Update: Since posting this, we’ve come to understand that the word “cavalry” can be perceived as violent and oppressive rather than as helpful by Indigenous persons and others whose families or ancestors have been impacted by colonialism. We seek to evolve here; and we’ll keep iterating and learning.
Hate crimes and murder. Those are the charges filed today against the shooter at the Q Club in Colorado Springs. Five people are dead; eighteen were injured.
Anti-LGBTQ+ talk, threats, and violence are up… as are laws and provisions that make such discrimination and harassment okay and legal. It’s not okay.
We’re not saying that enough.
None of the other “anti-woke” BS language is okay, either. The rising anti-Semitism. The flagrant racism. The empowered misogyny. The rudeness. The F*CK BIDEN flags hanging in neighborhoods all over this country.
We’re not saying enough that none of that is okay, either. And certainly not loudly enough. With news coverage.
What Did We Think Was Going To Happen?
DHS and DOJ have put out advisories for a while now about how we’re likely to see more threats, attacks, and violence against various groups of people…
…Because that’s what happens when dominant narratives from raucous media personalities, politicians, demagogues, and other fearmongers are what get all the fuel and oxygen. Fire spreads where it can burn.
We’re not even trying to put the fire out. And… we’re not lighting metaphorical backfires that take away the fuel for the intolerance and the fear.
We’re watching the fire burn. We’re watching it spread. We’re watching it threaten to burn more stuff.
But what are we doing?
We Have Options
We have options — we should use them. There’s a lot more we could be doing.
We could go around driving different narratives (Thing 5), being loud and obnoxious in ways that get media attention. We could get business leaders (Thing 3) and elected officials and really anyone to get a whole lot louder about how this hate-speak is not okay. How it’s hurtful. How it’s dangerous How it affects the lives of the people who end up living in fear. How it’s not doing good for us as a society.
We could get better about advocating for our own values. We can help each other and our elected officials get better, too. We can do it where we live. We can do it in any group we’re involved with. We can do it in both the real world and online.
All of that goes right along with getting louder, stepping forward, and driving the narrative. Every once in a while, we see someone go viral for saying what’s right and what’s not. For having moral courage (Thing 4).
What if we had millions of people willing to do that?
Millions of us out fighting in these ways?
Even thousands of people speaking out more loudly would start to shift the narratives — at every level. In every community. On every platform.
Right now… it sounds more like crickets, overall. It certainly doesn’t sound like activated outrage. To be fair, we’re in shock… and worn down. And not everyone is in a position to fight. But there are a whole heck of a lot of people in this country who are… and who aren’t in any kind of a fight. There are a lot of people who could be doing more. The work here at Shift the Country can help us all help each other to act, to work on ideas for action, and to keep at it even when we’re overwhelmed.
Also, the political alliance that is loosely the Democratic party has been playing defense since the civil rights era; and through the entire onset and spread of the so-called “culture war” that’s been aggressively pushed by the right-wing media empire.
When are we going to decide that it’s time to get out front? To lean forward?
When do we decide to more aggressively champion humans and equality and kindness; and how everyone matters; and how we should all be able to thrive and flourish as who we are?
Now is a good time.
Here’s the thing. It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be clean and organized and comfortable.
I suspect it’s going to suck — a lot. Real fights about real humanity often do.
So are we going to fight for ours? Our humanity?
Are we going to fight for ourselves, and the people we love, and the people they love, and for people we don’t even know but who should be able to thrive and flourish up in this country?
Are we going to try new things to have those fights?
We need to, because the stuff we’ve collectively been doing up to this point hasn’t created the kind of national movement that we need to make real, substantive, systemic, transformative shift happen up in this country. We’re holding things semi-steady-ish… but that’s not enough.
Are we just going to stand by and watch as Black people get shot down in a grocery store, or in a prayer group? As Jewish people are murdered in synagogue? Where is the movement to defend drag shows and PRIDE events all over this country… when “Proud Boys” show up and stand around intimidating people at these things with AR-15s?
So far, we’re mostly watching.
On the Democratic side of all this, sometimes we have nice, organized, permitted, planned-ahead protests where some people show up and maybe someone remembers to call the media to ensure coverage. We have people writing out postcards, and putting up signs of support. We need all that activity; and it’s been good. We’ve been able to hold this country together so far with a lot of that work.
But it’s got to evolve. We have to do way more to catalyze real change.
What we’re doing is not enough. It’s not getting us where we’ve collectively said we want to be.
So let’s go about finding new ways to do stuff.
Ramping Up This Shift
This organization is re-tooling post election, and then we’re starting online events (as soon as I can get them set up) to get people together online to get going on this. The start date keeps moving… but once we get the events set up, they’ll be announced through this platform.
If you’d like to be a part of a workshop panel or to be a player in getting this shift going, comment below or sign up on our volunteer page. Seriously. This work is about leveraging the power of the people.
Um… with that… we’re going to need people to actually make that happen. This shift is new and we have 17 volunteers signed up. We’re going to need way more by December. And if you already signed up — thanks! We’ll be in touch for real after the holiday for sure.
Also, another thing you can do right now is tell other people about our approach, share our posts, get more people to subscribe, and let folks know we have a 5-part approach with new options for action.
You can help by contributing; if in a position to. Hatemongers can run fear and hate on oxygen alone… but we can’t catalyze transformation on thin air. We need real fuel for this fire. We need to get better established as a viable organization now that we’re past our startup funding.
One more thing: we all have very big brains, and we can use them to fight differently than what we’ve been doing. Our 5 Things are here:
Thing 2: Do More With Community & Coalitions (still under revision).
Thing 3: Involve Businesses Through Partnerships & Pressure.
Thing 5: Drive the Narrative, Create a Buzz, & Spread It Everywhere.
Join in. Who we’re going to be together is what’s on the line.
Are we going to let our country be dominated by fear of humans and change? Or are we going to fight for a future where we genuinely take care of each other, where we’re kind, and where we invest in our own damn country?
It’s time for something different. We can create it.
Let’s go.
Others may disagree with me, but I am relieved that Nancy Pelosi has decided to step aside. Not that she hasn't been brilliant as Speaker of the House (and minority leader when that was her role). As a tactician, there is probably none better. I am in AWE of her skills...and yet...she is representative of the Democratic Party of the past. With Nancy and the rest of the Democratic House leadership out of the picture, perhaps the Democrats will begin to take a more proactive stance to drive the country to address the racism, misogyny, anti-LGBTQ atrocities--and even just the coarseness that now pervades. When it is documented that life expectancy is lower in red states than in blue ones, that health outcomes are worse in red states than in blue ones, that educational achievement is lower in red states than in blue ones--and on and on--(see Thom Hartmann's article https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/11/21/if-you-want-help-rich-and-die-sooner-vote-republican?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter_op for the specifics), why aren't the Democrats shouting this from the hilltops? It's because, sadly, they are so used to playing defense (with good reason, and often good results) that they seem to have forgotten how to go on the offense to stake out the territory. It is long past time for THEM to step up to the real battles we face. It will also take our collective efforts, and maybe those collective efforts will help them recognize that it's time for a different playbook, a more aggressive playbook if we are going to save our democracy.