Eyes on the Prize

Thank you, as always, for coming this morning. My remarks are short and sweet today. Here’s the thing. As Mary Geddry writes, the White House is aiming what she calls a firehose at us: “The firehose of racism, raids, intimidation, & spectacle.” What they’re spewing out of that firehose is threats, dehumanizing comments, scandals. To outrage us and to distract us.

But rather than get more and more outraged and feel more and more hopeless, WE’VE GOT TO KEEP OUR EYES ON THE PRIZE. Two basic things we need to watch over and focus on: ICE, and fair elections. What to do about ICE? As you know, ICE has arrived in the Northwest, and is starting to arrest people in the greater Seattle area. Will they come to Poulsbo, and if so, to what extent? We have no idea.

What we do know is that we need to build solidarity and communication on the most local level, the level of neighborhoods; we need to exchange phone numbers with neighbors we trust, to be able to respond to calls by dropping everything and showing up for folks in need at a moment’s notice--the way we’ve seen in all the videos from the brave and organized people of Minneapolis.

Through the hyperlocal networks we build, we’ll be able to get out there and document ICE activity if & when it happens. So get going on that—meet with your trusted neighbors, get each other’s info, and be ready. The US is at war with its own people, and the sooner we understand that, the sooner we can organize to take care of each other.  

The other prize to urgently keep our eyes on is the sanctity of our elections system. The US has had one of the safest and fairest election systems in the world, but this regime is trying every trick in the book to destroy trust in elections AND actually destroy the integrity of elections—with their efforts at gerrymandering, using ICE to intimidate near polling places, suggesting the Republican federal government take over elections.

If there is not a fully free and fair midterm election this coming November, all our outrage at the Epstein scandal, making monkeys out of the Obamas, and knocking down the East Wing, is worth nothing. We HAVE to safeguard our elections. And that means calling ALL our elected officials and making sure they know how important it is to us. Use the app 5 calls which is the easiest and most effective way to make an impact. 

Two US congresswomen from Washington especially need our phone calls: Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez and Kim Schrier, who are so-called Democrats but aren’t acting like it. 

Okay, so: ICE and elections. Forget the rest for now, it’s all firehosing. And one more thing: when we prepare for these rallies in Poulsbo, we do a LOT of reading, relying on the wisdom and experience of a number of brilliant thinkers and writers—Tim Snyder, Robert Reich, Waj Ali, Joyce Vance, Heather Cox Richardson, and others. So another hugely important thing you can do is YOU read, YOU consider how these thinkers’ truths resonate with you (or not). Of course many people here do read widely. But if you don’t … remember, it’s the duty of citizens in a democracy to be well informed.

Now that Trump’s attacks on the media and journalism are making that difficult, it’s time for ALL of us to keep educating ourselves.