Whenever the internet connection is working...

Kathy is traveling and was concerned that she was not going to be able to send her list of readings on time because of poor internet connections. She is on the Camino de Santiago. We asked her what she was up to on her trip and here is Kathy's response:

"I am working 15 days in the albergue de peregrinos de Zamora, with the organization Hospitaleros Voluntarios, which provides staff for albergues [hostels] that operate on donations only. We are supposed to help the peregrinos [pilgrims] on their route, by providing a bed, information, support etc. We check in the pilgrims and give them a room, answer questions about the town and tomorrow’s route, make breakfast the next day, then clean the house and wash sheets. I’m done on May 1. It’s an interesting variation on the Camino—instead of walking along and seeing the whole route, you stay in one place and see all the people passing on their way to Santiago.

"Here’s a fun fact: 3 days ago there was a peregrino from France who said he had lived in New York years ago and worked for the UN. Later that night he came up to make a phone call at the front door (the albergue has thick stone walls and is built down the hill, poor phone coverage inside) and my compañera [co-worker] overheard him asking to 'speak to Kofi Annan, please.'  It turns out they used to play tennis together.  (My compañera talked to the peregrino the next morning.) Anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing... see you all soon."

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STOP, LOOK, LISTEN! by Kathy Sherretts

Here are a few of the things I have managed to read this week, whenever the internet connection is working.
—Kathy Sherretts

Article:
The Atlantic: Paul Ryan Personifies the Devil's Bargain the GOP Struck With Trump by Ronald Brownstein
No one in the GOP was better equipped to resist Trump’s racially infused, insular nationalism, or to define a more inclusive competing vision for the party. Instead, Ryan chose to tolerate both Trump’s personal excesses and his racially polarizing words and deeds as the price worth paying to advance Ryan’s own priorities.

Conversation:
Slate: Being Black in Public by Jamelle Bouie , Gene Demby , Aisha Harris , and Tressie McMillan Cottom 
“White people’s definition of diverse is fundamentally different than ours, of course. Performative safe diversity that maintains majority culture is exactly what Starbucks and places like Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall traffic in… It is their whole shtick, which is why they had to work hard and quick to get this narrative back on track.”

Article:
Grist: Deja Vu by Greta Jochem
Haunted by the Ghost of EPAs Past… the agency itself may recover. When that happens, will there still be enough environment to protect?
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For more ways to take action check out the action plan put together by PAGE (Progressive Action Global Exchange), and Americans of Conscience; read the featured action suggested by Indivisible; or watch the series Resistance School.