Dear friends,
Yesterday, a middle school principal, Luis Genao of Manhattan East, was kind enough to answer a question that was nagging at me. What would he do, I asked, if it came to his attention that one of his students had posted a video on social media that looked like a cartoon murder of another student?
He told me that it had taken him years to figure out the best way to address something like this. His first move, now, is to
"find out if there’s any there there.”
Mr. Genao explained that educators learn to take suicidal ideation seriously, and they must do the same with “homicidal ideation.” This struck me as a very sound first move.
It was passing time between periods, so I didn’t get to pursue his next move, but I imagine that if he determined that there was no serious criminal intent, he would then get down to matters of ethics and common sense, middle school style. What was the message the student wished to convey with the post? How might the other student feel about such a post? Is it funny if the other person doesn’t find it funny? and so on.
Perhaps you have already discerned that I am thinking of Paul Gosar’s recent Twitter post of his anime avatar killing AOC.
Threats against members of Congress are on the rise.
In the first three months of 2021, the U.S. Capitol Police recorded 4,135 threats against members of Congress. If that pace continues, total threats this year will double those in 2020.
Eric Swalwell, who recently found himself thinking twice before bringing his children to a public event in his district, noted
“My rule is, you have to take them at their word, even if a lot of them may not mean it. The second you don’t take them at their word is the second you could see someone in your family hurt.”
Dozens of cases of people threatening to kill Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been brought in federal court in the last five years. Threatening a federal official is a felony punishable by a fine and up to six years in prison.
Following Twitter’s decision to attach a warning label to his video, Gosar tweeted,
"It's a cartoon. Relax."
In this climate, it is disingenuous to act as though the video is harmless fun.
Call on the Chief of the Capitol Police to investigate Gosar’s homicidal ideation. Call on Nancy Pelosi to give Representative Gosar a talking-to.
Last night, Zealous Observer sent some helpful, explanatory news from COP26, for those of us who need the top five items highlighted. (Me! I do!)
You may, like me, be shocked by the first thing: this will be
the first formal pact to explicitly mention fossil fuels as a source of climate-changing pollution after more than a quarter-century of these summits.
No doubt, this has taken so long because the industry has maintained such a stranglehold on the conversations about addressing the climate crisis.
The second big takeaway is that the activists in attendance are trying to “Keep 1.5 alive!”
An analysis published Tuesday by the nonprofit Climate Action Tracker found that countries’ current emissions-cutting pledges have set a course for the planet to warm another 2.4 degrees Celsius. That would blow past even the Paris Agreement’s less ambitious goal of keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius.
Still, the draft agreement “affirms the long-term global goal to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.”
The third thing to know is that this process will continue to frustrate those of us who feel a great sense of urgency: the plan is to kick the can down the road some more and wait until next year to actually make plans that aim us at 1.5 °C maximum.
Thing 4 is directly related to Things 1 and 3: the fossil fuel industry continues to steer the action toward an insidious thing called a carbon market.
In theory, a carbon market would make countries that cannot avoid pollution pay a price, and nations that can absorb carbon through lush forests or technological investments reap a reward.
But this provides a clean slate for historical big polluters, who would not be asked to pay for the CO2 already released and accumulated in the atmosphere. I had neighbors like this growing up, who would announce “new rules, starting now!” in a game they were suddenly concerned about losing. The carbon market concept is patently unfair to nations like India, Indonesia and Tanzania, whose emissions are still growing.
Thing 5 is really a bunch of things: there are side agreements involving some-but-not-all nations to reverse deforestation, reduce methane emissions, and stop governments from financing fossil fuel projects in other countries.
Perhaps most notable was a pledge from six automakers and more than two dozen countries to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles no later than 2040. The promise is in line with what France and the state of California have already mandated and has credibility thanks to soaring sales of electric vehicles.
As always, pledges and commitments and promises only make an impact if they are kept. We live in a nation that continues to trample Indigenous treaty rights. And yet, as I tell my students, declarations matter. They give us big ideas to hold on to.
I delayed posting today so that I could include this: Watch the video and share it. Demand governments stand with people, not polluters.
Last week, New Yorkers voted to add this language to our state constitution:
Each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.
This language is important right now, as the Climate Action Council, created by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), finalizes its implementation plan for climate action by the end of the year.
The implementation of their most aggressive proposal, which would retire existing fossil fuel infrastructure, will save hundreds of billions of dollars because of improved human health. (I heard this on an organizing call, so I don’t have a link…just my notes.) Thousands of heart attacks could be averted and tens of thousands of premature deaths (with all the attendant health care and social costs) prevented.
Contact the Climate Action Council to let them know that we are depending on them to deliver on the promises of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
The Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA), the younger sibling of the CLCPA, will be New York’s own mechanism for making the fossil fuel industry pay for emissions and the damage they wreak on human and environmental health. We need to get this legislation passed.
Call Governor Hochul to include the Climate and Community Investment Act in the budget! There is a call script and this only takes a minute.
Are you rallying and marching this Saturday to mobilize for the Climate and Community Investment Act? The new language in our state constitution would make a great sign: Each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.
RSVP to let the organizers know that you’ll be in Times Square this Saturday to march for the CCIA and to demand climate justice.
There’s an insidious underside to our mayor-elect’s obsession with cryptocurrency. No doubt, someone needs to follow the money. In the meantime, please fill Adams in-box with common sense information about the dangers of crypto to the environment. Let’s remind him of the newest language in our state constitution.
Educate Adams about cryptocurrency. There’s an updated message and he really needs to hear from all of us!
I’d like to end today on a philosophical note. I try to avoid getting angry, feeling anger, holding onto anger, and expressing anger. As you can imagine, this is not easy for anyone who is attentive to the news or maybe anyone, period. Maybe, it doesn’t even make sense.
The philosopher Myisha Cherry has offered a definition of what she calls Lordean rage — named for Audre Lorde, feminist, activist, and author of “The Uses of Anger.”
It’s a very inclusive kind of anger: although you’re comfortable, if you see someone else struggling, or being a victim of injustice, that’s the rage that you feel. Lordean rage is very much focussed on what we can do to make things better. If it destroys anything, it’s going to destroy the patriarchy; it’s going to destroy racist structures. But it’s not trying to defeat people, or humiliate people. It’s very focussed on transformation.
Lordean rage is also highly motivational. I think anger in general is highly motivational, but what it often motivates is oneself. Lordean rage brings motivation to do something productive: to join an organization, to give money, to sign a petition, to protest in the streets. That’s the kind of anger that I believe is virtuous. It’s the kind of anger that I see as necessary to really bring about a better world.
So, it turns out that there is a kind of anger that is made for me. I prefer to think that I am motivated by love; I think it is more accurate to say that my work is at the crossroads of Love and Lordean rage. I hope you will keep meeting me at the corner.
with love (and Lordean rage!),
L