Some people or groups might have you believe that Main Street America doesn't have much, if any influence, on public policy or lawmaking in America or in Arizona these days.
Personally, I prefer to believe that we have more say than is commonly understood.
But it's not simply a matter of calling up or writing to the Congressman/woman or state lawmaker. Rather, it's a matter of focus. Yes, lawmakers at all levels pay attention more quickly and easily to the people who donate money to allow them to influence voters at election time.
Yet, as I recently spelled out, sustained nonviolent citizen action has accomplished very important things over the history of our country. For starters.
Yet, as I recently spelled out, sustained nonviolent citizen action has accomplished very important things over the history of our country. For starters.
- Women's suffrage (took decades of sustained nonviolent struggle)
- Successfully recalling Senate President Russell Pearce
- Instituting in Arizona a holiday to memorialize Martin Luther King Jr., one of the 20th Century's most influential civil rights advocates
- Forcing the veto of anti-LGBTQ legislation SB1062
- Colin Kaepernick starting a sustained movement to demand an end to police brutality against Blacks, especially men and boys
- Portland, Oregon mothers banding together to resist Trump's invading Fascist police, locked arms and refused to bend. Trump subsequently withdrew his troops from Portland.
My vision includes passage of citizens initiatives to properly fund public education (Invest in Ed); and Outlawing Dirty Money. Both of these initiative drives were interrupted (and disrupted) by the Covid-19 pandemic. Invest in Ed succeeded in turning in enough signatures, currently in the process of verification, to warrant placement on the 2020 general election ballot. Both Invest in Ed and Outlaw Dirty Money have faced huge obstacles.
My old mindset/perspective might think those obstacles are a bad thing. Not necessarily so anymore. If the movements retain and sustain focus, they ultimately will succeed. It may seem cliche these days, but the old expression "where there's a will, there's a way" applies.
It's not altogether unlike what history of the last sixty years has taught us about American hegemony. Vietnam couldn't be defeated by unlimited military might. Afghanistan refused to succumb to Russian expansionary military might. And it has thus far refused to succumb to American military might. The Vietnamese and the Afghans fighting to (from their perspective) protect their home countries from invaders have had a deep emotional commitment that mattered.
It's not altogether unlike what history of the last sixty years has taught us about American hegemony. Vietnam couldn't be defeated by unlimited military might. Afghanistan refused to succumb to Russian expansionary military might. And it has thus far refused to succumb to American military might. The Vietnamese and the Afghans fighting to (from their perspective) protect their home countries from invaders have had a deep emotional commitment that mattered.
Most immediately in front of us, parents and teachers are refusing to sacrifice their children and their lives to Trump's demands to re-open schools for in-person instruction until it is safe to do so -- when the Covid-19 curves are flattened... which doesn't seem to be in the cards for this month.
We should demand that the "rulers" listen to us from the start. I can think of no more important message to send on this primary election day now that the polls have closed.
We should demand that the "rulers" listen to us from the start. I can think of no more important message to send on this primary election day now that the polls have closed.
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