My brother, 17 months my senior, tried hard to prepare me for kindergarten. Before bed, Dan would help me practice writing my full name. During lunch, at our babysitter's house, he would tell me that I needed to stop taking cheese off of my pizza because it would gross out my future classmates. But most importantly, he taught me how to count. I remember practicing diligently in the backyard — counting fire ants, counting blades of grass, counting the days until Christmas.
But I don’t think he could have prepared me for all of the counting of the past few days. It’s been a week of record highs: 143,855,830 people voted for Joe Biden or Donald Trump, and counting; 121,888 new daily cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., and counting. Especially this November, it’s so easy to let life become a numbers game — so I count my blessings, too: my dog, who cares more about tennis balls than KEY RACE ALERTS; my employers, who bought me Election Day pizza (with cheese!); my husband, who woke me up this morning by blasting three different songs about Georgia; the tired nurses, the tired poll workers, and the (likely) tired journalists who wrote these 10 articles:
1. Pastors Work to Stop Evangelicals’ Spread of ‘Dangerous’ Misinformation
“There are consequences when faith leaders give credence to these lies.” By Gina Ciliberto and Lexi McMenamin via sojo.net.
2. Saint in the City: On the Everyday Brutalities Faced by Hospital Staff
“The calculus of risk has a mobile axis. A balance must always be struck between the probability of death and the certainty of suffering. I give her another sip. If I have any religion left in me, it tells me the dying must be given water.” By Ernesto Barbieri via The Believer.
3. Why Should We Fix the Electoral College? It’s Racist, Experts Say
Rev. Dr. William Barber II calls the Electoral College “one of the last vestiges of the politics of a slave nation.” By Stephanie Russell-Kraft via sojo.net.
4. ‘Long Time Coming’: Latino Voters Celebrate Flipping Arizona Blue
“What we have seen time and again is that our communities are treated as a monolith. And there’s so many cultural nuances, racial differences, ethnic differences.” By Daja Henry via The Americano.
5. How Clergy Support Pro-Democracy Movements Around the World
Now U.S. faith leaders are preparing to do the same. By Curtis Yee via sojo.net.
6. The Beautiful Ofrendas That Blossomed on Day of the Dead
A photo essay. By Lexis Olivier-Ray via Hyperallergic.
7. Nigerian Pastors: May #EndSARS Be 'Real Change in Jesus' Name'
The growing call for accountability and justice is a response to years of profiling and bullying. By Valentine Iwenwanne via sojo.net.
8. How Tech Companies' Election Promises Have Held Up
The biggest promises focused on labeling and removing problematic election-related content. By Colin Lecher via The Markup.
9. Your Soul Cannot Stay Still
How pilgrimages can open our imagination and help us walk away from empire. By Wesley Granberg-Michaelson via Sojourners magazine.
10. The U.S. Has Left the Paris Climate Deal. What’s Next?
Although the United States played a major part in crafting the climate agreement, it will be the only one out of the nearly 200 parties to pull out of the pact. By Quirin Schiermeier via Nature.
Jenna Barnett is senior associate culture editor at Sojourners. Find her on Twitter: @jennacbarnett.
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