All Souls Forum

Michelle Irwin, Community Outreach Specialist with First Call Kansas City discusses how to provide tools to help identify the signs and symptoms of depression and suicide in youth.  (Rebroadcast from 4/27/2023)

Angela Schultz and Ben Griffiths of Compassion and Choices will discuss end-of-life options and the importance of documenting your wishes, having conversations with your loved ones, and your healthcare provider. She will also share resources to help you chart an end of life experience to match your values, priorities, and beliefs. (Rebroadcast from February 2, 2024)

Natasha Herdman created Pawsperity because she believes in a two-generation, “all-in” approach to breaking the cycle of poverty. Basic needs for food and shelter must be met before a parent can guide children through school and out of poverty. A living-wage, family-flexible career for the parent is key.  Go to https://pawsperity.org to learn more. (Rebroadcast from May 7, 2024)

 

 

Stephanie Godfroy, the local leader of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, discusses recent issues in gun control and the passion behind the Moms' demands.  She will discuss the organization, their goals and means of fulfilling them.  She will also offer tips on how to participate and support the goals of the organization: gun safety. (rebroadcast from May 21, 2024)

This week, we discuss how and why Kansas City Public Schools are championing the effort for environmentally sustainable schools. Jensen Adams manages the KCPS Office of Energy and Sustainability, and is a mayoral appointee to the Kansas City, Missouri Environmental Management Commission.

This presentation takes a look at fossil fuel and water consumption, solid waste issues, and toxins and plastic.  We will also explore myths about water quality and the social and economic problems stemming from water shortages.  Ms. Byer currently serves on the board of True Blue Women, and chairs their environmental committee.

What should be our collective response to Earths newest phase of accelerated warming? Dr. Guy McPherson, a conservation biologist has been warning all who would listen that the existing economic model would lead to civilization's collapse and human extinction resulting from loss of habitat due to extreme weather events.

It is not a message that many want to hear yet some find it liberating from the "prison of Civilization" and are choosing to pursue what they love, understanding that the processes now under way are no longer reversible. Intellectually we know of past collapsed civilizations and five previous mass extinctions. But the ability to incorporate that knowledge, that we too are vulnerable, that we could be next, into rational social behavior is in conflict with Capitalism's utopian demand for unlimited growth and the commodification of all life and the Planet it self.

He mentions scientist who have raised alarm, based on their observations, about trapped and frozen methane stability only to be shunned by the establishment managers and theoretical modelers. At issue, their increasing concern of a potential, sudden 50 GT methane release, doubling current levels.

McPherson offers some thoughts on what to do when facing a terminal diagnosis and why he is delivering it. Using data from Sam Carana at Arctic News, he has shortened his previous time line for collapse and extinction to less than 8 years. With

He spoke in Chicago during his mid-west tour.

Retired Marine Sgt. Bryce Lockwood spoke on June 22nd at the Lenexa VFW about his experience with the U.S.S Liberty, which was attacked in June of 1967.

On Thursday, August 14th, vigils were held across the country in response to the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.  KKFI was on hand to record the one in Kansas City.

Devin Burghart is president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights and coordinates the Seattle office. He has researched, written, and organized on virtually all facets of contemporary white nationalism since 1992, and is internationally recognized for this effort. (Rebroadcast of All Souls Forum from December 14, 2023)

Itzel Vargas-Valenzuela, program director at Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation (AIRR) and Judy Ancel, president of the Cross Border Network, will talk about the current crisis at the U.S./Mexico border and the impact of immigration on the upcoming election.

Stephanie Godfroy, the local leader of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, discusses recent issues in gun control and the passion behind the Moms' demands.  She will discuss the organization, their goals and means of fulfilling them.  She will also offer tips on how to participate and support the goals of the organization: gun safety.

Dr. Mubarak Awad discusses "Seven steps to ending the cycle of violence in Israel-Palestine".

Awad may be the world's leading expert on the nonviolence of the First Intifada. He is Palestinian, born in Jerusalem in 1943, bachelors, masters, PhD, US citizen, founded the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence in Jerusalem in 1983 and evicted by Israel in 1988 for his role in inspiring the nonviolence of the First Intifada. 
That nonviolence did several things. 


First, it got more Palestinians doing things to express their concerns about their mistreatment, because they could do so without the moral quandary and the personal risks involved in committing violence. 
Second, increasing numbers of Israeli military personnel went to prison rather than follow orders to kill or or break the bones of nonviolent protesters. 
Third, it increased the number of Israelis who thought they could live in peace with Palestinians. 

Yitzhak Rabin was Israeli Defense Minister when the Intifada began. If increasing numbers of soldiers were disobeying orders, what could he do? 
He ran for Prime Minister on a platform of negotiating with Palestinians. His victory in 1992 led to the Oslo Accords, which promised a two-state solution.
However, both Rabin and Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat were threatened by the nonviolence: Arafat did NOT want to be replaced as THE LEADER of the Palestinians. So Israel expelled 481 leaders of the nonviolence, including Mubarak, and arrested tens of thousands of others. Finally, they got the Palestinian violence needed to justify the overwhelming counter violence that they used to reestablish their dominance in the occupied territories and to accelerate the creation of more Israeli settlements. 
The following summarizes Dr. Awad's "7 steps to end the cycle of violence in Israel and Palestine":

For Palestinians: Stop killing Israelis. Welcome them as neighbors. Recognize their history. Keep struggling nonviolently for equal rights. And select leaders through regular elections.
For Israelis: Stop killing Palestinians. End the siege of Gaza. Reverse the land grabs in the West Bank and Jerusalem, which breed hopelessness and outrage. Stop the pogroms and the threats to the Al Aqsa mosque.
For the international media: Cover this conflict the way you would have liked to have seen slave rebellions and or anti-colonial massacres covered in previous centuries. Stop using the word “terrorists” to describe actors on either side.
For Americans: There is no military solution. Stop supplying weapons. Support Israelis and Palestinians equally. Show a positive example by improving our treatment of Native Americans and ending the vestiges of our domestic racial apartheid.
For the international community: The two-state solution, unfortunately, is no longer an option. Support solutions that provide rights to all. Provide humanitarian aid and denounce apartheid. Work for justice and equality.
Humanitarian aid organizations: Urgent humanitarian action is needed. Open the Erez and Kerem Shalom/Abu Salem crossings to allow for the movement of people and goods and remove the ban on access to the sea.
Soldiers and armed actors: Don’t cut another’s life short. Don’t cut your life short. Don’t seek revenge. I applaud Israelis who are refusing military service to engage in a senseless attack on Gaza. Arms are for hugging, not for harming others. We can do this.

Graves distributed a flier summarizing alternatives for follow up action:

We are all prisoners of the media we find credible, except for leaders (especially elected officials), who are prisoners of the media their followers find credible.

Major media exploit that to please people who control most of the money for the media. 

Continuing an annual tradition, the Forum welcomes Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas to share an address on the state of the city, in All Souls' Bragg Auditorium.

Join us this Saturday, when Shelia Johnson will be welcoming a special guest Lauren Conway Founder & CEO InnovateHER KC.
Lauren began her career in operational management roles working for large corporations in her hometown of Saint Louis, MO. As her career progressed, she found herself working in the industries of aerospace, automotive, and IT. It was in these roles that she experienced a first taste of the inequities women frequently experience in the workplace.





​Today, Lauren Conaway serves as an advocate for women as the founder and CEO of InnovateHER KC, a leadership community that serves diverse women and individuals from marginalized gender groups. Through InnovateHER KC, and as co-host of the Startup Hustle Podcast, Lauren makes it her mission to amplify, elevate and celebrate badass women doing kickass things in Kansas City, facilitating space for leadership development, a supportive network, resource sharing and mentorship for members.
Please join us this Saturday at 3pm central for What's Cooking on Every Woman, right here on 90.1 FM KKFI Kansas City Community Radio and streaming live at KKFI.ORG.

Be sure to keep up with Every Woman https://www.facebook.com/KKFIEveryWoman/

 

Lee Gum and Craig Hewett of the Kansas City chapter of Extinction Rebellion spoke August 21 at Jacobs Well Church, 42nd and Wyoming in Kansas City, Missouri.  This episode is excerpted from that presentation.

The event had two main themes: a review of the peer-reviewed climate science that suggests that humanity may be careening toward extinction, and a discussion of how we should respond, both practically and emotionally. This may sound alarmist and radical, but only because the mainstream media have largely suppressed any honest discussion of the range of responsible research and expert opinion on these issues.

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year old climate activist from Sweden, said, “I don't want you to be hopeful, I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act.”

The global climate system is a highly complex system with many parts crudely similar to the “Triple Crown” sculpture at the south end of Crown Center, consisting of roughly three dozen large aluminum tubes held together yet apart by a system of cables. We don't even know all the components, but we do know that substantive changes to any one could lead to a total collapse of the entire system.

The global dialogue about the climate system is dominated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which said last year that humanity had “12 years left to prevent climate catastrophe.”

Other than researchers paid by the fossil fuel industry to promulgate climate denialism, the IPCC is the most conservative voice in the world of climate science. The IPPC does not consider many processes that are well-understood and widely established, but difficult to accurately quantify. For example, no scientist disputes that melting permafrost will cause global warming. Yet the IPCC does consider melting permafrost at all.

A 2018 IPCC report the impacts of global warming above 1.5 degrees C or 2.7 degrees F.

However, in 2007 the IPCC predicted that sea ice would by gone by 2070. In 2017 they said that sea ice would be gone within a decade, by 2027.

Papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the US in 2018 and in Nature Geoscience in 2019 suggest that global temperatures could increase by 12 degrees C or 21 degrees F by the year 2100. A child born today would turn 81 in 2100.

The Syrian civil war that began in 2011 and the companion refugee flow into Europe was triggered by major crop failures created by climate change there. Climate changes we are already seeing is generating political instabilities worldwide, which will likely become massively worse. This could easily include a major collapse of the world's food system leading to substantial starvation worldwide, possibly the extinction of humanity. These are not fringe claims but possibilities discussed in peer-reviewed scientific publications, not censored to please corporate sponsors or underwriters.

More information is available from the Wikipedia article on “Extinction Rebellion” or in their web site, “rebellion.earth”.

An international Extinction Rebellion nonviolent Climate Strike is being planned for Friday, September 20. The local Extinction Rebellion Kansas City group next plans to meet

 

Tuesday, September 3rd, 6:30 PM,

Jacobs Well Church,

42nd and Wyoming, Kansas City, Missouri.

 

In this effort they are collaborating with other groups in Kansas City including 350.org, the Sunrise Movement, and the Climate Council of Greater Kansas City.

 

They are planning nonviolent civil disobedience training to support their efforts.

Among the most conten?ous issues in the presiden?al campaign are interna?onal trade and Islam. Rakesh 'Raj" Bhala is Assoc. Dean, Int’l. & Compara?ve Law, KU Law School and also trained in economics. He will cut through the par?san rancor and offer insights about interna?onal trade agreements and Islamic Law (Shari'a).

Brian Silva, VP for Outreach at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, discusses the rise of White Christian Nationalism and the efforts to eliminate abortion access and reproductive rights, plus the movement’s threat against LGBTQ+ rights, public schools and the elimination of the core foundation of inclusive religious freedom.

Craig Volland, Agriculture Committee Chair for the Kansas Sierra Club, will explain why Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations are a flawed and inherently cruel technology for producing meat, and also review recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions affirming state level efforts to ban some of these practices.

Spencer Graves and Doug Samuelson propose experiments to document the impact of citizen-directed subsidies in support of local news by analyzing their effects on the local political economy. McChesney and Nichols have recommended distributing 0.15 percent of the local economy (Gross Domestic Product, GDP) in proportion to votes in local elections for local news nonprofits. Graves and Samuelson suggest evaluating this effect with randomized controlled trials in some of the poorest places on earth.

Graves is the founder of EffectiveDefense.org. Samuelson is President and Chief Scientist at InfoLogix, Inc., in Annandale, Virginia and First Vice Chair of advisory board of the Heath Service Agencies of Northern Virginia.

Robert McChesney and John Nichols have noted that newspapers were 1 percent of the US economy (Gross Domestic Product, GDP) in the 1950s and are now less than 0.1. They suggested that the increase in political polarization that has accompanied that decline might be reduced by distributing 0.15 percent of GDP to local news nonprofits through local elections, where only local news nonprofits could appear on the ballot, and no single news outlet could get more than 20 percent of these subsidies within a county or relatively small multi-county region. Their proposed 0.15 percent of GDP roughly matches the subsidies for newspapers provided by the US Postal Service Act of 1792. Those subsidies seem to have played a major role in giving the relatively young United States the most diverse news environment on earth, at least prior to 1900. That environment encouraged literacy and limited political corruption, both of which helped the US lead the world, first in rate of growth of average annual income (GDP per capita) and then in GDP for much of US history.

Graves and Samuelson review the literature claiming various ill effects of a decline of local news and suggest randomized controlled trials to quantify the impact of such subsidies in some of the poorest jurisdictions, e.g., the poorest members of the United Nations or American Indian communities. More information is available in the Wikiversity article on, "Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government":

https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Information_is_a_public_good:_Designing_experiments_to_improve_government

The U.S. Supreme Court is back in session and constitutional law professor Allen Roston of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law joins the forum to review the recent significant rulings by the court and to anticipate important issues in the year to come.

Jean Peters Baker reflects on her last term as Jackson County Prosecutor and the efforts to reduce violence in the city. She will also look ahead to the challenges awaiting her successor as well as other current issues facing Kansas City.

Rising rents, evictions and a deteriorating housing stock are denying people the basic right of having a home. Save, Inc's Toni Casey and Heather Bradley-Geary will talk about solutions to fight against the housing crisis.

Leaders from the League of Women Voters -- Anne Calvert in Missouri and Connie Taylor in Kansas -- take a look at important legislative issues facing Kansas City metro residents in the coming year. Both state chapters are fighting to protect voting rights and advocate for increased voting access.

Americans die younger than people in 50 nations. Author Stephen Bezruchka, Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, tells how America went from one of the healthiest nations in the 1950s to one that pumps wealth to the rich while neglecting early life when half our adult health is programmed.

W. Kelly Oliver, is one of still living colleagues of the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.  Frank Baron recently recorded an interview with him.  Kelly Oliver was one of 800 apprentices associated from about 1930 to 1959 with the projects of Frank Lloyd Wright. He recalls and describes the experience of working closely at Taliesin in Wisconsin and in Arizona with one of the great architects of the twentieth century.

 

Note: Next week, we will return to the All Souls Unitarian Universalists weekly forum.

In this informal presentation, Peter Graham will reflect on the impact of Kierkegaard’s pamphlet on a young man’s spiritual awakening.  He will contrast the impact of this jarring existential tour de force with other subsequent humanist and scientific influences that together have mapped out the inner belief terrain of a psychologist in late career.

Dr. Malati Harris and Dr. Derrick Hurst will discuss the founding of Rainbow Kids & Families and its role in the community.

Rainbow Kids & Families is an elementary school student & family led organization striving to help LGBTQIA+ students and families feel safe, welcome, and supported in Douglas County and surrounding schools. They work with RKF Champions in the schools to help share LGBTQIA+ curriculum with educators and sponsor social and educational events for kids and families. This fall they will host a workshop with the ACLU of Kansas on protecting LGBTQIA+ students’ rights at school. They are also developing support groups for kids and families in partnership with the STA Care Center and will be holding crafting and other fun events throughout the year.

Dr. Sosinski is board certified in palliative care and hospice., working exclusively in palliative care and hospice.  He will discuss the development of hospice and palliative care -- and the difference between the two.

Dr. Michael Wolfe will start out by explaining the origin of the term “Nature’s God”, which appears in the Declaration of Independence. This concept, that God and Nature are indistinguishable, arguably has its modern philosophical origins with Baruch Spinoza in the 17th century, for which he was labeled an atheist. Asked if he believed in God, Einstein famously replied “I believe in Spinoza’s God.” I will then provide selected examples of concepts and discoveries in the biological sciences that instill in me a state of wonder, awe and appreciation of the miracle of our existence, even in the absence of an anthropomorphic god.

Kansas State Senator Marci Francisco will give us an inside look at the 2023 legislative session, which included the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Governor Laura Kelly vetoed a near-record number of bills, leading to many high-stakes votes in the Legislature. Civil rights were repeatedly front and center.

Cheryl Thomas, Founder and Executive Director of Global Rights for Women, explains the background, mission and operation of Global Rights for Women.  The organization has worked with more than 60+ international partners to identify obstacles to justice and safety for survivors of violence, with the goal of improving law, policy and practice so that women have improved safety and equality within their own community.

The American Midwest is environmentally rich and complex, home to some of the world’s largest freshwater lakes and streams as well as cities, prairies, forests, and farmlands. Nevertheless, the unique environmental opportunities and challenges the region presents have been left underappreciated and underexplored by environmental ethicists. The close integration of the natural and built environments of the Midwest prompts interdisciplinary inquiry in a particularly pointed way.

Michelle Irwin, Community Outreach Specialist with First Call Kansas City discusses how to provide tools to help identify the signs and symptoms of depression and suicide in youth.

Author Joni Wickham talks about her personal journey and the real world experiences behind her tips for women leaders (and the men around them) shared in her best-selling book, “The Thin Line Between Cupcake and Bitch.” Topics range from imposter syndrome and executive presence to differing communication styles.

The Great Plains Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is dedicated to saving, protecting and improving the lives of animals in the Kansas City metro area. Development & Engagement Manager Kyle Gabrielson explores the organization’s mission and shares ideas on how you can get involved.

Headlining All Souls' series of events spotlighting youth suicide prevention, Jane Clementi, the mother of Tyler Clementi, talks about the impact of her son's life and death, the creation of the foundation in his honor and the musical composition, "Tyler's Suite that will be performed at All Souls.

The music mentioned in this presentation, "Tyler's Suite," is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/tBayfhgz8GE.  The YouTube video also contains a discussion about the work of the Tyler Clementi Foundation and the music with Jane Clementi.

SuEllen Fried leads the second part of All Souls' series of events spotlighting youth suicide prevention. Fried is the author of four books on bullying, founder of BullySafeUSA and the President Emeritus for Prevent Child Abuse America. Her latest book is Siblings: Bullying, Betrayal and Bonding Across the Lifespan. (Rebroadcast from 5/11/23)

 

Climate change has happened. It’s no longer a future threat. We’re living with it today. The environment is filled with new challenges but we can survive; even prosper. Join Bob Grove –activist, author and host of the Climate Hour – to learn how to prosper in a post-climate change world.

Doug Samuelson and Eva Lee discuss "The threat of misinformation to public health" and what might be done to counter this problem.
Much communication and control have become increasingly driven by images, memes and social media messaging rather than honest research and public policy. This has opened the way for misinformation campaigns that affect economics, policy, and public health. We review the recent updates by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a well-known and respected Washington, DC think tank.  This includes Russian economic information warfare, religious messaging and political campaigns.  Samuelson and Lee discuss the use of confusing and disruptive content. They also note that the ways in which the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic diverged from the recommendations of health policy experts, as developed by the Scowcroft Institute at Texas A&M University in 2019. They offer some recommendations for robust and resilient information handling in public health.
Doug Samuelson is President and Chief Scientist at InfoLogix, Inc., in Annandale, Virginia. He has been a Federal policy analyst, consultant, successful high-tech entrepreneur and executive, patented inventor, political campaign professional, and an adjunct and research faculty member at several universities. His consulting and research focus on risk-advised decision-making, machine learning, cybersecurity, wargaming, health care policy, and disaster response and preparedness. He holds a doctorate in Operations Research from The George Washington University.
Eva K. Lee has a doctorate in applied math and medical training in oncology.  She has specialized in large-scale networks and epidemiological modeling.  She is the Director for the Whitaker-NSF Center for Operations Research in Medicine and Healthcare and Chief Scientist at the Data and Analytics Innovation Institute. She is a subject matter expert on medical and public health information sharing enterprises, and has been a leading advisor for Homeland Security and other major US federal governmental agencies. 
KEYWORDS: Information security, information tampering, pattern analysis, political tricks, economic meddling, public health, social media messaging.
REFERENCES:
Ken Alibek and Steven Handelman (1999), Biohazard : The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World – Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran It. Random House.
John M. Barry, 2004, The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. Viking Penguin; Penguin paperback (2005).
Heather A. Conley, James Mina, Ruslan Stefanov and Martin Vladimirov, 2016, The Kremlin Playbook: Understanding Russian Influence in Central and Eastern Europe, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, October. Also available as a pdf download online from www.csis.org, accessed 2023-04-08.  
Heather A. Conley, Donatienne Ruy, Ruslan Stefanov and Martin Vladimirov, 2019, The Kremlin Playbook 2, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, March. Also available as a pdf download online from www.csis.org, accessed 2023-04-08.
Donatienne Ruy, Heather A. Conley, Marlene Larouelle, Tongiz Pkhaladze, Elizabeth A. Prodromou, and Majda Ruge, 2022, The Kremlin Playbook 3: Keeping the Faith, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, February. Also available as a pdf download online from www.csis.org, accessed 2023-04-08.  
I. W. Fong and Ken Alibek (2005), Bioterrorism and Infectious Agents: A New Dilemma for the 21st Century. Springer.
Laurie Garrett, 1994, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux; Penguin paperback, 1995.
Global Biodefense (2012) "Controversial H5N1 Bird Flu Study Published", https://globalbiodefense.com/2012/05/03/controversial-h5n1-bird-flu-study-published/ , retrieved 2023-04-08.
Ali S. Khan and William Patrick, 2016,

Continuing an annual tradition, the Forum welcomes Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas to share an address on the state of the city.

Attorney Denise Lieberman, representing the plaintiff clergy who are challenging Missouri’s abortion ban, will talk about the state of their lawsuit, the ban’s reliance on a singular religious view and how it violates the Missouri Constitution’s robust protection of the separation of church and state.

John Mueller, prolific author, Professor Emeritus of international relations at Ohio State University and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, discusses his 2021 book, "The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency". He assesses the historic decline of international war and the tendency nonetheless to exaggerate national security threats.

Regarding "the case for complacency", he insists that the most effective thing the US did during the Cold War was -- nothing: Between the Fall of Saigon in 1975 and the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as President of the US, the US "went into a sort of containment funk: it effectively adopted a policy of complacency (or perhaps of appeasement) as it watched from the sidelines as the Soviet Union ... opportunistically gathered a set of Third World countries into its imperial embrace: Angola in 1976, Mozambique and Ethiopia in 1977, South Yemen and Afghanistan in 1978, Grenada and Nicaragua in 1979."1 Nearly all became major economic and political drains on the Soviets with Afghanistan being the worst. And their Warsaw Pact allies in Eastern Europe became a severe economic drain and psychic problem.

This suggests a fundamental flaw in the policy of containment of Communism that the US had followed since the beginning of the Cold War: George Kennan liked to say that, "there is nothing more contrary to nature than the attempt to hold in obedience distant provinces", quoting Edward Gibbon, the eighteenth century author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.2 In essence, the Soviet Union bled to death in the 1980s from its own self-inflicted wounds.  They did not spend themselves into bankruptcy trying to match the new arms race initiated by the US, as the supporters of Ronald Reagan and the military-industrial complex want the public to believe.

Muller has a recent op ed on "The Upside of Putin’s Delusions": "His failed and spectacularly counterproductive war seems unlikely to augur a new era of interstate war.

He has also recently published discussions of China.  These include a brief monograph on "China: Rise or Demise?" and an op-ed insisting, "The United States Does Not Need to Contain China".

NOTES

John Mueller (2021) The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency (Cambridge U. Pr., p. 59).
John Lewis Gaddis (1982) Strategies of Containment (Oxford University Press, p. 47).

Copyright 2023 John Mueller and Spencer Graves:  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International license.

Lora McDonald, the Executive Director of MORE2, discusses problems with law enforcement in the Kansas City Metro Area and about MORE2's primary annual public meeting scheduled for February 23, billed as 2-23-23. MORE2 has officially asked the US Department of Justice for "pattern and practices investigations" of both departments.

Kansas City poets Ron Faust and Joseph Davis will discuss their writings and how they use poetry to communicate visions of social justice. Ron Faust regularly writes for Peace Works in Kansas City and has written a number of books. Joseph Davis' books include Black Lives Matter and Other Poems.

Ryan Sorrell, the founder of The Kansas City Defender, talks about the role of Black media and his fast-growing news outlet. It uses innovative digital strategies, pushing the boundaries of journalism for a largely Gen Z audience, earning international acclaim for breaking a major story on missing Black women.

Research has documented two ways to acquire expertise:  (1) Expert intuition can be obtained by learning from frequent, rapid, high quality feedback.  (2) Without such learning, people are identified as experts through mastery of a body of knowledge.  Daniel Kahneman, who won the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics, found that experts without expert intuition can be easily beaten by simple rules of thumb developed by intelligent lay people.  When we apply this research to military and political leaders, we find that they  are not chosen for their ability to secure broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.  Military leaders in combat can develop genuine expertise in how to deliver death and destruction to designated targets;  they can NOT develop expert intuition on how to win wars nor especially on how to secure broadly shared peace and prosperity after "mission accomplished".  Political leaders and national security experts can develop genuine expertise in how to impress people with power, especially with power of major advertising budgets and political campaign budgets.  This lack of genuine expertise poses a fundamental threat to democracy, even to the point of threatening the extinction of civilization.  

These issues are discussed by Spencer Graves, who spent 6 years in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War and went on to earn a PhD in statistics and do research in many areas including public policy.  In 2019 he made a presentation at the Joint Statistical Meetings on "Time to nuclear Armageddon", which estimated a 40 percent chance of a nuclear war in the next 70 years, within the life expectancy of a child born today.  In 2020 he made a presentation at the Military Operations Research Society Symposium on a proposed "International Conflict Observatory".  This current All Souls Forum talk is based on an article on Wikiversity (not Wikipedia) on "Expertise of military leaders and national security experts".

Jackson County Children’s Services Fund board members Ann Mesle and Judy Morgan will talk about how the fund and its partners combine care, connections and creativity to provide hope against child poverty, abuse and neglect by promoting children’s mental health and social-emotional well being. (Rebroadcast from 1/26/23)

Community Engagement Coordinator Mike Marcus of Reconciliation Services and Thelma's Kitchen will be discussing how we can foster community healing through the ripple effects of building trust, lowering stigma around issues of poverty and trauma, and embracing dignity, community and advocacy.

Michael Tisius, now 41, faces execution in Missouri for his crimes at the age of 19. His lawyer, Keith O’Connor, makes a case to spare the life of Tisius, a prison artist, whose childhood, teen years and eventually his court defense descended a trail of trauma, neglect and tragedy.

Take a deeper look at the midterm elections with Michael A. Smith, Professor of Political Science and Chair of Social Sciences at Emporia State University and editor of the book, Much Sound and Fury, or the New Jim Crow?: The Twenty-First Century's Restrictive New Voting Laws and Their Impact.

Our heavily industrialized food system is a major contributor to climate change. Regenerative agriculture, which strives to restore the natural health of soils, could greatly reduce this impact. Craig Volland, the Agriculture Committee Chair of the Kansas Sierra Club, will talk about what's possible.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker explores what’s being done to rebuild the people's trust in our courts and police, and how that might be the secret ingredient to reducing the high levels of violence in our community.

National-award winning opinion writer Toriano Porter of the Kansas City Star Editorial Board will discuss the importance of free speech, freedom of the press and the newspaper’s recent decision to publish a letter to the editor criticizing Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Kansas City, Missouri, is the only city in the country in which the Police Department is controlled by a state governor. Clark Achelpohl will talk about the movement to change this, its history since the Civil War, how it relates to constitutional amendment 4 on the Nov. 8 ballot, and how you can help to resolve the issue of local police control.

UMKC History Professor Andrew Bergerson, who has specialized in studying modern Germany, discusses the parallels of today’s increasing worldwide and American political polarization with the experiences in fascist Germany and Italy that led to World War II.

Una and Fiona Nowling, long time producers of The Tenth Voice (LGBTQIA) and Every Woman shows on KKFI, discuss current concerns of gender non-conforming individuals and groups. These include violence, US court decisions, and public health concerns.

When even conservative Kansas voters are telling the US Supreme Court that it’s out of sync with the American public, maybe it’s time to consider options for Court structural reform. UMKC School of Law professor and constitutional law expert Allen Rostron will walk us through the arguments.

Khiana Leapheart

Join us this Saturday, when Shelia Johnson will be welcoming special guest Khiana Leapheart, a breast cancer survivor.  October is breast cancer awareness month, and we wanted to take this opportunity to talk to Khiana about their experience, and their life after disgnosis.  She is also a multifunctional business owner, including at Blue Goat Consulting, and a Body Wellness Architect at Prissy and Posh Body Haven.

Please join us this Saturday at 3pm central for What's Cooking on Every Woman, right here on 90.1 FM KKFI Kansas City Community Radio and streaming live at KKFI.ORG.

Be sure to keep up with Every Woman https://www.facebook.com/KKFIEveryWoman/

 

Interim Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Collier has taken charge of the now-fully accredited Kansas City Public Schools, building on her 22 years in the district. She will talk about the moral imperative of meeting the challenges ahead in the ever-changing landscape of education.

UMKC political science professor Dr. Max Skidmore discusses the anti-abortion movement, the distortion of the term “pro life,” the rampant campaign to use the power of government to force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term and the recent attempt to embed dogma in the Kansas state constitution.

Anne Calvert and Janet Milkovich, presidents of the nonpartisan Leagues of Women Voters of Kansas City, Jackson, Clay, and Platte Counties in Missouri, and Johnson County in Kansas, describe how their leagues are fighting voter suppression and protecting the right to vote against voter suppression legislation.

Dana Ortiz, Executive Director of Family Promise of Lawrence, introduces us to this national organization whose mission is “Empowering families in a housing crisis to achieve stabilization through community connections."

Marci Francisco, Kansas State Senator and UUCL member, offers a recapitulation of the August 2nd primary election and a preview of the November 8th midterms.

Louise Hanson, local librarian, activist, and collector of Kansas cookbooks (>500) recognized that food helps Kansas settlers maintain connections with their diverse countries of origin.  Her presentation, "Tasting the Past: Exploring Kansas Food Memories," was featured by Humanities Kansas.

Knowledge about the Red Planet has increased dramatically in recent years, thanks to many sophisticated probes from NASA and other nations. Tom Cravens, member of KU’s Space Physics group, will bring us up to date on the "Evolution of the Atmosphere of Mars."

Jeff Nichols, leader of the meditation group at the Unitarian Universalists Congregation of Lawrence for the past 8 years, will discuss the science and spirituality of meditation.

 

Recorded at the Unitarian Universalists Congregation of Lawrence, KS on July 10, 2022.

Dr. Jennifer Schrimsher, Douglas County Health Officer and infectious disease specialist at Lawrence Internal Medicine, has said, relative to the COVID pandemic, “We could probably spend an entire day talking about the lessons of this past year.” She will condense this knowledge less than an hour to help educate us about COVID-19.

Christina Haswood represents the 10th District, which includes Baldwin City and southeastern Lawrence, in the Kansas House. She is Native American, a graduate of Haskell INU and Arizona State, who earned a master’s in public health from KU Med Center in 2020.  She will discuss progress in establishing the Indigenous Community Center, whose mission is to identify and support the needs and goals of the Lawrence Indigenous community through education and empowerment.

Carol Curt Enos discusses the discovery of a missing copy of Shakespeare's "First Folio," and its implications concerning the mysteries surrounding the life of the Bard of Avon.

This presentation was recorded at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lawrence, KS, on April 24, 2022 -- one day after Shakespeare's 458th birthday.

The Forum is on its summer hiatus, so, in its stead we present a recent presentation by Dr. Kathy Rose-Mockry, past Director of KU's Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity. She has had a career devoted to advocacy for a wide range of areas, including gender equity, mentoring, resilience, women in STEMM, disability access and inclusion, and LGBTQ rights.
Her presentation will cover some of the topics addressed in her upcoming book, The Lawrence Gay Liberation Front (LGLF), a KU organization that changed the campus culture and created a gay community. She will highlight the group's importance, including its contributions and legacy, as well as lesbian activism.

The presentation was recorded at the Lawrence Unitarian Universalist Congregation on April 17, 2022

Dr. Barbara Schowen will present her paper, “The Colonial Legacy: How the Culture of the Early Colonies is Still With Us.” She examines the origins and characteristics of the Virginia, Massachusetts, New Amsterdam, and South Carolina colonies and how these characteristics are still evident many centuries later in the Tidewater, Yankeedom, New Netherland, Deep South, and Greater Appalachia areas. (recorded May 22, 2022)

An amendment to the Kansas Constitution on the ballot for the August primary would explicitly end abortion as a constitutional right. Dr. Melinda Lavon, owner of Bloom Midwifery in Lawrence, will examine the implications of this vote. (Note: this presentation was recorded May 29, 2022, prior to the announcement of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade)

Also, a preview of an upcoming All Souls Forum in which Dr. Barbara Schowen will discus characteristics of the original colonies and their effects on today's American society.

While the All Souls Forum is on Summer Hiatus, this alternative from Morning Headlines is presented.

Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties at emptywheel.net.

Michael German is a Brennan Center for Justice fellow with their Liberty and National Security Program and former special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal.

Major media everywhere shape our understanding of everything including crime.  Spencer Graves describes this.  In the early 1800s the US had more newspapers per capita than any other place or time. Today we face major problems with political polarization. Graves discusses research and recommendations by Robert McChesney for improving this.

This is an update and expansion of his previous All Souls Forum presentation aired 2019-03-13, '“Local News Coverage” with Spencer Graves'.  A video of that presentation with a transcript and references is available in the Wikiversity article on "Media and Democracy in Kansas City and Elsewhere".

A plot of the incarceration rate in the US from 1925 to 2019 is available in the Wikipedia article on "United States incarceration rate".  It shows that roughly 0.1 percent of the US population was incarcerated in state and federal between 1925 and 1975.  Then it shot up by a factor of almost five in the last quarter of the twentieth century.  Between 2006 and 2009 it was at least 0.5 percent of the population.  Then it drifted down to 0.42 percent in 2019.

The Wikipedia article on "United States incarceration rate" includes a section on "Editorial policies of major media", which attributes this increase to changes in the editorial policies of the major media whereby nearly all their investigative journalists were fired and replaced with the police blotter.  They retained their audience, because "when it bleeds, it leads".  It was a win-win for broadcast managers, because they reduced their costs while simultaneously reducing the risk of offending a major advertiser.  Political corruption increased, as witnessed by increases in income inequality in the US since 1975 and by allegations of corruption in the Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, police departments.  Melinda Henneberger of The Kansas City Star won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for commentary "For persuasive columns demanding justice for alleged victims of a retired police detective accused of being a sexual predator", which exposed part of this.

Graves claims that progress on these and other society problems is blocked, because the major media censor their news to protect major advertisers (or underwriters for PBS).  He claims that we will likely reduce political corruption and increase the rate of broadly shared economic growth if we adopt recommendations by McChesney and Nichols to have governmental bodies distribute 0.15 percent of economic activity to local news nonprofits via elections.  This would dramatically limit the ability of government bureaucrats, corporate bureaucrats and the ultra wealthy to dominate the political discourse.  If the reduction in political corruption has the impact Graves expects, it will generate improvements in productivity that are more than sufficient to pay for these subsidies from income we would not have without them.

 

Zack Pistora of the Kansas Chapter, Billy Davis of the Missouri Chapter, and Ty Gorman of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign will discuss the status of utility scale and roof-top solar power generation in Kansas and Missouri, along with the need for home energy efficiency and how we can support healthy communities and a livable planet for all. (Recorded 5/1/2022)

The newly reopened Kansas City Museum took on the mission of giving the City a portrait of its past. Museum Collections Director Denise Morrison describes their process of figuring out whose stories get told. (Recorded 5/15/2022)

The mother and aunt of 26-year-old Matthew Bland-Williams bargained with God as they drove to the emergency room. He was dying – a victim of Kansas City’s gun violence. But Pamela Bland and Arletha Bland-Manlove descended into a system that offers families of victims no answers, no help, no peace. (Recorded 5/8/22)

Why does our society have so much difficulty dealing with effeminate men? Why is it that some people, including some in the LGBTQ community have problems dealing with "sissies?" Are there connections between this "sissyphobia" and misogyny? These questions and more will be explored by All Souls' own Richard Thompson. (Recorded 4/24/2022)

What does it take to actively work against inequities historically perpetuated by education? See how one Kansas City public charter school addresses the whole child with joy while teaching to deep levels, equitably for all children. Join in with Tricia DeGraff, executive director of the Academy for Integrated Arts. (Recorded 4/10/2022)

Storytelling is as old as human culture and has many uses and impacts, including teaching morality, providing entertainment, and building empathy. National Storytelling Network member Gary Kuntz will discuss the various ways storytelling is used, as well as storytelling activities and groups that you can get involved in. (Recorded 4/03/2022)

Marty Kraft sits on KC's Environmental Management Commission. Stan Slaughter is Director of Education for Missouri Organic Recycling. They will discuss how to scale up local use of soil-regenerating inoculants through community involvement, educational workshops & grassroots movements. They will also comment on the important spiritual dimension of our needed cultural change.

A community’s ability to resettle refugees is a critical benchmark of a city primed for growth. Local agencies are working to ensure refugees don’t just arrive, but thrive. Join Cori Wallace, Engagement Director at Della Lamb Community Services, to hear the stories of resettling Afghan families in Kansas City.

Kelsey Ryan, the founder and publisher of The Beacon in Kansas City and Wichita, speaks from the frontlines of non-profit journalism, with a view of the imperiled state of local, in-depth news coverage and a look at what it takes for start-up newsrooms to survive and thrive.

Aaron Deacon, Managing Director of KC Digital Drive, explores the digital future of Kansas City in the critical pursuit of equitable access, the promise in economic opportunities and the fascinating potential of next-generation innovation in a truly Smart City.

Steve Nicely is with the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Greater KC and a retired KC Star journalist.  Sarah Crews is the founder of Heart Land Prairie Cemetery in Central Kansas. The state's first prairie restoration natural cemetery is on land donated to the project by The Land Institute in Salina.  They will discuss the advantages and availability of a natural, “green" burial as opposed to embalming and caskets or cremation. The Funeral Consumers Alliance of GKC (formerly the Memorial Society) was founded by All Souls members some 60 years ago.

Henry Stoever and Cris Mann of PeaceWorks-KC describe their work for nuclear disarmament through civil disobedience and lobbying Congress, and talk of other strategies, including supporting the Cities Appeal of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and divesting from companies making and maintaining nuclear weapons.

With the rapid spread of disinformation endangering public health and polarizing politics, communities desperately need trustworthy local news. Years of runaway media consolidation and ad-driven clickbait have destroyed newsrooms and left major issues uncovered. Craig Aaron, co-CEO of Free Press, will discuss how to reverse these trends, rebuild local media with innovative policies, and reimagine the future of news.

Former State Senator Kiki Curls unpacks the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure package recently signed into law by President Biden and discusses its potential effect on Missouri.

Continuing an annual tradition, the Forum welcomes Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas to share an address on the State of the City.

Kansas City Star reporters Eric Adler, Kevin Hardy and Mike Hendricks discuss a month long investigation into how a neglected section of the city has become a hunting ground for real estate speculators and why many Black residents feel they are once again being exploited and left behind.

In a time of changing enrollment and financial challenges, the Kansas City Public Schools is engaging the community in shaping the future of our city’s schools. District leaders will discuss "Blueprint 2030" and the mission to give all children a quality educational experience, preparing them for college, career and life.

Attorneys Craig Lubow and David Bell analyze the impacts of recent court events, including cases involving Kyle Rittenhouse in Wisconsin, Officer Derek Chauvin in Minnesota, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and Cameron Lamb and Kevin Strickland in Kansas City as well as major Supreme Court decisions.

After Charlottesville, after the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol, and as militias grow geometrically, Leonard Zeskind explores strategies for turning back the ominous tide. He is an author and activist who has spent more than 40 years on the front lines in the battle against white supremacists.

 

Women’s reproductive rights are under attack like never before. Attorney Bob Eye, a long time advocate for Women’s rights, will give us an update on the various threats working their way to the US Supreme Court and also on the upcoming referendum in Kansas.

 

Cheryl Kimmi, the outgoing executive director of the Kansas City Fringe Festival, will host a lively discussion about the arts and its effect on the community.. The Fringe Festival gives new artists with a way to get their material before the public. It offers live theater of all types that push the envelope of expression. Cheryl will talk to Forum attendees about the Fringe and what the arts means to the community. How does community influence the arts and how do the arts influence the community culturally, politically, and otherwise?

 

UMKC's Professor Dr. Loyce Caruthers and Institute for Urban Education Associate Director Dr. Brad Poos retrace the history of Critical Race Theory, examining its intent to reshape America's understanding of itself and the mischaracterizations that torment it today.

Stacey Johnson-Cosby, Realtor with ReeceNichols and President of the Kansas City Regional Housing Alliance will discuss the economic shutdown and how it negatively impacted private property rights across the country, and she’ll share her housing industry perspective on support for property owners and tenants in the precarious times ahead.

 

 

Pulitzer Prize winning author, Heather Ann Thompson, will be speaking about her book, Blood in the Water, on the Attica prison uprising of the 1970s. Thompson will address the history of the uprising, its subsequent cover up, its historical importance, and implications for prison reform and other current issues.