Don't Bow Down: Get Organized

Onward from the past three weeks...

You would have to be living under a rock or in a coma to not have noticed the new administration’s efforts to dismantle our federal government and our American way of life over the past three weeks. Traditional media have bombarded us with the headlines, each one more outrageous than the last, of our Improviser-in-Chief’s executive orders, all culminating in photo ops to display his weirdly large pointy signature on poster-sized pieces of paper.

Last week social media and news aficionados alerted us to one of the more dystopian pieces of Project 2025—an excerpt from the proposed Safeguard American Voters’ Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which has been reintroduced in the U.S. House and would require proof of citizenship in the form of a U.S. Passport or birth certificate, submitted in person, in order to register to vote or update your voter registration. But here’s the kicker: your name must be the same as the one on your birth certificate, denying the right to vote to any citizen who had legally changed their name, like 69,000,000 married women have, and countless others. See this article for more on this recipe for disenfranchisement.

And then there’s the images of Musk’s rogue’s gallery of recent summer interns, all technocrat wannabes who were given access to your Social Security number and bank accounts, without so much as a simple background check.

Honestly, what’s a relentless optimist to do?

It was interesting to me that the loudest voices I heard among progressives upset by the November election seemed to come from folks with the most privilege. Several older white men friends of mine hollered loudly on social media, their indignation righteous and palpable. By contrast I heard many people of color here in my hometown of New Orleans say, “Mmhmm” and nod their heads. The sentiment was, We’ve been here before. We know about oppression. We know how to do this. This led me to think about the many sessions I’ve attended on understanding and undoing racism, which educated me about one of the key differences in how people of color navigate the world—by honoring the collective, while white folks tend to prioritize the individual.

Yes, it’s scary and yes it bears a striking resemblance to fascism. But Hitler’s brand of fascism succeeded, for a while at least, because people were complicit. They looked the other way. Some of the death camps were built quite near people’s houses. Denial was rampant.

But what we didn’t have in the 1930s was 24/7 media. Today there is absolutely no excuse for not recognizing this threat and being outraged, and getting organized. And I challenge you to think of any instance when great social change happened, at the city, state, or national level, which didn’t come after collective outrage. Think Civil Rights.

Here in New Orleans, where our city overcame the devastation of the failure of the federal levees after Hurricane Katrina, we have a saying: “Won’t Bow Down, Don’t Know How.” Eighty percent of the city’s homes flooded and more than 1,400 lives were lost. And yet, we survived. We helped each other muck out our houses. We shared space with friends and relatives while we fought insurance companies and FEMA. We accepted help from the many Black and Brown craftsmen who showed up from Mexico and Honduras to rebuild our houses.

It was people helping people, the power of the collective, that earned us the over-used but much deserved adjective of “resilient.” Lately, after the January 1st terrorist attack on Bourbon Street, I’ve heard my neighbors say they wish “we didn’t have to be so damned resilient.” And I agree. No community should have to endure violence or rise from floodwaters or fires or be denied basic necessities like safe food, housing, and healthcare. But that is the world we are living in right now and our best hope is turning to one another, supporting those in need, being our collective best selves. And hollering, loudly, like these guys from New Jersey, Route 4, on February 4th, posted on Susie Bright’s Journal:

There’s nothing like creative civil disobedience to attract attention.

So, angry optimists: post, chant, march, send money to new leaders who are running to flip seats in the U.S. House so progressives have a fighting chance. Support artists, local nonprofits like the Harry Tompson Center, which supports unhoused individuals, and Familias Unidas En Acción, which supports immigrant communities. Sign petitions, like this one to protect New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward’s Holy Cross neighborhood from environmental and noise pollution from a grain terminal being built without community input. Do one thing every day that brings you joy, just to mess with them and feed your own soul. Think globally but act locally, because that is our best hope for effecting change, person-to-person, not red or blue. It’s our relationships that will save us.

Take care of yourselves and your neighbors. Protect the people and the institutions that you love. History has shown us that the pendulum will swing back the other way but the next few months and possibly years will challenge us all.

Most of all, stay hopeful. As the Dalai Lama urges in his global version of Won’t Bow Down:

Never give up

No matter what is happening

No matter what is going on around you

Never give up.