Joining the Resistance
While some would have you believe that my city has collapsed and is burning down, here in Portland, peaceful protestors have been on the streets every single day since George Floyd's murder nearly three months ago. It's important work. Not all of it happens downtown. Carl and I missed our weekly neighborhood vigil the day after I broke my heel, but with my cast and scooter we're back out again. There's been a core group of us out there every week, and with the ghastly attack on Jacob Blake, Jr., there was an even bigger crowd yesterday.
We need protests. Crowds in the streets get attention. Crowds with a united purpose get action: The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Peaceful protests give voice to pent-up rage, and provide both encouragement to supporters and tangible proof to skeptics that the people want change and they will not be silenced: crowds beget crowds.
Peaceful protesting is a powerful tool. But it is not enough. We need resistance. As the late John Lewis counseled and admonished us, when we see something that is unfair or unjust, we have a moral obligation not only to say something, but to do something, as well. Whatever the personal cost.
Resistance is not new. We can look to countless brave people who have pushed back against tyranny, evil, enslavement, oppression, corruption, and authoritarianism. Some, like Thomas Paine and William Lloyd Garrison, wielded a pen. Frederick Douglass did, as well, and he stirred others to action with his speech. The Underground Railroad was perhaps the most effective tool of resistance in our history. Harriet Tubman and other conductors repeatedly risked their lives to lead enslaved people to freedom. Levi Coffin, the so called "President of the Underground Railroad," was one of a vast network of unaffiliated abolitionists who courageously -- and often creatively -- provided safe havens for the terrified fugitives while they made their way north to safety in Canada or the U.S.
Rosa Parks, Franklin McCain, and Fannie Lou Hamer sat down, while Colin Kaepernick knelt down. Hosea Williams and John Lewis stood, leading by example, as they and their followers faced certain harm on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Dolores Huerta organized and marched. From a spirit camp on the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota, Native American teenagers ran 2,000 miles to Washington, D.C. to deliver a petition to the Army Corps of Engineers in opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline.
While these leaders may have carefully planned their resistance, others have responded to the call to resist when it is thrust upon them. They knew that when our Constitution or the rule of law are under attack, honor and patriotism demand resistance. In what would come to be known as "the Saturday Night Massacre," then U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his top deputy, William Ruckelshaus, resigned their positions rather than carry out President Nixon's order to fire Archibald Cox, the first special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal. Nearly 50 years later, when former Deputy Attorney General (then acting U.S. Attorney General) Sally Yates refused to enforce the president's executive order banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, she was immediately fired.
As we work for accessible and fair elections this year, we remember college student Andrew Goodman, who volunteered to help with voter registration during the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. For this, he and Congress of Racial Equality ("CORE") employees John Chaney and Michael Schwerner paid with their lives.
All are heroes in my book. Their courage, integrity, and perseverance points the way for all of us as we try to answer the call for justice in this harrowing time. And we are not without heroes today. Today's resistance leaders are all around us. Some, like the stationmasters on the Underground Railroad, make their mark anonymously. The devoted postal employees in Tacoma who reconnected their high speed mail-sorting machines in defiance of a national order remind us what patriotism and democratic values look like.
Some use their celebrity to inspire others to action, and their platform to shine a light on oppression. I'm thinking especially of LeBron James and colleagues. In the case of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, resistance by a professional sports team was quickly embraced by other teams, other sports, and entire leagues. Their refusal to play brings the spotlight back to Mr. Blake's shooting and the need to dismantle systemic racism. It also reminds us that we can model resistance for others in our community. While we may not have the clout of professional athletes, each of us can try to influence our own sphere, large or small.
Some become resistance heroes by chance rather than by choice. Navy veteran Christopher David is one example. When armed federal troops in camouflage uniforms were deployed to Portland last month to confront citizens on our streets, Mr. David approached them to ask how their actions were consistent with their oath to support, uphold, and defend the Constitution. He wore a sweatshirt and ball cap from his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy, thinking that the officers would know that he was not a threat. But as he stepped forward to ask his question, one officer beat him with a baton while another doused him with pepper spray. Video shows that Mr. David stood upright with his arms at his sides, stoically accepting the beating. He was taken to a hospital afterward, where a specialist determined that he would need surgery to place pins, screws, and plates in his broken right hand.
Resistance takes courage. It takes commitment; it is ongoing work. Peaceful resistance is not without risk. But it is sacred work, and vital. In the words of John Lewis, it is "necessary good trouble."
In this discouraging time, we can hang our heads in despair or we can rise up in resistance. We know what John Lewis would do. We have heroes and leaders showing us the way forward. Let's gather our courage and press ahead. We can do this.
Love,
Nancie/Mom/Mimi/Grandma
We need protests. Crowds in the streets get attention. Crowds with a united purpose get action: The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Peaceful protests give voice to pent-up rage, and provide both encouragement to supporters and tangible proof to skeptics that the people want change and they will not be silenced: crowds beget crowds.
Peaceful protesting is a powerful tool. But it is not enough. We need resistance. As the late John Lewis counseled and admonished us, when we see something that is unfair or unjust, we have a moral obligation not only to say something, but to do something, as well. Whatever the personal cost.
Resistance is not new. We can look to countless brave people who have pushed back against tyranny, evil, enslavement, oppression, corruption, and authoritarianism. Some, like Thomas Paine and William Lloyd Garrison, wielded a pen. Frederick Douglass did, as well, and he stirred others to action with his speech. The Underground Railroad was perhaps the most effective tool of resistance in our history. Harriet Tubman and other conductors repeatedly risked their lives to lead enslaved people to freedom. Levi Coffin, the so called "President of the Underground Railroad," was one of a vast network of unaffiliated abolitionists who courageously -- and often creatively -- provided safe havens for the terrified fugitives while they made their way north to safety in Canada or the U.S.
Rosa Parks, Franklin McCain, and Fannie Lou Hamer sat down, while Colin Kaepernick knelt down. Hosea Williams and John Lewis stood, leading by example, as they and their followers faced certain harm on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Dolores Huerta organized and marched. From a spirit camp on the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota, Native American teenagers ran 2,000 miles to Washington, D.C. to deliver a petition to the Army Corps of Engineers in opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline.
While these leaders may have carefully planned their resistance, others have responded to the call to resist when it is thrust upon them. They knew that when our Constitution or the rule of law are under attack, honor and patriotism demand resistance. In what would come to be known as "the Saturday Night Massacre," then U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his top deputy, William Ruckelshaus, resigned their positions rather than carry out President Nixon's order to fire Archibald Cox, the first special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal. Nearly 50 years later, when former Deputy Attorney General (then acting U.S. Attorney General) Sally Yates refused to enforce the president's executive order banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, she was immediately fired.
As we work for accessible and fair elections this year, we remember college student Andrew Goodman, who volunteered to help with voter registration during the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. For this, he and Congress of Racial Equality ("CORE") employees John Chaney and Michael Schwerner paid with their lives.
All are heroes in my book. Their courage, integrity, and perseverance points the way for all of us as we try to answer the call for justice in this harrowing time. And we are not without heroes today. Today's resistance leaders are all around us. Some, like the stationmasters on the Underground Railroad, make their mark anonymously. The devoted postal employees in Tacoma who reconnected their high speed mail-sorting machines in defiance of a national order remind us what patriotism and democratic values look like.
Some use their celebrity to inspire others to action, and their platform to shine a light on oppression. I'm thinking especially of LeBron James and colleagues. In the case of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, resistance by a professional sports team was quickly embraced by other teams, other sports, and entire leagues. Their refusal to play brings the spotlight back to Mr. Blake's shooting and the need to dismantle systemic racism. It also reminds us that we can model resistance for others in our community. While we may not have the clout of professional athletes, each of us can try to influence our own sphere, large or small.
Some become resistance heroes by chance rather than by choice. Navy veteran Christopher David is one example. When armed federal troops in camouflage uniforms were deployed to Portland last month to confront citizens on our streets, Mr. David approached them to ask how their actions were consistent with their oath to support, uphold, and defend the Constitution. He wore a sweatshirt and ball cap from his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy, thinking that the officers would know that he was not a threat. But as he stepped forward to ask his question, one officer beat him with a baton while another doused him with pepper spray. Video shows that Mr. David stood upright with his arms at his sides, stoically accepting the beating. He was taken to a hospital afterward, where a specialist determined that he would need surgery to place pins, screws, and plates in his broken right hand.
Resistance takes courage. It takes commitment; it is ongoing work. Peaceful resistance is not without risk. But it is sacred work, and vital. In the words of John Lewis, it is "necessary good trouble."
In this discouraging time, we can hang our heads in despair or we can rise up in resistance. We know what John Lewis would do. We have heroes and leaders showing us the way forward. Let's gather our courage and press ahead. We can do this.
Love,
Nancie/Mom/Mimi/Grandma
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