Barbara and Chuck
From ROP:
Quote from one of the leaders for post election zoom meeting
“How can we make it possible for everyone to live as a whole person, to have self-determination, to be treated with dignity and respect, and to have access to material necessities as well as joy?”
Welp…here we go. Ballots dropped this week, and somehow, seeing them hit mailboxes makes what we’re facing in the coming weeks even more real. Are you feeling the fear and anxiety stirred up by this moment in our political history? We know we are. Alongside the fear, there has also been so much energy and unprecedented voter engagement in support of democracy and to stop rising authoritarianism–an energy we want to engage and move into the long-haul organizing that will create the depth of changes our communities actually need.
Whether you’ve been knocking on doors for weeks or wishing you could stick your head under a rock until this election is over, the divisiveness of election season has taken a toll on all of us. We don’t know exactly what the outcome of the election will be, how quickly we will know that outcome, or what the blowback might look like. There will be a lot to discuss: what’s happening nationally, what democracy needs from us in this moment, and how the election result, and its aftermath, are playing out in our communities.
Despite all this focus on what divides us, Rural Oregonians know that at the end of the day, neighbors show up for neighbors, which is essential to our communities’ survival and health. Not only that but also, there is SO much that we can agree on. The vast majority of us want ourselves and our loved ones to be safe, happy, and able to live with dignity.
We don’t know exactly what’s coming after the election, but we’ve been running scenarios with the ROP network of Human Dignity Groups to plan for an array of outcomes as best we can. Regardless of what happens, we will need to gather with our people locally and statewide to assess our situation, take a collective breath, and determine how to move next.
For these reasons and more, we’ve gathered some of our wisest ROP elders and movement friends, Suzanne Pharr and Scot Nakagawa, for Meeting the Moment: A Post-Election Gathering on November 7th from 6-7:30 PM PST. You can register to join us on Zoom. Suzanne and Scot each bring decades of experience tracking and organizing in response to the Far Right and growing authoritarianism.
Registration link:
rop.org/post-election/?emci=e866734e-1696-ef11-88ce-000d3a98fa6b&emdi=a7856351-3a96-ef11-88ce-000d3a98fa6b&ceid=14377292
Suzanne Pharr is an organizer and political strategist who has spent her adult life working to build a broad-based, multi-racial, multi-issued movement for social and economic justice in the United States. At the center of her every effort is the question, “How can we make it possible for everyone to live as a whole person, to have self-determination, to be treated with dignity and respect, and to have access to material necessities as well as joy?” Scot Nakagawa is a 42-year veteran of social and economic justice advocacy and has served as an organizer, political strategist, and social movement analyst in the struggle against authoritarianism and for equitable and inclusive democracy since 1988. He is the current Director of the 22nd Century Initiative, a national action and strategy hub supporting efforts to defeat authoritarianism and build democracy.
In the past three decades, the ROP network has shown that we will work together to keep each other safe. We will work together to protect what we have. And we will work together to build what we need. We would love to see you on November 7th to figure out what that looks like post-election. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to ROP for support around voter intimidation, political violence, or (in better news) bringing newly active folks into your human dignity group!