It Isn't Nice To Block The Doorway, It Isn't Nice To Speak The Truth

Corrrection: The photo on the left is not a picture of me, nor was I charged with disorderly conduct on April 27.

Pop music probably influenced me a lot more than I'd like to admit. All those songs about romance appealed to a girl growing up in an alcoholic household, wondering if there was something better beyond the horizon I could see at the time. I still vividly remember hearing Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness" when I was 11 or 12 riding in the family car,  glimpsing a whole world out there waiting for me.



As a teenager, I was exposed to protest songs that lodged in my psyche. "Universal Soldier" by Buffy Sainte-Marie was a favorite that still gets stuck in my head from time to time.

"It Isn't Nice" by Malvina Reynolds is another seminal text in my life. Whenever I hear white people tone policing Natives or people of color, I think of this song.

I think that the edict to be "nice" has upheld white supremacy in our society by making criticism of that unfair system unwelcome. Not rocking the boat only favors those already in the boat, not those struggling in turbulent waters outside the boat. 

Artist Natasha Mayers' Love Boat (her photo). From an excellent article in The Lincoln County News reporting on the BIW civil resistance April 27.

I'm thinking about all this today as I contemplate someone publicly sharing some really nasty commentary aimed at myself and my sister that I shared privately. It was a comment to this blog that I did not publish because it contained threats toward me, ugly misogynistic language aimed at someone I love, and contributed no ideas to the ongoing discussion about Native mascots for school sports. 

The nasty comment came on the heels of someone named Ken Shurak sharing a doctored photograph of me. Here's the original photo, taken on Congress Street in Portland two years ago:

Sorry, I can no longer remember who took this photo of me in April, 2017. Feel free to leave this info in a comment if you do know.

The photo was clumsily altered so that instead of holding a sign that said "Defund the Penatagon! Biggest polluter on the planet!" it said "Honk for the Indians." The altered picture is less than convincing because the hands holding the S_P sign are still visible. My legal advisers have told me this is a form of defamation, which is against the law.  For some reason, my civil resistance at General Dynamics last weekend seemed to inflame the emotions of S_P members who already resented my role in helping to get the Skowhegan Area High School mascot retired.

Most of the LBJ 25, arrested and charged with obstructing a public way at the launch of a carbon belching war ship named after Vietnam-era war criminal President Lyndon B. Johnson. Photo credit: Peter Robbins

This is a long-winded way of saying that I'm not particularly concerned about being perceived as nice. I would rather be compassionate, just, open-minded, and a lot of other things that are more powerful than nice.

Maybe it is just semantics, but the line I hold myself to is no name calling ever, because it dehumanizes -- and that is always the first step in bias-motivated violence.
I do use unflattering adjectives at times to describe people's actions, and sometimes people, if I think it is warranted i.e. can be supported with evidence. I have noticed that many mascot keepers in Skowhegan __ Pride could not make this distinction.

For instance, they would complain that I was calling them a racist if I described the mascot as racist. Part of the slide into fascism presently in the U.S. involves the willful misuse of language, including grammar, and pretending that it does not matter.

But it does! Because if language is used to obscure ideas rather than clarify them, that will render substantive discussions impossible. Do we want to live in a society like that? I know I don't. It is why I happily pay taxes to support education available to all.
As far as it not being nice to block the doorway or to go to jail (thanks, Malvina) the most compassionate people I've met in this life are willing to do just that.

Lots of people find meaningful ways to resist without risking arrest. At left is Rosie Paul, our wonderful song leader for the day. I don't know the young woman on the right, but I love her thinking! Photo credit: Regis Tremblay

Calling attention to the fact that the building and using of weapons is hastening climate change is difficult. The corporate media usually won't allow any such messages to leak through (the Portland Press Herald actually censored itself in its coverage of the Bath Iron Works protests of a war ship "christening" last weekend).

Proud to engage in civil resistance with my lovely husband Mark Roman and our wonderful hostess, retired educator Mary Donnelly. photo credit: Regis Tremblay

Acts of civil resistance that risk arrest is a way to call attention to the catastrophe we're barreling toward with over half of discretionary funding going to the Pentagon, year after year after year.

So, when a man online tells me not to be so angry, I recognize the tone police and also the wisdom of therapists advising that feelings are not to be denied. The expression of how I feel is a choice, but how to feel? That's in the capable hands of the goddess.

I'll end with this compassionate text I saw and shared on social media this morning. People are people and I don't hate any of them. Ideas? That's another story.

Source: @HigherPerspective