Resistance is not futile

This is a good article - So You Want to Be a Dissident? A practical guide to courage in Trump’s age of fear. By Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer. "'The key to challenging authoritarian regimes,' Stephan said, 'is for citizens to decline to participate in immoral and illegal acts.'"

The stage is being set, the magic Sharpie pen is being wielded, the collaborators are being identified, the potential resisters are being intimidated, the boundaries are being tested, the threads are being pulled, clasps undone, bolts removed. This is just the beginning, three months into a 48 month (we can only hope there is still an end date) dismantling. We are at the point when the basketball is still circling the rim. Our lives depend, in many ways, on it not going in. It looks like it will go in.

On May Day, millions will walk off their jobs and demonstrate opposition to a Russian-asset president and an intimidated or bought-off Congress. When the person elected to follow the laws is breaking the laws and when the people's representatives are not representing and afraid to hold the law-breaker to account, and when the courts have ruled the president's actions are almost never illegal, what else can we do?

On Saturday, May 3, we will gather at State Road & Losey and demonstrate to help wake up our neighbors. This is not normal. This is not legal. It's not ok to kidnap people and send them without any trial to domestic or foreign hell holes. It's not ok to send US citizens to detention camps or to expect six year old refugees to represent themselves in immigration court or to arrest judges for ushering a person through Door B into a public hallway instead of through Door A. It's not ok for unvetted federal contractors to delete, copy, or steal sensitive personal and national security data.

On Sunday, May 4, we'll Love Out Loud to support and protect our LGBTQ+ friends, relatives, neighbors, families. Meet at 1 p.m. at STATE ROAD & LOSEY.

On Saturday, May 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. there will be a Fighting Oligarchy: People over Billionaires Rally and Day of Action in La Crosse at the Riverside Park Bandshell. (Bernie will NOT be at this rally) Sign up here: https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/rsvp-oligarchy-team-la-crosse/

On Wednesday, May 14 at 7 p.m., we'll gather at the Concordia, 1129 La Crosse St., for REFUGE STRONG, to learn, network, and plan to protect and defend our precious Mississippi River and its habitats, ecosystems, research programs, and staff. 

Throughout May and the coming months and years, we'll continue to find ways to hold the line, put on the brakes, change the trajectory. We'll encourage our friends and, especially, our members of Congress to resist, block, and not cooperate.

Here are a few things to keep in mind.

We are supposed to have three equal branches in our government. Congress is elected to pass laws and budgets. The president is supposed to make sure the laws and budgets are followed and enforced. And courts interpret and apply laws, and determine whether or not they are Constitutional.

Immigrants have rights including the right to enter the country. "In the U.S., asylum seekers apply for protection from inside the country or at a port of entry. In contrast, a refugee is a person who applies for protection from outside of the U.S." (National Immigration Forum) Immigrants have Constitutional protections no matter their status, including the right to due process.

Executive Orders are not laws, commands, commandments, or edicts. They can be illegal. 

The money that is being withheld or reallocated is not Trump's to withhold or reallocate. It's our money we pooled for services, improvements, research, inventions, breakthroughs, assistance, information. It's the money our elected representatives voted to distribute for health care, medicine, science, habitat restoration, transportation, housing, courts, and more.

 

We are not consumers, customers, charges, audience members, children, or subjects. We have the right to speak freely, assemble peacefully, and live free lives, guaranteed by the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the other amendments. If we want to keep it that way, we probably have to do something more than watch and hope.

 

There's a lot we can do. Stay informed. Get connected. Help organize local actions. Call Congress every day. Don't do bad stuff. Do good stuff. If they say no, we say ha ha ha. Resistance is not futile.