I am an American,
Dedicated to human
And civil rights,
To the rule of law,
Not of outlaws.
I am the keeper
Of the torch of freedom,
Of the memories
Of our family members
Who fought & died
Fighting fascism & hate.
I am an American.
This is my country,
And the Constitution
Is mine, and yours,
And worth fighting for
To protect those we love.

Dear Senator McCain:

I have long been an admirer of yours, and as someone nearing 68 years of age, am proud to call you a genuine American hero, for most of my lifetime.

That’s why I was especially impressed by your courageous position you’ve taken against Russia and Putin’s act of Cyber Warfare vs. the US. Your Senate Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday was another shining example of your patriotic leadership.

Accordingly, based upon your Committee’s hearings, and the information made public by US Intelligence agencies, I believe that as Chairman of the Armed Services Committee you should seek to bring immediate charges of either treason against Donald Trump, or violations of the Espionage Act. If we are, in fact, in a state of Cyber War with Russia, than both actions are permissible and necessary for the protection of US National Security. I like my Presidents to be heroes, like you, and not amoral characters captured by Russian thugs, in direct contravention of American National Security.

Please continue your strong and patriotic leadership on this issue. You are one of the few American’s standing between our country and a totalitarian takeover. Please keep fighting hard for fundamental American values and freedom from tyranny.

Thank you for all of your outstanding public service over the past 6 decades.

Sincerely,
Steve Villano

Joey No-Socks, and

Donnie No-Shame, went on stage

To run a con game.

No-Shame would shout, and

No-Socks would cheer, arms waving,

A grin, ear-to-ear.

While each did his part

Joey’s pals stole the art, with

No-Shame distracted by some little tart.

No-Socks left no prints;

No-Shame won no hearts;

But both made a fortune by

Being so smart. SO SMART!

They claimed no loot,

No taxes they paid—

No-Socks slipped out,

No-Shame, a Don made.

So Joey No-Socks

And Donnie No-Shame, ended

Their lucrative con-of-a-game.

Swift Joey No-Socks—

No sign of his feet.

And Donnie No-Shame?

Just follow his tweets…

We are all Jedis, now.

Darkness descending, so fast,

Erasing the past.

Hate, Lies, Bigotry

Spreading plaque-like, killing vows;

We are all Jedis, now.

Death and dying near,

Princess Leia no more here—

We are all Jedis, now.

Ali, Ali, where are thee?

Floating, and stinging like bees.

We are all Jedis, now.

Hal-le-lu-oo-ya

Leonard Cohen, you too-ya?

We’re all Jedis, now.

Easy, so easy

To turn out the lights, give in

To the coming night.

But we are alive,

With breath, mind and beating heart—

Each day, a new start

To love, live, create;

Never surrender our light,

Our hope, souls, our fight.

We are all Jedis, now.

Fearless with our strength and skills,

Hearts on fire, refusing to bow….

We are ALL Jedis, NOW.

(Stella Kirkendale, and her North Carolina colleagues protest the totalitarian tactics of the GOP controlled North Carolina State Legislature before 61 of them were arrested protecting democracy.  (photo by Kevin Smith))

(I had the pleasure of working with Stella Kirkendale on Voter Protection and attending rallies supported by the North Carolina NAACP when I was in North Carolina for the four weeks leading up to the Presidential Election of 2016. Stella and 61 of her colleagues were arrested last week while protesting the unconstitutional and totalitarian actions of the GOP controlled NC State Legislature to strip the incoming Democratic Governor, Roy Cooper of his powers. It’s my honor to post Stella’s “Letter from the Wake County Jail,” on my website at www.socialvisionproductions.com, on Medium.com, LinkedIn and Twitter, and all over social media, to inspire others to act in defense of the Constitution and democracy. I know Stella and these good folks who were arrested. They represent the best of humanity.)

 By Stella Kirkendale, Raleigh, NC, December 19, 2016

Where to begin? It’s been called the Carolina Coup, an ambush, a legislative power grab, reminiscent of Jim Crow governance, a secret society takeover and more… What you need to know is that this has been in the making for some time, since GOP-led extremists took over the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) four years ago. It is part of our Southern history.

After a drawn-out attempt to contest Democrat Governor-elect Roy Cooper’s win on November 8, Governor Pat McCrory conceded a month later. Then, under the guise of calling a special session on hurricane relief last week, Republican legislators introduced a gamut of new bills (22 total) intended to strip Cooper of his authority. This despite the fact that federal courts deemed the legislative districts illegitimate earlier this year, in the wake of widespread voter suppression and racial gerrymandering that targeted African-American voters “with surgical precision,” mandating a new legislative election in 2017. These bills undermine and manipulate the judicial system, boards of election, public education, and reduce new state hires by our new governor from 1,500 to 425.

When North Carolina’s NAACP, Democracy NC and other coalition partners issued an urgent call to citizens to pack the NCGA last Tuesday, December 13, showed up. Senate and House leaders played games with us through mid-day Wednesday, calling one session after another to order only to recess a few minutes later – after praying for wisdom!

For me personally the last straw was witnessing firsthand the devious trickery of a bunch of desperate, power-hungry white men: sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives Wednesday, waiting for a 5pm session to begin, I looked down and saw the Democrats seated – a racially and gender-diverse group. We waited and waited and waited, until 6:30pm, when Speaker Tim Moore opened the meeting. I looked down again and was stunned at the display of patriarchy and white supremacy below me. The Democrats, fully aware that the planning for these meetings had been conducted in secret, quickly left to emergency caucus.

On Wednesday, following a NC NAACP press conference, Democrat leaders from the Senate and House spoke to the crowd assembled outside the press room, impressing urgency upon us to organize like never before.

That afternoon, seated in the House again, 17 of us knew what we needed to do. After all, many of us have been involved in the Moral Monday / Forward Together movement led by Reverend Dr. William Barber II since its inception. We stood up in unison to raise our voices in protest and to shine a light on the devious power grab. We sang and chanted, “All political power comes from the people.” I sign interpreted as well, as deafness appeared to be prevalent below. When we refused to leave we were handcuffed and led off one by one.

I must say that we were treated with utmost respect by the Raleigh police officers who were called in to do the dirty work. After a holding period in the cafeteria we were transported to the Wake County Detention Center in the back of inmate transfer vans that hold 8 people. We sang as we pulled out, to let our supporters outside know that our spirits were strong. We also discussed strategic talking points should the media be present for our release.

Our processing in the detention center was different from my last experience in July 2013. We had to remove and relinquish our shoelaces, belts and scarves; sit on a device that screened our backsides for inserted objects and place our chins / cheeks on the top level to check our mouths. I became acutely aware of my white privilege when I saw other inmates being booked, locked in cells and escorted in striped jumpsuits. With few exceptions, the other inmates were young and black or Latino. One young woman in the discharge area shared with us at 10:30pm that she was 22 years old, pregnant, with 4 children. She had been there since 3pm.

We were released at 11pm, into the arms of our NAACP and Moral Monday family. The next morning we were back at the North Carolina General Assembly, to continue to witness and support our fellow citizens attempting to enter the House, resulting in 45 additional arrests, including Santa, a breastfeeding mother, a reporter and senior citizens. By the end of the day Governor McCrory had signed the new legislation.

North Carolina can be viewed simultaneously as a case study of how to organize successfully against oppression and as the proverbial canary in the coal mine for the rest of the nation. We have truth on our side, knowing the illegitimacy of the entire charade. We are a broad and diverse fusion movement for social justice, and we shall overcome. We hope you will join us!

—

Stella Kirkendale, MPH is an activist and public health professional with over 25 years experience in local and global HIV/AIDS. She has also worked in TB infection control in Africa and Asia, and on the Ebola recovery in Sierra Leone in 2015. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone in the early 1980s.

( Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian, Sculpture by Michael Richards, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina)

Dear President Obama:

I voted for you three times over the past eight years: once in the New York State Democratic Presidential Primary in 2008, once for President in November, 2008, and once for President again, in 2012. I was proud of each vote, and grateful for the outstanding service you have rendered the nation during your two terms as President. That’s why I am perplexed by your silence in the face of the shocking revelation by the CIA that Russia interfered with the 2016 election, throwing its legitimacy into question.

I was also disturbed to learn, Mr. President, that the CIA’s information and that information of Russia’s illegal interference in our elections was intentionally withheld by GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and the National Republican Party,and that you chose not to go public with the CIA report one month before the election—despite strong urging from Senator Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

I don’t understand why you have not yet called a major press conference–or called for an emergency session of Congress–to address this very disturbing development and act of cyber warfare which a former CIA official has called the most serious violation of our national security since 9/11. Now, with Donald Trump’s nomination of a top Exxon/Mobil official for Secretary of State, who is a multi-billion dollar business partner of Putin’s, American national interest is being shredded before our eyes, and the Putin/Trump quid-pro-quo is emerging. Yet, strangely you remain silent, even though the very effective economic sanctions you imposed upon Russia in 2014 for invading Crimea are now at serious risk of being reversed, yielding billions of dollars in profits to Russia and Exxon/Mobil.

If this turn of events is not enough for you to make a major national speech–before the Electoral College votes on December 19, and to release the classified CIA information to all Presidential Electors–I don’t know what is, President Obama. The essential underpinning of our democracy—a free and fair election, without foreign interference—is at risk of being traded away to a hostile, anti-democratic power in exchange for billions of dollars in profits for Vladimir Putin, Russian oligarchs and their American Oil company partners.

My father fought totalitarianism in World War II, as did all of my uncles, my wife’s father and her uncles. Her youngest Uncle, Herbert Jacobson, an American Jew, was killed at 20 years of age, fighting Fascism in Europe. They did not sacrifice to see a fascist dictator of Russia tamper with our national presidential election, nor to see American national interests become second to the interests of Russia and Exxon/Mobil.

You still have 5 weeks left as our President, and the power to command the world’s attention to condemn the illegal interference in our national affairs by a hostile foreign power. This act of cyber warfare has directly undermined the legitimacy—and security—of our democratic form of government.

Accordingly, I do not understand your silence, President Obama, nor your reluctance to use your powerful gifts of oratory and integrity–and your high public standing–to deliver an urgent message to the nation and the world, remind the members of the Electoral College of their constitutional responsibility to put the national interest above all partisan ones, and to stand up as true patriots against foreign interference in American elections, particularly in the election of a President.

Why are you waiting to speak out at this critical time in our nation’s history? Less than one week remains before 538 Electors cast their votes for President. Will you remind them of their constitutional duty to protect our democracy?

Sincerely,

Steve Villano.

An tax-paying American Citizen and Patriot