A Way Forward

This afternoon, for the first time since high school, I wove a Christmas wreath. I worked in a produce wholesaler when I was a kid, and during the Holidays I learned to weave wreathes. I cut some White Pine boughs and borrowed a little holly from a neighbor, and found a ribbon at a nearby greenhouse. It took maybe an hour, and I took great pleasure in the quiet methodical work. It now hangs on the front of my little house. It is a symbol of the renewal that comes with the winter solstice, and the promise of redemption that Christians ascribe to this oldest of holidays. Renewal and redemption are much on my mind right now, and the weaving of the pine and holly with my own hands was, for me, a reminder that those things come from within.

It is time for rebirth, starting here and now.

In my anger and disgust at the presidential election results, I have been seeking a way forward. To that end, I contacted a wide circle of friends in government, law, business, non-profits, the arts, the sciences, education, and most other walks of life. These included folks of both major parties, and no party at all. I wrote to them with questions, and I have considered carefully the many good answers I got back. All of the responses dwell on both active resistance in the very short term, and carefully laying the groundwork for positive change. It’s that second set of goals I find more interesting.

The short-term stuff is kind of obvious and about what you’d expect.

- The promotion and support of real investigative journalism. There’s too much bullshit out there, and given the character and history of the election winner and his cronies, there’s plenty to investigate. Actual reporting is expensive. I give to NPR and Pro Publica. Buying subscriptions to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other for profit papers with bona-fide journalistic standards is a good idea. Getting all your news from Facebook ain’t.

- Give money and volunteer time to environmental and human rights nonprofits that have lots of lobbyists and lawyers and a good track record for both working with and for suing the government. My money and time are going to immigrant advocacy, heritage preservation and environmental organizations. There’s lots of other folks and resources in great peril right now, and lots of fine attorneys ready to push back. For examples of all kinds of good non-profits:

o http://www.pbs.org/earthonedge/resources2.html

o http://www.guidetoaction.org/intlgrps.html

- Peaceful and active resistance. Works pretty well when push comes to shove: ask the folks in North Dakota. A good-sized march or strike can shut down a port, close a highway, defend a river or a clinic, even bring down a dictator. Images and video of storm troopers with water cannons and mace do wonders for public opinion: ask anyone who remembers the civil rights struggle or resistance to the Vietnam War. Art and music play important inspirational roles here. Writers can and should speak out. Satire’s useful too. Nothing disempowers a bloated ego better than poking at it. After all, provoking Trumplethinskin is pretty easy and mildly entertaining as he reliably demonstrates his character flaws and ignorance for all to see via 3AM tweets from the potty. Here’s a wonderful primer for afflicting the comfortable. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/opinion/the-art-of-the-protest.html?_r=0

These short-term suggestions are for me, just necessary evils. They may help get us through the next couple years by blunting and frustrating the worst excesses of the spoiled trust-fund brat about to take over in DC. Of much more interest to me are opportunities for positive change leading up to the mid-term election in 2018 and beyond.

One of my correspondents, a municipal official, reminded me of Tip O’Neil’s adage that “All politics is local.” The reality is: if you want to get rid of divisive, winner-take-all politics that favors demagogues, bullies, pathological liars, and flim-flam artists, you start at home. This will be especially important as long as the federal government is being driven off a cliff. The responsibility to protect the environment, the citizens, public health, and God knows what else is likely to fall to the states at least until sanity is restored. This kind of work is decidedly unglamourous, requires patience, and can be by turns infuriating and mind-numbing.

It’s also the only rational way out of this fucking mess.

If you’d like to see better candidates and better ideas in both parties, real checks and balances at all levels of government, and an end to governing by a mean and inflexible minority, please consider these actions.

- Focus your time on your own local and state focused politics. This means attending township supervisor and city council meetings and maybe volunteering for a board or commission. Typically, if you ask good questions, aren’t mean to people, and volunteer to do some of the dirty work of local governance (like take the minutes, etc.), you’ll gain a measure of respect from your neighbors, and your opinions on things might be considered valuable, even if you’re in the wrong party, or the wrong faction of your party. You’ll also learn how complicated and nuanced actual governing in a democracy can be.

- Find successful examples of better governing and leadership, and promote them locally. Wondering how to encourage jobs, preserve and fix up housing stock, reduce crime, promote open space, provide services, improve the schools, etc.? Well, other people have done it. In Pa and every other state, many municipal and city governments have quietly found good, workable solutions to community problems, and others have failed miserably. Both kinds of examples are instructive, and they’re readily discovered with a little research. This is valuable information and should be shared. In these success stories, will be found not only ideas and examples, but real leaders who implemented them. God knows we need those folks now. We are not well led.

- Engage your local and regional legislators. Reach out to legislators you support, even if they don’t represent your district. They all hold public meetings. They all have phones and email accounts. If you want them to behave or vote in a particular way, tell them. If you want to know why they support some ideas and not others, ask them. Politely insist on a response. Thank them publicly when they’re responsive and helpful, and give them hell publicly when they’re dismissive, mean and dumb. They’re public employees. They work for you.

- Encourage voters and voting. Remember, the orange guy won the November 2016 presidential election with a minority of voters, and worse yet, more than 40% of eligible voters didn’t bother to vote at all. Volunteer to help at the polls. Drive folks to the polls. Work on voter education drives. In this country, people got their heads beat in and got killed trying to gain the right to vote. As I suspect we’re about to find out, bad leadership can cause economic, health and environmental catastrophes and also wars. Not voting and then becoming one of the victims is a kind of suicide.

Now if all this sounds like a lot of work for someone who is trying to raise kids, hold a job, take care of ageing parents, go to school, and so on…it is. But remember, all you must do is what you can do. Any regular effort on any of these fronts will pay off in ways large and small. How about an evening a month? How about two? Get something on the calendar.

A positive, reasonable and workable message is the high ground in this battle.  That's where you want to be.  Nobody is going to thrive in a mudslinging contest with the crowd coming to power right now. To quote Shaw: Don't mud wrestle with a pig. You'll get filthy, and the pig enjoys it. There are more good people in this country than assholes.

It’s also worth remembering that political engagement is the price of actual pluralistic and fair governance. When we get busy and lazy and disinterested and cynical and blow it off, more energized people have their say, and their ideas might be different than yours, and not so pluralistic and fair. Local engagement can lead to a better 2018 election result one congressional district and one state at a time, and can also build the foundation for much bigger and better things thereafter.

There is hard work ahead, but there is joy and satisfaction in working toward something meaningful. A reminder currently hangs on the front of my house.

Let’s do this…more later…