agnostics-from-the-united-states

"As a school shooting survivor, I began my life calling for an end to the mass murder of innocent children and adults using weapons manufactured by the United States. Witnessing the ongoing genocide in Gaza has served as a haunting, serious reminder that it is my life’s purpose to advocate against violence everywhere. My classmates had the right to a future they never got. The countless Palestinians our weapons continue to slaughter have the same rights. Human beings deserve healthcare, jobs, housing, and all the rights our country systematically withholds. It is my mission to fight for our fellow human beings’ right to live in dignity and prosperity."

"I am part of the Mass Shooting Generation, and it's an ugly club to be in."

"Parkland school shooting survivor Cameron Kasky is running for New York’s open congressional seat. Kasky, 24, filed his candidacy this week, according to Federal Election Commission records. His move comes a month after Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler said he would retire in 2027. The activist, who did not respond to requests for comment, nodded to his run by changing his Instagram bio to “politician” on Tuesday and adding a link to his donation page. “All I can say at the moment is that the next generation of Democratic leaders will fight big tech, work to abolish ICE and hold immigration enforcement accountable, and reject money from organizations operating solely in the interest of right wing nationalist foreign governments,” he wrote. In high school, Kasky co-founded the gun violence prevention group March for Our Lives, which later faced funding shortfalls and internal turmoil. Like his would-be predecessor, the Florida native attended Columbia University before withdrawing to pursue activism full-time. He is now a contributor at The Bulwark and an MSNBC pundit. The race for New York’s 12th District is shaping up to be crowded—and possibly star-studded—with Jack Schlossberg, John F. Kennedy’s grandson, also exploring a run."

"On 14 February 2018 a former pupil entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. After six minutes and 20 seconds of carnage, three teachers and 14 of Cameron Kasky's fellow students lay dead. The geography teacher Scott Biegel, whom Kasky had known well, died protecting his students from gunfire. When the shooting broke out, Kasky had been rushing to pick up his younger brother from a special needs class. Hustled into the nearest classroom, the brothers spent the remainder of the attack hiding in the dark, not knowing if the door would be opened by the shooter or a rescuer."

"Now, Kasky aims to bring his efforts to the halls of Congress, focusing his campaign on promoting an unabashedly progressive agenda. Those goals include passing Medicare-for-All, focusing on affordability, abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, fighting the AI oligarchs and ending all U.S. funding to Israel, among others. The young progressive's agenda appears aligned with the moment for many on the left—particularly within New York City. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani just won a significant upset victory in the nation's largest city's election, resoundingly defeating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo first in the Democratic primary and then again in the general election last month. That victory came after a staunchly progressive campaign focused on affordability, taxing the wealthy and criticizing Israel's war in Gaza, with millions in billionaire money spent against him to prop up his opponent. "The people in this district want progressive leadership in the country, and that is my agenda," Kasky told Newsweek. As is the case with many Democratic voters, Kasky believes the party needs to reprioritize and change strategy to meet the moment."

"At 25 years old, Cameron Kasky is certain that he’s too young to be dealing with the back pain he’s been feeling. But the Democratic socialist and activist, who is announcing on Tuesday morning that he’s the latest entrant in a crowded primary to replace the 78-year-old representative Jerrold Nadler in New York’s 12th Congressional District, also thinks that the circumstances of his arrival in politics “fast-forwarded my aging a little bit.” At 17, Kasky, a survivor of the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, cofounded the gun-violence prevention group March for Our Lives. The work brought him to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers; it also led to his being swatted and doxxed."

"The progressive shift comes as current Democratic Party leaders are historically unpopular, according to multiple recent polls, as many progressive voters look for major reforms and changes. Meanwhile, November polling by Data for Progress showed that Medicare-for-All, long maligned by critics as far-left and socialist, is backed by nearly two-thirds of voters, including a majority of independents and nearly half of Republicans. And poll results published by Gallup in September showed favorable views of socialism hit a new high of 66 percent among Democrats."

"Cameron Kasky is a fighter. He knows what it’s like to be failed by the American political system. In 2018, Cameron survived the massacre at his high school in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 human beings. Faced with unspeakable tragedy, he united his classmates and led March For Our Lives, one of the largest movements in U.S. history. As a teenager, he stood up to Marco Rubio and the Republicans bought off by the gun lobby, and worked with legislators in Washington to pass life-saving gun safety legislation. But it’s not just about taking on MAGA: it’s about disrupting the system where both parties have paved the way for Trump’s regime. In the face of rising authoritarianism, Cameron is ready to take the fight back to Capitol Hill and represent progressive values for the greatest city in the world."

"Cameron Kasky could become the youngest member of Congress if he pulls off a win in the crowded race to replace New York's retiring 12th District Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler, 78, next year. But despite being in his mid-twenties, the longtime political activist is no stranger to the spotlight and taking bold action to push for change.< As a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, which killed 17 people and injured 18, Kasky went on to co-found the student-led group Never Again MSD, advocating for stricter gun regulations to prevent future violence. Kasky also helped organize the nationwide March for Our Lives demonstration in March 2018. While that experience gave him a national profile and allowed him to meet people across the country, the 25-year-old said it also made him lose hope for a time. "I had to watch so many people burst into tears right before my eyes and tell me that I gave them hope. But I had lost hope myself," Kasky, who identifies as a democratic socialist, told Newsweek in a Wednesday Zoom interview. But from that experience of becoming jaded, he's now emerged determined to continue the fight. "I lacked the understanding that change takes longer than we thought it would," he said."

"He is currently applying for college and plans to revive a podcast series, Cameron Kasky Knows Nothing - "my journey towards understanding folks who disagree with me" as he put it in the trailer. But what does he hope the legacy of the movement he co-founded will be? "I think the thing that March For Our Lives did for this country was, we told a whole generation of kids, 'We need to start working together, we need to start thinking. And just because we are little, does not mean we are inadequate when it comes to being part of the conversation.'""

"Starting the night of the attack, Kasky and a handful of his classmates took to social media, demanding stricter gun control laws and the right to be able to go to school without the fear of being killed. As they typed and posted, the hashtag #NeverAgain went viral. "I found myself frantically Facebook posting. It was what I knew how to do," he says. "The next morning I was getting all these calls from reporters." The same thing happened to his friends. As well as doing broadcast interviews, Kasky wrote online comment pieces and - a week after the attack - he took part in a televised town-hall event. Standing in front of a large crowd of his peers and neighbours, he confronted Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio over the money he had received from the National Rifle Association. "Senator Rubio can you tell me right now that you would not accept a single NRA donation in the future?" he demanded. The room exploded into chants and cheers. Kasky looked stunned and overwhelmed. He had just put one of the nation's most prominent politicians on the spot, live on national television. As momentum gathered behind the young campaigners, Kasky co-founded the group March For Our Lives and set about organising a demonstration in the nation's capital. Six weeks after the attack, on 24 March 2018, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington DC for the March For Our Lives protest. The Parkland students demanded a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and stricter background checks for those wishing to buy guns."

"There’s no getting there in terms of finding that balance. It’s always a practice and a process. And one thing will work for a while and then it won’t work anymore; you have to find another practice to keep you centered. I think the trickiest part is just coming back to a level of real relaxation and ease in between working."

"So to be in line with and to join in that creativity is, I think, maybe the highest calling. I think it’s all of our callings, to whatever degree or in whatever context, in whatever corner of the garden we’re meant to tend. And we know it. We know when we’re in the right corner, you know what I mean? We can feel it. We can feel it in our bones. Our blood starts to flow, our cheeks flush, we get that feeling of spring in our bodies, and we come alive. We can feel it when we’re close to the shoreline of ourselves, and then it’s harder to identify when we don’t feel it. It’s a strange thing."

"I love learning about other artists’ processes so much; I don’t know why. It’s like a magpie-collecting hobby of mine. I find it incredibly inspiring, and just as a human being, I’m like, God, I love people. I love it when people devote themselves to something that is greater than themselves, and they work at it."

"I’ve been mentored by the human beings in my life. I’m so lucky that I’ve had the opportunities I’ve had. And the friendships I’ve had, and the mentors and the teachers. But I’m also pretty intent. Like, I’m not a nice person to be around if I’m not able to follow the thing that I feel I’m supposed to follow."

"And one of the keys in what we do is we get to feel like we are extending beyond that human body, that human limitation, and we are touching something divine in what we do, if we’re lucky—or at least we’re reaching for it. But then what goes up must come down, and we have to honor the human body as well, so it’s a constant process."

"There’s lots of practices I have, but the other problem is that I love what I do so much, but it can take me over. And that’s a great thing, and it’s a gift, but there’s a wound in that as well, as you’re kind of alluding to."

"We all die with an unfinished song, and that’s the setup. None of us complete. None of us finish the symphony. There’s a few notes left to be done, if we’re lucky."

"I’m in a real period of not-doing. The usual aggressive, ambitious, driven heartbeat, rapping at the door has subsided for a while."

"But there’s also a learned behavior there as well. Distinguishing between those two feels important because there’s times when all of us burn out. My mother, she would burn out; my father, my brother, me. We all have a similar drive, which is maybe inexplicable, where we want to offer ourselves fully to what we’re doing."

"And honestly, I hadn't watched the Harry Potters until recently. [...] [Daniel Radcliffe]s really good in those Harry Potter movies. Those Harry Potter movies are really good. [...] I know it's like controversial, and like we shouldn't be, you know, putting money in the pocket of inhumane legislation right now through she that she'll remain nameless, but the soul and the spirit of a lot of the essence of the themes of those films and the kids are so.. and all the artisans and the craft people... [...] There are so many beatiful artists who worked on those films. Anyway, I have a newfound appreciation for all of the artists."

"You let it drown you sometimes. You ride it sometimes. You give thanks, that’s the point. And it’s so trite and so cliché, but that’s it. Whatever that unnamable thing is, that we try to call “love,” that’s what we’re meant to experience here, somehow."

"But in terms of legacy, it’s not something that really interests me. I think I’ve developed a pretty healthy awareness of how small I am. Honestly, I think it’s because I’ve had to, because I have a pretty healthy ego and it can be boring. It’s a practice to be constantly remembering the perspective of the moon. You know what I mean? Like looking down on all my little problems and going, Dude, shush."

"I didn’t have to force my way into letting myself rest. It was interesting. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, the reason for this weird peace I’ve been experiencing. I think the loss of my mum was a big thing. That cataclysm is a forever-reverberating shift into a deeper awareness of reality. Existence. The shortness of this window we have. I think that’s working on me in profound ways that I’m probably not even aware of."

"It’s that eternal struggle between being devoted to the invisible world, the world of spirit, the world of imagination, creativity, what we know we’re meant to do. But if we were purely devoted to that, it would be much harder for us to put a roof over our heads. So how do we balance that? We’re living through a capitalistic period in the history of humanity. And it’s deeply disgusting and horrific and ugly and all those things, as well as beautiful. It’s a fascinating time to be alive. And how do artists – how does anyone, because everyone is an artist – really retain that connection to soul, to spirit, to the unseen, to the thing that really pulls us? Our own personal genius. Our own personal calling. Giftedness."

"Life seems to be a perpetual practice of letting shit go. Letting go of an idea of how a thing should look, or be, or feel. And that one’s a big one [to let go of], because of course I would’ve loved my mum to have met my kids, if I’m going to have kids. And she will. In spirit. She’ll be there for it. I know she’s there, for all the big ones."

"If you have the sun sign that’s the same as the moon sign of someone else … that’s good."

"I have written this book in isolation, hardly talking to a soul, but unoppressed as well by campus codes or creeds, free to say what I want and when I want. It is a measure of the degradation that has overtaken American academic life that I should feel obliged to boast of such circumstances."

"It is here, at this very moment when the first utterly trivial differential equation is solved, that the secret form of words is revealed that makes modern science possible."

"Stepping forward, I step back, the two steps, one forward and one back, canceling one another so that after they have been completed, I am where I started, having done something but accomplished little, a useful metaphor for a great many activities in life."

"“Any idiot,” he said calmly but with immense conviction, “can learn anything in mathematics. It requires only patience.”"

"A mathematical argument, once understood, is in its capacity to compel belief a miracle of enlightened life."

"In the twelfth century, for example, Bhāskara demonstrated correctly that \sqrt{3} + \sqrt{12} = 3\sqrt{3}, an achievement, I might add, utterly beyond the collective intellectual power, say, of the English department at Duke University. (It is pleasant to imagine members of the department sitting together in a long lecture hall, Marxists to one side, deconstructionists to the other, abusing one another roundly as they grapple with the problem.)"

"Then he said what I knew—what I had always known—he would say. It is what the dead always say, and it is the only thing they say. “Remember me.”"

"The derivative is an artifact, the first of the great concepts of modern science that fails conspicuously to correspond to anything in real life."

"What's your name?" The computer asks. I look down at my sheet toga. "I am the great philosopher Pendulus!" "Incorrect."

"This allowed me to do what writers treasure more than anything else: catch the reader off-guard. There’s nothing better than knowing you’re going to outwit with the reader. And the type of people who read sci-fi are very difficult to outwit."

"“But seeing his status doesn’t help,” Mindy said. “It’s not like we can do anything about it if he falls behind. This is a pointless task.” “How long have you worked for the government?” Venkat sighed."

"“It just goes to show,” Teddy said. “Love of science is universal across all cultures.”"

"Then I sat for a moment, dumbstruck that my plan had actually worked."

"You started my training by buying me a beer. For breakfast. Germans are awesome."

"As you can see, this plan provides many opportunities for me to die in a fiery explosion."

"Amazingly, some of the bacteria survived. The population is strong and growing. That’s pretty impressive, when you consider it was exposed to near-vacuum and subarctic temperatures for over twenty-four hours. My guess is pockets of ice formed around some of the bacteria, leaving a bubble of survivable pressure inside, and the cold wasn’t quite enough to kill them. With hundreds of millions of bacteria, it only takes one survivor to stave off extinction. Life is amazingly tenacious. They don’t want to die any more than I do."

"I started the day with some nothin’ tea. Nothin’ tea is easy to make. First, get some hot water, then add nothin’."

"As a chemist, Vogel knew how to make a bomb. In fact, much of his training was to avoid making them by mistake."

"There is no one else," I said. "In this universe, there's just you and me." You stared blankly at me. "But all the people on earth…" "All you. Different incarnations of you." "Wait. I'm everyone!?" "Now you're getting it," I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back. "I'm every human being who ever lived?" "Or who will ever live, yes." "I'm Abraham Lincoln?" "And you're John Wilkes Booth, too," I added. "I'm Hitler?" You said, appalled. "And you're the millions he killed." "I'm Jesus?" "And you're everyone who followed him." You fell silent. "Every time you victimized someone," I said, "you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you've done, you've done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you."

"Is she a presidential candidate or is she trying to star in the Scream reboot? ... What needs to be born in mind, is something can be historically true, a form of discrimination or stereotyping like women are shrill and they're nags and men have said that historically way too much ... but that doesn't mean it's impossible for a woman to speak too loud when she doesn't need to.""

"While Robert Welch opposed the United Nations for supposedly encouraging obeisance to the one-world conspiracy, McIntire's fundamentalists saw it as a "house of red Babel.""

"What a chronicler can do, if not share the pain, is observe and ponder and explicate, and Johnson delivers. He busts myths and clarifies realities about what seems to cause, or to help prevent, cancer."

"George Johnson's Santa Fe office is packed floor to ceiling with century-old electrical paraphernalia — cathode-ray tubes, high-voltage spark coils, glass cylinders of hydrogen and helium, cascades of wires. They're the relics of an eBay odyssey he undertook to re-create a 1909 experiment by Robert Millikan measuring the charge on a single electron."