Youth Advocacy
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 50 (240 total reports)
15.01.20245-23.01.2025
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dr. Jerry Goebel, MBA, D.Min.
There is no doubt that the Orange Felon of Mar-A-Lago has started an authoritarian regime, but he is surrounded by sycophants, not advisors. Though the policies he has already decreed are damaging, he probably has no ability to sustain the plan (or concept of a plan) he promised.
Song of the Week
This compilation is filled with songs about dissenters like MLK, Rosa Parks, John Lewis and others. Please take a moment to listen to the 10 songs that are biopics of human rights activists.
Top Links of the Week
23.01.2025
Trump’s Second Term Might Have Already Peaked
This is an excellent article in the tradition of Atlantic’s excellence in journalism. The Atlantic is a news source I trust and subscribe to and find it worth the investment almost daily. In this article, the author, Jonathon Chait, points out that 47 has not surrounded himself with expertise, but with sycophants, so yes, there are many short-term, executive actions that 47 can take that will be damaging, but governance by Executive Action can be easily reversed. Also, Chait points out, the Orange Felon of Mar-A-Lago came to power—not with plans—but “concepts” of plans. He has no real idea how to carry out the long-term commitments he made to voters and he—especially—has no advisors to turn to help him achieve true policy change. The GOP will do whatever he says, but there is no one to tell him what to do or how to do it. For that reason, Chait suggests that 47’s administration may have already peaked.
20.01.2025
How the US is destroying young people's future
I love TED Talks and this one is exceptional. For those of us who work with young people (or have them in your family), this talk is very important. Also, I think it applies beyond the border of the US, to other consumerist countries that see success from the perspective of a financial litmus test. There are many alternatives to measures of success including, happiness, purpose, kindness, and service. What could you do to help fortify young people’s futures so they don’t get trapped into degrading consumerist viewpoints that measure a person’s value by how much they have or what they do?
19.01.2025
What MLK knew that today’s progressives keep forgetting
Nonviolent Resistance, or satyagraha, comes from the Sanskrit words satya, meaning "truth", and āgraha, meaning "insistence" or "holding firmly to.” MLK studied this technique and philosophy as applied by Gandhi both in South Africa and then in India. Over the next years, understanding the methods and techniques of MLK and Gandhi will become increasingly important. This week especially, let us focus our thoughts on MLK’s birthday (actually on January 15, but celebrated in US on January 20) rather than the inauguration of the Orange Felon and the current victory lap of Project 2025.
18.01.2025
Focus Your Attention On These 11 Things People Can't Take Away From You
With the inauguration of the Orange Felon of Mar-A-Lago about to occur, I can’t think of a more appropriate article to help us through the next “whatever” years. As we battle government-by-oligarchy, it’s important to remember there are battles we don’t have to fight—and that we can already claim. The traits in this article are critical for healthy thinking. Please read them through and pass them on.
17.01.2025
Soaring wealth inequality has remade the map of American prosperity
Biden said it and Bernie Sanders agrees, “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms.” This will undoubtedly be the primary issue—not just in the US—but in the world, for this decade (and perhaps longer). It is not just redefining the map of American prosperity, but indeed, global prosperity. This WILL affect our children and grandchildren’s generation and we must equip ourselves—and them—to resist.
16.01.2025
US barrels ahead with school smartphone bans — despite weak evidence that they help
Nothing prompts a faster knee-jerk response among North American educators than students being distracted in their classroom. Rather than address the deeper issue (lack of student engagement. The US is seeking a total back. In Finland, teachers and students learn how to incorporate Smartphones into daily life. The problem with banning smartphones is that they are rapidly becoming a part of all of our everyday lives—positive or negative. Banning is guaranteed to be negative if our young people graduate with no concept of how to use AI (read Augmented Intelligence, nor Artificial Intelligence) or how to recognize fake news and disinformation.
15.01.2025
Pete Hegseth Declines to Answer
This is how it starts, folks. The razzle-dazzle, spin-em-fast demise of democracy brought to you by Project 2025 and the Orange Felon of Mar-A-Lago. Nominees for some of the most powerful positions in the world, filled by people who support the Orange Man and his revenge-focused agenda. Being qualified—doesn’t matter, leadership experience, —doesn’t matter, national security—doesn’t matter, character—doesn’t matter, so what does matter? Kissing the Orange Clown shoes… The GOP, in their continued dereliction of duty, refused to ask any difficult or job-related questions of Hegseth for fear of being “taken behind the wood shed,” by the cult following. But this is just how it starts. Way to go, supporters of MAGA cult, you now have a front-row seat watching our country be sold to the highest builders and most acquiescent.
