what is below the fold was written as a comment on a piece by Mikey Weinstein called “There are no words” but also after reading the piece by Phil in Denver on why he and his family are going to move (to France).
I decided to put it up separately so it might become more visible in case it spoke to anyone. I do not say that it is well written. I started to write what I thought would be a brief comment, and it just kept going.
Make of it what you will.
I am of Jewish background and heritage, but by “Convincement” (choice) a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), a group not particularly liked by MAGA given our history of opposition (thank you John Woolman) to slavery and then segregation, racism, religious discrimination, war (although there are exceptions among some of us — Members of my Meeting for Worship (aka parish) did serve in WWII) and at least among most Friends homophobia. My wife is a member of the Orthodox Church in America, where she has held office as did I when I was a member (parish president, head of diocesan dept of stewardship, secretary of diocesan assembly, member of national dept of stewardship. member of national audit committee — and was once asked if I wanted to become treasurer of the national church). While I volunteered to serve in the Marines in the 1960s when I dropped out of college because I did not want someone to be drafted in my place, at that point I had no religion on my dog tags, which made me a real oddity. I have a long history of advocacy and activity for those who were considered “other” dating back to a winter trip to Miami Beach in the 1950s where I saw segregated bathrooms & learned about racism and segregation for the first time. I have opposed discrimination ever since, and at 17 was in Washington on August 28 1963 for the March for Jobs and Justice, and at the first mass demonstration against Vietnam (organized by a fellow Haverford student) in the Spring of 1964. When in the Marines I turned down an appointment to Annapolis.
During my 20 years in data processing before becoming a teacher, I often consulted to the Federal government, who were customers of companies at which I worked. Those clients included not only both the Senate and the House, but also the CIA (did not go to Langley but to nearby facilities), the NSA (and yes, I have been in the puzzle palace as the headquarters has been described), the IRS, the FBI, the Dept of Justice — just to name a few. I was asked to get a Top Secret — SCI clearance, but I refused, because I did not want to sign away my right to communicate in writing or verbally without prior vetting, and I turned down requests to come on board with both the IRS and the CIA. Years ago I briefly dated a young lady whose father told me I had an interesting background — apparently he had seen a file on me, although he was not disturbed. In the late 60s, between stints in colleges, I dated for a couple of months the daughter of the Bulgarian Ambassador to the UN, who was not only fluent in English but taking courses at both NYU and Hunter — I kept seeing the same faces and she explained that was her “protective” detail from the CIA. When I told her the CIA was not supposed to be operating in the US, she explained that there were two reasons — they were watching her because they thought she might be a ‘honeypot” recruiting for Bulgarian intelligence at a time when Bulgaria was the closest ally in the Warsaw Pact (the communist alliance opposing NATO) of the USSR, and because as an Iron Curtain diplomat she was believed to be at risk from the Jewish Defense League of Meyer Kahane.
I have been here at DK since December 2003, registering the following January, and have been since (until fairly recently) one of the more visible members. I have never had trouble being outspoken.
And I am a teacher, which means I have influence on young people, although I have never indoctrinated, and some of my strongest supporters have been politically conservative parents of students in predominantly liberal communities precisely because my classrooms (usually on Government) were places where students learned how to disagree without being disagreeable and where it was safe to express different opinions, but you’d be challenged to back them up with facts.
In short, despite my superb education and long track record of service to others, and I might note acquaintance with and even friendship with significant political figures including current and former governers, Senators, cabinet officers, House Members, and oter state and local officials, I could well become a target of the developing repressive regime.
I have no trouble calling Musk or Trump or those around both what they are, which includes being racist, misogynist, homophobes, religious bigots, and people who despite their great wealth seem to be so personally insecure despite the great privilege and power they have,
Thus as the net expands I fully expect that I may become a target. For myself, at age 78, I do not care. I have a wife more than a decade younger who is concerned, who in her extended family there are folks already in jeopardy because of one or more who is undocumented and those descended therefrom (could their 14th Amendment birthright citizenship be stripped?). We are both in our own ways, as are others in her extended family, fairly outspoken in opposition to what the current administration is doing. Our healthcare and our income is now largely dependent upon federal programs like Social Security, her federal pension and healthcare (my pension is state — and I may in theory have an income if I go back into a classroom, that is, if I am not arrested as an enemy of the state, or if targeted because of something in nmy background, None of us are fully safe right now.
W explored leaving some time ago — in theory with two grandparents born in Poland I might have the right to citizenship within the European Union, and my wife has extensive Canadian relatives through one grandfather born there, but we are not wealthy, and our areas of expertise are not things in great demand anywhere outside the US — 30+ years ago my data processing expertise would have made us very desirable.
So we are here, in opposition as we can be, with me being outspoken in the ways I can.
I understand why others might leave. We will not. I wish those who do leave well and do not condemn nor even criticize them. But we will stay, try to protect what we can, regardless of the personal risk.
Peace?
