Saturday, February 25, 2017

Blog 19
February 23, 2017

“Not the Best of Times”

Spring Training has begun, and my friend Monica is posting baseball news on Facebook to help relieve the political glut  Thank you Monica.  I ‘ve been in New York and have spent six days romping on the floor with my three grandchildren and their parents.  I hope the rest of you are developing ways to relieve the pressure. Patrick and I have also devised a plan if we are deplannng in the U.S. and are asked to show our I.D. One  of us will comply, leave the plane and call the ACLU.  The other one will refuse stating that he/she wishes to remain silent. In this crazy repressive climate of control we need plans for how to respond if our rights are denied.  We may also find ourselves as witnesses to ICE raids, and it is imperative to have in hand the ACLU information about “Know Your Rights”.  https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights. 

For perspective, I am working in my sculpture studio to make art that tells the refugee story. I encourage you to read poetry, write, draw, sculpt to discover and express the larger meanings of what we are experiencing. 

This week Ruth Bader Ginsberg spoke about our current political situation.  She used the image of a pendulum for our country  and she said, that if it swings too far in one direction it will swing back in the other direction. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39065535.  One can only resist and hope.

There are people out there speaking to us and supporting  us in our work.  Indivisible continues to lead the way giving directions for how to keep resisting and working together.  Robert Reich gives daily Resist Reports on Facebook and this week there was a terrific video made by Dr Glenda Russell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRnb8JVyveU How to Truimph in Trumpland, which gave me a great boost.  These many not be the best of Times, but as Ruth Bader Ginsberg said we are not sitting still. There is more political organizing and resisting right now than there has been since the civil rights and  anti- Viet Nam protests.  We shall overcome.

 Wise Words
 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/technology/trump-news-media-ignore.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Excerpt:
On most days, Mr. Trump is 90 percent of the news on my Twitter and Facebook feeds, and probably yours, too. But he’s not 90 percent of what’s important in the world. During my break from Trump news, I found rich coverage veins that aren’t getting social play. ISIS is retreating across Iraq and Syria. Brazil seems on the verge of chaos. A large ice shelf in Antarcticais close to full break. Scientists may have discovered a new continent submerged under the ocean near Australia.
There’s a reason you aren’t seeing these stories splashed across the news. Unlike old-school media, today’s media works according to social feedback loops. Every story that shows any signs of life on Facebook or Twitter is copied endlessly by every outlet, becoming unavoidable.
Scholars have long predicted that social media might alter how we choose cultural products. In 2006, Duncan Watts, a researcher at Microsoft who studies social networks, and two colleagues published a study arguing that social signals create a kind of “inequality” in how we choose media. The researchers demonstrated this with an online market for music downloads. Half of the people who arrived at Mr. Watts’s music-downloading site were shown just the titles and band name of each song. The other half were also shown a social signal — how many times each song had been downloaded by other users. The volume isn’t sustainable.
It’s only been a month since Mr. Trump took office, and already the deluge of news has been overwhelming. Everyone — reporters, producers, anchors, protesters, people in the administration and consumers of news — has been amped up to 11.
For now, this might be all right. It’s important to pay attention to the federal government when big things are happening.
But Mr. Trump is likely to be president for at least the next four years. And it’s probably not a good idea for just about all of our news to be focused on a single subject for that long.

Action:
From Franny Yep contact your Senators about 
HJ Res 43 Congressional disapproval with Title X Requirements
Cuts off federal funding for family planning and related preventive care for low-income, uninsured, and young people across the country. Every year, more than 4 million individuals access life-saving care such as birth control, cancer screenings, and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV at Title X-funded health centers (Planned Parenthood, community health centers)

NOTE: falsely characterized as anti-abortion. Federal funding for abortions already cut. This kills funding for birth control and basic preventive care like PAP smears, mammograms, wellness exams.

This was passed by the House and now moves to the Senate for approval.

CONTACT YOUR SENATORS NOW: VOTE NO! Support birth control and preventive health care. https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state&Sort=ASC

Let your Reps know how you feel about their vote: http://www.whoismyrepresentative.com
Votes: 230-188 passed. Votes along party lines (Republican for, Democrats against) except

Dem Daniel Lipinski Il-3, Collin Peterson MN-7 voted yes
Rep John Faso NY-19, Cgarkes Debt OA-15 voted no

DID NOT VOTE: Karen Bass D CA-37, Carlos Curbelo R FL-26, Sanford Bishop D GA-2, Bobby Rush D IL-1, Cedric Richmond D LA-2, Dave Trott R MI-11, Ryan Zinke R R MT, Mark Amodel R NV-2, GK Butterfield D NC-1, Kevin Cramer R ND, Joe Barton R TX-6, Chris Stewart R UT-2




Not in our Town https://www.niot.org/guide/10actionideas-
Towns all over the country are organizing and developing values based programs and processes to support social justice for all.

http://48hills.org/2017/02/10/san-francisco-braces-for-possible-immigration-raids-training-volunteers/ What to do if you are able to attend to ICE Raid. Send out to vulnerable families















Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Blog 18
February 19, 2017

Overloaded Overheated - Slow Down Reach Out

Every morning I read several sources of news. I check emails from  action groups and choose what I will do today.  Some days I can clear a path and take step-by-step action.  Other days I am paralyzed by the disturbing events and the many possibilities for response.  Okay.  So I am probably not alone in this.  My alway handy go-to solution is the list.  I’ve been making lists since I was a child.  Now my lists are in different categories, with  major political actions for today at the top of the list.  I calm myself by starting at number one and then with satisfaction check it off when I’ve taken one action for the day ,and then I head down to number 2.  Some days my lists are longer than others, but every check counts. I find that my equilibrium depends upon  political actions and on managing the rest of my life. I also reach out to my action work group Indivisible Euclid ,my sub group Immigration, family and friends.  Knowing that I am not alone is soothing.

The other dilemma for me if is how to understand and give meaning to what is happening in our country.  Many erudite analyses compare what is happening here to what happened in Germany during the rise of Hitler, particularly as  diatribes against the free press become more virulent.  Analyses of rife racism and sexism describe attitudes of marginalization that have  besieged our nation from its beginnings. Political analyses point to how not only our country, but the whole western world is shifting to the right as white majorities feel threatened and economic disparities increase.  When I go down these paths I become overwhelmed and hopeless since the forces of evil seem inevitable.  The whole red state/blue state, us/them narratives seem doomed

So how can we stand up against what is really going on here and at the same time, search for alternative narratives that point to individual stories of some politicians, even Republicans, acting from moral principles or  individual stories of people who decided to vote for Trump,but who do not want to build a wall or ban Moslems from our shores.   It is hard to keep up the momentum, keep abreast of the careening actions of our government and to refuse to be either an us or a them, to remember that we are individuals who can act from moral positions even if our chosen solutions seem to collide.  

We need conversations across differences, and  I mean  Red and Blue state voters sitting down to find areas of agreement, respect for differences and opportunities for collaborations.. There are connections between individuals who want what is best for themselves, their families and our country and who made different choices in the 2017 presidential election.

Wise words

From Jim Sparks Ph.D - a reader

Your references to empathy and multiple points of views raise for me the question of how best to orient toward Trump supporters. In recent months, the need to emphatically oppose has seemed much more urgent and necessary than the need to better understand views I find appalling. I’m not altogether happy staying there for the long-haul, however, especially as I think Trump himself won’t serve out his term, but the profound division in our country will endure. 

Recently I attended a training at a school in a rural area. Just down the street from the school stood a massive Trump sign. As the day went by, it became clear that participants shared a political viewpoint—we expressed dismay about what has happened, and many of us described engaging in active opposition to the Trump agenda. We also spoke about the tensions felt between many of us and Trump supporting friends or family. At one point in the day I related that I’d received such an offensive message from a Trump supporting Facebook “friend” from high school that I’d severed contact. 

Some attempts were made during the training to inhabit the viewpoint of the other side. However at the end of the training, one of the participants challenged us about not going far enough. She asked how we would have conducted ourselves if some of the training participants were actually Trump supporters. I’ve been wondering since then how the tone and casual speech during the workshop would have shifted. I’m guessing we would have weighed our words more carefully. Comments would likely have been more directly situated in our own experience. I’m also guessing we would have tried harder to engage in making some sense of what seems unfathomable. I’m not there yet, but when Trump himself leaves the White House, it reminds me we still desperately need conversations across the great divide. 


Be inclusive if you want to win

One more thing Frum (David Frum neoconservative writer) says, and I totally agree, if you can't rally with people you disagree with on other issues, then Trump is not your biggest issue. 
His example. The Women's March on January 21 wouldn't admit pro-life speakers. Pro-life speakers who can't support Trump? Those are our people. (Note: I am pro-choice.)
That's probably why we should have had a more general protest, one that didn't have the conflicts that the Women's March brought to it. Getting past the Trump crisis is the most important thing right now as far as I'm concerned. We must work with everyone who agrees. 


Are Liberals Helping Trump?
by SABRINA TAVERNISE FEB. 18, 2017


Excerpt:
Jeffrey Medford, a small-business owner in South Carolina, voted reluctantly for Donald Trump. As a conservative, he felt the need to choose the Republican. But some things are making him feel uncomfortable — parts of Mr. Trump’s travel ban, for example, and the recurring theme of his apparent affinity for Russia.

Mr. Medford should be a natural ally for liberals trying to convince the country that Mr. Trump was a bad choice. But it is not working out that way. Every time Mr. Medford dips into the political debate — either with strangers on Facebook or friends in New York and Los Angeles — he comes away feeling battered by contempt and an attitude of moral superiority.
“We’re backed into a corner,” said Mr. Medford, 46, whose business teaches people to be filmmakers. “There are at least some things about Trump I find to be defensible. But they are saying: ‘Agree with us 100 percent or you are morally bankrupt. You’re an idiot if you support any part of Trump.’ ”
He added: “I didn’t choose a side. They put me on one.”

Liberals may feel energized by a surge in political activism, and a unified stance against a president they see as irresponsible and even dangerous. But that momentum is provoking an equal and opposite reaction on the right. In recent interviews, conservative voters said they felt assaulted by what they said was a kind of moral Bolshevism — the belief that the liberal vision for the country was the only right one. Disagreeing meant being publicly shamed.

Protests and righteous indignation on social media and in Hollywood may seem to liberals to be about policy and persuasion. But moderate conservatives say they are having the opposite effect, chipping away at their middle ground and pushing them closer to Mr. Trump……….


“We are in a trust spiral,” said Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University. “My fear is that we have reached escape velocity where the actions of each side can produce such strong reactions on the other that things will continue to escalate.”
It is tempting to blame Mr. Trump for America’s toxic political state of mind. He has wreaked havoc on political civility and is putting American democratic institutions through the most robust stress test in decades. But many experts argue that he is a symptom, not a cause, and that the roots go deeper.

Many experts compare today with the 1960s and the Vietnam War protests. That period was far more violent but culminated in a landslide victory for Richard Nixon in 1972, after he famously appealed to the “silent majority,” who he believed resented what they saw as disrespect for American institutions. Others say that democracy was far healthier then and that you have to go farther back to find a historical parallel.

“There is really only one period that was analogous, and that is the Civil War and its immediate aftermath,” said Doug McAdam, a Stanford sociology professor. “I’m not suggesting we are there, but we are straining our institutions more than we really ever have before.”

Actions
Read guide to how to have conversations between red/blue state voters. http://www.whatisessential.org/red-blue

Strike up a conversation with someone who disagrees with you about the current political climate and see if/ where you can find agreement and how you can tolerate differences.

Write, email, call members of congress and implore them to stand by the arts and oppose administrations efforts to cut funding to the arts.

Attend any local town hall meetings near you during this Congressional recess.


Posted by at 1 comment:

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Blog 17
February 14, 2017

We must do this ourselves

The predictions of where our government is headed are dire . We have an unpredictable president, and identity politics along with gross economic inequalities have swayed much of the western world to the right.  Those of us who object and wish to resist are doing this from the ground up.  Indivisible has taken from the Tea Party some of its lessons about developing local capacity and  how members of congress respond to public opinion.  The key is everyone in Congress’s first concern is about re-election.  However, Indivisible is not following the Tea Party in its extremist rhetoric or tactics  similar to our current president’s use  of rebuke, threats and criticism.  Instead ,Indivisible recommends that we come from a place of respect and civility as we stand our ground.

This has led me to think about writers  and activists who have reflected on times like these:

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” 

 Lao Tzu’s poem (sent to me by reader Patrick from Belgium):

A leader is best 
When people barely know that he exists,
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
Worst when they despise him.
`Fail to honor people,
They fail to honor you;’
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will all say, “We did this ourselves.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime. 

These great writers and so many more help me remember that human beings have been through times like these before.  The lesson of history is that most people tend to be swayed by social norms and it is there that the danger lies.  Tyrants take advantage of passivity and complacency.  Only when people stand together and resist has freedom prevailed.   And I ask myself where is the Democratic party in all this.  I read that they felt relief at their retreat.  Really.  We need young vibrant progressive leaders who will reach out to good people even of different persuasions. My bet they will come from the women in Congress.  In the meantime, those of us on the sidelines will gather together into the center  of the public eye by witnessing  and speaking out about what we see and what we will not abide.

 Wise Words


from  Anne Hallinan on Facebook
Some good advice about how to constructively handle the near future: 
George Lakoff (UC Prof of Linguistics and Cognitive Science) spoke Sunday on how words matter and how 98% of our thoughts are unconscious. In terms of resistance to the new regime, he noted: 
1. Don't use the POTUS' name. 
2. This is a regime, and he's not acting alone. 
3. Do not argue with those who support him; it doesn't work.
4. Focus on his policies, not his orange-ness and mental state.
5. Keep your message positive; the administration wants the country to be angry and fearful because this is the soil from which their darkest policies will grow.
6. Minimize helpless/hopeless/apocalyptic talk.
7. Support artists and the arts.
8. Be careful not to spread fake news; check it.
9. Take care of yourselves.
10. And #Resist! 


Excerpt:
Gail: 
Well the first challenge for the Democrats is to come up with a
message somewhat more powerful than “the cabinet nominees   
 are terrible.

And instead of just letting the Republicans flop around over 
health care, I’d like to see the Democrats chart out a vision of 
their own for improving what is obviously an imperfect cure
ent system. “Medicare for all” sounds good to me.

 ……….
Gail:
The real message of the post-Trump Democratic Party will probably be hammered out by the next generation of presidential candidates. But there are spectacular numbers of people out there organizing right now, and I hope they’ll be looking for smart, progressive candidates to run for the state legislatures. That’s where the Republicans really won the game. When the next census is done and it’s time to redraw congressional districts again, the Democrats should be ready to go to war against the government.

Action

Order Red Cards which outline peoples’ rights and give them out to immigrants and refugees. https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards

Make copies and hand out the ACLU Know Your rights. https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights

from Kaethe Weingarten’s Facebook

From a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend who had the privilege of attending a small breakfast with NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Sunday. She gave the assembled group some important tips:
1. Re-post (don't just share) on social media. It has an enormous magnifying impact that the alt-right has mastered.
2. Support women candidates. They are the only ones in congress right now who actually engage in reasoned, bi-partisan discussions. [***I want to repeat this: They are the only ones in congress right now who actually engage in reasoned, bi-partisan discussions.]
There are 25 contested senate races in 2018, including these women who need our help: Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Claire McClaskill of Missouri, Kirsten Gillibrand, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Maria Cantwell of Washington and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. Some pretty important swing states! (And a friend of Jordan's suggested we all go to these women's Facebook pages and like them, follow them on Twitter, and send them even a small donation.)
3. Support your candidate early. Building a large war chest early deters





Posted by at 1 comment:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)