Media is an essential ingredient to get someone whose mind is closed to consider thinking differently—it certainly can’t be forced, and in this digital environment where a person can spend lifetimes in media silos that reinforce their thinking, it’s all the more challenging.
But with so many issues requiring a wider shift in social consciousness to make progress, it’s essential work. Our correspondents for two IMI projects, Local Peace Economy and Earth | Food | Life, have produced so many amazing articles that I know are finding ways to crack through. I know this because I see the reactions to the work, and also because our approach of working with a wide array of publications of different stripes and ideologies in the U.S. and internationally means that it’s getting a wider exposure.
April M. Short’s two recent articles for Local Peace Economy, in which she interviews anthropologists who specialize in the history of war and peace systems, shifted my mind personally. The first explains how the culture of war-making is just one streak in human history, by no means the default; and the second describes how in a high-tech modern era, constructing peace systems is a highly pragmatic approach for all societies. I see the possibility. It’s powerful stuff—and the letters and reactions we’ve seen from all corners of society tell me it landed. Stories like these have their own pace; they change minds one reader at a time, on a time scale utterly at odds with the high-paced digital breaking news marketplace. Short’s recent spate of articles on innovations throughout the U.S. on how communities are trying to find more balanced and sane ways of living together gives me that warm glow of optimism, and I’m guessing that if you went through her recent work, it would do the same for you.
Reynard Loki’s stellar work as chief correspondent and editor of Earth | Food | Life is truly inspiring. The questions he works with go far beyond informing people about the state of our environment, and all the pessimism that stems from the steady stream of bad news one can encounter—the work points to ways that humanity can shift, to prevent the worst from happening, to find a more humane approach to living together. Loki reminded us that the sooner we as a people can recognize the damage of environmental racism, the less suffering we will inflict on each other.
Work like this takes passion—I hope you will join our circle, and reach out to us with your support to help make this world a better place.
And if you aren’t up to date, please catch up with our recent work!
PPE May Save Human Lives, but It’s Deadly for Wildlife
Reynard Loki – April 13, 2021 – Earth | Food | Life
IMI Fellow Kali Holloway to Join Panel on PBS Broadcast, ‘New American Dream: News That Needs Telling’
Kali Holloway – April 12, 2021 – Make It Right
Why Republicans Are Betting the Farm on Attacking Transgender People
Sonali Kolhatkar – April 11, 2021 – Economy for All
How Humanity Can Realistically Prevent War From Ever Happening Again
April M. Short – April 11, 2021 – Local Peace Economy
Why Disability Rights Advocates Are Pressing the Senate to Allow an Internet Voting Option
Steven Rosenfeld – April 9, 2021 – Voting Booth
One City’s Pioneering Project to Push Police Funding Into Housing the Homeless
April M. Short – April 7, 2021 – Local Peace Economy
Biden Promised to End Standardized Testing in Schools—It Was Never Going to Be Easy
Jeff Bryant – April 7, 2021 – Our Schools
‘Sacrifice Zones’: How People of Color Are Targets of Environmental Racism
Reynard Loki – April 6, 2021 – Earth | Food | Life
Thanks from Jan Ritch-Frel and the rest of the IMI team—please join our cause to produce media that can change the world.