October 2018

Demystifying Activism

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THE DEMYSTIFYING ACTIVISM COURSE IS STARTING ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31st. SIGN UP NOW AND QUALIFY FOR THE EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT

THE COURSE WILL MEET FOR THREE ONE HOUR SESSIONS ON ZOOM FOR THREE CONSECUTIVE WEDNESDAYS

See below for details regarding dates, times and cost for the pilot course. Come join me and and be part of the conversation! Those who join the pilot course will save 50% over the regular price. If you sign up by Friday, October 19th, you can save almost 75% of the regular price for the course.

Also, if you can’t make the initial dates, let me know as I will be offering this course on a regular basis going forward as I hope to start many group conversations about how we can make a difference in the age of Trump. How can we respond in love and not fear, to be proactive and not reactive?

Do you want to make a difference in the world but demonstrating, phoning your congressman and posting angry posts on social media is not your thing? Or if it is your thing, maybe you want to
learn how to do it in a way that has greater impact?

Maybe you are an introvert or maybe you’re an artist or a musician who isn’t into demonstrating or joining protest marches, but you are upset about injustice and want to do something concrete about it.

To demystify activism, I am going to be hosting three one-hour live seminars on Zoom (an internet video conference system) that will help you discover what you personally can do to find your voice and to make a difference. By the end of the course, you will be able to confidently take an action of your choice on some issue that concerns you.

If you’re wondering if this course is for you read below and see if any of the following apply to you:

Are you frustrated or even angry about the state of the world today? It’s natural and okay to be angry by the way. It means you have a heart and can feel. Anger motivates us to do something about injustice. We’d be less than human if we didn’t sometimes get really angry about injustice.

Or maybe you are numb or depressed or despondent about the state of American politics where political debates regularly pit us against them, i.e. left against right, women against men, white people against black and brown people, Democrats against Republicans, gun control advocates against gun control opponents? Debates which result in the dehumanisation of whole swathes of people based on gender, ethnicity or immigration status? Do you long to create a space in the conversation where the dignity of all human beings is respected and heard?

For example, did the Kavanaugh/Ford hearings trigger your own memories of being sexually harassed or abused and cause you to wish you could able to transform your pain into meaningful and lasting change? Are you interested in the #metoo movement or the #blacklivesmatter movement? Or maybe you’re upset about the persistent inequality of women in business, politics, the church or in whatever organised religion you practice, or the inequality of women more generally? Or perhaps you’re concerned about climate change and want to learn how to do something practical to address it?

Do you long to make a difference in the world but you don’t know how? Do you feel paralysed because there are too many problems and you don’t know where to start? Do you ask yourself who am I anyway to even try as I work full time or I’m a stay-at-home mom, or I live in a tiny rural community and there is no way l can make an impact in the world?

Do you feel silenced and that as a result, your voice doesn’t matter? Are you longing to find your voice and learn how to use it to speak out about a specific situation of injustice which is really bothering you and maybe keeping you awake at nights?

If any of the above apply to you, this course is for you! There is hope! Be encouraged that you can make a difference just by being you. Yes, really! Little ole you and me have been given all we need inside of us to make a difference.

In all your wonderfulness of who you are, the gifts, experiences, talents and your ‘youness’, you have what it takes to make a difference in this world. It is possible, and not only possible, but very exciting and even potentially life changing, to discover the ways in which your life can have more meaning and significance on this planet.

No talents or gifts are too small or too insignificant. Please come join me and others as I practically show you how and where you can make a difference. All you need to participate is access to a computer and an internet connection. The course will be very interactive and conversational with like-minded people.

If you are interested, messenger me on Facebook or email me at nkhogan60@gmail.com and let me know.

The dates and times for the first course are:

Wednesday, October 31, 2018 at 11 a.m. EDT 
Wednesday November 7, 2018 at 11 a.m. EST
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 at 11 a.m. EST

NB:   These times are all for the East Coast of the United States. Please note that clocks go back in the US on November 4, 2018 which will not impact the timing of the course in the United States. If you are in other time zones in the US or elsewhere, let me know and I can help you figure out what time the course will be for you.

Also, here is a link to a handy tool to calculate time differences where you are.  http://www.worldtimebuddy.com

For example, for the UK the course will tale place on these Wednesdays at 3 pm on the 31st of October and then at 4 pm the following two weeks. (The clocks go back one week earlier in the UK and Europe)

COST: $79.99

Please note that the price for this course is normally $150, but as this is the pilot course, I’m offering it at a discount in exchange for feedback. Come and be part of shaping this course going forward!

Sign up for the early bird discount. If you sign up and pay by Friday evening EDT, save 25% and pay only $60 for a total savings of almost 75% over the initial price.

To sign up, email me or messenger me and I will tell you how you can pay and register using PayPal. When you sign up, I will send you the course outline and initial pre-course assignment. Don’t worry, it’s fun and will prepare you for our time together.

Also, if you have more questions about the course or want to invite others to attend, let me know. Message me or mail me at nkhogan60@gmail.com

After Kavanaugh: Where do we go from here?

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After Kavanaugh, where do we go from here?  Do we give up?  Is despair an option, do we hide, do we self medicate with alcohol?  Do we fight?  If we fight, how?

The Kavanaugh—Christine Blasey Ford hearing and aftermath have been much debated, and lots has been written about what happened by those on both sides.   The purpose of this blog is not to rehash these debates.  The final straw for many, myself included, was when, at a political rally,  the President of the United States openly mocked Blasey Ford and her painful story about being sexually assaulted.  He egged his supporters on too who also laughed.  The cruelty of their laughter, especially after she shared in her testimony when asked what the thing she remembered the most from her assault, was the laughter of her alleged assailants, Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge, is crazy-making.  What has happened to empathy in today’s political discourse?   How is this even remotely okay?  What kind of society is President Trump building if this is the fruit?

And people, women especially, are understandably angry at this confirmation process and the utter lack of regard, understanding, compassion and measured speech towards a woman who had nothing to gain and everything to lose by coming forward; and who was forced to come forward because someone (no one knows for sure who yet) leaked the private letter she sent to Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Anger is an important and necessary emotion because it compels us to act as long as we don’t let it turn inward into despair, depression and bitterness. So what do we do with the rage we’re feeling?  Allowing ourselves to become numb to the incessant eroding of American democracy and civil discourse is not an option either.

The question now becomes how do we channel this anger into political action?  The Republicans fought a 40-year battle to get a majority of conservatives on the Supreme Court so that they could overturn Roe V. Wade and with Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Supreme Court, and they won this battle.  What will our 40-year battle be for those who disagree with the vision of America that the Republicans have shown us by their actions.  A vision that is all about keeping and maintaining white male privilege–remember all the Republican Senators on the Judiciary were elderly white men.  And such narrow vision that it excludes minorities and women from power or from contributing to the political discourse.  A vision that viewed a woman who was a victim of sexual assault as an obstacle to be run over rather than a precious human being whose story must be heard and considered in a respectful manner.  A vision that required winning at any cost where the ends seemed to justify any and all means to the point that this confirmation hearing was rushed through without thorough vetting of the candidate, a candidate who during the final hearing was at turns angry, belligerent and disrespectful to the senators, especially the female ones who questioned him.

What about a vision for an inclusive multicultural society?  What vision would inspire you to work hard at it for 40 years come hell or high water until it was achieved?  What would a vision of hope and love look like?  How can we work to create a fairer, more just world that extends genuine equality to women and to minorities?

How can we do politics differently?  What is a positive vision of human flourishing that we’d like to see 40 years from now.  Can we articulate it?  Can we begin to articulate and write it down?  What does that feel like?  How do we feel once we’ve achieved our vision of diversity?  What is worth our working in love and hope for 40 years look like?  What vision would inspire us and our better angels?  Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech is one image.  What are others?  Can you write your own I have a dream speech about justice and equality being extended to every segment of the population regardless of gender, nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, class, age, sexual preference, sex or dis/ability?  Write that out.  What inspires you?  What lifts your heart?  What feelings are you feeling as you write out this vision.

Then, how do we shift the debate and not debate on their terms which require us to dehumanise the opposition.  Let’s lift the vision higher.  What would a politics of love and abundance look like rather than a politics of hate and fear, a politics where people on any and all sides are viewed as human beings that have dignity and worth and whose viewpoints are worth listening to and respecting?  We fall into a politics of fear and hate when we debate them on their terms, when we get sucked into the angry back and forth of he said she said and when we begin to fall into the trap of dehumanising and demonizing our opponents.  It’s okay to be angry.  Anger is an important part of our motivation because injustice sucks and it is right to be angry about injustice.  But how can we use our imagination and intelligence to think and act differently?

In two weeks’, I will be hosting three one-hour sessions to begin this conversation, entitled “Demystifying Activism.”  Come join myself and others and begin to learn how you can make a difference.  Learn how you can use your voice, your experiences and your talents to make a positive difference in this world doing things that you love.

To be an activist, you don’t have to fit any specific mould except your own. Voting and marching are important but there are other things people can do.   Come as YOU are and join other like-minded people who are also mad and don’t know what to do or how to do it.  By the end of the three sessions, you will be able to pick one issue to focus on and have decide one concrete action you can take to make a difference on that specific issue.

Come find out what your role is.  Don’t slide back into numbness, despair, or apathy.  There is only one you.  Come find out how you can do something that suits who you are.   If you are interested in more details write me at nkhogan@sophiatransformations.com