democracy is a verb! — by flightlessblrbs CALL TO ACTION: Demand Republican Governor Mike DeWine step in to protect our Haitian neighbors, who have been living here under temporary protected status and who are now poised to be hunted down by a violent, masked, and lawless paramilitary. Join, too, in other solidarity efforts for our neighbors in Springfield, Ohio, who are standing up together as their home comes under siege. Your efforts may feel like a drop in the bucket, but together we become an ocean of resistance. Learn how to help below. Neighbor, this call to action is personal. As a community college teacher, I have had the pleasure of teaching a number of students who are Haitian refugees, on my small campus in northeast Ohio. The thought of any of my students being hunted by body-snatchers is simply unacceptable. I rebuke it! More than that, I am asking you to intervene, because there are things WE can do. 1. Contact Governor Mike DeWine! Governor Mike DeWine is from Springfield. He knows this targeting of our Haitian neighbors is wrong, and he has institutional leverage to stop this. At the moment, he is choosing cowardice. But that does not mean he cannot be pressured to change course! I encourage everyone, whether or not you’re in Ohio, to contact the Governor’s office in one of the following ways: * Call Governor Mike DeWine, during business hours, at 614-644-4357. * Email Governor Mike DeWine! Free free to use my email [below] as a template or to help you brainstorm your own letter. Make your objection to ethnic cleansing a matter of the historical record! YWF’s Personal Letter to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) Dear Governor DeWine, I demand you stand up for our Haitian neighbors who have been living in Springfield, Ohio under temporary protected status. You yourself are from Springfield; these are your people. Whether or not you live in the governor’s mansion, in Columbus, Ohio, these are still your neighbors. You know JD Vance lied about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio. In fact, you spoke out about his lies, especially once JD Vance’s words resulted in death threats to the people of Springfield. Though I did not vote for you, I appreciated you then for having the courage to speak up. I need you to speak up now. JD Vance later admitted he was lying about the character of our Haitian neighbors, in order to score political points before the General Election. Such behavior that reflects poorly on all Americans, and especially on us Ohioans. Governor, we are both adults with eyes and decades of life under our belts. We both know that this is not immigration enforcement. This is about vilifying neighbors for the color of their skin and their country of origin. As someone with Lenape (Delaware) kin, I want you to know that the Lenape welcomed the “undocumented” people who first came to Turtle Island. You are all immigrants to the Lenape— and to the Chippewa, the Ottawa, the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Seneca, the Tuscarora, the Miami, the Caughnawaga, the Shawnee, and the Wyandot people. To see an immigrant like JD Vance assert that he gets to decide who lives on this land, and who doesn’t, is not only a moral injury to us all but a masterclass in the grand delusion of white supremacy and the harm it has always brought to these lands. JD Vance speaks the language of death, and I rebuke it. The removal of our Haitian neighbors’ protected status allows a masked paramilitary force, with an ongoing track record of violence and murder, to hunt down a once-protected people in our country, place them in concentration camps, and (if they are ever released) send them to a country that our own national intelligence has confirmed is still too destabilized for their return. These actions comprise a profane breaking of our bond to a vulnerable group. It is also a breaking of good faith with all decent Ohioans, who object what is obviously an ethnic cleansing. This is a genocide in action, and you can stop it. You have remarked that JD Vance’s bid to remove our Haitian neighbors’ TPS is a “mistake” while, at the same time, refusing to use the powers and influence of your office to intervene. This shows an impoverished level of moral courage. Adding insult to injury, you have attempted to trick Ohioans out of exercising our First Amendment right to protest the lawless, inhumane abduction of our neighbors. Such complicity to fascism is a violation of your oath of office; it is also a violation of our Constitution. As an educator in Ohio, I see and object to your cowardice. I write to share a chorus of objections that have been expressed to me by my neighbors. You bring shame to Ohioans, and we demand you change course. You have a singular opportunity to speak up for our Haitian neighbors. You also have a duty to speak up for the Springfield community, who are traumatized by this violence and betrayed by your lack of leadership in a time of crisis. Your failure of leadership isn’t just observed at the state and federal levels. International journalists and political leaders are documenting your response to these human rights violation. This brutality is a breach of the social contract and an affront to humanity— not just in Ohio, but across the world. The world is abundantly aware that what is taking place here is not immigration enforcement. This is white nationalist domestic terror. This is meant to scare communities from availing themselves of their Constitutional rights. I also want you to remember that children in Springfield, Ohio are watching you. Children all over Ohio are watching you. Your children and grandchildren are also watching you. Governor DeWine, you have a chance to live your values and protect our Haitian neighbors. We urge you to stand up for our Haitian neighbors. You will be celebrated for your courage. This is a catastrophically unpopular President; we can all see he is not cognitively well. We also recognize that unelected bigots are engaging in elder abuse to enact a white nationalist coup in the United States. No one voted for Nazism. No one voted for a state religion. No one voted for our neighbors to be hunted down by unaccountable paramilitary forces, while simultaneously being lied to on national television by agents of these atrocities. No one voted to hand over their constitutional rights to a man who believes he is king, nor did we agree to hand our civil liberties to his unelected puppeteers who are looting the treasury for their personal gain. We see the government corruption. We see the rot. Is this the future you want for your great-great grandchildren? How do you want them to remember you, when they see your name in Ohio’s state history books? Surely, it is not like this. While your political career may be in its twilight, your legacy will live on forever. You will be remembered not for the long tenure of your career but for how you have behaved when history came knocking at your door. It is knocking! This is the moment that will define how history remembers you. We are waiting. We are watching. We encourage you to use your power for good You have a choice to be remembered as a true Ohioan and patriot or to be reviled as a man who sold out his country because he couldn’t stand up to bullies, even as an entire nation was at his back. snap out of the fog + use your stubborn ounces I know many of you are likely distracted and doom-scrolling in a chronic freeze state. I understand the siren call of wanting to memory-hole the scenes of human cruelty which are unbearable to witness. But we must witness it all the same. And we must intervene, in any way we can. We are not helpless! In addition to contacting Governor Mike DeWine, your Congressperson, and your Senators, take one more step to advocate for our Haitian neighbors and the community of Springfield, Ohio: * Spread the word for our neighbors in Springfield, Ohio, who are under siege. Share this message across as many social media forums as possible. While it’s best to use your own words, because they’re more persuasive, you can also just share my words. * Take part in a community mutual aid network in Springfield, Ohio. * Help churches in Springfield, where neighbors are organizing as sanctuaries. You can train to volunteer with them. * Show up and record these lawless abductions of our neighbors, who are being sent to concentration camps. It is well within our First Amendment rights to record and loudly object to these abductions. Don’t let these cowards try to scare you out of using your constitutional rights; that’s exactly what they need to pull this off. * Be creative in your civil disobedience. There are many effective paths to help our neighbors, who are systematically being rendered stateless by a lawless government and hunted for sport by white Christian nationalists and pick-me-minorities, who think their proximity to the bullies will protect them. fascism feeds on your need for “normalcy”— which keeps you in a fog, in denial, chronically online + dangerously uninvolved in the battle for our country This is NOT normal immigration enforcement. They are sending our neighbors to concentration camps. This is ethnic cleansing and domestic terrorism. Don’t just take it from me: listen to what Timothy Snyder has to say about this targeting of our Haitian neighbors— and how much it mirrors of pogroms of the Holocaust. We can and must intervene! “Stubborn Ounces” — by Bonaro W. Overstreet (To One Who Doubts the Worth ofDoing Anything If You Can’t Do Everything) You say the Little efforts that I makewill do no good: they never will prevailto tip the hovering scalewhere Justice hangs in balance. I don’t think I ever thought they would.But I am prejudiced beyond debatein favor of my right to choose which sideshall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight. This is a public episode. If you would like to
