Tuesday, Jan 30. State of the Union Address.
I almost didn’t watch. A friend refused to watch saying, “I don’t listen to his lies, I follow what he does.” Smart. But another friend said watching SOTU was his patriotic duty and, since I am a patriot, I tuned in. Bundled in a comforter, I sank more deeply in my chair with each point, weighed down by the underlying lies and nasty bigotry.
Beyond what the president did NOT include – justice for women and people of color, climate, education, Russia, violence by anyone other than immigrants, the prison for profit system, etc.- he misrepresented the issues he did include in the teleprompter script.
The misleading statement on low black unemployment. Trump took credit. Unimpressed the legislators in the Congressional Black Caucus – dressed in African kente clothe to stand in solidarity with people from bleep-hole countries – didn’t even look at the president. Unemployment for black people has been trending down since 2011 and in fact the January, 2018 reported arise to 7.7 % (more than double the 3.5 % white unemployment.)
Falsely Linking immigrants (Latinos) with criminals. What really turned my stomach was Trump’s using his fine guests as tools, turning their stories into a dig at someone he didn’t like. For instance he told the heart-breaking story of two couples from Long Island, NY, who lost their 16 year old girls to murder by the Gang MS-13 two years ago. As the parents wept, we grieved for them. Then Trump turned it into an indictment of all Mexican immigrants, conflating immigrants with criminals. Findings in a March 2017 study by the libertarian Cato Institute show “Illegal immigrants are 44 percent less likely to be incarcerated than natives. Legal immigrants are 69 percent less likely to be incarcerated than natives.
Weds., Jan 31, morning. The missing context on the origin of the MS-13 gang.
I found some history on MS-13 on “Democracy Now” on Jan 31. Yes, who doesn’t agree gangs are terrible? To eradicate them, it helps to know why they started. The MS-13 gang Trump referred to began, not in Mexico or South America, but in Los Angeles, USA. Amy Goodman interviewed Daniel Denvir, a writer-in-residence at Harvard Law School, who explained how the flight of people escaping the “dirty” wars waged by President Reagan in Central America led to MS-13 in L.A.
In El Salvador, Reagan backed a right-wing government in its war on leftist revolutionaries. Denvir explained that when people fled the war, Reagan denied they suffered human rights abuses and denied them refugee status. They were forced to “move to segregated communities of poor people of color” where good schools and good jobs were hard to find. Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama continued harsh immigration policies and now Trump is spreading fear and accusing refugees who fled from violence of perpetrating violence.
The irony is that the deportation of gang members led to the gang’s expansion into a transnational crime ring, creating more violence in their home countries. More vulnerable people fled violence to enter the USA illegally and they are now condemned by Trump as criminals. Deportations increase…and the cycle continues.
Weds., Jan 31, evening: Eliminating Racism Conversations
In the Eliminating Racism group that meets at the Unitarian Church, Westport, someone recommended the book by Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped From the Beginning. It’s about how racist ideas are imposed upon us from childhood and become part of our unconscious belief system. W. Kamau Bell, a socio political comedian, who won an Emmy award for CNN doc-series United Shades of America, wrote an article published by My Stand: “Talk about Racism? Yes, Now…and Often.” Well, that’s what our group attempts to do – we are getting “comfortable about having uncomfortable conversations,” as Bell says we must.
Thurs., Feb. 1: A knock-out film about the struggle of black people to vote
See the powerful Trailer on Facebook: Let The People Decide Movie Video Preview
Gavin Guerra, at a League of Women Voters event at the Redding Library, showed rough cut clips from his documentary, Let the People Decide. It tracks the history of the suppression and gaining of voting rights from 1960 to 2016, with an epilogue on Trump’s efforts to once again suppress the votes of people of color. It focuses on North Carolina and Mississippi, then and now, featuring interviews with John Lewis, Harry Belafonte (at 90), Julian Bond and Dick Gregory (now deceased), and with Bob Moses, a lesser known but brilliant and fearless Freedom Rider in Mississippi, Bob Moses was a key character in the book, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, which inspired Guerra to create this film. He is seeking more screenings to publicize it. He is racing against time to raise funds to meet his goal is to finish it before the elections of 2018.
ACTIONS: Donate and Work to Get Out the Vote – Start NOW!
Support the organizations below or choose your own but do it now.
Gavin Guerra. Raise funds to help him finish his film on voting well before the November, 2018 election. Participate in finding more venues to screen the film on the right to vote by black people. Let the People Decide Documentary
League of Women Voters League of Women Voters, Westport, CT – is not only for women! Work to educate the electorate on the issues and candidates, and register people to vote.
MoveOn.org
Our Revolution – Bernie Sanders
Emily’s List. Work to elect progressive women candidates
Join national campaigns of new candidates and those up for re-election. On my list: Elizabeth Warren. Our representatives in DC from CT: Jim Himes, Dick Blumenthal and Chris Murphy.
Chris Murphy’s Fight Back Connecticut.
Local and state campaigns, legislators, mayors and governors. Ballot initiatives.
Progressive Turn Out Project. A PAC dedicated to connecting with voters and getting Democrats to the polls.
A party, PAC or Committee of your choice. US Senate, House of Representatives.
Tyranny author and Yale historian, Tim Snyder, encourages us to resist by participating in and donating to free media, campaigns, and civic organizations working for justice.
Tip I made a budget, then chose my favorites and set a monthly donation, that way the organization is sustained and I’m not pressed to respond to every request, unless special.
SOURCES:
SOTU fact check: New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/us/politics/fact-check-sotu.html
On immigrant crime: Politifact. http://www.politifact.com/california/article/2018/jan/23/provocative-trump-campaign-ad-gives-wrong-impressi/
Unemployment report in January, 2018 from government Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
MS-13: The New Yorker, 2018-01-01. “Teens Trapped Between a Gang and the Law.”
Opioid Epidemic: New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/minutes/146852/donald-trumps-solution-opioid-crisis-less-immigration
On origins of gang MS-13. Democracy Now (WBAI) Jan 31. https://www.democracynow.org/2018/1/31/made_in_the_usa_the_real
Insight to Action 