In Minnesota, people who have completed a felony sentence and are back in community cannot vote until the probation or parole sentence is also complete. Minnesota has some of the highest probation and supervision rates in the nation, and currently, Black Minnesotans are seven times more likely to be disenfranchised than White Minnesotans. The rights restoration bill would grant voting… Read More »Restore the Vote
The American philosopher John Dewey was one of the signers of Humanist Manifesto I back in 1933. Most people know a little something about Dewey because of his theories of education. Like the nowadays more famous Maria Montessori, Dewey was a constructivist. Constructivism is complex idea that boils down to a fairly simple formula. As Maria Montessori put it, “the mind remembers what the… Read More »Constructing Democracy (Calmly)
Say what you will about postmodernism, but the po-mo concept of narratives as manipulatable memes comes in very handy.
We hear a great deal about division and decline these days. It all sounds very dire, but what are we actually talking about? When Eurocentric people pontificate about democracy, we do well to take a long look at what is actually being said. Democracy is a good idea, but in practice things haven’t gone as well as we might at first suppose.… Read More »Of Democracy and Division
