Dear progressives and socialists
Instead of slaughtering tens of thousands of children in Palestine, what if the Democratic Party had spent the last year slaughtering tens of thousands of children in West Virginia?
Dear progressives and socialists,
You may have noticed liberals trying their best to convince us that we absolutely MUST vote for Democrats in the upcoming election, arguing that voting third party is a “dangerous slippery slope” because Trump might win.
I want to ask all of them: What is a more dangerous slippery slope: supporting genocide or NOT supporting genocide?
All these liberal arguments rely on a false belief that everyone considering voting third party—or not voting at all—would otherwise vote Democrat. They think they own our votes. This is not true.
The Democratic Party stands in opposition to everything I care about. It does not represent me. It does not represent any real progressive, socialist or anti-capitalist.
Even if I previously believed the Democratic Party shared my values and was honestly fighting for my community, I would understand now that I was being sold a lie.
I would understand now that any party willing to commit genocide and dehumanize poor folks in Palestine would do the same to poor folks in my community.
We, as leftists, can debate the best ways to move forward. But anyone trying to shame you into voting for an administration currently committing genocide is either lying to you or does not care about you.
Anyone willing to excuse genocide abroad can be convinced to excuse oppression in our own communities.
During the Vietnam War, American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin said: “Every bombed village is my hometown.”
Instead of slaughtering tens of thousands of children in Palestine, what if the Democratic Party had spent the last year slaughtering tens of thousands of children in West Virginia?
Would liberal Democrats still argue that we have to vote for genocide because Trump also would commit more genocide?
Or would they understand we must find ways of opposing such extreme unjust oppression WITHOUT simultaneously supporting and empowering our own oppressors: the mass murderers of our precious children?
James Baldwin also wrote: “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.”
If tens of thousands of precious Palestinian children’s lives brutally ended far too soon do not show us that the Democratic Party is fundamentally incapable of morality, then, I am asking you: What would?
In West Virginia and Appalachia today, we talk a whole lot about the concept of "solidarity."
If solidarity does not mean being willing to stand up & fight for poor, oppressed people EVERYWHERE—even when this shared struggle involves hard work and risk-taking—then what does it mean?
Appalachian author bell hooks wrote: “Folks from the backwoods were certain about two things: that every human soul needed to be free and that the responsibility of being free required one to be a person of integrity, a person who lived in such a way that there would always be congruency between what one thinks, says, and does.”
If we, as progressive and socialist folks from the backwoods, cannot come together and begin to organize ourselves in such a way that initiates this process of truly opposing our shared oppressors and liberating the souls of the unjustly oppressed—both here in our hollers and all over the world—then what are we actually doing?
Please join us at 7pm Monday, October 7th, at Charleston City Hall as we advocate for the City of Charleston to end our financial support of Israel. Every year, $800,000 of Charleston’s budget—made up of our tax dollars—goes toward sending weapons, soldiers, and bombs to terrorize and murder innocent people in Palestine and Lebanon. Come out and stand with us. Wear red, and bring your keffiyehs and your signs as we demand that Charleston City Council defund these heinous war crimes. Show them that Charleston will NOT stand for genocide—not now and not ever!
WV Holler links: https://linktr.ee/hollerwestvirginia