What are Worldviews, Part 2

by Dr. Denise R. Ames

Why can’t we just get along? That is a question I have been working on in my new book, Divided: Colliding Ways We See the World. In the rest of the February blogs, I thought I would share with you some ideas that I have been exploring. The first in the series is about worldviews.

What Are Worldviews, Part 2 

I find that during the Global Wave, there are many contentious and conflicting ways of living and seeing the world. Iranian fundamentalists established a theocracy in Iran

Iranian Revolution 1978-79

after  a revolution in 1979 and it continues today, while fundamentalists such as Pat Robertson were drawing many followers in the U.S. into the fold, mostly through television programming. The nationalistic fervor characteristic of the Modern Wave, which was supposed to decline with the upswing in globalization, was continuing and intensifying in the U.S. and other countries, even as the world was becoming more interconnected and global in scope.

The traditions of the Communal and Agricultural Waves were being reasserted during this time, as many indigenous people resisted the pressure to modernize or allow resources on their lands be exploited for extraction by multi-national corporations. The push for globalization, both economic and cultural, by the U.S. and other countries was a growing phenomenon that was supported politically, economically, and by the media. It appeared as an “inevitable” process, and we better jump on its bullet train of untold progress and riches or get left behind. Yet, there were those who resisted fundamentalism, modernism, and globalization and took actions to create a different way of life.

Rigoberta Menchu

Although globalization supporters were garnering the most attention and putting forth an optimistic vision of the future, many other people were voicing different views. But each individual has different ways of “seeing” events, facts, situations, people, movements, information, evidence, spectacles, and ways of living, which make the world an unpredictable and confusing place. I decided that the Global Wave was not an all-encompassing, homogenous view of the world, but that many differing views within it needed to be heard and recognized.

As a result of my research, observations, and experiences, I decided to organize the Global Wave into five worldviews—indigenous, traditionalist, progressive, globalized, and transformative. I thought it would be unwieldly to have more worldviews and I wanted people to remember them. Also, the five worldviews coincided nicely with the five waves in my holistic world history. I would use the term worldview since it most closely described the phenomena that I was identifying.

Part 3 of this blog series will continue to explore worldviews.

Dr. Denise R. Ames is a long-time educator, grade 7-university, author of seven books, and president of an educational non-profit, Center for Global Awareness, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CGA provides books, resources, and services with a holistic, global- focused, and perspective-taking approach for their three programs: Global Awareness for Educators, books and resources for educators and students grade 9-university; Gather, Global Awareness Through Engaged Reflection, a self-organizing study and conversation program for adults focusing on seeing different perspectives of pressing global issues; and their most recent program Turn, Transformative Understanding and Reflection Network, which encourages lifelong and transformative learning to help us arrive at a place of personal and global well-being using a seven “path” approach.

Please email info@global-awareness.org or visit www.global-awareness.org for more information.

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What are worldviews? Part 1

by Dr. Denise R. Ames

Why can’t we just get along? That is a question I have been working on in my new book, Divided: Colliding Ways We See the World. In the rest of the February blogs, I thought I would share with you some ideas that I have been exploring. The first in the series is one on worldviews.

What are worldviews?  Part 1

Worldviews have always fascinated me. Even though I hadn’t yet conceptualized the idea of worldviews, I found instances in my life when there was a clear clash between worldviews that alerted me to the different ways in which people react to different events.

Denzil L. Ames, World War II Veteran, Pacific Theater

 

My father, a World War II veteran, and I, a rebellious college student, experienced heated clashes over opposing views of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s.  While living in Mississippi for two years in the 1970s, a friendly neighbor came by my house to introduce herself and asked me what Baptist Church I went to. She assumed I was a Baptist, since that religious was the most predominant in the area and the church influenced her worldview.

Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, USA

When I visited the Native American pueblo of Acoma in New Mexico in the 1980s, I was surprised to hear one of the visitor’s criticize the pueblo’s system of collective land-ownership. He grumbled that more money could be made dividing the land into individual plots and selling them off to the highest bidder. During the 1990s when globalization was heralded as the savior of the Western world, I found most people in the business community thought it was an inevitable process and could not be stopped. While visiting Iran in the 2000s, I was disturbed to find out that the “culture police” could arrest me or any other woman for not dressing in the traditional way and looking too Western.

Iranian Women in Traditional Dress,                       photo Denise Ames

All of these events and many others gave me glimpses into the different worldviews that people hold.

 

 

Five Worldviews from a Holistic World History

I first started to think about developing the concept of worldviews during the writing, teaching and researching of my world history college course and writing my book, Waves of Global Change: A Holistic World History. In my teaching and writing, I organized world history according to five waves of human development: communal, agricultural, urban, modern, and global. This was different from the traditional chronological format that organized world history according to the progression of time rather than the holistic approach which emphasized the less-sequential way of human development. But I also found that within each wave there was uneven development, and not everyone in each of the waves marched along to the same beat. I found this especially true of the Global Wave, which I had starting around the year 2000.

Waves of Global Change: A Holistic World History, 2nd Edition

Part 2 of the blog series will explore how the five worldviews are part of the Global Wave

Dr. Denise R. Ames is a long-time educator, grade 7-university, author of seven books, and president of an educational non-profit, Center for Global Awareness, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CGA provides books, resources, and services with a holistic, global- focused, and perspective-taking approach for their three programs: Global Awareness for Educators, books and resources for educators and students grade 9-university; Gather, Global Awareness Through Engaged Reflection, a self-organizing study and conversation program for adults focusing on seeing different perspectives of pressing global issues; and their most recent program Turn, Transformative Understanding and Reflection Network, which encourages lifelong and transformative learning to help us arrive at a place of personal and global well-being using a seven “path” approach.

Please email info@global-awareness.org or visit www.global-awareness.org for more information.

 

Hope Amidst Instability: A School in El Salvador, Amun Shea

by Dr. Denise R. Ames

I would like to turn in this third blog in the series to a more uplifting topic than organized crime: the work of a non-profit school in El Salvador, Amun Shea.

Amún Shéa is located in the town of Perquin, in northern Morazan department, El Salvador, Central America. It is an innovative school located in a rural, mountainous region.

In 2014, I met the founder, Ron Brenneman, and a volunteer, Jeff Colledge. Ron, a former aid worker and business owner, founded the Amún Shéa Center for Integrated Development in 2007. I deeply admire their dedication to the school, and in helping people in this poor area of El Salvador.

Jeff has agreed to share some of his insights about the school and what is going on in El Salvador, especially in light of the recent increase in migration to the United States.

El Salvador is a small country with a total population of 6.3 million, making it the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. About 83% of the population is Mestizos, of European and Indigenous American descent. Bordering the Pacific Ocean, the mountainous country was formerly dependent on coffee as their main export (90%), today their economy is more diversified. 50% of the population lives in rural areas and 50% are urbanites; those living in small, rural villages are mostly subsistence farmers who also raise cash crops such as coffee. El Salvador’s capital and largest city is San Salvador.

Jeff is currently living in the town of Perquin for the past two months and has about five more weeks to go in his volunteer stint. He may decide to stay a little longer, which he says is always a temptation. After summer vacation, schools just started again on January 21, 2019.

Jeff taught a 2 ½ week summer course for students and he is now teaching the same students in the home of one of them for another 2 weeks. For fun, Jeff, visits friends and does some exploring. Jeff also monitors a roof repair project for elderly people that a youth group has committed itself to completing. He, along with some friends, held a benefit to raise money for the project.

Jeff Colledge and friend picking coffee.

The gangs and violence are real in El Salvador, according to Jeff, but they do not permeate the whole country. They mainly thrive in pockets of the country where they can ply their violent trade.

Jeff writes about the problem…

“As far as the situation in the country concerning violence and immigration, yes, it’s a very serious problem. The gangs and their actions are really horrible. Murder, extortion of businesses, forced recruitment, and threats, all are reasons people flee the country. Then there is the response of the police, which sometimes results in human rights violations against innocent people.

One of the best sources of information is Insight Crime, an online publication. But I really don’t have much personal, first-hand experience of the gangs and immigration. Most of the gang problem is in the cities and many rural areas. I don’t spend a lot of time in the capital, San Salvador, but I feel pretty safe when I’m there. Where I stay is in a fairly safe area and if one sticks to the main public areas, there’s no problem. It’s in a lot of the poor communities where the gangs are and that they control. One doesn’t hear of foreigners being targeted. It’s more about controlling communities and extorting businesses.

Where I live, in northern Morazan, which is the part of the department north of the Torola River, there is very little gang activity. I feel totally safe there. I can walk alone at night and not worry.

Before the Peace Corps pulled all of their volunteers out of the country about 2-3 years ago, there were a good many volunteers here, in part because it was so safe. So it was a shame that they had to leave. Also, because northern Morazan is one of the poorest areas, if not the poorest area in the country, there’s just not that much wealth and businesses to extort, although there is some extortion. The owner of a bus company here has to pay “rent” to the gangs. I’m told there are other businesses that are extorted.”

When discussing the immigration debate, I often hear people lament their feeling of powerlessness in the face of suffering by the migrants attempting to come to the United States. I feel that if there were more opportunities at home, migration would decrease.

Contributing to organizations that work towards improving the lives of the local population is a worthy effort. Amún Shéa is such an organization. It is categorized as a non-profit educational entity and accredited by the Salvadoran Ministry of Education (MINED.) I hope you will join with me in making a donation to this worthy cause!

Amun Shea Donation Page

Contact: Jeff Colledge for more information or to arrange a gift: jeffcolledge@hotmail.com

****************

Dr. Denise R. Ames is a long-time educator, grade 7-university, author of seven books, and president of an educational non-profit, Center for Global Awareness, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CGA provides books, resources, and services with a holistic, global- focused, and perspective-taking approach for their three programs: Global Awareness for Educators, books and resources for educators and students grade 9-university; Gather, Global Awareness Through Engaged Reflection, a self-organizing study and conversation program for adults focusing on seeing different perspectives of pressing global issues; and their most recent program Turn, Transformative Understanding and Reflection Network, which encourages lifelong and transformative learning to help us arrive at a place of personal and global well-being using a seven “path” approach.

Please email info@global-awareness.org or visit www.global-awareness.org for more information.

Hope Amidst Instability: The Immigration Debate, Organized Crime, and a School in El Salvador

by Dr. Denise R. Ames

This second blog in a series continues to examine the deep cultural divide that has a vice-like grip on the collective American mind. I have written several blogs on the topic of the cultural divide and will continue to do so as I prepare my book, Divided: Colliding Ways We See the World and What We Can Do About It, for publication. Another issue I want to highlight in this blog series, ignored on the left and touted for political gain on the right, is the proliferation of organized crime in Latin America. I will end this series on an uplifting note, in which I will describe the work of a non-profit school in El Salvador, Amun Shea.

 Organized Crime in Latin America

I have found that one of the issues that seems to be lost in the immigration debate or should I say free-for-all is the issues of organized crime in Latin America.

Organized is particularly acute in the small Central American country of El Salvador. It has the highest homicide rate in the world (82.84 per 100,000). Neighboring Honduras has the second highest rate in the world (56.52).  The extremely high homicide rate in this country is marked by significant occurrence gang-related crimes and juvenile delinquency. Gangs are vying for control of the lucrative drug-trafficking operations to the United States.

The most significant and deadly gang in El Salvador is Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13. It is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1970s and 1980s. The gang later spread to many parts of the continental United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America, but most members are Salvadorans. MS-13 is defined by its cruelty, rivalry with other gangs and its origins in the Los Angeles undocumented immigrant community.

An MS gang sign and tattoos.

MS-13 is both open and indiscriminate in its use of violence. Infanticide and femicide are common, with El Salvador hosting the third highest femicide rate in the world. They frequently use a machete as their weapon of choice. Many of the victims are minors, and Central Americans are their primary victims. The majority of MS-13 suspects arrested for killings are also minors.

It is estimated that MS-13 has around 30,000 members internationally, which includes 10,000 in the United States and 2,000 on Long Island, New York. In Central America, the gang is strongest in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

Government officials in El Salvador announced that 2018 ended on a good note, relative to past statistics, with a 15 percent reduction in homicides compared to 2017. The murder rate dropped from 60 per 100,000 citizens in 2017 to 51, much lower than in 2015 and 2016 when violence between gangs and security forces made it one of the most violent countries in Latin America.

A recent uptick in homicides in the first 16 days of 2019, as reported by Héctor Silva Ávalos for the Insight Crime non-profit organization, has thrust the MS13 back into the national conversation.

During this time, the National Police recorded 169 murders, representing 10.6 murders per day, a significant increase compared to the 9.4 daily murders recorded in 2018.

Drug trafficking is the most well-known form of illegal activity conducted by criminal gangs, but organized crime has diversified their criminal businesses to include human trafficking through migration and kidnapping to its deadly arsenal of services.

Seth Robbins for Insight Crime reported of “The sudden movement of large groups of Central American migrants to remote stretches of the US-Mexico border is a sign that smugglers are profiting from tactics, which requires coordination with Mexico’s larger criminal organizations.

A large group of migrants who surrendered to Border Patrol agents after tunneling under the border fence in Arizona.  Courtesy InsightCrime

Smuggling these migrants is a large revenue stream for organized crime groups. Payments first must be made to several so-called “coyotes,” or “polleros,” traffickers who shepherd migrants to the US. These traffickers make protection payments to Mexico’s drug cartels, which control migrant and drug smuggling routes in border regions. The cartels profit from these payoffs and through other criminal enterprises, such as the kidnapping and extortion of migrants.”

Insight Crime has also reported the “increasing number of African migrants entering Latin America, which has provided human smugglers with a lucrative business opportunity. Ongoing violence and political unrest in many parts of Africa, combined with tightening restrictions on immigration to Europe has likely contributed to this trend.”

To add to the depression of this blog, Venezuela is now considered a failed state. Organized crime has stepped into the void and is essentially running the country. Venezuelan citizens are fleeing the country, adding to the migrant woes of the surrounding countries, themselves unstable. Drug trafficking, human trafficking, extortion, and kidnapping add to the misery index. Insight Crime has numerous articles on the disaster developing in Venezuela, once a darling of the left held up as a shining beacon of socialism.

The next blog will be more uplifting as I describe a small but hopeful school in El Salvador.

Denise

Dr. Denise R. Ames is a long-time educator, grade 7-university, author of seven books, and president of an educational non-profit, Center for Global Awareness, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CGA provides books, resources, and services with a holistic, global- focused, and perspective-taking approach for their three programs: Global Awareness for Educators, books and resources for educators and students grade 9-university; Gather, Global Awareness Through Engaged Reflection, a self-organizing study and conversation program for adults focusing on seeing different perspectives of pressing global issues; and their most recent program Turn, Transformative Understanding and Reflection Network, which encourages lifelong and transformative learning to help us arrive at a place of personal and global well-being using a seven “path” approach.

Please email info@global-awareness.org or visit www.global-awareness.org for more information.

Hope Amidst Instability: The Immigration Debate, Organized Crime, and a School in El Salvador

by Dr. Denise R. Ames

 The government shut down, the longest in our nation’s history, has weighed on me as I struggle to understand the reasons for it. To me, it serves as an example of the deep cultural divide that has a vice-like grip on the collective American mind. We are attuned to find fault with others, to demonize them, and feel our moral superiority towards those who hold a different worldview.

I have written several blogs on the topic of the cultural divide and will continue to do so as I prepare my book, Divided: Colliding Ways We See the World and What We Can Do About It, for publication. But the debate about immigration has temporarily sidelined my writing, as I look into this no-win issue more closely. Another issue I want to highlight in this blog series, ignored on the left and touted for political gain on the right, is the proliferation of organized crime in Latin America. And ending this series on an uplifting note, I will describe the work of a non-profit school in El Salvador, Amun Shea.

Immigration Debate

The immigration debate and how we respond to this issue tells us a lot about our particular worldview. It is mainly a battle between the progressive view and traditionalist view. There is a lot between the extremes of these views on immigration that is being silenced by the shouting match on the two sides. [image map]

Those holding a globalized worldviews (see Five Worldviews: How We See the World) have encouraged immigration (legal and illegal) in order to have a plentiful labor supply and continuous economic growth. But those holding a progressive worldview tend to feel that compassion for illegal immigrant “victims” overrides the traditionalist resentment that illegal immigrants who break the law and “cut in line” ahead of others who are trying legally to migrate into the U.S is morally superior.

Perhaps one of the reasons that immigration has become such a hot button issue is that legal immigrants to the United States are now at their highest level ever, just over 37,000,000 legal immigrants. Since 2000, legal immigrants to the United States number approximately 1,000,000 per year, of whom about 600,000 are Change of Status and already live in the U.S.

Those who are traditionalists feel overwhelmed by this number because of job competition and other reasons, and have elected Donald Trump to do something about it. Progressives, who generally have not been directly affected by this competition, feel compassion towards the world’s downtrodden and want to help them.

However, the debate has become so mired in political muck that it is hard for us to think about the issue in a clear way. Both sides seem out of touch with the reality of the situation. There has to be something in between Pelosi’s statement that the wall is immoral and Trump’s declaration of building a wall along the entire border (although he has retracted this sentiment).

The number of failed states is increasing around the world, many of them in our own backyard (Venezuela for example). This means more people will be seeking to flee these states as violent mafia gangs step into the political vacuum. The rich countries, no matter what their compassion level, cannot take in all these desperate people. Who should be left behind and who should be taken in? A real moral quandary.

Insight Crime https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/gamechangers-2018-venezuelan-migration-organized-crime/

Confusing and outdated immigration policies in the U.S., encourage human traffickers to charge exorbitant sums to transport poor and vulnerable people to the U.S. border. Many face abuse, kidnapping, and extortion, along the way. This needs to end.

Illegal immigration is a serious issue in the U.S. and should not be reduced to only a compassion for those attempting to immigrate into this country. Distinction should be made between legal and illegal immigration, since most Americans are in favor of legal immigration. Open borders is irresponsible and could result in catastrophe for our nation. As an historian, I have seen it repeated numerous times in world history, all with the same dire results.

The immigration debate is one of those issues that has many tendrils radiating out from the center, making it even more difficult to address. Failed states, poverty, effects of climate change, corruption, organized crime, and many other issues contribute to the dilemma. To me, the right and left perspective is needed in this debate to hammer out sensible solutions to an issue in which no one will be happy with the outcome. Hopefully, calmer minds will prevail and some reasonable, fair, and lasting policies can be established.

The next blog in the series will look at organized crime in Latin America.

Why are We Divided? The Purpose of This Blog Series (Part 3)

The 2016 presidential election was a turning point for me. I woke up the fact that I was living in a “bubble,” like many other liberal voters. We were stunned when there was a backlash among half of the voters against Clinton’s liberal worldview in which minority rights were supported, preserving the environment was a priority, and a professional class of experts, not just billionaires, would help shape governmental policy. This dramatic and far-reaching electoral backlash exemplified the opposing ways in which half of the electorate saw issues through one lens while the other half saw issues very differently.

2016 Presidential Election:  Red, Republican, Donald Trump, Blue, Democrat, Hillary Clinton

I am determined to understand the multifaceted reasons for our deep cultural divide in the United States. What is driving us apart instead of together as a nation? This divide threatens our democracy and the vitality of our country. It leads to hostility, incivility, and intractable stalemate in our government.

Why do we need to be aware of others’ perspectives? It is more comfortable to reside in our own bubble with people around us who think the same, while our ideas and actions go unchallenged. But large, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and diverse countries like the United States, and increasingly many other countries around the world, are not homogeneous entities, and this requires their citizens to engage with others to uphold democratic processes and peaceful co-existence. Citizens cannot remain in their own insulated bubble and still have a vibrant democracy. We all need to make an effort to gain understanding and skills to navigate a more diverse world, which includes people from different lands as well as those who are our fellow citizens but live in a different state or zip code.

We recognize that there is an intractable cultural divide increasingly intensifying in the United States and throughout the Western world. The big question is what can we do about it? Although there are many well-meaning groups that have sprouted up after the 2016 election that encourage people to have conversations with people different from themselves, I believe we need to go deeper than just  conversations. What are we going to talk about? We can’t assume that in a conversation with someone different from us we will be able to persuade them to think as we do just because we feel confident that we have the moral high ground. We are bound to be disappointed if this is our approach.

I believe, and it is the purpose of this blog series, that before meaningful conversations can take place, we need a deep understanding of ourselves as well as those who are different from us. What are the values that guide us, our experiences, our traditions, upbringing, geographic location, and basic personality? What makes each group feel the way they do about various issues, events, and future direction of this country and the world. I believe this is the first step in untangling the cultural divide, while also healing the divisions threatening to pull us asunder.

…………………………….

Dr. Denise R. Ames is a long-time educator, grade 7-university, author of seven books, and president of an educational non-profit, Center for Global Awareness, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CGA provides books, resources, and services with a holistic, global- focused, and perspective-taking approach for their three programs: Global Awareness for Educators, books and resources for educators and students grade 9-university; Gather, Global Awareness Through Engaged Reflection, a self-organizing study and conversation program for adults focusing on seeing different perspectives of pressing global issues; and their most recent program Turn, Transformative Understanding and Reflection Network, which encourages lifelong and transformative learning to help us arrive at a place of personal and global well-being using a seven “path” approach.

Please email info@global-awareness.org or visit www.global-awareness.org for more information.

Why Are We Divided? Part 2

Second part of the Why Are We Divided blog series

An Unsustainable American Dream

Actually, the American Dream, like a giant Ponzi scheme, has always been unsustainable and untenable. It has finally reached the point where it can no longer pay out the riches it has implicitly pledged. Once the American Dream’s veil of illusion has been pulled away to reveal the reality of its deception, confidence among those subscribing to the American Dream has crumbled. Those who have fallen to the back of the line of achieving the American Dream are now suspicious of those who are succeeding or those they perceive as succeeding. The result is a feeling of suspicion, distrust, and despair among many.

Can the American Dream be resurrected? Can it once again be melded into our national narrative, a goal that unites us in the common pursuit of a way of living that is distinctly American? As a candidate, President Trump promised to “Make America Great Again” and restore the American Dream. However, it has proven difficult.

In my estimation the American Dream, as fantasized in popular imagination, is no longer a possibility. And I believe that its usefulness as a national narrative is past. The question is what should replace the American Dream narrative. The current narrative is embedded in economic growth and expansion. There is always something more to be obtained, a bigger TV or the latest technological gadget. But this narrative is unsustainable economically and psychologically. The bonds of community have frayed in many places contributing to the cultural divide.

In absence of a strong and realizable national narrative the stories of different “tribal” groups have gained traction and attention.  Different groups of people—white working class, people of color, the poor (lower thirty percent of incomes), recent immigrants, middle class, upper twenty percent, the upper one percent, liberals (left) and conservatives (right)—have asserted their own values and narratives. These narratives are often in conflict with each other and are fraying America even further.

Weaving together a new national narrative is essential to renew our shaken democracy. But what shall the national narrative be? One has not yet coalesced. Instead we have fragmented narratives from different groups that reflect our tribal mentality. In keeping with our focus on the cultural divide between liberals and conservatives, the following are their respective narratives.

The Liberal Narrative
   At one time, the vast majority of humans lived in societies that were unjust, corrupt, repressive, and oppressive. These traditional societies were unacceptable because of their entrenched inequality, exploitation, and superstitious traditions. But humans have always yearned to be free, equal, autonomous, and prosperous and they have honorably struggled against the forces of despair and tyranny. Eventually, and with great sacrifice, humans have succeeded in founding modern, liberal, democratic, capitalist, and social-welfare societies. While modern societies hold the possibility to make best use of the mechanisms to assure individual freedom and pleasure of all, there is still much work remaining to undo the entrenchment of the powerful who perpetuate inequality, exploitation, and repression for their own benefit. Dedicating one’s life to achieving this mission of a good society in which individuals are equal and free to follow their self-defined happiness, is a noble and worthwhile struggle.

Women’s Liberation March, 1970

This heroic narrative, with slight variations according to regions, is a recognizable story line among leftists around the world. It’s a valiant and epic liberation narrative that calls for the victims of oppression to break the chains of tradition, authority, power, and hierarchy in order to free their noble aspirations.

The Conservative Narrative

America was once a shining beacon on a hill. It was a land of freedom, industry, personal responsibility, and achievement. Then liberals decided to intervene and built a colossal federal bureaucracy that shackled the invisible hand of the free market. They undermined our traditional American values and besmirched God and faith in the process. Instead of valuing the act of working for a living, they took money from hardworking Americans and gave it to drug addicts and welfare queens. Instead of following traditional American values of family, loyalty, and personal responsibility, they encouraged a feminist agenda that weakened the traditional family. Instead of saluting America’s strength and goodness around the world, they cut military budgets, belittled soldiers, disrespected the flag, and chose negotiation and multilateralism. Conservatives have had enough and are taking back our country from those who seek to demean and emasculate it.

Watch for part 3 of this series.

______________________________

Dr. Denise R. Ames is a long-time educator, grade 7-university, author of seven books, and president of an educational non-profit, Center for Global Awareness, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CGA provides books, resources, and services with a holistic, global- focused, and perspective-taking approach for their three programs: Global Awareness for Educators, books and resources for educators and students grade 9-university; Gather, Global Awareness Through Engaged Reflection, a self-organizing study and conversation program for adults focusing on seeing different perspectives of pressing global issues; and their most recent program Turn, Transformative Understanding and Reflection Network, which encourages lifelong and transformative learning to help us arrive at a place of personal and global well-being using a seven “path” approach.

Please email info@global-awareness.org or visit www.global-awareness.org for more information.