Friday List #4
Tom Cathcart: Jerry Fresia may count this as "I made
my bed," or whatever, and that's fair enough; it ain't exactly
revolutionary, but I think it's important. Today, I'm brokering a meeting
between the Ulster (County) Immigration Defense Network, which would like to
find jobs for asylum-seekers in the area, and my neighbor, who'd like to hire
them for his non-profit. Fingers crossed.
Chris Krull: Not much to report - signed up to volunteer on Sen. Warren's
campaign.
Looking to start volunteering with local Dem party but might be
switching counties in the near future so holding off for now.
Looking to start volunteering with local Dem party but might be
switching counties in the near future so holding off for now.
Bryant Durrell: I got local this week -- attended a public
hearing on providing a non-binary gender option on Washington State
identification cards (drivers licenses, etc.). Everyone who stood up to speak
supported the change, and I was honored by the chance to witness. Act locally,
it makes a difference.
Stephen J. Raphael: I was lucky enough to have a brief
conversation with the front-running governor candidate in my state when she
visited. I let her know that I was supporting her and encouraged her to be
supportive of health care expansions in the state and in particular mental
health services (my state is severely underfunded there).
I donated to Bernie.
I tabled and collected donations for a local historic trust to create a small community center in an old school.
I donated to Bernie.
I tabled and collected donations for a local historic trust to create a small community center in an old school.
David Palmeter: My monthly recurring contributions were made
this week to Jared Golden of the 2nd House District in Maine and to Elizabeth
Guzman who is running for re-election in November to the Virginia House of
Delegates. She flipped a Republican seat in 2017 and is being targeted this
Fall by the Republicans who hope to get the seat back.
Anonymous: For Friday List, I attended a meeting about
the increasing presence of the alt right / white nationalists / white
supremacists on college campuses
Charles Perkins: -I got an Elizabeth Warren sign to set up in
my window
-I donated $15 to
Elizabeth Warren
-I registered for an
online training to volunteer for her campaign.
Unknown: Notwithstanding that I've got a lot of
"grunt-work" to do while on the toilet, I've decided finally, at the
advanced age of 57, to register to vote. And I will vote for Biden. If that is
the sacrifice we must make in order to get Trump out of office, then so be it.
Robert Paul
Wolff: Went to a folding and stuffing
party for the Chatham County Democratic Party, as previously described on this
blog, made another donation to Warren and my usual small donation to Sanders,
joined the Carolina Meadows Democratic Group.
3 comments:
(deletions due to stupid typos, etc)
Tom,
First, I offer complete support and commend what you are doing and I feel the same about all the other actions that are constitutive of the Friday Lists. But my previous comment about many of these actions as comparable to feeing the neighbor's cat - something to be commended but wide of the mark - was situated in a specific context. To wit, let us recall the Professors poignant, reflective plea:
What can I do?
I can vote. I do.
I can give money to political candidates. I do.
I can work locally for candidates.
I do.
I can speak publicly, at least if the Web is considered public. I do.
What else can I do?
The "What else can I do?" suggested to me that in this alarming neo-fascist situation, a genuine political emergency exists. Now, I may not like Nike and decide personally not to buy their products, but such an action, while commendable, is but one little pebble rolling down the hill in a random direction at a random time. That rolling pebble won't make a dent in the structures of power or the widely shared ideology that explains our way of life. However, if there were an ORGANIZED call to action - SPREAD THE WORD, GET YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO BOYCOTT NIKE, protest at their headquarters along with other focused actions, such as press releases, etc, urging others to get involved in an organized campaign, the little pebbles rolling down the hill would be grouped together and would become more powerful.
My suggestion about the Friday Lists is this: the effort needs to be ORGANIZED. So let us say that each of us writes to the professor about what a given Friday or month of Fridays might be focused on. Say, for the next month, the action chosen by the Professor (or by us) is this: everyone call Pelsoi and demand an impeachment inquiry. Then on Fridays, the Professor reports that Bill called and got seven of his friends to call too. Maybe the target is the White House, or a specific Senator - or Fox News - or Chris Hayes or whomever or whatever.
The difference in an ORGANIZED effort, is to 1) identify an action that is intended to SPECIFICALLY to subvert Trump's policies/campaign/MAGA ideology, 2) that the actions of the hundreds of readers -AND BEYOND - of this site would be pulling in the same direction, and 3) this would encourage readers to come up with realistic and simile actions as answers to "what can we do" to SUBVERT THE NEO FACISM TAKING ROOT IN THE US OF A. One action might last 2 Fridays, others longer. We, as a group, might actually hit on something that does make a dent.
Surely there must be many, many, effective things we citizens can do to have our voices heard in the public arena short of "stepping out of line." The US is a democracy after all. (Ahem!!)
Apologies to all who thought I was condescending. That's it. I have to feed my neighbor's cat. A really weird cat, but I like the interaction with a different species.
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