Back in 1944, songsters Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer gave us an uplifting piece of music: it was called “Accentuate the Positive.” Nearly 80 years later, Michael Seifert, the founder, CEO, and president of PublicSq (Public Square), is doing just that; as the lyric goes, he’s latching on to the affirmative. In a recent interview with the CEO of the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), Rebecca Weber, who also hosts the association’s Better For America podcast, Seifert described his company as the “largest online directory of freedom-loving businesses in America.” 

 As he described it, Seifert founded PublicSq in January 2021, “creating a marketplace that would be full of businesses that love the country, the Constitution, and the values that that document protects.” He said the idea is to give “we the people,” through the power of their wallets, a way “to create a new society. For years multiple corporate entities in the United States have turned against the values that tens of millions of Americans still hold dear. We’ve actually witnessed this for decades, but it’s been especially elevated in recent years, most notably with Bud Light, for example, which used to be a classic American brand. And then, unfortunately, they began to take a turn with their values, and they began to call their old brand and their old customers outdated. And so, they embraced a progressive social campaign that ended up leading to the demise of their brand [at the cost of a] 26 percent drop in sales. We saw the same thing with Target when they came out this past summer with a ‘pride month’ collection, deciding to lecture the U.S. populace on issues about gender and sexuality. And many consumers said they’re not a fan of that. We just want to buy clothes and not be lectured about gender. And so, in turn, Target had their first quarterly earnings miss in six years and had their stock downgraded twice. We have witnessed over the recent years, corporate entity after corporate entity come out looking like a progressive political organization.”

Seifert explained that although we could simply boycott these companies, “We figured that’s effective and we certainly support people’s rights to boycott, but what if they could actually take the next step and shop with businesses that they know are actually different? They love the country, the Constitution, basic truths. What if [consumers] could actually support businesses that support family values? And in turn, they wouldn’t just have to boycott, but they could actually move their money, their purchasing power somewhere else.”

Seifert contended that “it’s important for consumers to recognize that what you spend your money on is what you’re empowering. This is a massive sobering wake-up call. I hope for every American consumer to connect the dots and recognize that when I spend my money on a corporate entity that funnels millions of dollars to BLM, for example, the money I’m spending is in turn supporting an organization that is very proudly behind terrorism. Pair this with the fact that many of these companies also support open border policies and all of a sudden you realize you have a very bleak and troubling environment on our hands.”

As he stated, “there are terrorist attacks taking place against one of the United States’ greatest allies in the Middle East. Those terrorist attacks are being conducted by military-age males that are coordinated with Hamas.” Be aware, Seifert said, “many military-age males are coming across our border to the tune of tens of thousands every single day, unchecked and unverified. And so not only are we funding these companies [that] support progressive policies, we’re actually funding open border policies, we’re funding the demise of the U.S., we’re funding the demise of our safety here domestically, we’re funding the demise of our allied relationships overseas. And so, our encouragement to folks is to recognize that your wallet is a weapon and you can use it for good or you can use it for evil. And our encouragement to people is, Hey, let’s recognize the power in those dollars and shift them to companies that would never donate to a Marxist terrorist-aligned organization.”        

John Grimaldi writes for the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), a senior-advocacy organization with 2.4 million members. 

The earthquakes that struck north-western Afghanistan in October were devastating and horrific. They caused at least 1,295 deaths and injured at least 1,800 people, according to the United Nations. They compounded a humanitarian crisis that has grown worse since the Taliban took over the country in 2021. 

Faced with such immense suffering, the human response is to want to help, and we are. The U.S. Agency for International Development, our nation’s primary international disaster response agency, is providing $12 million in humanitarian assistance. Other nations and private organizations are also providing relief.

But the scale of the world’s suffering can seem overwhelming, and 2023 has been an especially bad year:

• In February, two powerful earthquakes hit southern Turkey, killing more than 50,000 people in Turkey and war-torn Syria and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. They were the deadliest quakes in Turkey’s modern history.

• In September, a massive Mediterranean storm dumped heavy rain on Libya. Two dams collapsed, resulting in floods that killed more than 11,000 people and displaced tens of thousands. It followed a string of deadly floods in China, Brazil, Greece and elsewhere.

• Also in September, an earthquake struck the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco, killing nearly 3,000 people, injuring over 5,000 and leaving many homeless in remote areas.

And there have been disasters here at home, including the wildfires that killed nearly 100 people in Hawaii in August as well as floods, drought and more. In the first eight months of 2023, the U.S. experienced a record 23 weather and climate disasters that caused more than $1 billion in damages. President Joe Biden has issued dozens of disaster and emergency proclamations this year.

All this hardship challenges us to respond. It raises an important recurring question: What is our duty to people who, through no fault of their own, have their lives turned upside down by disasters.

 In my view, Americans can and should take a leading role in relieving suffering. We have the resources, and most of us take pride in helping as much as we can. We have a moral duty to step up and it’s the right thing to do. It also provides an opportunity to win favor in the world. It generates a lot of goodwill when we provide assistance.

And we can afford it. Americans consistently overestimate what we spend on foreign aid. In fact, it’s less than 1 percent of the federal budget, and disaster assistance is just a fraction of that.

The world sees the U.S. as a leader in humanitarian relief. We respond to dozens of international disasters every year. Our help is more effective when it’s delivered in coordination with other countries, of course, often through organizations like the UN.

Philanthropic efforts also play a vital role. Many Americans donate generously to organizations like the International Red Cross, the Red Crescent, CARE, Save the Children and many others. When a disaster strikes, experts typically recommend giving money to established organizations, which have the experience and infrastructure to get help where it’s needed.

We can’t prevent earthquakes, but we can support efforts to build resilient physical infrastructure in regions where quakes are common.

And when disasters strike, as they inevitably will, we can respond promptly and generously. True, Americans can’t do all this on our own. But we are the richest country in the world. We can do a lot to respond to and alleviate human suffering, and we should.        

Lee Hamilton, 92, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.