Skip to main content


Watershed Community Gathering

Just as a geographical watershed is where waters from different sources converge and flow together, The Watershed Community brings us together in conversation with all our diverse perspectives, experiences, and ideas to help create and nourish the community we want to live in. Through conversations, our watershed moments can show us new pathways that shift us from being concerned witnesses to being a community of hope and caring.

Our Purpose: The purpose of The Watershed Community is to engage in meaningful dialogue on current topics, exchange ideas about what we’re reading and listening to, and build a respectful, diverse community of readers, listeners, thinkers, inquirers, and sharers.

The Dilemma: We want to remain well informed and knowledgeable about what’s going on around us, yet we’re confronted with a dizzying amount of misinformation and disinformation, and far too many magazines, articles, podcasts, substacks, books, authors, and journalists for any of us to wade through. Through substantive conversations and social interactions, the Watershed Community offers a solution.

Participants: Suppose . . . your interests are in the general areas of politics, history, philosophy, science or any neighboring subject . . . you’d like to take deep dives into significant topics . . . you’re eager to discuss what you’re reading or listening to . . . you’re curious to find out about trusted sources others have discovered . . . and you’d like to expand your community of interesting, thoughtful people. If any of this rings true for you, then The Watershed Community is for you.

Logistics: The Watershed Community will meet on the fourth Saturday of each month, 5-7 p.m., at the Aqus Café. We’ll be together as a whole group at the beginning and end of each meeting, and in breakout groups for the heart of our discussions. The smaller groups will include (i) brief reviews of media resources that participants want to share, and (ii) focused discussions on a specific topic, based on previously recommended print and audio materials

What to Expect:

  • New friends and enriching ideas

  • A community of curious and thoughtful seekers of knowledge and good ideas

  • New sources of reliable information and commentary

  • An awareness and appreciation of media that strengthens the goals of a thriving, liberal democracy

  • Fun & sanity

Every last Saturday of the month – RSVP Required: https://aqus.com/watershed/

Previous Watershed Community Gatherings

March 25th Watershed Gathering

Discussion Topic

WHAT KEY MEASURES AND ACTIONS CAN BE TAKEN BY YOU OR OTHERS
TO HELP STOP THE ABUSE OF POWER AND PRESERVE THE CONSTITUTION?

PLEASE JOIN
THE WATERSHED COMMUNITY’S MARCH MEETING
FOR CONVERSATIONS ON THE QUESTION,
WHAT KEY MEASURES AND ACTIONS CAN BE TAKEN BY YOU OR OTHERS
TO HELP STOP THE ABUSE OF POWER AND PRESERVE THE CONSTITUTION?
SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2026, 5–7 P.M.
AQUS CAFÉ, 189 H ST., PETALUMA
REGISTER NOW AT: https://aqus.com/watershed/

Dear Friends,

Our country is engaged in a war that hasn’t been declared by Congress, as required by the Constitution. What can we do about that and other abuses of power that have taken a sledge hammer to the Constitution?

The Watershed Community invites you to participate in this month’s discussion about this very question: What key measures and actions can be taken by you or others to help stop the abuse of power and preserve the Constitution? Let’s share our ideas, hear what others think, and learn from each other—all in respectful, open conversations. This may even lead us to take actions we hadn’t considered before.

The questions under Food for Thought (below) can jumpstart your thinking ahead of March 28th, and the Suggested Readings & Listenings provide resources relevant to our topic.

So get involved. Bring your friends and join us for an evening of lively conversations with good people at the wonderful Aqus Café. Be sure to take a few minutes to register in advance at https://aqus.com/watershed/.
🗽 📜 🗽
TWC Steering Committee – Babs, Diane, John, Mike, Susanne, Tom, & Donna

❧ ❧ ❧
Food for Thought

  1. What do you think makes an action an abuse of power?
  2. Do you believe ordinary citizens can help curb abuses of power and/or preserve the Constitution? If so, what are some ways that can happen and how large or significant should such actions be?
  3. What’s one example of a measure that Congress or the judicial system has taken to stop a presidential abuse of power?
  4. Which Article in the Constitution addresses the authorization for war?
  5. Quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt: A nation that cannot resist aggression is inviting it. (Message to Congress, 1939)
  6. Quote from Mahatma Gandhi: It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.
  7. Quote Martin Luther King Jr.: Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
  8. Quote from Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

 

Suggested Readings & Listenings (If you’ve read or listened to something else that’s relevant to this month’s topic, great.)

  1. U.S. Constitution. If you don’t already have a copy of the Constitution, what are you waiting for? (Copperfields usually has a few different editions.) The first three Articles and the Amendments, though often difficult to make sense of, make for fascinating reads.
  2. Your Questions Answered: How to Push Back on Abuses of Power, by Katie Hoeppner, ACLU, 110/29/25, www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/your-questions-answered-how-to-push-back-on-abuses-of-power
  3. Give a Little Whistle, from This American Life, NPR One Mix podcast #882, 3/15/26, www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDmFOlOBp68
  4. North Bay Organizing Project, www.northbayop.org/deep-democracy
  5. Ready to Defend Democracy in Your Community? Action Network, https://actionnetwork.org/forms/ready-to-defend-democracy-in-your-community (Note: If you want to get more involved in community organizing, check out the other pages on this site.)
    Poem: I Look at the World, by Langston Hughes, www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/52005/i-look-at-the-world
  6. War Powers Resolution Activist Guide, by the Friends Committee on National Legislation, 6/20/25. (Note: This is a lengthy and detailed article, but just read what you want.) www.fcnl.org/updates/2022-06/war-powers-resolution-activist-guide?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23574508749&gbraid=0AAAAAoJx5Mm4q-bKmqNQKr7eIjzsFUHw0&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsdnNBhC4ARIsAA_3hegq5JebOPDh-jq7_yjx2V42JbuMGLo4sstRIrqgRue9It51vCrtQeIaApwSEALw_wcB
  7. What legal rights do you have in encounters with ICE? Legal experts weigh in. PBS News, 1/24/26, www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-legal-rights-do-you-have-in-encounters-with-ice-legal-experts-weigh-in
  8. Poem: Protest, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, read by Alan Cumming, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyR80FYLMUc

 

February 2026 Gathering

Discussion Topic
WHAT ROLE DOES CIVIC ENGAGEMENT PLAY IN A HEALTHY DEMOCRACY AND HEALTHY COMMUNITY?

 

Dear Friends,

We’re looking forward to this month’s conversation* with you on the question, What role does civic engagement play in a healthy democracy and healthy community?

It may well be that civic engagement is the workhorse that’ll help us get through these dark, muddy days to the rewards of a healthy democracy and healthy community. So let’s pause and take time together to understand the relationships among those three big ideas and our actions. We promise it’ll be fun and informative. The questions below under Food for Thought can jumpstart any thinking you want to do ahead of our meet-up on February 28th, and the Suggested Readings & Listenings will give you some background and even more to think about.

Join us! Bring a friend or two or three, and enjoy an evening of lively conversation with good people at the wonderful Aqus Café.
🍃 🌼 🍃
TWC Steering Committee – Babs, Diane, John, Mike, Susanne, Tom, & Donna

*Since June 2025, The Watershed Community has met to explore ideas on a variety of topics & questions: Hope; Storytelling; Immigration; Democracy & the Basics; Community Health & Well Being; How Do We Appreciate Diversity and Find Common Ground?; and What Do You Imagine a Better Future in This Country Would Look Like and What Can We—Individually or Collectively—Do to Help Achieve It in 2026?

❧ ❧ ❧

Food for Thought

  1. What does civic engagement mean to you?
  2. What’s a healthy democracy? A healthy community?
  3. How have you been engaged in your community that has affected it in a positive way?
  4. Do you think some acts of civic engagement are obligations of citizenship?
  5. What connections can you draw between education and civic engagement?
  6. How (if at all) do the recent events in Minneapolis affect your answer to this month’s question?
  7. What does (or should) civic engagement mean for high school students?
  8. Quote: Civic education and civic responsibility should be taught in elementary school. – Donna Brazile
  9. Quote: Civic participation over a lifetime, working in neighborhoods and communities and service of all kinds—military and civilian, full-time and part-time, national and international—will strengthen America’s civic purpose. – John McCain

 

Suggested Readings & Listenings (If you’ve read or listened to something else that’s relevant to this month’s topic, great.)

  1. Definition of Civic Engagement, excerpts from Civic Responsibility and Higher Education, ed. by Thomas Ehrlich (Oryx Press, 2000) https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/ref/college/collegespecial2/coll_aascu_defi.html?pagewanted=print
  2. Why Civic Engagement Matters, National Civic League, https://www.nationalcivicleague.org/civic-engagement-matters/
  3. A Closer Look at Civic Engagement, by Vin Bhat, TEDx Gunn High School, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzKAbzuawog
  4. Well-Being and Civic Engagement, Lucas Huffman, Edward Ginsberg Center, U Michigan, https://ginsberg.umich.edu/article/well-being-and-civic-engagement
  5. Rx Civic Engagement: Keeping the Public Engaged in Public Health, by Christopher Nelson & Anita Chandra, RAND, 2/4/2020, https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2020/02/rx-civic-engagement-keeping-the-public-engaged-in-public.html