By Amy Harth, Coffee Party Member and Volunteer

Some thoughts as we close out September, which is both suicide prevention month and chronic pain awareness month.

1. It’s lovely to make generic posts about listening to people who have suicidal ideation. Please know that people with depression and other mental illnesses struggle with asking for help. If you know someone is dealing with these things, reach out regularly.

2. People who do not have or do not appear to have suicidal ideation need you to reach out to them and offer support too. Support shouldn’t require worst case scenarios to offer or ask for help. People are often reluctant to ask for help until the situation is desperate. Your proactive contact can help people avoid some desperation and despair.

3. What does reaching out look like? It’s sending a text to say hi. It’s inviting someone to an event. It’s telling someone why you are glad they are in your life. It’s the acts of friendship and being in relation to each other. You don’t need to be a therapist to be there for your friends.

4. You can be a valuable supportive person to your friends and family. At the same time, you are not in control of how they feel or their decisions. Your love cannot eliminate mental illness. It’s not helpful to anyone to place that kind of pressure on yourself. Make sure you are getting support too. We all need it. People with mental Illness (and chronic pain) are more likely to find community together so it’s especially important to work toward sustainable supportive relationships.

 

Whether getting one to go or lingering over a second cup, on September 29 be sure to observe National Coffee Day!

As I did last year, I am asking my readers to celebrate National Coffee Day by contributing to Coffee Party USA.  Time to be a good environmentalist and recycle what I wrote on National Coffee Ice Cream Day.

I am celebrating National Coffee...Day by asking my readers to donate to my favorite nonprofit, Coffee Party USA.  I am a director and officer of the organization and I just donated $88.00 in addition to my regular $10.00 monthly dues.*  That's far more than I expect my readers to donate, so instead I am asking my readers to please make a donation to match what I donated on National Nonprofit Day or my regular monthly contribution.

I described where your money and mine will go in Coffee Party USA announces the winners of the 2017-2018 Golden Coffee Cups for television.

Coffee Party USA ia a 501c(4) nonprofit social welfare organization dedicated to empowering and connecting communities to reclaim our government for the people.  To support its efforts, which include educating the public on our website and on our Facebook page, registering people to vote with our partners TurboVote and National Voter Registration Day, and reminding them to vote through our Voter Buddy program, please consider donating.  A donation of $10.00 for ten years of Coffee Party USA is recommended.  For those who wish to give at a higher level of support and be more involved in the organization, please consider becoming a member.  To do the valuable work of the Coffee Party, as well as vote for future Golden Coffee Cup nominees and winners, volunteer.  Not only will Coffee Party USA thank you for it, so will our democracy!

The Board of Directors is also holding its annual retreat at the end of this month, and your donations will help support our meeting while we plan the direction of the organization through next year.

Thanks for reading my appeal and even more thanks if you matched my dues through your donation by clicking on the red "please donate" bottom on the lower left of your screen or became a member by clicking on the blue "become a member" button to the lower right.

...

*I decided this year that I would make a matching donation to Coffee Party USA for any donation I made to any other nonprofit this year.  Since I just renewed my my dual membership to the Detroit Zoo for $88.00, that means I matched it for the Coffee Party.  I also donated $40.00 last month to match the $40.00 I paid to vote in the 2019 Saturn Awards.  I'm not asking my readers to match those donations, but if any of you did, the Coffee Party and I would appreciate you and your donation!

Now treat yourself to a cup of coffee.  There are lots of deals out there today.  Go find one!

Vince Lamb

Coffee Party USA Secretary

Original posted at Vince Lamb's personal blog, Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

With local elections happening in a few weeks, every eligible American voter should exercise his or her right to be heard at the ballot box this year and next. National Voter Registration Day is the right place to start by getting registered.

That is why communities across the country are planning to use National Voter Registration Day to increase voter participation.

Thousands of national, state, and local organizations and volunteers will be the driving force behind National Voter Registration Day 2019. Partner organizations will coordinate hundreds of National Voter Registration Day events nationwide and leverage #NationalVoterRegistrationDay on all social media platforms to drive attention to voter registration and the midterm elections.

Coffee Party USA is proud to be a National Voter Registration Day partner.  Today, Coffee Party USA is engaging its constituency and community by registering voters online at Coffee Party USA's Turbovote page.  The effort’s website, www.NationalVoterRegistrationDay.org, provides a listing of National Voter Registration Day events across the country.

Founded in 2012, National Voter Registration Day is designed to create an annual moment when the entire nation focuses on registering Americans to exercise their most basic right – the right to vote. More than two million Americans have registered to vote on this day since the inaugural National Voter Registration Day. For inquiries about National Voter Registration Day, please contact: [email protected]

Coffee Party USA ia a 501c(4) nonprofit social welfare organization dedicated to empowering and connecting communities to reclaim our government for the people.

If you are a coffee lover and a lover of ice cream, then this is the food holiday you look forward to every year.  National Coffee Ice Cream Day is observed annually on September 6th.

Since today is a coffee national day, I'm using it to promote Coffee Party USA, just like I did last year on National Ice Cream Day by being a good environmentalist and recycling and updating what I wrote for National Nonprofit Day 2019.

I am celebrating National Coffee Ice Cream Day by asking my readers to donate to my favorite nonprofit, Coffee Party USA. Click on the red "please donate" button on the bottom left corner of your screen to contribute.  I am a director and officer of the organization and I just donated $88.00 in addition to my regular $10.00 monthly dues.*  That's far more than I expect my readers to donate, so instead I am asking my readers to please make a donation to match what I donated on National Nonprofit Day or my regular monthly contribution.

I described where your money and mine will go in Coffee Party USA announces the winners of the 2017-2018 Golden Coffee Cups for television.

Coffee Party USA ia a 501c(4) nonprofit social welfare organization dedicated to empowering and connecting communities to reclaim our government for the people.  To support its efforts, which include educating the public on our website and on our Facebook page, registering people to vote with our partners TurboVote and National Voter Registration Day, and reminding them to vote through our Voter Buddy program, please consider donating.  A donation of $10.00 for ten years of Coffee Party USA is recommended.  For those who wish to give at a higher level of support and be more involved in the organization, please consider becoming a member.  To do the valuable work of the Coffee Party, as well as vote for future Golden Coffee Cup nominees and winners, volunteer.  Not only will Coffee Party USA thank you for it, so will the country!

The Board of Directors is also holding its annual retreat at the end of this month, and your donations will help support our meeting while we plan the direction of the organization through next year.

*I decided this year that I would make a matching donation to Coffee Party USA for any donation I made to any other nonprofit this year.  Since I just renewed my my dual membership to the Detroit Zoo for $88.00, that means I matched it for the Coffee Party.  I also donated $40.00 last month to match the $40.00 I paid to vote in the 2019 Saturn Awards.  I'm not asking my readers to match those donations, but if any of you did, the Coffee Party and I would appreciate you and your donation!

Thanks for reading my appeal and even more thanks if you matched my dues through your donation by clicking on the red "please donate" bottom on the lower left of your screen or became a member by clicking on the blue "become a member" button to the lower right.

Vince Lamb

Coffee Party USA Secretary

Modified from the original at Vince’s personal blog, Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.

The volunteers of Coffee Party USA are not done recognizing the best of politics and government on television.  Watch for an announcement of the nominees from the 2018-2019 television season next month.

Coffee Party USA ia a 501c(4) nonprofit social welfare organization dedicated to empowering and connecting communities to reclaim our government for the people.  To support its efforts, which include educating the public on our website and on our Facebook page, registering people to vote with our partners TurboVote and National Voter Registration Day, and reminding them to vote through our Voter Buddy program, please consider donating.  A donation of $10.00 for ten years of Coffee Party USA is recommended.  For those who wish to give at a higher level of support and be more involved in the organization, please consider becoming a member.  To do the valuable work of the Coffee Party, as well as vote for future Golden Coffee Cup nominees and winners, volunteer.  Not only will Coffee Party USA thank you for it, so will the country!

Read the rest at Coffee Party Secretary Vince Lamb's personal blog, Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

I described where your money and mine will go in Happy 9th Birthday, Coffee Party USA!

Your donation will allow "you to be a part of the important work of Coffee Party USA as we empower and connect communities to reclaim our government for the people."  It will go to improving our website, the new version of which Coffee Party USA debuted in October and registering people to vote with our partners TurboVote and National Voter Registration Day.  There are municipal and some state elections coming up this year and people need to be registered and reminded to vote in them.

Thank you in advance for your matching donation.

Once again, Happy National Nonprofit Day and Coffee Party on!

Vince Lamb

Coffee Party USA Secretary

Modified from the original at Vince's personal blog, Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

Political tension is built into the fabric of our nation. The Founders intentionally created a checks and balances tension that forces cooperation and enforces collaboration across political differences.

However …

…when “we� are in power, we wish those checks and balances were not in our way.

…when “they� are in power, we are grateful for the tension that limits the tyranny of the majority.

Good tension maintains the strength of a suspension bridge; creates beautiful music from a guitar string; produces lovely woven and knitted fabrics.

But, of course, there are other meanings of the word “tension:� definitions that include words like headache, anxiety, stress, anger.

This is where too many of us find ourselves in today’s political climate. This is why Parker Palmer wrote his wonderful little book: Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit.

Mr. Palmer reminds us of the remarkable character of President Abraham Lincoln. During a time of national crisis even more dangerous than our own current situation:

refused to split North and South into “good guys� and “bad guys,� a split that might have taken us closer to the national version of suicide.

Instead, in his second inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1865, a month before the end of the Civil War, Lincoln appealed for “malice toward none� and “charity for all,� animated by what one writer calls an “awe-inspiring sense of love for all� who bore the brunt of the battle.

In his appeal to a deeply divided America, Lincoln points to an essential fact of our life together: if we are to survive and thrive, we must hold its divisions and contradictions with compassion, lest we lose our democracy.

Lincoln has much to teach us about embracing political tension in a way that opens our hearts to each other, no matter how deep our differences.

“If we are to survive and thrive, we must hold divisions and contradictions with compassion…�

Unfortunately, our nation did not heed Lincoln’s wisdom. Instead, during the years after the Civil War, too many Americans from both North and South refused charity and instead treated one another with contempt and condescension.

Today we are heirs to that ugly foolishness. Today malevolent seeds of that national tension continue to push their way out through the cracks of our society and spread like poison ivy, infecting us all.

In this our current age of divisions and contradictions, we have another opportunity to turn our nation toward compassion and healing.

It won’t be easy.

It won’t be quick.

But if enough of us accept the challenge President Lincoln offered so many years ago, then maybe - just maybe - we can reverse the damage to our democratic republic that threatens us.

Across the spectrum left to right, too many of us are choosing malice instead of charity. On all sides, too many of us choose self-righteousness over self-reflection so that we jump to judgments, stereotypes and labels as we consider our fellow Americans.

This ugly foolishness can only lead to our national suicide.

The alternative is to reclaim the original meaning of tension that the Founders intended. We the People must lead the way (since our so-called leaders will not). We must embrace the tension, hold the contradictions with compassion and allow our differences and diversity to become our greatest strength.

Only then can we heal the heart of our democracy.

 

 

 

 

Charlotte Coyle blogs about intersections of faith, politics and culture at her website: CharlotteVaughanCoyle.com. She is a past-president of Coffee Party USA and a retired minister.

Thom Hartmann is a national and internationally syndicated talk show host and author of The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment. Talkers magazine named him America's most important progressive host and has named his show one of the top ten talk radio shows in the country every year for over a decade. A four-time recipient of the Project Censored Award, Hartmann is also a New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five books, translated into multiple languages.

Thom Hartmann stopped by to do a Coffee Party Talk about his latest book.  Here is that discussion with Coffee Party USA Director Bobby Rodrigo.

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The writing is thorough and Thom's narrative is offered in the promo for the book:

Taking his typically in-depth, historically informed view, Thom Hartmann examines the brutal role guns have played in American history, from the genocide of the Native Americans to the enforcement of slavery (Slave Patrols are in fact the Second Amendment's “well-regulated militias”) and the racist post–Civil War social order. He shows how the NRA and conservative Supreme Court justices used specious logic to invent a virtually unlimited individual right to own guns, which has enabled the ever-growing number of mass shootings in the United States. But Hartmann also identifies a handful of powerful, commonsense solutions that would break the power of the gun lobby and restore the understanding of the Second Amendment that the Framers of the Constitution intended. This is the kind of brief, brilliant analysis for which Hartmann is justly renowned.

COFFEE PARTY TALKS

 

Civility has recently been getting kind of a bad rap. No matter what your political beliefs are, most people would agree that the current president has a rhetorical style that could generously be called anti-civil. Some would even say divisive. Characterizing those who dissent as enemies and providing creative nicknames for those who disagree aren't the ingredients of a healthy conversation. Resisting the urge to counterpunch, however, is necessary for addressing the underlying causes of our country's divisions.

Supporters of our current president have recently decried the most vocal voices of the resistance as being beyond the pale and called for more civil discourse... all while accepting divisiveness from the commander-in-chief. On the left, this has led to a "by-any-means-necessary" approach to resisting the current administration.

Civility and the way we talk to one another is being weaponized in the age of Trump.

Recently I've started listening to a podcast by Dylan Marron called “Conversations With People Who Hate Me”. Earlier this year, Dylan's TED Talk discussed his interactions with the type of negative online comments that led to the concept for the podcast. The podcast seeks to engage those who use the pseudo-anonymity of the Internet to leave hateful and potentially destructive comments, and then talks about the issues that led to those comments. Many times, the negative posters choose not to engage further but, occasionally, a conversation begins. That's where the magic happens.

For many, their beliefs stem from very real life situations. Their worldview, no matter how antithetical to my own, originated from life experiences that fostered these views. As a listener to the podcast, I'm a fly on the wall in this conversation. I find myself internally raging at the homophobic, racist, or intolerant philosophy being discussed but, through it all, I hear the person and the life events that led him or her down the path divergent from my own.

In a country where diversity is encouraged, recognizing the humanity of those you disagree with is the key to societal healing.

One of the core pillars of the American experiment is encouraging diversity of thought. This is enshrined in our First Amendment.The drawback is that the philosophies I find inimical are afforded the same freedoms as those with which I find rapport. Equal freedom doesn't, by any means, imply equivalence among beliefs… only that they are equally protected. In order to craft an America we are proud of, we must continue to fight against philosophies of intolerance and disenfranchisement that degrade the American ideal. But meeting this with intolerance does not help win the war.

Fight the philosophy, not the people.

Taking the battle to the believers actually empowers their philosophy. Beliefs like white nationalism thrive on a narrative that a war is being waged on their culture. Outrage against the proponents only strengthens that narrative. Further, social reprisal is not enough to quell a movement. There was much violence brought to those at Selma and Stonewall which did little to quiet the civil rights movement that continues to this day. Punching Nazis today does little but intensify their belief that they are the ones under siege and motivate them to keep fighting.

I understand that in advocating civility I speak from a position of privilege. There are many who have been marginalized by society for so long that they have no empathy to give to their oppressors, and pain from such conversations can be too much to bear. I'm not here to preach that the only way to resist is through civil conversation, but I fear that by focusing on carving up ideologies, we are losing a powerful tool in breaking down the divides and finding common ground.

When we're fighting, we stop listening. When we listen, we can understand the motivations that cause people to adopt a toxic philosophy. Only then can we address the destructive ideology itself. Understanding and empathy are not synonyms for normalization and acceptance — we can both listen and #resist. In fact, we can most effectively defeat divisions by breaking down the wall between "us" and "them".

The antidote to divisiveness is communication, conversation, and civility.

Werner Hager is a scientist, author, and a volunteer and board member of Coffee Party USA.  As a mentor for high school robotics students, he is actively building a new generations of engaged, thoughtful, and passionate members of the body politic.

Everyone expresses themselves differently.  I do not enjoy writing articles and blog posts.  So my friends, I leave you with an original poem.  I hope you enjoy it. I hope it inspires you to sit down, enjoy a cup of coffee and talk.  Just talk and listen. Talk about anything. Leave the problems of the world aside for a few minutes and connect with people around you.

 

Coffee Party

Common ground.

Strangers and neighbors.

Distasteful and rude

Polite and daring.

Enjoying a cup of together.

Black as night.

Sugared up creamy.

Coffee, tea, wine,

Water transformed.

Common ground.

 

Notice our Coffee Party USA logo: red and blue hands circling a warm cup of coffee in purple unity, civility and integrity. Common Ground. This is what we are about!