It is long past time to get together and stand up against the onslaught of evil deeds that are about to be shoved down the pike by the incoming administration. We will find our strength in numbers.
I have been unable to raise the flag for our reconnect in the greater Los Angeles area for awhile - there is a reason for my eschewing any leadership role for our like-minded DK fellows here. Quite literally, it has to do with a lack of intestinal fortitude. I haven't fared brilliantly well since my gutting last November. The rest of my organ systems miss that couple of feet of small stuff.gmats and I did have the pleasure of attending Netroots Nation in St. Louis and gmats will add photo evidence of that remarkable experience. All of the DKers that we encountered had some sort of harrowing pre-occupation before/during/after said conference but carried on for the enlightening intelligence to be had.
I will mention that the highlights for me were manyfold; among them, every panel/session had diversity (not one white folks club operation in sight). We chose to participate in a vigorous Black Lives Matter protest, we had the best barbeque ever at Sugarfire,
Sugarfire Smokehouse BBQ: St Louis, Washington & St Charles
and saw a gobsmacking film about the vote purging
Crosscheck program promoted by Chris Kobach, newly appointed to Trump's transition team
Interstate Crosscheck | Verified Voting
and another terrific film, Boom, Bust, Boom, pitched by my friend, Terry Jones, about the economic collapse (guess what?, it's going to happen again soon).
We spoke with navajo about some sort of workable stewardship for the L.A. group going forward. We have a notion that we can pull this off by committing to a meet every 4 to 6 weeks, setting up a calendar and asking for members of the group to volunteer to host one. Any public place will do (preferably one that serves alcoholic beverages, but not required), hosts must scout it out, check local public transport options and wheelchair accessibility, and see if the place will host a gaggle, tell them we'll be there (get a count) & that's about it.
I'll go first. You all know that I am technically homeless and live as a vagabond with house sits/pet sits and the availability of friends’ guestrooms. (Had been thinking of moving to affordable housing in red states but the kibosh is on that big time at this point...) I am not ensconced in any in December that will allow for the collective. Pasadena is my work turf, however, so I am going to suggest we revisit Saladang-thai which worked well before and is near the public transportation that many in our group rely on. How about December 17th?
I would ask that all attendees try to winnow down activist options to one or two that might be shared with the group (and holy hell, there are so many to choose from with the white supremacist, fundy operation about to be set in motion).
Let's do this!
714day and I worked on this diary together. Credit for the text goes to 714day and to gmats for publishing the diary (first one).
RSVP below in the comments or Kosmail either one of us. We look forward to getting together again.