Good news! While Saturday afternoons in the South tend to be the time for a good nap before you make supper, this Saturday was dedicated to 90 minutes of organizing the resistance at a local public library. Yesterday close to 100 people showed up to a meeting in Norfolk, Virginia that had only 25 RSVPs. Part of this was due to the fact that two different Indivisible chapters had booked the same library for the same time, independent of each other. Our local organizers quickly ascertained that such was not so much coincidence as divine intervention and combined two sessions into one. What then happened was that the wall that divided one room into two was quickly “torn down” and we combined our efforts. As such, members from Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Hampton and Newport News came together for a first of many meetings.
A few of reasons this is important. This is a military town in a military region. The seven cities that constitute Hampton Roads and the majority of Southeastern Virginia are not what most would consider to be bastions of radicalism. Everyone here is either related to someone or knows someone or is someone who has served in our armed forces. Respect for authority is expected and understood as a necessity in times of crisis. However, love of country is paramount. That organized resistance is happening here is an indication that hope is hardly dead and that real patriots do not stand idly by when civil liberties are threatened.
Second, it is February and while we are 21 months from the 2018 elections we are nine months away from our state’s gubernatorial and legislative races (Democratic Governor’s Association please take note as a few organizers here and there should know there is energy on the grown in the Commonwealth). And finally, third, because the Hampton Roads area is divided into four Congressional Districts, it would easy to be divided. We aren’t. There may be differing strategies to address each of our representatives, but our concerns are not: any demonstration of intolerance and discrimination toward peaceful minorities will not be allowed. We have our principles and through organization we will become only stronger. Resist!