INDIVISIBLE Lambertville NJ / New Hope PA

Category: Opinion

  • From the Editor

    Contributed by Deb Kline, Editor.

    The other day, I told someone that I was at the point where I worried about spontaneous combustion. I was only half joking. Deluged by the continuous flow of disappointing to heartbreaking news, anger and anxiety seem to constantly bubble just beneath the surface. Loss of sleep, unhealthy eating and drinking, snarky comments on social media are just a few manifestations signaling a collective sense of fear, despair and loss of control. 

    Many psychologists will tell you that control is an illusion. We attempt control by worrying, but in truth, worrying doesn’t solve anything and certainly doesn’t put us in control. Another word for worry is awfulization, which is a made up word for how we project and invest in the worst case scenario. And hoo-boy, is that easy to do these days. 

    We’re all too familiar with the worst-case scenario for our country so it doesn’t serve to give it more airtime here and add to the negativity (You can read Justine Andronici’s piece in this edition, Trump’s Abuse of America is Getting Lethal for more insight) . Instead, is it possible to flip the switch and dwell more on the positive? To gather energy from the good we see, project and invest in a best case  – or at least a better case scenario? 

    You might say: “Ok, Pollyanna, how do you suggest we do that???” 

    If you watched the first presidential debate, you have my sympathies. I did not, but followed on Twitter and with a group of like-minded friends who had more fortitude than I. But perhaps we can look at it for a lesson in how we manage through this moment. 

    There were two people on stage: one was clearly driven by fear and using fear and chaos as a tactic. The other demonstrated strength based in his sense of love and purpose – even in the face of near total loss of control of expected circumstances. We saw shining moments of humanity from Joe Biden, despite and likely because of his personal experience with a number of worst-case scenarios. That alone should inspire us. 

    In less than a month, the ballots will all be cast. Many of us have already made our choice and are determined to use the remaining time to work on getting out the vote. Right now, it’s critical that we do so because of all that we love and to stay focused on that, rather than fearing the loss and falling into the depths of hate. I’m reminded of this: 

    “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.”

    Siddhartha Gautama, The Dhammapada

    Know that we are a caring community. Whether you physically live in Lambertville/New Hope or have more of a virtual/spiritual connection to our organization, we care. As unwanted as many of the experiences in these past few years have been, they have also been times of great learning and growth, of making new friends and being a collective force for good. As an organization, we went from zero to 60 in very short order, and we will continue as an organization as long as you need us. Whatever the outcome, together, we will again roll up our sleeves and get back to work. 

    With much love, 

    Deb

    PS – Be sure to fill out the survey in this edition about where ILNH goes from here, pending various scenarios. We want your input!

  • Turning Fear Into Fire – Editor’s Note

    Turning Fear Into Fire – Editor’s Note

    “I am listening to what fear teaches.” Audre Lorde   

    “There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear.” Toni Morrison   

    I may be accused of taking these two quotes out of context, but certainly, we can feel the appropriateness to the moment we are experiencing now. As progressives and activists, this turning away from the values we hold close feels like a slap in the face. A sense of disequilibrium settles into suspicion, words bottled up that burst out in a flood of expletives and sometimes accusations, a desire for payback to those enablers and supporters of all that we stand against. I love Michelle Obama, but right now, going high when I am flattened is a lot to ask. 

    We gather on the corner of Bridge and Main to protest, but more, we gather because right now, we need each other. We need the company of decent, caring people who are determined to fight this erosion of democracy. 

    It’s okay to feel that fear, anger and dismay, but more importantly, let that be the fuel to the fire of action. What scares you more? Talking to strangers about voting, or watching democracy crumble before your eyes? What’s a better use of time? Clicking ‘like’ or ‘angry’ on some post on Facebook, or clicking MoveOn texts to hundreds to encourage them to support a progressive, Democratic candidate or policy? 

    There is a place for you and you are so needed to help right this ship. Check out the list of opportunities under “Join the Action” in this edition and soon on the ILNH website. Hear from Karen Gaffney, urging us to confront the danger of the false beliefs of race. Read the personal experiences of long-time resisters and a dynamite book review of American Carnage. Catch up on what’s happening in NJ and PA, and come to the Love Mother Earth 2020 event at the end of the month. Last but not least, if you haven’t read the NYTimes piece about Change The Conversation featuring some of our ILNH leaders, the link is below. 

    These are our values in action. Jump in, turn that fear into fire. 

    Love to all, Deb

  • 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.  

  • In the Absence of Honor

    In the Absence of Honor

    What now, after the Mueller report?

    Contributed by Deb Kline.

    Honor is simply the morality of superior men – H.L. Mencken

    In the hours since the redacted Mueller Report has been made public, many – if not most – on the resistance side believe that the attempts to obstruct justice by the president are stunningly clear. We cannot believe Attorney General William Barr’s claim that there were none.

    Some of us had already moderated our hopes that we would finally get to the truth of what led to this horror show of an administration and subsequent actions to block its discovery. Nevertheless, whether we had already steeled ourselves or not, there was a strangely, familiar sense that we were suddenly thrust back to the day after the election in November 2016.

    Listening to the myriad analysts postulating in the media, to congressional legislators calling for the full report as well as in-person appearances by Barr and Mueller, it became known that while Trump certainly tried to block the investigation, in the end (oh, please don’t let this be the end) he was unwittingly successful because: a) – people around him knew he was ordering them to break the law and didn’t follow through; b) they lied or dissembled enough to make it impossible to uncover the truth, c) destroyed evidence.

    This alone is a profound perversion of the Oath of Office every president takes upon entering. Is this how one “preserves, protects and defends the Constitution of the United States”? The lie has been there since Day One.

    In March 2017, Benjamin Wittes and Quinta Jurecic wrote “What Happens When We Don’t Believe the President’s Oath?” in Lawfare:

    “It is that the presidential oath is actually the glue that holds together many of our system’s functional assumptions about the presidency and the institutional reactions to it among actors from judges to bureaucrats to the press. When large enough numbers of people within these systems doubt a president’s oath, those assumptions cease operating. They do so without anyone’s ever announcing, let alone ruling from the bench, that the President didn’t satisfy the Presidential Oath Clause and thus is not really president. They just stop working—or they work a lot less well.”

    We expect that those who occupy the highest offices in government will be people of honor. That whatever their failings, we expect that they have the good of the country and its people at heart. In Robert Mueller, we have a superior model of a man with honor, who follows the letter of the law to the extent that he declines to make a legal judgement on obstruction because people surrounding the president repeatedly lied or destroyed evidence.

    Up until a point, some of the those close to the president had a sense of honor and duty,  whether we agreed with them or not. However, most have left, only to be replaced by those who look at the government and ability to set policy as a means of enriching themselves.    

    Now, we see the decay happening before our eyes, and wonder, will we survive?

    Here’s my answer: Yes. One way or the other we will survive. We are still a democracy, we still have a voice and a vote. We have been through difficult times – many of us remember if not participated in the Civil Rights protests of the ‘60s, the anti-war protests and the Nixon-Watergate trial and resignation of the ‘70s. We survived 9/11. We will survive this president and our despair at what our government has become.

    Individually and collectively, we are compelled to survive. The work may get hard and ugly, but in this community there is strength. We hold each other, lean on each other, give each other courage. We honor you for all that you do, and demand that those who would govern, do so as well.

    Our country deserves no less.

  • Game Day in America

    So yesterday “president game show host” said politics has become more important than football. Specifically he said: “One of the things that I heard this morning … watching the news was that — amazingly, it’s never happened before — that politics has become a much bigger subject than the Super Bowl,”. Translation: “People are talking about/more interested in ME than the Super Bowl”. Seriously?

    I don’t think so buddy! This is still America, and Americans LOVE their football! The first Super Bowl was played in 1967 and the origins of football in America date back to 1892.

    I was doing a little research for this blog about football and stumbled on a top ten list of reasons Americans love football. These 10 are from an article by Stacey Mickles:

    10. The game is fast-faster than baseball
    9. Football has cheerleaders-(eye roll here).
    8. Violence-(don’t get me started).
    7. More Scoring-say, more than soccer
    6.Every game counts-unlike the world series where you can lose game 1, football is win or lose.
    5. Tailgating-no need to explain this one.
    4. Hail Mary-you can win a game on a wing and a prayer in the last second-yay!
    3. Best Rivalries- Think Cowboys V Redskins, Bears V Packers, Giants V Jets, so on.
    2. Fantasy Leagues-not into this one at all, but hey…
    1. Football has the Super Bowl!

    Let’s focus on that #1 for a moment. For a lot of Americans, (114 million), even when their team is not playing in the big game, they sit down and watch it. They watch it in a bar or with family and friends or at a fabulous party. The die hard fan springs for tickets and watches live! We talk about it at work, online-social media and some folks even bet on the game.

    I grew up in a football family. My Father is from the great state of Texas. He is a graduate of Texas A & M as well as Texas University Graduate School-so ANY Texas team has his unwavering loyalty. I’m the youngest in my family, and only girl. Between my dad and three older brothers, there was no Wonderful World of Disney for me on a Sunday afternoon-it was football. We had Cowboys fans and one dedicated Packers fan in my house. Even my mom enjoyed the game and understood the rules and strategies, which always impressed me.

    Game day meant everyone was in the living room together watching the game, cheering for their team. I can still hear my dads cheer-“Go Baby!”, (more like a demand than a cheer). I would often fall asleep during the late afternoon games. The sounds of the announcer and the fans would muffle together into a kind of white noise for me. I’ve come to realize that I felt warm and safe with my family all together in one space.

    While I agree with the ten reasons listed above, I believe there are some other reasons Americans love football. There’s something unifying about “having a team”. You’re automatically part of a family if you love the Carolina Panthers. (Insert your team here). I’ve watched for years as my dad, my brothers and now my sons engage with others over football. My son and his friends often have spirited “smack talk” about their teams and whose team is better, whose team is going to win the game, etc.

    It’s a family thing. Generation after generation will be loyal to Their Team. For my immediate family, its the Philadelphia Eagles. My boys are passionate fans because their father is. I imagine if they have kids, they will be Eagles fans also. Fly Eagles, Fly!

    Let us not forget the half-time show! (Which could be another blog in and of itself). Lady Gaga promises an inclusive show and no wardrobe malfunctions! I’m really starting to dig her more and more so this show should be one of the better ones!

    So I must disagree with the assumption that people are more interested in politics than football-people are being called to action for the sake of our Democracy-and that’s awesome! My hope for tomorrow is that all of you amazing activists out there will take a break. Take a few hours to enjoy the game. Enjoy the commercials if you’re not into football. Make that chili, wings, nachos, chips-n-dip-or veggie tray-(if you must). Drink a beer with a friend and talk about sports, food, your favorite advertisements-or just snuggle with your honey. We cannot allow what’s happening in the country to take away some of our favorite pastimes and we must re-charge when we can. There will be plenty of work to do next week and in the weeks to come.

    I say we ignore l’orange for a day and celebrate OUR America. Nourish yourselves on game day food and beer, for tomorrow we ride!