At these Democracy Cafes starting next Tuesday in California before the upcoming elections, the focus, is ‘voting literacy,’ and hence looking at what sources of media and other information participants use to determine which candidates to vote for and which ballot propositions to vote for or against, and further explore what folks consider ‘reliable’ and unreliable/fake news sources. (It most always gets even more interesting when I mention what I wrote in my book ‘Constitution Cafe: Jefferson’s Brew for a True Revolution,’ namely that smear and demonization campaigns and the deliberate spread of fake-ish news has been part of our fabric at least since the Jefferson-Adams faceoff of 1800). Deeply grateful to Rich Bernstein, Chris McGown, and Paul Martin for their generous support of this latest journey and our nonprofit in general.
Here are the dates for the upcoming Democracy Cafes — some of these places, as I’m sure you know, have very sparse local news sources at best:
1) Santa Rosa, CA — Tuesday, Oct 16, 2:30 – 4 pm
2) a) Mt. Shasta public library — Weds. Oct 17 or Thurs. Oct 18 (
b) Mt. Shasta area public schools,elementary, middle and high schools, Wednesday Oct 17 and Thursday Oct 18 (I’ve also been asked to give an ‘experiential workshop’ on Saturday on how to facilitate these gatherings, so that’s great)
3) Sacramento public library — Sunday afternoon Oct 21, main library branch
http://www.saclibrary.org/events?eventId=275987
4) Mechanics’ Institute Library, San Francisco — Monday Oct 22, 12:30 pm
https://www.milibrary.org/events/democracy-cafe-oct-22-2018
5) Tulare County Public Library (conservative area — Tuesday Oct 23 , 6 pm
and we recently had great experiences at these earlier gatherings in Florida and West Virginia at which I held dialogues (Constitution Cafes, Socrates Cafes, and Dem Cafes):
http://wvhumanities.org/event/event-3820/
http://events.valenciacollege.edu/event/christopher_phillips#.W5bCz5P0kWq
and Jacksonville University Philosophy Slam on the evening of Sept 27 (about 35 people came from the university community and community at large)
https://www.saplf.org/event/a-conversation-with-the-constitution/ (this included a large contingent of middle and high school students from low socioeconomic areas who particate as equals with adults from many walks of life)