Moved by Love

Inspired by the liberated imagination

This is my third and last ELECTION EXTRA newsletter before the US election.

Read Part 1 of my ELECtION EXTRA.

Read Part 2 of my ELECTION EXTRA.

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PARTY HEARTY

We really are at war right now. It's a clash of the liberated imagination against the shackled imagination. It's a struggle on behalf of empathy and compassion against bigotry, oligarchy, misogyny, and proud selfishness.

It's a showdown of love and beauty against the ugly forces of mass psychosis and grotesque, vacuous heartlessness.

But I hope we also bring the spirit of celebration to our struggle. I hope we remember to PARTY HEARTY. Let’s summon an ecstatic sense of connection with all of creation, which after all is behind our passionate embrace and endorsement of the powers of love.

The art above is by Shiloh McCloud with Michelle Noe, created for the cover of Alice Walker's book Hard Times Require Furious Dancing

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I VOTED FOR THE SALTY AIR AND THE SINGING BROOK

Let's also keep poetry and wonder simmering Below is a poem called "Election" by Alfred K. LaMotte:

I voted.
I voted for the rainbow.
I voted for the cry of a loon.

I voted for my grandfather’s bones
that feed beetles now.

I voted for a singing brook that sparkles
under a North Dakota bean field.

I voted for salty air through which the whimbrel flies
south along the shores of two continents.

I voted for melting snow that returns to the wellspring
of darkness, where the sky is born from the earth.

I voted for daemonic mushrooms in the loam,
and the old democracy of worms.

I voted for the wordless treaty that cannot be broken
by white men or brown, because it is made of star semen,
thistle sap, hieroglyphs of the weevil in prairie oak.

I voted for the local, the small, the brim
that does not spill over, the abolition of waste,
the luxury of enough.

I voted for the commonwealth of the ancient forest,
a larva for every beak, a wing-tinted flower
for every moth’s disguise, a well-fed mammal’s corpse
for every colony of maggots.

I voted for open borders between death and birth.

I voted on the ballot of a fallen leaf of sycamore
that cannot be erased, for it becomes the dust and rain,
and then a tree again.

I voted for more fallow time to cultivate wildflowers,
more recess in schools to cultivate play,
more leisure, tax free, more space between days.

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MOVED BY LOVE

"Kama muta" is Sanskrit term that refers to an emotion that might also be called “moved by love." It's an under-recognised emotion that has evolved to bind us to others and strengthen our relationships. It motivates us to embrace and care for other people.

Kama muta enhances our commitment to our relationships and encourages us to act with greater compassion and kindness. We experience it at some of the most important events of our lives – births, weddings, and funerals – and it is commonly exploited by writers, directors and marketeers to enhance the emotional impact of their stories.

More about kama muta: https://tinyurl.com/KamaMuta

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meme words by Rand Howells

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SMALL ACTS OF COMPASSION MULTIPLIED BY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE

Radical historian Howard Zinn: We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.

Even when we don't "win," there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope.

An optimist isn't necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.

"If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

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The Mayan phrase "In Lak'ech Ala K'in" means "I am you, and you are me" or "I am another yourself."

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WHY VOTE IF YOU’RE NOT IN A SWING STATE?

A reader asked me, "How do you respond to people in, say, the San Francisco Bay Area who think they don't need to bother voting for president because California is going to go blue?"

Here's my reply: Because the bigger the total popular vote that Harris racks up in the United States, the more convincing her victory will be and the more we will have the authority to say that MAGA is a feckless minority.

We also need to send Democratic majorities to the House of Representatives and Senate—as well as to elect non-Trumpians in every local and state office in America.

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BYE-BYE TO THOSE WHO SAY I’M STUPID AND DISGUSTING

In recent months, I have written passionately about the US election in this newsletter. Among the themes I have discussed is how crucial it is for us Americans to elect Kamala Harris and reject Trump's vile theocratic fascism.

For any reader who has even casually browsed my writing over the years, this is clearly not an alteration in my course. Since I began expressing myself in public over 40 years ago, I have ALWAYS been a staunch advocate of democratic socialist principles.

But I was mildly surprised to find that there were a few hundred of my Substack readers who were staunchly in favor of Trump and offended by my views. In the past few weeks, 45 paying subscribers rancorously unsubscribed from my newsletter. Many of them sent notes describing me as "stupid," "disgusting," and "ignorant.”

As I'm sure the rest of you can imagine, I have zero regrets about having to pay a financial penalty for expressing my high ideals. The American experiment is in dire danger, and I am willing to sacrifice to do my small part to save it.

ONE MAN’S ABORTION STORY

One of two presidential candidates will win the election. And only one can and will do everything possible to restore abortion rights and re-establish women's full sovereignty over their own bodies.

I'm here to say that abortion is also a key issue for men. We have a sacred duty to support women's right to have full sovereignty over their own bodies.

Here's my abortion story: My ability to become who I aspired to be would have been impossible without legal abortion.

Earlier in my life, a women partner and I had abortions. I am fortunate we weren't forced to bring children into the world that we couldn't properly care for.

Ultimately, my wife and I chose exactly when we wanted to welcome a new human—when I had enough money and emotional maturity to do so.

Legal abortion made it possible for me to be a conscious, loving father for the one child I helped to raise.

My life is successful, and an important factor in that grace has been legal abortion.

PS: The words of the meme above are by Drew Dellinger: https://tinyurl.com/DrewDellingerSays

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HOW CRUCIAL IT IS TO VOTE FOR HARRIS ACCORDING TO BERNIE SANDERS

Here is five minutes of Senator Bernie Sanders using his exquisite, impeccable, Virgo-style language to explain how crucial it is we vote for Kamala Harris, even if we disagree with her about Gaza: https://tinyurl.com/BernieVotesKamala

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EUROPE’S GREEN PARTIES ASK JILL STEIN TO WITHDRAW FROM THE RACE

Europe’s Green Parties want Jill Stein to pull out of the US election to prevent a Trump victory.

“The race for the White House is too close for comfort,” write parties from around Europe, calling on Stein to throw her support behind Democrat Kamala Harris.

This plea is from Green Parties in Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia, Belgium, Spain, Poland, and Ukraine.

More: https://tinyurl.com/SteinWithdraw

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ANGELA DAVIS FOR HARRIS

Progressive activist Angela Davis recommends voting for Kamala Harris. She says: “It’s about opening space for those of us who are more radical than Kamala Harris to put anti-capitalist and anti-racist programs forward and increase the pressure for change.

"It is to enlarge the terrain of mass struggle, to guarantee a space for the trade union movement to win victories, for the women’s movement to win victories, for people of color to win victories, for working and poor people to win victories."

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SURPRISING PROGRESSIVISM

Many progressives don’t know how progressive Joe Biden's administration has been.

Senator Bernie Sanders says, "Biden has been the most effective president of our lifetime."

This article from The New Yorker provides more evidence: https://archive.ph/gPQRl

Here’s a link to lists of the Biden Administration’s hundreds of progressive actions: https://tinyurl.com/BidenProgressive