Jun 23 2019
After a weekend conversation with someone about the topic of inclusion, I thought it would be a good moment to explore it as a #PeaceMatters theme. From US presidential candidates to pop songs, this week’s news delivered on inclusion (or its absence) in spades.
(Too busy to read and click through all the article links? Listen to this podcast episode, for highlights on the go.)
As The World Turns
Gotcha news story, or genuine misstep?
The 2020 US presidential election campaign is well underway, with two dozen candidates vying for the Democratic party nomination. This week, two front-runners had to deal with race-related controversies. Which had me wondering if this was a valid, or valuable, part of the vetting process…of whether media outlets might be getting hot under the collar for nothing.
Now that I’ve followed one full presidential and congressional campaign cycle, it’s clear that news outlets sometimes chase a headline that isn’t consequential, or that doesn’t make a difference to the average voter…all for the mighty advertising dollar.
With that in mind, I tracked:
– former Vice President Joe Biden invoking his ability to work with segregationists during his time in the US Senate
– South Bend, Michigan, Mayor Pete Buttigieg pausing his campaign to return to his mayoral duties when a white South Bend police officer shot a black man.
Race relations in America are contentious and long-standing. For every good intention and desire to include African Americans as full and equal members of society, there is a off-handed remark or impulsive shooting that builds another layer of mistrust. As far as these two news stories go, I’m willing to give these candidates the benefit of the doubt. But they need to understand that racial tensions are running high, and citizens are no longer content with pat answers or skin-deep solutions.
Reparations – who and how?
When I first moved to America in the late 2000s, I only knew what America had exported to me via its idealized pop culture. Life was frothy, and everyone had access to the American Dream.
Now I know better.
So when the US House Judiciary Committee began a hearing for “H.R. 40 and the Path to Restorative Justice” this week, the issues echoed the news stories I’d read, and the experts I’d listened to through the years, about all the ways that African Americans are still institutionally enslaved, and why reparations – while practically tricky to navigate – are valid and necessary.
Watch my take on it in this episode from my weekday #PeaceMattersLIVE show:
Om Is Where The Heart Is
And music shall petition us…
Pop icon Taylor Swift dropped her latest music video “You Need to Calm Down” this week. The end frame asks her fans to sign an online petition in support of the LGBTQ-related Equality Act that’s making its way through the US Congress’ legislative process.
There has been some harsh criticism of her video, from both sides of the LGBTQ rights debate. And yet, controversy or not, the video has already been viewed about 50 million times, and that online petition blew past its 200,000 signature goal soon after the video was released, and is now aiming to gather 500,000 signatures.
Taylor Swift looks to be flexing more of her political activism muscles with this move, and it will be interesting to see if this is a one-off from her, or a sign of even more to come in future songs and albums.
Freddie croons again
We lost many of our 1980s music icons too soon, or at least it feels that way. And we do what we can to keep them close.
So it was no surprise to watch a “new” music video from Freddie Mercury this week, for a previously-unreleased version of the 1986 song Time Waits for No One. With lyrics like this, it was the perfect gift for my week’s reflection on inclusion:
Time waits for nobody
Time waits for nobody
We all must plan our hopes together
Or we’ll have no more future at all
Time waits for nobody
News and Views
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In the next issue:
Things are heating up between the US and Iran, and the world’s top economies are meeting for their annual G20 summit. I’ll see if either of these generates ideas for our next newsletter.
Till then…
Live well and lead large – Maya
(featured image by Rochelle Brown on Unsplash)