Rotary Club of Palo Alto/University - Civil Discourse Committee
Resources to Prepare for the Aftermath of the Presidential Election
(October 2024)
In the interest of building unity in our country, the Civil Discourse Committee suggests these resources to prepare for the aftermath of the divisive presidential election now almost concluded. Our recommendations fall into three categories:
Managing Election Stress
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UC Berkeley University Health Services -- includes a page on its website on “How to Cope with Election-Related Stress and Foster Your Resilience” with about a dozen specific ideas and also links to other support resources.
(Link: https://bit.ly/UCBstress)
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The JED Foundation – a foundation focused on protecting emotional health and preventing suicide, which was founded by parents who had lost their youngest son, Jed, to suicide. It has a page on its website on “Election Stress: Tips to Manage Anxious Feelings About Politics.” (Link: https://bit.ly/JedFndn)
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U.S. News and World Report: Health – This well-known website has an article about “13 Ways to Reduce Election Stress,” with lots of suggestions. (Link: https://bit.ly/USNHES)
Building a Mutual Aid Culture
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More Like Us (website) -- This organization “corrects dangerous political misperceptions of each other at scale,” with presentations, videos, and links to helpful materials on their website. The approach focuses on positive psychology, using the “wheel of emotions” to understand and transform polarized communities into healthier ones; for example, dealing with the following misperception challenges by using transformative messages along the following lines:
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Stereotypes Complexity
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Inferiority Admiration
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Differences Similarity
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Weak Relationships Togetherness
The link to presentation slides used by James Coan on August 30, 2024 entitled CASTing the “Other Side” in a Better Light is here. (Website link: https://www.morelikeus.org ) (Presentation link: https://bit.ly/betterthem)
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What’s Our Problem? (a self-help book for societies) and Wait But Why? (a website) begun by Tim Urban – these resources are helpful in popularizing ideas about how to understand Primitive Mind and Higher Mind cultures, which can help in addressing the divisiveness in our society. Having given a very popular TED talk on procrastination, Tim now posts regularly on a variety of provocative topics. (Website link: https://waitbutwhy.com )
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Starts With Us / BUILDERS (website) – a nonpartisan, nonprofit website that is encouraging the building of a community to learn practical skills, feel inspired from real-life stories, and find ways to take action every week to overcome extreme division. They focus on developing greater humility, curiosity, empathy, and mental flexibility. (Website link: https://startswith.us/builders/)
Dealing with Election-Related Political Violence
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The HOPE-PV Project (endpoliticalviolence.org) -- This website has many links to resources and a data-driven approach to countering threats, intimidation, and political violence. The approach relies on using five principles for “making political violence backfire.” The site features a recent guide, which can be downloaded as a pdf: Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence – 2024 Guide. (Website link: https://bit.ly/epvorg2)
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(pdf link: https://bit.ly/epvguide)
https://www.paloaltouniversityrotaryclub.com/civil-discourse (10-18-24)