the Issue
I often say I don’t know what I’ll be writing when I sit down first thing in the morning. That’s important for me to say, if only to myself. Because writing (and photography) are spiritual to me. Writing and photography are prayers. This viewpoint helps me try to keep my ego out of it and helps me do one of the most difficult things: writing about myself. But I believe we must write our own stories from our experiences.
That is so important that it is one of the principles I’ve developed about creating connections between different communities or cultures. When (and only when) you are invited to do so, speak from your own experience.
The only author I read daily is Umar Haque. “The Issue’s founder is Umair Haque. Umair’s been one of the world’s top 50 thinkers, has published several books through Harvard Business Press, been one of Harvard Business Review online’s top authors for many years.”
Umar now writes on The Issue, an independent, subscriber-supported publication launched in August 2023. https://www.theissue.io/
Our Manifesto
Here are a few things we believe.
The Issue’s mission is simple. We bring you deep insight and fresh thinking, 3-5 times a week, about one of the Big Issues. The ones that matter most. Why?
This is a critical juncture in history. Our world is being rocked by crisis after crisis. Democracy’s declining. The climate’s changing. Extremism’s on the rise. Our economies aren’t delivering. Pessimism’s swept the globe. Institutions aren’t trusted, systems are failing, and polities are shattering.
Everyone deserves to understand the Issues at stake in this age—this critical juncture in human history—with clarity, rigor, and reality. Not just fall prey to disinformation, misinformation, and false notions of balance. The stakes are too high for that.
Our mission is to help you understand the Issues that matter most. We keep it real, raw, and razor-sharp. Like an expert would. We’re not here to play games. The Issues today are too big and urgent for that. Our goal is to take you one step closer to becoming you an expert—not just a passive consumer of news. Someone who understands The Issues that matter, with depth, resonance, and focus.
The news end of journalism covers the Big Issues well—sometimes. But the analysis end of news—op-ed pages, opinion sections—doesn’t. Reading it, you’d get the impression that climate change might not exist, or that democracy’s not in trouble, or that the future’s not in question. That’s not good enough.
The Issues that matter belong to all of us. They concern all of us. And we deserve better when it comes to them, than we’re currently doing. It’s up to each of us to understand them well—with a little help. That’s our job at The Issue. Welcome.
This morning, I feel unmoored. There are so many crises that are spinning out of control. And no one seems to have an answer for any of them.
Indigenous People’s Day brings attention, yet AGAIN, to settler colonialism capitalism. Reminding us White people that we are living on stolen land. And of the horrors of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. The genocide at the institutions of forced assimilation of native children where all kinds of abuse occurred, and tens of thousands died.
We have become desensitized to this country’s endless, global military incursions. The declaration of war by Israel just seems like one more military operation. Why aren’t we saying War is Not the Answer?
And the greatest threat of all, rapidly accelerating environmental chaos, leading to social, economic, and political collapse. Threatening our possible extinction.
To give you a sense of what the Issue is like, the latest article is Our Civilization’s Melting Down—But We’re Not Allowed to Talk About It.
There’s a strange and baffling thing happening these days.
On the one hand, people are…wrecked. The stats reveal a portrait, globally, of sweeping, pervasive pessimism. Trauma, in rising rates of anxiety and anger and stress. Despair, in skyrocketing depression and suicide and loneliness. People are the walking wounded these days.
And yet…we’re all staggering around pretending like none of this is happening. OK, not you and me, and those like us—we’re a little different, and I’ll come back to that. But by and large? It’s as if this fatal tide of despair, grief, and trauma isn’t…happening…at all. We’re not supposed to talk about it. Write about it. Discuss it. Think about it. Maybe once in a while, we read an article in a newspaper, and are supposed to nod, stroke our chins—and then go right back to pretending that none of this is happening.
It’s not something we discuss much, is it? Think about it. Look at social media, which is where, unfortunately, we spend most of our lives. Smile for the camera! Glance at our culture. Take a look at the kinds of discussions which animate our societies—the ones we’re supposed to respond to and be involved in. This catastrophic state of affairs, the status quo of the human world and soul, if you like, isn’t even on the list of priorities of our civilization, societies, countries. We’re just supposed to walk along merrily and…what? Buy stuff? Fake a grin? Grin and bear it. Ignore it.
That’s a taboo.
Our Civilization’s Melting Down—But We’re Not Allowed to Talk About It by umair haque, the Issue, Oct 9, 2023
This is just the introduction to the article, which deserves a reading. The monthly subscription is $5.00. https://www.theissue.io/
Quakers and Mutual Aid 
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