born as Prince Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563-483 BCE) attained Nirvana (salvation) under the Mahabodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, Bihar, as well as his death anniversary. The Vesak full moon day is the most important day in the Buddhist calendar. Several Buddhists go to the pagodas to pour water at the foot of the sacred tree in remembrance of the Buddhas Enlightenment.

Buddha Purnima is a major festival celebrated with great pomp and fervour in countries like Sri Lanka (where it is called Vesak), India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Thailand, Tibet, China, Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Mongolia, Cambodia, Singapore and Indonesia, though celebrations vary from country to country.

Devotees of Buddha visit temples, light candles and incense sticks, pray and offer sweets and fruits before the statue of Lord Buddha. Sermons on the life and teachings of Buddha are held and attended by followers all over. People usually dress in white, do not consume non-vegetarian food and distribute kheer, as according to Buddhist lore, on this day a woman named Sujata had offered Buddha a bowl of milk porridge.

Many followers also free caged birds on this day as a symbol of empathy and compassion for all living beings, one of the most important teachings of Lord Buddha.

In India, a large fair takes place in Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, a major Buddhist pilgrimage site where Buddha is said to have delivered his first sermon after attaining enlightenment. The relics of Buddha are taken out for public display in a procession. Many Hindus also believe Buddha to be the ninth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. This year, with coronavirus pandemic and nationwide lockdown, now in phase 3, the celebrations are likely to look different.

According to the British Library blog, Every full moon day is an auspicious day for Buddhists, but the most important of all is the day of the full moon in May, because three major events in the life of the Gotama Buddha took place on this day. Firstly, the Buddha-to-be, Prince Siddhattha was born at Lumbini Grove on the full moon day in May. Secondly, after six years of hardship, he attained enlightenment under the shade of the Bodhi tree and became Gotama Buddha at Bodh Gaya also on the full moon day of May. Thirdly, after 45 years of teaching the Truth, when he was eighty, at Kusinara, he passed away to nibbana, the cessation of all desire, on the full moon day of May.

Buddhas teachings to use in your daily lives:

Soon after Buddha achieved enlightenment, he gave his first discourse called Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta or Turning the Wheel of Dhamma, to five ascetics in the deer park at Isipatana in Benares (present-day Varanasi). These five ascetics became his first disciples and his teachings attracted many followers, who then joined the Sangha, the community of monks. Lord Buddha thereafter visited his ailing father to preach the Dhamma. After hearing his teachings, the king attained arahatta (perfect sanctity) before he passed away. This was followed by The Buddha preaching the Abhidhamma or the Higher Doctrine to his former mother, who was reborn as a deva with other deities in the Tavatimsa heaven. He then founded the order of Buddhist nuns. During his long ministry that lasted forty-five years, Lord Buddha walked throughout North India, and taught about the suffering of life, how to end it, how to attain peace and nibbana, to all those who listened.

Here are some of Gautam Buddhas teachings that you can use in your daily life:

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you.

If you knew what I know about the power of giving you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.

Learn this from water: loud splashes the brook but the oceans depth are calm.

You only lose what you cling to.

The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. Theres only one moment for you to live.

The trouble is, you think you have time.

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

The tongue like a sharp knife Kills without drawing blood.

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

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Buddha Purnima 2020: Heres everything you need to know about Gautam Buddhas birth anniversary - Hindustan Times

The National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The 1880s marked the beginnings of the mass migration to the US of Jewish immigrants from Imperial Russias Pale of Settlement, whom Germans and German Jews derogatorily called Ostjuden. This migration was paralleled even preceded by another movement: the Americanization of the Eastern European Jews.

Antomir, the shtetl where the eponymous hero of Abraham Cahans The Rise of David Levinsky was born, was close to Grodno, one of the proudest Jewish communities in Lithuania. But by the 1880s, Antomir was already in the grip of the centrifugal forces of modernization both pushing and pulling that broke the spell of the Talmud irretrievably for Jews like Levinsky.

Speaking for Cahan, Levinsky explained how hunger transformed his life: first, the living thing in his belly; then, the thirsting for an appetizer for some violent change, for piquant sensation that could not really be separated from the moment when that word America first caught my fancy. Memoirists Shmarya Levin and Milton Hindus confirmed the pre-migration power of Americanization even before Cahan and Levinsky abandoned Eastern Europe.

Benjamin Franklin the internationally-celebrated author, scientist, diplomat, and founding father figures in this story because the Americanization of traditional European Jewry started almost a century before the 1880s.

May 6, 2020 7:52 am

J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter novels in Yiddish are the most recent of a long line of popular translations, of which Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin (1857) translated into Hebrew as well as Yiddish was the most famous and influential. The pioneering book to introduce Franklins self-improvement maxims to a Jewish audience was not in Yiddish but Hebrew: Sefer Heshbon Ha-nefesh (The Book of Spiritual Accounting), first published in 1808 by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Lefin. Lefins book makes no explicit mention of Franklin or his autobiography, but the listing of 13 character traits or virtues, to be emulated in a 13-week cycle, is almost a carbon copy of Franklins.

Lefin acknowledged his debt in an unpublished work not uncovered until the 1920s. The most significant difference between Franklins and Lefins books was that the American Enlightenment thinker meant to edify Virtuous and good Men of all Nations, while Lefin designed his book specifically to be a work of musar (ethical instruction) that would reinforce the morality of his Jewish readers.

The story of how Franklins self-help classic came to be introduced to a Jewish audience starts with its publication in a flawed French translation in 1791. As Nancy Sinkoff has shown, the critical link between the American Enlightenment and Eastern European Jews was Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, an English-educated Polish aristocrat. He knew Franklin personally; both belonged to the Parisian Masonic Lodge, Les Neuf Soeurs. Czartoryski probably met Lefin in Podolia (now in Ukraine). Czartoryski not only hired Lefin to tutor his sons in the sciences (which Lefin had studied in Berlin), but later assisted Lefin in publishing his books.

Rabbi Israel Salanter, who introduced musar into Orthodoxy, had Lefins book republished in the 1840s, which increased its readership and spread Franklins message to more Jews.

Historian Harold Brackman is coauthor with Ephraim Isaac of From Abraham to Obama: A History of Jews, Africans, and African Americans (Africa World Press, 2015).

Continued here:
Benjamin Franklin's Unintended Influence on the Jewish Community - Algemeiner

Mercury meets the Sun at superior conjunction on Monday, on the other side of the Sun from Earth, then the Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower peaks toward dawn on Tuesday, followed by Full Moon on Thursday morning. What are your plans for the week?

When Mercury has this meeting with the stars beyond the Sun, its as though the ancient communicator god is gathering divine messages for bearing earthward at its next inferior conjunction, which will come round on June 30th. So think of May 4th as a placeholder where there may be a clue for messages youll receive later next month.

But what makes this meeting of Mercury with the Sun and stars so intriguing this week is that it occurs just as the Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower kicks up. Even though this shower is best seen from the southern hemisphere, its still possible to catch some of its falling stars in the early hours of Tuesday morning, May 5th. The star names in Aquarius all have to do with fortune and good luck, so these are truly the wishing stars! Not only that, it was near the radiant of this shower that William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781. In esoteric star wisdom, Uranus is considered the gateway to the occult, connected with initiation and the Mysteries.

Then on Wednesday evening, at the eve of this months Full Moon, theres a fun viewing opportunity, if you can get yourself to a spot where both the eastern and western horizons are visible. The nearly Full Moon will rise around 8 pm in the East, while the Sun will set in the West a little less than an hour later, just before 9 pm.

In Buddhist tradition, the Buddha is born, achieves enlightenment and is transfigured all on the May Full Moon. So well let this mighty being speak the message for this week: Three things cannot be long hidden, the Sun, the Moon, and the Truth.

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The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth: this week on the Storyteller's Night Sky - Interlochen