Namik's Manifesto

There will be times when the struggle seems impossible.I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.

Remember this: Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause.

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. 

And remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.

Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empires’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.

Remember this:Try.

Vote with your dollars

Vote with your dollars.

Here’s a list of independent sellers, museums, libraries, and other places to buy things.

Books

Powell’s Books

Bookshop.org

NYPL store

Gifts and housewares and clothing

Met Museum

Getty Store

Smithsonian

Art Institute of Chicago

National Zoo

Sierra Club

Food

Find a local farmer’s market or join a CSA near you. Enter your zip code at localharvest.org.

Set up a buying club through Frontier Organics

Resistance Advent Calendar Day 8

Syria celebrates the fall of the Assad regime.

Resistance Advent Calendar Day 1

Today the protests in Georgia entered a fourth night.

Four winter days of straight protests, braving arrest and violent suppression, to secure the country’s European future and to stand up against kremlin agents who stole their re-election bid.

How can I keep from singing?

This morning while the kettle heated for tea, I was thinking about this week's challenge, and the Midweek Meeting came back to me, when we gathered during the regularly scheduled Religious Education time and discussed the Query of "where is Spirit?" and "what is Spirit asking of us right now?" 

There was a lot of Silent Worship during that meeting, and several of the Friends used chants as part of their Speaking, and this seemed powerful then, and came back to me this morning as I thought about song. There's an old Quaker chant (like, sixteen hundreds) that got shared around and eventually written down by someone in the 1800s. It has been passed around and the lyrics modified to fit various faith groups. 

The line from that chant that came to me was:
"When Friends rejoice both far and near, how can I keep from singing?"

Folk singers have used this so often it has now entered the public domain and become something of a folk standard, but the version you might be most familiar with is the one by Enya, and that's the one I listened to this morning. I have carried it with me in my heart and am glad of this.

Rejoice, Friends.
We are together, come what may.

My personal favorite version, Pete Seeger in the 70s:

Resistance is NOT futile

When I watched this clip, I cheered out loud (much to the chagrin of my friends and fellow students in the common room that evening). We see the solidarity of self-determination from within the collective, compassion for an outsider, and defiance of authority (in the form of the chillingly assimilated Picard, who has difficulty with the pronoun I). Also, the choice of "Hugh" is excellent. We are Hugh becomes heard as We are you.

Seminar topic: even if resistance comes to nothing immediately, is it futile? Is resistance its own valuable act? What solidarity do we owe to those who are disadvantaged/oppressed even (especially) if we are not? 

C2DC

From Charlottesville to DC

Tomorrow - September 6