Youth Advocacy
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 343 (233 total reports)
28.11.2024-04.12.2024
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dr. Jerry Goebel, MBA, D.Min.
The US has determined it would prefer a government of rulers, not leaders. How can we prepare our children for the consequences of Project 2025 and the years following?
Song of the Week
What is the difference between a government of Rulers and a government of Leaders? That is examined in this song. Of course the style had to be Hip-Hop. Here’s a sample lyric; “If laws don’t apply to the political ones they’re rulers, not leaders.”
Top Links of the Week
04.12.2024
South Korea’s Warning for Washington
A critically important event has been unfolding in one of the US’s allies on the Pacific, it has immense connotations for how their pending new Authoritarian Administration under Project 2025 could play out. That nation, of course, is South Korea, and this article goes into some depth about why we all need to be aware of how that fledgling democracy’s current martial law situation developed and how it is playing out. It could indeed present a roadmap of how to save a democracy from tyranny.
03.12.2024
How to Tell Stories That Move Mountains
Storytelling is the key to leadership. According to Yuval Noah Harari (and this is a very reductive appraisal of his amazing book, “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”) the person (group) with the most prevalent myth wins. Every religion, every political movement, every war, every civilization, is built on myth. Storytelling is the way that myth is conveyed. Influential leaders know this fact and incorporate it. Many organizations that recognize this are now substituting the term, CEO (Chief Executive Officer) with CNO (Chief Narrating Officer). Can you turn your business plan into a compelling story? Your budget? This article will give you key insights into using storytelling to motivate and move your people. In the last election, the Democratic Party failed to tell a story that compelled a significant majority to vote for their party, it cost them the election.
02.12.2024
Writer Thoreau warned of brain rot in 1854. Now it's the Oxford Word of 2024
Oxford’s Word of the Year is not new to thinkers like Thoreau. Henry David used the term to warn against “oversimpilification,” in his book “Walden.” Articles like this are important because they analyze how we got here and identify what it means. Our next step is to chart a way back—for ourselves—for our children. Most people would blame our compulsion to social media for our current mind-decaying situation, but—like money—social media is value-neutral. Our usage and the way it has come to dominate our dopamine-starved, reward cycle is what we need to analyze and address. Banning young people from social media is not the answer; teaching people (of all ages) to develop the discipline of rigidly verifying their sources is a beginning. “Who said that?” “What was the context?” “Where did they get their information?” “Where’s the proof of their results?” This should become standard questions for all our educational efforts. Teaching children to think critically—and the best teaching is always modeling—begins at home, but must be included in our schools. However, the chances of an authoritarian regime, like Project 2025, encouraging voters to “check their sources,” is slim to nil. Acceptance, not examination, is their end-goal.
02.12.2024
The End of Democratic Delusions
It’s going to take years to unravel what happened in the last election, even to understand what to call the age of politics that has begun under the “Trump Reaction”—yes, sadly, as this article points out, D-Trump has loomed over American politics now for as long as FDR was president. What made DonOLD attractive to so many voters and what made Democrats so unelectable? We need more insightful articles like this to understand and respond.
01.12.2024
How to Love Yourself, With All Your Flaws
This link inspired me to write a new song, “The Words We Use Inside…” about the words and phrases often passed down by those guiding us as children. Often (usually) those words become our own words that we speak internally as we “raise ourselves.” Left unexamined, these words can prevent us from taking risks that could lead to growth and accepting that perfection—as opposed to failure—is the superior indicator of measuring our propensity for growth.
30.11.2024
Lessons from Civil Rights Activism for Today’s Social Divide
The history of Civil Rights Activism (or Social Resistance) is a topic that we can be sure won’t be taught in schools under the new Project 2025 administration. Indeed, “Civil Rights” will probably be mocked in much the same way as DEI and being “Woke (compassionate).” It will become increasingly important to re-establish alternative ways of educating ourselves and our children. What do you need to teach at home, that kids will NOT be learning in a Christian Nationalist education system? This book may be an important one to put on the shelves in your home or institution, to aid those around you in teaching the history of Civil Rights Activism. Check out the song, “Teach It Anyway,” for an example of how we can raise children who will be compassionate and caring in a society that often sees winning and domination as preferred values.
29.11.2024
The True Threat to Democracy Is Our Unelected Oligarchy
It would be easy to see Trump as the primary threat to democracy, but what is easy is often deceptive and our brains inherently oversimplify due to the way we have evolved. What’s important to remember is that the Orange Clown is merely a deception, the true threat is Project 2025 and its propensity for an unelected oligarchy. They want to elect someone they can control and that can fascinate the masses. At the time of the election, J.D. Vance was not that meme. Now, the true powers behind Donny OLD, have time on their side, perhaps two years—longer if they can create ways to interrupt the interim election in 2026.
28.11.2024
How AI Will Impact the Future of Teaching—a Conversation With Sal Khan
Sal Khan is the brilliant founder of “The Khan Academy” and “Kahnmigo.” I believe he is one of the most respected names in education today, and, I’m not alone, so when Khan speaks about the future of AI and Education combined, I am all ears. If you are connected to any child that is getting an education (or going to get one), this is a must-read. There needs to be a way forward for the two (AI and Education) to collaborate, because children who cannot compete in a world infused with AI will be at a complete disadvantage and we can’t leave technology up to the people at Project 2025 and Elon Musk.