The
election is over, and, like so many people of conscience around the nation and
the world, we are astonished. We are deeply troubled. And we recognize the
urgent need for us to redouble our efforts in light of the impending Trump
presidency.
While
during election campaigns we cannot endorse candidates, we hope you recognize
that so much of what Donald J. Trump stands for is antithetical to what we in
Peaceworks’ believe in and the sort of future we are working to co-create; one
that’s peaceful, just and sustainable.
While
it will take a little while to explore specifically what strategies we might
pursue in response to the Trump victory, we can, right now, pledge the
following:
·
We
will stand with our Muslim sisters and brothers. We will join our Muslim
members and neighbors in clear opposition to Islamophobia; in opposition to a
ban on Muslims entering our country; in opposition to the denial of refuge to
those fleeing war zones; in opposition to efforts to spread fear and loathing
in our communities.
·
We
will stand together with our undocumented sisters and brothers. We stand in
opposition to efforts to deport 11 million or more U.S. residents, the vast
majority of whom are honest, hardworking members of our communities. We oppose
breaking up families and recognize that many undocumented people have close
family members who are U.S. citizens. We will also oppose efforts to wall off
our nation. And we will join our Latino and Latina neighbors in opposition to
the sorts of profiling that impacts U.S. citizens as well as non-citizens,
creating an atmosphere of intimidation and alienation.
·
We
stand in solidarity with all our members, friends and neighbors who are people
of color. We recognize that Donald Trump plunged into politics heading up the
so-called “Birther Movement;” a thinly veiled racist assault on President
Barack Obama and his administration. We see through a dog-whistle campaign
slogan like “law and order.” We know that the sort of national “stop and frisk”
policy that Trump has called for is dangerous. The implementation of such
policies virtually always is unconstitutionally directed to people of color in
low income neighborhoods.
·
We
stand with our LGBT members and friends. We recognize clearly that the rights
of LGBT people, not yet fully realized, are vulnerable to a major setback if
the new president places on the courts the sort of appointees he has pledged
to. We also are profoundly aware of the sorts of homophobic attitudes that are
part of the worldview of so many of the people who worked on and supported
Trump’s campaign for the White House. We will join with our community—gay and
straight together—to oppose any attempts to roll back the hard-won gains made
in recent years.
·
We
stand with all the female members of our Peaceworks family and our broader
community. Donald J. Trump is a walking insult to women. He is an unrepentant,
objectifying, sexist boor who has admitted to sexually assaulting women. It is
outrageous, in our opinion, to have someone who treats women with such brazen
disrespect elected president of the nation. We will stand in solidarity with
our sisters still struggling for equal rights at a time when the rights that
have been won face possible rollback by the incoming Trump administration.
·
We
will stand with all working for peace. While some hope that Trump will not be
as likely to engage in foreign interventions, there is little to indicate that
this is so. He has talked, repeatedly, about his desire to steal Iraq’s oil. He
has stated that when it comes to ISIS, his intention is to “bomb the sh*t out
of them.” He seems to accept the “might makes right” paradigm. And, most
distressingly, he has repeatedly questioned the notion that the U.S.’s nuclear
arsenal is unusable, suggesting that these weapons are legitimate. Moreover, he
has suggested that proliferating nuclear weapons to Japan, South Korea or Saudi
Arabia would be sound foreign policy. We will stand united with all who seek to
end the permanent war economy and move our nation away from war and militarism.
·
We
will also stand with all working to address the existential threat of climate
change. Donald Trump is a climate change denier who has pledged to undo the
modest steps President Obama has taken to address the Climate Crisis and to,
instead, move full speed ahead with fossil fuel extraction. If he is allowed to
pursue this course of action, including dismantling the Paris Agreement, it
will undermine efforts to address the climate all around the world with
disastrous consequences. We pledge to resist these reckless missteps and to
continue to work to build a strong consensus favoring effective climate action.
We will also stand with all, including native peoples, who are taking a stand
to protect our water, earth and air from pollution and to promote, instead, an
energy efficient, clean energy economy.
We
will seek to build the broadest possible coalitions to resist the misguided
directions the incoming Trump administration is likely to pursue, from their
plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, throwing 20 million people off their
health insurance, to their proposed tax cuts for the wealthy and other
misdirected policies that are likely to increase economic inequality.
Our
efforts to resist depend upon active participation. We invite all reading this
to consider how you might join us in working to build a strong movement
resistance movement. Working together we are stronger. Mutual support is
essential. Your engaged participation is really needed now. Please join us.
