Call of Duty
It sucks having to do unpaid work, especially when you need (and are seeking) additional remunerative employment. But this is what life is serving me up right now, and I can’t quit my new job, which is doing whatever I can to resist the incremental setting in of fascism in America.
There’s an old joke my dad used to like to tell. During America’s Great Depression of the early 20th century, President Herbert Hoover said, “We must all pitch in our part, or we won’t have a part to pitch in.”
Ha ha. Get it? “Part to pitch in.” What does that sound like?
But that about sums up the current situation as I see it. This short NY Times video (clocking in at a bit less than 7 minutes long), which Susan pointed out to me, paints the broad picture vividly, squarely, and (I am convinced) accurately. Our democracy as we’ve known it is in dire peril. (I hope the video is not behind a paywall. My apologies if it is.)
It’s not that I do all that much really. It’s not just my job after all; millions of people are doing it with me. But it’s the fact that I really have no choice that makes me resentful sometimes. I mean, for Pete’s sake, I have a life, y’ know?
But I feel called to respond as best I can to what is happening, insofar as I’ve ever felt called to do anything.
So, for example, there is a weekly demonstration on Monday afternoons in front of the Portland Tesla dealership that I try to attend each week, though in truth I miss just about as many as I hit. To get there, I have to walk or bike about three quarters of a mile to a bus stop, wait for the bus, ride the bus for 20 to 25 minutes, and then walk another three quarters of a mile to the demo, which goes from 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. (and then do all that traveling in reverse when I go home). Now that may not sound like much but it really does mess up my Mondays, making it hard for me to accomplish much else.
This past Monday, I was a little late, and by the time I got there it was squalling rain and people were already leaving. So, despite my grumpy attitude, I can’t really point to much I’ve done recently. I subscribe to Jessica Craven’s “Chop Wood, Carry Water” newsletter which offers a menu of worthwhile actions to take every day. (From her website: “My newsletter is designed to give you about 5-7 minutes of actions to take each weekday to help us build a better democracy. You’ll get call scripts for your federal representatives, an “Extra Credit” item, a Resistbot script, and a way to help win an election somewhere — think postcarding, phone banking, or textbanking.”) But I must sheepishly confess that I haven’t opened any of her emails this week.
Staying Tuned
I do, however, stay connected to the news, inasmuch as I can stand it. That somehow feels like a patriotic duty too – to not look away. Today I listened to some of the recordings on youtube of the Supreme Court justices’ interchanges with Trump’s lawyer, in what’s widely being labeled “the birthright citizenship case,” except that this lawsuit is really NOT about birthright citizenship. It’s really about nationwide injunctions. Do you know what those are?
Well, in case the answer is no, I’ll explain. When Trump issues an unconstitutional executive order (as he’s prone to do now and again), such as the one ending birthright citizenship, it gets challenged in court. At least 39 of his orders have been blocked in court (according to the Washington Post), and many others are currently being litigated.
And when a court rules that an order is unconstitutional, that ruling applies beyond the court’s local jurisdiction to the nation at large. Hence the term “nationwide injunction” – a ruling that prevents an executive order from going into effect anywhere in America.
What the Trump legal team is arguing now, before the Supreme Court, is NOT whether or not ending birthright citizenship is unconstitutional, as a lower court has already ruled. But rather, Trump’s lawyers are arguing that no court, other than the Supreme Court itself, should have nationwide jurisdiction over such matters.
Here is how Justice Sonia Sotomayor paraphrased their line of argument:
So [you’re saying] when a new president orders that, because there’s so much gun violence going on in the country … [he has] the right to take away guns from everyone … and he sends out the military to seize everyone’s guns … the courts have to sit back and wait until … every plaintiff whose gun is taken comes into court … You are claiming that … no lower court can stop an executive universally from violating that holding [that the order was unconstitutional].”
Clever of her, I think, to have chosen gun rights as an example of a constitutionally guaranteed right that could potentially be violated by a president’s executive order.
Anyway, it all sounds pretty absurd, doesn’t it? But that is the issue that is literally being decided now at the highest court in the land: Can a lower court (that is, any court that is not the Supreme Court) issue a nationwide injunction against a blatantly unconstitutional executive order, or not?
If not, well, that’s one more major guardrail against dictatorship crumbling before our eyes.
So it’s a very big deal.
It’s Not Everyone’s Job Though
A couple of my favorite friends never pay attention to the news, and this predates Trump. Both of them are life-giving people who bless the world by how they live and interact and show up for themselves and others. I wouldn’t want them to change. I’m not telling them to tune into the news more often now, because we’re in a crisis.
Similarly, I don’t feel it’s anyone’s particular job to stay informed, whether I deem them “life-giving” persons or not.
Now of course it can be argued (and I do argue it) that ignorance and apathy (along with massive heaps of misinformation and lies) were a big factor in how Trump got elected in the first place. But that doesn’t mitigate the fact that many millions of people simply lack the time and resources (not to mention the critical thinking skills, which they may be short on through no fault of their own – a big topic, that) to really educate themselves about what’s going on.
And speaking of ignorance, it would be enormously ignorant (and arrogant) of me to imagine I can prescribe what other people “should” be doing.
I Will Offer a Suggestion, However
As I acknowledged, I myself am no paragon of virtuous activism.
But I’m not letting go either. I’m not going to turn away and say “Fuck it.” I can’t do that.
And maybe you can’t either. Maybe you’d like to, in a way, but it’s like trying to ignore a persistently foul smell in your bedroom.
I’m no advocate for guilt most of the time, but I say, if you’re feeling vaguely guilty about not doing anything other than trying to live your own life right now, trust that guilt. Do some small thing to relieve the guilt — and don’t feel guilty if relieving the guilt feels like your only motivation. Whatever you do matters anyway. Doing the tiniest thing is infinitely more impactful than doing nothing.
I should also mention that I meet really nice people at the Tesla demonstrations. Those conversations have been pleasant and encouraging. Occasionally even inspiring. Encountering lovely people is one of the side benefits of responding to my call of duty.
And there are actually all kinds of side benefits, even to mundane things like mailing out postcards and phone banking. Spiritual benefits. If you’ve already devoted some amount of time to this unpaid work, then you know what I mean. And I’ll stop grumbling now.
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