Friends,
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the idea of bravery. About what it takes to stand up, to make yourself heard, to be a FORCE that forces a system to change.
This kind of bravery comes in different forms. Not all of them are loud. Some are quiet. Some are small. But each action is a part of what we all must do.
Our National Anthem famously proclaims this land, America, to be “the home of the brave.” But the song itself was written by a slaveholder who said Black people were “a distinct and inferior race” — and the third stanza of the song (which we never sing at sporting events) is explicitly racist, warning all enslaved humans to banish any thoughts of running away to freedom lest we cut you down dead in your tracks. Francis Scott Key was not a brave man. But those enslaved people, whom he said he and other white people “owned,” well, when they did escape their “masters” and then fought with the British against their American torturers and captors, yes, those African souls were most certainly very brave. My favorite piece of lore from the War of 1812 is when the Canadian regiment of the King’s Army captured Washington, DC, the story goes that a Canadian general said, “Hey, let’s burn down the White House!” And then a lower ranking officer piped in, “I’ve got an idea — there’s a big plantation over there across the river! Let’s go free some slaves and let them have the honor of torching this joint!” (Yes, further proof of the Canadians superior sense of humor.)
And so the place went up in smoke. Perhaps those freed slaves deserve their own stanza in the Anthem at the ballpark: “Oh say did those white bastards / deserve to all go up in flames / in the land of the free, and the home of the brave!”
In California this week, dozens of people formed a human chain blocking the entrance to the Travis Air Force base. They were protesting the American military’s continued role in the genocidal slaughter of the Palestinian people, and they were also protesting the use of American military planes to facilitate Donald Trump’s wrongful and illegal mass deportations of immigrants. Twelve of the protestors were arrested, including these 3 women in the photo below, two of them grandmothers, after they bravely refused to stop blocking the entrance to the Air Force base.
They each wore placards around their necks with the names and the ages of Palestinian children killed — a 1 year old, a 3 year old and a 5 year old, each one murdered by our weapons and our money.
In a Florida high school recently, a student who has a girl’s legal birth name asked their teacher to call them by another name — a gender neutral name. The teacher, Melissa Calhoun, who has been teaching in Broward County for over a decade, complied — she began referring to the student by the name the student had requested, understanding the importance — psychologically and socially — of this action and what it meant for the high school student’s own well-being. For this simple, quiet, brave action — Ms. Calhoun has been fired. The state of Florida, overrun by the (scandal-ridden) “Moms for Liberty” has passed legislation, now being copied in other states and by the Trump administration, that makes it illegal for a teacher to call a student by any name other than their birth name as assigned by their parents. Why? Hatred, ignorance, stupidity. Ms. Calhoun knew this and she did it anyway. Not to make a statement, but because it was the right and brave thing to do.
So, on Thursday afternoon this week, the students of Satellite High School held a mass protest and walked out of class and out of the school, filling the parking lot and the streets in support of their teacher and in support of their fellow student.
Across the country in Idaho, middle school teacher Sarah Inama found herself in a similar situation. For years now, Ms. Inama’s classroom where she teaches History and World Civilizations has featured a poster that says “EVERYONE IS WELCOME HERE” with the word “EVERYONE” in multi-colored letters and below the words are pictures of 10 hands, each with a heart in the middle of their palm, each hand a different shade skin tone.
Then, just a few weeks ago, Ms. Inama was approached by the Principal and the Assistant Principal and was told that the poster had to come down.
She said that they told her, “Teachers aren’t allowed to have posters that show their personal or political opinions on things and this is now seen as a personal opinion.”
The Lewis and Clark Middle School teacher was confused but she complied — she took down the “offending” sign. But then — then she thought about it. And then Ms. Inama put the sign right back up.
She took the issue up with the school board, going over the principal’s head — which the principal then claimed was an act of “insubordination.” And the District agreed with the principal, telling Ms. Inama that “political environments ebb and flow” and that in the current environment, the sign was “controversial.”
Controversial? The sign says EVERYONE IS WELCOME HERE. If that’s controversial, let’s just send the Statue of Liberty back to France and remove that glass case on the Cornell campus showing off the Gettysburg Address.
When the local public radio station’s news department called the school district to get clarity on its stance, they were told that it wasn’t the WORDS on the sign that were the problem… IT WAS THE DIFFERENT COLORED LETTERS AND VARYING SKIN COLORS OF THE THE HANDS!
That’s right, folks — this depiction of humanity involving people of various Brown and Black skin colors instead of only white people hands made the school district determine that the sign does in fact “potentially express viewpoints regarding specific identity groups.”
What a bunch of useless weenies these people are. Of course it expresses viewpoints regarding specific identity groups… and that specific identity group is… HUMANS! We come in many shades. And the administrators of the school district would know this if they, I don’t know, took Ms. Inama’s WORLD CIVILIZATION CLASS instead of tying to disrupt it.
Here is a picture of this HORRENDOUSLY OFFENSIVE SIGN THAT SUGGESTS WHITE PEOLE AREN’T THE ONLY PEOPLE ON EARTH and that here, in America, in a middle school classroom, in a class about the history of human life on Earth, “Everyone is Welcome Here.”
And just as in Florida, the students rallied behind their teacher. The kids held protests in support of Ms. Inama and in support of her poster. And then, just last Sunday, the kids and their parents took to the streets of Boise, in front of the Idaho state capitol, and protested en masse again — this time holding up their hands of all different shades of humanity, with hearts drawn onto their palms.
There are many ways to be brave. We will all need to find our own ways during this wretched time. We may not even see the opportunity coming. I doubt either of these teachers knew that their simple act — a simple BRAVE act — of treating their students like real live human beings, with respect and compassion… I doubt they thought this was a Brave Act when they did it.
This is the energy that we all must have in our every day lives right now.
This is what is at stake.
Everyone is welcome here. We must protect this, and we must protect each other. In the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Play Ball!
Now… let’s get back to more of our Perfect Portraits of Donald Trump!
— Michael
Ok. Can we go with this:
P.S. Just as I was finishing this, word came from Louisiana that an immigration judge has ruled that Trump may deport Columbia University grad student and legal permanent resident of the USA, Mahmoud Kahlil, for helping lead peaceful protests on the Columbia campus. This is a crime this judge has committed. Protests are being planned. Don’t think for a second that if they get away with this that ANY of us are safe. Citizen, resident or not. Trump, very openly, very honestly PROMISED US IN ADVANCE that he would rule like a dictator. Which part of that didn’t you believe? That he would only do it for one day? Seriously? I know all of you. You’re not as stupid as MAGA Nation, right? You know, who I’m talking about — those idiots you laugh at for falling for anything he says? Please tell me that by now you’ve figured out he will declare and rule by martial law when he feels the time is right, when he’s convinced that you’re convinced that they certainly won’t be coming after you! Why, mercy me, surely not YOU!
Contact Jewish Voice for Peace for more info about the protests being planned to stop Trump from putting Mahmoud on a plane to Syria. ANY silence from ANY of us at this moment will be the most dangerous, most ruinous decision of your life. STAND UP! NOW!
If you are in New York City or the surrounding area, Jewish Voice for Peace is organizing a protest for Monday evening in Lower Manhattan.
Monday, April 14
5:30 – 7:30pm EDT
Foley Square
NYC
If you missed the previous installments of Michael Moore Presents: PORTRAITS OF POTUS—America’s Art Attack for Democracy — you can find them here:
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This post has been syndicated from Michael Moore, where it was published under this address.