Resistance requires way too much learning!

As the campaign season heated up back in the spring and summer of 2016, I became more and more panicky.  Not merely about the GOP's candidate winning, as much as it was a reason to lose sleep over.  The panic was this, which I told M and two neighbors/friends: trump's rhetoric was so violent that I worried that some nutcase follower of his might try to assassinate Hillary Clinton.

Fortunately, that never happened.

In May 2016, I ended this post with these lines:

It starts with a swastika and 1488 etched on a bench on a bridge over a river :(  Here is to hoping that we will end it all before it even takes hold.

It has taken a firm hold.  A mob of torch-holding thugs marched through a college town chanting "Jews will not replace us."  It was a depressing and terrifying spectacle.  Plenty of violence, triggered by hate, has happened.  The latest was the massacre at Pittsburgh.

Lesson one: I came to know about "Hillel."  I had no idea about this until the tragedy.

We went to the local chapter, which had organized a vigil.  A 69-year old woman cried that she never thought she would have to relive the fears that have always been a part of the Jewish experience in the West.  A young male student broke down talking about his emotions over the attack on Jews in a synagogue.  And more.

What can one do in such situations other than to be there and tell them we are with them!  Empathy--"fancy with the sufferer"--is all we got as humans in these difficult situations.

As M and I opened the door to leave, even as the event continued on, a young woman who was also leaving looked at us and said, "Thank you for coming."

Her words made me teary.

News reports referred to an organization called HIAS.  I had never heard about it.  That was another lesson.  One of the well-known beneficiaries of HIAS's work: Sergey Brin, who co-founded Google. Without HIAS, Brin's family would not have come to the US, and we might never have had Google?

Turns out that HIAS was founded in 1881 to aid Jews fleeing the pogroms.  One of the many that HIAS helped were jared kushner's grandparents:

During the first week of the Trump Administration, Mark Hetfield, the president of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), sent the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a copy of a file. It documented Kushner’s grandparents’ immigration to the United States. Like many Jews who fled the pogroms in the Russian Empire, the Kushners were what’s known as “resettled” by HIAS. Resettling meant more or less the same thing then that it does now: processing visas, finding a community that would welcome new immigrants, arranging transportation, insuring that a family has a place to live and access to basic services, and insuring the continuity of those services until new arrivals are, well, resettled.

Of course, HIAS never heard back from kushner.  And not since the shooting either.

Because of this shooting, many people, including me, now know HIAS as the wonderful organization that does phenomenal work, and we now know what it stands for: "for welcoming refugees, and welcoming refugees as Jews."

But, we ought to live a life that does not involve knowing HIAS, or Hillel, or who my DA is.  These are the kinds of people and institutions that work mostly in the background, and we find out who they are only if we need them.  Otherwise, we go about our lives, worrying only about what we might have for dinner.

However, the past three years has been hectic, with the candidate and then the President creating chaos out of everything that he can think about, exhausting us.

Tired we get; resist we will!  And, we shall overcome!

There is no room in our society for gun violence and especially not in a place of worship. Elected officials must stop fanning the flames of hatred, bitterness, and division. We must condemn these terrible acts in the strongest possible terms and work to heal these deep wounds.

— John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) October 27, 2018

Resistance is exhausting!

These days, I often feel like throwing down that proverbial towel and giving up.  Resistance seems futile.  It is exhausting.

And then I think about how we reached the place where we are.  The rights that we enjoy today came from those who fought for it.  Against great odds.  Sometimes they literally gave their lives for the cause ... so that we can be where we are today.

Which means, I have no grounds to complain about feeling exhausted.  As mentally tiring and challenging as it is in this political climate, active resistance is required.

Two days ago, for instance, I emailed my District Attorney to ask her why she was silent on a controversial measure on which we Oregonians will vote in the next few days.  In that lengthy email, I wrote:

Your silence on this is unacceptable. This is not a time for silence. It’s a time for leadership. Getting into an elected office requires you to demonstrate leadership, and to let your constituents know where you stand on important and critical public policy initiatives. 

The DA replied. Which itself was a shocker to this Rodney Dangerfield.  And offered to also meet with me.  And then sent me a draft of her statement that she said she would release to the public.

After reading that, I sent another lengthy email to the DA, in which I wrote:

But, at least you have revealed your colors to us voters, which will help us evaluate your performance as the elected DA.

All these years, I have never cared to even know my DA is.  If anybody had asked me about district attorneys in America, I would have only talked about Hamilton Burger.  You know, the character in the Perry Mason series that we read as kids.  Now, the asshole-in-chief has made me find out who my DA is, and to then repeatedly email the DA!

The strange email conversation with the DA has not ended.  She wrote:

Sriram,   
I haven’t issued the statement yet.  I will take your remarks, and the remarks of others who have replied, into consideration before putting the statement out to the public.   

Take it from this I-don't-get-no-respect guy, dear reader, if you live in America.
Resist.
Keep fighting.
Especially at the local level.