librarygeek: cute cartoon fox with nose in book (Default)
Last year, I made this post: https://librarygeek.dreamwidth.org/44452.html.

The affirmation I came up with then still applies: Tie rope swings, not nooses, and yet, *WE* persist.

I will still pray that this state of Pennsylvania, and this country United States of America, has enough votes in tomorrow's election that want to maintain "a democracy, if you can keep it" (Dr. Benjamin Franklin), and wants us to persist.

One of our candidates in Pennsylvania is a doctor that doesn't understand that septic tissue with a cardiac pulse that had started and stopped, needs to be removed to prevent septicemia. He (because of course it's a he) thinks its removal is murder, but at least he seems to be a decent human being, if not a good medical doctor. A different office's candidate I believe flunked kindergarten. He doesn't want to share, he says mean things, and thinks calling climate change fake science is going to work. He was *also* present at that infamous rally on the Mall January 6th, 2020, but he didn't go into the Capital Building, which as he keeps pushing the election denier spiel, just makes him a coward, without even the courage of his convictions.

Contemplation question to answer if you choose:Are your actions in love with Power, or with the Power of Love? It's basically the bedrock mystery of mysticism: If you have felt that Universal Love even once, you can't hate anyone.
librarygeek: cute cartoon fox with nose in book (Default)
Posting the entire text because people need to read this:

No Time To Be Nice: Now Is Not The Moment To Remain Silent
November 17, 2016
Naomi Shulman

Rutgers University junior Carimer Andujar shouts to a large crowd gathered to protest some of President elect Donald Trump policies and to ask school officials to denounce his plans at Rutgers University Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New Brunswick, N.J. (Mel Evans/AP)

This article is more than 3 years old.

COMMENTARY

Nice people made the best Nazis.

Or so I have been told. My mother was born in Munich in 1934, and spent her childhood in Nazi Germany surrounded by nice people who refused to make waves. When things got ugly, the people my mother lived alongside chose not to focus on “politics,” instead busying themselves with happier things. They were lovely, kind people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away.

I don’t remember the first time I heard the stories my mother told me; I feel like I always knew them. She’s dead now. If she were alive, I imagine she would be quite sanguine; all her anxieties would be realized, so there would no longer be anything left to fear.

“I choose not to discuss politics publicly,” one friend said. And posted a picture of puppies.
I thought of my mother’s neighbors right after the election, when apolitical friends of mine breathed a sigh of relief that we could stop talking about politics. “That’s over!” they said happily. “Let’s focus on other things.”

But then a white nationalist was named chief strategist to the president-elect. Aren’t you alarmed? I asked.

“I choose not to discuss politics publicly,” one friend said. And posted a picture of puppies.

Another friend messaged me privately. She agreed with me, she assured me. She was just as alarmed as I was! “Count me among the silent resistance,” she said.

The silent resistance? What did that even mean, to resist silently?

I thought back to the primary, when so many people I knew were quietly supporting Hillary Clinton but refused to say so out loud. I am a member of multiple “secret” Hillary support groups — shout out to the Bitches for Hillary! — but we had to speak out for her, too, didn’t we? Not doing so only allowed the narratives that she was too flawed, too unpopular to win to take hold — despite the fact that she's on track to receive more votes than any white male candidate ever. When I pointed that out this morning on my Facebook page, a white guy pushed back immediately. “Is that true?” he said, asking me to prove it, as if Google didn’t exist. Yes. It’s true. Why aren’t more people saying it? Where are our voices?

The morning after the election, I woke up my daughters to a rainy, gray morning. “Who won?” my 12-year-old immediately asked.

I thought back to the primary, when so many people I knew were quietly supporting Hillary Clinton but refused to say so out loud.
“I don’t want to tell you,” I said.

She began to cry, so I sat on her bed and told her, “We live in Massachusetts. And we are citizens," I reminded her. "We have the least to worry about. And we live in Northampton — a sanctuary city. People who live here are as insulated and safe as can be. You do not need to worry.”

I told her this because I am her mother, and I want to quell her fears. But this week our president-elect announced he will cut federal funding to sanctuary cities. We are one week in.

I miss my mother. I am speaking for her now.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2016/11/17/the-post-election-case-for-speaking-out-naomi-shulman
librarygeek: cute cartoon fox with nose in book (Default)
Do you hear the breaking glass?

Do you hear the jackboots marching?

Have you read of the children being bullied to tears for being different?

Have you watched the videos of disabled people being beaten up?

Would you really let me have the abortions for my failed miscarriages?

Would you really stand in front of those trying to take me away?

When they come for you, will there be anyone left to speak for you?

This is the 78th anniversary of Kristallnacht. It seems HORRIBLY fitting.