If, or when, I finally retire, I'll need to find reasons to get away
from my isolation and rub shoulders with folks in my community.
Currently, after over loading my brain with the grim stories of the
day, we gather up our gear and head out to provide services to our
clients. More than once one of us has turned to the other and said,
"There are some really lovely people around here."
It' too easy to become so loaded down with the sordid side of the
world, that we fail to see that most people are just plain nice.
Sure, we can find many flaws in their makeup, just as they can find
them in us, but over all, the people we meet day to day bring an air
of uplifting to us.
Carl Jarvis
On 2/17/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I think that for me, what is real is that I feel emotionally connected to
the place where I was born and grew up, which is New York City, and I have a
feeling of familiarity and ease in the environment where I've lived for so
many years. New York City has changed a lot since I lived there, so I
suppose that my strong feelings of connectedness, are with what I remember,
and with the idea of what it is, a huge multi-cultural center of culture and
recreation, and commerce, also, although the commerce part is not something
I connect to. I don't want anything bad to happen to the people and places
I know so well. I also spent quite a bit of time in Los Angeles in the early
90's and I have some affection for the atmosphere I encountered there. But
what I think that Berrigan is actually talking about is the idea of what
America could be and about the people who are trying so hard to hold onto
that dream, and I certain love those people and that dream.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 11:03 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Loving America and Resisting Trump: The New
Patriotism
It's a real pickle. From the ground up we are taught to love our Country,
and to be proud to be an American. But as an adult it becomes plain that we
were misled. We were misled into thinking that this Country we were taught
to love and respect, was our Country. We came to believe that we lived in a
Free Democracy. We, the People ruled this great Nation through our
elections. But the truth is that we have only limited power through our
carefully rigged elections.
And the People in that statement, "We, the People..." is referring to the
Ruling Class families.
Pledging allegiance to the flag and to the Republic for which it stands...,
is far different than pledging allegiance to the flag and to the Oligarchy
for which it stands...".
For me, I pledge allegiance to the People and to the Planet on which we
live. One World, all connected, going forward in Peace and respect and with
Love.
Carl Jarvis
On 2/16/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Berrigan writes: "He's promised to erect high walls, keep some people
in and others out and lock up those he despises, while threatening to
torture and abuse with impunity. Still, a small personal miracle
emerges from this nightmare."
President Donald Trump. (photo: Getty)
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176244/tomgram%3A_frida_berrigan%2C_d
onald_
trump%2C_a_one-man_9_11/>
Loving America and Resisting Trump: The New Patriotism
By Frida Berrigan, TomDispatch
16 February 17
_____
While preparing to walk in New York City
<http://pix11.com/2017/01/21/womens-march-in-nyc-what-you-need-to-know
/>
--
or, as it turned out, given the staggering crowds, to stand in one
spot for long periods -- in support of the Women’s March (which would
set protest records nationally
<http://www.vox.com/2017/1/22/14350808/womens-marches-largest-demonstr
ation-
us-history-map> ), I had a specific urge. I wanted to carry the flag.
us-history-map> I’m
talking about the stars and stripes, the one that “o’er the ramparts”
flew.
Although I could indeed have gotten my hands on a flag, I had no idea
how to get a pole for it and I certainly wasn’t going to drape it over
my shoulders. In its own way, it was a ridiculous idea, given that, at
almost 73, I probably would only have lasted a few spare minutes
actually carrying a flag on a pole.
Still, the idea meant something to me for a simple enough reason: this
country is mine. I’ve always loved it even when -- as in the Vietnam
era
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175951/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_i.f._st
one_an d_the_urge_to_serve/> -- I was so angry with it for what it
was doing; even when, as in these last 15 years, I disagreed with just
about everything its leaders did in the world. In the end, I’m rooted
here in ways that go right to the heart of things.
My grandfather was an immigrant. A runaway, he made it to this
country in steerage class with only a few cents in his pocket,
initially sharing a bed behind a stove with someone who used it when
he didn’t. It was a typical story -- though, sadly, perhaps far less
typical if Donald Trump (in the great tradition of American nativism
<http://wemeantwell.com/blog/?p=21138>
) has anything to do with it. Though he died when I was quite young,
I was deeply proud of him and of what he did and how he got here. My
grandmother was the daughter of immigrants. She helped make me who I
am. Thanks in part to her, I’ve always felt a deep responsibility for
this country -- both for what it is and especially for what it isn’t.
This website, <http://www.tomdispatch.com/> TomDispatch, is an
expression of that. For the last 15 years, it’s focused regularly on
“what it isn’t,” a body of work I consider my late-in-life service to
this country.
Here’s the thing with that flag. It’s a potent symbol, it's mine, and
I’ll be damned if I’ll give up the most crucial symbols of my country
to Donald Trump. So I have my version of patriotism that’s bone deep
in me, but I must admit that I’m moved by
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176170/tomgram%3A_frida_berrigan,_gun
s_for_ tots/> TomDispatch regular Frida Berrigan’s version of it as
well. Her particular embrace of this country makes me want to say to
those so much younger than me and in despair: don’t let Donald Trump
make you reject what’s basic and best about America. Do that and,
despite yourself, you’ll be aiding and abetting the crimes of the
Trump regime (which will be plentiful
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176240/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_it%27
s_a_bi rd..._it%27s_a_plane..._it%27s_the_donald_in_the_news%21/> in
the years to come). Tom
-Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch
_____
Loving America and Resisting Trump
The New Patriotism
o reality has inexorably, inescapably penetrated my life. It didn’t
take long. Yes, Donald Trump is actually the president of the United
States. In that guise, in just his first weeks in office, he’s already
declared war on language, on loving, on people who are different from
him -- on the kind of world, in short, that I want to live in. He’s
promised to erect high walls, keep some people in and others out and
lock up those he despises, while threatening
<http://time.com/4649833/president-trump-torture-war-on-terror/>
to torture and abuse with impunity.
Still, a small personal miracle emerges from this nightmare. It turns
out that, despite growing up an anarchist protest kid who
automatically read Howard Zinn’s A People
<https://zinnedproject.org/materials/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-s
tates/
’s History of the United States alongside the official textbooks, Ithis country more each day. So I find myself eternally upset about
love
our new political reality-show, about a man so thin-skinned he lashes
out at everything and so insulated in his own alt-reality that no
response to him seems to matter.
Above all, I am so mad. Yeah, I’m mad at all those people who voted
for Trump and even madder at the ones who didn’t vote at all. I’m mad
at everyone who thinks the sum total of their contribution to the
political well-being of this country is voting every two or four
years. I’m mad at our corporate-political system and how easily
distracted people are. I’m steaming mad, but mostly at myself.
Yep, I’m mad at myself and at the Obamas. They made empire look so good!
Their grace and intelligence, their obvious love for one another and
the way they telegraphed a certain approachability and reasonableness.
So attractive! They were fun -- or at least they looked like that on
social media. Michelle in the karaoke car
<http://www.vogue.com/article/michelle-obama-missy-elliott-carpool-kar
aoke>
with Missy Elliot singing Beyoncé
<http://www.vogue.com/projects/13293183/beyonce-september-2015-cover/>
and talking about global girls' education
<http://time.com/4051350/beyonce-michelle-obama-and-malala-yousafzai-u
nite-t o-push-for-girls-education/> ! Barack and a tiny Superman
<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/barack-obama-poses-superman-halloween>
at a White House Halloween party. Michelle, unapologetically fierce
<http://motto.time.com/4530246/michelle-obama-donald-trump-speech/>
after Trump’s demeaning Access Hollywood comments
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extreme
ly-lew
d-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-
3d2684 7eeed4_story.html?utm_term=.d1f3ce7144ed> came to light. I
loved those Obamas, despite my politics and my analysis. I was
supposed to resist all his efforts at world domination through drones
<http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/01/12/reflecting-on-obamas-
presid ency/obamas-embrace-of-drone-strikes-will-be-a-lasting-legacy>
and sweeping trade deals and instead I fell a little bit in love, even
as I marched and fasted and tried to resist.
Falling in Love With My Country
Now, we have a new president. And my love is gone, along with my
admiration, my pride, and my secret wish to attend a state dinner and
chat with the Obamas over local wine and grass-fed beef sliders.
What’s not gone, though, what’s strangely stronger than ever, is my
love for this country.
I didn’t love the United States under Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or
Bush the First. I was a kid and they were names on protest banners and
headlines in the news. My parents were the Catholic peace activists
Liz McAlister and Phil Berrigan, and I grew up in an anarchist
collective of Christian resisters. My parents and their friends went
to jail repeatedly and resolutely. We demonstrated
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175966/tomgram:_frida_berrigan,_witne
ss_to_ war,_american-style/> , rallied, and railed at every
institution of power in Washington. Those presidents made the adults
around me angry and agitated, so they scared me.
I didn’t love the United States under Bill Clinton either -- I was
young and in college and opposed to everything -- nor under George W.
Bush. I was young and in New York City and still opposed to almost
everything.
I started calling myself a “New Yorker” three years after moving there
when, on a sunny Tuesday morning, airplanes became weapons, tall
towers fell, and
3,000 people died. I emerged from my routine subway ride at 14th
Street, unaware and unscathed, to stand still with the rest of the
city and watch the sky turn black. I spent the rest of that day in
Manhattan with friends trying to reach my parents and following the
news, as we all tried (and
failed) to come to grips with the new reality. Once the bridges
reopened, we walked home to Brooklyn that evening, terrified and
shell-shocked.
9/11 provided the rationale for sweeping changes in Washington. War by
fiat, paid for in emergency supplementals that circumvented
Congressional processes; a new Department of Homeland Security (where
did that word “homeland” even come from?); a proliferation of
increasingly muscular intelligence agencies; and a new brand of
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175979/best_of_tomdispatch%3A_karen_g
reenbe rg,_barbarism_lite/> “legal” scholarship that justified both
torture and indefinite detention, while tucking secret black sites
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/08/13/the-black-sites> away
in foreign countries. All this as the United States went to war
against “terrorism
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/21/september11.usa13>
” -- against, that is, an idea, a fringe sentiment that, no matter how
heavily weaponized, had been marginalized until the United States put
it on the map by declaring “war” on it.
The U.S. then invaded and occupied big time, including a country that
had nothing to do with the terrorists who had attacked us, and we’ve
been at war ever since at a heavy cost -- now inching toward $5
trillion
<http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2016/us-budgetary-costs-wa
rs-thr
ough-2016-479-trillion-and-counting> . Conservative estimates of how
ough-2016-479-trillion-and-counting> many
people have been killed in the many war zones of what used to be
called the Global War on Terror is 1.3 to 2 million
<http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/26/body-count-report-reveals
-least
-13-million-lives-lost-us-led-war-terror> . The number of U.S.
-13-million-lives-lost-us-led-war-terror> military
personnel who have lost their lives is easier to put a number to: more
than
7,000 <http://icasualties.org/> , but that doesn’t count private
contractors (aka mercenaries), or those (far more difficult to
quantify) who later committed suicide
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/04/01/us-military-suic
ides-r emain-stubbornly-high/82518278/> . Now, President Trump has
begun adding to this bloody death toll, having ordered his first
(disastrous) strike, a Special Operations raid on Yemen, which killed
as many as 30 civilians
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-yemen-r
aid-ag
ree-to-policy-barack-obama-would-not-do-james-matthis-qassim-al-rimi-a
756686 1.html> , including children, and resulted in the death of an
American Navy SEAL as well.
September 11th was a long time ago. But I finally fell in love with my
country in the days following that awful attack. I saw for the first
time a certain strain of patriotism that swept me away, a strain that
says we are stronger together than alone, stronger than any blow that
strikes us, stronger in our differences, stronger in our unities. I’m
talking about the kind of patriotism that said: don’t you dare tell us
to go to Disney World, Mr. President! (That was, of course, after
George W. Bush had assured us
<https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/200
10927- 1.html> that, while he made war, our response as citizens to
9/11 should be to “get down to Disney World in Florida. Take your
families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.”)
Instead of heeding that lame advice, some of us went out and began to
try to solve problems and build community. I had read about it in
books -- the labor movement of the 1920s and 1930s and the civil
rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s -- but I hadn’t seen it myself,
hadn’t been a part of it before, and I fell in love.
Of course, the drumbeat for war started instantly in Washington and
was echoed throughout the nation, but many of us -- the intended
victims of that attack -- said “our grief is not a cry for war.” We
circled around the victims’ families; we reminded America that it
wasn’t only lawyers and hedge-fund managers who died that day, but
cooks and couriers and homeless people and undocumented immigrants,
too.
We pulled people from the rubble. We made the “pile” a place of
sacred memory long before a huge monument and gift shop were erected
there. We honored the first responders who died, we stood up for
Muslims and Arabs and all those whom ignorance scapegoated. We
marched against war in Afghanistan and then in far vaster numbers
against war in Iraq. We called for an international police response
to those acts of terrorism -- that weapon of the weak, not the
powerful -- instead of the unilateral, militarized approach adopted by
the Bush administration. We celebrated, and saw as a strength, New
York’s incredible diversity. We made art and music and poetry.
We prayed in all languages to all the names of God.
The Donald, a One-Man 9/11
I guess I’ve been thinking about September 2001 again because, only
weeks into his presidency, Donald Trump already seems like a one-man
9/11. He’s ridden roughshod over business as usual without even a
geopolitical crisis or calamity as an excuse -- and that’s not so
surprising since Trump himself is that calamity.
With a razor-thin mandate, considerable bluster, and a voracious
appetite for alt-facts (lies
<http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-02-07/ap-fact-check
-trump
-says-terrorism-acts-ignored-evidence> ), he’s not so much tipping
-says-terrorism-acts-ignored-evidence> over the
apple cart as declaring war on apples, carts, and anything else
beginning with the letter A or C.
It seems almost that random and chaotic. In these weeks, he’s shown a
particular appetite for upending convention, saying screw you to just
about everyone and everything, while scrapping the rules of decorum
and diplomacy.
With a sweep of his pen and a toss of his hair, he takes away
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-gives-no
-sign-
of-backing-down-from-travel-ban/2017/01/29/4ffe900a-e620-11e6-b82f-687
d6e6a3 e7c_story.html> visas, nullifies months of work by advocates
for refugees, and sends U.S. Special Forces off to kill and be killed
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38808631> . With a few
twitches of his thumbs he baits Mexico, disses China, and throws shade
at federal judges
<http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/04/opinions/donald-trumps-most-bone-chilli
ng-twe et-obeidallah-opinion/index.html> . With a few ill-chosen words
about Black History month
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-even-made-black-hist
ory-mo nth-about-himself_us_58921169e4b02772c4ea90c3> (comments that
would have been better written by my 10 year old), he resurrects
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/02/trump-i
mplied
-frederick-douglass-was-alive-the-abolitionists-family-offered-a-histo
ry-les son/> Frederick Douglass, disparages inner cities
<https://www.thenation.com/article/donald-trumps-imaginary-inner-citie
s/> , and slams the “dishonest” media again (and again and again). His
almost-month as president can be described as busy and brash, but it
barely hides the banality of greed.
Flying Our Flag
Sure, Donald Trump’s a new breed, but perhaps in the end our
resistance will make him the aberration he should be, rather than the
new normal. So many of his acts are aimed at demeaning, degrading,
demonizing, and denigrating, but he’s already failing -- by driving so
many of us to a new radical patriotism. I’m not the only one falling
in love with this country again and this love looks like resistance --
a resistance that, from the first moments of the Trump era, has seemed
to be almost everywhere you looked.
Even at his inauguration, a group of young people stood on chairs
wearing matching sweatshirts spelling out R-E-S-I-S-T
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/20/inauguration-protesters
-polic
e-washington-dc> in big letters. They had positioned themselves in
e-washington-dc> the
inner ring of the Capitol and were loud and visible as Chief Justice
John Roberts swore the new president into office. The environmental
group Greenpeace
<https://secure3.convio.net/gpeace/site/SPageNavigator/resist.html>
greeted
Trump’s White House with a daring banner drop
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/greenpeace-resist-banner-protes
t-trum p.html?_r=0> from a crane across the street -- a huge, bright
banner also emblazoned with RESIST. Pink woolen “pussy hats” were
popularized by the Women <https://www.womensmarch.com/> ’s March, a
global event and possibly the largest demonstration
<http://www.vox.com/2017/1/22/14350808/womens-marches-largest-demonstr
ation-
us-history-map> in American history, one that rekindled our hope and
strengthened our resolve on inauguration weekend. Now, those hats help
us recognize and salute one another.
We’re working hard. We’re tying up
<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/21/1622923/-Republicans-chased-i
nto-hi
ding-by-constituents-angry-over-Obamacare-repeal> the phone lines all
ding-by-constituents-angry-over-Obamacare-repeal> over
Capitol Hill, turning town halls into rowdy rallies
<http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rep-jason-chaffetz-faces-angry-to
wn-hal
l-crowd-utah-n719231> for health care and human rights, shelling out
l-crowd-utah-n719231> money
to support Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, the immigration lawyers
<https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5702/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?don
ate_pa ge_KEY=1255> fighting for people barred from the U.S. and the
closest Black Lives Matter chapter <http://blacklivesmatter.com/> .
We’re getting organized
<https://www.indivisibleguide.com/resources-3/> , getting trained
<http://nonviolencetraininghub.org/events/students-united-for-nonviole
nce-an
d-the-portland-peace-teams-nonviolence-and-de-escalation-training-2017
-03-05
/> , getting prepared
<https://www.resistancemanual.org/Resistance_Manual_Home> , and
getting connected <https://www.womensmarch.com/100/action2/> . And
we’re doing it all with a sense of humor: the Bowling Green Massacre
Victims Fund <https://www.bowlinggreenmassacrefund.com/> ? Priceless
<http://elitedaily.com/news/politics/kellyanne-conway-bowling-green-ma
ssacre
/1778354/> !
We are, in short, resisting in old ways and new.
Given my background, it’s no surprise that I’m not a flag waver. While
growing up, I learned a lot more about what was wrong with my country
than about what was right with it. But I’m seeing so much that’s right
about it in this new Trump era of engagement or, if you prefer, call
it radical patriotism. I’m mad... I’m scared... I’m hopeful... I’m
still in love -- more so than ever -- with this country Trump is trying to
hijack.
I don’t live in a big city any more. I’m not a scrappy kid in my early
thirties either. I’m a mother of three kids and a homeowner. I’ve sunk
my roots in a small, struggling, stalwart community along
Connecticut’s eastern shoreline and I’m planning to live here for the
rest of my life.
New London <http://www.ci.new-london.ct.us/> is a community of 27,000
or so, poor and diverse. It’s almost a majority-minority community, in
fact.
We’re home to three refugee families
<http://www.theday.com/local/20170208/new-london-church-welcomes-syria
n-fami
ly-to-new-home> settled from Syria and Sudan. We have a good school
system,
getting better all the time. Every Wednesday, the chefs at the middle
school <http://www.newlondon.org/about_nlps/food_services/brigaid> up
the street from my house cook a meal, open the cafeteria, and invite
the whole community to eat dinner for five dollars per person. I went
with my girls a couple of weeks ago for Cajun shrimp stew and white
rice. The room was full and the mood was high. Young professionals and
hipsters with kids ate alongside folks who had just stood in line for
an hour and a half for a free box of food from the United Way across
the street and gotten a free meal coupon as well for their troubles.
New London’s mayor held a press conference
<http://www.theday.com/local/20170202/civic-faith-leaders-reaffirm-new
-londo
ns-commitment-to-immigrants> soon after in the lobby of City Hall
ns-commitment-to-immigrants> where
the
heads of all the city departments asserted their support for
immigrants and refugees in our community. The last city council
meeting was standing room only as people pushed an ordinance to keep
fracking waste
<https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-new-london-city-council-ban-frac
king-w
aste-in-new-london> out of our area.
The weekend after the inauguration, my husband and I raised a flagpole
on the second story porch of our house and hung a rainbow peace flag from
it.
I
look up at it every morning waving in the breeze and I’m glad I live
here, in this country, in this moment of radical upsurge and a new
spirit of patriotism.
I’m talking to my neighbors. I’m going to city council meetings. I’m
writing letters to the editor
<http://www.theday.com/letters-to-the-editor/20170208/proud-of-new-lon
don-fo
r-welcoming-all> of our local paper. I’m taking my Sudanese neighbors
grocery shopping and to the post office. I’m loaded for bear
(nonviolently, of course) if anyone tries to mess with them.
My kids are the anti-Trumps. “We went to the women’s march in
Hartford, Mommy,” two-year-old Madeline shouts every time she hears the
word woman.
She knows enough to be proud of that. “Look, Mommy! They have a flag
like ours!” says four-year-old Seamus with delight whenever he sees
another rainbow, even if it’s just a sticker. He’s learning to
recognize our tribe of patriots.
We’re engaged, we’re awake, we’re in love, and no one is taking our
country from us.
_____
Frida Berrigan, a
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176170/tomgram%3A_frida_berrigan,_gun
s_for_ tots/> TomDispatch regular, writes the Little Insurrections
<http://wagingnonviolence.org/author/fridaberrigan/> blog for
WagingNonviolence.org, is the author of It Runs In The Family: On
Being Raised By Radicals and Growing Into Rebellious Motherhood
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1939293650/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20> ,
and lives in New London, Connecticut.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter <https://twitter.com/TomDispatch> and
join us on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch> . Check out
the newest Dispatch Book, John Feffer's dystopian novel Splinterlands
<https://www.amazon.com/dp/1608467244/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20> ,
as well as Nick Turse’s Next Time They
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608466485/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20>
’ll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardt's latest book, Shadow
Government:
Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a
Single-Superpower World
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463656/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20> .
<http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize>
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valid.
President Donald Trump. (photo: Getty)
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176244/tomgram%3A_frida_berrigan%2C_do
nald_t
rump%2C_a_one-man_9_11/http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176244/tomgram%
3A_fri da_berrigan%2C_donald_trump%2C_a_one-man_9_11/
Loving America and Resisting Trump: The New Patriotism
By Frida Berrigan, TomDispatch
16 February 17
While preparing to walk in New York City
<http://pix11.com/2017/01/21/womens-march-in-nyc-what-you-need-to-know
/>
--
or, as it turned out, given the staggering crowds, to stand in one
spot for long periods -- in support of the Women’s March (which would
set protest records nationally
<http://www.vox.com/2017/1/22/14350808/womens-marches-largest-demonstr
ation-
us-history-map> ), I had a specific urge. I wanted to carry the flag.
us-history-map> I’m
talking about the stars and stripes, the one that “o’er the ramparts”
flew.
Although I could indeed have gotten my hands on a flag, I had no idea
how to get a pole for it and I certainly wasn’t going to drape it over
my shoulders. In its own way, it was a ridiculous idea, given that, at
almost 73, I probably would only have lasted a few spare minutes
actually carrying a flag on a pole.
Still, the idea meant something to me for a simple enough reason: this
country is mine. I’ve always loved it even when -- as in the Vietnam
era
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175951/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_i.f._st
one_an d_the_urge_to_serve/> -- I was so angry with it for what it
was doing; even when, as in these last 15 years, I disagreed with just
about everything its leaders did in the world. In the end, I’m rooted
here in ways that go right to the heart of things.
My grandfather was an immigrant. A runaway, he made it to this country
in steerage class with only a few cents in his pocket, initially
sharing a bed behind a stove with someone who used it when he didn’t.
It was a typical story -- though, sadly, perhaps far less typical if
Donald Trump (in the great tradition of American nativism
<http://wemeantwell.com/blog/?p=21138>
) has anything to do with it. Though he died when I was quite young, I
was deeply proud of him and of what he did and how he got here. My
grandmother was the daughter of immigrants. She helped make me who I
am. Thanks in part to her, I’ve always felt a deep responsibility for
this country -- both for what it is and especially for what it isn’t.
This website, <http://www.tomdispatch.com/> TomDispatch, is an
expression of that. For the last 15 years, it’s focused regularly on
“what it isn’t,” a body of work I consider my late-in-life service to
this country.
Here’s the thing with that flag. It’s a potent symbol, it's mine, and
I’ll be damned if I’ll give up the most crucial symbols of my country
to Donald Trump. So I have my version of patriotism that’s bone deep
in me, but I must admit that I’m moved by
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176170/tomgram%3A_frida_berrigan,_gun
s_for_ tots/> TomDispatch regular Frida Berrigan’s version of it as
well. Her particular embrace of this country makes me want to say to
those so much younger than me and in despair: don’t let Donald Trump
make you reject what’s basic and best about America. Do that and,
despite yourself, you’ll be aiding and abetting the crimes of the
Trump regime (which will be plentiful
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176240/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_it%27
s_a_bi rd..._it%27s_a_plane..._it%27s_the_donald_in_the_news%21/> in
the years to come). Tom
-Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch
Loving America and Resisting Trump
The New Patriotism
o reality has inexorably, inescapably penetrated my life. It didn’t
take long. Yes, Donald Trump is actually the president of the United
States. In that guise, in just his first weeks in office, he’s already
declared war on language, on loving, on people who are different from
him -- on the kind of world, in short, that I want to live in. He’s
promised to erect high walls, keep some people in and others out and
lock up those he despises, while threatening
<http://time.com/4649833/president-trump-torture-war-on-terror/>
to torture and abuse with impunity.
Still, a small personal miracle emerges from this nightmare. It turns
out that, despite growing up an anarchist protest kid who
automatically read Howard Zinn’s A People
<https://zinnedproject.org/materials/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-s
tates/
’s History of the United States alongside the official textbooks, Ithis country more each day. So I find myself eternally upset about our
love
new political reality-show, about a man so thin-skinned he lashes out
at everything and so insulated in his own alt-reality that no response
to him seems to matter.
Above all, I am so mad. Yeah, I’m mad at all those people who voted
for Trump and even madder at the ones who didn’t vote at all. I’m mad
at everyone who thinks the sum total of their contribution to the
political well-being of this country is voting every two or four
years. I’m mad at our corporate-political system and how easily
distracted people are. I’m steaming mad, but mostly at myself.
Yep, I’m mad at myself and at the Obamas. They made empire look so good!
Their grace and intelligence, their obvious love for one another and
the way they telegraphed a certain approachability and reasonableness.
So attractive! They were fun -- or at least they looked like that on
social media. Michelle in the karaoke car
<http://www.vogue.com/article/michelle-obama-missy-elliott-carpool-kar
aoke>
with Missy Elliot singing Beyoncé
<http://www.vogue.com/projects/13293183/beyonce-september-2015-cover/>
and talking about global girls' education
<http://time.com/4051350/beyonce-michelle-obama-and-malala-yousafzai-u
nite-t o-push-for-girls-education/> ! Barack and a tiny Superman
<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/barack-obama-poses-superman-halloween>
at a White House Halloween party. Michelle, unapologetically fierce
<http://motto.time.com/4530246/michelle-obama-donald-trump-speech/>
after Trump’s demeaning Access Hollywood comments
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extreme
ly-lew
d-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-
3d2684 7eeed4_story.html?utm_term=.d1f3ce7144ed> came to light. I
loved those Obamas, despite my politics and my analysis. I was
supposed to resist all his efforts at world domination through drones
<http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/01/12/reflecting-on-obamas-
presid ency/obamas-embrace-of-drone-strikes-will-be-a-lasting-legacy>
and sweeping trade deals and instead I fell a little bit in love, even
as I marched and fasted and tried to resist.
Falling in Love With My Country
Now, we have a new president. And my love is gone, along with my
admiration, my pride, and my secret wish to attend a state dinner and
chat with the Obamas over local wine and grass-fed beef sliders.
What’s not gone, though, what’s strangely stronger than ever, is my
love for this country.
I didn’t love the United States under Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or
Bush the First. I was a kid and they were names on protest banners and
headlines in the news. My parents were the Catholic peace activists
Liz McAlister and Phil Berrigan, and I grew up in an anarchist
collective of Christian resisters. My parents and their friends went
to jail repeatedly and resolutely. We demonstrated
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175966/tomgram:_frida_berrigan,_witne
ss_to_ war,_american-style/> , rallied, and railed at every
institution of power in Washington. Those presidents made the adults
around me angry and agitated, so they scared me.
I didn’t love the United States under Bill Clinton either -- I was
young and in college and opposed to everything -- nor under George W.
Bush. I was young and in New York City and still opposed to almost
everything.
I started calling myself a “New Yorker” three years after moving there
when, on a sunny Tuesday morning, airplanes became weapons, tall
towers fell, and
3,000 people died. I emerged from my routine subway ride at 14th
Street, unaware and unscathed, to stand still with the rest of the
city and watch the sky turn black. I spent the rest of that day in
Manhattan with friends trying to reach my parents and following the
news, as we all tried (and
failed) to come to grips with the new reality. Once the bridges
reopened, we walked home to Brooklyn that evening, terrified and
shell-shocked.
9/11 provided the rationale for sweeping changes in Washington. War by
fiat, paid for in emergency supplementals that circumvented
Congressional processes; a new Department of Homeland Security (where
did that word “homeland” even come from?); a proliferation of
increasingly muscular intelligence agencies; and a new brand of
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175979/best_of_tomdispatch%3A_karen_g
reenbe rg,_barbarism_lite/> “legal” scholarship that justified both
torture and indefinite detention, while tucking secret black sites
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/08/13/the-black-sites> away
in foreign countries. All this as the United States went to war
against “terrorism
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/21/september11.usa13>
” -- against, that is, an idea, a fringe sentiment that, no matter how
heavily weaponized, had been marginalized until the United States put
it on the map by declaring “war” on it.
The U.S. then invaded and occupied big time, including a country that
had nothing to do with the terrorists who had attacked us, and we’ve
been at war ever since at a heavy cost -- now inching toward $5
trillion
<http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2016/us-budgetary-costs-wa
rs-thr
ough-2016-479-trillion-and-counting> . Conservative estimates of how
ough-2016-479-trillion-and-counting> many
people have been killed in the many war zones of what used to be
called the Global War on Terror is 1.3 to 2 million
<http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/26/body-count-report-reveals
-least
-13-million-lives-lost-us-led-war-terror> . The number of U.S.
-13-million-lives-lost-us-led-war-terror> military
personnel who have lost their lives is easier to put a number to: more
than
7,000 <http://icasualties.org/> , but that doesn’t count private
contractors (aka mercenaries), or those (far more difficult to
quantify) who later committed suicide
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/04/01/us-military-suic
ides-r emain-stubbornly-high/82518278/> . Now, President Trump has
begun adding to this bloody death toll, having ordered his first
(disastrous) strike, a Special Operations raid on Yemen, which killed
as many as 30 civilians
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-yemen-r
aid-ag
ree-to-policy-barack-obama-would-not-do-james-matthis-qassim-al-rimi-a
756686 1.html> , including children, and resulted in the death of an
American Navy SEAL as well.
September 11th was a long time ago. But I finally fell in love with my
country in the days following that awful attack. I saw for the first
time a certain strain of patriotism that swept me away, a strain that
says we are stronger together than alone, stronger than any blow that
strikes us, stronger in our differences, stronger in our unities. I’m
talking about the kind of patriotism that said: don’t you dare tell us
to go to Disney World, Mr. President! (That was, of course, after
George W. Bush had assured us
<https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/200
10927- 1.html> that, while he made war, our response as citizens to
9/11 should be to “get down to Disney World in Florida. Take your
families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.”)
Instead of heeding that lame advice, some of us went out and began to
try to solve problems and build community. I had read about it in
books -- the labor movement of the 1920s and 1930s and the civil
rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s -- but I hadn’t seen it myself,
hadn’t been a part of it before, and I fell in love.
Of course, the drumbeat for war started instantly in Washington and
was echoed throughout the nation, but many of us -- the intended
victims of that attack -- said “our grief is not a cry for war.” We
circled around the victims’ families; we reminded America that it
wasn’t only lawyers and hedge-fund managers who died that day, but
cooks and couriers and homeless people and undocumented immigrants,
too.
We pulled people from the rubble. We made the “pile” a place of sacred
memory long before a huge monument and gift shop were erected there.
We honored the first responders who died, we stood up for Muslims and
Arabs and all those whom ignorance scapegoated. We marched against war
in Afghanistan and then in far vaster numbers against war in Iraq. We
called for an international police response to those acts of terrorism
-- that weapon of the weak, not the powerful -- instead of the
unilateral, militarized approach adopted by the Bush administration.
We celebrated, and saw as a strength, New York’s incredible diversity.
We made art and music and poetry.
We prayed in all languages to all the names of God.
The Donald, a One-Man 9/11
I guess I’ve been thinking about September 2001 again because, only
weeks into his presidency, Donald Trump already seems like a one-man
9/11. He’s ridden roughshod over business as usual without even a
geopolitical crisis or calamity as an excuse -- and that’s not so
surprising since Trump himself is that calamity.
With a razor-thin mandate, considerable bluster, and a voracious
appetite for alt-facts (lies
<http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-02-07/ap-fact-check
-trump
-says-terrorism-acts-ignored-evidence> ), he’s not so much tipping
-says-terrorism-acts-ignored-evidence> over the
apple cart as declaring war on apples, carts, and anything else
beginning with the letter A or C.
It seems almost that random and chaotic. In these weeks, he’s shown a
particular appetite for upending convention, saying screw you to just
about everyone and everything, while scrapping the rules of decorum
and diplomacy.
With a sweep of his pen and a toss of his hair, he takes away
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-gives-no
-sign-
of-backing-down-from-travel-ban/2017/01/29/4ffe900a-e620-11e6-b82f-687
d6e6a3 e7c_story.html> visas, nullifies months of work by advocates
for refugees, and sends U.S. Special Forces off to kill and be killed
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38808631> . With a few
twitches of his thumbs he baits Mexico, disses China, and throws shade
at federal judges
<http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/04/opinions/donald-trumps-most-bone-chilli
ng-twe et-obeidallah-opinion/index.html> . With a few ill-chosen words
about Black History month
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-even-made-black-hist
ory-mo nth-about-himself_us_58921169e4b02772c4ea90c3> (comments that
would have been better written by my 10 year old), he resurrects
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/02/trump-i
mplied
-frederick-douglass-was-alive-the-abolitionists-family-offered-a-histo
ry-les son/> Frederick Douglass, disparages inner cities
<https://www.thenation.com/article/donald-trumps-imaginary-inner-citie
s/> , and slams the “dishonest” media again (and again and again). His
almost-month as president can be described as busy and brash, but it
barely hides the banality of greed.
Flying Our Flag
Sure, Donald Trump’s a new breed, but perhaps in the end our
resistance will make him the aberration he should be, rather than the
new normal. So many of his acts are aimed at demeaning, degrading,
demonizing, and denigrating, but he’s already failing -- by driving so
many of us to a new radical patriotism. I’m not the only one falling
in love with this country again and this love looks like resistance --
a resistance that, from the first moments of the Trump era, has seemed
to be almost everywhere you looked.
Even at his inauguration, a group of young people stood on chairs
wearing matching sweatshirts spelling out R-E-S-I-S-T
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/20/inauguration-protesters
-polic
e-washington-dc> in big letters. They had positioned themselves in
e-washington-dc> the
inner ring of the Capitol and were loud and visible as Chief Justice
John Roberts swore the new president into office. The environmental
group Greenpeace
<https://secure3.convio.net/gpeace/site/SPageNavigator/resist.html>
greeted
Trump’s White House with a daring banner drop
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/greenpeace-resist-banner-protes
t-trum p.html?_r=0> from a crane across the street -- a huge, bright
banner also emblazoned with RESIST. Pink woolen “pussy hats” were
popularized by the Women <https://www.womensmarch.com/> ’s March, a
global event and possibly the largest demonstration
<http://www.vox.com/2017/1/22/14350808/womens-marches-largest-demonstr
ation-
us-history-map> in American history, one that rekindled our hope and
strengthened our resolve on inauguration weekend. Now, those hats help
us recognize and salute one another.
We’re working hard. We’re tying up
<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/21/1622923/-Republicans-chased-i
nto-hi
ding-by-constituents-angry-over-Obamacare-repeal> the phone lines all
ding-by-constituents-angry-over-Obamacare-repeal> over
Capitol Hill, turning town halls into rowdy rallies
<http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rep-jason-chaffetz-faces-angry-to
wn-hal
l-crowd-utah-n719231> for health care and human rights, shelling out
l-crowd-utah-n719231> money
to support Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, the immigration lawyers
<https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5702/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?don
ate_pa ge_KEY=1255> fighting for people barred from the U.S. and the
closest Black Lives Matter chapter <http://blacklivesmatter.com/> .
We’re getting organized
<https://www.indivisibleguide.com/resources-3/> , getting trained
<http://nonviolencetraininghub.org/events/students-united-for-nonviole
nce-an
d-the-portland-peace-teams-nonviolence-and-de-escalation-training-2017
-03-05
/> , getting prepared
<https://www.resistancemanual.org/Resistance_Manual_Home> , and
getting connected <https://www.womensmarch.com/100/action2/> . And
we’re doing it all with a sense of humor: the Bowling Green Massacre
Victims Fund <https://www.bowlinggreenmassacrefund.com/> ? Priceless
<http://elitedaily.com/news/politics/kellyanne-conway-bowling-green-ma
ssacre
/1778354/> !
We are, in short, resisting in old ways and new.
Given my background, it’s no surprise that I’m not a flag waver. While
growing up, I learned a lot more about what was wrong with my country
than about what was right with it. But I’m seeing so much that’s right
about it in this new Trump era of engagement or, if you prefer, call
it radical patriotism. I’m mad... I’m scared... I’m hopeful... I’m
still in love -- more so than ever -- with this country Trump is trying to
hijack.
I don’t live in a big city any more. I’m not a scrappy kid in my early
thirties either. I’m a mother of three kids and a homeowner. I’ve sunk
my roots in a small, struggling, stalwart community along
Connecticut’s eastern shoreline and I’m planning to live here for the
rest of my life.
New London <http://www.ci.new-london.ct.us/> is a community of 27,000
or so, poor and diverse. It’s almost a majority-minority community, in
fact.
We’re home to three refugee families
<http://www.theday.com/local/20170208/new-london-church-welcomes-syria
n-fami
ly-to-new-home> settled from Syria and Sudan. We have a good school
system,
getting better all the time. Every Wednesday, the chefs at the middle
school <http://www.newlondon.org/about_nlps/food_services/brigaid> up
the street from my house cook a meal, open the cafeteria, and invite
the whole community to eat dinner for five dollars per person. I went
with my girls a couple of weeks ago for Cajun shrimp stew and white
rice. The room was full and the mood was high. Young professionals and
hipsters with kids ate alongside folks who had just stood in line for
an hour and a half for a free box of food from the United Way across
the street and gotten a free meal coupon as well for their troubles.
New London’s mayor held a press conference
<http://www.theday.com/local/20170202/civic-faith-leaders-reaffirm-new
-londo
ns-commitment-to-immigrants> soon after in the lobby of City Hall
ns-commitment-to-immigrants> where
the
heads of all the city departments asserted their support for
immigrants and refugees in our community. The last city council
meeting was standing room only as people pushed an ordinance to keep
fracking waste
<https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-new-london-city-council-ban-frac
king-w
aste-in-new-london> out of our area.
The weekend after the inauguration, my husband and I raised a flagpole
on the second story porch of our house and hung a rainbow peace flag from
it.
I
look up at it every morning waving in the breeze and I’m glad I live
here, in this country, in this moment of radical upsurge and a new
spirit of patriotism.
I’m talking to my neighbors. I’m going to city council meetings. I’m
writing letters to the editor
<http://www.theday.com/letters-to-the-editor/20170208/proud-of-new-lon
don-fo
r-welcoming-all> of our local paper. I’m taking my Sudanese neighbors
grocery shopping and to the post office. I’m loaded for bear
(nonviolently, of course) if anyone tries to mess with them.
My kids are the anti-Trumps. “We went to the women’s march in
Hartford, Mommy,” two-year-old Madeline shouts every time she hears the
word woman.
She knows enough to be proud of that. “Look, Mommy! They have a flag
like ours!” says four-year-old Seamus with delight whenever he sees
another rainbow, even if it’s just a sticker. He’s learning to
recognize our tribe of patriots.
We’re engaged, we’re awake, we’re in love, and no one is taking our
country from us.
Frida Berrigan, a
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176170/tomgram%3A_frida_berrigan,_gun
s_for_ tots/> TomDispatch regular, writes the Little Insurrections
<http://wagingnonviolence.org/author/fridaberrigan/> blog for
WagingNonviolence.org, is the author of It Runs In The Family: On
Being Raised By Radicals and Growing Into Rebellious Motherhood
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1939293650/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20> ,
and lives in New London, Connecticut.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter <https://twitter.com/TomDispatch> and
join us on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch> . Check out
the newest Dispatch Book, John Feffer's dystopian novel Splinterlands
<https://www.amazon.com/dp/1608467244/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20> ,
as well as Nick Turse’s Next Time They
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608466485/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20>
’ll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardt's latest book, Shadow
Government:
Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a
Single-Superpower World
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463656/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20> .
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socializehttp://e-max.it/posiz
ioname
nto-siti-web/socialize