"This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. It is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings."                                        - Joanna Macy

This week Liz Lenz challenged the notion of a strict red-blue political divide in America, noting instead that such divisions are exaggerated and largely shaped by socioeconomic factors, particularly wealth. 

"This divide never existed," she says, "or if it does, it has more to do with money than with politics. And we understand each other perfectly."

Then in her candid and forthright way, she shares the day-to-day reality of being a single mom in Iowa in 2024. "I think of the myth," she says, "as I’ve parented across the political divide. My kids exist in both worlds. In one, the coronavirus was made in a lab in China, kitty litter boxes populate schools and public school teachers try to groom kids to change their gender. 

"They also exist in my house, where we watched news coverage of the insurrection; where we regularly hang out with queer people; where I’ve helped them research and dissect why no, kids aren’t being shipped in Wayfair furniture. It’s a house where they hear about how their aunt’s life was saved by an abortion."

She concludes by saying that she knows that "even after the election, this political reality won’t go away. That billionaire’s kid will still be trans. Your neighbor will still blast right-wing talk radio. Chuds online will still call you fat and ugly for not being married or procreating. That dad will still stand up in the school board meeting and accuse everyone of brainwashing his kids with sexually explicit books. The progressive mom with a 'love is love' sign in her yard will still white-flight to a better school district."

"...But I will still be here. And this is not some cheery comment on unity or what binds us together....We’d all love to tune out. To unsubscribe. To resign and retreat. But there’s no impenetrable blue bubble, no safe haven available to any but the wealthiest. There is only one America, and we’re all still living in it."

Essay: The Myth of Red States and Blue States

"Gen Z is known for channeling personal passions into social and environmental causes, holding a high standard for taking care of our people and the earth. 

"Young people are not devoting themselves to specific politicians or parties, opting to rally behind issues directly impacting their lives and futures. With voters aged 18-34 constituting nearly one-fifth of the American electorate, they’re already shaping the future of the nation’s democracy. The issues they support—chief among them, climate change—reflect a priority to protect the civil liberties and world they’re inheriting." - Mahlet Sugebo

Article: The Top Four Causes Igniting Young People

Related Article: The Issues That Matter Most to Teenagers in This Election

"At Education Reimagined, our big bet is that education systems need to look a lot more like learner-centered ecosystems. We see the work right now as bigger than just improving individual schools; it’s about weaving the fabric of our communities back together. Upward mobility, especially for those furthest from opportunity, is deeply connected to education and community, therefore; these two things can no longer be divorced from one another. Yes, we must keep supporting learner-centered schools, but we also must create systems conducive for them to spread and reach all families. As Sam Chaltain describes it: 

“'Education Reimagined’s big bet is that the best way to impact American education writ large is not primarily by seeding singular schools (as important as that is), but by reimagining the larger organizing principle of each community’s commitment to its children—away from the sclerotic model of a ‘unified’ district, and towards the nascent notion of a truly ecological approach in which a community’s full wealth of existing resources—from its libraries to its public parks to its civic partners to, yes, its schools— are intentionally woven together with a new set of organizations, adult roles, and learning pathways to result in a more vibrant set of everyday experiences for young people that are relevant, fulfilling, and perhaps even fun.'” - Emily Liebtag

Article: A New Operating System for Public Education: Learner-Centered Ecosystems

"In her essay collection Pleasure Activism, activist adrienne maree brown writes, 'Pleasure activism asserts that we all need and deserve pleasure and that our social structures must reflect this. … Pleasure activism acts from an analysis that pleasure is a natural, safe and liberated part of life—and that we can offer each other tools and education to make sure sex, desire, connection, and other pleasures aren’t life-threatening or harming, but life-enriching.'  

"With a new school year in full swing and elections around the corner, it’s only normal that we’re feeling anxious about what could happen this fall. This is especially true for young people, whose sexual and reproductive freedom hangs in the balance as we face abortion bans, attacks on trans care, birth control and more." -  Ale Pedraza Buenahora, Mia Henderson

Article: Why We Need to Prioritize Pleasure-Centric Approaches in Sex Education

"When you first load the page to Feminist Spatial Practices (FSP), a new online archive, the site appears to be a collage of multicolor organic shapes and hundreds of vibrant squares. But zoom in and pixelated icons start to appear. Click on any one of them and you’ll discover an encyclopedia-like entry for a feminist collective, project, protest, publication (and more): The Combahee River Collective’s 1977 manifesto for Black feminism; a biography of Margarette Schütte-Lihotzky, one of Austria’s first women architects and a socialist activist; and a link to a booklet by the Tender Yet Furious Oracle, a collective of disabled, sick, and caregiving cultural workers. 

“'We wanted to shake up the way people think about feminism in the built environment,' says Bryony Roberts, an architect and one of the project’s cofounders. 'I think a lot of the discussion about the topic focuses on issues of representation, and this idea that if you just put enough people who identify as women in certain positions, then that will address any kind of gender inequities. We were interested in an approach to feminism that is about ways of making and ways of knowing.'” - Diana Budds

Article: This Addictive Website is a Master Class in Feminist Design History

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