Vote Your Conscience, No Wasted Vote. Here’s How.

Do you want there to be viable third parties, but don’t want to hand the presidency to someone you despise? It’s easy. It’s called strategic voting, and it worked wonders for Canadian liberals in 2015. 

Do this: If you are a progressive in a deeply red state, vote Green. If you’re a conservative in a deeply blue state, vote Libertarian. If you’re in a swing state, vote for the major-party candidate closest to your values (you swing-staters are the only ones whose votes will actually determine the next president). If your state matches your major party’s politics, vote party line (Democrats in blue states should vote Clinton; Republicans in red states should vote Trump). 

Here’s a handy state-by-state chart for progressives; conservatives can flip it. 

Here’s why: in a blue state like California, conservative votes will not keep Hillary out of the White House, because she is likely to win California by a large margin, taking all of that state's electoral votes with her. Trump won’t spend much time there because he knows this. But Gary Johnson desperately needs those conservative Californian votes if there is ever to be an alternative to the Republican party. If he gets more than 15% of the vote, the Libertarians will have real influence. That would be very good for conservative politics going forward. 

The reverse is true in Louisiana: a vote for Hillary is a waste of a progressive vote - it won’t affect the outcome. But that same vote has huge value to Jill Stein and her Green party. A strong viable Green party would be very good for liberal politics going forward.

The most broken thing about American politics (OK, one of the most broken things) is that the two major parties collude with one another to keep third parties out of the process. 2016 is a chance to fix this without affecting the outcome of the presidential race. 

Vote strategically. 

Sixteen Precious Words

On July 24th, 2016, I got a chance to test-drive a TED talk idea while leading a summer "discussion service" at a church in Queens, NY.  It's a bold, probably crazy idea: "Science Could Unite the World's Religions." It was a lively discussion, with about 25 people.

There was one young woman whose body language said "actively engaged" but who didn't say much. It turns out she was only there because a church member is experimenting with using meetup.com to promote their summer discussions. Visiting from India, this young woman saw an interesting-looking meetup, so she came.

Anyhow, when she finally did speak, she said only sixteen words, sixteen precious words that distilled all of my Seven Candles work of the last four years into a single sentence. Those sixteen words are so good, and so concise, I made a graphic to illustrate them. Please share, so her wisdom reaches a wide audience. [It is my joy to be one of the translators!]  jd

Befriending the Thief

 

A homily on death, delivered at the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg for the Annual Service of Remembrance, Feb 21, 2016. 

Rebirth

For several years this blog has languished while I worked on Seven Candles projects. I'm back. I realized this blog is not limited to poetic writings - I can post anything here. So be prepared! Let's start with something I wrote back in 2008 and filed away. Seems relevant in this election season.

Transformation, like Fire, has three ingredients:

Fuel – Community (People who know each other and have dynamic relations together)

Oxygen – Ritual (singing, dancing, prayer, meditation, sports, washing dishes, walking, etc)

Heat – Risk (anything that is out of the routine, involves taking a step towards the unknown/uncomfortable, and happens with the knowledge, support, and encouragement of the community)