In this post, an Obama staffer makes the same point I made yesterday about the need for Sunday turning into a sustained movement. Also video from the Santa Fe march; a link to It Can’t Happen Here, a scary comparison between today and 1930 Germany; questions about Internet security in this scary time; and book group, Town Hall, and other announcements.
Obama staffer, Jen Psaki outlines her concerns about the possible impact of the Women’s March
Yesterday, I provided links to a number of key actions you can participate in at national, state, and local levels. Click here to access these actions. At the end of this blog, I provide several more opportunities for activism, one that happens tonight and one of what will be a series of video of the speakers at the march.
Yesterday, I wrote that while the Women’s March was inspiring, that inspiration needs to generate sustained activism on all our parts. Last night, a friend sent me a very insightful article by Jen Psaki an Obama staffer.
“I have a sinking feeling in my stomach about the march. Not because I am worried about the cold or the chaos. But because I worry it will give too many people license to congratulate themselves for their activism and move on with their daily lives.”
“There has also been a lot of talk about not allowing the new reality to become normal. Part of that is not lowering our own bar for what is acceptable and what is progress.” — Words similar to my admonition that we must retain our ability to be astonished by injustice, not dulled to it.
“We are going to have to get a little bit uncomfortable in our daily lives to do that by making time, by thinking hard about what we care about, by speaking up even when it isn’t easy.” Precisely. Click here to read more of her thoughtful observations.
If you are looking for more motivation to be active, take some time to read over this article that summarizes the insights of Timothy Snyder, a noted Yale Historian, expert in 20th century European history.
Click here to read the 20 things Snyder recommends to counter fascism, excerpted from his Book: It Can’t Happen Here. “Snyder describes Hitler’s ideology as a myth of racialist struggle in which “there are really no values in the world except for the stark reality that we are born in order to take things from other people.” Or as we often hear these days, that acting in accordance with this principle is the “smart” thing to do. That is a chill going down your spine.
Opportunities and Requests
Call for Leadership. The march was inspiring, but now we need to transition from a march to a movement and a successful movement needs leadership. The Women’s march on Saturday was coordinated by one woman, Lindsay Conover. The Citizen’s Climate Lobby was started by one man, asking 30 friends to his home in San Diego. Seven years later there are 300 chapters all over the world. We are not asking you to start a national movement. We are asking you to consider managing one of the many parts to this movement. You will be trained, you will find new colleagues and friends and you will look back in a few years and be proud of what you did. Click here to find out more. Send a personal statement to me by Wednesday and join us on Thursday to get started. Only those submitting statements may attend the Thursday orientation at 5:30-7pm at Ctr. for Progress & Justice, 1422 Cerrillos, Santa Fe.
Internet Security Expert Sought. Given Trump’s obvious lack of respect for our individual and collective rights, we thought it might be a good idea to get some advice from an expert on Internet security and actions we can all take to protect ourselves from the NSA and other snoopers. If you are expert in this area or can recommend something, send me an email at paul@retakeourdemocracy.org. Thanks.
A message from Michael Moore: Call CONGRESS (202) 225-3121. Spread this number around — call often in the next few weeks — give them your zip code and tell your congressmen what we need: Affordable Care, Planned Parent hood, Trump’s tax returns, equal pay, ethics — whatever you feel Trump is taking away. Call every day, leave messages
Monday, Jan 23, (Today), 6:15pm. Main Santa Fe Library, 145 Washington Ave. Common Cause & Retake the Roundhouse Lobbying Action Team. Citizen Activism/Lobbying Planning Session with Common Cause and Money Out of Politics. Come to this meeting to find out how you can support Common Cause in the Roundhouse. Find out the specific election reforms and bills they will be promoting and how you can support them.
Saturday, Jan 28, Doors open at 6pm, Show starts at 7pm, Skylight, 139 W. San Francisco, Santa Fe. Stand and Rock, a Benefit for Standing Rock. FREE, although the hat will be passed! One week after “the march”, comes “the show,” “the dance,” “the cause.” On Dec 23, Brian Hardgroove assembled a smokin’ house band that played brilliantly behind a series of tremendous musicians. Roxanne and I went and never sat down. The dance floor was packed and donations collected that night went to help pay the legal and medical costs for the brothers and sisters of the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. You don’t want to miss this: click here for details.
Tue. Jan 31, 5:30-7pm. Social Media Training with Ken Baumann, Ctr. for Progress & Justice, 1420 Cerrillos, Santa Fe. Training in effective use of Facebook, Twitter, and at the end of the evening for those interested, Instagram. If you do not have Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, please register an account before the training and maybe tinker a bit, just to get familiar. Google something like: “How to Tweet” or “How to Use Facebook,” to get a sense of the basics — we hope to move quickly from the basics to how to be strategic and effective in your use of these media. RSVP here. RSVP is required as space is very limited. Those individuals who have submitted statements of intent to step up as Retake Our Democracy leaders should definitely sign up, as we are holding 20 slots for leadership. But RSVP!!!
Save the date: Town Hall, Feb 11, 3:30-5pm, Center for Progress & Justice, 1420 Cerrillos. Time to reconvene for conversation and learning. Details to follow, but save the date. And we will be forming a monthly book group with the first group being a pot luck affair and the book being the Rev. Wm. Barber’s The Third Reconstruction and the second book being Strangers in Their Own Land, by Arlie Russell Hochschild. Barber’s book was referenced in this post, click here. And Strangers was referenced in this post, click here. So order your copies now (from Collected Works, not Amazon). Leadership especially encouraged to participate. At the first group, participants will select the book for the 3rd meeting and thereafter the group will make the selections….it’s being a democracy and all.
In solidarity,
Paul & Roxanne
We will post video of each of the speakers over the course of the next few days. We post this one first, as so many missed it as, speaking at the end of a long, cold day, many had hit the highway by the time I got on. Great job and many kudos to Andy Fertal for pulling this together. You need to crank the volume a bit.
Categories: Actions, Activist Organizations, Civil Disobedience, Criminal Justice, Economic justice, election reform, Healthcare, Justice, Standing Rock
Very much agree – the showing and accomplishment of Saturday was outstanding and the coalition and inclusiveness on many levels and the positive messages were refreshing and hopeful – there is much on that to still work on and reflect and learn from – indeed by doing this – then for each other primary issue – like the environment for instance – we can build on and unite – the same is true on the more recent and present issue at Standing Rock – we need to stay with it and stay allied and assure folks there that we are still with them – I know they would appreciate that very much……
Couldn’t agree more. Thanks for the comment. paul
Great list of upcoming events! please add: 1 BILLION RISING EVENTS
COMMUNITY AWARENESS WALK February 14th starts at Round house with The Dance:Billion Women Rising and then walk to the Plaza 11am.
Thanks
On the MoveOn.org talk on Sunday night they spoke of Trump Tuesday’s and that each Tuesday we are to call our Federal Senators and Reps and talk about a particular topic. This Tuesday, tomorrow is to be on the Swamp Cabinet and objections to the nominees. Will we be participating in that or did I just miss a post?
I think we will promote this with the caveat that calls to Udall, Heinrich and our Dem House Reps are likely unnecessary…and maybe a pain. But let’s bury Pearce in calls!