Why do those annoying protesters keep messing everything up with their inconvenient disobedience? My friend Deanna Zandt made a great explainer. Feel free to share.
Author: Ruby Sinreich
Putting our hearts and bodies where our mouths are
Best wishes to everyone putting your hearts and bodies on the line at women’s marches and other demonstrations in your towns, states, and country because we believe a better America is still possible.
Blessing for the Women’s March
By Erika A. Hewitt (Unitarian Universalist minister)
May you be safe.
May you be free from all harm.As the road or skies carry you toward your fellow pilgrims,
may you sense the presence of those who travel with you in spirit,
whose hopes and hearts are tucked into your pockets,
who name your journey’s purpose as sacred.May you encounter strangers-as-kindred,
and may that recognition of kinship bring joy to your journey.Whether the faces in the crowd number in the dozens, hundreds, or thousands,
may you not only recognize yourself,
but may you also witness a dazzling tapestry of colors, languages, genders, ages, and bodies:
proud testament to and humbling display of our human family.May the crowds be gentle, friendly, and patient.
If not, may the Spirit of Playfulness appoint you its momentary agent.
May you offer quiet praise for gestures of kindness.May all bodies — vessels of spirit and soul — be treated as the gift that they are.
May the sturdiest of marchers make space for those who need more time,
more help, or a different means of moving.May those bearing snacks share generously with others.
May you fuel yourself wisely, and hydrate.
In your hour of need, may you easily find a restroom,
and may it accommodate your body’s gender, size, and abilities.
May the line for the restroom be short.
If not, may you delight in the impulse to connect in ways mundane and profound.Amid the heady flurry of selfies and hashtags,
may you remember the commitment that led you there,
and what will be required for the road ahead.Gather it all up, blessed one; let it feed you.
Allow the crowds’ electric thrum to seep into you,
knitting itself into courage;
into holy boldness;
into fuel for the journey back, and for the journey forward.http://www.uua.org/worship/words/blessing/blessing-womens-march
“what can I call us but lighthouse”
“Revenge” by Elisa Chavez, in The Seattle Review of Books
Since you mention it, I think I will start that race war.
I couldve swung either way? But now Im definitely spending
the next 4 years converting your daughters to lesbianism;
Im gonna eat all your guns. Swallow them lock stock and barrel
and spit bullet casings onto the dinner table;Ill give birth to an army of mixed-race babies.
With fathers from every continent and genders to outnumber the stars,
my legion of multiracial babies will be intersectional as fuck
and your swastikas will not be enough to save you,because real talk, you didnt stop the future from coming.
You just delayed our coronation.
We have the same deviant haircuts we had yesterday;
we are still getting gay-married like nobodys business
because its still nobodys business;
theres a Muslim kid in Kansas who has already written the schematic
for the robot that will steal your job in manufacturing,
and that robot? Will also be gay, so get used to it:we didnt manifest the mountain by speaking its name,
the buildings here are not on your side just because
you make them spray-painted accomplices.
These walls do not have genders and they all think you suck.
Even the earth found common cause with us
the way you trample us both,oh yeah: there will be signs, and rainbow-colored drum circles,
and folks arguing ideology until even I want to punch them
but I wont, because theyre my family,
in that blood-of-the-covenant sense.
If youve never loved someone like that
you cannot outwaltz us, we have all the good dancers anyway.Ill confess I dont know if Im alive right now;
I havent heard my heart beat in days,
I keep holding my breath for the moment the plane goes down
and I have to save enough oxygen to get my friends through.But I finally found the argument against suicide and its us.
Were the effigies that haunt Americas nights harder
the longer they spend burning us,
we are scaring the shit out of people by spreading,
by refusing to die: what are we but a fire?
We know everything we do is so the kids after us
will be able to follow something towards safety;
what can I call us but lighthouse,of course Im terrified. Of course Im a shroud.
And of course its not fair but rest assured,
anxious America, you brought your fists to a glitter fight.
This is a taco truck rally and all you have is cole slaw.
You cannot deport our minds; we wont
hold funerals for our potential. We have always been
what makes America great.
Marvel on social justice in comics in 1969: “We can say we tried.”
Jill Pantozzi reminds us that “Marvel Has Been Ignoring Fans Telling Them to Stop Being So Progressive Since Forever.” Fan letters are a big part of comics culture since they get printed in the next issue, and in 1969 Stan Lee got a letter (from a Burlington, NC reader) that sounds like it could have been written yesterday. “… I’m not a racist, just a concerned Marvelite who doesn’t want his favorite comic company to be ruined by something that really doesn’t concern you as comic publishers.” (Not just racist, but classic concern troll!)
Marvel’s response is lovely:
But, such matters as racism and equality do concern us, Tim – not just as comic-mag artists and writers and publishers, but as human beings.
Certainly it’s never our intention to portray all, or even most, white Americans as hard-core bigots or screaming racists. Maybe it’s just that we think that many people in this land of the free have too long turned their backs or averted their eyes to the more unpleasant things that are going on every day. Maybe we felt we could do something – even within the relatively humble format of what used to be called a “comic-book” – to change things just a bit for the better.
If we fail, let’s just say that we’d at least like to have it said of us that – we tried.
Learn more of the story and get more context about politics in comics at Jill’s blog: Marvel Has Been Ignoring Fans Telling Them to Stop Being So Progressive Since Forever [The Nerdy Bird].
Republicans hate democracy and fair play, part eleventy million
So in case you have better things to do than watch #democracy being dismantled by the #NCGOP at unpredictable hours in Raleigh, here is an important #NCpol update:
After closing the emergency #NCGA session for hurricane (and wildfire) relief funding, the Republicans opened a new session in which Democrats are not permitted to submit any bills, and are now proposing surprise legislation to limit the powers of the governor since the people of North Carolina rejected their incompetent leader. They plan to vote TONIGHT.
Please spread the word so they know we see them, and follow these accounts for updates:
twitter.com/NCPolicyWatch/lists/nc-policy-watch-updates
twitter.com/hashtag/ncpol
twitter.com/ludkmr
twitter.com/lisasorg
twitter.com/binker
A Twitter List by NCPolicyWatch
https://twitter.com/hashtag/ncpol
Photo credit: Charlotte Observer
#LeadWithLove
Grounded in love we will dare to be powerful. We will use our strength in the service of our vision.
#LeadWithLove
Remember: The Powell Memo
Democracy is on life support in the U.S. This didn’t just happen overnight. One of the original daggers in its side is the 1971 Powell Memo, which outlined a comprehensive strategy for building institutions to promote free market worship and limit participatory democracy.
Wow, Ashley Black *and* Talib Kweli with critical warnings about digital security on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Just watch it.
Take Action: There’s nothing OK about the idea of a Muslim registry
My colleague Khadija at MomsRising asks how we will explain this to our kids. How can I tell my son, who only has a dawning understanding of how our nation was founded on the principle of religious freedom, that our own government is preparing to single out people based on their faith or ethnicity and take away their rights?
As a Jewish family we are even more profoundly aware of how dangerous this kind of thinking is. The racist, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim fervor that has been inspired and embraced by Donald Trump is more than reminiscent of Weimar Germany when Hitler was able to step in to a leadership vacuum and wasn’t taken seriously by the people who thought he was crazy until it was much too late.
Keep Pounding: how grassroots organizing and popular protest defeated NC’s bathroom governor
Analysis from Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling on how Pat McCrory shoved through unpopular policies (including but very definitely not limited to HB2) and then wasn’t able to hide from the people thanks to the Moral Monday protest movement!
Pushing back hard on McCrory worked. The seeds of his final defeat today were very much planted in the summer of 2013. And it’s a lesson for progressives in dealing with Trump. Push back hard from day one. Be visible. Capture the public’s attention, no matter what you have to do to do it. Don’t count on the media to do it itself because the media will let you down. The protesters in North Carolina, by making news in their own right week after week after week, forced sustained coverage of what was going on in Raleigh. And even though it was certainly a long game, with plenty more frustration in between, those efforts led to change at the polls 42 months after they really started.
Keep Pounding.
Source: Why Pat McCrory Lost and What It Means in Trump’s America – Public Policy Polling