Good morning friends – this week has been an emotional and mental cyclone. Seeing America – it’s centuries of white nationalism exposed – can be triggering and so familiar for those most oppressed, embarrassing-to-infuriating for white folks, and alarming for all. “Nothing can be changed until it is faced” said James Baldwin – and here we are. Our critical work is both personal and internal anti-racism/oppression work, coupled with an ongoing commitment to “good trouble, necessary trouble” in every sphere of our family and community lives.
A Civilian’s Guide to Insurrection Legalese – thanks Marshall Project! https://www.themarshallproject.org/
Leaning into truth
However painful the immediacy of truth can be – there is no peace without accountability, justice and love. Together, we can do this.
John Paul Lederach – “We are not looking at a fringe few. We are gazing upon ourselves.”
for The Pause – https://engage.onbeing.org/20210109_the_pause
Amber Ruffin – “Stop Saying This Isn’t Who We Are” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNhii_kfBzE
then subscribe to Amber’s Youtube channel b/c brilliant people who tell the truth – that’s where I’m spending my time – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxej9nPf6TqFyfsiez1_P3w
Zenobia Jeffries Warfield – This is America.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis of Middle Church tweeted, I’m “so damn tired of living in a country that treats Black grief as a threat and white rage as a sacrament.” I know you’re tired, too. But here is the truth: We have been called for such a time as this. Though we’ve been devastated by SO much madness in 2020, we are NOT going to sit around licking our wounds while white supremacists work to destroy our democracy; ain’t nobody got time for that. Despite our grief, we are rising to heal souls and the world with just love. https://www.middlechurch.org/
Rebecca Solnit – When the President of Mediocrity Incites an Insurrection. White Identity Politics is Out of Control. https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-when-the-president-of-mediocrity-incites-an-insurrection/
Race Double Standard Clear in Rioter’s Capitol Insurrection.
Ashli Babbitt is being glorified – as a symbol that white nationalists and far right rely on to justify their actions, a preserving of contorted notions of white honor, liberty and purity. Seyward Darby, the author of “Sisters in Hate: American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism
Veterans for Peace – As military veterans who know the true costs and causes of war, members of Veterans For Peace reject state violence and state-sanctioned violence. https://www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2021/01/07/veterans-peace-condemns-yesterdays-attempt-white-supremacist
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter that the country has two systems of justice—“one that let extremists storm the U.S. Capitol yesterday, and another that released tear gas on peaceful BLM protesters last summer.”
“Genocide and racism are worked into the fabric of this country.” Chase Iron Eyes, citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and lead counsel for the Lakota People’s Law Project, says the stark contrast between law enforcement responses to people of color at Standing Rock and Black Lives Matter gatherings versus that to the White people trashing the Capitol Building shows us “who we are”. https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2021/01/08/natives-respond-police-capitol/
The Washington DC siege has Western Roots and Consequences – History and the growing power of right-wing extremism point to a volatile future for the Western U.S. Leaders of anti-federal movements lean into this violent history and include factions that are specifically anti-Indigenous. Carl Segerstrom with High Country News.
Jim Wallis of Sojourners – https://sojo.net/articles/sedition-and-silence … I would argue there is also a theological lens — that the growing power of a distinctive American heresy is also at play.
THERE MUST BE CONSEQUENCES!
The time to act is now.
Our democratic republic demands it, because every day we wait is a day we lose another piece of it.
There can be no unity when one of the two parties has demonstrated its contempt for democracy.
There can be no mending of the country when those who are still breaking it have not been held to account.
There can be no reconciliation with domestic terrorists who wouldn’t hesitate to use violence against us and our government again… Chris Winters – https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2021/01/07/trump-insurrection-impeachment-justice/
… may we remember that we the people have the power — and the responsibility —
K. Sabeel Rahman, President, Demos – https://mailchi.mp/demos/demos_email_1_8_2021_accountability_for_dc
our ACTIONS right now!
Thanks to Demos, Indivisible, ProgressNM, AFSC, Campaign Nonviolence, NAACP, Anti-Racism Daily, Democracy Collaboration, Othering & Belonging Inst, Bend the Arc, and ResistBot
Don’t like to call … try the Resist Text Bot? Free, fast and super easy to use. Text RESIST to 50409.
Call/text/FaxZero.com to our NM MOCs + Senate & House Leaders Schumer and Pelosi:
- Impeach and immediately remove Trump from office. Ask our Reps to Co-sponsor Rep. Omar’s impeachment resolution! Via 25th Amendment (unlikely given Pence; & Secretaries are resigning) or Impeachment. Impeachment proceedings move forward so that GOP is explicitly shown as the party that supports sedition. Get Trump’s finger off the nuclear button. https://www.commondreams.org/ https://omar.house.gov/sites/omar.house.gov/files/Omar_impeachment.pdf
- Investigate (& expel–prosecute) the lawmakers, Capitol Police, and media outlets complicit in inciting this attack and others like it (the white nationalists are threatening more violence)!
- Commit to enacting long-term structural democracy reforms. Co-sponsor right now – For the People Act (HR1) and John Lewis Voting Rights Act (HR4).
Impeach Trump Immediately – Petitions:
Bend the Arc – https://www.bendthearc.us/removetrump
No Rep. Herrell! From ProgressNM – https://progressnownm.actionkit.com/sign/yvette-herrell-must-resign/
Restore Voting Rights to All – https://www.afsc.org/action/end-felony-disenfranchisement
Justice for Berlinda Nebo who was beaten and pepper-sprayed this week by Trump supporters while her arms were held down said she is lucky to be alive. Email LAPD and DEMAND that they investigate and prosecute the white supremacists who assaulted Ms. Nebo on Wed. contact.lapdonline@gmail.com
Expand our own understanding from Nicole Cardoza, Anti-Racism Daily https://www.antiracismdaily.com/
Discuss with a friend:
– What did you uncover this week that you never heard of before?
– What power and privilege may have protected you from unpacking this concept?
– Or, which trauma(s) may have shielded you from learning more?
Build Bridges Not Walls: Nonviolent Communication In Action – Online seminar with Pace e Bene & Campaign Nonviolence. Feb 2 + 6 wks. https://paceebene.org/events/2021/12/2/building-bridges-not-walls
Understanding Trumpism and it’s not going away anytime soon
Three challenges stand out:
1) The first is the need to confront squarely, and on an ongoing basis, America’s deep history of racism that has led to armed white supremacists marching openly in the streets and a Neo-Nazi sympathizer sitting in the White House.
2) The second is the imperative to get off the defensive and, coming together, put forward a much more powerful, transformative alternative to Trumpism—real, practical solutions to the deep economic and ecological problems we are facing as a nation, building from the bottom up, as all serious movements must.
3) The third calls for a political strategy capable of uniting a broad coalition around a shared agenda for building power, mobilizing the potential mass movement for fundamental transformation that is in the making if we develop the tools and alliances to bring about lasting change.
Resources to understand America’s ongoing Trumpism:
https://belonging.berkeley.edu/trumpism-and-its-discontents – amazing free book, from Nov 2020
https://the.ink/p/justice-after-trump interview with Sherrilyn Iffill, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/ science-based articles about political polarization, lying, more
let’s close with…
leaning into wisdom – shared from https://onbeing.org/
“One of the things that I learned from my father is that a crisis is both a danger and an opportunity. That’s in the Chinese characters. And how you take advantage of the opportunity of the crisis rather than become despairing because of the danger and fear is something we’re facing all the time, particularly at this time.” — Grace Lee Boggs, “A Century in the World”
“To develop the best humanity, the best spirit, the best community, there needs to be discipline; practices of exploring. How do you do that? How do we work together? How do we talk together in ways that will open up our best capacities and our best gifts?” — Vincent Harding, “Is America Possible?”
“We cannot have a healed society, we cannot have change, we cannot have justice, if we do not reclaim and repair the human spirit.” — angel Kyodo williams, “The World Is Our Field of Practice”
our hearts singing together
and our bellies laughing
take it home Randy Rainbow and your original musical offering “SEDITION“
