You Can Change Your Mind and the World
"We are living in exceptional, unique, extraordinary times, because it is the time for transformation and time for women." -Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo


Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum received her Doctor of Philosophy in energy engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She has co-authored over 100 articles and two books on energy, the environment, and sustainable development.
Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University in 1988, then studied at Oxford, where he earned a master's degree in economics in 1993 and a doctorate in 1995.
We have intelligent leaders across the constructed borders to our north and south. Borders are always in flux, as Don Trump has made clear with his calls to expand the American Empire by taking Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Canada.
I’d much prefer that parts of the U.S. become Canada’s next province and Mexico’s next state. Until the Mexican-American war ended in 1848, the American Southwest was in Mexico. Borders change. Alliances change, along with hearts and minds. Nothing is static. From the atomic level up, everything keeps moving.
Yet, we perceive things to be stuck. The Democratic Party, for instance, appears to be stuck. Thankfully, there are a few powerful people in the party who recognize the stasis and are working dilligently to melt the amber cast around the party and return it to life.
For one, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut wants to move the Democratic Party to a new and much better place. In an interview with the editor of The New Yorker, he said:
...we need to be engaged in risk-tolerant behavior right now. Because ultimately, the only way to save the democracy is for there to be a national public mobilization—of not thousands, not tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands of people—when the five-alarm fire happens. If the public doesn’t see us taking risks—tactical risks, daily risks—then they are not going to take what will be a risk on their part, standing up to a repressive regime where it’s clear that the government is willing to make you pay a personal price if you exercise your voice.
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American universities, courts, and journalists are all paying a high price right now.
Meghan O’Rourke is the editor of The Yale Review and a professor in the English department at Yale University. In her recent guest essay for The New York Times, she discussed Trump’s quest to destroy institutions of higher learning.
Conservatives have been trying to reshape the American university since the federal government began funding it in earnest in the mid-20th century. But now the Trump administration appears prepared to destroy it.
She concludes, “What is really happening here is an attack on the American faith in knowledge as a value and a public good that has served us well.”
How’s your faith in knowledge holding up? How about your faith in government, elections, elected officials, et al?
Our collective faith in institutions and in expertise has been seriously damaged by decades of lies, charades, and shenanigans. It did not start with Trump and it won’t end with him. The battle for liberty and justice never ends.
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As we find our way through this contemporary American-made disaster, many of us seek answers and a path back to sanity and decency. What exactly are we supposed to do?
If you still have faith in elections, calling your elected officials makes sense, but what about those of us who have lost faith in elections and business as usual? What are we to do? Here’s one thing. Don’t let the MAGAts occupy your mind. Don’t give them that victory.
If we’re perpetually reacting to the disgusting news of the day, we’re letting them knock us off balance and distract us from the work to remake ourselves and America in the process.
It’s time to build new systems and create new realities that replace the broken ones in place today. Buckminster Fuller famously said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
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The battle for liberty and justice never ends and creating new models to replace obsolete models is how we make change.
Let’s not return to an America of broken promises and dishonorable deeds.
It’s time to make a new America, one that asks forgiveness for our original sins (genocide and slavery). Greed and conquest have had their moments in the sun. It’s time to truly cooperate and to lift up the humanity in all people.
When you’re ready to spark a social change movement or create an arts project, let me know. Together, we can reach higher and make the changes we want to see in the world.