Common Good Collective

Reader

This Reader is an expression of Common Good Collective, a vision for an alternative way, rooted in the act of eliminating economic isolation, the significance of place, and the structure of belonging. Whether you come at this from a place of economics, social good, or faith, we hope these reflections help orient your day in fresh, provocative, courageous ways. And most importantly, we hope these lead you into the sharing of gifts in particular communities—into co-creating a common good.

We read hundreds of articles and select the best ones for you by sending them to your inbox on Thursday.
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Invitation, Structure Of Belonging, Wilderness: Sharing and Reorientation Permalink

America Is Not Ready To Heal, Reflections from Courtney Napier

CGC Contributor Courtney Napier offers a personal story about a scary message from a doctor, and the path of healing that followed. Healing comes only when the cancer is gone, she writes. You can’t keep the pathogens in, and get good health out.

 

The waiting room of a pediatric cardiologist’s office is a curious place when you’re twenty-five. Bursting with color, there were smiling, cartoonish renderings of giraffes, lions, and monkeys painted on the yellow walls. Disney shows played on the TV mounted in the corner of the room. Large wooden mazes and puzzles entertained children sitting in little turquoise chairs. Their parents passed the time on their cell phones in height-appropriate cushioned chairs. I felt like a giant, and I was a touch embarrassed. But all those feelings were meaningless when I sat in the exam room awaiting the results of my echocardiogram.

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 Eliminating economic isolation, Reader, Significance Of Place, Wilderness: Sharing and Reorientation Permalink

Private Sufficiency, Public Luxury

Thriving requires space. But most of our public imagination indicates that the way we think about land as privately owned space is natural. It is not, and that idea has colonized the world, and has colonized our imaginations. This lecture offers some history and some steps forward for re-imaging our relationship with space.

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 Possibly: Freedom for A New Story, Reader, Structure Of Belonging, Wilderness: Sharing and Reorientation Permalink

The Gentle Messenger Illuminates The Future

History is the gentle messenger that answers the questions “How did we get here?” and “What comes next?” All of us were born with a story, and part of our journey towards the common good is exposing that birth story to the illuminating quality of maturation. In our selections for this week’s reader, activists, economists, poets, and environmentalists interrogate the stories we have been told about land use, the Black woman’s “place”, American history, and messages surrounding American government and economy, and exposes them to the light.

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 Poetry for Building Community, Possibly: Freedom for A New Story, Reader Permalink

Black Girl Magic

Tamieka Atkins. LaTosha Brown. Symone Sanders. Helen Bulter. Nsé Ufot. Deborah Scott. Stacey Abrams. These are the incredible Black women who employed their magic for the common good, made history in the process.

 

Black Girl Magic
By Mahogany L. Browne

They say you ain’t posed to be here
You ain’t posed to wear red lipstick
You ain’t posed to wear high heels
You ain’t posed to smile in public
You ain’t posed to smile nowhere, girl

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 Reader, Structure Of Belonging, The Abundant Community Permalink

Fight the Commodification of Everyone and Everything

In his interview with Grace Blakely on A World To Win podcast, he reminds us, “…we have to have a critique of the system, and alternative visions and ways of being that sustain our resilience in the face of the system.” Sobriety in our vision of the present, and an imaginative vision of the future will inform our path forward.

Cornel West is one of the most eloquent and provocative voices on the American left. A scholar in the Harvard Divinity School, he began his political life in the tumults of the Civil Rights Movement — becoming a Christian radical, then a socialist and ally of the Black Panther Party.

But his career stretches far beyond his academic career as a philosopher or political life on the Left, with cultural engagements from musical collaborations with Prince and Talib Kweli to an appearance in The Matrix series. He has also had a career in broadcasting, hosting numerous radio programs and now a podcast, The Tight Rope, with Tricia Rose.

In this recent conversation with Grace Blakeley for her podcast A World to Win, Cornel West discusses the US presidential election, the Black Lives Matter movement — and the importance of spirituality to radical politics.

Grace Blakeley: You said in a recent interview, “with the neofascist gangster in the White House, we have to be part of an anti-fascist coalition.” Do you think that an anti-Trump coalition can be successful? And do you think a Biden presidency will deliver anything approaching the change that the United States needs right now?

Cornel West: We’ve got to be consistent in our critique of empire, of capitalism, of patriarchy, of homophobia, transphobia, and male supremacy, and white supremacy. And, how we do that is to hold onto our intellectual integrity, and our political courage: telling the truth about Donald Trump, the neofascist, the gangster, his collaborators and facilitators. He is pushing the country toward genuine fascism: wholesale disregard of the law, the rule of big military, the rule of big money, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley. He is crushing workers, marginalizing women, scapegoating Mexicans, and Muslims, and Jews, and Black, brown, and indigenous people.

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