Learning About Fascism and Such

Screen Shot 2016-12-01 at 7.22.21 PMI commit to facing history and this present moment.

Here is a mix of quotes, all from articles posted at the bottom in my efforts to learn about fascism and Nixon era as relates to now.

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Few Americans under the age of 50 have a grasp of fascism or the history of fascist movements in modern history. Hitler and the holocaust mesmerize the culture with horror, yet a fundamental understanding of fascist ideology is absent. The spread of fascism in the 1920s was significantly aided by the fact that liberals and mainstream conservatives failed to take it seriously. Instead, they accommodated and normalised it. Back in the 1930s, The New York Times assured its readers that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was all posture. Comfortable happiness is readily available in a fascist state.
This nation was founded as an opposite to an authoritarian monarch. We set up institutions like a free press and an independent court system to protect our fragile rights. We have survived through bloody spasms of a Civil War and a Civil Rights Movement to extend more of these rights to more of our citizens.
From the Nixon years, we know that a law-and-order president who lacks respect for the Constitution poses a critical threat to dissent. In 1969, Nixon’s vice president, Spiro Agnew, warned that TV stations broadcasting unfavorable stories could see their licenses revoked by their Federal Communications Commission or their corporate structures dismantled by the Justice Department. Now we are facing limitations on the freedom of our expression, freedom to protest, and even freedom of movement…
The national press is likely to be among the first institutional victims of Trumpism. There is no law that requires the presidential administration to hold daily briefings, none that guarantees media access to the White House. Journalism is difficult and sometimes impossible without access to information. Nixon did great damage (including the invasion of Cambodia, the killings at Jackson State and Kent State, the government infiltration and surveillance of dissenters), but the country survived. We must resist because the consequences of twenty-first century fascism are unimaginably horrific. Unlike Germany’s fascism of the 1930s, we possess today nuclear weapons, biological weapons, massive surveillance infrastructures, a gargantuan military industrial complex controlled by Dark Money, and a servile media. We have never had fascism on Earth in this context.
I believe there is a vast majority who wants to see this nation continue in tolerance and freedom. But it will require speaking. Engage in your civic government. Flood newsrooms or TV networks with your calls if you feel they are slipping into the normalization of extremism. Donate your time and money to causes that will fight to protect our liberties.
There was a flipside to the Nixon age: It produced some of the most enduring progressive organizing in the nation’s history. The Stonewall Rebellion in New York City erupted in June 1969, launching the modern-day LGBTQ movement. Less than a year later came the first Earth Day. Second-wave feminism gained traction throughout that period and produced victories like Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
We are a great nation. We have survived deep challenges in our past. We can and will do so again. But we cannot be afraid to speak and act to ensure the future we want for our children and grandchildren. In order to become whole, as opposed to further divided, we must, and I mean must, create safe circles of connection and community with each other. Anyone who attempts to navigate the crisis on his/her own or just with “me and mine,” will not and cannot. If there is ever to be a majority national movement for social and economic justice, it needs to include whites who have suffered from deindustrialization, offshoring, the decline of unions, and the shrinking farm economy. At the same time, there is a lot of policy turf to defend—human rights, public education, the social safety net, the planet’s health—and those are areas where we need to redouble our grassroots efforts. We must squelch the impulse to pretend that things will be fine… moving too fast to normalize the news. And we must protect from harm those in our communities who are most vulnerable both to the Trump administration’s policies and to the violence and intimidation we’ve already seen.
Business as usual is completely over.
All of above is quotes from these articles:

White Nationalism in 2016

It is important that we educate ourselves about the white nationalist groups that are politically active right now.

“Richard B. Spencer coined the term “alt-right” to describe the movement he leads. Spencer has said his dream is “a new society, an ethno-state that would be a gathering point for all Europeans,” and has called for “peaceful ethnic cleansing.”

“Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!”

That’s how Richard B. Spencer saluted more than 200 attendees on Saturday for the annual conference of the National Policy Institute, which describes itself as “an independent organization dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world.”

Mr. Spencer defined the alt-right as a movement with white identity as its core idea. Mr. Spencer urged the group to start acting less like an underground organization and more like the establishment.

Mr. Trump’s election, Mr. Spencer said, was “the victory of will,” a phrase that echoed the title of the most famous Nazi-era propaganda film.”

The Truth About Thanksgiving

This week many Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. The truth is that this country was colonized by European men who killed the native people living here, raping the land and the women, murdering all in their path, including children. The European (white) men were greedy for resources and land and willing to cause any harm to get what they wanted. As Americans in 2016, it is our responsibility to accept that this is part of our history. If we want this country to be exceptional in any way, we must also accept that this very same history is replaying itself right now. A greedy-for-resources-and-profit corporation, controlled by people of European descent (mostly white men) is raping the Earth, threatening the safety of water, claiming ownership of land inhabited by Native peoples, and inflicting excessive violence on men, women and children.

Indigenous people have for centuries been examples for humanity of how to live in the world, how to be in respectful relationship with the Earth and that which is sacred. We have the opportunity to support them right now and to learn from their wisdom — perhaps supporting the indigenous struggle is key to saving this planet that is in serious chaos.

If you are celebrating Thanksgiving this week, will you make a commitment to talk about both the history and the present conditions regarding relationships between native peoples of this land and those who feel empowered to exploit and abuse them? If you need help on how to talk about this, you have 2 more days to research and ask for help. The video is a good start. THANK YOU. <3

“We don’t have any place else to go. These are our only remaining homelands. We have to protect them. Enough’s enough.”
Jodi Gilette, President Barack Obama’s special assistant for Native American affairs and a Standing Rock tribal member

 

The video features water protectors from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and allies trying to stop the 1,100-mile Dakota Access Pipeline – DAPL. Interviews in the film include Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Chairman Dave Archambault II; Jodi Gillette, former White House advisor for Native American Affairs; Ladonna Allard, founder of Sacred Stone Camp; Winona LaDuke, founder of Honor the Earth; and Cody Hall, Red Warrior Camp spokesperson. Created by Divided Films with support from the WK Kellogg Foundation.

Let People with Power Know We’re Paying Attention

One of my almost daily practices lately has been making calls to local, state and federal government officials, law enforcement, and companies. I’m asking those that I’ve elected to have power in this country and others that just have power, to use their power for good. I’ve been calling to voice my opinions regarding Standing Rock, police brutality, the release of the SBI report in the murder of Jerry Williams, to try and stop the appointment of Steve Bannon. I have politically been asleep for much of my adult life. I’ve lost hope in our government and thus did not engage in aspects of being a democracy. I feel like right now, one small thing I can do regularly is make calls to let these people with power know that we are here, we are paying attention, we are calling for just action.

Article: How to make your congressman listen to you from a congressional staffer.

Houses Not Handcuffs

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BeLoved Asheville is an intentional community of people on the streets and margins of our city, working to end homelessness, poverty, and prejudice. BeLoved’s Homeless Voice Project is about amplifying the voice of people who are living on the streets and in shelters on issues concerning homelessness and the housing crisis in Asheville.

In a procession and press conference today, the Homeless Voice Project presented public data concerning the arrests and citations of people who are homeless. The data reveals that over the past 10 years, there’s been an increase in arrests and citations for trespassing for individuals who are homeless. These citations and arrests levy fines on the poorest of the poor, give people an arrest record which creates further obstacles to finding a job or housing, and costs taxpayers a great deal of money.
BeLoved Asheville is calling on the city for a simple solution — “Stop charging people with trespass when they’re homeless. Just ask people to move.” Rev. Amy Cantrell of BeLoved Asheville.

The data was collected from 2005-2016 to correspond with the City’s 10-year plan to end homelessness. This plan was built on the fact that housing people is cheaper than jailing them. The data reveals that in these 10 years homelessness has not ended and the City is criminalizing the homeless through the increase in trespassing charges.

Homelessness is a public health emergency, not a public safety issue.

BeLoved Asheville hopes to work with leaders to reduce these numbers. They believe that taxpayer money ?could be better utilized ?by diverting those funds to support people moving from the streets and shelters into housing and to stop contributing towards people who are homeless having a criminal record that only makes it more difficult for them to obtain jobs and housing.

Today’s press conference was part of the national campaign, “Houses Not Handcuffs” launched by the National Coalition of the Homeless.

BeLoved Asheville partnered with Code for Asheville to obtain public records — citation and arrest data from the Asheville Police Department. Code For Asheville’s goal is to use this data as the start of a larger initiative to empower the community to access and analyze public information and data. In October 2015, Asheville passed an Open Data Ordinance to improve the availability of government data sets to the public.

What to do:

  • Call City Council and the Asheville Police Department and let them know that you would like to see a decrease in the number of arrests and citations for trespassing for people who are homeless. “Please just ask them to move.” Let City Council know that you would like to see that money diverted towards programs like BeLoved Asheville and others that support people who are homeless moving from the streets and shelters into housing. Contact BeLoved Asheville to learn more.
  • Encourage City of Asheville to advocate for the release of a regularly updated, complete public data feed of all citations issued in Asheville. An improved data feed would allow the community to engage with our local government in an informed, data-driven manner. Contact Code for Asheville to learn more.

See the data:

Media