The sheer volume of awful terrible things happening in our state, our country, and our world is dizzying. I would be lying if I said I am immune from feeling my fair share of despair. However read on for some ideas for taking action, resources for staying informed (and sane), and a couple upcoming events where you’ll be sure to see some friendly faces and feel some solidarity.
I am reminded that a primary tool of an authoritarian regime is isolation. In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt called it verlassenheit, or loneliness. The simple takeaway is that human connection in real time is a subtle but important stand against authoritarianism. Protect Democracy has insightful albeit depressing analysis about why democracies are teetering all over the world.
“As people become more isolated from one another and less connected to a sense of common purpose, polarization and divides grow. Leaders can exploit these dividing lines to solidify loyalty among supporters, selling a narrative of connection and meaning that pits them against the “other side,” with whom actual encounters are all too rare. Changes in the technology and media landscape accelerate this process.”
My co-conspirator Liz with AFSC’s Appalachian Center for Equality has been offering a really helpful presentation called “Coping in a Chaotic Context” with all kinds of pearls of wisdom, tactics, and POETRY! One tactic or aspiration to highlight: Resist hopelessness and hold onto a positive vision of the future—without one, we’ll stay in survival mode and fixate on threats, with something to flee forever, and nothing to run toward.
And bonus, a poem from Nikita Gill:
For When You Need Validation for Your Anger
You are angry and anxious
because you never agreed
to live in a burning home
while the people who should care
pretend the fire doesn’t exist
Distress
is a valid emotional response
to injustice.
Speaking of injustice, the number of bills advancing through the legislature that undermine public health, ignore the needs of school children, target trans people, and take food assistance away from people is staggering to stay the least. And another big kick in the gut is that Governor Morrisey suggests we defund government instead of raising revenue.
Here is the Charleston Gazette airing out my discontent that our state doesn’t have money in the budget to pay for popular programs, because our elected officials prioritize tax cuts for rich people.
Speaking of tax cuts for rich people, the latest news from Washington could be filed under “Make Orwell fiction again”—with no thanks to both our members of Congress, the U.S. House passed a tax bill that tees up unimaginably huge cuts to social programs so that the wealthiest families and business owners can get a bigger tax cut. In textbook Orwellian doublespeak, Trump calls it ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL. Sign up here for virtual meeting happening next Wednesday, March 5th at 7 PM ET to learn more from our friends at WV-CAG and WV Center on Budget and Policy. It's time to turn up the heat on our "representatives" in Washington (Bird dogging? People's town halls?). Would love to hear your ideas!
A huge ongoing fight with major implications for our kids and our public schools, is the siphoning off of tax dollars to fund the Hope Scholarship which advantages families who often can already afford private tuition. Governor Morrisey has asked for over $300 million to give more tax dollars to more families to take their kids out of public school, while there are clear projections that public schools around the state will continue to close due to declining enrollment and shrinking budgets.
Meanwhile union representatives, including teachers and student service personnel, are asking the legislature to stabilize PEIA the public employees insurance program to confront with the double whammy they face of rising premiums and stagnant wages. The only legislative response thus far has been to repeal PEIA and turn public employees over to private insurance. The drive to privatize and turn a profit at the expense of our kids, our public employees, and our health knows no bounds. If you want to get involved in the fight to protect our public schools, follow and sign up for alerts with Together for Public Schools.
Our other defensive front at the legislature is fending off a multitude of bills that enhance criminal penalties. While legislators say over and over again that the state doesn’t have funding to make child care more affordable, fix our broken foster care system, or provide more behavioral interventions in schools (all of which would be actual crime prevention measures), they are ramming through bills that will further increase our prison population. If you want to stay in the loop on efforts to beat back against these bills, sign up for WV Criminal Law Reform updates here. For an excellent day-by-day rundown of bills running in the legislature, consider subscribing to The WV Weakly.
AFSC is also hosting national Protect Resist Build webinar series every third Tuesday of the month, you can watch February's webinar—and register here for the next one in March!
In the realm of protecting those who are vulnerable, there is a lot of important but by necessity quiet work happening in local communities to protect immigrants from ICE raids, including Know Your Rights materials and trainings, mutual aid, and legal defense. If you’re interested in plugging into this work, or have ideas, please get in touch!
One way we hope to build alternatives is by advancing restorative justice, with two events coming up hosted by the WV Restorative Justice Project: a webinar next Thursday, March 7th at 12PM ET and a skill-building institute at WVU College of Law this summer—check them out and register here!
You probably heard about the national boycott happening today. If you are participating, Choose Democracy wants to know (I signed up!). However, they also want people to know the elements of an effective boycott, as follows:
- a target (who is supposed to change behavior)
- a demand (so the target knows what they have to do to get the boycott to stop)
- boycotters (a lot of people who used to be customers refusing to be customers anymore)
- leadership/negotiation committee (people who can show the target they’re hurting their bottom line and negotiate over demands)
- a way to communicate with the boycotters (a structure and massive social reach!)
Hint: today’s boycott lacks critical elements but hey, it's building energy and connections for the next round!
Along with this update I send my most sincere wish that you’re finding joy in these really terrible times—in the woods, in the struggle, wherever and whenever you can. Last word from Langston Hughes:
I look at the world
I look at the world
From awakening eyes in a black face—
And this is what I see:
This fenced-off narrow space
Assigned to me.
I look then at the silly walls
Through dark eyes in a dark face—
And this is what I know:
That all these walls oppression builds
Will have to go!
I look at my own body
With eyes no longer blind—
And I see that my own hands can make
The world that's in my mind.
Then let us hurry, comrades,
The road to find.
Thanks for reading. Hope to see you soon!
Learn more about the West Virginia Economic Justice Project and sign up for updates.