Blog 3 December 2, 2016
I started out this week listening to Aretha Franklin sing the Star Spangled Banner, never my favorite song. In this dark time, Aretha’s version brought tears to my eyes and reminded me of my identity as an American citizen with the freedoms and responsibilities that go with my citizenship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pf5bR4iiNM.
In 1971, alienated and despairing over the election of Richard Nixon, I went to live and work in Lagos, Nigeria, a country struggling to find its identity following civil war. My time in Lagos was full of learning and wonder, until, at the end of my second year there, all of us teaching at the University of Lagos refused to sign a loyalty oath to the government. The military assaulted the campus and tear gassed the apartment where I lived with my husband and two small children, the youngest only one month old. We survived and after a break over the summer n the U.S. we returned to Lagos for our third year. That was the year I missed home and country and remembered what it meant to be an American citizen.
These days I go back and forth between wanting to flee again as the U.S. becomes a place I no longer know and being compelled to stand up and protest what looks like the overtaking of our democracy. Donald Trump threatened this week to strip anyone who burns the flag of his or her citizenship. The U.S. Supreme Court in Texas vrs. Johnson 1989 upheld that flag burning is an expression of symbolic speech protected by the first amendment. Donald Trump either does not know of this ruling or imagines that he can overrule the court. Chris Hedges (see quote below) warns us that the next crisis, regardless of what it is, may well lead to martial law. We are in great danger and I feel as if there is so little I can do, but doing nothing is unthinkable.
Wise Words
Charles Blow following a meeting between Donald Trump and members of the New York Times during which at one point Trump said “I hope we can all get along wrote a scathing op ed piece. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/opinion/no-trump-we-cant-just-get-along.html.
Below are excerpts:
No Trump we can’t just get along
Donald Trump schlepped across town on Tuesday to meet with the publisher of The New York Times and some editors, columnists and reporters at the paper.
As The Times reported, Trump actually seemed to soften some of his positions:
He seemed to indicate that he wouldn’t seek to prosecute Hillary Clinton. But he should never have said that he was going to do that in the first place.
He seemed to indicate that he wouldn’t encourage the military to use torture. But he should never have said that he would do that in the first place.
He said that he would have an “open mind” on climate change. But that should always have been his position.
You don’t get a pat on the back for ratcheting down from rabid after exploiting that very radicalism to your advantage. Unrepentant opportunism belies a staggering lack of character and caring that can’t simply be vanquished from memory. You did real harm to this country and many of its citizens, and I will never — never — forget that……
I have not only an ethical and professional duty to call out how obscene your very existence is at the top of American government; I have a moral obligation to do so.
I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything, but rather to speak up for truth and honor and inclusion. This isn’t just about you, but also about the moral compass of those who see you for who and what you are, and know the darkness you herald is only held at bay by the lights of truth.
It’s not that I don’t believe that people can change and grow. They can. But real growth comes from the accepting of responsibility and repenting of culpability. Expedient reversal isn’t growth; it’s gross.
So let me say this on Thanksgiving: I’m thankful to have this platform because as long as there are ink and pixels, you will be the focus of my withering gaze.
I’m thankful that I have the endurance and can assume a posture that will never allow what you represent to ever be seen as everyday and ordinary.
No, Mr. Trump, we will not all just get along. For as long as a threat to the state is the head of state, all citizens of good faith and national fidelity — and certainly this columnist — have an absolute obligation to meet you and your agenda with resistance at every turn.
I know this in my bones, and for that I am thankful.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/waiting_for_the_barbarians_201611271
Posted on Nov 27, 2016
By Chris Hedges
Waiting for the Barbarians
excerpts:
The desiccation of our liberal institutions ensured the demise of our capitalist democracy. History has amply demonstrated what was to come next. The rot and political paralysis vomited up a con artist as president along with an array of half-wits, criminals and racist ideologues. They will manufacture scapegoats as their gross ineptitude and unachievable promises are exposed. They will fan the flames of white supremacy and racial and religious bigotry. They will use all the tools of legal and physical control handed to them by our system of “inverted totalitarianism” to crush even the most tepid forms of dissent.
The last constraints will be removed by a crisis. The crisis will be used to create a climate of fear. The pretense of democracy will end.
“A fascism of the future—an emergency response to some still unimagined crisis—need not resemble classical fascism perfectly in its outward signs and symbols,” Robert Paxton writes in “The Anatomy of Fascism.” “Some future movement that would ‘give up free institutions’ in order to perform the same functions of mass mobilization for the reunification, purification, and regeneration of some troubled group would undoubtedly call itself something else and draw on fresh symbols. That would not make it any less dangerous.”
Our ruling mafia will use the crisis much as the Nazis did in 1933 when the Reichstag was burned. It will publish its own version of the “Order of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State.” The U.S. Constitution will be in effect suspended. Personal freedom, including freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom to organize and freedom of assembly, will be abolished. Privacy will be formally eradicated. Search warrants will be unnecessary. America’s emergency decrees will cement into place what largely exists now. When they come, the loss of freedoms will be openly acknowledged and made permanent.
Jeff Chang journalist and writer - latest book “We Gon' Be Alright.” in NPR Interview October 2016 .
When asked about the title of his new book Chang responded:
Excerpt:
CHANG: You know, I think we're going to (laughter). There's so many things that are going on that are so despairing, so many reasons to be angry, I think, so many reasons to be pessimistic. And that's, I think, in part why so many folks have kind of come to this song by Kendrick Lamar, right? "Alright" - the song is called "Alright," and it's the blues. It's the modern blues. It's - 95 percent of the lyrics are about struggle and really feeling in the struggle, but seemingly out of nowhere he pulls this line - but we gon' be all right. If you got me, if I got you, if God's got us, we gon' be all right. And I think that that's why it's been adopted by, you know, so many young folks as their anthem. Despite all of the stuff going on, we have to have each other. We have to have solidarity. We're going to make it all right.
Barbara Kingsolver in The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/23/trump-changed-everything-now-everything-counts
Excerpt:
With due respect for the colored ribbons we’ve worn for various solidarities, our next step is to wear something on our sleeve that takes actual courage: our hearts.
I’ll go first. If we’re artists, writers, critics, publishers, directors or producers of film or television, we reckon honestly with our role in shaping the American psyche. We ask ourselves why so many people just couldn’t see a 69-year-old woman in our nation’s leading role, and why they might choose instead a hero who dispatches opponents with glib cruelty. We consider the alternatives. We join the time-honored tradition of artists resisting government oppression through our work.
If we’re journalists, we push back against every door that closes on freedom of information. We educate our public about objectivity, why it matters, and what it’s like to work under a president who aggressively threatens news outlets and reporters.
If we’re consumers of art, literature, film, TV and news, we think about what’s true, and what we need. We reward those who are taking risks to provide it.
If we’re teachers we explicitly help children of all kinds feel safe in our classrooms under a bullying season that’s already opened in my town and probably yours. Language used by a president may enter this conversation. We say wrong is wrong.
If we’re scientists we escalate our conversation about the dangers of suppressing science education and denying climate change. We shed our cautious traditions and explain what people should know. Why southern counties are burning now and Florida’s coastal cities are flooding, unspared by any vote-count for denial.
If we’re women suffering from sexual assault or body image disorders, or if we’re their friends, partners or therapists, we acknowledge that the predatory persona of men like Trump is genuinely traumatizing. That revulsion and rage are necessary responses.
If our Facebook friends post racial or sexist slurs or celebrate assaults on our rights, we don’t just delete them. We tell them why.
If we’re getting up in the morning, we bring our whole selves to work. We talk with co-workers and clients, including Trump supporters, about our common frustrations when we lose our safety nets, see friends deported, lose our clean air and water, and all the harm to follow. We connect cause and effect. This government will blame everyone but itself.
We refuse to disappear. We keep our commitments to fairness in front of the legislators who oppose us, lock arms with the ones who are with us, and in the words of Congressman John Lewis, prepare to get ourselves in some good trouble. Every soul willing to do that is part of our team, starting with the massive crowd that shows up in DC in January to show the new president what we stand for, and what we won’t.
There’s safety in numbers, but only if we count ourselves out loud.
To do
From Dr. Francine Yep:
Hi, Ellen:
Thank you very much. I signed up for flippable.org
The group gives me an action to do every week
Here's more information in case this is something you want to post to your friends:
In the wake of this election, we confront a Republican-controlled House, Senate, and Presidency. Despite this setback, we can - and we will - restore values of tolerance and equality in our country. This effort calls for passion and perseverance, qualities millions of Americans are bringing to the movement for progressive change.
It will also require a targeted, incisive approach to flip seats. Winning our House and Senate in 2018, and the Presidency in 2020, starts now. Republicans currently control over two-thirds of state legislatures. In this position of power, they control critical electoral policies for 2018 and 2020 - who gets to vote and how districts are drawn. They also have the final say on issues ranging from gun control to immigrant rights to reproductive rights.
At flippable, our goal is to win back our country for Democrats by flipping seats in state legislatures, the House, and the Senate. Here’s how we’ll do it:
1 Recruit a committed core of progressive volunteers and donors (that’s you!)
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Each week, we'll send you a few actions you can take to be most effective in our movement. In these early days, tasks may seem simple - calling your representative, signing petitions, or recruiting friends to join the cause. But as our community grows, we plan to offer multiple ways to get involved. Most importantly, we’ll do this in a coordinated, strategic way, combining state-of-the-art analytics with tried-and-true organizing tactics.
Stay tuned for your first action. In the meantime, please send us anyone you think might be interested - friends can sign up at www.flippable.org, follow our page on Facebook, or join our Facebook group.
Develop Public Anti- Racism Conversations
Jim Sparks in Port Elizabeth, Maine and Cynthia Flannery in West Linn, Oregon speak with each other about developing anti-racism conversations in their mostly white communities.
Excerpts from their email conversations:
Hi Cynthia,
Great to hear of your work out in Oregon. I'll be very interested to hear more about your community meeting, and especially about how you decided to structure it (I've been giving thought to the Public Conversations practices as well as the way Kay Pranis constructs Community Circles).
You also asked about how my group approached the town council and school officials. The real origin for me was a commitment the day after the election to "do something" on behalf of my kids. Out of that grew an e-mail I sent to the school superintendent and school board chair regarding some racist and misogynistic incidents in town that precisely used the rhetoric of Trump's campaign. I happened to strike a kindred spirit in the superintendent who helped pull together our first meeting and has already invited several Muslim families in town to our second. Initially I'd imagined more of a grass roots effort, but it now seems useful to me to engage directly with people who have some influence over policies. In case it's interesting, I'll paste in the letter I sent out last night to our little group here. Do keep me posted about Oregon!
Warm wishes,
Jim
Hi Jim,
Your email was timely and helpful. Last night we had eight West Linn residents come to our first meeting; another ten people had shown interest via email prior to the meeting so we are hopeful our group can grow. We were like-minded in our concerns about the post-election incidents in our community ostensibly spawned by Trump's rhetoric.
Four of us came with long-standing commitments to social action on issues of misogyny and racism. One couple had received a visit from the West Linn police following a neighborhood robbery; apparently neighbors directed the police there because of workers presumed to be undocumented immigrants...the profiling was a shock to the couple. Two women came because of incidents that took place at the local high school, where their teenagers attend. A swastika had defaced a school structure the day after the election; a young female student had been harassed for her head scarf, and Latino students had been told they will soon be deported. In response, nearly 200 students staged a walk-out in protest the following week.
What was surprising was how little the wider community knew about the school incidents and the protest. The two parents came with this concern about lack of communication. These parents wanted to know more about what the school will do but had not brought their questions to the school administrators. In our initial short meeting, we served a good purpose in encouraging them and offering our practical support in contacting the principal and other potential allies in the district. Initially, we talked as a group about the good that can come from openly addressing the incidents (and the protest), and the side effects of stifling conversation. We wondered out loud what the students might be thinking, with the adults around them saying little about what happened.
This morning, I shared your experience of finding a kindred spirit in the school district (which of course may or may not happen here) and let our group know about your group's work in Cape Elizabeth. I found your group's thoughts about the structure of conversations to be especially helpful.
Thank you, Jim. I will stay in touch!
Cynthia
Personal contributions to nonprofits that support social justice, anti-recision and the environment:
For example:
The H family has seven adults and this year as part of Xmas giving they have agreed as a family to each give $20/month to five nonprofits for one year.
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