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An Extraordinary Opportunity For The Democrats
The election of Mr. Trump (#notmypresident) offered up an extraordinary opportunity for the Democrats. He presents us with such a stark contrast of choice to offer voters. I had hopes of seeing the party I care about revitalized, reunited, and really working on a grassroots-level to once again begin reaching the people it claimed to stand for. Now I am not sure that it will do so. I am not a politician. But here is what I think needs to happen for the Democratic Party to be an effective presence in people’s lives again:
People do NOT think the Democrats (or Republicans either, really) CARE about what is happening to them. And the way to combat this is not by making calls or asking people to sign online petitions. We need to be SHOWING UP ON PEOPLE’S DOORSTEPS and TALKING TO THEM! We need to asking them, “What are the issues that truly concern you? What worries you? What do you (and not Fox News) think the government) needs to be doing? ” And we need to do this continually! Not just during an election cycle!
If, say, the local Dems were an organization that REGULARLY (and I mean at least once per month) went door to door to residents of Washington County to inquire about their well-being and find out what we could do to help, I imagine our membership would soar. This would accomplish so much more than the phone-banks. It would help repair the damage that political parties of all stripes have inflicted on people. It would let people know that that the Democratic Party is HERE and wants to work for THEM. And even if they presented problems that sometimes had no immediate solution, we could at least listen. And that means a lot to folks in these disconnected times.
Will anyone pay any attention to this post? Probably not. But I’ve seen this done in other places. It IS effective and it DOES work. The Democratic Party can be a vehicle for effective postive change. I wish that would happen here.
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I Mourn For My Christian Friends
I noticed recently that a large marble plaque of the ten commandments (Xtian version, of course) has been posted on the main street in my little town. I’m sure that it is on private property but is so situated as to make it appear that it is town-sponsored. Had it just been the decalogue, I would have shrugged my shoulders and gone about my business. BUT underneath this was another marble plaque that proclaims: OUR AMERICAN HERITAGE. Ahem. I don’t THINK so. Your CHRISTIAN heritage, yes. Your JEWISH heritage, maybe, (with a different version). But NOT American heritage. I believe that the many indigenous inhabitants of this land would beg to differ, as would those who helped build this nation and did not subscribe to Christian beliefs.
I was on transit when I first saw this. A friend of mine happened to be with me, a retired coal miner. He remarked that HE was Christian, had been all his life, but that he found this offensive. He said, “How do you think people who come to Abingdon who are NOT Christian or not THAT type of Christian are going to feel when they see that? Not welcome or wanted, that’s how! And MY Christian faith wouldn’t think that’s a Christian thing to do!” As a non-Christian, had I seen that coming into a town, I would have felt immediately on guard. It seems a statement of identity: this is what this place is and who fits in here. It is not welcoming, not hospitable, and not even factual. It is divisive, confrontative, and exclusive. Those who put it up might have had good intentions. But in today’s charged environment, I have to speculate that they realized what they were doing and did it intentionally. I want to believe that people listen to their better angels, as Abraham Lincoln puts it so eloquently. But I find that so often, when a test comes, when the moment of truth arrives and given the chance to do something that will make that difference, they falter and give heed instead to darker voices born from ignorance and fear instead.
So many Christians, I know you are not this. But this IS HAPPENING HERE. I can critique this, but I can only do it from the outside. For this to stop, CHRISTIANS are going to have toaddress this. As long as this is considered acceptable behavior, it will continue. History will be re-written. Christianity will continue to morph into forms more authoritarian, shallower, and crueler than anything Jesus might have imagined. And those of us looking on from the outside can only watch and mourn and wonder how far this will go.
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Smiling Faces
I’ve thought long and hard about this this blog post. Finally I decided that I needed to write it. Last Saturday something happened at the local farmers market that I find disturbing, both on a personal level and as a commentary on how men feel free to interact with someone they perceive as female. I have been struggling with whether or not to write about this, for to do so makes it public. But I think this deserves to be talked about. The more women and others allow men to do this, the more they will do this, either because they think it is acceptable or because they believe they will not be called on it. So:
I was having a conversation with several vendors I know. One (a man) jokingly said of the other that she was looking for a man. News to me, but whatever. I was taken aback at how he said it, though. It was sudden and inappropriate. That began the sorry slide of continuing remarks of a supposedly jocular tone that were related to dating and or sex. Now this person is older than I am and knows I’m queer. I do NOT know what possessed him to do this. We’ve always been very cordial. I was helping him sell some of items that day in an informal manner, as I have hithertofore liked him and what he manufactored. I tried to laugh what he said off.
But I can’t. He wasn’t overtly lewd, just enough suggestive to make me uncomfortable, but that it happened at all has now changed the way I see him AND the farmers market. He is no longer a person around whom I feel comfortable. He is moved from my “safe” list to my “unsafe” list. And, sadly, his actions and words have made the FARMERS MARKET, a place which had been one of my most favorite places in Abingdon, now a place where I know that I still have to be on guard. It was naive of me not to have been otherwise.
Part of me wants to go on a rant. To say: What sort of world is this where a woman (I know, I don’t ID as female, but still get defaulted that way) can’t fucking GO TO THE FARMERS MARKET without being subjected to some utterly obtuse male thinking it is fine to make sexually suggestive comments? And also: Hello, Harvey Weinstein??? You’d think especially NOW he’d have better sense than to do this type of thing? And so on. But I’m not going to do so. I’m too saddened and disapponted by what transpired. But I could not let it go with saying something. Now I have.
