JB: It will be challenging to sustain that upbeat aftermath of the march. Were you heartened by the level of national and worldwide participation that we witnessed?
VR: Yes, I was heartened. I learned something, too. That people like Trump, for all their bravado, do not like to be ignored, bested in an arena they think they own or made fun of. I think we saw the power of joy in the face of oppression. Yes, it will be hard, but with Kelly Anne the day after claiming they had "alternative facts" and the uproar of humor and ridicule and also clarity about these tactics that exploded in the media, we now see better what our work is. To be engaged, to challenge, to set our own agenda, to be relentless and to have a lot of fun and laugh a lot. I figure that if even 10% of the people in the streets on the 21st stay engaged, we've got enough to make big waves. Now we need the architecture and infrastructure of collaboration and communication and the intersectional understanding of how many movements move together. I'm actually very enlivened and ready to rock and roll.
JB: I love that you included the need to have fun in the process. Otherwise, it can get a bit grim. Anything you'd like to add before we wrap this up?
VR: I've been involved for a year or two now in confronting the expansion of extractive industries and the military in our region, the lands that surround the Salish Sea. It's very, very sobering to see how difficult it is for citizens to protect what is beautiful and connected about their regions, given that the military is not accountable to the communities they occupy and we have a corporatocracy (politics bought and paid for). We are far into an era of militarism. Trump is not the beginning. He's the evidence. So for all the joy and fun, I think we have a big job ahead and that we are not quite prepared for how hard we'll have to work to protect what is holy. I was very involved last fall in Standing Rock and their key meme, #waterislife, carries so much of what is ahead. That all of us will need to defend our waters. Here on Whidbey, we've just learned that the Navy has used a fire fighting foam that has toxified at least part of our aquifer. We don't know the extent but we know that the waters of Whidbey are threatened. And a lot of us are now paying attention. The important part will be to love one another as we do the work. Every resistance movement has learned this. We will, too.
JB: Is it particularly galling to be in what not long ago was so clearly Bernie country - he won the WA. Democratic caucus with 72.7% of the delegates - and see the new government heading off in the other direction entirely?
VR: I think we have to let go of the galling part. It happened. Historians will make sense of it. We have what we have. For me, it's a big and welcome awakening to learn that my vision of my sweet little South Whidbey Island is blinkered. There are lots of Trump supporters here and they aren't cartoon characters - they are humans who've been fed different (alternative?) facts and had their fears stirred and stirred and saw in Trump what we saw in Bernie - a way out of what was stuck. I have more empathy for Trump supporters. And curiosity. It's disconcerting to find that i was not reading reality, but merely selecting - as we all do - the facts I prefer. Of course I believe my facts are right because I turn to science and history and systems theory to vet them. And in fact, on many issues my facts really are closer to true - but one fact I missed is that facts don't matter when you're mad and hurting. I might not like this but it's a fact that i'm surrounded by people who were invisible to me before who see the world very differently.
JB: Thanks so much for talking with me, Vicki. It will be interesting to see what happens on Whidbey Island going forward. Please keep us in the loop.
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