The Resistance

Employees of NASA and the National Park Service have gone rogue, tweeting established science despite the gag order.  They’ve setup private accounts so they can continue. 

The entire top management level of the State Department has resigned.  This is not the usual shuffling of staff that comes with a change of administration.  These are career foreign service professionals who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Some Republicans are daring to break ranks and disagree with new policies.  Nevada governor Sandoval has publicly disagreed with the border wall and highlighted Nevada policies supportive of immigrants.

The press is stepping up, with headings like “Our president is a pathological liar”.  Yes, it is their job, but intrepid with such a vindictive administration backed by right wing zealots who think nothing of attacking anyone who dares disagree, facts be damned.  Six journalists were arrested while covering protests, and charged with felony rioting.

Millions of people marched, all over the country and all over the world, while 10 states have proposed legislation criminalizing peaceful protest.

These are the resistance.  These are people who are risking their livelihoods and their safety to speak up for what they believe in.  Do not squander their courage. 

Now is not the time to give up.  It is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of reactionary changes in our government.  Science and the press have been labeled our enemies.  The propaganda machine justifies “alternate facts”.  Press that dares to report honestly is attacked, said to be left wing liars.  If you ever are tempted to consider the Trump administration credible, just remember the faux debate over the inauguration crowd.  They repeatedly told us that the crowds were huge, while we all stared dumbfounded at the photo evidence to the contrary. 

There will be trolls who get on posts and attack.  I’ve had someone threaten to use their right to punch me in the face.  Block them.  This is not discourse.  Don’t waste your energy on these people.

Remember that not even 60% of the eligible voters went to the polls, and Trump lost the popular election.  Fewer than 30% of eligible voters supported him.  And I’m pretty sure some of them are starting to question their choice.  Give them quiet reasons to question.  Check your facts first, then ask a pointed question.  Be polite.  Try to draw from them their reasoning.  That alone may be enough to get them to question themselves.

March, call your senators and representatives, speak up when you hear racism or discrimination of any kind, be ready to support targets of bigotry, run for local government, get involved in organizations like the ACLU, buy subscriptions to mainstream news like the NYT, Washington Post and the Guardian so they can afford to keep good journalists working, support NPR.  Don’t whitewash your language.  Lies in support of a political agenda are propaganda.  Euro-centric groups and the alt-right are white supremacists.  Social conservatives are bigots. 

Don’t forget to take care of yourself.  Find a way to keep yourself grounded as this is not a short term battle.  Pace yourself.  Make a realistic schedule to call a lawmaker every week, review and comment on political posts during certain times of day, or only on Fridays.  Join a protest march each season.  Whatever it takes to fit your personal methods of resistance into your life without consuming or exhausting yourself.

Remember the scientists, foreign service officers, prominent Republicans, reporters, and others who are taking significant risks to fight the Trump administration.  Do not squander their courage.  They are leaders.  Help form the army that fights for our constitution, our values, our country, and our planet.  

Choosing Reality

It seems the right wing likes to cherry pick the science they believe the same way they cherry pick the Bible passages they believe.
 
They use cell phones, cars, and doctors but don't believe in any science that might hurt their pocketbooks. Much the same as they yell about homosexuality and abortion, but it is infidelity that made God's top 10 list.

 #IstandwithBadlands

Jesus

I love Jesus of Nazareth. 

I grew up in the church, a Presbyterian church.  I sang in the choir, joined the youth group, attended the special classes for confirmation and was proudly confirmed.  I remember our minister, Reverend Crawford.  Mostly I remember the kindness and acceptance.  Our church had one rule, the Golden Rule.  The Christianity that I was taught was the humility, generosity, and tolerance that Jesus showed us every day of his life regardless of hardships.

When our family moved to another town I found horses, and in typical teenage fashion I traded church for teenage activities.  But I continued to be inspired by the life of Jesus, and continued to celebrate his birth and his death.  While in college I once attended another Presbyterian church in Philadelphia.  The minister spent his entire sermon condemning us for the sins we had surely committed, never encouraging us to go forward in kindness and generosity and peace.  It was unfamiliar and unwelcome.  I did not return.

As I grew older I recognized that I don’t believe much of the Bible, or any other religious text.  I am an atheist.  This hardly precludes my love of Jesus, the humble carpenter who put love first.  I believe in Jesus as an example of the wondrous potential in each of us.  The man with the courage to speak the truth in the face of hypocrisy, to embrace the weak and the poor who could do nothing for him in return, to live his love despite the consequences.  Unencumbered by various passages in the Old Testament, uncensored by organizations that may judge my actions by their own interpretation of faith, I am free to follow the Golden Rule, my conscience, and the example of Christ. 

This Christmas season think not so much of the child, but of the man he became, a man who loved and aided his fellow man, no exceptions.  Within each of us there is a capacity for kindness and tolerance and love.  Open your heart to the world, breathe deeply of the humble love that Jesus showed us.

Merry Christmas Everyone! 

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

I was thinking of using my young dog Poe to put the sheep in the pen on town common for the living nativity. When I arrived with the trailer I realized that the pen was surrounded with caroling kings, robed shepherds, a few outside fires, and a veritable road map of votive candles. I decided to use Song, a seasoned veteran. Good thing. The replacement lambs came out of the trailer like wild deer straight for the woods, and once turned drove hard for Bethlehem, brightly robed pageant participants be damned. It took a sure partnership to settle them and gently guide them through the obstacle course into their waiting pen.

Trailing Sheep by the Moon

Setting fence at dusk
Because the day is short
And the soft gold sun asked me to stay
So I stayed in the fields
I trained some young dogs,
talked with a friend who walked down the way

As the sun lost its gilt
I left to move sheep
bring the ewe flock to a new graze
But night came too fast
Each day doesn’t last
The fall colors gone dark end of day

Then the moon came to see
Climbed the dais of trees
Each bright silver ewe watches and waits
I open the pen
and whistle my dog
The sheep eagerly spill through the gate

The light pewter sky
Framed with filigree trees
Moon cast shadows of shepherd and flock
The sheep graze as they go
Prodded on by my dog
Grabbing tufts of grey grass as they walk

They go through the next gate
Drop their heads to lush feed
The sheep never looked up at the sky
The air is too soft
The sky is too fine
We walk back slowly, my dog and I

©Maria Amodei

Bartering Decency

Yesterday we traded human decency for personal benefit, whether financial, social or emotional. We elected a candidate who mocked the handicapped; denigrated women; explicitly incited the crowds to violence at his rallies; called Mexicans rapists and suggested banning Muslims from the country while relentlessly banging the drum of xenophobia. He did all these on national TV. Watching a Trump rally you saw him egging on angry crowds, chants of obscenities towards any who wo...uld disagree. It was grotesque.

I am a woman. I have friends who are black and friends who are Muslims. These are people I have worked with at various organizations in Boston. These are people who Trump supporters were willing to deny basic respect and human rights for whatever personal advantage they felt they would get by voting for Trump. I know people willing to deny basic human rights and respect to my friends if it is expedient.

I’m old enough to have learned that if someone is willing to treat others badly, then they will treat you badly if it is to their advantage. The profound sadness of this election is twofold, first a worry for the vulnerable populations in this country, and second the personal sadness of realizing and adjusting to people in our lives who would trade our basic rights and respect for some personal benefit.

Farewell

The leaves are suffused with the colors of farewell
Brightly they engage, a visual embrace
Bathed by late sun, carried by crisp air,
The colors call out, bid us adieu,
Like the daily sunsets,
but the autumn goodbye is longer, bittersweet.

 ©Maria Amodei 2016