Two days ago, I decided to attend a “Town Hall” to be held at the Unitarian Universalist church. I was curious; wanted to become more familiar with how state politics works. If it’s true, that we are beginning to decentralize, then I too, need to learn how. How do we bring politics down from global to federal to state to local? As a somewhat paranoid person, I naturally gravitate to global: “what are they trying to do to us now?” as likely the most draconian level of control.
(Of course my paranoia was enriched, back in 2020, by the sudden global rollout to the Covid Con.)
Then on down to federal, which, thanks to DOGE, does seems to be dislodging at least a bit of its bloat.
Okay, how about state. I’ve hardly paid any attention to state, beyond knowing that Indiana is a “red state,” mostly rural, with of course “blue cities,” like this one, Bloomington, where the Town Hall was to be held. I heard about this Town Hall, from a neighbor, who emailed me along with a few of her friends.
I was looking forward to the occasion. Curious to know what state senate bills to become familiar with.
Here’s info I found on the internet, but only after the event.
No wonder I went. It looked to be good!
I arrived about ten minutes early, to experience the very excited crush of fellow citizens who, by the time we were all seated, filled the large space; I estimate about 600 people. Way more than anyone expected. And the crowd was friendly, jostling, even eager; it felt to me like most people knew each other.
Just before it began, a woman I know came up to me, and said, “Ann! I’m surprised you’re here!”
Her remark cemented my growing understanding. Of course! This was a democratic crowd, the one that fills blue Indiana cities.
In reply, I simply said, evenly, looking her in the eye: “I’m still a Trumper.” Which of course, took her by surprise.
The old man next to me, very sweet — at one point during the event he handed me a prayer book, so that I would have a hard surface upon which to take notes — was curious. “I’m interested in what you think. I want to know what adversaries think!” — but by this time it was too late for any conversation; the event had begun.
I want to say here that the energy of the crowd was truly wonderful, uplifting; and all the speakers were good, interesting as well. I really don’t remember being bored, not for the entire two hours. Nothing anyone said felt like political palaver. Everybody was speaking from their hearts.
Only once did I hear a diatribe against Trump, and this was actually funny: He said something like, Trump’s a combination of Napoleon and Harpo Marx. That’s not quite it, but you get the gist.
The objective of the Town Hall was not to tear anyone down; it was to instruct people on what bills were up before the Indiana senate that need to be combatted, or amended, or in someway responded to with citizen pushback.
In terms of education, one bill, Sb 518 before the senate, if successful, according to Democratic state senator Shelli Yoder, would end up “privatizing the entire system.” She said that because charter schools are also included as public schools, and, according to the vast majority in this room, should not be. Why? Because there is not enough funding for both. And the parents who want their kids in charter schools are rich, and can afford to pay tuition.
If this bill does end up “privatizing the entire system” then, Yoder said, Indiana would be “the first state to do so.”
Thought in my mind, as I was listening: “Privatize: means corporatize.” And yes, that would be bad.
I am a staunch supporter of Reverse Citizens United, which aims to reverse the supreme court’s decision that corporations have the same rights as real people. In fact, when I moved with my deceased husband Jeff Joel to this state, back in 2003, in order for him to attend IU law school, I told him he had to make it his life’s mission to reverse that horrible situation that let big money dictate everything.
Reverse Citizens United was one of the sponsors of this Town Hall.
Of course, there are powerful forces pushing people to want to send their kid to have charter schools, where students could be educated in entirely different ways than the woke, LGBTQ, DEI agenda that is currently infected just about every institution of any kind anywhere. Where students could engage in real learning, as of old! Schooling, at every level, pre-kindergarten through graduate school, has been infected with this ghastly virus. Rather than education, we have indoctrination.
Nothing of this was discussed at the Town Hall re: education. The question was simply, do charter schools deserve to pull from the public money pot, or not?
Near the end, that same neighbor who had sent the invite on to me got up to speak. She took us back to Germany, 1932, and the changeover to Hitler in 1933. “And that’s where we are, folks,” she intoned. “My social security check was late this month. I probably won’t get one next month.” Yes, that was very effective; did cause quite a stir.
It stirred me too. I had just received my SS check. Not late, but it was in my bank, as “pending.”
Now, four days later, it is still pending.
I offer here, just a bit of my interior dialogue, as I sat listening, deeply interested in what was being said, finding everybody up on the stage well worth listening to, speaking from the heart.
I came away from this event with my usual conundrum: how to continuously and dynamically balance the opposites, wherever they are found. In this case, with the increased polarization between Democrats and Republicans, the former more (bleeding heart) “socialistic” and the latter more (get ‘er done) “individualistic.”
I depend on my “socialistic” social security check; and yet, even so, I tend to lean towards individualism, because I think socialism, as manifested in the bloated federal government, was about to take over. Which is why I’m still a Trumper. And yet, I agree; the DOGE initiative could result in fascism, especially if AI takes us over, and we end up, unwittingly, as pawns, bots, within a global technocratic behemoth.
On the way out of the hall, on the sidewalk, I overheard two women: “The Trumpers didn’t come!” — said with a note of satisfaction. To which I yelled back, over my shoulder, “I AM one!”
One group there that had its literature on the table, indivisible.org, interests me. I might join the newly forming local group. Here’s the first sentence of their flyer: “Indivisible — a nonpartisan, progressive grassroots movement of millions of activists across every state, fueled by a partnership between thousands of autonomous local Indivisible groups and a national staff.” Also: “together we fight to defeat the rightwing takeover of American government and build an inclusive democracy.”
Two questions:
- how can it be both “nonpartisan” and “progressive”?
- how is it funded.
I might join as a person who wants to have a nonpartisan conversation and activism with other locals who are also seeking a third way, we might call it, where common sense and unification of hearts and minds replaces the right/left polarization that has so befuddled us all. Or does that just disrupt what they are attempting to do, make me the contrarian, as usual, and go nowhere?
Is there a way to speak to each other without rancor, but instead curiosity; the way the old man next to me and I at the Town Hall were wanting to do, but our timing was off?
