Updates and an Invitation From AFA

Another week has gone by, self-isolating, sheltering in place, being “Safer at Home.”  By now we’ve at least begun to adapt to “social distancing,” we’ve managed to overstuff our refrigerators, and it seems even toilet paper is at least sporadically available. It’s impossible to fathom how much our world has changed – if anyone had suggested even 3 weeks ago that we’d have retreated with such docility into our own homes, that American supermarket shelves would be empty, that urban and suburban centers would be ghost towns all around the world, that the Dow would have plummeted literally a third, that air traffic would be brought practically to a halt, that gas prices would dive, that entire countries are being shut down and streets patrolled, nobody would have believed it. Yet, here we are, each in our own homes drinking Coronatinis and putting on our “COVID 15” from too much comfort eating and too little activity, and each of us with varying degrees of tension over all that’s been transpiring and the outlook for the future. 

Much more to come, but I wanted to let you know about these updates from AFA.

The AFA Conference on Jew Hatred is Postponed
With the extension of “safer at home” measures, we’ve postponed the April 26th Conference on Anti-Semitism until next February.  If you already have tickets, you can ask for refunds, or wait until we’ve picked a new date and decide then.  We are disappointed, as you can imagine, as this conference was shaping up beautifully, but we’re looking forward to finally hosting it in February.

AFA’s Book Discussion Group is going ONLINE
We are excited to announce that we’ll be hosting our discussion groups online using the ZOOM program.  Other changes are these:
1) Because books are at the moment harder to procure, we’ll be discussing VIDEOS
2) The videos we’ll be discussing are from a series done for “Freedom Academy” and which are now AFA’s. They are lectures by Victor Davis Hanson on the topic of Western Civilization and they are magnificent.  You can read more about them here. 
3) We’ll start THIS THURSDAY April 2 at 5 PM Pacific time with the first two videos.  Here are the links. 
Video 1:  The Origins of Western Civilization: What Is It, and Where Did It Come From?
Video 2:  The Individual Versus the State: Sparta Against Athens

We plan to be doing this weekly until the “all clear” is given.  If this works out, we may continue it along with the monthly face-to-face book discussions.
4) This way, no matter where you are, you can join in the conversation!  If you haven’t yet used ZOOM you’ll find it very straightforward.  I believe you have to download the program onto your computer but the process isn’t complicated.  This is the link to join the discussion: 
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/808563326         Meeting ID: 808 563 326

I hope you join us – and I KNOW you will enjoy these videos!

Stay Tuned for an Entirely DIFFERENT conference
True to form, we’d already been preparing for our February conference (now replaced by the  one on anti-semitism) and you won’t even believe this but the topic was… CHINA and the various threats that it poses.  At the time, we thought it was a good idea to alert people to hazards most weren’t aware of.  Now, we are all exceedingly aware of the various reasons we should be very concerned.  (Incidentally, here is the video from Frank Gaffney’s Threat Briefing from the Committee on the Present Danger: China from March 1st.) Preparations are now getting underway, and for obvious reasons we haven’t yet fixed a date but we’re expecting late June or July.  Stay tuned – this will be a powerhouse of a conference.And this
Between the anxiety over our health and that of our loved ones, the economic catastrophe, as well as the daily stepping up of freedom-trampling measures, this is an incredibly difficult time.  There seems little doubt that what comes after this will be different from what came before, but I do find solace in my conviction that in many ways, the next chapter will be a great one, and that we – you and I – will be part of making it so.

Take care of yourselves and your families.

With gratitude for you, our AFA family,

Karen