1619 Wide Ranging Interests

Notes by Sharon Jarrett

The 1619, Lingering Imprint Discussion Group met on August 16th at 12:00 PM PST.  There was no formal Agenda for the meeting and a variety of topics of concern were addressed by participants.

These included:

·        The lawsuit against Fox News for 500 million in damages.  The group also discussed the media and reporting on the current political candidates and their campaigns.

·        The need for improved nutrition in general and for elders in particular.  This included a discussion on the impacts of inflation and what families could buy in terms of quality and quantity of food.  The participants also addressed the need to be mindful of health impacts of food and how it is prepared for elders living in residential centers such as Assisted Living.

·         The mental health and functioning of both Trump and Biden was discussed.  This focused in part on how the media has covered both men recently.  Project 2025 was also discussed within the frame of the political campaigns.

·        The challenges of parenting was discussed from the lens of supporting a family in terms of economic inequality and support for families more generally.

·        The role the southern border is playing in the party platforms was discussed, as well as the media reporting.

·        The state of Education for school age children was discussed both in terms of the need for 

community members to support and encourage children at the local level and the need for improved critical thinking and content reading for facts.

·        Finally, the participants discussed the concept of liberation from multiple lens:  self care, particularly nutrition, personal autonomy and knowledge of the role of corporations in daily life.

The group will meet again on September 20th at 12:00 PM PST. Betty Kilby will be the speaker at the next meeting.  Betty was involved as one of the children who integrated public education in Virginia and will focus her presentation on that. She previously spoke to us as a black descendant of a slave holder, who met and became friends with a white descendant of the same slave holder. They jointly wrote a book titled "Cousins: Connected Through Slavery", which they presented to us in a previous presentation. Betty is a very captivating and conversational speaker and we think this will be a very informative, entertaining and engaging session. We hope for a good turnout. 

1619 has converted from twice a month to a once a month series. Going forward, the group will meet on the third Friday of the month at 12:00 PM PST.

As always, we welcome guests. If you have friends who may be interested in participating, feel free to share this information with them.