Upstate 2050

I don't have time to write a whole story for Simon's Upstate 2050 site right now, but I'm thinking a lot about how things look when the public sector is entirely privatized per the desires of the Trump cabinet. It's easy to imagine what systems like schools, post offices, jails, and libraries look like. It's harder to see what happens to shared infrastructure like roads and bridges and transportation hubs. And what's hardest for me is to picture societal structure when absolutely nothing but money determines how one lives. (I know the picture is downstate, not upstate, but it's a perfect illustration of what I'm thinking.)

Slapping Down De Vos in 16 Pages

Good for Elizabeth Warren.

De Vos might not be the most nefarious of Trump's cabinet picks, but she is entirely representative of all of them—a billionaire with radical ideas who thinks the private sector should be responsible for everything.

In 16 pages, Warren explains exactly why I hate this choice.

Learn-In

Worked much of the weekend on our local response to this call from Schumer, Pelosi, and Sanders:

Working with the Tompkins County Progressives, we'll hold a "Learn-In" Sunday around the issues of ACA and Medicare, with a little Social Security thrown in, featuring a couple of experts, a Q&A, and ideas for direct action. I'm looking for one more speaker, and then my job is done.

Asking with Humility

A friend posted this excerpt from a May 2016 graduation speech by the Dean of Education at Harvard, and although the whole excerpt is excellent, this piece speaks to me about some of the problems we have had as organizations, parties, and even individuals in solving the problems of others.

But how we help matters as much as that we do help. And if you ask, "How can I help?" you are asking with humility for direction. And you are recognizing that others are experts in their own lives....

A worthwhile lesson, I think.

Resist Locally

I've written before about how we will need to act locally to counter radical right policies at the federal level. Ithaca's mayor agrees.

City Attorney Ari Lavine will be working on a new project called the New Federalism, modeled after the Federalist Papers, which states that local and state governance should check the a federal government's excess of power. 

Meanwhile, we are working with the Tompkins County Progressives to put together a quick rally (because not much lead time, Bernie!) for January 15.

Our Liberal Bubble Makes National News

From the Toronto Star comes the story of Cornell's nonbinding call to make the campus a sanctuary for undocumented students.

Oppression Envy

Driving home from Wegman's today, Olivia and I were talking about a phenomenon she's seeing more and more on campus, especially post-November 8: Acquaintances who are identifying as oppressed minorities. Not content just to be sympathizers with or in solidarity with fellow students of color or minority sexual orientation, some students are "coming out" as POCs on their FB pages and reidentifying as queer without any notable previous history of queerness. She titled it "oppression envy."

O wonders whether her scoliosis allows her to identify as a person with disabilities, probably more because she wants a better parking space than that she wants to join the parade of oppressed people under the Trump regime. We agreed that this was probably not a good plan; neither of us feels comfortable borrowing her grandmother's handicap placard, so the fakery wouldn't be appealing.

I see two ways to think about this new tendency. On the one hand, if we are all oppressed, how can any of us be singled out for persecution? On the other hand, doesn't the usurpation of someone's authentic identity devalue honest-to-god oppression of the oppressed class?

I know plenty of white middle-class folks in Ithaca who identify with people of color in ways that are helpful and sincere. But I don't know any of those adults who claims to be the minority he or she is trying to assist. If this is a thing, it's a new thing, and it remains to be seen whether it's a good thing or just a meaningless or even destructive thing.