Posts of Stephen Rockwell RSSSun, 04 May 2025 15:32:53 GMTWe are looking for beta testers for our new boycotts/economic activism app.  Find instructions and feedback form here: forms.office.com/r/6baPGKk91z This one of the first attempts to apply AI to activism. Thank you in advance for your feedback as we aim to build a tools to empower your activism.

]]>Sun, 04 May 2025 15:32:53 GMTDear Canadian Friends,For the better part of two centuries, we have lived peaceably side by side. Our border—the longest undefended in the world—has stood not just as a line on a map, but as a symbol of our shared values: democracy, peace, cooperation, and mutual respect.It’s in that spirit of friendship that we write to express our deepest regrets and apologies for the recent actions taken by the Trump administration that may have caused offense, strain, or disruption to our longstanding partnership. Whether it’s erratic trade decisions, diplomatic slights, or rhetoric that stokes division, we want you to know: this is not who we are.Americans are not a monolith. Millions of us are resisting this autocratic tide. We are organizing, protesting, voting, and working every day to uphold the ideals we believe in—ideals that we know are shared with you: equity, justice, compassion, and peace. From grassroots movements to courageous local leadership, there is a fierce and growing resistance here committed to restoring the soul of our democracy.To our Canadian brothers and sisters: thank you. Thank you for your patience, your continued friendship, and your example. You've shown the world what inclusive, principled leadership can look like. And in this moment of global uncertainty, your steady voice means more than ever.Let us be clear: this chapter in American politics does not define the future of our country or the relationship we share with yours. Together, as peace-loving people across borders, we will overcome. The bonds of friendship, forged over centuries and sealed in shared sacrifice and common cause, are stronger than the winds of any one administration.We’re still here. And we’re still with you.With hope and determination,Your friends in the United StatesPlease sign the letter in the comments below.

]]>Sun, 30 Mar 2025 01:25:07 GMTCivil Society Needs to Switch Gears...And FastFor years, many of us working in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors have quietly believed in a certain kind of progress. We’ve honed our technocratic expertise, built robust data systems, refined elegant theories of change, and partnered with government agencies to deliver incremental social good. We’ve lived in the promise of rational policymaking and evidence-based solutions.But that world is gone.The actions taken by Donald Trump and his enablers have not just bent the guardrails of democracy—they’ve shattered them. We are living through a rapid shift toward autocracy, and the institutions many of us counted on to drive positive change are either compromised, dismantled, or rendered irrelevant. If you’re feeling disoriented, that’s because the ground has shifted beneath your feet.The Collapse of the TechnocracyConsider the nonprofit sector's traditional toolbox: research reports, policy briefs, sophisticated data modeling, program evaluations. What happens when the data goes offline? When public agencies no longer want your evidence, because evidence itself is a threat? When USAID, once a bedrock of international development, is gutted beyond recognition, leaving partners and communities in the lurch?In the face of autocracy, carefully laid strategic plans and five-year outcome metrics aren’t just insufficient—they’re rendered largely irrelevant. Well-crafted theories of change are being blown up in real time by executive orders, authoritarian posturing, and the active dismantling of democratic norms.Back to Our RootsFor those of us who entered this work with a calling to build a more just world, this is not the time to manage decline or retreat into our nonprofit industrial complex ways. This is a moment to rediscover the fundamental power of collective action. Historically, the most significant social and political transformations have not emerged from nonprofit programs alone but from movements that demanded s... Read more

]]>Sat, 08 Mar 2025 01:40:55 GMTEverywhere I turn, a new movement is underfoot.  Having declared victory over the evils of discrimination and hatred, institutions around the country are moving on from their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, known more commonly as the apparently pejorative term of “DEI.”  For some reason, I had not realized that are long national nightmare of systemic oppression and derisively othering various groups had come to an end. But I sure am glad to learn the news!We did it! Right?!  After four centuries of chattel slavery, Jim Crow, and de facto wide-spread discrimination, America’s “Negro Problem” is finally solved.   We accommodate our disabled friends fully in all aspects of our common life. Antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of religious discrimination have been transformed as we are now the religiously pluralistic society envisioned in the first Amendment.  We have realized the great melting pot and are now a nation that welcomes immigrants, no matter their origin. Women have realized equal pay for equal work, their bodily sovereignty is protected, and they no longer face the incredible risk of sexual violence that they used to.  Trans folks are fully accepted without fear for their lives and our gay friends feel welcome no matter where they go. Poverty?  Economic class is a thing of the past and no kid goes hungry at night. Police violence targeting minorities?  No longer.Congrats America!  We did it!  I mean it must be true. If happy, diversity commercials-laden Target is out on DEI, then we definitely solved it. Universities deeply committed to DEI work have brought their programs to an end, so we must have reached equitable outcomes in education.  Medical schools find themselves dropping DEI, so health care equity must be the case as well. So proud of us for having finally conquered the multitude of issues that DEI covers.  And to think, we did all of this less than 5 years after the mur... Read more

]]>Sat, 22 Feb 2025 23:05:30 GMTI received the news that Dr. James Turner, my professor at Cornell University, passed away. An activist and academic, his teaching, guidance, and wisdom shaped generations of students. Reading the social media posts of friends and the University, memories came to me initially in a trickle and then a downpour. Revisiting the various touch points he had on my intellectual and moral development, I gained even deeper clarity on the how much he influenced who I am today and the commitments that I have made to myself and my community about the how to live my life.In my first semester on campus, I ran for the student council and surprisingly won, setting me on a path of student politics that consumed much of my undergrad experience and leading me to be in consistent contact with Dr. Turner. More important to my development in the fall of 1995, I stood on the outskirts of a rally with great trepidation, close enough to hear and observe, bur far enough away so that no one would confuse me as a committed participant. The topic of the rally was program houses, in particular the three residential halls themed around racial and ethnic culture that were under near constant attack from all corners: the administration, alumni, and the national press. Student speakers expressed their fears and deep frustrations in such profound ways that they moved me to the cause. If the student speeches would not have landed, Dr. Turner would have taken care of doing so. Even before speaking he was the subject of my attention. His dignified presence and serene gaze over any convening instilled a cool confidence in what he was about to say. He was usually one of the last speakers, appropriately because he could bring it home like no one else I have seen before or since. His public speaking generated an electric energy with an academic capacity to break down an opposing argument leaving it in absolute tatters. He also had a purposeful sense of humor that would lighten the indignity being perpetrated... Read more

]]>Wed, 17 Aug 2022 11:42:22 GMTThe last two weeks a radical right wing Supreme Court radically transformed American life in all the wrong ways across a broad array of issues: women's rights, environmental regulations, gun safety, immigrant rights, indigenous rights, housing, public health, and protecting people from police violence. The conservative majority made decisions to take away fundamental rights and in other cases the Court stripped away legislation and regulation that the overwhelming majority of Americans desire and demand. The Supreme Court fed every right wing ideological bent undermining their own legitimacy and with it, the foundations of our democratic republic. Our democracy does not consistently represent the will of the people in any branch of government creating a crisis of legitimacy in the eyes of its citizens. The ongoing January 6 hearings remind of us how razor thin close we were to a dictatorship. This reality is sadly reinforced by a Republican Party within which support for the outcome of dictatorship far outweighs the voices of reason fair and free elections. We are living in times when it is courageous and notable for Republicans to simply voice support for the basic tenets of democracy and the longstanding norms and functions of the Constitution. The moribund state of American political parties are not just an issue for one side.   We should be rightfully concerned about the fecklessness of the Democratic Party establishment that finds great difficulty in prosecuting traitors who led an insurrection and refuses robustly and politically to ostracize enablers and supporters of would be autocrats. The Democrats seem to look the gift horse of hold majoritarian positions on most issues in the mouth, failing time and again to advocate forcefully and to implement the will of the people.  The challenges of our day require more than the political wrangling of normal politics, of the promise of winning the next election. The current situation requires a fu... Read more

]]>Mon, 04 Jul 2022 16:04:47 GMTI don't think any of us have any doubt that peaceful protests lead by BIPOC communities are treated differently.  We saw this in the uprising this summer. Can you imagine if there was a violent storming of the Capitol? There's just no way there would be such a light law enforcement, no way there would have been a small number of arrests, no way it wouldn't have been met with law enforcement violence, no way folks would have been casually walking in and out of the Capitol. I'm glad the media are using appropriate terms like insurrection, mob violence, and domestic terrorism, and accountability is now required.#impeach and #convict#25thamendment

]]>Thu, 07 Jan 2021 15:28:51 GMTYesterday, I said the election would be called.  If Philly didn't lose an hour counting votes because of a Trump lawsuit and Allegheny County would have counted votes yesterday we would have had a winner.  We will have a winner declared today and it will be Joe Biden.  The question is what happens next?  Most have been concerned about whether Trump would cede power in any type of normal way or whether he would foment violence and civil strife.  It was clear from his bonkers presser yesterday, that there is reason for concern.We have seen lots of acts of violence from right wing Trump supporters over the last few months and years:The armed militia Covid/anti-masks protests have involved armed folks storming state houses in Michigan, Kentucky and elsewhereThe plot to kidnap the MI governorThe shooting and killing two peaceful protestors in WisconsinThe running over of peaceful protestors (https://slate.com/business/2020/06/george-floyd-protests-cars-ramming-racism.amp) Running over Heather Heyer in CharlottesvilleTrying to run a Biden campaign bus off the road. Steve Brannon, one of Trumps former staffers and fomenter of right wing protest, was banned from Twitter yesterday for saying we should behead Dr. Fauci and Chris Wray.Lou Dobbs said Republicans should surround Philadelphia which yielded a hilarious response from Philly:  https://www.inquirer.com/news/fox-news-republicans-philadelphia-haters-twitter-20201105.htmlOther examples cited: https://kevinjshay44.medium.com/right-wing-provocateurs-likely-inflaming-protest-violence-bcf1c48e1d40There have been lots of other cases and they aren't leftist radicals according the the AP: https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-race-and-ethnicity-suburbs-health-racial-injustice-7edf9027af1878283f3818d96c54f748Let's be clear that past dangerous rhetoric from Trump has led his supporters into violence to the point of wanting to create an insurrection against a duly elected governor. &nbs... Read more

]]>Fri, 06 Nov 2020 14:08:15 GMTBiden is winning today after Wisconsin and Michigan were called yesterday. The nation has been holding its collective breath for some time now.  As we turn purple, and not just from holding our breath, we realize that this was no blowout election and the country is a lot more purple than we're willing to admit to ourselves. The Blue Wall will be won by less than half a million votes across 3 states and only about 3% of the popular vote.  69 million Americans voted for Donald Trump, a racist with fascist proclivities and a completely mishandled pandemic.  What if there hadn't been a pandemic?  More to come on this another day.Pennsylvania - The votes that come in from Philadelphia today will put Biden over the top.  The Trump lead dwindled from 650k to 150k votes since election night and there's still at least 300k votes to  Philadelphia alone and maybe a couple hundred thousand throughout the state.  Biden wins with a very defensible 150k-200k vote margin.  This will give Biden 273 electoral votes.Georgia - We're down to 18k votes in Georgia with still as many as 200k votes and still largely in blue areas.  Biden will win and just as importantly Sen. Purdue will slip under 50% in his contest vs. Jon Ossof.  Both GA Senate races will go to a runoff with the control of the Senate in balance.  Thank you Stacey Abrams.  May the winning vote for Biden be cast in John Lewis's congressional district.  This will give Biden 289 electoral votes.Arizona - Fox News surprisingly called this first and the AP followed suit.  I'm still a little nervous, but think he gets it.  This would give Biden 300 electoral votes.Nevada - Not sure what's going on here and why the long lead times between vote tally sharing...anyone have insight?  Let's assume a positive return.  This would give Biden 306 electoral votes, 2 more than Trump won in 2016. North Carolina - Biden still has a chance... Read more

]]>Thu, 05 Nov 2020 13:51:37 GMTI think Biden wins, but it shouldn't have been close.  Many of my friends of color have reached out with feelings of disappointment and dismay about the fact that yet again so many Americans are willing to look they other way when it comes to racism and xenophobia.  i have to agree. The fact that its close means that we're really beyond the pale as a country or that middle of the road Biden really wasn't the right candidate. I think its a little bit of both.If almost half of our fellow citizens are at least tolerable of racism/white supremacy and in many cases actually supportive...we are in a really bad place as a nation.If almost half of our fellow citizens are content with gross incompetence leading to tens of thousands of deaths in a pandemic...we are in a bad place  And its also true that Biden was everyone's last choice in the primary and that centrist Dems pulled together.  Every time the Democrats run a centrist since 2000 we've lost.  Obama ran as a progressive even if he governed as a centrist.   People do want to vote for change and inspirational candidates.  That is not Biden and of course we know that.  He's a good guy, but a 78 year old white dude who's not all the inspirational is not our best choice. So much more work to do...

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