Thank you, Qasim, for the common sense and mutually understood values and interests that you express and defend. I will stand with you and your other supporters.
James Baldwin put my feelings into words, both in the words of his that you share herein and in his other public remarks and published works.
By standing with each other in mutual respect and mutual optimism, we now can provide social support for each other and resistance to Trump's insistence on mutual suspicion, personal fear and hatred and his and his regime's active pursuit of conquest.
The dangers of Trump's regime are real dangers; the dangers will become more present and more to more Americans and, as horrible as it really is, to others in the world in distant places and in worse circumstances than any of us can imagine.
HOWEVER, we must stand with each other and our awareness, which includes an instinctual set of gut awareness of being among and of being living in a social context, of human equality of need and capacity for novel and shared benefits. My sense is that part of every child's innate excitement, enthusiastic and active excitement for active engagement in the world and among other people is this meta-awareness of improved capacity by choosing and acting among and in cooperation.
This propensity for cooperation does necessarily and reasonably concrete ways extend to others in distant places. It is not foolish and imaginary, as the JD Vance's of the world would like us to think. Instead, just as Mr Baldwin, Dr. King, Jr, Ms Rosa Parks, and others e.g., Vandana Shiva have in many ways expressed, it is as real and alive as any of us, as any living entity, and it is a necessary and maintainable element in our sustainable human ecology and our human reciprocal relationships within a mutually robust comprehensive ecology of the planet's living beings.
Let Trump try to pave over me and others with whom I choose to stand. He will meet a sort of resolve and endurance of humane intent that will startle him.
We can now continue to support like-hearted and like-minded Americans and others in the world by publicly expressing and acting on our commitments to the inclusively humane and inclusively optimistic expressions of principle, intent and relationship of our Constitution and its civic normative and lawful assertions and agreements, (which, even if minimally and unresolvedly [of unresolved definition and clarity and inclusiveness], are amendable in a form and application and by means of democratic action and agreement). As in need of amendment and bold clarification as the Constitution might be, we can easily see the extent to which very different and very opposing are many of the perceptions and intentions that Americans have. In order not to continue to allow these differences to divide and make confrontational our domestic relations and politics, it is each of our personal responsibility to work to better and better explain, to improve mutual understanding by actually amending and improving each of our grasp of capacity and of circumstance.
Trump and JD Vance put all of us in danger. Not any of us, not any of our children, mean anything to them. Trump and JD Vance see everyone of us as useful or not useful, and they hold these assessments and re-assessments as their entitlement as a matter of personally expedient and personal self-interested remorseless pursuit of their passionate needs and in the context of their most unreasonable and unreal fears and expectations.
We can together commit to each other to use our humane capacities and our democratic, optimistic and humane mutual respect and inter-generational sense of responsibilities and opportunities to both oppose them and their agenda and to see ourselves through the nightmare of their regime's years in office. We can commit to the next rounds of legal, constitutional elections and the democratic and normative choices and actions to hold the civic democratic institutions together and to remain functional while we both commit and act together for our mutual safety and our mutual better future.
I am so glad you quoted Baldwin. I turn to him a lot and will now more than ever. My students start reading THE FIRE NEXT time next week. God-Allah guided my course plan obviously.
I will continue to speak and fight. My great grandfather confronted The Klan when they terrorized him and my grandmother in 1920s Indiana because they were Catholic. I've got the fight against injustice and bullies iin my genes. I'm also the descendant of scrappy Irish and Southern Italian immigrants. I'm ready and prepared to fight.
I don't cower. I live with multiple sclerosis and an disabled. Fascism and authoritarianism havs nothing on my own body that has inflicted way more harm. I'm not dead yet.l but I will give my life to fight this and the. Crypto-Nazis.
Thank you. His name was Cornelius. My dad was the youngest grandchild andcalled him Gramps. Said he was hilarious and often called people on their bullshit. My grandmother took after him and rode the rails with a friend when they were 18 at a time in American history when young women did not do that. She did not give AF.
I like most people feel terrible today. But tomorrow I will get up, put one foot in front of the other. And carry on with life. We lost because America hasn't learned from the past mistakes. I wish you peace and blessings in this hard time. Working on three hours of sleep not good
There's so many, many things that went wrong that got us where we are today with elections/leadership. I'm so sorry to hear that somehow there are leftists who are taking out their anger on you, mimicking Trump behaviors that supposedly are what's being protested. Where are they learning such intolerance. It is unbelievable to me how some people are doing this.
I just refuse to become a cynic and stop fighting for change. I grew up with Bernie Sanders basically in my backyard, he was Mayor of Burlington when I was in high school in South Burlington. Since I was a teenager, I've heard the words "liveable wages" and "affordable housing" and taking action when you want something to change. That no matter who you are, you have the right to stand up for yourself, and that there's people out there that are more vulnerable than oneself that need help and advocacy, and there's never a time to sit quietly on the sidelines. So I'm holding onto the hope and will deepen a commitment to change.
Young men may have voted to assert their version of masculine power, but I hope they understand that from today women will be much more reluctant to get married or be pregnant. Being a mother makes you vulnerable. Becoming a mother in the age of Trump hardly bears thinking about, no medical care, no public schools, no child tax credit, no housing.
I wonder if some people said economy but meant I am afraid. They saw the violent potential of MAGA and voted to forestall the threatened bloodbath of a civil war if he lost. So short sighted in the long term but for some people living with their anxieties is a day by day struggle.
If nothing else we have to stop hiding from what we are and to recognize what they will do. The election speaks volumes about what people want, and perhaps how tuned in they really are. But we must acknowledge what people across races and generations chose.
I no longer care. I am just tired. I have no compassion. This election speaks volumes and truly tells us what type of country this is. And I have no hope. The only hope there is Bob Hope and he died a long time ago. Hope is long gone; hope is dead.
Old, White, straight, reasonably Woke, Christian guy here. This is appalling !! We, the Children of light" really need to get our act together to cleverly get our act together. This really is a job for"White people". In the minds of too many White people, there is nothing that Black people, Muslims, Jews, Hispanics etc. can do to make themselves acceptable as equal Americans. We, the White "children of light, have to stand up and be counted.
P.S. We met once in Buffalo "pre-COVID" and I contributed to the publishing of one of your books.
So sorry to hear about those comments. Today seems like a day we should all be taking a LOT more care with one another - and if we're not ready for that, then care for ourselves.
I am sorry you received such messages. Hey, I am just a subscriber, and follow a few other Substack, but even I have received hateful messages. Racism is so rampant now,possibly because it is easier to post and spread hate with what the internet provides.
Thank you, Qasim, for the common sense and mutually understood values and interests that you express and defend. I will stand with you and your other supporters.
James Baldwin put my feelings into words, both in the words of his that you share herein and in his other public remarks and published works.
By standing with each other in mutual respect and mutual optimism, we now can provide social support for each other and resistance to Trump's insistence on mutual suspicion, personal fear and hatred and his and his regime's active pursuit of conquest.
The dangers of Trump's regime are real dangers; the dangers will become more present and more to more Americans and, as horrible as it really is, to others in the world in distant places and in worse circumstances than any of us can imagine.
HOWEVER, we must stand with each other and our awareness, which includes an instinctual set of gut awareness of being among and of being living in a social context, of human equality of need and capacity for novel and shared benefits. My sense is that part of every child's innate excitement, enthusiastic and active excitement for active engagement in the world and among other people is this meta-awareness of improved capacity by choosing and acting among and in cooperation.
This propensity for cooperation does necessarily and reasonably concrete ways extend to others in distant places. It is not foolish and imaginary, as the JD Vance's of the world would like us to think. Instead, just as Mr Baldwin, Dr. King, Jr, Ms Rosa Parks, and others e.g., Vandana Shiva have in many ways expressed, it is as real and alive as any of us, as any living entity, and it is a necessary and maintainable element in our sustainable human ecology and our human reciprocal relationships within a mutually robust comprehensive ecology of the planet's living beings.
Let Trump try to pave over me and others with whom I choose to stand. He will meet a sort of resolve and endurance of humane intent that will startle him.
We can now continue to support like-hearted and like-minded Americans and others in the world by publicly expressing and acting on our commitments to the inclusively humane and inclusively optimistic expressions of principle, intent and relationship of our Constitution and its civic normative and lawful assertions and agreements, (which, even if minimally and unresolvedly [of unresolved definition and clarity and inclusiveness], are amendable in a form and application and by means of democratic action and agreement). As in need of amendment and bold clarification as the Constitution might be, we can easily see the extent to which very different and very opposing are many of the perceptions and intentions that Americans have. In order not to continue to allow these differences to divide and make confrontational our domestic relations and politics, it is each of our personal responsibility to work to better and better explain, to improve mutual understanding by actually amending and improving each of our grasp of capacity and of circumstance.
Trump and JD Vance put all of us in danger. Not any of us, not any of our children, mean anything to them. Trump and JD Vance see everyone of us as useful or not useful, and they hold these assessments and re-assessments as their entitlement as a matter of personally expedient and personal self-interested remorseless pursuit of their passionate needs and in the context of their most unreasonable and unreal fears and expectations.
We can together commit to each other to use our humane capacities and our democratic, optimistic and humane mutual respect and inter-generational sense of responsibilities and opportunities to both oppose them and their agenda and to see ourselves through the nightmare of their regime's years in office. We can commit to the next rounds of legal, constitutional elections and the democratic and normative choices and actions to hold the civic democratic institutions together and to remain functional while we both commit and act together for our mutual safety and our mutual better future.
Thank you Bob and well said my friend.
I put a little $ where my mouth is. Thank you for all you do. We will never give up.
I've put a little $ where my mouth is. Thank you for all you do. We will never give up fighting for justice, equity.
I’m grateful for your trust and support Joanna. Thank you.
I am so glad you quoted Baldwin. I turn to him a lot and will now more than ever. My students start reading THE FIRE NEXT time next week. God-Allah guided my course plan obviously.
I will continue to speak and fight. My great grandfather confronted The Klan when they terrorized him and my grandmother in 1920s Indiana because they were Catholic. I've got the fight against injustice and bullies iin my genes. I'm also the descendant of scrappy Irish and Southern Italian immigrants. I'm ready and prepared to fight.
I don't cower. I live with multiple sclerosis and an disabled. Fascism and authoritarianism havs nothing on my own body that has inflicted way more harm. I'm not dead yet.l but I will give my life to fight this and the. Crypto-Nazis.
Your great grandfather was a hero and the Apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
Thank you. His name was Cornelius. My dad was the youngest grandchild andcalled him Gramps. Said he was hilarious and often called people on their bullshit. My grandmother took after him and rode the rails with a friend when they were 18 at a time in American history when young women did not do that. She did not give AF.
I like most people feel terrible today. But tomorrow I will get up, put one foot in front of the other. And carry on with life. We lost because America hasn't learned from the past mistakes. I wish you peace and blessings in this hard time. Working on three hours of sleep not good
One step at a time. ❤️✊🏽
I like the new picture, you look great!
❤️
There's so many, many things that went wrong that got us where we are today with elections/leadership. I'm so sorry to hear that somehow there are leftists who are taking out their anger on you, mimicking Trump behaviors that supposedly are what's being protested. Where are they learning such intolerance. It is unbelievable to me how some people are doing this.
I just refuse to become a cynic and stop fighting for change. I grew up with Bernie Sanders basically in my backyard, he was Mayor of Burlington when I was in high school in South Burlington. Since I was a teenager, I've heard the words "liveable wages" and "affordable housing" and taking action when you want something to change. That no matter who you are, you have the right to stand up for yourself, and that there's people out there that are more vulnerable than oneself that need help and advocacy, and there's never a time to sit quietly on the sidelines. So I'm holding onto the hope and will deepen a commitment to change.
Holding hope with you Jennifer. Let’s keep on keeping on.
Done.
Honored thank you
Thank you its so sad but maybe not really surprising
Young men may have voted to assert their version of masculine power, but I hope they understand that from today women will be much more reluctant to get married or be pregnant. Being a mother makes you vulnerable. Becoming a mother in the age of Trump hardly bears thinking about, no medical care, no public schools, no child tax credit, no housing.
I wonder if some people said economy but meant I am afraid. They saw the violent potential of MAGA and voted to forestall the threatened bloodbath of a civil war if he lost. So short sighted in the long term but for some people living with their anxieties is a day by day struggle.
If nothing else we have to stop hiding from what we are and to recognize what they will do. The election speaks volumes about what people want, and perhaps how tuned in they really are. But we must acknowledge what people across races and generations chose.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-151277320?source=queue
I no longer care. I am just tired. I have no compassion. This election speaks volumes and truly tells us what type of country this is. And I have no hope. The only hope there is Bob Hope and he died a long time ago. Hope is long gone; hope is dead.
❤️✊🏽
Dear Mr. Rashid,
Old, White, straight, reasonably Woke, Christian guy here. This is appalling !! We, the Children of light" really need to get our act together to cleverly get our act together. This really is a job for"White people". In the minds of too many White people, there is nothing that Black people, Muslims, Jews, Hispanics etc. can do to make themselves acceptable as equal Americans. We, the White "children of light, have to stand up and be counted.
P.S. We met once in Buffalo "pre-COVID" and I contributed to the publishing of one of your books.
I remember. Great to see you’re doing well, Paul.
So sorry to hear about those comments. Today seems like a day we should all be taking a LOT more care with one another - and if we're not ready for that, then care for ourselves.
I am sorry you received such messages. Hey, I am just a subscriber, and follow a few other Substack, but even I have received hateful messages. Racism is so rampant now,possibly because it is easier to post and spread hate with what the internet provides.
You are quite welcome!
Thank you for your solidarity Joe.