I didn’t listen to the State of the Union speech for the same reason that I don’t poke hot needles into my eyes or beat my head with a hammer. Fortunately, the world is full of pendants who do—listen, that is, not the other things–and I can glean all I need to know from their reporting and from catching excerpts on YouTube, I did listen to Abigail Spanberger’s rebuttal, and I do love a well-written, concise, spirited political speech. I have every intention of listening to Alex Padilla’s in Spanish, if only to improve my Spanish . Here’s my very short take-away: Trump continues to lie nonstop, not with much originality any more. And the Democrats seem to finally be figuring out how to speak up for democracy, while linking Trump’s lies, corruption and warped sense of priorities to why everything keeps getting more and more expensive for ordinary people. This bodes well for the midterms, always assuming we survive until then and that we actually have midterms, something we should all work diligently hard to make sure we do!
Out of that urge to do something, yesterday i went to the Day of Remembrance Interfaith Vigil commemorating the internment of more than 125,000 Japanese people during World War II. It was organized by the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, a group that has been instrumental here in the Bay Area in organizing protests in support of immigrants and against ICE.
We took over the street outside the ICE building, painted a mural on the street, and for three hours held a vigil that included song, prayer, dance and testimonies from immigrants and from survivors of the World War II internment camps. It was a small but spirited demonstration, very peaceful and prayerful. Groups of artists, coordinated by David Solnit, an arts activist who has been instrumental in uplifting the visual impact of the Resistance for forty years or more, created beautiful signs and banners. I joined with Rising Up to Action, a local group I’ve done trainings for, and the 1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations.
Sometimes you go to the big actions like the No King’s Day protests. Sometimes you go to the small ones. But all of them are important in keeping the pressure on the administration and demonstrating continual opposition to the cruelties of their policies, and in standing up for immigrants and other targeted groups.
Listening to the testimonies, I found them painful and yet hopeful. We have indeed done terrible things before, gone down bad roads and then made a turning in a new direction. We can do so again, and create a world rooted in compassion, growing in justice. With sustained resistance, creativity and ever-strengthening connections, I believe we will prevail.
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This post has been syndicated from Starhawk’s Substack, where it was published under this address.