Community and solidarity
It’s a blizzard. A blizzard in July of bad news, personal loss, loss of life, and threats of violence.
As the death count mounted last night from the flash flood in Texas, flooding in central North Carolina left communities devastated. Communities here in the west will be rebuilding for years from the Helene’s visit last fall. The hurt is still raw, so we can relate.
WRAL reports that Tropical Depression Chantal left “devastating flooding in its wake, especially in Alamance, Durham, Chatham, Orange, Moore and Person counties.” Today, Gov. Josh Stein will tour some of the hardest-hit areas. I checked in with a friend in Southern California about her family in Chapel Hill (Orange County). I checked in with Democratic state chair Anderson Clayton. She and her parents hail from Person County.
Stephen Miller’s Trump-sponored ethnic cleasning program sparked more concerns on Monday:
The Trump administration has ended temporary protections for people from Honduras and Nicaragua in the latest phase of its effort to expel undocumented people from the US.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it would end temporary protected status (TPS) for an estimated 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans in moves that will come into effect in about 60 days.
Citizens of the two Central American nations were accorded the status after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which left 10,000 dead after it ripped through the region.
Honduras and Nicaragua are the latest in a series of countries to have their US-based citizens stripped of temporary protections since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Similar moves have been made to end TPS for those from Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan, Cameroon and Nepal.
I checked in with a friend whose husband is from Honduras. He’s naturalized, she said. I hope that’s the end of it. But it might not be:
The U.S. Department of Justice has begun to prioritize stripping naturalized Americans of their citizenship when charged with crimes, according to a recent memo.
They said they were prioritizing deporting criminals too, “the worst of the worst.” But NBC reports that’s not how it’s worked out:
Trump administration officials have said they will prioritize deporting criminals, but ICE data shows that roughly half of those who were deported in February did not have criminal records, and more than half of those currently in ICE detention have no criminal charges or convictions.
Take care of one another because the awful budget bill Trump 2.0 just passed demonstrates that Republicans mean to abandon us all. “The cost isn’t theoretical,” Rick Wilson warns. “It’s measured in caskets.”
Respond by building community. Reinforce solidarity. Make good trouble.
I checked in this week with Andrew Aydin, co-author of “March” with the late John Lewis. (He lives nearby.) He’ll be speaking just west of here for a Good Trouble Lives On rally on July 17 in memory of John Lewis. Make good trouble.
Mike Lux this morning writes:
With all these benefits cuts hurting people, and with the ICE raids out of control and abducting people all over the country, a lot of people are going to be hurting badly. Progressive and Democratic Party activists need to be on the frontlines of helping those who are scared and hungry and hurting. By helping each other and taking care of each other, we build what Martin Luther King called the beloved community. People are desperate for that sense of community right now, of trusted relationships where people are showing they care about each other.
I love the writing of Christy Hardin Smith on this topic. This is where her writing lives in general, but this piece in particular hits home for me.
Christy is from West Virginia, and knows how tough Democratic politics is right now in that state. She is working to change things one act of kindness at a time.
Kindness is getting hard to come by. So we’ll have to generate our own.
The father of another friend, a local state representative, is worried enough about threats of violence against politicians that he published an op-ed in the Sunday paper here about it. Rep. Lindsey Prather is already under attack with smears and lies about her record. Papa is worried (also found here):
Even though the gerrymander failed in a district that the President won by three points, my daughter remains a target of the NC GOP. They have now adopted the language of fear and terror in an effort to remind their followers to hate and hate often. Their recent postcards and social media posts claim that Lindsey has voted “eight times for Criminal Illegals” and would do “ANYTHING to protect criminal illegal aliens from deportation.” Look again at what they are implying about my daughter.
These allegations about my daughter are lies masquerading as hyperbole, and are meant to incite.
I admire my daughter’s resolve and her courage. She has not dropped her language to the level of her opponents, and I am thrilled that Lindsey is continuing to work for the betterment of all of North Carolina.
I am proud to be her father. That does not reduce my fear.
I’m waiting on a progress report today about one of my oldest friends and two-time roommate. He had a stroke on his way to his local No Kings rally on June 14.
Like I said, a blizzard in July. Check in on one another.
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Have you fought dictatorship today?
Good Trouble Lives On (July 17, in memory of John Lewis)
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense