Truthfulness.org

About me Hi! My name is Francisco Rendon. I am 36 years old and in 2023 I left the field of journalism and began a career in education. Prior to that I worked for a number of years as a journalist, primarily at the trade publication Pollstar. I am currently completing my teaching credentials through California State University – East Bay. When I’m not teaching I volunteer with the Junior…

I’m excited for the next several months during which our family will be learning with a bunch of people in the valley about how to organize a number of grassroots conferences at the beginning of the new Nine Year Plan. It’s going to be a great opportunity. One thing I am continuously learning about this year is the importance of habits. At my previous job, so often my life got…

On Sunday I was at a gathering to study a new message from the Universal House of Justice, which was very enlightening and uplifting. Unfortunately, on Monday we heard someone at that gathering had COVID. According to the CDC, if you encounter someone with COVID and are not vaccinated and boosted, it is advised you quarantine for 5 days. This is because if you do contract COVID-19, even if you…

I, like so many other last year, quit my job at Pollstar. It had been 5 years and I just didn’t feel like I was growing anymore. My primary focus since August has been supporting community building work in my own community and those of some friends. This has proven to be a great opportunity to rethink how I balance my professional life, my family life, my service and maintaining…

Another African-American man was killed by police on video and the reaction has once again been dramatic. Peaceful protests and violent riots came to Kenosha, Wisc., after video circulated of police officers shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back in front of his children as he resisted police during a confrontation. While many media outlets will revisit the conversation of race on a national level, I am increasingly realizing…

Caravan I wander from land to land In search of a place to be I roam through the valleys and sands To find the divine form of me Now more I search into self And more I find absence of form My ego, the absence of wealth In void forever forlorn I wander, I scramble, I wait for the day My pain will be lifted, I rise The refuge I…

It would not surprise me if in my lifetime or after some combination of super-disease, environmental catastrophe, nuclear war, or global economic collapse ravages the earth’s population. But that may be necessary to force us to collectively examine our values, habits and the way our society is constructed.

I should start this with a disclaimer that I’m not trying to offend anyone, I simply want to share some of my experiences. If any of my language or the way this is organized is problematic, please let me know, I want to learn from my mistakes. There are a lot of forms of racism in the U.S., but this story will mostly focus on an experience I had with…

I pay a few hundred bucks a year to maintain this website so the fact that I don’t write in it at all is pretty embarrassing. I guess I’m paying for a dream that one day I won’t have to work in my current job, that I’ll be able to share my writing talent (the existence of which is still up for debate) and I won’t have to work for some corporation.

I want to take this moment to celebrate humanity. We live in times of social inequality, political discord, and great economic disparity. Large segments of humanity are ravaged by hunger, war and environmental disasters fast and slow moving. To take a moment to celebrate is not to discount the great suffering that millions endure or the great collective failures that stare us in the face daily. Yet take a step…