12/21/16
Dear Assailant-in-Chief,
I'm baaaack. I had to take a little time to finish up my grading. I teach, as I believe I mentioned before, and it's the end of fall semester.
Did you know that one of your alt-Reich fanboys made a "professor watch list" website? I don't think it's having quite the effect he was imagining, because the general reaction from academia has been "PICK ME PICK ME!" It turns out we take all that intellectual liberty stuff seriously. So do climate scientists and the people at the Department of Energy, as you have discovered. Personally, I feel he's doing us all a favor...because if the kind of puling whiner who gets upset when expected to read or discuss ideas they don't already agree with avoids my classes as a result of me being on that list, I WIN. College is where you learn things and encounter ideas you may not have been exposed to before. The process may make you uncomfortable...and in fact, it probably should. If you can't handle it, stay home.
Surprised to hear this from someone who has zero problem with the concept of "safe space" and trigger warnings? You shouldn't be. "Safe" in this situation means "safe from being harassed or assaulted," not "safe from having to think new thoughts." Trigger warnings are so we CAN discuss very difficult topics in class...like rape, abuse, and other forms of violence...without springing them on people out of nowhere. Conservatives don't like trigger warnings because they think the appropriate place and time to discuss those topics is nowhere and never.
At any rate, I left off with Article 3 of the Constitution. That bring us to Article 4. This one contains the "full faith and credit" clause, as well as a following one that says "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." I always thought that these should mean that if you get married in one state your marriage is legal elsewhere, OBVIOUSLY, but apparently that's something to argue about in some people's minds. Some dogs growl over mangers, I suppose.
In Section 2 there's a stipulation that fugitive slaves (and indentures, as it covers both) can't escape to another state and be freed; of course we know that they did, as this measure was extraordinarily unpopular in the free states. But it also meant they had to live in a state of more or less constant wariness...but then, any black person in antebellum America had to be wary, because the free-born might be kidnapped and sold away just as easily. There are other fossil imprints of the attempt to patch up the fundamental conflict between the slave-owning and free states that remain here and there in the Constitution...such as the Electoral College.
Section 4 says among other things that the Federal government "shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government." I would like to remind you and other members of your party (especially the ones in North Carolina, but possibly also in Michigan and a few other places) that what is meant here is NOT a government by Republicans, but a government based on "republican" principles...among which are consent of the governed. One of the ways in which that has historically been asserted is that the majority, rather than unanimity, rules, in order to prevent tyranny by a minority.
Here is another thing to keep in mind: You are not in the majority. You did not win the popular vote. You can lie and claim you did every day from now until the day you are voted out or impeached, and it still won't be true. You know it, and I know it, and the rest of the world knows it. Even the people who really want to believe you know deep down that it isn't so.
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” - Aldous Huxley
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
Also, because I am from Georgia: "The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it." - Flannery O'Connor.
Yours sincerely,
Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America
From Dorine Jennette:
PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.
Dorine's posts can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette
PS from Sara: I've taken to just tweeting these at him. He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to. *snort*
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