Black Lives Matter Archives - Strategic Living

Welcome to July! When I think of July, fireworks and BBQ are on the top of my brain. We celebrate July 4th, and the founding of America about 245 years ago. We celebrate independence and freedom. Today we live in unusual times. And we are confronted with competing visions of independence and freedom.

Independence and freedom are two of our most revered American values, our most celebrated virtues. And two that, in these uncertain time, seem to more and more divide us as a nation.

As an emPOWERment self-defense teacher, I hold these truths to be self-evident: That all people are equally human. That we all have rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That we are entitled to a representative government to safeguard and enforce these rights. And we are entitled to organize and advocate for change when our elected officials fall short.

As an emPOWERment self-defense teacher, I very strongly believe that any “information” that encourages you to make someone else’s life smaller, based on their race/gender expression/ethnicity/sexual orientation/nationality/etc., is neither useful nor empowering to you, nor to anyone else.

As an emPOWERment self-defense teacher, I very strongly believe that everyone deserves safety, regardless of their political beliefs. But the harm that has been codified, institutionalized, and currently enforced upon broad swaths of our people, is not in keeping with our foundational values.

And, as an emPOWERment self-defense teacher, I say you do not have to relinquish your power. You do have power. Alice Walker has said, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” Keep in mind that nobody will give you power — you need to take it (I believe Frederick Douglass said something like that). (We can help you practice and hone many of these skills.)

Please continue contacting your elected officials, singularly or en masse, to ask them to use the power we entrusted to them to end these policies of purposefully traumatizing and harming our communities. Protest. Donate. Participate.

You may need to remind your fellow citizens too, on occasion, that you have the right to live in peace and dignity. Sad, but unusual times brings out the best in some people and the worst in others.

Independence isn’t a once-and-done deal, sealed with the signing of a piece of parchment. It wasn’t perfect then, it’s not perfect now, it probably never will be perfect. We are a work in progress, we are not absolved from working on progress. And we have a long way to go.

Stay safe, live life.

Today is Thursday, January 14, of the year 2021. Next week Joseph R. Biden will be sworn in as President of the United States, in a ceremony that threatens to be quite memorable. I generally don’t get very political in these posts. Issues and principles, yes. Today is an exception; we are living through interesting times.

Thanks to last week’s events, some starkly clear lines are truly impossible to ignore. [If you are reading this way in the future, just look up the events leading to President Trump’s second impeachment.] Last week the Capitol Building in Washington, DC was over-run by a large group of Trump supporters in town to attend a rally. At this rally, the outgoing President of the United States said some things that incited them to then march to the Capitol Building, break in, and cause damage to people and property. Among the unruly masses seem to have been some more focused individuals, who had goals of finding specific elected officials, restraining them, possibly physically harming them. In addition, it seems that some individuals who swore to uphold the law instead forwent their oath and enabled the mob. This is not the rule of law. This is not democracy.

Why am I bringing this up, why is this important for your personal safety? (Yes, sooner or later this does get back to personal safety.) I’ll bet you can answer that question. Your personal safety is only as secure as your ability to rely on social institutions for justice and redress. Frankly, that’s been on shaky ground anyways for a long while. However, the last 4 years have exacerbated and highlighted inequities.

What makes this especially relevant are not just those who incite sedition or commit insurrection. They are the tip of the iceberg, the most visible element and that which gets most attention. But there are also the enablers. Those who create and echo lies, engage in the gaslighting, mislead others, often for their own profit. Those who denigrate facts for their own benefit, and to the detriment of others. I’ve written before about enablers (most recently about the documentary Athlete A), and why more people don’t report crimes committed against them. To repeat: It’s not just the perpetrators, though they are a critical ingredient. It’s also those who support perpetrators. Those who engage in distraction, gaslighting, and threats to intimidate those targeted and garner support from bystanders. Not just the Trumps, but the Giulianis, Alex Joneses, and Steve Bannons, who stand to gain from their support but at the expense of others.

Stay tuned for more living through interesting times.

Your voice is your most important safety tool. But sometimes your voice, a solo voice, alone, is not enough.

Several years ago I read about this strategy used by women staffers at the White House. Although then-President Obama did have numerous women on staff, they often felt unheard in a still mostly male environment. They chose to “amplify” each other. When one make a point, others would repeat it and give credit to the originator. It was simple, and effective.

A friend of mine was dealing with a verbally abusive supervisor. He wasn’t abusive just to her, but to anyone in his environment. Over the years individuals in the department would approach HR and senior management. But nothing happened, and eventually staff stopped going to HR. One day this supervisor had a particularly abrasive day, which impacted multiple staff as well as customers. A majority of staff from that department converged on HR and management. This time the supervisor was let go. Because a group acting together can accomplish what individuals cannot.

But sometimes even that isn’t enough. Sometimes it takes a lot of people. Thousands. Tens of thousands, Hundreds of thousands. Thousands of thousands. You can’t fit into HR’s office. You’re in the streets.

In our self-defense classes we talk strategically about using our voices. When to set boundaries in a conversational tone, or when to get LOUD. You want to get LOUD when you need to attract attention.

Now is a good time to be LOUD. Black Lives Matter

You probably want to balance your own safety with your need to speak up. Take a look at this Protest Safety Guide from Black Lives Matter Seattle – King County. To paraphrase Audre Lorde, caring for yourself does not have to mean indulgence — it is self-preservation, an act of political warfare against those who’d rather you just went away, shut up, or die. Preserving yourself in a world hostile to your community is truly self-care. So that you’re ready to again face the outside world.

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Not just for Spiderman. This idea has been expressed by Voltaire, Winston Churchill, and both Presidents Roosevelt. Some people even cite the New Testament verse Luke 12:48 as an early expression of this concept.

Trevor Noah is a comedian, and and astute commentator. In this video he steps away from comedy. He provides a thoughtful and heartfelt analysis of today’s protest actions spurred by the recent and raw murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. I’m not going to recap him here, his presentation is far more eloquent and precise than mine. Just watch the video. Embedded for your convenience.

I very much appreciate how Noah discusses the “social contract” as key to any civil society. As you probably remember from your high school history, the idea of a social contract was central to British and French Enlightenment philosophers, who were themselves highly influential in the thoughts and writings of our American founding fathers (think Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Paine). All these were signers of our Declaration of Independence, which boldly asserted that all men are created equal.

And we are still stumbling through that most basic idea. It needs to be amplified. By you. Today.

Tag Archive for: Black Lives Matter

Independence and Freedom

Tag Archive for: Black Lives Matter

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