Monday Morning Thoughts: The World Has Changed

I want to start off with this comment: the world has changed.  Right now, I don’t feel that battling land use issues in Davis is my calling.  That doesn’t mean the Vanguard won’t still cover important issues that are facing our community, but the world has changed.

A commenter yesterday made the comment, “Obama was his guy.  In fact Obama has been for the most part a taboo subject on the V.  Interesting that David has probably had more presidential politics articles in the last week than he’s had in the last 8 years.”

While I believe that Obama in the last two years of his administration did a lot of good things, for most of his time, I was disappointed in his administration.  But, at the same time, I never felt that the very things I have fought for in my adult life were under fire then as they are now.

Someone else said, “So much for the ban on national politics.”  There was never a ban on national politics, but the world has changed.  Yesterday’s article was written about three groups that live here locally and the impact of the new president on them. We don’t live in a bubble, unfortunately.

I did not go to the protest or vigil on Saturday night.  I will explain why shortly, but someone recorded Mayor Robb Davis’ words and they bear repeating here: “(Grandson) Jaime came home after the election and said to my daughter, mommy, when does Mr. Trump take office?  He’s in second grade.

“She said why do you want to know?  He said, I want to know when papa has to go back to Mexico.  Jaime’s afraid.  He has fear.  Jaime’s fear is justified.

“Are the fears of our Muslims brothers and sisters who may not even feel comfortable to come into this space tonight – are they justified?

“Are the fears of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters – are they justified?  Are the fears of the immigrants of this nation, some of whom are undocumented, some of whom were born and raised here – are they justified?  Are their fears justified?

“Are the fears of those of us who fear global climate change and the projection of our planet, are they justified?”  he asked.  “I don’t say lightly, that yes, those fears are justified.”  He said, “We cannot succumb to those fears, but make no mistake words have consequences.  And words were spoken, not by accident, not with the slip of a tongue, but words were spoken during this campaign with meaning, with intent, and those words have consequences and the consequence for us today is that there is legitimate fear within our community – we have to acknowledge that.”

I think Robb Davis lays out very eloquently why the fears that people have are legitimate.

People have said that Mr. Trump deserves a chance – he has a chance.  He is the president-elect.  He will take office.  That doesn’t mean we sit back and say nothing.  That doesn’t mean that we let down our guard and hope that things will work out all right.

In fact, to me it means just the opposite – we push back and make it as hard as possible to enact the worst of his campaign rhetoric.  We make enacting things politically painful and difficult, in hopes that he will take the path of least resistance.

I am mindful of a lesson by one of my teachers on the holocaust, that Hitler when he encountered resistance would often back down.  But too often, the opposition crumbled in his face.  That is why we have the famous statement from Pastor Martin Niemöller on the cowardice of German intellectuals in the face of Nazi oppression.

He said, “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Socialist.”  He ended by saying, “Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

That is not just a lesson about Nazi Germany, it is a lesson about bearing witness.  The term white privilege is often used as a pejorative but it doesn’t have to be.  A few weeks ago when I was meeting with a group of Latinos in West Sacramento, one of them told me that I need to speak out as a white person, because no one was going to listen to them.  White privilege means that those of us who can speak out without fear of retribution, must speak out.

I respect Mayor Davis and the people who organized the event, but I decided early on I was not going to go to vigils, I was not going to attend protests.  I am not even going to cover them for the most part.  I understand a lot of people are in a process of mourning, or grieving a loss.  But I don’t want to feel better about what has happened.  There will be no acceptance here.

This is about pushing back and making sure that the rhetoric of the campaign is just that – empty rhetoric without words.  That is not going to happen by giving President Trump a chance – that is only going to happen because he knows that if you are going to go after one group of people, you are going after all of us.

To me the biggest news yesterday was twofold.  First, he named Stephen Bannon as a chief strategist.  That’s pretty telling.

Second, he said that his plan was to deport the two to three million undocumented immigrants who have criminal records.  To some, even on the left, that has been met with a “that doesn’t sound that bad.”

The problem is – and maybe he just doesn’t know – that is not so easy.  The way the system works is that when you commit an offense, regardless of whether you are an American citizen or an undocumented immigrant or even a legal immigrant – you face “justice” in our country.  After all, do we really want to let a convicted murder loose in Mexico?

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the Department of Homeland Security, then can issue a hold on undocumented inmates which keeps them in custody after they have served their sentence and then they can initiate deportation proceedings.  Sanctuary cities like New York, LA, San Francisco and others will not hold undocumented inmates in jail at the request of ICE unless the detainer request is accompanied by a judge’s order.

So when Trump starts talking about two to three million people who are walking around with criminal records, we have to start by trying to figure out just who those people are.  The most serious offenders are not going to be released – so are these, that he talks about, people with minor infractions or drug possession offenses?  Who are they?

Second, how would this work?  It is one thing to deport someone after they are arrested and are in the system, but to deport right now they would have to identify and locate the people, and then initiate proceedings and deport them.

I don’t see that we have the resources or manpower to do that.  I think this would be much more intrusive than anyone is suggesting.

I don’t see any way this could be accomplished on a large scale without huge roundups and disruption to the country.  Trump has not thought through the mechanics of this, and that is why people have fear.

Eight years ago Obama probably foolishly stated that “elections have consequences,” now we’re going to learn that words do too.

—David M. Greenwald reporting