circuskitchen

Saturday, February 25th 2017

In today’s activism I’m more of a tourist (again).  Free of work and released from my flamly for a few hours I hopped the bus to Harvard Square and landed smack-dab in the middle of a #NODAPL Protest outside TD Bank.

2017-02-25 #NODAPL Action @TD Bank Harvard Square [26 seconds]:

My people!

I hung out long enough to take it in before heading to the Democracy House for this week’s local assembly of OurRevolution.com.

OurRevolution.com Cambridge

I came in on a discussion of how to elect the type of representatives we want.

• The main speaker mentioned he doesn’t know how he feels about being an “Affirmative Action Candidate” because he is Muslim, but for now he’ll take it and try to help the underrepresented as much as possible.

• An impressive man in a wheelchair pointed out that, “What we have now in our representatives are mostly demonic white, cis, strait, non-disabled men.*  I would like to see more representation but I don’t think we can have that without re-imaging of how representatives are elected.”  e.g.; someone with autism who is brilliant but would not be good at knocking on doors; a disabled person with three degrees who doesn’t have many contacts because he lives in section 8 retirement housing.

*[See my post from earlier today.]

• The main speaker mentioned he doesn’t know how he feels about being an “Affirmative Action Candidate” because he is Muslim, but for now he’ll take it and try to help the underrepresented as much as possible.

• Haha, Late-to-the-Party here just realized this speaker is our own beloved City Council Member, Nadeem Mazen!

• Worth noting; getting on a ballot requires much smaller numbers than you might thing in the primaries.  It is important to know that electing the type of representatives we want is within our reach.

• Q:  What support does this group provide to its members.  A:  Facilitators, removing barriers, perhaps curating and supporting specific directions.  e.g.: The Indivisible Guide and training people who perhaps have never made a phone call to a representative.   Also!  Nadeem Mazen has an Occupy (?) group that meets on Sundays that offers some opt-in homework action for which you can partner with a buddy to help keep you accountable.

• Q: What made Bernie’s campaign so great.  A: He was interested in  SYSTEMIC change.    And engaged in two-way dialogue with the public to determine what is important.

Nadeem Mazen also expounded his thoughts about WHAT AN ELECTED OFFICIAL SHOULD BE, and earlier he referenced a LITMUS TEST FOR AUTHENTICITY in a candidate.  He spoke beautifully and alluded to more than I could process, so I had the privilege of asking if he had either of these kind of templates available in writing.  He was pleased to say he is in the process of relaunching his website, was video taping this meeting to transcribe and will capture these ideas and share them there.

Pretty badass Nadeem!  I’m happy expecting you indeed to be a man of your word.

After a ton of announcements about various groups and upcoming actions, we finished with a photo shoot rally for Progressive Democrats of America in which I held up a sign saying “HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT.”

PDAmerica.org

THEN, risking marital collateral with Dear Hubsand, I *stayed* for the next meeting with BrandNewCongress.org.   (See next post.)