Holding the line

[LadyShea]

Apparently, the American people voted entirely for their conservative values yesterday, even to their own economic detriment. Those of us that lean a bit more to the left cannot afford to be complacent or let "someone else do it" if we hope not to get goose stepped over for the next four years. Also, please don't leave. Remember, almost 50% voted against Bush. Half the population is a major force to be reckoned with if we get organized.

Please join or support those organizations that will be pushing back, trying to hold the line for the next 4 years. I think the various CSS organizations, the ACLU, any large GLBT rights groups, NOW, and others will be our "front line" defense and they need the close 50% of voters who wanted change, or to stem the tide of repressive values, behind them.

Keeping informed isn't enough, discussing with our small circle isn't enough, stewing isn't useful at all.

Thoughts? Plans?

[Petra]

Naturally, I can not be an activist in America. But I salute you, LS, and anyone else who gets involved in such a way. Major kudos, and the very best of luck, my friends.

[freemonkey]

Thanks for the reminder to take a positive action, LS.

Anyone know which group would be most likely to challenge this election's results?

[LadyShea]

Originally Posted by freemonkey

Thanks for the reminder to take a positive action, LS.

Anyone know which group would be most likely to challenge this election's results?

It's already being done, but the Democratic party, ACLU, and MoveOn would be good IMMEDIATE starts.

[wildernesse]

I'm planning on the usual bombardment of letters/emails to my reps--although I'll have to focus more on the state level now, since GA's state assembly seems to be overwhelmingly Republican. This endangers abortion rights especially, since the Dems pretty much kept that issue off the floor while they were in control. As well as our own special set of faith-based initiatives.

I've been thinking about what more I could do--action-wise, besides the letters. I'll keep my eyes open for opportunities to be heard. Perhaps we'll be able to donate $ to the groups we are already involved with.

Maybe there needs to be some type of concerted effort--weekly meetings and action by those who want there to be change. I think there will need to be a lot more work in the trenches--boring, thankless work--that might pull in people who are not otherwise working on this. I don't know. Maybe there aren't enough of us to matter in the long run, but I really don't know what to do.

Arrggh.

[viscousmemories]

I'm with you, LadyShea. I've avoided politics most of my life because I had no faith in the American people. In fact I used to justify my inaction by saying, "My views make me a minority in a country ruled by the majority. I don't speak up because nobody will hear it."

However I've come to believe that isn't true. People hear, you just have to chisel through years of exposure to misinformation and ignorance to get them to. Hey, once upon a time a majority of Americans favored keeping slaves and not letting women vote. We didn't get where we are today because reasonable opponents to that type of thinking fled to Canada. Optimism doesn't really suit me, but I'm gonna stick around and try to make a difference.

[dave_a]

I am a fan of LTEs, or letters to the edittor of newspapers.

Surprisingly it appears a lot of people read them.

MAP (Media Awareness Project) has instructions on how to write them effectively as well as links to web submission forms to many papers and directories to papers lacking a web submission form.

I have found that it helps to actually read the paper as many will publish LTEs related to recent stories they ran.

LTEs are a decent way to express your views in a one sided fashion, that is, there is no debate unless the paper runs an opposing view. Short, pithy, level headed and you stand a good chance of getting published.

I wrote a pro pot one approaching from the libertarian angle of personal choice and it got published in a conservative, small town paper which surprised me. It was the first LTE I wrote around 3 years ago. In it I got to dispell some myths being perpetuated by a nurse who wrote an article on the dangers of pot like she was some kind of authority.

Pick your issue, settle on the argument you consider most likely to be considered by the paper's circulation and write it. Most LTEs need to be 300 words or less so the average poster here should have no difficulty with it.

[freemonkey]

Perhaps we should try to start an organization dedicated to teaching people to think (forgive me, I'm having a brain fart regarding the correct term) rationally.

[wildernesse]

Ooh, Datonac. LTE. Me likey. After reading the mindless piffle that appears in the local LTEs at times, I'm pretty sure I could pull that off. I can even write thoughtful piffle, when the mood strikes.

And the local family is used to RA's liberal LTE's, so I shouldn't even have to worry about confrontation!

Thanks for the reminder.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by dantonac

I am a fan of LTEs, or letters to the edittor of newspapers.

When I was 13 I wrote a letter to the editor of the Ann Arbor News to express outrage at the students being branded as "troubled youths" in an article about the school for juvenile delinquents I was enrolled in. Ironically my objection was not to the other students being so branded - I actually agreed with that assessment of them - but with the fact that by implication, they were talking about me.

The blurb was published and the teachers at the school hung it on the wall to showcase my defense of the place. Although I do think it was a good thing to give a voice to some kids who wouldn't otherwise have one, I feel ashamed in retrospect knowing that I was just being a little sanctimonious prick.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by freemonkey

Perhaps we should try to start an organization dedicated to teaching people to think (forgive me, I'm having a brain fart regarding the correct term) rationally.

Was that intentionally ironic?

Did you mean think critically?

[freemonkey]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

Was that intentionally ironic?

Did you mean think critically?

That's the word, thank you. Not intentionally ironic, I forget words sometimes. It happens when you start getting old. Go ahead, laugh, you'll find out.

[Goliath]

Sorry, Shea, but I've given up on this country. I honestly believe that this country's best days have already passed. The only reason why I'm still here is because of my job. If I can someday land a tenure-track academic position in a Mathematics department in a university outside the US, then I'll be more than happy to leave this country and never look back.

[Roland98]

Originally Posted by Goliath

Sorry, Shea, but I've given up on this country. I honestly believe that this country's best days have already past. The only reason why I'm still here is because of my job. If I can someday land a tenure-track academic position in a Mathematics department in a university outside the US, then I'll be more than happy to leave this country and never look back.

I can point you to a discussion I'm having with Gurdur about a position in Germany...

I dunno, maybe I am just taking the results too hard, but I truly have been crying since last night. And I never cry. I am disgusted with my state, I am disgusted with people in general. I am sick of feeling like a freak because I don't believe in their sky fairy. I am sick of having to defend good science education in the face of beliefs that should have gone the way of the dinosaur more than a century ago. I am sick of being looked down upon for being intelligent and valuing logic and critical thinking.

I have done the activism. I worked with MoveOn and spent several weekend mornings going door to door. I've written several LTEs both to my local (mostly democrat) and my hometown (overwhelmingly Republican) papers. I've donated money we really don't have to all kinds of causes. And right now I am just tired and nauseated, because it came down to "moral values" (whatever those are of Bush's, I have no clue) and willful ignorance. You can't fight those.

So I am truly thinking of leaving. It wouldn't be immediately; I have a contract through June 2007, so I'm here until at least then. But if 2006 goes the way it did this year, and 2008 is looking to be a repeat, I will certainly be paying attention to vacant professorships in Europe or elsewhere. I would like my kids to at least experience a culture where tolerance isn't just a buzzword; if it can't be here, then perhaps I'll search for it elsewhere. But in the meantime, I am certainly not giving up on the causes I've worked for; I will continue to be active and will continue to fight as long as I'm here.

[Goliath]

Originally Posted by Roland98

I can point you to a discussion I'm having with Gurdur about a position in Germany...

Excellent. Please do. I can speak a very tiny amount of German, and I can understand a tiny bit more.

I dunno, maybe I am just taking the results too hard, but I truly have been crying since last night. And I never cry. I am disgusted with my state, I am disgusted with people in general. I am sick of feeling like a freak because I don't believe in their sky fairy. I am sick of having to defend good science education in the face of beliefs that should have gone the way of the dinosaur more than a century ago. I am sick of being looked down upon for being intelligent and valuing logic and critical thinking.

Issues on this board have literally drained me of all tears...I've spent last night and a lot of today trying to cry and failing. How pathetic is that?

[Godless Dave]

I'm with Roland. I've lost hope for the United States.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Roland98

And right now I am just tired and nauseated, because it came down to "moral values" (whatever those are of Bush's, I have no clue) and willful ignorance. You can't fight those.

You can. The Republicans have been successfully redefining moral values for 30 years and you see how thorough a job they've done of it. We are not rhetorically weaponless on any issue, including this one.

The United States has a myriad contradictory moral traditions. The right wing has picked up a few and run with them consistently and hard, building alliances, shifting goalposts, until next thing you know, we're literally in tears over how thoroughly alienated from American political discourse progressive positions have become.

It wasn't always this way, it doesn't have to be this way and it won't be this way forever because, simply stated, things change and so will we.

[Goliath]

Yep, things change. Like my nationality will (hopefully) change (if I can land a tenure-track job outside the US).

[Roland98]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

You can. The Republicans have been successfully redefining moral values for 30 years and you see how thorough a job they've done of it. We are not rhetorically weaponless on any issue, including this one.

The United States has a myriad contradictory moral traditions. The right wing has picked up a few and run with them consistently and hard, building alliances, shifting goalposts, until next thing you know, we're literally in tears over how thoroughly alienated from American political discourse progressive positions have become.

It wasn't always this way, it doesn't have to be this way and it won't be this way forever because, simply stated, things change and so will we.

Could be, but my kids won't be young forever, and I can't wait 30 years for them to swing back.

[dave_a]

Given how fresh Bush's victory is in our minds I can understand the depression and frustration, but I do hope the folks who have said they have given up recover from that attitude before too long.

Every soldier who puts down his weapon and walks away just makes their side that much weaker and the opposition that much stronger. If you believe in something then you need to work for it, not walk away from it.

What have you lost really? Today is the same as yesterday. It isn't like your participating in the process has cost you your job, family or life.

I understand the emotion, but I do hope it settles down and folks get back to normal, whatever that might be.

[Godless Dave]

Originally Posted by dantonac

Every soldier who puts down his weapon and walks away just makes their side that much weaker and the opposition that much stronger.

But to continue your analogy, this seems to be a situation where the people I was fighting for have embraced the enemy.

I do hope to calm down though. I'm still at work but I'm leaving early to get drunk. Or maybe go to a firing range and shoot things.

[Goliath]

Originally Posted by dantonac

Given how fresh Bush's victory is in our minds I can understand the depression and frustration, but I do hope the folks who have said they have given up recover from that attitude before too long.

Un-fucking-likely.

Every soldier who puts down his weapon and walks away just makes their side that much weaker and the opposition that much stronger.

Every good general must be able to figure out when a war is unwinnable.

What have you lost really?

As of right now: nothing.

Within the next 4 years, we stand a decent chance at losing:

Many privacy rights (due to a strengthening of the Patriot Act).
The loss of Roe v. Wade.
Freedom from religion (like I said: December 31, 2006).
Freedom from not being in the army (ie there will probably be a draft).

Not to mention the continuation of the perception that anyone expressing any amount of intelligence whatsoever is to be scorned and made to feel marginalized.

I understand the emotion, but I do hope it settles down and folks get back to normal, whatever that might be.

I don't think things will ever be "normal" again.

[Roland98]

Originally Posted by Godless Dave

I'm with Roland. I've lost hope for the United States.

Well, I didn't quite say that. I continue to be an optimist, but I am pragmatic. And if the option comes to jump ship for awhile, I simply may take it.

[LadyShea]

Well, leaving is simply not an option for me. I do not speak a foreign language and my efforts to learn one have demonstrated that that part of my brain is non-functional. I have no degree nor any specialized, in-demand skills that would help me land a job or even get permission to emigrate elsewhere.

I am also encouraged by the fact that this one was damned close, even though we lost. Almost half the voters wanted change, just as I do. My choice is to join with them to work towards change, or simply hide for the next 4 years. If I have to be here, I am going to fight :: shrug

[godfry n. glad]

Well... Here's a slim thread of hope.

godfry