Make some good news about refugees

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Wednesday July 12, 2017 · 6:28 PM PDT

2017/07/12 · 18:28

I’ve posted this before, but time is growing short. Please share with any one who might be able to help. Thank you

With the [partially] reinstated travel ban it’s kind of a discouraging time for refugees and those who believe in human dignity. It’s a good time for all of us to support those who work every day to help the survivors of war, disease and other plights the Ivankas and Jareds will never face to make their way in a new country.

One place that does this is Refuge Coffee, in my town of Clarkston, Georgia. You may have heard of Clarkston—the most diverse square mile (or two or three, it’s a slogan) in the Southeast, if not the U.S. We have about 40 different languages spoken in our community of under 8,000. Most of those languages are also heard in places like Burma. Kurdistan. Somalia. Syria. The list goes on.

Refuge Coffee is an utterly amazing little non-profit that in a little over two years has become a place that unites these folks with each other, with painfully WASPy people like me, with our African-American community, and with communities outside Clarkston that like to think of themselves as progressive :). The mission is pretty simple: providing employment and job-training opportunities to resettled refugees, to create a unique, welcoming gathering place in Clarkston, and to tell a more beautiful refugee story to Atlanta.

Physically, Refuge Coffee is two coffee trucks, really good coffee, and an old gas station/car dealership lot they’ve been renting for about two years. The last is where I hope some of my fellow Kossacks come in. They need to buy the place or be forced to move. This is a straight-up hope that we can help them out, and maybe share this with someone who can really help them out. They’ve set up a page for just this purpose: www.purecharity.com/… Please take a look. And to read more about Refuge Coffee’s story, check here: refugecoffeeco.com and here: www.facebook.com/…

For the record, my connection with Refuge Coffee is as a customer and a member of this community, nothing else.

Thanks

Make good news about refugees

Allen

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday June 27, 2017 · 8:10 PM PDT

2017/06/27 · 20:10

For the record, my connection with Refuge Coffee is as a customer and a member of this community, nothing else.

Thanks

#MajorityVoter ?

Allen

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday November 23, 2016 · 6:37 PM PST

2016/11/23 · 18:37

Just a random idea . . .

We’ve already ignored the fake news, with not so good effect, and it looks like something else is definitely taking hold there: the myth that one Donald J. Trump got the most votes two weeks ago. We know that’s not true and the mainstream media are reporting the truth on this (imagine that) but the same media that convinced some voters that Hilary is a murdering lesbian child molester (not making that up) is doing its best to convince them that , really, Trump got the most votes.

So the idea is to use these two simple words--Majority Voter—in every means possible. My first thought was just to print up a bumper sticker for myself and a few friends, but then I thought, why not #MajorityVoter, linking to this site or someplace else really pointed (like the Wassermann site). I’m serious—we need to rip out the seed of that Trump majority lie before it takes root, and plant this truth firmly.

Why? Ezra Klein makes the case better than I can. We may be the backbenchers for the moment in DC, but in the nation we are the majority, and we need to act like it. Klein calls on Democrats in Congress to own their, God help me, moral majority. They can only do that if we emphasize every day to everyone we contact, that Trump and his minions do not represent the majority of Americans.

So--it’s just a random idea. I don’t even tweet

Strike back--help a refugee

Allen

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday November 11, 2016 · 8:45 AM PST

2016/11/11 · 08:45

Need to feel like you’re striking back for decency and tolerance? Here’s something you can do. Refuge Coffee in Clarkston, GA is a non-profit, true grassroots program set up in America’s most diverse zip code to provide job training for refugees. In particular at the “press” link you can read about the many successes it has had for not only the refugees but the community in the short two years it has been up and running.

Right now they are in danger of losing their home due to a foreclosure on their landlord, and need help to keep their efforts going. If you want to strike a blow for tolerance and an open, welcoming U.S., please consider helping out. Thank you

Good news on Georgia & refugees

Allen

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday December 31, 2015 · 7:06 PM PST

2015/12/31 · 19:06

As the year ends I wanted to offer some good news on refugees in Georgia. The whole state is not, as the nuance-challenged (including some of my fellow Kossacks) would have it, a bunch of rednecks just because our ethically-challenged governor believes denying food to small children will keep us safe from terrorism . After all, was everyone in the nation to blame when Bush invaded Iraq? Are the residents of my native state of Massachusetts all ignorant yahoos because their governor also is anti-refugee?

Of course not, but I digress and I want to keep this short. Here are three positive things happening for refugees in my corner of Georgia—and ways you can help:

Refuge Coffee in just a few short months has become a success in its mission of providing job training for refugees and a venue for refugees and others to interact. The coffee is damn good too. Visit their Create Refuge campaign to learn how you can support their mission.

The young (okay, hipster) mayor of Clarkston, Ted Terry has been both brave and outspoken in defending this most diverse zip code in the southeast. He has garnered a lot of media coverage (even, bizarrely, the Economist) for his stand of welcoming all refugees—and is not infrequently attacked by the knuckle-draggers (someone had to elect our governor) for his stand on his Facebook page. I think you know what to do.

Finally, the International Community School (icsgeorgia.org) has, for a dozen years or more, provided a welcoming place for refugee and immigrant children and their families—and for the native-born children and their families who grow so much from learning alongside them. I know the nuance-challenged see all charter schools as the spawn of Satan, but ICS puts the lie to that—all while struggling with less dollars per pupil than mainline schools in the county system (DeKalb) of which it is a part.

So really, it’s not all bad news from Georgia.

Taking the longer view

Allen

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday November 27, 2008 · 6:51 AM PST

2008/11/27 · 06:51

Fellow Kossacks, it’s been a great month. We have achieved political change. But political change is only part of the better world we want to build. A real shining city on a hill, to co-opt a phrase someone else once co-opted, will need an even longer view. Let me share with you a story—please forgive me for using other people’s words (taken from the two websites cited in the diary) to do it; I know they won’t mind. Given yesterday's sad events in India, perhaps this all seems only more relevant.

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