Bill Ayers

The perennial contradiction between “we” and “me”—a basic human tension with vast social, cultural, and political differences and dimensions—lurched violently toward an exclusive “ME” in our country in 1980 and the “Reagan Revolution” with its racist dog-whistles, its opposition to any concept of collectivity or the “public,” its weaponized individualism, and its anemic, libertarian definition of “freedom.” “Public safety” became “own a gun;” “public education” became a product to be bought at the market place; “public health” was reduced to “take care of yourself.” The word itself—“public”—in some contexts became consciously coded racially: public welfare, public housing, public aid, public transportation. US v. THEM. Saint Ronald Reagan, godhead of the Right and the icon to whom every Republican leader bends a knee and genuflects piously, famously said this at his inauguration: “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” That’s the dogma we are suffering now.

“The only means to fight the plague is honesty.”

On the morning of April 7 we were part of an energizing stealth descent on Cook County Jail—clandestine communications and secret app, coordinated disciplined directions about traffic laws and tactics, several pre-cased assembly spots, a message at 10 am telling us where to meet up, 20 cars in a parking lot at 10:30, windows quickly painted by the tag team with slogans (#FreeThemAll, #MassReleaseNow), rolled out following the lead car (10 mph, flashers on) and arrived at CCJ at 11:00. Like a rolling flash mob, we suddenly multiplied and became hundreds of cars from all different points and directions, blasting our horns and circling the Jail for an hour. The cops took awhile to arrive, and 45 minutes after we started they began to disrupt our loops. Ecstasy—energy, determination, solidarity. JAIL SHOULD NOT BE A DEATH SENTENCE! FREE THEM ALL!!

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/24898649

View at Medium.com

Chesa Boudin 博徹思⁦‪@chesaboudin‬⁩

Healthcare professionals demanded we drastically reduce the jail population, so we listened.

On Jan 21, the SF jail population was 1,238.

On March 4, when the emergency was declared, it was 1,097.

Yesterday, it was 766.

Meanwhile, crime rates continue to decrease in SF. 4/6/20,

3:08 AM

If you can get access, I highly recommend watching the Netflix original documentary, “Crip Camp.” Brilliant, dazzling, inspirational—it’s the story of a group of teenagers in the late 1960s who find themselves together at a summer camp in the Catskills—with all the promise that camp affords for new friends, new adventures, first romances, and fresh awakenings, as well as for reinvention and personal transformation outside the embrace (suddenly too tight) of family and home. But this camp, officially Camp Jened, is designed specifically for disabled teens, and hence the irreverent renaming: Crip Camp. It’s here that these differently abled young people find each other—wheel chair bound, blind, dealing with the effects of cerebral palsy or spina bifida— discover and then name their collective marginalization in the larger society, and find the courage to demand change. They build a community where everyone has a voice, where each is recognized as fully human (yes, that includes asserting their sexuality), and where they nourish an incipient power that would burst forth a few years later as the Disability Rights Movement. These campers transformed themselves into disability activists fighting for full access to the physical environment and independent living, equal opportunity, and freedom from discrimination, abuse, and neglect. Still too easy to take disabled people for granted, this is a fresh reminder of the power of people to change our world, and the work that remains to be done.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-seminary-coop-covid19-relief?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/4ag8kb/can-san-franciscos-new-da-change-the-way-we-think-about-crime