INDIVISIBLE Lambertville NJ / New Hope PA

Author: Indivisible Lambertville / New Hope

  • How Shall We Impeach Thee? Let Us Count the Ways, Part V

    Contributed by Paige Barnett.

    Happy New Year! 2020 has arrived and with that there is much work that needs doin’ to safeguard our democracy. Make no mistake, even though Trump was impeached by the House in a vote mostly among party lines, it’s now more important than ever to write or call your senators and let them know you want to see a fair trial in the Senate (see below for easy ways to connect to them).  

    The trial in the Senate will commence when the Articles of Impeachment are sent from the House. Presently, Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are at an impasse, due in part to McConnell rejecting the Democrats call for witnesses and his stunning statement that he will fully coordinate with the White House. Both Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have voiced concerns with McConnell’s lack of impartiality. Pelosi noted in her subsequent speech after the final House impeachment vote, that the House will come to a consensus as to when the Articles will be sent and only when Pelosi is satisfied that the American people will have a fair trial.  

    There are four possibilities for how the Senate trial shakes out:  a. There is no trial, at least not in 2020. However, this is the least likely outcome because the Constitution calls for a trial in the Senate after an impeachment in the House.  b. Pelosi gets her way and McConnell calls witnesses. c. McConnell gets his way and has a speedy trial that works in Trump’s favor. d. There is a compromise. 

    It’s anybody’s guess at this point. Over the holiday there has been additional news that could work in the Democrats favor.  For the details, read the Washington Post article.

    In the meantime, Pelosi invited Trump to make the State of the Union address on February 4th. What’s interesting about this invite is the very possibility of the trial looming over Trump’s head. What will the State of the Union address look like? If we don’t want to see a victory speech, we MUST CALL our senators EVERY DAY and HOUND them.

    Again, here is what you can do: 

    • Right now, phone the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senate office you request. Tell them you want a fair trial in the Senate and not to be held hostage to the GOP circling the wagons around the White House to protect a blatantly corrupt president. 
    • You can also access the Indivisble.org webpage to connect you. Indivisible Senator contact page
    • In addition, be on the ready for another rapid response action. Literally drop everything and take to the streets when the Senate verdict is nigh. It’s imperative that we are loud and visible to make known that the PEOPLE want Trump IMPEACHED & REMOVED. 

  • Your 2020 Call to Action

    Contributed by Cindi Sternfeld.

    Just about every day over the past three+ years, I’ve gone to bed with a pang of fear in my belly about the state of our nation and woken up the next with a jolt of determination. 

    Now, as we enter this new, long anticipated, election year, I want to speak to both your fear and your determination. I think many of us have been fearful, but we borrowed courage from each other and acted when the moment required. 

    Friends, if there was ever a time to lend and borrow both the courage and determination to act, it is now. We’ve been living in a dystopian novel for the past three years. We cannot sit back and wait for “other people” to speak out and show up. 

    The answers to the question of why some of my friends and relatives have or have not engaged in political activism are widely varied. Among those who haven’t taken action or have been primarily keyboard warriors, they seem to feel that activism is not a good use of their time and that nothing we do will matter; that influencing the political landscape is beyond their reach. Out of my informal survey of about 50 people, only one said that they did not know the ways they could get involved. (If you are reading this and you are like that one person, read to the end and I’ll provide resources.)  

    Among the active ones, most had never attempted to influence politics and initially found that connecting with other concerned citizens was fun and helped to allay their fears.  As time went on, they learned that their contribution did make a difference. If you doubt this, I point you to Tom Malinowski’s win in NJ07 or that Helen Tai was the first Democrat in 34 years to win a special election and she was the first woman and first person of color ever. In addition, in the general election, Helen came within 600 votes of winning the Pennsylvania 178th!  We have had many wins over the past three years, aided by many first-time activists who dug deep to find the courage they didn’t know they had to step up and speak out. 

    I recognize that the threats to our democracy by this president, our Attorney General and others can feel overwhelming. They make remembering the wins more challenging and more important than ever.  But I promise you, we are making a difference.   

    My own activism is a bit self-serving. There is a story about the Dutch-born American clergyman and activist, A.J Muste, who protested the Vietnam War.  It is said that a reporter once asked Muste, “Do you really think you are going to change the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night in front of the White House with a candle?” Muste responded, “Oh I don’t do this to change the country, I do this so the country won’t change me.”  

    The opposite of activism is not passivity, it is apathy.  We will all need to reach deep this year and find our reason for, and our courage to act. Remember every bit of fear and sadness you felt in the aftermath of the 2016 election: Use it as fuel to action and others will be motivated by your example. The stakes could not be higher. We can not depend on “other people” to do this because every one of us is needed for this effort.

    Today I am asking you to join me in this work. Do not let this president change you — but if he does, let it be for the better.  If you are already doing more than you have ever done before, I thank you and I believe that future generations will thank you. The next 10 months will determine no less than the fate of our democracy. 

    On Wednesday, November 4th, 2020, will you be able to say that you did all you could save our democracy?  And if not, who will you blame?   

    Check out these resources and get moving!

    • Our January Community Gathering will have a smorgasbord of ways to get active – come check them out. 
    • The MoveOn Text Team is a nationwide community of volunteers using the power of peer-to-peer text messaging to mobilize members and voters across the country. You will use their platform to send texts using your computer or phone but you will NOT use your phone number or your email address. If you need any help to sign up or get started let us know and we can provide it!  To join the MoveOn Text Team click on front.moveon.org 
    • Become a Deep Canvasser with Changing The Conversation in Bucks CTCTogether.org or ask to join the closed facebook page titled, Changing The Conversation in Bucks.  
    • ResistBot is a platform that enables you to communicate with your Congressperson and your Senators.  Using the Resistbot platform, you can turn a text message from your phone into an email, fax or postal letter. It is quick and easy and a great way to be heard. To sign up with Resistbot, text 50409 to get started.  
    • ilnhclone.indivisible.blue calendar and our closed and public facebook pages are all resources that can connect you to local action  

    ILNH Monthly Community Meeting dates: When you attend an ILNH Community Gathering, you can connect with other concerned people and learn ways to get your activism on. If you already attend our monthly meetings but would benefit from a little more encouragement, reach out to our Membership Chairs Nancy Boelter at lilnan98@yahoo.com or Paige Barnett by email at info@ilnhclone.indivisible.blue

  • Just the Facts on GOTV effectiveness

     Contributed by Olga Vanucci.

    • Door-to-door canvassing is the most consistently effective method of voter mobilization, and the success of canvassing can be attributed to the personal, face-to-face delivery of the GOTV messages.
    • Personalized messages delivered in a conversational manner over the phone may be as effective as canvassing.
    • Impersonal GOTV methods, such as mass email and robo calls, are chronically ineffective means of mobilizing voters.
    • The manner in which the messages are delivered–personally and conversationally–is more important than the content of the messages themselves.

    Source:  https://isps.yale.edu/node/16698

  • Resolved to Win: Vision 2020

    Contributed by Deb Kline.

    The first month of the year finds many of us setting goals and making plans for what we hope to personally achieve or accomplish in the coming year. The goal of these exercises is to somehow make life better for ourselves. January seems a likely month to start anew, especially after we’ve tipped the scales of excess over the previous two to three months.  

    Psychologically, 1/1/2020 seems to hold so much promise. Not only a new year, but a new decade, and why not put a stake in the ground? 

    There’s another date ahead that holds a lot of promise: 11/3/2020. That’s when millions of voters head to the polls and determine the direction of our country for the next four years. While it may seem that 11 months is a long way away, it’s now that we need to make our resolve, our commitment to do all we can to create the outcome we want to see. 

    John Norcross, a psychology professor at the University of Scranton who has studied resolutions for decades, says there’s a key ingredient that makes the difference in whether a person adheres or achieves his or her New Year’s resolutions. That is to first and foremost, believe that you can do it. In addition, being clear on what it is you want to achieve, eg. specificity, can move the needle farther in the direction of a positive outcome. Two other ingredients for success include going public with your intention and being around supportive people. 

    At our December Holiday Gathering, many of the attendees wrote on the Resolution 2020 banner what they intend to do this year to get our country on the right track. There are some great commitments, ranging from canvassing, to hosting a Meet and Greet, to texting voters and hosting postcard parties and lots more. (Yes, we have your names, too). If you didn’t get the opportunity to write on the banner, come to our Community Gathering – we have plenty of room! 

    If we want to save this country, all of us need to resolve right now to do whatever it takes to ensure that November 4 brings us the outcome which we have longed for since January 2017. We believe we can reclaim and rebuild our country based on the values of equality, honesty, integrity, caring and stewardship. It’s time we put this stake in the ground now: “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” 

    From my point of view, getting this president, his administration, and a number of the GOP supporters out of the way would certainly make my life better.  

  • Art Works: Books and Movies That Tell the Story of US

    Contributed by Lisa Bergson and Liza Watson.

    We’re adding a new topic to our ILNH newsletter to share some of the books or movies that have struck us as particularly relevant to understanding where we are, how we got here and where we’re going with our country. Kicking off the first month, Elizabeth ‘Liza’ Watson and Lisa Bergson offer their perspectives and synopses of works that have made an impression on them. Side note: Just Mercy, the movie reviewed by Lisa, will be playing at the County Theater on Friday, January 10. 

    • Book Review: “The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law that Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians and Other European Immigrants Out of America.” – Liza Watson

    -Swarms of aliens, with loathsome diseases of the flesh.  A real emergency, fleets of ships with immigrants hanging over their edges, passengers fed from troughs like swine.-

    Sounds like language that could be used in 2019, yes?  It comes from the first half of the 20th century, when the anti-immigration movement gained so much influence that Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Act, legislation establishing severe quotas on the entry of “non-Nordic” migrants.

    -Columbus, from his portraits and from his busts, authentic or not, was clearly of Nordic ancestry.-

    People of Italian descent might find this statement about Columbus to be utterly ridiculous, but such was the desire to define race according to geography, that bizarre statements like the one above gained traction.

    The author traces anti-immigration fervor back to bastardization of Darwin’s ideas about species adaptation. It works like this: if there are ideal humans that have arisen within good societies, then those are the people who should be Americans, and who should reproduce.  The American population shouldn’t be sullied by bad people. Indeed, such appallingly poor research was conducted to examine societal tendencies that one study showed Romanians were 41% more likely than the average American to be criminal. Italians were 57% more likely to be insane. And Serbians were six times more likely to be inadequate (whatever that means!)

    There were counter-voices to the nonsense. In particular, Franz Boas, the father of modern American Anthropology spoke out publicly, testified in Congress and critiqued books. He wasn’t heard. The list of influential people who supported racist limits is large and chilling:  Henry Cabot Lodge, Calvin Coolidge, Maxwell Perkins (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s editor), Theodore and Eleanor Roosevelt.  

    Eventually, during WWII, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed, and in the 50’s other laws opened doors for those fleeing Soviet controlled countries. Finally, in 1965, Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act into law. It abolished quotas and established a nationality-blind system for immigration.

    I always thought my views about immigration were just normal.  It turns out I’ve been a fool. The revolting language and action coming from Washington DC since 2017 resonates with historical anti-immigration racist bias.

    I recommend this book.  It’s a good read, with many stories and insights.  You’ll be aghast, and illuminated. It shook my eyes open.

    In the end, I take heart from the author’s ironic comment, “Exactly what the anti-immigration movement feared came true: a few generations of adaptation, cross-fertilization, and intermarriage had taken their country away from them. They even lost their claim to the term ‘native American’.“

    • Movie Review: “Just Mercy” – Lisa Bergson

    No wonder his Death Row pro bono clients at Alabama’s Holman Prison don’t trust him at first. Portrayed by Michael B. Jordan in the riveting movie, “Just Mercy”, the dedicated, courageous, and highly analytical Harvard Law School graduate, Bryan Stevenson, is almost too good to be true.  But, back in the 1980s, when Stevenson took on the brutally racist Alabaman criminal injustice system, you could sure use some super-hero powers.   

    Stevenson’s cool, consistently principled persona is a great foil for the engaging characters he encounters, men unjustly sentenced to death row only because the color of their skin made it easy and convenient to do so.  “I knew he was guilty the minute I saw his mug shot,” the District Attorney said of one inmate wrongly convicted of double homicide. 

    Death Row inmates could smell the stench of burnt skin when one of their fellows was taken to the “kill room”, and the portrayal of another inmate, Herbert’s execution led this writer to cover her eyes.  My husband reported that the film spares us what Stevenson gravely witnessed at his doomed client’s request. Just before his execution, Herbert confided, “It’s been so strange, Bryan. More people have asked me what they can do to help in the last fourteen hours of my life than ever asked me in the years when I was coming up.”  

    Recruited to help this severely disturbed inmate just weeks before his scheduled death, Stevenson was tormented by the fact that the court never heard of Herbert’s gruesome experiences in Vietnam, his extreme PTSD, nor the abuse he suffered as a motherless child. More, Bryan’s experience of Herbert’s tragic end heightened his determination to do all he could to protect his clients from the same unjust fate. 

    The arc of the story homes in on Walter McMillian (known as Johnny D), majestically portrayed by Jamie Foxx, when he is stopped by a police roadblock and falsely charged with the murder of a lovely white teenaged girl.  It later follows Stevenson and his small, barely funded team through their dogged investigation and daring interventions, as they face surprising, almost inconceivable turnabouts in their campaign to spare Johnny from the same doom as Herbert.  

    Based on Stevenson’s award-winning, work of non-fiction, Just Mercy, A Story of Justice and Redemption, this movie offers a powerful and compelling portrayal of the early days of his Equal Justice Initiative, which exonerated dozens of inmates, some after many years on Death Row for crimes they did not commit.  While the time lost and the damage done will never be recovered, Johnny D, at his lowest point tells Stevenson, “If I go to the chair, I’ll be smiling because you gave me back my truth. Me and my family know my truth.” 

    # # #

    Ed: Want to share a book or movie that’s helped you understand more about our country’s past, present and future? Send an email to debkline@comcast.net The Civil Rights Action Group also regularly has book club meetings – check out what they’re reading by contacting smdurkee@hotmail.com.