Basic Decency

In the Wake of Yet Another Ice Assassination

I spent the last four days surrounded by decent people, at the Ecofarm Conference near Monterey, California one of the largest ecological agriculture conferences of the year. I was part of a preconference workshop on permaculture, and I stayed to hear inspiring talks on everything from soil biology to a heart-rending plenary on protecting immigrant farm workers.

The regenerative agriculture community spans a lot of differences, including political differences. We run the gamut from conservative Christian ranchers to back-to-the-land hippies but there are some common values we all share: that caring for the land is our responsibility and also our great privilege, that providing good quality, healthy food for people is a worthy mission, and that the two must go together and reinforce each other.

So it was enraging, terrifying and heartbreaking to wake up this morning to the news of yet another ice assassination in Minneapolis. True that it’s early days yet, that all of the investigations have not been completed or even begun, but I’ve seen videos from enough angles to be clear that a swarm of agents wrestled an observer to the ground, beat him up, and while he was helpless and incapacitated, shot him multiple times.

The people of Minneapolis have been an inspiration to us all, demonstrating every day some of the values of common decency that I still believe the vast majority of us hold: that we show up for our neighbors, that we stand up to tyranny with courage, that we value those rights proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that we value due process and the rule of law that protects those rights.

There are additonal values that I truly believe or what the vast majority of us know are what makes for a decent human being. You can find them in every major religion and at the core of spiritual practices that may not align with any particular creed. They are at the heart of indigenous cultures and the truly traditional values of the ancestors who lived in close-knit communities. They’re pretty simple, really:

The strong protect the weak.

Adults protect and cherish children.

Decent people tell the truth.

Decent people respect others.

Decent people care for the well-being of others as well as ourselves.

So how have we come to this place where we have ceded power to the bullies? Where the liars and the sociopaths garner wealth and influence and use it to disparage the values of common decency? Where the powerful lie continuously, brand caring and empathy as forms of weakness and elevate brute force, employed without restriction, as their marker of strength?

Maybe the more important question is: “What can we do about it?” Especially when we often feel so powerless in comparison to the forces ranged against us?

We do what we can, because that is what decent people do. Even when it doesn’t seem like enough. Even when we have no guarantees that it will be effective.

This morning I called my senators and told them to abolish ICE and certainly not to vote one penny more to fund it. I admit that calling my representatives often seems like the lamest form of political action,and yet I know that it will make a difference if, Monday morning ,their offices are flooded with calls and emails expressing our outrage. When I finished writing this, I’ll be off to a demonstration called by Indivisible here in San Francisco (4:00 PM at Harry Bridges Plaza outside the Ferry Building). Wherever you are, whatever your abilities or circumstances, find something you can do, and do it!

The resistance does make a difference. Commentators offer compare this moment to Nazi Germany in the ‘30s, or to the lynch mobs that targeted African-Americans throughout the Jim Crow era, or the slave-catchers that functioned before Emancipation. The comparisons are apt, but there is one major difference. When Nazi thugs were beating Jews in the streets of Germany, the neighbors were not standing there blowing whistles, yelling at them, telling them to get the fuck out of their city, and mounting huge demonstrations to express their outrage. When the Klan was kidnapping Black people, torturing and hanging them, the neighbors were not demanding they take off their hoods and reveal their faces, not reviling them but rather joining in and cheering them on.

As the strength of the resistance continues to grow, we may well face more violence and cruelty in response. That doesn’t mean we are failing. No, it means that Trump and his MAGA enablers understand they are losing, and they are desperate to consolidate power while they can. Like wounded animals, they are lashing out. It is vital that we contest every inch of ground, and do all that we can to take power away from them. We need to meet their violence, as people have been doing in spite of intense provocation, with strong, nonviolent actions—nonviolent because violence is their turf, and if we fight on that ground, we will be outgunned. But if we fight on moral grounds, if we refuse consent to their bullying and stand up clearly for the values of basic human decency, our movement will continue to grow. The bullies will lose all semblance of legitimacy, and in the end, we will gain the power we need to rebuild the world around true values of caring, compassion, of human rights and dignity, of liberty and justice for all.

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