Where do we go from here?
A few ideas for walking forward
Now Listen Maxine,
“The truth will out,” but only if you tell it.
I’m not sure what to say any more. Wednesday found me literally shaking with fear and fury over the actions of the domestic terrorists who invaded the Capitol building (an aside - I was so enraged, I definitely spelled capitol wrong at least once during the day).
The hypocrisy of their actions - desecrating a flag which they’d insisted was beloved whenever athletes took a knee during the national anthem; murdering two police officers when they said Blue Lives Matter; and insisting that white Christianity is threatened and oppressed when, as Rachel so aptly put it—
The silence of politicians, all of the GOP but Democrats too. The violence and looting which was met, not with shooting, as the President had threatened during BLM protests, but with the kind of inaction that was practically an invitation to more of the same. All while the President and his family of grifters and enablers watched from the safety of their private tent like cheering Romans in the Coliseum. Relishing death - of democracy, people, and truth and caring about nothing except how it affected them. And all of it was predicted and preventable - five years ago, four years ago, two years ago, two months ago.
If you’re a Republican and you haven’t publicly wrestled with this - on social media, at work, to your friends and family - shame on you. My friend Tory who is far more conservative than I am, has been posting daily on his FB wall in opposition to Trump and what he has wrought, while patiently engaging with the nutters (my word not his) who come out to debate him, armed with conspiracy theories and poor grammar. I’m grateful for his willingness to engage, but it’s going to take a long time to undo all of this damage and it’s going to depend on all of us.
This is not my request for unity. Time and again we have sacrificed justice for unity in a way that swept so many lies and misdeeds under the rug that there’s no way to walk around it any more. It’s time to tell the truth.
Here is one of mine: I voted for Ronald Reagan twice. And so, when I look at the ineptitude of our government, the way it’s been dismissed and dismantled and defunded (except for the military and the police) so that the avarice of rich people was the only beast we cared about feeding, I know that I bear some responsibility. The man who said, “the scariest words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help you,’” was talking about a government that had fought two world wars, built massive infrastructure and education systems, enabled retirement and healthcare for the elderly, access to college and home-ownership for those who could never have afforded it, and funded some of the greatest art of the twentieth century.
Decades of trickle-down economics later, the federal government is so anemic that it can’t come up with a plan to contain or vaccinate against a deadly virus while 80 years ago we had a different story.
There is massive soul searching to be done and it’s not going to happen if we’re not having uncomfortable conversations with ourselves and others. We must live outside our bubbles, ask ourselves WHY we believe as we do, and be more than willing to change our minds and speak up about it when we do so that we can empower others to do the same. My hope with this week’s offerings was that they would be inspiration and encouragement to dismantle this world and build a better one.
First up, my hometown paper, The Kansas City Star, which expended money, time, and resources in order to examine its own racist history in this series of investigative stories (none of the behind the paywall btw). I’m only halfway through, but already I’m impressed with their unflinching look at the way they enabled the segregated life that any Black person in Kansas City could describe. I’m also saddened to be reminded how much I missed as a result of their omissions and my own lack of learning.
Remember when I wrote about the documentary, Through the Night and y’all donated to their essential worker fundraiser? The movie has gotten fantastic reviews and from now until this Thursday January 14 we can watch it from the comfort of our own homes. Here’s the link for tickets and here’s director Loira Limbal, interviewed on Good Morning America about the inspiration that prompted her to make a movie, despite being a single mother with a full-time job. When we walk out our calling, we shine a light in dark places
The people shrieking about stolen elections aren’t wrong. They’re just not focusing on all of the actual voter suppression that’s deeply embedded in our voting practices. Brittany Packnett Cunningham is a person of faith, a scholar, and a deep thinker. I’ve witnessed her public admission (to hundreds of thousands of followers) when she made a mistake, as well as her willingness to speak truth to power time and again. This series of tweets, compiled into one essay, digs into the specifics of stolen elections and also shows how Black voters saved us from four more years of a madman. If you talk to people who believe the election was stolen, you can use this as a starting point for reality.
@Bark_TimLee3 Hi! you can read it here: @MsPackyetti: So, I really try my best not to use the quote tweet for shade or snark. I employ it for funny/sweet… threadreaderapp.com/thread/1331480… Talk to you soon. 🤖
If you’d like to thank the people who got out the vote, you can give to the New Georgia Project here, Fair Fight Action committee here, and Mijente here.
Read the story of J.L. Wilkinson, the owner of the Kansas City Monarchs, the Negro League’s most successful team and its only white owner and be inspired to make your life uncomfortable in order to do something great. Kansas City treasure and baseball great Buck O’Neil played for, and later managed the Monarchs, and wrote of Wilkinson in his autobiography, “When I got to know him, I realized I was in the company of a man without prejudice, the first man I had ever known who was like that. I was from the South, mind you, so I was unaccustomed to meeting a white man who treated me the way he would his own son.”
Join this free teach-in on Wednesday January 13 about how to organize against white backlash, the historically predictable response to Black movement victories.
Be a good neighbor. Sometimes that looks like checking in or getting groceries or babysitting and sometimes it looks like pretending to be a magical fairy living in the tree of a four-year-old feeling isolated by the pandemic.
I think everyone could use a lighthearted/happy story right now so here goes: At the beginning of the pandemic I went through some painful personal stuff and would often go out at night for long walks because no one was around and I couldn’t sleep anyway. One night I was walkingThank you for being such a thoughtful group. While the limitations and risks of social media are obvious, this still feels like a place where we can have a conversation - the whole entire original goal of this newsletter. I hope that if you disagree, you’ll engage with me and others here. I hope that if you agree, you’ll share your stories. I hope that we can all emerge from this fire with more and better love.
Thank you Kate. So inspiring! KC City Star reflection is incredibly powerful. Question - what can we learn from your journey to convince more of our R friends to vote D?