River Vows Philosophy

I am a Unitarian Universalist. At least, still am. In January 2026, I attended the “Side with Love” meeting of the UUA online. At one point, the moderator was listing the things that make us, as UUs, against Donald Trump. One thing she listed was that Trump captured Nicolas Maduro and then, she took great care to emphasize that Maduro was the “duly elected” president of Venezuela. Well, not really. Not really at all. We may not believe what the US State Department lists at their website: that 50 countries don’t recognize him as the duly elected leader, but many independent sources question the results of that election, such as the January 2025 article by Javier Corrales and Dorothy Kronick “How Maduro Stole Venezuela’s Vote” in the Journal of Democracy. I think it’s safe to say that Nicolas Maduro was most certainly NOT duly elected. My point isn’t to say that the moderator kind of goofed, but to point out that she emphasized the goof in such a way as to make it crystal clear that it w...

 As the situation has been evolving, this original 1/24/26 post was updated 1/30/26.  Political Death. Death in the name of politics. Do they suggest they are the same thing? George Floyd died during the confusing time of COVID and galvanized the African American community and sympathetic whites. And this accomplished the Black Lives Matter movement. White folks got three political deaths recently, Charlie Kirk, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They don’t carry the same resonance of oppression. Charlie Kirk had already founded his movement and made it into a multi-million dollar business which flourishes now all the more and Renee Good and Alex Pretti believed they were standing up for the oppressed and their deaths have inspired more messy protests but there doesn’t seem to be a galvanizing emergence of a new movement. Pardon the cliche but we all seem to be deer still stuck in the headlights. Now, I ask you... What good did any of it do, anyway, except to outline the times in wh...