Check-in: burning questions and how is your heart?

• feeling need to read up on mainstream and policy analysis views, broaden my scope outside of movement people
• reaching out across barriers, gulfs
• interested in the limits of protest, hard to say – what is beyond that?
• Feeling like spinning in circles – how to feel peaceful in chaos
• Feeling inspired hearing a NLG lawyer, it was because of the protests that wewere able to get people out
• Who is in the state department doing that work?
• How are different groups able to work together, like a general strike?
• Feeling full sharing art and stories with friends from weekend protest
• Aware of needing to change the devices I use to manage information
• Questions of habits and discipline
• Strategies of resistance – thinking a lot about how to link communities,curious for ideas, resources, relationships
• Generally feeling sad, angry and scared, and then reflecting how much of thisis not new
• Feels important to be in a space with other people than alone on social media
• Trying to figure out what is my role and what can I bring to what’s happeninghere
• On a personal level lots of good things going on, then feel shame when I sayI’m doing great, within the pain of what’s going on politically
• Noticing protective mechanisms of numbness
• Showing up at the airport this weekend, was first time I wanted to share myJewishness
• Alternating feeling confused, overwhelmed, hopeful
• Heart clenched with anxiety listening to news
• Not sure what to do and everything I do is not enough
• What I hear makes me feel less inspired less hopeful, and there’s no time forthat
• Questions about activism are now in a pressure cooker
• Have been exhausted, on autopilot with work, family, protest, no time toprocess – needing to hear other perspectives beyond the anger I am stuck in
• Have let mental health routine go – trying to bring back, go in to nature,finding balance
• In a major place of grief, surrounded by suffering, where is the best place todirect my energy
• What are steps I can take, all my conditioning coming up of not being enoughand self-scolding
• My heart broke a couple months ago, then my body started reacting, hard toeat, dealing with depression
• This feels really different than struggles of past decades
• Noticing a sense of stability alternating with urgency/panic, trying toremember this is an ultra marathon not a sprint
• Don’t have community around this

• Feeling like these are not the fights I want to fight, because everything in on the table
• Angry that I need to go to wing states to get people to vote for a shitty democrat in 2 years
• Insidiousness of patriarchy is being revealed, feeling a lot of rage
• The rapidfire of this presidency is overwhelming – twitter is overwhelmingenough, and the fear of not being connected at every moment

  Fears, inspirations, strategies

• Hearing that this is intentional strategy to overwhelm, how much am I getting played as an activist?
• The airport actions were amazing, and seemed organic
• Trump could be way more astute, or way stupider but surrounded by smartpeople – and I notice how different my responses are in relation to those two

  differences

• Spectrum of allies – who are neutral, mild opponents
• Do not use facts, go on high horse, how to reach opponents – left strategiesnot working, how to reach people? And not sure if folks are motivated to do

  that extremely hard work?

• Concerns about armed revolution, how many of my friends will beimprisoned
• Worried will split my family apart
• Nuclear potential
• Concern for undocumented families I know
• Worried about divisions and deep unhealed wounds – what is the work wehave not done all these years, how to show up amidst this firestorm of shit
• Thinking of POC who were alienated by women’s march
• The signs of “we are all immigrants”, what about Native people and peoplebrought here by force
• Realizing I don’t know what is going on in this country
• Polarization going on – what is bad and good, creates more division – howare we bringing compassion and openness yet rooted in our politics and

  values?

• Where do we meet each other to create healing?
• I literally don’t share a reality with lots of people in the country
• My relatives who think this is great, he’s doing just what he said he would do
• 30 + year work the right did, with values-based messaging
• what has the left built that we can strengthen?
• POC orgs saying we have left the white working class, need to work withthem – what to do with white people?
• Legitimizing, defecting, civil disobedience
• Feels like Maslow’s hierarchy of resistance
• Because so reactionary, fear we will end up where we started
• BLM, Standing Rock, all this work lays groundwork for this weekend’smobilizations
• How to have broader vision, not responding to everything all at once
• Relay race – ways to have sustainable movement

• Big opportunity to move the left left, with cuts to federal funding – how to bring contradictions up, Brown saying CA is sanctuary state yet expanding prison system
• Where’s the leverage on local politicians?
• Shaking up of complacency
• So much more outrage over Trump’s tweets than Obama’s bombs anddeportations
• The choice of order over justice
• Noting
• Exploiting contradictions
• Public figures wanting to be seen on the right side of history
• Noting ego flare up of wanting to be on right side of history – and then seeexciting forms of resistance in so many places, that de-centers need to do so

  much and be seen, but seeing others

• Government doesn’t work the way I thought it did – agencies organizing fromthe inside, but what is the inside now? ACLU amazing donations, yet what

  will happen to cases they file?

• Obama consolidated a lot of executive power, now Congress is trying to limitexecutive power for immigration
• General strike – how to support people to not work, building networks ofconcrete support?
• “Saturday Massacre”, Nixon
• losing the battle on “the system is rigged”
• historical humility of how many leaders the US has overthrown in othercountries, and dictators installed?
• Media sources/diet: Common Dreams, Colorlines, Jacobin, Democracy Now!Podcasts, long-form articles sent to me by people I trust, Atlantic, Medium, FB curation, Yes! Magazine, Phyllis Bennis, Bay Resistance rapid response alerts
• How balance taking care of selves, families and calls to action?
  o Rapid Response (PICO) network for ICE deportations, have greatsystem where people within 5 mi. of people being targeted get alerts o Shift systems
  o 1-800-NOMIGRA
• psychologically, knowing who are contacts I can get information from when I’m not able to be at somethingo who are my 10-15 people can split work?
• Consolidate your power is a form of resistance
• And there are emergencies where there need to be bodies
• Trusting that other people can do this – our growing capacities, trusting eachother is a form of resistance
• Burnout has the same effect as not engaging at all – it’s ok to take day off,knowing others are out there, turning out tomorrow
• From religious practice, honoring Shabbat,
• Singing community – it has been heavy since election, but also celebration,moving grief, feeling each other, ritual

• Joy
• Non-human realities
• Working with children
• Need to stretch boundaries to support others, housing people, deepercapacity to respond, getting ready for acts of resistance
• Networks to support women needing abortions
• Radical nurses stockpiling drugs, getting ready to care for people
• Needing to disseminating info and trainings – so knowledge can’t be removed
• Explicit learning curves
• Crunk feminist collective great piece on bringing transwomen to center andacknowledging history of violence on the pussy – women’s march
• There can be lots of conversations about being pro-life that does not meanrestricting options, bringing in forced sterilizations, environmental racism,

  shortening life chances

• When it is useful to be expressing rage as a white female in care work,engaging other white people who are having trouble hearing rage from POC

  and trans folks?

• At airport, there was a white woman with megaphone singing patriotic songwith blockade – how to engage strategically, important bridge work for people who can hold both experiences, and hold white people in their fragility
• Love
• At Red Warrior Camp talk, white women should put bodies on line of stateviolence – perhaps assumption that least vulnerable to being killed
• What is image we want to be presenting?