Are We Indivisible?

It's been almost two months now since Tanya and I went to a meeting of a group called Indivisible Nebraska.  Well, we didn't stay there very long, but we checked it out and decided to leave after a short time, so I guess I can't actually say we went to it.  Ok, we went there and left after a short time because we thought we had better ways to spend our weekend.  That's probably more accurate.  I'm a little ashamed, but that's what we did.

I don't know how much you know about Nebraska, but I live in a very conservative state.  All a presidential candidate has to do is say he/she is conservative and it's a done deal here.  Conservative is good, liberal ideas are bad.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  If it really is broke, pretend it's not and just keep going.  Any change is bad.  By now you probably realize that I don't fit in too well here in Nebraska.  But this is where I am and this is probably where I'll stay, at least for now.

So we were looking for a way to fight against Donald Trump's constant lies and his attempts to screw over Americans to benefit his cronies and there weren't too many options available to us.  We both have jobs and we can't just pack up and go camp out on the White House lawn for a few months.  I would do that if I could, but I just can't.  

One night I was pounding Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan on Twitter and I got a message from someone asking me to come to a meeting of a group called Indivisible Nebraska that Saturday.  She told me a little about the organization and it sounded good to me.  I thought we were onto something.

So we went.  We went to the library for the meeting and finally found the meeting room.  There were a couple of dozen people in the room, plus two mayoral candidates who were speaking about why they should be the next mayor of Omaha.  We stood outside the door and listened for awhile before deciding to go get some breakfast instead of going in.  It's not that we weren't interested, but we had been hearing from these guys for weeks and we were tired of it.  They were slippery politicians who couldn't address any issues, but just spewed their meaningless rhetoric like projectile diarrhea.  We weren't having any more of it so we just left. 

And that was my first experience with Indivisible Nebraska.  Later that night the person who had messaged me on Twitter sent me a message saying that she had missed me at the meeting, so I told her what we had done and why we had done it.  She handled my criticism gracefully and told me to keep them in mind.  No pressure.

You have to understand that I grew up in a household with two parents who were university professors -- one was very liberal and a PhD in Political Science.  I grew up in the 60's and 70's and that's the kind of activism I knew.  I remember standing on my front porch and smelling tear gas as people only a few years older than me ran past carrying baseball bats and fleeing from the police.  Yes, that was in Omaha, Nebraska.  That's the kind of activism I was looking for, but common sense told me I wouldn't find it today.  No one is going to run through the streets causing mayhem and inciting social unrest if they can sit at their computer sipping a double shot, fat free,  gluten free, organic skinny latte and click on the "like" button every time they see a post that they think is edgy and puts them in the middle of the social justice fray.  I'm sure that's exhausting for them.  

I continued to follow Indivisible Nebraska on Facebook and watched their activity.  After a couple of weeks I began to think we had made a mistake.  They were very well organized and had substance, a strategy, and a good sense of reality.

I'll digress a little bit here.  At some point early in this blog I wrote a post about a protest movement that died before it was born.  That was the Occupy Nebraska movement.  It was a good idea, but they thought there was some cookie cutter version of activism that would automatically lead them to victory.  They became the exact thing they were protesting against and it killed them.  They claim to still be around, but they are now insignificant, ineffective, and have no credibility.  I was afraid Indivisible Nebraska would suffer the same fate.  I was wrong.

So I messaged the person who had invited me to join them and said I thought I had made a mistake.  She graciously invited me to their next activity and I was excited.  I was unable to attend due to work commitments , but I have done a lot of research on the Indivisible movement and I am excited to participate at some point when I can.  I think that they will eventually make a difference, either by convincing others that their views are right and moral or by consistently being such a huge pain in the ass that they are actually heard and are able to actually influence public opinion.

So here I am, waiting for the right moment to jump in.  If you have read any of my most recent posts, then you know I needed to take a break from this stuff and I did exactly that.  Jumping into Indivisible Nebraska is a commitment and I'll do it when I think I can stay all the way in.  But I'll do it and I won't wait too long.

I'm a photographer and I want to do a photo series called "Faces of Activism" but I'm just waiting for those faces to emerge here.  I'm sure they will, but I'm hoping that it won't be too late.  Hopefully Indivisible Nebraska will show me those faces and I'll be able to share them with you here.