Agnostic humanism provides the foundation of my values.
The cultural and structural transformations I currently desire most are:
- To stop pollution, extractive capitalism, and the global carbon-fuelled climate emergency.
- To dismantle white supremacy — particularly the violence and economic exploitation being enacted right now against indigenous peoples and the descendants of enslaved persons.
- To prevent genocide and carry out our moral responsibility to welcome immigrants — As a U.S. citizen, I feel particularly charged in these times of climate emergency to pay attention to human rights abuses against would-be asylees, immigrants, and all those who have been swept up by the Border Patrol, ICE, and other branches of law enforcement, regardless of citizenship or documentation status.
- To dismantle the police state and prison-industrial complex.
- To stop the COVID-19 pandemic and bring health equity and reproductive justice to all.
- To dismantle fascist movements and reinvent our democratic governance to increase justice, healing, and equality.
Additionally, I oppose ableism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and fatphobia.
As a professional, my work performance is also driven by:
- Pride in performing substantive work and doing it well.
- Desire to serve and genuine liking for clients.
- Satisfaction in iteratively improving a process.
- Personal enjoyment from working on broad, deep puzzles — research, strategy development, writing lengthy persuasive documents.
- Personal enjoyment in making everything match — assembling, proofing, checking for consistency, formatting, etc.
“…if people are window-shopping at the store of civil liberties, you don’t denounce them and say ‘why don’t you care about these other issues?’ — you invite them inside and make a sale on a broader range of concerns, from Guantanamo Bay abuses to the need to prosecute torturers.”