New Year, New Em-i-lis

It is an abnormally warm winter morning; 63° F in Maryland on January 12? And nearly 70 yesterday. Meanwhile, Australia continues to burn, and the news about the Ukrainian passenger plane shot down by Iran remains shrouded in suspicion, smoke, and mirrors. trump has been impeached by the House, but the Senate is unwilling to hold a fair trial.

2020 is not off to an auspicious start, and I have been sitting with a definite sense of unease and fatigue since the proverbial ball dropped. In reflection, several things have crystallized.

1. Facebook, while so pleasurable and connective in many ways, is not a positive force for democracy or educative purposes. Mark Zuckerberg is a bad actor, and his policies do not support a site that bridges or teaches. Rather, he turns a willfully blind eye to the many ways his site not only allows but spreads mis- and disinformation, and I can no longer be a part of that. With mixed feelings, and as many of you know, I’ve just bid Facebook goodbye. For now I’ll stay on Twitter (@em_i_lis) and Instagram (em_i_lis) should you wish to connect on social media.

2. My writerly mind and hand have felt increasingly shriveled, a reaction, I believe, to the stress of life post-2016. Nothing feels as safe, and I see so many of us hunkering down and in, searching for people and spaces in which we can vent, breathe, worry, and support. And yet I attribute writing (and teachers and mentors like Jena, Dana, Anne, Laura, CLJ, Denise, Leah, Margaret, and Sue Ann) to freedom. To so much of the woman I am today. To the ways I’ve shrugged off old burdens and others’ expectations that didn’t resonate with who I really am. To the voice and sense of self I have now. It seems clear that I need to return to this space and reclaim it, reshape it, repair the flaking silver from its back so that I see my most accurate reflection when I peer in.
   As Margaret Atwood said, “A word after a word after a word is power.” For me, for all of us.

3. Every single one of us needs to get busy in support of this November’s election. Winning the Presidency and Senate and holding the House will require all of us to donate, call, text, knock on doors, register voters, and urge people to exercise the privilege we each have in our vote. And let me be clear, I believe, firmly and completely, that we have to gain hold of all three, the White House, the Senate, and the House, if we are to right our sinking ship. I don’t want to live in a single-party silo country, but the GOP has completely lost its way. With the exception of Justin Amash who had to leave the party behind, the GOP has shown that it cares not for our Constitution, cares not about representing the totality of the American people, and cares not for the rule of law. America is NOT and should not be a heteronormative, white, Christian country.
   As you’ve all heard many times, Benjamin Franklin, exiting Independence Hall the day the Constitution was adopted, was asked, “Dr. Franklin, what do we have, a monarchy or a republic?” He replied, “A republic, if we can keep it.” 

Keep it we must. Keeping it means doing more than tweeting and posting. It means real footwork, a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of determination. It means being deeply educated and being willing to talk and share knowledge with others, to fill the holes left in the wake of pitiful excuses for “news” outlets like Fox, of weak public education, of willful ignorance, and of bigotry, hate, and pretty much every -ism you can think of. We must, each of us, be informed and remain open-minded. We must seek candidates to support but also hold the big picture front and center. Intra-party purity tests only benefit the opposition (except re: Tulsi. She is a terrible candidate who has failed to do her congressional job more than 87% of the time, and she isn’t a Democrat).

Long story short, let’s get to work. In addition to my activism, I am relaunching Em-i-lis as a small contribution to the Resistance. My goal is for this space to educate and inspire and foster a community of energetic, democratically-minded peers and also to entertain and chat with you.

Here you will find:

• a weekly round-up of articles, speeches, etc that feel critically important and contribute to Em-i-lis’ new mission;

• contributions by really incredible thinkers and writers who are regular people like you and me, people I am lucky to call friends and who are doing the work we must all do;

• ways you can get involved in various campaigns, get-out-the-vote efforts, and so forth;

• humor! levity! comic relief! my cats! general spawn-based shenanigans! travel, theater, and book ideas.

If Em-i-lis is no longer for you, I wish you all the best. If you want to join me here, please subscribe! You’ll have to confirm/verify your email, so please check your inbox and/or spam box to ensure you click through the link you receive. You’ll only hear from me once daily at the very most- after I post, a Daily Em-i-lis is emailed out the next morning. My goal is 2-3 posts per week.

Please be patient as the site undergoes some renovation, and keep in mind that while it is optimized for mobile, the best functionality and viewer experience is via desktop. Please let me know what you like, don’t like, want more of or less of. And as always, thank you for your friendship and support!

Let’s do this!

Impeachment

The past weeks, month, who knows, have been a whirlwind of intensely watching CSPAN, admiring the f**k out of and fan-girling over, in no particular order:

Marie Yovanovitch, Fiona Hill, Adam Schiff, Daniel Goldman, Eric Swalwell, Nancy Pelosi, Jamie Raskin, Bill Taylor, George Kent, Colonel Vindman, Laura Cooper, David Holmes, Val Demings, Jim Himes, Sean Patrick Maloney, and Pramila Jayapal.

Many others shone, too, but the above public servants and congressional members were magnificent in their command of information, expertise, gravitas, and service. I am thankful for Americans like them. I have written thank you notes to some, tweeted and called thanks to others. They are examples of the best of us, and while I know this has not been an easy time for any of us, they have born the weight of the impeachment process and have gone above and beyond their patriotic and moral duty.

(Thanksgiving was slotted in there, and it was magnificent with a trip to southern California to take the boys to Disneyland and Galaxy’s Edge and to see one of my very best college friends, Amy, and her family. More on Galaxy’s Edge later).

Last night’s more-than-600 impeachment rallies around the country were very moving, and this morning, a regular resister sister, Julie, and I met at the Capitol for DC’s impeachment rally.

I supposed, after these years of protesting and fighting against the relentless horrors of the trump administration, that this day of impeachment might involve some feelings of joy, or at least celebration. Nobody is above the law, and finally, trump would realize that includes him.

But today, though sunny and determined, was solemn and tense. Speakers spoke, the crowd chanted and cheered at times, but everyone seemed exhausted and stunned by how ugly and bad things are, and sick of having to withstand the hourly onslaught of detestable behavior by the person who is supposed to care for all Americans and actively doesn’t; whose oath is supposed to be to Country but who only cares about himself; who lies and cheats and demeans and harms; who is surrounded by spineless enablers who with him throw laws and norms out the windows with smug abandon.

About an hour in, an eagle soared over us. A collective gasp followed, and I felt tears prick my eyes. I had a busy day so I left the rally not long after and have felt weepy since.

Tonight, the voting didn’t take long; the results were as expected. I don’t know that I’ll ever understand why the Republicans in Congress have ceded brain and spine to slavishly follow such a terribly flawed, bad person. Mis- and dis-information play big roles- if you only watched the absurd propaganda that is Fox News and crap like InfoWars, you’d probably be pro-trump, too. But those outlets lie. As does trump. Constantly. They traffic in spin and soundbites with no bearing in reality. And our country is weaker and worse and more ignorant and divided for it. And then there’s racism, the hideous through-line of America.

But still.

trump deserves to be impeached, and for much more than just the two articles voted on today. But at some point, he’ll finally be gone, and we’ll all be left bitter, divided, and struggling to pick up the pieces from a razed democracy, trying to keep it, if we can.

A memorable evening for a great cause + mourning Mr. Cummings

“When we’re dancing with the angels,
the question will be asked,
in 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact?
Did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing?”
-Elijah Cummings, February 27, 2019

This past Thursday, I had the pleasure of hosting a fundraiser on behalf of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence. MPGV is a great organization about which I’ve told you before, if memory serves. It is helping lead the charge to confront gun violence, keep us safer, tend communities ravaged by guns, inspire other states to follow Maryland’s lead in sensible gun regulation, and stand up to the NRA and lobbyists who attempt to block all legislation concerning firearms. It does all that with a small, unpaid staff, dedicated volunteers, and funding from donations and grants, and it does it effectively.

One of MPGV’s legislative priorities for the upcoming session is to get passed a Child Access Prevention bill so that gun owners must responsibly store their firearms and are responsible for injuries, deaths, or thefts if they don’t. This seems infinitely fair, not least to the many children who are harmed and killed every month by improperly stored guns.

I am a regular volunteer, primarily by aggregating gun injury and death data in Maryland on a weekly basis, but wanted to do more. And since I have kids and know lots of people with kids, an evening focused on child access seemed just right. MPGV’s Executive Director, Liz, and I started planning, and I challenged myself to go beyond my comfort zone by asking pretty much everyone I know to attend and/or donate. By Wednesday night, nearly 60 people were registered. I made extra cupcakes, upped the catering, put out more chairs, and got excited. Perhaps most exciting was our roster of speakers:

• Senator Chris Van Hollen

• former Secretary of Education (under Obama) John King

• Congressman Jamie Raskin

• Drs. Monika Goyal and Kavita Parikh, pediatric emergency room physicians, prominent researchers in the field of firearm safety, and most lovely, my friends

Thursday morning dawned and the heartbreaking news of Elijah Cummings’ death spread rapidly. This piece is such a lovely tribute to the incredible human he was. A palpable sorrow spread outwards from both Maryland and Capitol Hill, and we soon learned that even in his last few hours, he was signing subpoenas to USCIS and ICE in his continued march toward justice.

I suspected that Senator Van Hollen and/or Congressman Raskin might not come to our event, and I certainly wouldn’t have blamed their absence, for both were longtime friends, colleagues, and admirers of Congressman Cummings. But come everyone did, and memories and appreciations of Mr. Cummings pervaded the night.

Liz told everyone about MPGV and its accomplishments and goals before introducing Secretary King who had flown in from Atlanta and come straight to my house from the airport. He is MPGV’s newest board member, and he is a seriously wonderful human. He talked about the impacts of gun violence in terms of the legal loopholes that must be closed in order to keep people safe. In early 2018, Great Mills, a high school in Maryland suffered a mass shooting by a boy who’d stolen his father’s Glock, killing one and injuring several before killing himself. You can read more here, but that event, like so many others, wouldn’t have happened if the gun had been safely stored. Secretary King pointed out that the impacts of gun violence spread far beyond the victims: their families, friends, and fellow citizens reel from the trauma and loss, but the same is also true of the perpetrator’s family and peers.

Secretary King

Liz and Senator Van Hollen have worked together for years on gun-safety legislation

Senator Van Hollen (such a lovely person) then arrived and discussed the many (!) years he’s attempted to enact and enforce sensible gun rules in Maryland and what a vociferous foe the NRA is. He helped pass the gun licensing bill— which has been enormously effective in reducing violence because guns are kept out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them—and the Maryland assault weapons ban.

Drs. Goyal and Parikh then described what they see in the aftermath of shootings: dead and injured children, increased school safety drills which often result in worrying children beyond their years (one mother, who they talked to in the course of research, shared that she gave her child a glow-in-the-dark shirt that he’d wanted only to find that he wouldn’t wear it to school because in the case of an active shooter, the glowing T-rex might get him found and killed), forever changed families and communities.

And then Congressman Raskin arrived. Y’all might know that I am an enormous fan of his and immensely grateful to live in his district. He is a constitutional law scholar, progressive and kind, unafraid, and in the thick of things impeachment right now as he sits on the House Committees of Rules, Judiciary, AND Oversight and Reform; the latter committee was that which Elijah Cummings chaired.

Almost immediately, he choked up. He and Mr. Cummings were close and I am certain he was struggling mightily with the loss of friend and mentor. But I found myself wondering if this upset was also expressive of all the rest of the upset he and so many of us are holding: worry, fear, disgust, rage, shock. Everyone is so tired, so exhausted by the lies, ugliness, staggering corruption, and desecration of our democracy. And people like Rep Raskin are especially without recess from all that, as they seek to keep our nation intact. I offered him a tissue and thanked him profusely for his leadership and moral compass, and he told us about the importance of gun regulation, and about the importance of the rule of law, and about Mr. Cummings who once told him, “You always have time to do what you are supposed to be doing.”

It was such a moving, inspiring, memorable evening, and I am thankful. Stand up, my friends! Fight!

Tom, me, Congressman Raskin

Ol loved meeting Rep Raskin too!