Last week was an eventful week at the Roundhouse. But, today we focus on yet another preventable tragedy and a group of youth who took the center stage that was to be there’s for a day or two, if history was to be our guide….but they have seized the moment. Now it up to all of us to make this moment into a movement that actually gets something done about guns.
Gentrification, Investment and Displacement Tuesday at the Cocteau, 5:30. But arrive a few minutes early to get a seat. Before getting into the call for a national action March 24, I want to highlight an event on this Tuesday evening sponsored by one of our partners, Chainbreaker Collective, It is the final in a four-part series with each event focused on different aspects or impacts of gentrification. The first three panels focused on art, education and health each in relation to gentrification. The last focuses on the primary driver of gentrification: investment. Given Santa Fe’s currently being faced with investment options for developing Santa Fe University Art & Design and with finalizing the pieces to the Siler Rd. development and with a new Mayor and Council coming on board soon, this is a very timely panel discussion. Chainbreaker events are at once illuminating, inspiring and motivating. Since their entire emphasis is upon the impact of policy on under-served communities and populations, from the perspective of those being under-served, you will see a side of Santa Fe that is not evident when going to the Roundhouse, City Hall, Meow Wolf, the Ski Basin, the Plaza or Canyon Rd. I highly recommend you find time to attend. And if you do, come over and say.
Chainbreaker, The Edge of Equity Series. Round IV: Investment without Displacement. Tuesday, Feb 20 5:30-7:30pm, Jean Cocteau, 418 Montezuma, Santa Fe. Prior panels were standing room only, so arrive EARLY as with the focus on SFUAD and other mid-town development, this will also be JAMMED and for good reason. This is a can’t miss series from Chainbreaker Collective, a series of panels on Equity in Santa Fe. Chainbreaker Collective is key partner in the struggle for racial and economic justice in Santa Fe and no one articulates the lack of equity in Santa Fe and a vision for economic justice in Santa Fe better than Tomás and his colleagues at Chainbreaker. Don’t miss these panels. For more information on gentrification in Santa Fe, click here for a synopsis of an extraordinary Chainbreaker report. It will help you see another side of Santa Fe: one that needs to be addressed.
If you haven’t taken the Speak Up New Mexico! Legislative Priorities survey, please do so today to tell your legislators what bills you want to see become law. Click the blue button at left to take the survey. And if you want to get involved with our 2018-2018 Roundhouse Advocacy Team, we meet on Thursday from 4:30-6:30pm at New Energy Economy, 343 E. Alameda. To RSVP, just write to me at paul@RetakeOurDemocracy.org. If you want to read about our 2018-2019 Election and Legislative Strategy, click here.
Mayoral Voters Guide. We have developed a Mayoral Voters’ Guide that entirely focuses on very specific city policies that could be implemented in Santa Fe. Each candidate responds to each issue. Take a look and let policy positions and commitments to the future guide your voting decisions. Click here.
Will the Children Lead?
In many posts, I have wondered: what will ignite us? When will the insult to our sense of justice be just be too much? When will one too many have suffered? Often the call has been to the Democratic Party begging for a platfrom, an alternative tax plan or budget or some signs of commitment to the people over Wall St. But perhaps that is naive. This game is all about power and those with power do not often share it easily. But these children have no power to lose and they are driven by uncompromising outrage. Maybe now is the time and maybe this one event can lead to something important, something that connects the dots between guns, poverty, war, racism, colonization, and economic exploitation. Maybe this moment becomes a movement.
Seventeen died and students from Stoneman have voiced their unvarnished outrage, first with the comments from David Hogg who said, “We are just children; you are the adults….some of our policymakers … need to look in the mirror and take some action because, ideas are great, but without action, ideas stay ideas and children die.” The tone of Hogg’s comments is measured next to Emma Gonzalez, below, who while reading much of her uncompromising and spot-on message, does so with unbridled passion.
The plans are just unfolding for a March 24th march in Washington, D.C. with aligned marches in cities across the Nation. Initiated by students, local marches really should be led by students and so while Retake will support any local effort, we feel it should come from our students. We have reached out to some of our youth-focused partners and plans are brewing. Keep the date marked and we will keep you posted as to developments. In the meantime, if you haven’t seen Emma Gonzalez’ speech, take a moment and listen to what rage and sorrow sound like when mixed with a youthful sense of justice that hasn’t been sanded down by decades of disappointment. The Week in Review follows this video. Click here for the week’s Events and Opportunities.
Listen and read on!
The Week in Review
Please note that in some of the descriptions of events below it may ask you to take action “today” or “tomorrow” but these are posts from last week listed in the order they appeared. We retain the sequence and the references to actions so that new readers so they see the way in which Retake integrates immediate actions with research on policy, legislation, and issues. Please share this post with one or two friends and encourage them to subscribe to the blog by clicking the blue follow button on our home page. This is the best way to expand our base and increase our impact.
A Bad Bill Becomes a Better Bill Thanks to Advocacy and Constituent Pressure. Join Us This Morning for the Vote. Tues. Feb 13.. It was pretty crazy. PNM’s SB 47 is dead, slain as much by PNM’s own hubris as by strong, persistent progressive advocacy in opposition. PNM II (HB 325), as it was called by several legislators and advocates, had been introduced by Rep. Montoya, R, Farmington. What unfolded was absolutely stunning. Click here to read the full post.
Roundhouse Coming to a Close. Another PNM Outrage and Our Response. Weds. Feb. 14. After another three hour discussion and three more amendments, the Senate Judicial Committee voted 10-2 to approve HB 325 and this was a vastly improved bill, but flaws identified by other environmental allies remained in the bill and so New Energy Economy and Retake withdrew its support and the bill will die in the Senate [Note: It did die.]. And then PNM publishes a shameful full page ad entirely misrepresenting the intent of SB 47 and the level of support it enjoyed among environmental groups (none), all wrapped up in a sarcastic congratulations to New Energy Economy,…a completely bogus hit job. Details and Roundhouse Roundup. Click here to read the full post.
Do You Want a Forward-Thinking, Responsive Democratic Party? Time to Show Up! Thursday, Feb 15. Wards throughout the state are currently holding elections to select delegates to the State Pre-Primary Democratic Party Convention. To continue the work of developing an open, responsive, inclusive, and democratic (small d) Democratic Party, we need people to step up, attend their ward meeting & elect progressive Dems to be delegates at the State Convention. Click here to read the full post [By way of update, on Saturday Roxanne and I attended a jammed ward meeting where 13 delegates were elected to participate in the State Pre-Primary Convention.]
The Democratic Party Has to Stand for Something. Is Gun Safety the Issue? Sat. Feb. 16. The Democratic Party has an aversion to taking bold stands that clearly articulate how life would be better for all of us if we voted Democrats into power. As a result, the Party continues to enjoy tepid support nationally and has failed to inspire a base. What is wrong? We hear plenty about how bad Trump’s policies are, but what is the Democratic vision for tax reform, the budget, gun control…or just about anything? Click here to read the full post. [Again, by way of update: While the students from Stonewall have been both passionate and articulate in their demands that the government do something to protect us from guns, politicians continue to be deliberate, carefully crafting words of sorrow and concern that, in the end, will not offend their NRA donors. We will see how this unfolds over the next weeks. But our politicians should be embarrassed frankly that their moral compass is so askew that words penned almost 250 years ago referencing muskets still are viewed as a Ten Commandment-like directive that prohibits common sense and compassion to trump the NRA and the gun industry. A musket is not a semi-automatic and 1776 is not 2018. Wake up.
In solidarity, Paul & Roxanne
Categories: Election, Political Reform & National Politics, Social & Racial Justice & Immigration Reform, Uncategorized
Are you working with WNMU students for a march here in Silver City?
As you may know, Retake has been largely Santa Fe focused with some articulation in Espanola, Taos and ABQ, but we are now starting to build a base throughout the state and this might be a good way to connect with students there. Do you have any contacts?
I think we should stop calling them children and call them young people. “Children” implies powerlessness and lack of “adult” brain processes. I fear that the powers that be will use this as an opportunity to militarize the schools in the name of protecting the “children”. We need to frame this differently.
I thought about exactly your point. But it was the students themselves who made the point: we are children, your are the adults,” as a means of contrasting how absurd it was that high school students had to point out the lack of courage of adult leadership. But I get your point and hope you are well. Paul
These people are really good at co-opting just about anything. I can see brownshirt brigades in schools. As a retired teacher, I am not particularly interested in carrying a gun on the job or being a “human shield”. We need to frame this as assault on ALL OF US. Read these stats on gun violence in the U.S. compared to other parts of the world.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2018/02/15/80811/deaths-from-gun-violence-how-the-us-compares-to-th/
Have you seen this? https://earthjustice.org/features/legislative-attacks-on-access-to-justice?utm_source=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&utm_medium=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&utm_campaign=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&utm_content=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&curation=newsletter
Anyone can by a weapon in New Mexico. And from what I have read, they can buy any kind of weapon. Enough with the Second Amendment, pass the laws and let the SCOTUS decide what is legal. Our State needs to be a part of this effort. We know Martinez will do nothing, but the Democratic Legislature needs to publicaly go on record.
-Congress needs to ban automatic weapons, period!
-Congress needs to establish a minimum age for the purchase of any firearm.
-Congress needs to establish background checks!
-Congress needs to stop the sale of any gun at so called gun shows.
We are at the gate with this issue and if pressure is appropriate applied by everyone, without falling into the hole of “debate” and and validity, then we may finally stop our collective insanity! Every Congress person should be asked to go on record over this issue, and until they do they should be discussed daily by the media. Every penny giving to every politician by the NRA or gunmaker, should be publicized and that should appear with every discuss of these dead children!
It is time to change, but as the children of this incredibly diverse high school are teaching we adults, it is time to speak honestly and directly to those who are complicit in these murders! We must become a moral nation again, we must demand that and more.