What are you doing about the threat to democracy?

[Oak2004]

There is a lot posted here about what other people are doing, or about what other people should be doing, or about what would/won't work, etc.

This is a thread for people to post what they themselves are doing. If you're doing something, share your ideas. If you're not doing anything, get off your duff and get some ideas.

I have two requests. One, can posters please try to refrain from criticizing the activities described by anyone in this thread? If you want to criticize an activity -- and criticism is sometimes warranted -- start a separate thread, and post just a link to the thread here. Two, if you like this topic, please try and keep this kicked to the first page.

I'll be replying to my own message, in a moment, with what I'm doing to defend and restore democracy in America.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. I am excited to see what people post, I'm looking for ideas! nt

[Jack_Dawson]

2. Just lie back and enjoy it

Signed,

Bobby Knight

Actually I am very concerned, and short of calling radio shows and writing Congresspeople, I'm not sure what else to do. But tomorrow is Turkey Day and I am NOT going to let G-Dub stress me out over my holiday weekend.

[Vincardog]

3. I am pushing the Transparent vote act that follows. Print it sign it

send it to your Congress / house member demand that they get it passed. Print some more give them to every one you know :)

The Fair election petition:
In the interests of fair elections we demand the following standards be instituted immediately for all electronic Ballot boxes and vote counting machines.

All programming instructions shall be written in open source code. That code shall at all times be available for public inspection and pass independent third party certification for accuracy and reliability. After that certification the code and all hardware shall be secured no changes shall be allowed to the code or the hardware after certification.
The vote shall only be counted after a voter verified paper record of the vote has been created and retained.

All vote records and counts shall be transferred by verifiable physical means. Any CD DVD TAPE or other transfer medium shall be labeled with the counts and a date time stamp. All records and counts shall be reviewed and verified for validity and accuracy.

No modems internet connections or telephone connections will be allowed at any stage of the vote/vote counting process.

[Not_Giving_Up]

Let's See...

I'm a letter writer/e-mail sender. I'll give anybody a piece of my mind. (Particularly if they seem to be short brain parts)

I inform others about what I learn about from alternative media sources.

I have contacted my local dem party to see what I can do for them in the evenings after I get home from work - no response yet.

If we all just sit around and complain about the state of our country nothing will change.

[Not_Giving_Up]

4. oops

[goldengreek]

5. study, study, study.

I go out and get as much information as I can soak in (not exactly a gargantuan amount), and mix up as much as I can to get as clear a picture of the world as I can. Then I try to live a good and moral life.

With that as a foundation I try to get people as free as I can from their chains, whatever they may be. It could be capitalist or Christian fundamentalism, obsession, fear, or any number of things. The more people we get who are free from their passions and ready to accept the world on its own terms the more likely we are to have a good society.

[seafey]

6. Lots o stuff...

Right now, I'm working on an article about our local Dem party. It's really spilling some sensitive beans! I'm publishing it on our Indymedia site. I'll post it here too once I'm done.

Also, I've been helping to organize actions (J20) and helping with our local Indymedia website. I joined the Tech Collective and will start working heavily on that. I believe in the idea of Indymedia (non-corporate-controlled media) especially now!!

Also, I quit the ineffective groups I'd been working with. I am promoting Buy Nothing Day, but I don't know exactly if we're doing anything on that day yet, action-wise.

I've also been reading Soul of a Citizen which has been helping me cope and not give up.

[nuut]

7. disseminating gov docs to churches in CA

I also will be doing lots of studying in general. In particular I plan to study *'s "new freedom initiative" that plans to give all of us--beginning at kindergarten--free mental health check-ups, succeeded by "innovative" treatment plans (hmm: could it be....pharmaceuticals??). I'd like to copy out verbatim the language of this initiative (including the URL so that people can verify this nightmare for themselves), and then distribute tons of flyers to all large churches I can identify in CA. If there's one thing Christians in general are spooked by, it's the prospect of the government stepping over this line. My hope is to create some discourse among the congregations about this one prospect of the chimp's coming reign. My goal is simply to puncture the veil.

Thanks to all DU'ers. I'm new here and you are saving my sanity!

[Banazir]

12. You might want to look at...

Support Coalition International:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/

and also Google the Texas Medication Algorithm project (if you haven't already) for more information on that stuff. TMAP is a possible blueprint for what they're going to be up to -- you might want to point out that it's very hard for even a normal person to pass the kind of psychiatric exams/interviewed outlined in TMAP documents if someone doesn't want them to pass. And emphasize parent's rights to decide whether or not to treat their children and what for.

The psych survivor/ex-patient community (a big international chunk of which is linked to in that above link) has been well aware of the dangers of this administration for some time in this regard and should be full of resources. That SCI site has a big section dedicated to Bush and to his appointed extremist psychiatrist, Sally Satel, as well as what to do about it. It also has a link to a rescue network (the Mindfreedom Shield program) people can sign up to for use if they become involuntarily involved with the psychiatric system.

[Oak2004]

8. What I can do is limited by a few things, but that's not stopping me

I'm disabled and I have been all but housebound since I moved to Vermont about six years ago. That means my stamina is limited, I hardly know anyone, I have no money, and I'm not even located in a good spot to make a difference (Vermont is politically so deep blue its politics more closely resemble that of Canada or Europe).

No money, no people, no energy, not even any obvious local issues = nothing, right? No.

Initially, I used my limited contacts to connect Ida Briggs with the Vermont Progressive Party. Then I registered the domain americanresistance.info (registrar had a $1.99/year sale on the .info domain) and found a Canadian server commpany selling cheap webspace. I figure it will come in handy some time. I put together a leaflet about the issue, encouraging persons to wear black armbands, and distributed copies in Burlington and the .pdf on my site. I know that this leaflet has been printed out and distributed in central California as well. I then looked at http://www.meetup.com for dormant meetups (in pertinent subject areas) that needed organizers in my area, and I volunteered myself. I'm using these meetups to get to know people, and I'm using these new contacts to help me organize a local group.

It hasn't a name yet, but it does have three purposes. One, to get rid of the GEMS tabulators in my county, by any means necessary, because as long as these boxes are in operation here, our local democracy is under threat. Two, to encourage the city and state government to negotiate compacts with other cities and states to provide services that are now or soon will be neglected or warped by the coup in Washington (compacts such as this have both immediate practical benefits and the longer term strategic benefit of providing a framework for secession or an alternative federal government should either be necessary down the line). And three, to provide support to groups and individuals elsewhere who are working to defend and restore democracy in their communities.

So, what are you doing?

[Oak2004]

9. Oh -- and I'm exploring a run for justice of the peace here

Since our JPs watch over the voting rolls.

(this post is also a subtle "kick")

[Banazir]

16. In the vein of stuff I forgot to mention...

...I'm also pretty much volunteering to be a warm body wherever one is needed. I can't guarantee that said body will be able to move, or to be quiet, or to respond to questions, or anything else about its general behavior, but it can definitely take up space quite effectively and would make an excellent doorstop or space-filler if one is needed anywhere. While it is not all that tolerant of sustained activity, noise, or confusion (and would prefer not to be sent to the sustained noisy and confusing places if there were a choice), it doesn't need to be functional in order to take up space: It comes with a transportation unit on wheels, and can be strapped in and manuevered by others if need be. The transportation unit can be fitted with signs, pamphlets, or whatever else is needed.

[Banazir]

13. That one line is something I've been trying to get across to local people.

"No money, no people, no energy, not even any obvious local issues = nothing, right? No."

Whenever I have the chance to get anyone into my clutches -- er, house -- I've been making that point pretty clear. I give them tons of things to do that I don't necessarily have the resources to do and say "Look, if I've got next to no resources and can still do something, then I'm sure you can do all kinds of things I can't get done." So far most have found it encouraging rather than off-putting, which is a good sign.

[Banazir]

10. Disseminating information, urging those with more resources to do more

I'm disseminating as much trustworthy information as I can find to as many people as I can, which unfortunately is fewer people than I would like it to be. I'm finding fairly creative ways to do it, given that I can't always rapidly come up with language or recall thoughts on demand -- in this case, I have been using both writing (including leaflets and forwarded emails) and music from other people to get my point across while occasionally throwing my own explanations in when I'm capable of generating them, and tying them back to things I already know how to talk about (which in my case speeds up the word-generation process considerably).

The biggest thing I am attempting to do is keep people from becoming complacent or from giving up and deciding that there is nothing that can be done. I told one person recently that there are plenty of people who will ignore what's going on until the house falls down around them at which point I'll be long-dead: I can't afford for people with more resources than I've got to pretend they can wait four more years just because the threat to them isn't as immediate.

I am also pushing other people to act more than I can act: I, like you, am disabled, mostly housebound, and poor, and I know very few people. I have been devoting nearly all my energy to doing things around this in as efficient a way as possible, and have gotten some things done. I've been telling people with way more resources than I have that if they put the amount of resources into this that I do (percentage-wise as compared to what I've got), they should be able to do a hell of a lot more than what you and I have been able to do with very little. I've told them as many concrete things that they can do as possible (and prodded them a good deal).

I have been telling people the potential consequences of what's going on. Given that most people I know are in human services, it hasn't taken a lot of mental legwork to make them aware that their jobs may be cut and their clients may die. Over on the Disability Issues and Activism board discussion has already started about the possibility of upcoming (or rather, already-beginning) genocide:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=250x65

I have been seeing those warning signs for much longer than since the election, but have stepped up my efforts to make others aware of what those signs are. I have been educating people at my church about what disability-related genocide looks like and what forms it can take (it is often hidden under "compassion" or under dry discussions of economics and the "cost" of certain people to society), as well as warning them that a society that does this to one group of people could do it to another. I have been doing everything I can to get people to view all people as people equally worthy of life since even many liberals see all or some disabled people as better off dead (that is how complete the dehumanization process has become in our country). Given the way I look and act (like a clearly developmentally disabled person) I am actually fairly good at shocking people into recognizing our personhood if I'm talking to them in person.

While that is not (to some people) obviously related to the election, it has shown some people how urgent the situation is and made them less likely to just give up and let the right wing rule ("Do you want me dead???" tends to have that effect on people). The work at keeping us (and all people) humanized will unfortunately also be necessary in the long run whether the worst-case scenarios occur or not election-wise. If they do occur, we'll need the power of basic common decency of one human being to another to overpower the propaganda and legal decisions that are already being handed down.

If you want the way shorter version, I've been spreading information every which way I can. And you already know the version even longer than the space this post takes up, so consider this partially another kick. ;-)

[Oak2004]

11. I'm disappointed to see this thread sinking, and defeatist threads

sitting at the top of the heap.

Surely there are people here who are doing or planning things. Many of you are, at the bare minimum, "being the media" and talking about the issues with others. Sharing what you're up to, however big or small, is a better antidote to defeatism than giving defeatists an extra heaping helping of attention.

[Matariki]

14. not nearly enough

but here's my list:

writing senators & congressman weekly

writing letters to news papers either supporting their coverage or calling them on bullshit

sending info to everyone in my addressbook (unless they've said stop, 'i'm burned out on politics' - then they get a short lecture on democracy before i stop emailing them)

volunteering at blackboxvoting (haven't heard back from them).

giving what money I can to people who are pursuing this.

looking for other ways to help.

vodou ;-)

and finally, visualizing Karl Rove, Jeb and George Bush on trial for high treason, and then W. sent to The Hague to be tried for war crimes.

[GetTheRightVote]

15. Things are starting to happen, come visit NYC for War Protest Convention

New Thread as follows in Activism and Events calling for action:

Emergency Anti-War-Conference, all day SAT. 12/4, NYC


"I am going to march all over downtown Wash, D.C. this weekend and go on and on about the stolen election, even if I am alone it will make me feel so much better about everything .... I can't wait to see the looks on people's faces when I walk by with my sign. I am strong, I am an American, I have rights no matter what they say, I will be free, even if it is just me, I will march."


" Power to the People "