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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260729T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260729T133000
DTSTAMP:20260723T211735Z
CREATED:20260723T211735Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260723T211735Z
UID:10004060-1785326400-1785331800@siliconvalleydsa.org
SUMMARY:Democracy Forum - Meet the Authors of "On Courage"
DESCRIPTION:Silicon Valley DSA has endorsed the fourth installment of the Democracy Forum organized by our allies Indivisible Palo Alto + on Wednesday July 29 from 12-1:30 PM. The event takes place at the First Presbyterian Church and is a “brown bag” bring your own lunch format. \nRegister for the event here: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/991799/ \nEvent description from the organizers: \n\nAbout this event\n\n\n\n\n\n\n​On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear is a new book that’s made for this moment—and a book written for all of us who are trying to defend democracy in these perilous\, promising times. \n“INVALUABLE. A CLASSIC OF OUR TIME. Everybody should read it\,” says Rachel Maddow of MS-NOW. The book’s publisher calls On Courage “a deeply reported manual about how anyone can defy an authoritarian—based on original interviews with more than 100 dissidents\, activists\, and theorists across the world.” \nJoin us for a special DEMOCRACY FORUM appearance by Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer\, the authors of On Courage. Anguin and Fields-Meyer will be in conversation with David Waksberg\, a local Indivisible leader and a former human rights activist. \nJulia is a Palo Alto native who\, along with her co-author\, Ami\, has agreed to make time during her national book tour to meet with Indivisible members and friends from across the Peninsula. \nThe event takes place at lunchtime\, so attendees are encouraged to bring a brown bag lunch. Snacks and drinks will be provided. The facility will open 11:30 AM\, so please arrive early to enjoy your lunch with other attendees. \nAngwin and Fields-Meyer will sign copies of their book\, and the book will be available for purchase at the event. \nABOUT THE BOOK \nFrom the publisher’s description of On Courage: \nThe United States is only the latest country to face a leader who wields fear as a weapon\, punishes political enemies\, disappears people off the street\, and undermines free and fair elections. Today nearly three out of four people on earth live under authoritarianism\, the highest rate since the late 1970s. \nBut even under repressive conditions\, each of us holds the power to help defeat autocrats. Based on their acclaimed The New Yorker essay “So You Want to Be a Dissident?\,” veteran reporter Julia Angwin and political strategist Ami Fields-Meyer give us a captivating—and profoundly hopeful—guide to courage in an age of fear. \nMeet a student from Hong Kong who risked everything for democracy. A mom in a working-class neighborhood of Caracas who broke with the political movement that raised her. Cairo twentysomethings who staged a gutsy stunt to help bring down a dictator. A mild-mannered immigrant fighting to save a landmark U.S. civil rights law. People throughout the United States and across five continents who faced serious risks for dissenting in their workplace\, their community\, or their country. On Courage is the story of how they did it anyway—and how you can do it\, too. \nBlending rich\, previously untold narratives with history\, spirituality\, and movement research\, Angwin and Fields-Meyer deliver a highly accessible book full of practical lessons—an inspiring resource for anyone\, anywhere\, who feel the walls of history closing in on them. On Courage is a roadmap to political courage and a powerful case for how taking personal risks can help save the free world. \nABOUT THE AUTHORS \nJulia Angwin is an award-winning investigative journalist\, a bestselling author\, a New York Times contributing Opinion writer\, and founding director of the Independent Media + Audience Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media\, Politics and Public Policy. She is the founder of two nonprofit newsrooms—Proof News and The Markup – that investigate the impacts of technology. She is a winner and two time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy\, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance (Times Books\, 2014) and Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America (Random House\, March 2009). \nAmi Fields-Meyer is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation and a former senior policy advisor at the White House\, where he led U.S. policy initiatives related to civil rights\, consumer protection\, and technology policy. He has served as a strategist to national civil rights organizations\, political candidates\, and high-profile public officials from Los Angeles City Hall to the West Wing. Fields-Meyer’s writing on issues of democracy and public policy has been published in The New Yorker\, The Atlantic\, Foreign Policy\, and other outlets. A former speechwriter\, he is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. \nSPONSORING PARTNERS \n\nBlue Turn Indivisible\nMultifaith Voices for Peace and Justice\nSilicon Valley Democratic Socialists of America\n\nABOUT DEMOCRACY FORUM \nThis special author event is the fourth presentation of Democracy Forum\, a series of action-oriented events hosted by Indivisible Palo Alto Plus. Democracy Forum aims to provide a “deep dive” educational experience that will equip participants with the knowledge\, skills\, and tools that they need to preserve and strengthen the American democratic experiment.
URL:https://siliconvalleydsa.org/event/democracy-forum-meet-the-authors-of-on-courage/
LOCATION:First Presbyterian Church Palo Alto
CATEGORIES:External,WG - Community Safety
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260628T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260628T173000
DTSTAMP:20260610T042034Z
CREATED:20260610T042034Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260610T042034Z
UID:10003579-1782658800-1782667800@siliconvalleydsa.org
SUMMARY:Democracy Forum - Who's Watching? Safeguarding Our Privacy
DESCRIPTION:Silicon Valley DSA is an active participant in opposing automated license plate readers and the expansion of the surveillance state in Santa Clara County. We are members of the Safety Over Surveillance (SOS) coalition that supports evidence-based approaches to promoting public safety and community needs over building a panopticon that erodes our democracy and civil liberties. Join us with Indivisible Palo Alto + and the SOS coalition for a forum on democracy and mass surveillance on Sunday\, June 28 from 3-5:30 pm at the First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto (1140 Cowper St.). \nRegister for the event here: https://www.mobilize.us/ipaplus/event/961311/ \nEvent description from webpage: \n\nAbout this event\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDemocracy cannot flourish when privacy is under threat. \nRulers have spied on their subjects since time immemorial. The less democratic the government\, the greater the impulse to monitor its population. \nOur founders established safeguards against this behavior—most notably\, the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. However\, two trends are coalescing to fuel a new and dangerous era of American mass surveillance: \n\nThe rise of Big Tech and digital surveillance capacities that reach far beyond anything that James Madison could have imagined\nA federal government that\, instead of upholding the right to privacy\, seeks to weaponize technology to consolidate its power and to marginalize or prosecute political rivals\n\nMass surveillance of American citizens has arrived at federal and local levels. It has the potential to radically alter the lives of every American—and to radically shape the future of our democracy. \nParticipants in this session of Democracy Forum will explore the “brave new world” of mass surveillance\, its impact on our everyday lives\, and its implications for our democracy. They will also learn about ways to counter mass surveillance and to protect their privacy. \nPROGRAM \nNationally recognized experts will discuss these critical developments: \n\nThe latest “advances” in surveillance technology and deployment\nThe actions of the Trump administration to promote mass surveillance\nThe growing alliance of Big Government and Big Tech\nThe spread of surveillance technology in our communities\nThe proliferation of apps on our personal devices (including mobile phones and personal computers) that monitor our actions and speech\, both online and offline\nThe increasing adoption of mass surveillance methods by ICE and other agencies\nThe use of mass surveillance technologies to target\, harass\, and prosecute people of color and vulnerable populations\n\nFollowing a plenary session featuring expert panel\, there will be a series of breakout sessions: \n\nDigital Privacy\nCameras on Our Streets: Automated License Plate Readers and Us\nMass Surveillance and Racial Justice\nMass Surveillance and Dissent\nLegal Protections and Remedies: What Is Working and What Has Failed\n\nParticipants will leave with deepened knowledge and understanding of these topics: \n\nHow mass surveillance affects our lives—on our personal devices and in our local communities\nHow mass surveillance intersects or conflicts with democracy\, privacy\, and civil liberties\nHow the alliance of Big Government and Big Tech threatens constitutional and legal privacy protections\nHow organized citizens can work to protect public safety and civil liberties\n\nSPEAKERS \nA wide range of experts on mass surveillance and civil liberties will lead the plenary and breakout sessions. Here are the speakers confirmed thus far: \nCindy Cohn has led the Electronic Frontier Foundation—an organization that defends civil liberties in the digital age—for the past thirty years. A leading advocate against government overreach\, she has spearheaded landmark legal battles to limit mass surveillance and to protect constitutional rights against threats posed by modern technology. \nCyrus Farivar is an award-winning journalist and author whose work has focused on technology policy\, surveillance law\, and consumer privacy. He has covered tech policy for several media outlets\, including Ars Technica\, Forbes\, and NBC News. In addition\, he has written two books\, The Internet of Elsewhere (2011) and Habeas Data (2018). In 2025\, he joined Fire Aside\, a startup that develops software for fire departments. He is based in Oakland. \nBrian Hofer is the executive director of Secure Justice. He is also the architect of Oakland’s pioneering surveillance technology ordinance and the chair of its privacy advisory commission. A privacy advocate known for his work on local government oversight\, he specializes in turning civil rights advocacy into enforceable policy that limits unwarranted state spying. \nReem Sulaiman is the senior campaigns director at Fight for the Future\, a nonprofit digital rights group that focuses on internet freedom and anti-surveillance advocacy. Previously\, she served as the U.S. advocacy lead for the Mozilla Foundation. Based in Oakland\, she has deep experience in local civic tech policy and served as an original member of the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission \nCONNECT. LEARN. ACT. \nWho’s Watching? Safeguarding Our Privacy is the third presentation of Democracy Forum\, a series of action-oriented events hosted by Indivisible Palo Alto Plus. Democracy Forum aims to provide a “deep dive” educational experience that will equip participants with the knowledge\, skills\, and tools that they need to preserve and strengthen the American democratic experiment.
URL:https://siliconvalleydsa.org/event/democracy-forum-whos-watching-safeguarding-our-privacy-2/
LOCATION:First Presbyterian Church Palo Alto
CATEGORIES:External,newbie-friendly,SV DSA,WG - Community Safety
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