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Van Jones resigned last night.
My heart is heavy today.
Van is a personal friend and one of the most inspiring and effective visionaries of our time.
I am almost speechless about the right-wing racist attack machine. It's jaw-dropping to see the venomous comments from hate-filled know-nothings all over the web, spreading lies and distortions, calling Van a "racist" and "avowed communist."
(Most of this "communist" nonsense comes from one paragraph in a highly problematic profile of Van from the East Bay Express a couple years ago, the point of which was how Van has moved far beyond his youthful radicalism, and embraced market-based solutions to ecological and social problems.)
I am disgusted, saddened and worried about our country.
The hypocrisy of the Republicans, the right and the media is overwhelming. Do I even have to mention how many right-wing office-holders have said things 10x worse than Van's statements? Everything Van said was accurate, if occasionally provocative to a mainstream culture unaccustomed to critical thinking.
Van Jones is a hero, working for the well-being of all people. It is unimaginable to see him slandered as a "racist" by people who have no idea what they're talking about.
I am proud to stand with Van and to call him a friend.
My heart is very heavy today.
The right-wing is lying about Van Jones, and Glenn Beck is their Liar-in-Chief.
This is just the latest in a long series of attemtps to cynically swiftboat our discourse and our democracy. The untrustworthy folks who won't hesitate to smear the service of veterans like Max Cleland and John Kerry, who claim that health insurance reform is a plot to kill grandma, and Obama is a foreigner with a fake birth certificate, are now spreading ridiculous lies about the White House advisor for Green Jobs, Van Jones.
Somebody should tell these clowns that their neo-McCarthy red-scare antics are wearing thin. The American people want ideas and vision, not lies, hysteria, and racist fear-mongering.
I've known Van Jones personally for the last ten years, and ideas and vision are what he's all about. Van is quite simply a hero, committed to the well-being of all people.
To anyone who knows Van, and his work as a compassionate, visionary bridge-builder and leader, it would seem incredible that the Republican slime-slingers would attempt to slander him as a racist, communist, socialist, or whatever nonsense they're spewing...but arrogant disregard for truth has become the Republicans' only strategy. Why sweat facts when you're committed to spreading fear, and attempting to play the American people for suckers and fools?
In the last few days, right-wing dittoheads have been flooding websites with comments describing Van Jones as a "racist," and "avowed communist." These charges are simply false. The people passing along these lies don't know Van and don't know what they're talking about.
It is laughable to see these ludicrous claims that my friend of ten years "hates white people."
(Apparently, noticing or mentioning the history of racism is all it takes to be accused of hating white people.)
We progressives must stand strong when our allies and leaders are maliciously maligned. The unscrupulous mendacity of the right wing must be challenged and refuted.
Van Jones is working to create jobs for Americans of every race and background. He is a loving father, and a person of immense integrity. I am honored to stand with Van Jones in his work to build a green economy, and deeply grateful to call Van Jones my friend.
Like many of you, I wept a tear or two the night Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. The tears that flowed for so many across the country gave testimony that the last 8 years have been trying. But more than that, the tears of joy and relief--springing from the depths of our national soul--testified to four centuries on the fault lines of freedom and slavery. A history filled with trauma, though not without triumphs.
November 4, 2008, was one of those triumphs.
I felt giddy when my dad called early in the evening and said, "It's over. Obama won Ohio." Though the networks wouldn't call it for another hour, I went to the fridge and popped a bottle of champagne. Channel-surfing the live TV coverage with my son, we were watching Jon Stewart's show when he told Stephen Colbert and a delirious crowd the official news: Obama would be the 44th president. Involuntarily, my chin buckled a bit, my chest quaked, and I did something like a half-sob. On TV, the usually ever-ironic Colbert was wiping his eyes.
The tears around the world were not only mirrors of the past, but also libations for the future, dedicated to the proposition that we can heal and transcend the brutal shadows of history, see the full picture of the present, and manifest a transformative tomorrow.
The election of President Obama represents a stunning moment in the history of systemic racism in this nation--a profound moment in the spiritual journey of the country, and an amazing moment in the history of the world.
But as Obama said on election night, " This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. " Looking at the past, we see that history is made by mass movements, more so than by a single person--even a prophet or a president. To reverse catastrophic climate change and runaway global warming, we need a movement. To dismantle institutional oppression, we need a movement. To save the Earth's biosphere--the sacred, fragile and disappearing web of living species--we need a movement. To end poverty, and the unnecessary, unconscionable suffering it causes, we need a movement. To transform our country from an empire into an ally, we need a movement.
We desperately need to start a new story.
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WTO Protests, Seattle, WA, December 1, 1999 (Photo: Holly Roach)
Below is a open letter from my dear friend, Holly Roach, along with a press release, describing a historic victory for free speech and the right to protest.
I was honored to stand with some 50,000 protestors for global justice in the streets of Seattle in 1999.
I felt sanctified going to jail alongside 600 courageous activists, undettered by the casual brutality of the state. Occasionally during the days in jail, while being transferred in handcuffs, chains and shackles, I would turn to one of the cops, and say, "We are being held illegally and unconstitutionally." The cops of course responded with a snicker, a smirk, or stony silence, but 9 years later a jury agreed.
The case of 175 protestors arrested at Westlake Park in downtown Seattle finally made it to court, and the jury found that the police and the city had violated the Constitution. The jury awarded us $1 million dollars.
Much more important than the money, is the message this verdict should send. Governmental and police officials must be accountable, and cannot be allowed to trample the Constitution and the rights (and bodies) of those working for peace, justice, democracy and the earth.
I felt lucky to be a Westlake Class member, and I was thrilled to channel every cent of my share of the settlement back into the global justice struggle, to support those working on the front lines of the movement, in the hearts of our communities.
Please consider supporting this vital work for global justice by contributing a matching donation to the MONEY to MOVEMENTS project.
--Drew
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Sit-In at the Chevron Refinery, Richmond, CA, 5th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq, March 2008 (Photo: Jessica Tully)
Yesterday, as we approach the 5th anniversary of this damned war, I went to a powerful rally at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, CA, where the war profiteers are choking the community with their pollution. Though we blocked the entire highway at Chevron's gates, the cops decided to wait it out. First there was a march, from the rally in the park at Point Richmond to the poisonous Chevron refinery. There was a marching band, the Brass Liberation Orchestra, as well as a flatbed truck with music and MCs. Then the sit-in in front of Chevron, blocking the entire highway.
Earlier the cops had closed all of the off-ramps from Highway 80, which was a major deal, and while it's great that this important demonstration was able to disrupt the flow of traffic-as-usual, the cop's preemptive blockade of all the highway exits leading to Richmond kept away many folks who wanted to come protest. With some orange rubber cones and police cruisers, the State, once again, blocked citizens from exercising their constitutional rights. I was turned back twice by traffic cops steering all cars away from the rally and march area. To make it to the protest I had to sneak past the police checkpoint by driving through a hotel parking lot. Then, having missed the rally, I caught up to the march.
Some folks, about 24, were arrested at the very end, after we ignored the barricades and entered Chevron property. Dr. C., an Environmental Justice organizer from Richmond, listed Chevron's crimes against the community, and my friend D., who always has a great way of framing things, said, 'We're going past the barricades to ARREST CHEVRON, so if you see any CEOs in there you can put them under citizen's arrest.' The cops freaked when we simply moved their iron gates. (I love disobedience to illegitimate authority!) Then we clustered together again in a sit-in; this time inside Chevron's property. The arrests happened later, but I had left by then. It was a beautiful day in the streets.
There are huge marches this week in SF and around.
(Thanks to Jessica Tully for these photos of the protest.)
.jpg "Drew at the Whidbey Institute, delivering the Thomas Berry Legacy lecture, October 2008")
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