Tri-county DFA Update: Crisis Alert! Social Justice Sunday -- Also Ballston Meetup Wednesday
Hello Everyone;

There are only two items in what is essentially a emergency alert update:

1. George Lakoff on Frist's framing smear & hijacking
2. Social Justice Sunday? Write a letter?
3. First Ballston Spa Meetup on Monday


1. George Lakoff on Frist's framing smear & hijacking

Honestly, the moment you think it can't possibly get any worse, it gets a lot worse! We may have heard that Sen. Bill Frist is going to participate in national televised link to right-wing churches on the 24th. However, the message of this seems to have slipped by a lot of us. (Perhaps like me you were wrapped up in doing your taxes.) I know it got by me.

However, our language guru, Dr. George Lakoff is out there posting and calling everyone's attention to the appalling implications of the language being used: they are trying to cast anyone who endorses using the filibuster in the Senate to prevent extremist judges getting life tenure as the same as efforts by southern segregationists to prevent Civil Rights legislation for all Americans. This is so despicable it's enough to make you dizzy. With no exaggeration, Hitler's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbles was a piker compared to these people.

Lakoff himself puts it best, here is his posting:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/15/2016/11711

"The right-wing frame is now complete and Bill Frist has signed on with Tom DeLay: "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias, and it is now used against people of faith." This is not just the nuclear option; it is the thermonuclear option. The implicit claim is that every religious person is a right-wing conservative. Filibustering against horrendous right-wing judges is repudiating all believers in every religion - and being racist to boot.  The national campaign is on. Sunday April 24 is booked for national TV at a Kentucky megachurch and called "Justice Sunday."

"We must respond. We will call April 24 "Social Justice Sunday." We must show that spiritual progressives are alive and well and willing not just to speak out, but to shout out. The Clergy and Laity Network and DriveDemocracy.org are leading the effort.

"Religious progressives support social justice, not injustice. We want to protect life all the way from birth up until the edge of death. We will brook no government interference in difficult, even agonizing family decisions. We believe the common good is necessary if we are to pursue our private goods, and that government should use the common wealth for the common good. And we need our judges, and we need to keep them safe.

"There are more religious progressives than right-wing fundamentalists. There are more of us than of them. They may be better organized, but this is changing and that change starts April 24. This is our test. Will we stand up to them? Will we write to our ministers, priests, imams and rabbis asking them to join us in speaking out? Will they put signs on their places of worship celebrating "Social Justice Sunday?"  Will we organize and hold candle-light vigils and marches on the evening of April 24? Will we invite the media to sermons on Social Justice Sunday and to vigils?

"We have already begun to organize - in just hours. Drivedemocracy.org and the Clergy and Laity Network issued a press release and activated their coalition of sixty progressive religious organizations. We called upon every religious organization to join with us.

"We are members of Martin Luther King's "beloved community."

2. Social Justice Sunday? Write a letter?

So what can we do?

1. The first thing is write a letter to the editor. For the Post-Star the email address is Managing Editor Ken Tingley, tingley@poststar.com Tell people you think it is morally wrong to use faith in this manner, that there are believers on every side of these issues and (if you are a progressive Christian) that there are more progressive Christians than right wing ones.

2. f you are a member of a church or synagogue, you can call your minister, priest or rabbi and talk to them about what Lakoff suggests. If, like me, you are a Christian or Jew who is not a regular member of a congregation, I'm not sure what to suggest. Go back to #1, I guess.

3. If anyone is interested in a candlelight vigil -- City Park in downtown Glens Falls comes to mind, the bandstand where Bobby Kennedy spoke, email me back. If enough people are interested, we'll try and get something together. But we are going to need a good sized crowd! Or we can't do it at all. Talk to your friends -- see if they would be interested, too.

3. First Ballston Spa Meetup on Wednesday

There is a new DFA meetup coming to our area: Ballston Spa. This meetup is being organized by Patrick Southworth, the Town of Ballston Democratic Committee Chair. We would urge everyone on this list in the Ballston Spa area to join in this new meetup. There are many burning issues in Ballston today, only one of which is the effort to keep historic and scenic Ballston Spa from being Walmarted. For more information go to: http://dfa.meetup.com/904/
The meetup will be on Wednesday, April 20. at the Ballston Rescue Squad Building. If anyone needs directions please call 281-4718.
- posted by Larry Dudley @ 8:53 PM