RESIST:  Just say YES!

As a child growing up in the Midwest Bible Belt, we five children were constantly being told, "NO!"  "No, you can't dance.  No, you can't go to the movies.  No, you can't play cards."  There were so many "no's", they overrode any "yes's" that may have been a healthy part of our lives.

The natural reaction was to question its meaning -- and rebel.  "No, Mexicans and Muslims are bad people and can no longer come into our country.  No, Planned Parenthood cannot continue to provide women health care -- it must be defunded.  No, Obamacare must be repealed and no longer serve millions with their only health care."

Rebel!  Resist!  Question the call from Donald and fellow Republican leaders.  Remember the "Tower of Power" is, in reality, a buffalo jump (see previous post).  Tweets that emanate from his tower are intended to confuse, to make us jump, to keep us in line.  If we follow him, we are headed for our own demise while he steps aside, enriching himself through his businesses from which he refuses to divest.  (By the way, where is the news conference at which he is supposed to explain how he plans to do away with his conflict of business interests?)

For some, it is all the "No's" that produce the energizing call to resist.  For others, however, the framework from which we operate needs to come from a place of "Yes! Yes!  Yes!"

President Barack Obama reminded us in 2008 that "Yes we can!"  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reminded us in 2016 that we are "Stronger Together!"  Aren't those the messages to which most of America responded when Barack won his election - twice - and Hillary won the popular vote this year beating Donald by almost 3 million people?  Aren't those the messages we hear when we remember words placed on the Statue of Liberty, called The Colossus?

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles.  From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips.  "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" 

What makes our country great?  It is just for the very calls that Barack and Hillary made.  It is for the sonnet that appears on our Statue of Liberty.  This is what we remember -- and must never forget!

What is the message our country seeks to live and send out to the rest of the world?  Read again the Preamble to our Constitution.  Read again our Bill of Rights.  Name the issues that stem from those documents and, in practical terms, provide our vision*:

a.  An economy works best when all benefit
b.  Terrorism stems from other than a particular religious faith
c.  A foreign policy begins with respect for all cultures
d.  Health care is a right for all
e.  A gun policy begins with the premise that greater numbers of guns (and greater power of guns) means greater misuse of guns; innocent people die
f.  Immigration policy begins with the understanding that we all began as immigrants.  This is a factor that makes our country great.
g.  Social security is paid for by America's workers.  It returns to them when it's most needed.
h.  All American citizens have a right to public education.  Public funds, our taxes, pay for public schools -- they do not pay for private education (neither secular - charter schools - nor parochial).
i.  Supreme Court appointments follow tradition:  They are filled at the time a vacancy appears
j.  Treatment of racial and ethnic minorities is no different than treatment of the majority.

Do you agree that these issues make up a vision for our country?  Do you agree that if we hold that vision as a constant in our memory, we can say YES to whatever supports it?

This is our YES!  As a team working together, we can evaluate everything coming out of the new administration.  Does it support the vision we have for our country?  If it doesn't, we commit to an action that does support our vision.  Choose what that action will be (call legislators, write letters to legislators, correct false comments/tweets coming from Donald, use Facebook to call out errors/lies when they appear, support Standing Rock, read The Nation, just take action).

YES, this is our vision.  YES, we will work together to achieve our vision.  YES, we will do whatever it takes to make our vision a reality.


*Issues were sponsored by National Public Radio in "From the Economy to Race, See Where the Candidates Stand on the Big Issues", authored by Meg Anderson, October 18, 2016.


 

 

TOWER OF POWER

Two stories:  Ever hear of a buffalo jump?  How about radio towers from the 1940's?  Both are a part of our country's history and both exist today, in spirit if not in actuality.

Buffalo jump sites exist in the state of Montana.  The buffalo jump was used by the Blackfeet tribe to efficiently maim buffalo so they could be killed with spears and bows.  "Hides [of the buffalo] were used for clothes and shelter, bones for tools, sinews for bowstrings and laces.  Hooves could be ground for glue, and the brains could be used in the tanning process for hides.  Extra meat was preserved as pemmican."  The buffalo jump was a communal hunt dating as far back as 12,000 years ago and lasted until 1500 C.E., until about the time of the horse's arrival.*

How was the buffalo jump conducted?  Meriwether Lewis describes it in the Lewis and Cl ark Expedition:  "one of the most active and fleet young men is selected and disguised in a robe of buffalo skin...he places himself at a distance between a herd of buffalo and a precipice proper for the purpose:  the other Indians now surround the herd on the back and flanks and at a signal agreed on all show themselves at the same time moving forward towards the buffalo; the disguised Indian or decoy has taken care to place himself sufficiently near the buffalo to be noticed by them when they take flight and running before them they follow him in full speed to the precipice; the Indian (decoy) in the mean time has taken care to secure himself in some cranny in the cliff...the part of the decoy I am informed is extremely dangerous."

The story of the buffalo jump recurs as I awake full of dread.  I feel like one of those buffalo; my country feels like that herd of buffalo.  We are being led to the cliff by a decoy.  Just as in the story, Trump is the decoy, dressed to look like the rest of us; he tries to make that connection in his rallies.  He's drawing us ever closer to the edge of the cliff to our demise.  But he fools us because he's planned a way to save himself:  he will enrich his businesses and his family at the expense of the safety of our country.

What has happened?  Donald Trump is naming ultra-rich members to his Cabinet.  Since when have most ultra-rich looked out for anyone other than themselves?  Donald claims inaccurately that not only did he win the electoral vote but also the popular vote since millions of the undocumented voted illegally.  There is no evidence to support this claim.  The truth is that Hillary won the popular vote with 2.5 million more votes than Donald.  The media do not speak up with one voice against this lie.  When in the past we may have been able to depend on the media for objective reporting, that is no longer the case.  Fear rules them.  Fear rules the country.  We are at the mercy of Donald's tweets.

In the 1940's, radio was in full swing.  Air waves carried the news and entertainment to the country.  They emanated from towers that passed the signals from radio stations to our radio consoles at home.  In cartoons, those radio signals were depicted as small bolts of lightning coming off high, triangular, steel towers.

Today, those bolts of lightning represent Donald's tweets.  He sits in his Trump tower in New York and, at any time of day even 3:00am, he tweets out his messages.  It's a signal heard 'round the world.  Trump supporters feel emboldened; they enact whatever menace they desire.  At the very least, they spit on those who offend them; pull off scarves worn by women who are Muslim; scream obscenities at Uber drivers.  Tweets are the new bolts of lightning once used to depict radio signals.  They now emanate from Trump tower.

It feels like we as a country are at his mercy.  We are a herd of buffalo heading senselessly toward a cliff.  We see it; we know it.  But fear is the name of the game.  We are surrounded by Trump's ultra-rich cabinet, by Trump hangers-on who see visions of enriching themselves at our expense like Paul Ryan (Speaker of the House of Representatives) and Jason Chaffetz (Chairman of the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform).  No effort is made by them to assure that traditional checks and balances will be put into play.  No effort is made to investigate conflicts of interest Trump has around the world.  No effort is made to do the job for which they are paid.  We are headed to a cliff.  Tweets from Trump tower keep us in line.

Is there any hope?  Next time...

*Wikipedia