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Apr 2

Posted by MattBailey

In the unfortunate case you haven’t seen it, Idiocracy is a 2005 Mike Judge film (maker of Beavis & Butt-Head, King of the Hill, and Office Space) that depicts a future America that has gone off the rails. The country has been overtaken by anti-intellectualism, or more accurately, the population has been dumbed down to a ridiculous extent. In this fictional dystopian future, the country has elected a professional wrestler as President, and commercialism and advertising have become the only things anyone cares about. An “Average Joe” who awakes from a 500-year suspended animation experiment is suddenly the smartest man in America, by far. If you think this doesn’t sound so far from today’s reality, you aren’t the only one. Even one of the show’s writers is there with you.

But how much truth is there to this? Are we really becoming a society of anti-intellectualism?  Read the rest of this entry →

Apr 1

Posted by katepedrotty

I’m a proud 2016 New Leaders Council Louisiana fellow and was thrilled when we kicked off our 2016 Institute in my hometown, Shreveport. One of our special guests during the weekend was former Shreveport mayor (and current State Representative for District 4) Cedric B. Glover, and in his remarks to our cohort he highlighted his December 2009 executive order protecting LGBT city employees from employment discrimination as a point of personal and professional pride – a bright spot for concrete progressive action in a very conservative corner of the state. Four years later, in 2013, the Shreveport City Council adopted the Shreveport Fairness Ordinance prohibiting discrimination against all LGBT city residents in employment, housing, and public facilities, making Shreveport only the second city in Louisiana to legislate specific protections for LGBT citizens.

These tangible policies are impressive and important. But the story of progress toward LGBT rights in Shreveport isn’t really about executive orders and city council ordinances. It’s about effective organizing and people power – specifically, the work of People Acting for Change and Equality, or PACE.  Read the rest of this entry →

Mar 30

Posted by MattBailey

I have a confession: I’m a bit embarrassed at the degree to which I’ve engaged in social media activism over the years. I’m quite certain it has caused friends and acquaintances – and maybe even some extended family members – to unfollow me. I’ve made some stupid, ill-advised statements in the heat of my own righteous anger that I’ve later regretted, some of which served as fodder for bloggers who needed to attack me personally to further a larger cause. And sadly, I’m afraid I’ve lost friends and alienated people because of the cold ferocity of my arguments and impassioned diatribes. Read the rest of this entry →

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