The Transformative Power of Love in the Face of Hate.

It has been a bad month for hate.  A man was driving in circles in a state park destroying the plant life.  Two Native American teenage boys in the state I live in called out to him to stop, and he ran them over while making stereotypical whooping noises. The media failed to report it correctly as a hate crime but called it "a dispute" between two parties.  One boy died. The tribe was particularly upset by the press misrepresenting what had happened.

In Portland two people died from stopping a person who was bullying two teenage Muslim girls in head coverings on the public train system.  One of the men as he lay bleeding to death told a supporter who was holding him: "Tell everyone on the train I love them".    I can only hope that after a fatal brutal attack I could still be focused on love!   Several weeks later without protectors a 16 year old Muslim girl was attacked and killed in VA.

After Fox news targeted the progressive school of Evergreen University in Olympia WA, White Supremacist groups came onto campus to protest and violence broke out between them and counter protesters.  An "anti-Shira Law" group (ie anti-Muslim group) not getting a permit to protest in Portland came up to Seattle where they were given a permit to protest.   A counter protest was held a half mile away (an effective way to show the Muslim community they had support) However, that group decided to march to where the Anti-Shari group was (a strategy which holds no merit I can see and simply raised the risk of a violent outbreak).  The Pretty Boys (as they self named themselves) chose to walk through the counter demonstrators gathering causing peace keepers to work hard to part the crowd so they could pass.  They then took punches at the crowd with the apparent intention of provoking a fight.   They did this in full view of the police who did nothing.  When the peacekeepers asked the police why they did nothing they said:  "If you are going to let them walk through your group, there is nothing we can do."  The result being that many counter demonstrators were assaulted by the Pretty Boys.  In terms of spiritual practices that I understand when you focus on violence you magnify it.   When you counter anger or hatred with anger and hatred you increase the anger and hatred.  King demonstrated to us that it takes training, grounding, preparation and love to face hatred and violence in a transformation way.

Most upsetting has been the police shooting Sunday in Seattle of an African American woman in her home after she had called the police after a break in.  She was shot dead in front of her three children because she got upset and picked up a kitchen knife.  She joins a long list of African Americans shot dead by the police across this country for the apparent crime of "being black" and freaking the officers out because of said blackness.

I have focused here on the hate violence that has happened in my part of the country - the NW (while noting the death of a Muslim girl in VA for contrast to what happened in Portland).  There has been similar violence throughout this country.   I also am not talking here about the numerous suicide bombings, and mass shootings and terrorist acts that have happened world wide.  (Although to be clear here - any mass act of violence against people simply because of who they are is a terrorist act.)
This national violence, I and many others, place at the feet of Donald Trump.   His hate speech and encouragement of acts of violence by his supporters at his speeches, his frequent display of contempt, disrespect, put downs and stereotypical descriptions of those he disagrees with has given a permission for hate and violence that has not been present in this society for decades.   I'm not so confused as to think that prejudice and racism had gone away - but they had become unpopular and disrespected ways to behave.  There have been numerous reports of people acting out sexism and/ or racism and saying things to the effect of "if the President can do it, I can do it."  Or simply saying Trumps name as they act.  And Trump has not condemned these acts after they took place.

I must confess my greatest fears about climate change have been how scarcity and fear might drive people to violence against each other.  I never dreamed someone would simply sprinkle a generous helping of hate on top of the difficulties we already have.  Although I guess if I had really thought about it I would have realized that throughout history dictators have used fear to control and direct the masses. By creating external enemies, or scapegoated groups they turn attention away from real problems and create a false sense of unity.  It is actually the oldest move in the play book.

So what about us?  What about those of us who don't want to live in a land of hate?  Those of us who want to live by Kingian principals of nonviolence that include staying centered in a spirit of Love?  A few weeks ago I woke up from a dream.  In the dream I left somewhere I had been and I came out and there was a group of people moving slowly in a coordinated fashion side ways across a hill, at times they would retreat in apparent fear, at other times inching forward.  But always progressing forward with determination despite something they clearly found scary.  I did not know what was happening, but I felt drawn to them and fell in with them to see what was happening.   They inched up towards a large building with big picture windows and glass doors and through it I could see some type of uniformed officers and also a group of teachers inside what I realized was a school building.  The teachers were some standing and some sitting in chairs but joined to each other by holding hands in unity.   The officers where walking rapidly up and down the line in a menacing way, clearly saying things to them, and randomly slapping or hitting various teachers on the head.  Despite this scary behavior the teachers were holding their ground.  And as the onlookers watched this a chant slowly came up:  Love,... Love,... Love,.. Love,... Love....  It was being made in solidarity with the teachers, it exposed the crowd and they knew it, and it sent an energy that was pure and disarming.

I awoke from the dream with a feeling of happiness, peace, and hope.   Hope that I have not felt for a while.  I felt clear that I want to be with the people who are chanting love in the face of hate and violence.  How about you?

Recently a friend of mine who is a librarian at a community college discovered that the campus security were planning a day of practicing a violent assault on campus.  They intended to use fake rifles with real loud sounds and actors with fake blood etc.   My friend was incensed by the idea of the campus being used for this sort of "military practice" and mindful that increased glorification of militarism is one of the signs of fascism.   She also believe guns have no place on campuses every by anyone.  Never having done anything of this sort in her life she crafted a dear colleague letter.  She feared only her friend would sign it.  In the end 63 faculty signed the letter.  The training exercise still went forward.  There was no time to organize the singing of "Love, love, love".   But she asked her friend if he could imagine doing that.   Yes he said I could imagine that. .....Maybe next year.

When will we next be confronted by anger, hate and violence?  Will you be prepared to sing?  To bring love not hate to meet hate?

NonViolence Applied

On May 8th I was arrested...on purpose, committing civil disobedience. At least 4 years ago I had, along eventually with 100,000 Americans signed the Pledge of Resistance, stating we could commit civil disobedience to send a forceful message to then President Obama to not approve the XL pipeline.  As we all know it was a very bumpy road with Obama, at times he looked on the verge of approving it and we would be all geared up, and then another delay would happen.  Eventually he did refuse to approve it, and we celebrated and the Pledge was laid down.   But of course Trump has tried to undo almost everything good Obama did, and to turn the hands of time back on things like coal that are beyond reviving.  So a call went out again for the Pledge to be revived.

The XL pipeline would move such a massive amount of oil, and the Tar Sands are the dirties oil with a much worse GHG load, that Jim Hansen has called it "Game Over for the Planet".  It is for this reason that 350.org and a coalition of national climate groups made it a target of their opposition and the focus on it ignited a movement to oppose fossil fuel projects, and Bill McKibben's famous "Do the Math" tour which brought powerfully to America's attention that not only do we have to stay below 350 parts per million to have a liveable planet (currently breaking 420...yikes) but that we have a "carbon budget" ....an amount we cannot burn, or we will never be able to keep the planet cool enough to support life.   Scientists say that at our current rate of burning it we have 4 years left before we pass that point.   So climate activists are pretty intense right now about trying to stop things like the pipeline.   To the uniformed Trumps attempt to "approve it" would seem like he has just ended the game for all of us.   However, the pipeline does not have project level funding.   And this is where the civil disobedience comes in.  The movement has targeted the banks with the hope of putting enough pressure on them to stop them from making these loans.   It is a good strategy because if they don't loan the money the pipeline will again be dead.

In Feb and April of this year, Bernard Lafayette of Civil Rights era fame, has been in Seattle and lead two trainings on non-violence (which I have previously written about.)   Hearing Bernard talk about the difference between non-violence with a hypen and nonviolence without a hype, as the difference between "not violent" and something far more complex and spirit based, really helped me put words onto something I have been struggling to articulate to the local movement for a long time.

Our Faith Action Climate Team, here is Seattle, planned how we wanted to go about our action. Mindful of the 6 points of nonviolence (listed again in that previous post) we committed to conduct ourselves from a peaceful spirit so our actions aligned with that spirit.  We met up on the day of our action and sang and prayed to ground ourselves.  We went over to the Chase bank (largest potential funder of the XL pipeline) and spent an hour sharing prayers, silence and song.

I was able to talk to the bank manager at length trying consciously to speak to that of God in  him. Our conversation was respectful.  I did not make him the enemy, I treated him as the person who would carry the message to higher levels of the bank that the people where rising up and would remove their accounts and hound the bank if they continued this plan to fund.  He told me he was sympathetic and agreed to communicate that message.  I was able to communicate to him that 4 of our group had accounts at Chase and would return another day to close them and that if Chase persisted they would just lose more and more public support.  He acknowledged that they already had lost accounts for this reason, and they knew that. He also told me that if we did not leave he would be forced to call the police.  I told him I understood that but that we were staying as long as spirit told us too. Outside the bank other supporters fliered the passers by and sang and prayed for the success of those inside.   Throughout our two hours there the customers came in and did their business and left. They were not interfered with by us nor felt threatened by our energy, they were not our target. But they were curious about our message, and they each left clear why we were there.

The police liaison, a Mennonite, also spoke to that of God in the police.  By the time the police arrived the bank manager was telling the police liaison that most of the bank employees agreed with us.  The police from the minute they walked in and found people sitting in a circle on the floor in the bank praying, did not want to arrest us.  They repeatedly tried to encourage us to go outside and protest outside saying they did not want to arrest us.  Eventually the Lieutenant in charge stated repeatedly that he was "begging us" to go outside and kept going away and leaving us to "think about it" in the hopes we would leave.  Eventually, I looked at him and said:  "I know you don't want to arrest us, and we have decided to stay, so I am sorry for you."  At that point he knew that he really would have to arrest us, and they did proceed to do so.  However, they also wound up releasing us without booking or ticketing us.

My co-defendant said in the holding cell that she felt sort of badly about making him have to arrest us.   I said: "No, there is nothing to feel bad about.  Everyone of us will have to face the ways in which we are complicit with climate change, and if he had to face how he is sometimes enforcing laws that keep the oppressive system in place and support climate change, and if that is what the bank manager has to face, his role in a bank that is making it happen...then that is actually the power of nonviolence to bring moral pressure to bear for social change."  This is important since people sometime ask me what good getting arrested actually does.

Friend George Lakey, author of Strategy for a Living Revolution, a classic work on nonviolence who was here speaking in Nov and then also in April, urges the movement over and over again to be strategic.  He says that he does not see much point in random marches or one off actions.  He wants to build campaigns that have clear goals.  Nonviolence researcher Erica Chenoweth also points out that successful movements use a variety of techniques.  They don't just do one thing over and over again.   For the most part American's response to Trump has been a lot of marching and lobbying. Marching has it's place as a beginning movement building stage.  So for example a lot of people came out for the first time ever to march in women's march and to the degree that their names got captured and they got hooked up to Communities Rising (the off shoot of the women's march) then the march served a purpose.  In a normal politician it would have also created some fear and the desire to pivot to protect popularity.  But on a narcissist this is completely lost.   So when we do marches we have to ask: Who is the target?  Is it to build coalition? Is to pressure certain key people? It needs to not be because we are mad and want to stomp around.  Because frankly that is not much different than small children tantruming.

The expression of anger by protesters is a seductive thing indeed.  We are mad about the injustices that are happening, and we have good reason to be mad!  However, who are we targetting and who are we effecting and to what outcome?   So for example, over decades various movements have felt moved to sit down in street intersections or to walk onto highways and shut down traffic.   There are times were what is happening in our whole society is so well known and outrageous (an escalation of the Vietnam war, or the shooting of a black man in the back by police) that this sort of "no business as usual" response is clear and powerful.   But too often it is actually an expression of the protesters sense of power that they can stop traffic.  It is a sort of waving a fist at the sky.  It leaves many people in buses and cars with schedules messed up and lives inconvenienced and leaves them angry and feeling disrespected.  (One must consider - someone is going to pick up a child from daycare, someone is going to a surgery, someone is going to an airport, or a job interview.  Is the fact that the President is doing something horrible or that climate change threatens them too, really a reason to cause them these problems?)  When we piss them off do we build a movement?  Is it strategic to have this effect on them?  Contrast this to when completely nonviolent protesters were maced by the police at Occupy or Black Lives matter.  In these cases the nonviolent behavior met with oppressive violence garnered public sympathy because if made more clear the oppression that is at work to keep our system in place.

When we say that we are targeting Chase bank as the primary funders of the XL pipeline that is a goal, but then the question has to be: how will we move them?  Is it again a feel powerful thing to "shut them down"?   What will actually move the bank management to decide that funding the XL pipeline is a bad idea.  I am not so naive to think that people calmly explaining it to them will accomplish this because those at the highest levels are so profit driven that it seems clear that they have not been considering human welfare for a long time.   But given that they are profit driven then things which threaten their brand and their profit do speak to them.  So protests of all kinds (not just those that shut them down) threaten their good reputation.  Do they lose business or profit from being shut down?   No not really.   This is the case if you block an oil or coal train, but with a bank people just deposit in a machine or the next day.  (And are again angry about being inconvenienced.)  People closing their accounts and telling them clearly why is what impacts their business.  Negative media attention affects their brand.  A wide spread event, closing many branches certainly creates a media event.  But unless their is a long term campaign plan, unless Chase has to worry that disruptions and negative attention will continue - they can easily weather one bad day.

Let us consider for a moment the psychology of stakeholder power holders like bank executive or politicians.  Like most humans when told they are bad or challenged in their actions the first reaction is to dig in and to justify to self and other, ones own actions.  When someone is identified as a villain they respond to this sort of polarization by seeing the other as the enemy.  What Martin Luther King showed us so powerfully is that when you treat an opponent with respect but with a firm demand it both confuses them and troubles their conscience, it leads them to self reflection and self questioning (with the few exceptions of those without conscience - who still must be supported by many other people to stay in power and those folks do have consciences.)  So they start by defending themselves, if things stay polarized they stay defended.  However, if they are challenged but on vilified there is room for them to start reexamining their position.  There is room for them to consider compromises or shifts.   There is also room as public opinion shifts against them and change becomes inevitable for them to find face saving ways to embrace the change they have to rather than to go to more violence or keep behaving in more and more morally repugnant ways to protect their position.   Like Aikido their energy is met and redirected in the direction of a more peaceful outcome.

Erica Chenoweth in her studies of non-violence tells us that when violence occurs within a nonviolent movement that movement can succeed despite, but not because of the violence.   In other words they must work to recover from the damage to their image that the violence creates.   Thus another indicator of how important pure nonviolence is.   Historically, it is also true that some movement followers impatient that success has not already been won begin to advocate property damage and or outright violence.   Movements have split over such disagreements.  So it is important as a movement that we know the history of nonviolent movements and that we carefully prepare the ground works in our movement for a spirit that supports nonviolence over simply non-violence.  Erica has also identified that movements succeed by using a variety of strategies and techniques, not by relying to heavily on one method which will lead to loss of momentum over time.  Additionally she tells us campaigns take about 5 to 7 years to succeed, so we have to have the faith, patience and determination to persevere.

So as a nonviolent movement to stop climate change, we must teach nonviolence which is not well understood in the American population. We must teach how to be non-violent not just in our actions but in our spirits.
We must choose our targets strategically and learn how to identify power holders and to make detailed strategies for how our pressure will work (Not simply say we will apply pressure).  We must be able to articulate a plan that uses different techniques and escalates pressure over time and how we think the tactics will be effective. We must think about how we interface with the public and do so in ways that engage them and bring them with us rather than alienate them.   We must learn how to activate our own centers of hope, love, courage, creativity and fun as we create these actions.  And we must with our eyes on a clear vision of where we are going dig in for the long haul!

Holding a Vision

Most people I know are very glum about the multitude of terrible things that Donald Trump is doing to our country.   With good reason!  And I have heard many activists sort of trying to figure out how to even sort out priorities in a time this dark with so many things going wrong at once.  It is quite critical that as People of Faith that we listen for leadings and inner promptings of the Spirit and be faithful to those.   As my favorite quote from Thomas Kelly says we are not called to die on every cross but called to our particular task.   This is even more important to be clear about in times of crisis or we become scattered and unfocused and thus also unfaithful.

"I dare not urge you to your Cross, but God, more powerfully, speaks within you and me, to our truest selves, in our truest moments, and disquiets us with the world's needs.  By inner persuasions God draws us to a few very definite tasks, our tasks, God's burdened heart particularizing God's burdens in us.  God gives us the royal blindness of faith, and the seeing eye of the sensitized soul, and the grace of unflinching obedience.  Then we see that nothing matters, and that everything matters, aand this my task matters for me and for my fellow human and for Eternity. ....

In my deepest heart I know that some of us have to face our comfortable, self-oriented lives all over again.  The times are too tragic, God's sorrow is too great, our night is too dark, the Cross is too glorious for us to live as we have lived, in anything short of holy obedience.  It may or it may not mean change in geography, in profession, in wealth, in earthly security.....Little groups of such utterly dedicated souls, knowing one another in Divine Fellowship, must take an irrevocable vow to live in this world yet not of this world...kindle again the embers of faith in the midst of a secular world."
Thomas Kelly The Testament of Devotion 1941

So I urge you to be clear about what the Divine Author has tenderized your heart to and be faithful to acting on that now because the threat the Trump Administration places upon American Democracy and the world as a whole is indeed grave.

If you have read my previous posts about the research on the 14 signs of fascism, then by logical extension the types of activities that will protect democracy from fascism are ones that: protect freedom of press, speech, and assembly.  Activities that lesson fear (deglorify the military and patriotism) , and promote feelings of tolerance, the embrace of differences and diversity and the inter-connectedness of all peoples - especially calling out sexism, homophobia, anti-semeticism or xenophobia when it is promoted .  Actions that call corporations and big money interests to accountability and challenge corruption and cronyism and other unethical behaviors at they appear. The protection of intellectual rigor, education, labor, and science as they come under attack. Strenuous objection, challenging, and resistance to police violence, state violence (like torture or assassinations), or the invasion of privacy and the increase of surveillance of the general population. And the protection of voting rights and fair elections and other civil liberties.  These are the actions which are protective of democracy.

I would also hold out to you that while keeping a careful eye on the incursions against our freedoms and the destruction of various departments of the US government that it is also important to keep a vision of what we want.  It can become too easy to become so focused on the destruction that one can no longer remember what you want.   I would also say as a silver lining that some of what we had was "good enough" but not actually what we want.  The ACA is a good example.   It insured many more  people than before and yet fell far short of universal coverage and by keeping the insurance companies enshrined in the heart of it, it kept it really expensive.   Maybe the attempts to destroy it could actually lead, if we keep a vision of single-payer health care, to just that.  Bernie Sanders is holding up that vision by offering a bill to that affect.

What are the other things we really want?  George Lakey recently reminded me that William Penn founded PA as part of the "holy experiment"...that this holding of vision for God's kingdom is in the DNA of Quakers.  All through the bible the prophets are people who give voice to vision and call others forward.  George also points out that the left has not done a very good job of promoting vision for decades.   He is reading at each bookstore he talks at on his book tour the Black Lives Matters recently released vision statement.   What is your Vision?  We won't get there folks without one.

With my Mind Stayed on NonViolence

Last weekend I went to a training on NonViolence by Bernard Lafayette and his wife, Kate, and Mary Lou Finley.  Bernard founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) when he was 20 and he was part of Dr. King's inner circle.  He is now 77, and still fighting for justice.

My reaction to the training was to feel like I was in a familiar place because as a birthright Friend I have literally been raised with the 6 principles of Nonviolence that Bernard shared with us.  In fact at one point when he named the influences on King's development of his own philosophy of nonviolence he mentioned "the historic Peace Churches" and then listed them out.  Dr. Lafayette also was one of the creators of the original Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) workshop at Greenhaven Prison in NYC.   So my many years of involvement in AVP also made the principals of nonviolence that he shared with us very familiar:

1. Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
It is a positive force confronting the forces of injustice, and utilizes the righteous indignation and the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual capabilities of people as the vital force for change and reconciliation.
2. The Beloved Community is the framework for the future.
The nonviolent concept is an overall effort to achieve a reconciled world by raising the level of relationships among people to a height where justice prevails and persons attain their full human potential.
3. Attack forces of evil, not person doing evil.
The nonviolence approach helps one analyze the fundamental conditions, policies and practices of the conflict rather than reaction to one's opponents or their personalities.
4. Accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of the cause to achieve the goal.
Self-chosen suffering is redemptive and helps the movement grown in a spiritual as well as a humanitarian dimension. The moral authority of voluntary suffering for a goal communicates the concern to one's own friends and community as well as to the opponent.
5.  Avoid internal violence of the spirit as well as external physical violence.
The nonviolent attitude permeates all aspects of the campaign.  It provides mirror type reflection of the reality of the condition to one's opponent and the community at large. Specific activities must be designed to help maintain a high level of spirit and morale during a nonviolent campaign.
6.  The universe is on the side of justice.
Truth is universal and human society and each human being is oriented to the just sense of order of the universe.  The fundamental values in all the world's great religions include the concept that the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice.  For the nonviolent practitioner, nonviolence introduces a new moral context in which nonviolence is both the means and the ends.

I realized among other things that having been raised in Chicago where various civil rights leaders from Dr. Lafayette to Jesse Jackson spent time, and also having spent time on the eastcoast in Boston and DC. I was exposed to peace and social justice activists who were deeply steeped in these attitudes so they were normative to me when I moved out to Seattle.  They are not typical attitudes in Seattle whose Wobbly past leans a bit more towards a Sal Alinsky approach that very much identifies opponents as enemies and directs anger at the opponent, often making a person the enemy.   This has also been a painful part of doing peace and social justice work in Seattle for me.  The 5th principal itself comes into things like do you chant angry chants or do you sing songs of hope and determination?  Principal 3 comes in for me to questions of how you pick the targets of protests and the focus of campaigns.

Since history is written by the victors for the most part the history of nonviolence has been obscured or rewritten.  It is way beyond the "white washing" of Martin Luther King's quite radical legacy.   I seriously during the debates around non-violence at Occupy Seattle had to endure people saying (and meaning it) that nonviolence had never been successful in history except in freeing India and sort of in the civil rights movement.  This is an ignorance of the dozen's and dozen's of successful nonviolent government change overs that have happened just since WWII and the fact that those are escalating. If you are not familiar with the research of Erica Chenoweth on the efficacy of nonviolence I encourage you to visit her blog https://rationalinsurgent.com/.  Dr. Lafayette did a wonderful job of telling us stories from his many decades of experience with active engagement in non-violence: from Selma, to Wounded Knee to being Kidnapped in Columbia.  I will write more about this in another post.  But I am left wondering why there are not camera crews following around Dr. Lafayette, Dr. Lawson and Rev Jessie Jackson while they are still alive, before this amazing oral history is lost forever.

Dr. Lafayette explained that the civil rights movement distinguished between "non-violence" (the absence of violence which can lead to passive peace) and nonviolence which is the whole significant "technology" that is represented by Kingian nonviolence as described in the 6 principles above and this he said leads to "active peace" a peace that includes social justice.  For me this was a helpful light into why I am often in the room with people who ascribe to non-violence as a tactic and yet know that we are actually not talking about the same thing.  I know I want to live and act from the true Spirit of nonviolence.  While we sang at the end,  sang: "Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Freedom."  I saw that the words stuck in my head were "with my mind stayed on Nonviolence"!

Now we are in the Soup

Recently a friend told me the following significant truth about butterflies.  She said:  We tend to think that caterpillars crawl in their cocoons and then their little caterpillar eye’s turn into butterfly eyes and their little caterpillar necks turn into butterfly necks and they sprout some wings and then they are ready to go.  But that is not actually what happens.   What actually happens is that some butterfly DNA, called imaginal cells begin to emerge.  As they begin to emerge the caterpillars immune system kills them.   However, that is not enough to deter the butterfly to be.   The imaginal cells keep emerging at a rate that they cannot all be killed and they begin to recognize each other, and to bond together, and finally when there is still not that many the immune system is overwhelmed and gives up trying to kill them.   At that point he caterpillar body dissolves into a “nutrient soup”, a sort of gooey substance that is used as the raw material for building the new butterfly following the DNA map of the imaginal cells.

I suspect most of you know where I am going with this but for those of you who wonder why my Quaker Blog is suddenly talking about butterflies: I think the current situation in our country is the chrysalis for a new society  (either that are we have simply dissolved into a terrible mess!)   I think Donald is attempting to transform our previous country and I think our previous country was already dissolving in so many ways from so many problems.   I think that some of us have been holding a vision for a long time of a new society, one based in justice, equity and love.   Those of us carrying that vision are the imaginal cells.   As it appears to some that the country is descending into chaos or anarchy with record size demonstrations, and spontaneous airport demonstrations supported by spontaneous taxi strikes, and when government officials are resigning, disobeying and opening covert twitter accounts to still communicate the truth to the public…we are in the nutrient soup.   There are some days that simply seem like everything is being attacked and coming apart, and other days when there is feignt glimmer of what might be emerging.  But we can see the different movements rising up, noticing each other, sometimes banding together, sometimes simply gaining inspiration or encouragement from each other.

We are far from the end of this.  Some “cells” will be killed by the defending system of the old paradigm.  People have already been fired, black people have already been shot in the streets for a long time now, a woman at Standing Rock has lost most of her arm, and a man the sight in one eye, I pray none will die there, but it is possible.  The abrupt unplanned demolition of the Affordable Care Act may in fact lead to people’s death without health care, even as I write this activists are on trial for turning off the flow of tar Sands oil from Canada to the US, etc, etc.  But it is very, very important that we not become confused in the darkness and the struggle that it is the end rather than holding the vision of a butterfly becoming.

Which that would mean that first as a Society of Friends that has long held up its testimonies as the Truth as we currently know it, that it is really important that we give voice and witness to that future that we believe possible.   It is important that we continue to voice crazy ideas like “Ok if you are going to do away with ACA and you want everyone to have health care…then time for a single payer system.”   Or “Ok you want the greatest country on earth, then time for alternative energy so we can have cheap energy for business”.   Etc, etc.    it is also really important that we are able to articulate to our fellow activists, often full of despair from Trumps attempted roll backs, what non-violent revolution or social change really looks like.  (I highly recommend the reading of Towards a Living Revolution by George Lakey, or any of the things that Gene Sharp wrote.)  If you don't like the nutrient soup and are scared it is a failed butterfly, I encourage you to work harder for the New Society coming.  It is important that even as things appear to be desinigrating that we have Faith in the emergence of a butterfly.  In many ways this is like the Faith in resurrection at a moment that looked like the Savior God sent was dead.

I also think that part of what it means to be the imaginal cells is that as members of the Society of Friends we hold memories of struggles past that the general public has little or no memory or understanding of: for the vote for women, the civil rights struggle, the Anti-Vietnam War struggle, the anti-nuclear struggle, etc .  We must hold up the Light that explains how the struggle for change works, how it proceeds and how it succeeds!    It is not enough to simply say NO we don’t want a caterpillar, or NO we don’t want this goopy mess at our feet.   That cry NO does not create a butterfly.  Our jobs as imaginal cells is to be able to describe a sustainable earth, and a just society.   Not only to describe them but to do so in a way that is compelling and helps organize all available life forms towards that end!  And interestingly for me (see previous posts) butterfly's have always been a sign of the presence of God.  So maybe as we create this New Society we can also move closer to God.

A Closer Walk with Gandhi

I saw the movie Gandhi when it first came out.  It is still my favorite movie all these decades later because it changed my life.  I saw it in a Chicago theater on a very busy crowded street.  I remember when I stumbled out of the dark theater and the meditatively paced 3 hour movie, feeling overwhelmed and bombarded by the cacophony of traffic noises and neon flashing lights and commercial advertising.

Raised Quaker I had of course always been raised to admire Gandhi as a powerful non-violent activist who had freed his whole country through non-violent resistance.   But I did not at that point know very many details of his life or his struggle.  It certainly also helped to have the beauty of India on a gigantic screen to make his life seem very three dimensional to me.  I felt a deep peacefulness as I watched the movie.  The same peacefulness I experienced if I was in a Gathered Meeting for worship.

But what I was really struck by first was how the campaigns that he lead against the British had so much moral power.  Since the movie is long I had time to reflect on how it was that he picked just the right thing, how he made hard choices to fast or to risk arrest or assault?  Slowly it dawned on me as scene after scene showed him in meditation, or prayer, or spinning prayer, that he was not "figuring it out", that he was listening to God and he was as Quakers believe, receiving answers.

As I walked down that raucous street afterwards, Gandhi taught me something about being Quaker.  I was in my earlier 20's.  Until that time going to Meeting was something which I did on Sunday.   It was almost like God lived there in the Meeting house and I went to visit, and then went home for the rest of the week and lived the rest of my life.   It suddenly dawned on me as I reflected on the movie that there was this possibility to live my life from that deep centered place from whence the direction of the Divine came from.  I was awe struck by the Majesty and Possibility that was there if one lived ones whole life, every minute in faithfulness - not just Sundays.  I immediately decided that that was the life I really wanted.

I wish I could say that I have in fact successfully done that.   But of course few of us are Gandhi or Mother Theresa.   However, it has never left me that that is in fact my goal and my horizon line and I think that changed my whole life.  I will often become aware that it has been a long time since I stopped to really hear God's voice or to center, and then I am pulled back to that effort because I do know it is the only true North on the compass.

When I had my daughter, I for practical reasons, took an almost 15 year break from activism...but as I started to wade back into it I simply began to do the activism that I had been taught before Gandhi.   The kind where you think of strategies and implement them.  Where you make allies and work with them.  And sadly where you enumerate the reasons to be angry with your "opponent" and act on those.  However, a series of events cast me out of that way of doing things and reminded me that there is another way of doing things that involves being faithful in our quest for justice and following that Inner Compass for direction and that is what I am trying to do now.   I think it is a closer walk with Gandhi.

The Rise of Fascism in America and what to do about it

The 14 Signs of Fascism

This is part two of a series of posts:  If you have not read the previous one I recommend starting there:

http://thefriendlyseeker.blogspot.com/2016/11/transformation-trumps-or-our-own.html
Why you might ask when the news is already depressing enough about the incoming presidents plans for us would I focus on the even more depressing idea that this represents a turn towards fascism?  Because I do not feel we can adequately respond to it till we truly understand 1) the dynamics of fascism and 2) that this did not happen overnight but has been part of a 16 year slide into fascism.  There is an opportunity in this crisis but it is one we can only grasp if we understand the nature of the crisis.

As mentioned in my past blog post, scholar, Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each.  In reflecting upon them I realize that the US slide into fascism started during the Bush Administration with the 9/11 event, but has also continued during the Obama administration. The neo-liberal policies of both the Clinton Administration and the Obama administration have allowed the consolidation of wealth by the 1% while the real income of the working class and most of the middle class has declined.  The very real fear that most of the population has about their declining economic status is why the population was responsive to Trumps rallying cry of fear, hate and his claim to be the available hero to save us.  (Just as German's poor after WWI responded to Hitler's claim that he would make Germany great again and improve its economy.)  It is essential at this moment in US history that we confront the reality of the threat of fascism if we are to stand up to it.

Below in red is the summery of Britt's 14 points.  In black following each point is my commentary on where I see the US at this time in relationship to this.

1. Exuberant nationalism

Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic images, slogans and symbols - National flags are seen everywhere in public display. Territorial aggression is explained to be mere destiny -- an unbidden greatness thrust upon the nation by history.

It is this burden of unique responsibility that now raises the fascist state above all previous constraint, no longer bound by international obligations, treaties or law.

When President Obama was first running for office he did not wear a flag pin on his lapel.  He was so roundly criticized as "unAmerican" for this that he began to do so.  Both US torture, US holding of people on Guantanamo without a way to get off, and US use of drones have all been the breaking of international laws and have been justified as part of the unique responsibility the US has policeman of the world and therefore necessary.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Fascist regimes foster an artificial climate of fear by intentionally amplifying stress and anxiety. Citizens naturally feel a strong need for security and are easily persuaded to ignore abuses in the name of safety. The few still willing to question are met with bullying and smear campaigns of intimidation.

 Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

Legislative bodies, if still in existence at all, are cowed into rubber-stamp submission with occasional ceremonial opposition. The judiciary tends to become activist in support of state views. The public often looks away, or even enthusiastically approves as rights are stripped away.

The concept of the individual inevitably yields ground, exchanged for the promised safety of the all-powerful state.

In my mind the key turning point in the US towards this slippery slope was the US response to 9/11 as modeled by George W.   The Patriot Act was a surrender of many of our civil rights, justified by the need to keep us safe from the treat of terrorism.   For a number of years till that part was repealed it actually said the libraries could turn over lists of what books we read to security agencies!   We all willingly agreed to be patted down and our stuff gone through by the TSA to keep us "safe" from terrorists.  Without this specter of the dangerous enemy Americans would have considered all of those things to be incredible and unacceptable intrusions into privacy.   This slippery slope was such that by the time it was discovered during the Obama administration that the FBI and NSA had been getting all our phone records, texts, and emails from our providers for decades, Americans responded for the most part with a yawn.  I cannot tell you how many people I heard saying "I'm not doing anything wrong, so what is there to be concerned about."  Perhaps with a benign government there is nothing to worry about, but if you imagine living in Nazi Germany and the Nazi's being able to read all your texts or emails I think you quickly understand what a basis for controlling a population that is.

This sentence above is very interesting:   "the people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc."   For most of our countries history the US has seen ourselves as a moral example - calling out other countries for torture, etc.   But under the W administration, as we know, torture was justified by his inhouse lawyers, and while it was controversial when it came to light - it was also debated. The administration and many others defending the torture as again justified by the need to conquer terrorists.   While the Obama administration condemned it, Obama then started using armed drones to assassinate specific terrorist targets, including one US citizen who had gone over to the other side, but certainly had no trial.   These drones often missed their targets and killed civilians and yet Americans for the most part turned their heads away again feeling the need to be safe against the external enemy.   And when Bin Laden was assassinated (rather than captured which he could have been) most American's simply cheered.   All of these events unfolding over a decade slowly wore down our sense of the importance of due process.

The above also mentions the court becoming activist for the state.  As we know Bush was able to make enough appointments to the Supreme Court to give it an activist conservative bent.  Then during the Obama years the Republicans blocked his court appointments at all levels, with the final insult being the refusual to allow him his constitutional right to appoint a Supreme Court justice to the opening that had come in his term which would have tilted the court to the left.   While Democrats and pundits howled about this, they mainly talked about it terms of the political battle.   Little did I hear words like "subverting the constitution" or disenfranchising the voters who voted for Obama so that he would make that appointment.

3. Enemies Identified

This national cause is identified as unity against enemies - The people are rallied around a unifying patriotism directed against some common threat: communists, liberals, a racial, ethnic or religious minority, intellectuals, homosexuals, terrorists, etc.

The state's message is sometimes couched in an easily recognized religious theme. Amazingly, this language is used even when the full context of the teaching shows the meaning to be diametrically opposed. Any dissent is "siding with the enemy", and therefore treasonous.

During the campaign Trump laid out for us the list of targets: Muslims of any kind, illegal immigrants, Mexicans, handicapped people, women...and despite his verbiage the LBGQ community, Jews,  and people of color all know he is coming for them as has become increasingly clear with his Alt right cabinet picks.  The focus on "terrorists" by both Bush and Obama since 2001 has this country well trained to unify against a common enemy. It is quite scary to many of us that Trump keeps enemy lists - because always in history when leaders kept such lists those on them were in danger.  The above talks about the religion of the majority being manipulated.   The US majority religion is Christianity which Republican presidents have been wrapping themselves in and using phrases like "the moral majority" for quite a while.  While there is no evidence that Trump is infact a practicing Christian he none the less has associated himself with the Christian Right as a power base, and they have been remarkably willing to over look at least a dozen behaviors that they would have condemned a Democrat to hell for, out of their desire to also be partnered with a power base.  Do not forget that the Christian churches were silent against Hitler, and thus used by him.

4. Obsession with National security

Obsession with secrecy and national security - The workings of government become increasingly hidden. Questioning of authority is discouraged at all levels of society. From office talk at the water cooler up through the entire apparatus of rule, guarded speech and secrecy become ends in themselves.

Troubling questions are muted and entire areas of scrutiny are placed out of bounds by simply invoking "national security".

Well as already indicated the whole TSA business has been an obsession with national security.   We all know from the numerous things we have accidentally carried on planes that the screenings in fact do not catch all the forbidden items, nor is that even possible.  (Even without them someone could still over power a pilot).  But it is a ritual of security that creates a false sense of security at the same time that it teaches us to submit.  Since then we have started having to be searched to go into public buildings as well.  The Obama administration while campaigning on promises of transparency has been consistently rated as the least transparent Presidency so far.  The leaked Hillary emails reveal much secret behind the scenes efforts to undermine Sanders and mask certain positions she had taken.  Trump has already kicked the press out of his plane, so more secrecy coming.

5. Military Glorified

Supremacy of the military - The military establishment receives a disproportionate share of government resources, even as pressing domestic needs are neglected. Individual soldiers and military culture are glamorized and made constantly visible.

This provides both an object for public glorification, as well as sharp warning to possibly restless citizens that the power of the state stands close at hand, ready to use its great potential for violence.

Right now the US military, past (debt), present and future consumes 57% of the US discretionary budget (meaning not including self funded entitlement programs).  This is down from 62% when Obama took office.  If it has not been this way for decades, we would recognize this is insanity.  Eisenhower warned of every missile built being a theft from the hungry; but forward we march.  Trump has announced plans to build "new nuclear weapons"  (why? The old ones can destroy the earth many times over) and to expand the Navy (why? The military is not even asking for that seeing that as old technology).  While all this goes on we have much higher levels of homelessness, infant mortality, or hunger than many other nations.

We have now for years been giving our "used" military equipment to the nation's police departments, so suddenly we have the police driving armored vehicles and sound grenades etc down the street when facing non-violent protesters.   At Occupy, at Black Lives Matter rallies, and at Standing Rock we see the heavily militarized police in their Darth Vader like outfits treating the crowds with intense aggression and tear gasing and macing them in the face when they are posing no safety threat.  The fact that the company building the DAPL pipeline has offered to pay the police overtime for the DAPL protests makes very very clear who the police are there to serve.

The outright murder of Black and brown people by the police with no repercussions certainly has sent a clear message that the police are here to control the citizenry not to protect them.

6. Corporations Shielded

Corporate power is protected - Typically, a segment of the business elite plays a major role in bringing fascists to national leadership, often from an unsavory obscurity. This marriage of big money and raw violence is often considered by historians to be the hallmark and backbone of fascism.

So the passage by the stacked and activist Supreme Court of Citizens United was so alarming to even establishment politicians that Obama called them out sitting right in front of him at his first State of the Union Speech.  He knew and Hillary Clinton, the plaintiff against them, knew that the rise of Super Pac's and dark money would finish the job of corporations buying and owning politicians.   We have seen record numbers of Super Pac donations as we have watched our Congress more and more serve corporate interests.  Citizen's United conferred the rights of humans onto Corporations.  The Corporations then sought in TPP to extend these same Corporate rights internationally.   An amazing coalitions of labor, environmental and human rights activists acted to stop this.   Trump drove the final nail in the coffin.  When he understands what it really was, he will probably try to revive it.   NAFTA, passed by Bill Clinton, began the process of giving corporations the ability to sue on behalf of their profits over the laws of nations.   As for the sentence above:" the business elite brings fascists to national leadership, often from an unsavory obscurity."  I would say that is the definition of making a reality tv star the president.

7. Corruption Unchecked

Rampant cronyism and corruption - Fascist states maintain power through this relatively small group of associates, mutually appointing each other to interlocking and rotating positions in government, business and the military.

With this degree of control, they make full use of both official secrecy and the ready threat of state violence to insulate themselves from any meaningful criticism. They are not accountable and are shielded from scrutiny in a way unthinkable in a democratic society.

Government service and lobbying has been rotating for decades.  But as we watch Trump pick his cabinet, where past support, especially financial support is more important than competence, the cronyism is clear.  The fact that Chris Christie was just implicated in corruption as Govenor of NJ and may well be prosecuted is no disqualifier.   Trump has also shown himself on the campaign trail to be completely incapable of receiving criticism and remaining calm, but simply adds his critics to his enemy list and responds with counter attacks.

8. Media Controlled

Mass media - Sometimes the media are controlled directly by clumsy government functionaries. At other times, sympathetic corporate media insiders shape the themes indirectly, and therefore more skillfully. Image regularly wins out over content as the "news" is presented breathlessly and with flashy stage effects.

A practiced formula of tenacious repetition brings even the most absurd lie into acceptance over time. By design, the very language itself and the coloration employed will push alternate views "out of the mainstream".

The terms of any remaining debate are narrowly defined to the state's advantage, making it easy to marginalize a truly differing perspective. Censorship and "self-censorship", especially in wartime, is common.

This is a particularly disturbing area.   The reductions of regulations against monopolies has allowed for the increased consolidation of media to where news, radio and tv are no longer separate sources, but rather all are owned by just 5 companies in America (with a further merger of Time/Warner with ATT threatened at the moment.)  The pressure to not lose advertising revenue has for decades reigned reporters in, and the push for news to be "entertaining" and not depressing to keep the ratings up, has also slowly muzzled good reporting. The Internets threat to newspapers has reduced the number of people actually paid to do investigative reporting.  People feel happy to receive their news from the internet allowing many to receive information that is not factually based, biased at best, outright propaganda at worst.   The fact that search engines now search with bias...ie learning what sources and biases the person is already drawn to and showing results from those and not the other side means increasingly the polarized US does not even share same news sources.  The death of net neutrality under the incoming Trump administration will seal off one of the few sources of open assess to uncensored information.

With the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war we saw prohibitions against showing the coffins coming back because the right had learned the lesson of the Vietnam war, that showing the horror of the war made people against it.  The "embedded reporters" brought many jokes about "being in bed with", because it indeed meant that what was shown to us of our US wars was controlled by the US govt and the military.

When 400,000 people marched in NYC against climate in 2015 and it was not reported by mainstream media, I knew we were in trouble.  But when recently 5 people I know turned the emergency turn off valves on all 5 pipelines carrying oil into the US from the Tar Sands, and not one major media outlet covered it, I knew that we had lost free press in the US.  To control what people even are aware is happening, is indeed a very serious way of controlling the population.

It was breath taking to watch during the Trump campaign that no matter what lie he spun out, the media rarely called him on it.  Even the ones he was called on, he simply kept repeating till they became part of the public thinking, regardless of the lack of factual basis.  Fact checkers be damned.

9. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed

to the government's policies or actions.

As already mentioned Christianity being the most common religion in the US, Trump has wrapped it as a cloak around himself and the Fundamentalist right have forgiven him all his sins.  The Right for a long time has been using things like abortion, evolution, climate change and Gay rights as wedge issues even though there is more than one way to read the Bible in relationship to these issues.  They have used them to turn out voters and increasingly these issues became litmus tests for Republican politicians.  They risked not being funded by their own party if they did not toe the party orthodoxy.

10. Rampant Sexism

Rampant sexism - Governments of fascist states tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Traditional gender roles are made even more rigid and exaggerated. Virulent homophobia is commonly built into broad policy.

This is a piece that was not present in the Obama administration.  He often nominated woman, and woman of color to powerful positions. He ratified DOMA.   Part of the uproar of the campaign season was Trumps blatant sexism, his sexualizing of woman, the revelations of his affairs and his unwanted sexual advances on women, and his crude language regarding women.  He also blatantly disrespected his female candidate with coded and not so coded sexist commentary (suggesting she did not have the stamina for the job and calling her a horrible woman -not a horrible person- but a horrible woman.)  It is no surprise that he is picking a male dominated cabinet.  It is worth noting that while we have been able to elect the first African American President we have not been able to elect the first woman President and that this is because White Males voted heavily for Trump.

But the Republican party has been waging a well publicized "war on women"  for a decade now- aggressively going after woman's reproductive rights.   When finding they could not have the votes for a constitutional amendment on abortion, nor pass national bills on it, they found ways through state houses they controlled to pass more and more restrictions on abortion till they could shut abortion clinics down by strangulation.  So of course Roe Vs Wade is on the table again with this new administration.  The Republican controlled Congress has been unwilling for a decade to pass higher minimum wage laws, sick leave laws or maternity leave (all disproportionately effecting women).   So this piece, the rise of sexism, is one of the signs of fascism really kicking in, in a country that has valued equality.

11. Intellectual Bullying

Disdain for intellectuals - Fascist society tends to create an environment of extreme hostility to critical thought in general, and to academics in particular.

Ideologically driven "science" is elevated and lavishly funded, while any expression not in line with the state view is at first ignored, then challenged, then ridiculed and finally stamped out.  Free expression in the arts is attacked.

It is not uncommon for academics to be pressured to attack the work of their insufficiently patriotic peers. Writings are censored; teachers are fired and arrested. Free artistic expression in new works is openly attacked, and existing works deemed unpatriotic are often publicly destroyed.

We have gone from when Newt Gingrich would make an add about global warming with Nancy Pelosi to Newt moving with the rest of the Republican party to the party line of "climate denial".  During the Bush administration government agencies were directed not to use the term global warming in government documents (a form of censorship).  The Koch brothers have funded a lot of "pseudo science" that is basically the available "science against the reality of climate".  The media in its effort to always present both sides has greatly confused the public about this 3% of scientists who do not agree that climate change is man made.  But mostly the talking point for Republicans is "Well I'm not a scientist, but climate naturally goes up and down" which is again to misrepresent and deny science.

In one of the more chilling examples of fascism arrival in the arts, a 24 year old artist Illima Gore, as a political statement created a nude portrait of Trump that showed him a pot bellied and  with a small penis, she first receive hundreds of threats of violence, then death threats and finally a man jumped out of a car and shouted "Trump 2016" and punched her in the eye leaving an intense bruise.

12. Labor Power is suppressed   Because the organized power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.  As these business-government-military interests meld, the significant threat of organized labor is clearly recognized. Labor unions and their support organizations are either co-opted successfully or ruthlessly suppressed and eliminated as soon as possible.

So we have watched the rise of the influence of the Koch brothers use of their money to fund climate denialism and right-wing candidates.   We watched them partner with Scott Walker in WI to break unions, etc.  As ALEC won more and more statehouses they attacked unions in an even more effective way than they had during their attempts to union bust during the Reagan years.   Unions have been on the defensive.  Rather than fighting for progressive change they have spent much of the last decade just trying to survive, fighting endless attempts to cut benefits and wages as the 1% consolidated its power grab during the crash of 2008.

ALEC masterfully framed union defense of public servant pensions as "Privilege that few of us have" in order to turn public opinion against supporting union retirement benefits.  Unions have become increasingly timid about striking for fear of more union busting.

13. Obsession with crime and punishment -

Fascist society is often willing to overlook police abuses and forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. Long jail sentences for clearly political offenses, torture and then assassination are at first uncomfortably tolerated, and then start to pile up to become the norm.

Often a national police force is given virtually unlimited power to snoop through the civilian population. Networks of surveillance and informers are employed, both for actual intelligence gathering and also as a means to keep neighbors and co-workers isolated and mistrustful of each other.

As already mentioned we have accepted  torture and illegal imprisonment by our military against the "enemy:"and a militarized US police force putting down protests, and killing black and brown people in the streets.  It took a Black Lives Matters movement to even make most White Americans aware of police violence that had been going on forever.  We have willingly submitted to invasion of our physical space in airports and to the reading of our cyber communications by various branches of the government.

For the most part the public has turned their back on the long and harsh imprisonment of Chelsea Manning who blew the whistle on military lies, and we have also not paid much attention to the price that Edward Snowden has paid for revealing to us the government surveillance of us.

14. Elections Stolen

Fraudulent elections - In the disordered time as fascists are rising to power, the electoral arena becomes increasingly confusing, corrupted, and manipulated.

There is rising public cynicism and distrust over what are widely believed to be phony elections manipulated by moneyed influence, obvious media bias, smear campaigns, ballot tampering, judicial interference, intimidation, or outright assassination of potential opposition. Fascists in power have been known to use this disorder as the rationale to delay elections indefinitely.

Stolen elections...where to begin?  So we start with the election stolen by Gore who won the popular vote and the electoral college vote came down to a tied Florida and hanging chads.   As the Indigo Girls sing "and we let the Supreme Court appoint a President".   Which given how many begins of fascism started during the George W administration is indeed extremely significant.   Then we have the gutting of the Voting Rights Act (something that Black people had won through blood and arrests in the '60's) by the Republican dominated Supreme Court two years ago.   This was quickly followed by many Republican states passing voting suppression acts while saying they were correcting "voter fraud" that had never been actually found.   When the NC Supreme court voted to strike down their new voter law it found that they had very intentionally and strategically targeted Black communities.  The removal of over 800 polling places nationally (from predominately low income neighborhoods creating 3 hour lines) is another form of voter suppression placing the most burdensome conditions for voting on those with the least free time.

Moneyed influence:  I have already talked about the effect of Citizen's United and Super Pac money on the buying and owning of politicians.   And I have talked about the Koch brothers' money influencing national policies through ALEC and phoney science studies.

"obvious media bias" - the NYT has reported Donald Trump got $2 million dollar worth of free media coverage allowing him to spend way less than other presidential candidates on advertising.   At the same time the media for the first half of the primaries ignored Sanders, then gave him negative coverage and then eventually covered him as a "surprise" challenge to Hillary.

"Smear campaigns" - the public became so weary of this presidential campaign because there was so little content and so much mud slinging.

"ballot tampering, intimidation and judicial interference"  I have already mentioned these.  Thank God we have not yet had assassination of candidates, although it did chill my heart when Trump threatened repeatedly that his opponents should use their gun rights against Hillary and in a national debate threatened to lock her up after he was elected.   I could be wrong but I think that is what dictators normally do, is lock up their opponents.

If you have not already read this article by Greg Pallast on how the election was stolen I strongly recommend it.  It does explain how ALL the polls could have been so wrong.  http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/40246-focus-the-election-was-stolen-heres-how

Also this additional article is now pointing to actual computer hacking of computer voting machines in swing states: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/20/1602092/-HRC-Campaign-Please-challenge-the-vote-in-4-States-as-the-data-says-you-won-NC-PA-WI-FL

So with all this crap here where  is the pony?

There is an opportunity in all this crisis.  If Clinton has been elected (or not had the election stolen from her) we would have continue with the same 2 steps forward one step back, slow and not enough progress on climate and social justice that we experienced under the Obama administration.  It is easy for liberals to feel comfortable under neo-liberalism, to be distracted with other aspects of life and assume or believe that things are basically going "ok".    So while some progress on climate happened under Obama, not nearly enough.   The sense of progress allows us to be the frog slowly boiling as the heat goes up without the awareness to jump out.    Trump is so clearly an assault on every issue that liberals care about that it is now clear in a way it would not otherwise have been that we are a nation in crisis.

As I think more about the rise of hatred and racism that Trump is bringing, and Naomi Klein’s previous words that we will not defeat climate change until we change the oppressive capitalistic nature of our society…I see that under Trump, unlike under Hillary, the only way forward is complete transformation.  I think as people of faith the message Love your Neighbor is present in some form in every faith.   I think it is a message, not directly about climate, but one we will be needing to hold up because not loving our neighbors has allowed the climate crisis to fester and get worse.

Action steps:

* We must speak up, call fascism out and resist when any of these 14 aspects of fascism intensify.

* We must particularly ask attention be put on the issue of election fraud to find out if it is true or not.

*As he begins to violate the constitution we must call for his impeachment.

*We must not forget that the majority of voters did vote against Trump, and those are the number that can stand up to him.

* Whether it is a remaking of the Democratic party as suggested by the Sanders campaign, or the formation of a new third party based upon labor, environmentalists, people of color, and GLBQT we must realize the numbers that voted for Bernie are out there and will only grow under Trump!

*We must also be helping people understand how to construct non-violent campaigns for change.   Americans tend to see change as coming through Congress.   We must release that idea focus on the kind of change that the bus boycotts and the salt marches brought, the kind of change that if fueled by people acting together for justice.   Quakers have a lot of experience with this and we need to be sharing these ideas widely!