TO GET SANTA MONICANS, AND AMERICANS
To stop cowering like trapped animals, while they are gunned down at their own government’s behest? Their beloved town destroyed by greed? Abominations committed in their name? Corruption committed in the open with no fear of reprisal?
(Oh, I know, these are strong words, and those who think differently will accuse me of going off the deep end. But keep reading, and see if I’m saying anything you can deny. Yeah I‘m angry but more so, profoundly sad. Aren’t you? You need to show it, you need to DO something, more than just venting on social media.)
Do we need to get mad and vocal on the steps of the U.S. Capitol? Cover the entire City Hall lawn and sidewalks with protestors? Pack and overflow our U.S. Representatives’ and Senators’ offices? Get to City Council meetings before Union 11 takes all the seats, spilling out into the mezzanine and down the stairs and filling the ground floor and out the door, and getting vocal? Here in Santa Monica, we need thousands, or we will continue to be ignored. In DC and around the nation, millions.
If some thug bumps you, I can see backing off. Don’t get into trouble if you don’t have to. But if that thug bumps you again… shoves you… slaps your face… punches you in the mouth… breaks your arm… pulls out an AK-47 and slaughters your family... exactly how much are you going to take? No one would do nothing, right? But that’s exactly what we are doing. Nothing.
THE GOOD CITIZENS OF MOSCOW
Live under a really repressive government, that will shoot you in the streets, follow you to the ends of the earth to poison you, or arrest you and you’ll never be seen again. Donald’s buddy Putin is a trained assassin, having run the deadly KGB for years.
Muscovites have a complaint about how their city elections are run. (Gosh, so do I!) But brave Muscovites are marching in the streets, one day last week summoning 50,000, after the previous week saw the police arrest 800 demonstrators. Their fates are unknown, but perilous.
HONG KONG
Literally millions of protestors have jammed the streets to protest new laws that would give China unprecedented control over Hong Kong. Peaceful protests last weekend at the airport canceled hundreds of flights and snarled air traffic all over Asia. That got people’s attention.
PUERTO RICO
Tens of thousands have jammed the streets on an island with barely 3M people, demanding the resignation of the governor for mishandling the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, spurred by release of his hacked homophobic, misogynistic texts to government colleagues.
And all these protest marches are not just one-offs, the huge crowds turn out for weeks. When people here in SM called for a massive City Hall protest against the multi-million dollar appeal of the District Voting lawsuit lost by our City Council, about 150 people showed up.
I KNOW WE GET NUMB
When the corruption and nastiness is non-stop and every real crisis is deflected with a manufactured one. But we now have a full-fledged moral emergency in this country and our city, and voting (absolutely necessary) is no longer enough.
I know how hard it is to get people off their couches and into the streets or the halls of power. But when you have government that doesn’t listen, you must raise your voices, and put your bodies on the line.
They do that in other countries. Americans, and Santa Monicans, need to be as brave and motivated as the Puerto Ricans, Muscovites, and the Hongkongers. Otherwise, do you see things changing?
WAIT FOR THE 2020 ELECTIONS, YOU SAY
That’s one well-meaning strategy. It’s the thinking of those in Congress who have not moved forward with at least an impeachment inquiry. But that is morally bankrupt. What kind of signal does it send to future would-be despots, that Bill Clinton gets impeached for lying about sex (nothing to do with running the country) and this poodle of Putin lies about everything in sight (12,000+ and counting since he swore his oath of office) and the cowardly Democrats do nothing and the completely complicit Republicans congratulate each other on getting what they want from their able tool, never mind the body count.
But we could have a repeat of the unthinkable in 2020. And every day that our homegrown Fearmonger-in-Chief sits illegitimately in the Oval Office, he wreaks havoc that will be hard to undo. He wants to sell off federal lands to profiteers, wants yet another disastrous huge tax cut for his billionaire buddies, at our expense. He wants to throw out wildlife protection and every other protection, that interferes with someone’s chance to make more millions.
HOW MANY MORE
People will die from shooters unfettered by even background checks, slinging weapons of war on our streets, before Jan. 2021? All that blood is on his hands and on the GOP, but as we fail to act, our hands become bloody as well. What will you tell your grandchildren? If they even make it onto an Earth that is sinking fast, kicked in the gut and shoved further down by Donald J. Trump. And spending nearly a billion dollars in little ol’ SM on climate change measures is not going to slow that down for even a second.
Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 33 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com
