Life is too short for chasing heretics all the time

I had written over the last couple of years about the suspicion (certainty?) that Pelosi, Speaker of the House, had been corrupted through donations to her campaign. Those who insist she is point to such things as her reluctance to impeach the nasty guy and her undermining the progressives under her leadership. Starting next week Pelosi will no longer be Speaker or even Minority Leader. She has passed leadership of Democrats to Hakeem Jeffries. Is he less corrupt? Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa of Gaslit Nation answered that question as part of their bonus episode on December 8 (yeah, I just finished listening to the 50 minute audio today). The bonus episodes are for donor members (and worth the donation). The answer (at about minute 35): It seems mighty suspicious that Jeffries and the rest of the new leadership were announced and voted on without any sort of discussion and with plenty of actual progressives ready and able to serve. And, yes, Jeffries is at least as corrupted as Pelosi is. His major donors include Israel (which is including far right people in the cabinet). It is good the leadership was handed to a new generation (Pelosi is in her 80s), but in this case it means Jeffries could be the Dem House leader for another 25 years. There was also a lot of discussion about Attorney General Merrick Garland. Summary: all those criminal referrals from the January 6 Committee – don’t expect him to actually do anything with them. On Christmas Day I visited Niece and Sister and had a pleasant visit. Niece, who is Gen Z, said she looks forward to the time when Gen Z can take over the government. I asked, why not Millennials? She said she strongly doubted Boomers would let Millennials have much power. She might be right. For the record, Pelosi is from the Silent Generation, the one before Boomers, and Jeffries is Gen X. Rebekah Sager of Daily Kos wrote that the Patmos Library in Jamestown Township, Michigan is back in the news. This is the library that did a millage renewal over the summer and it lost because conservatives raised such a big stink about the library having LGBTQ books. The library board tried another renewal in November, this time actively campaigning for it. It lost again. On December 12 the library’s board of trustees closed the library early, claiming “safety concerns” without explaining the details to the staff. So during the next board meeting one of the librarians (not named) had a few things to say. She’s tired of the situation. She’s been threatened and called a pedophile. She’s overworked because she’s not allowed to hire more staff. She no longer hears that God loves people. And she now regrets taking the job. She feels broken. SemDem of the Kos Community Contributors Team discussed the reason why libraries are under attack. The report begins with a quote:

I have an unshaken conviction that democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources and a national intelligence capable of utilizing them. –Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a letter to publisher Herbert Putnam

SemDem discussed some of the latest attacks. One financial attack was funded by the Koch organization, a group funded by oil money and in turn funds a great many far right causes. In Plainfield, Illinois they poured money into defeating a plan to upgrade and expand the library. There is also the suggestion to close libraries and instead allow Amazon to open local bookstores, which would save taxpayer money. That’s a bad idea because the people who use libraries the most can’t afford to buy the books. They also need the huge range of services a library offers. Since switching libraries to Amazon control didn’t fly conservatives switched to demonizing the workers and the content. SemDem wrote about the reason why the Patmos library was defunded and why libraries there and elsewhere are attacked:

This was never about keeping kids “safe,” but has always been about keeping people uneducated and ignorant. Suppressing diverse ideas has always been the hallmark of conservatism, and free libraries stand in the way of their goal. Libraries help people who need it most, which, according to a right-wing billionaire, is the worst possible use of resources. Libraries serve their community without regard for profit, which is antithetical to the capitalist mindset that their wealthy de-funders have. Yet education and easy access to information are the greatest threats to the conservative movement and to the protection of their ill-gotten wealth. Of course they are attacking libraries—and schools. Library users who take advantage of free computers and internet connections are likely to be younger, poorer, and minority. Librarians also offer financial literacy training, job assistance, and resources to everyone from non-English speaking immigrants, to addicts, to formerly incarcerated people, to the homeless. They provide a lifeline of information and resources and a free place for children to learn and play. Furthermore, libraries offer so much more than books. Libraries these days also offer meeting spaces, internet access, video games, power tools, audiobooks, museum passes, reference materials, and much, much more. They’re one of the only places you can go these days to browse things you don’t already own, with no pressure to spend money. Of course rich Republicans hate them. Right-wing conservatives view public libraries as a threat because they can expose people to diverse viewpoints and expand knowledge. This also feeds into their other front of controlling what students learn in school.

The discussion switched to librarians beginning to fight back. One way to do that, promoted by FReadom Fighters, is to flood the Texas State Legislature’s Twitter page with a widely diverse suggestion of books. Scholars know a quick way to destroy a civilization is to destroy the library.

As Am Alpin writes for The Progressive: “Xiang Yu did in 206 B.C., as did the Ottoman Turks in 1453 after the fall of Constantinople. And during the War of 1812, British troops set fire to the Library of Congress. From the Nazis to the Taliban, attempts to subjugate or oppress a people or group of people most often begin with limiting their ability to freely and widely read.”

My friend and debate partner reads the New York Times. He occasionally sends me articles he thinks might be of interest. Since I don’t subscribe and there is a paywall he’ll send an email with the text attached and a link included in the text. He sent one that was published a couple days ago. It is part of a series by the paper’s Editorial Board titled “The Danger Within” and is to help readers to understand the dangers of extreme violence and to propose possible solutions. This particular editorial is titled “How Americans Can Stand Against Extremism.” The story in this editorial is about the Brewmaster’s Taproom in Renton, Washington, near Seattle. They host a Drag Queen Storytime once a month. Over the last two years they’ve gotten criticism through nasty voice mails and emails. Earlier this month someone shot a steel ball through the front window. The police have no leads of who did it. Even with the shot and protester calls to “Bring signs, bullhorns, noisemakers” this month’s storytime was not canceled. After reviewing some of the latest violence and Republican remarks that include violent language, the article says:

Political violence comes in many forms, and the country now faces a choice: Either violence becomes endemic to our democracy or Americans decide not to tolerate it. That’s a tall order in a country where too many people consider political violence to be sometimes acceptable.

The editorial poses some solutions: Use state anti-militia laws against extreme groups. Root extremists out of police and military. Use greater international cooperation for ideologies that cross borders. Push Republicans to get extremists out of their ranks and to stop using violence for political gain. Do something about the gun culture, which has no place in a peaceful democracy. Yes, that must be balanced with free speech, including the speech of a politician exploiting the prejudices of their voters. But all those good suggestions won’t be enough. At Brewmaster’s Taproom on the night of the storytime program a crowd did show up. They had signs, bullhorns, noisemakers. And they were supporters. The protesters didn’t show. The shot through the window made local news, so perhaps they knew they would be challenged.

The heartening thing about the problem of political violence is that those Americans who reject it far outnumber those who don’t. They have power – to vote and donate money, to lobby elected leaders and set high standards for police departments. They have the power to change the channel or close the tab to ignore violent rhetoric. And they have the power to support the most vulnerable member of their communities from immediate threats, in person if necessary. That’s what a healthy and vibrant democracy looks like.

In the email that included this text my friend wrote:

Interested in joining community support for a suitable event in this region? We might do that together.

Yes, I’m interested. We’ll try to keep each other informed about such events. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted EJ Dionne of the Washington Post, first in a tweet with links to his article, then a bit from the article itself:

The wise men who helped me understand Christmas. If Christians can’t make their case in this season, they should get out of Whoville. But to evangelise is to welcome, not exclude. We’re not good at this now.

The article refers to writings of people who have died this year.

We also lost Mark Shields, the wise and wisecracking political commentator. He taught an essential lesson by asserting that religious and political people alike were divided between those who hunted for heretics and those who sought converts.

I’ll revise this a bit to leave out the religious overtones: There are those who define their community by who they exclude. There are those who define their community by who they include and they try to include as many people and as many diverse people as they can. Dworkin added: “Life is too short for chasing heretics all the time.” For a bit of fun, scroll down a bit in Dworkin’s roundup for a video from KWWL in Waterloo, Iowa in which Mark Woodley, the station’s sports guy, is asked to be there five hours early so he can give blizzard updates through the morning.