Thanks to the nearly four thousand of you who joined Paul Krugman and me for this excellent conversation, including G. Elliott Morris, Cat, Wesley Neff, H. Pike Oliver, Leah Anderson, and many more.
You’re talking about outrageous authoritarian acts Trump is inflicting on us without looking into how this started. You must figure that out as that’s where we can turn things around.
We need to do what these people did to grab power rather than get lost in this mess. They started by grabbing power locally in our schools. We must learn how to do that in the name of democracy.
We’re not helpless. It’s much worse now that Trump has power, but fascists have been disassembling democracy for decades now.
First they came for our teachers about four decades ago. They did to our schools what they’re now doing to our country. Trust me. I was a teacher. Life now feels like continuous deja vu’s for me. Hire incompetents. Paralyze people with fear. Get them to feel hopeless and fall apart. Threaten to make their lives miserable and do it. They do! That and the fact their unions have become complicit out of fear too, is why you don’t know.
We can get in their way so they can’t succeed.
Instead of letting frustration takeover, people who care about democracy need to run for a school board in a group of four on a save democracy platform. That way you control that district.
School Boards have total control but administrators have manipulated people to think administrators do. They don’t. The School Board vote IS the power.
Selfish people run for their own agendas and give control to fascist administrators, but that’s the only way that superintendent has power. It’s all about votes. You can stop them with a solid group of other-centered citizens, the antidote to fascism.
We could control every school district. People don’t understand this. The people are the ONLY watchdog for our schools. Because they don’t know this, they’ve let our schools - democracy’s foundation - implode.
Not all horrible things make us helpless. Not learning what you can do about it is what makes people helpless. That’s why reading and learning is so important.
They’re like spiders building webs of “I can do whatever I want to trap you.” They can only trap us if we let their cruelty immobilize us.
Spread the word and take over our schools by having a group of four that sticks together on democracy. Don’t worry if you were a bad student, if you have no child in your school, or if you’re old or young. Read my book A Graver Danger and you’ll understand education better than most of the people working in our schools. You’ll be a hero.
My book explains how to end school shootings. I doubt there’s a more popular issue to run on.
But do it with three others so you control the vote. Alone, they’ll eat you alive the way they do teachers so they can turn them into zombies. You must do this in a solid group!
Since fascists own the guardrails now, we must spread this truth so we can plant the flag of democracy all over this country and have power that’s ours.
Instead of focusing on who’s next, we must build democracy’s power one school district at a time.
Bottom line it’s all about power. We must not let them bury us in fear and hopelessness. We must and can build our power.
As you watch so many kneel in fear thinking they can’t do that to me, I’m not afraid, keep in mind that hopelessness is their tool for you. Their plan is bury us all one way or another. The solution is be proactive. Do something.
We need a grass roots get on school boards movement. Get one going in your district; even if you can’t run, you can help make it happen. Our thought leaders need to talk about solutions, not just the horror of the day. Until you look into what truly is our deep state - our education system - you’re leaving us vulnerable.
You’re talking about outrageous authoritarian acts Trump is inflicting on us without looking into how this started. You must figure that out as that’s where we can turn things around.
We need to do what these people did to grab power rather than get lost in this mess. They started by grabbing power locally in our schools. We must learn how to do that in the name of democracy.
We’re not helpless. It’s much worse now that Trump has power, but fascists have been disassembling democracy for decades now.
First they came for our teachers about four decades ago. They did to our schools what they’re now doing to our country. Trust me. I was a teacher. Life now feels like continuous deja vu’s for me. Hire incompetents. Paralyze people with fear. Get them to feel hopeless and fall apart. Threaten to make their lives miserable and do it. They do! That and the fact their unions have become complicit out of fear too, is why you don’t know.
We can get in their way so they can’t succeed.
Instead of letting frustration takeover, people who care about democracy need to run for a school board in a group of four on a save democracy platform. That way you control that district.
School Boards have total control but administrators have manipulated people to think administrators do. They don’t. The School Board vote IS the power.
Selfish people run for their own agendas and give control to fascist administrators, but that’s the only way that superintendent has power. It’s all about votes. You can stop them with a solid group of other-centered citizens, the antidote to fascism.
We could control every school district. People don’t understand this. The people are the ONLY watchdog for our schools. Because they don’t know this, they’ve let our schools - democracy’s foundation - implode.
Not all horrible things make us helpless. Not learning what you can do about it is what makes people helpless. That’s why reading and learning is so important.
They’re like spiders building webs of “I can do whatever I want to trap you.” They can only trap us if we let their cruelty immobilize us.
Spread the word and take over our schools by having a group of four that sticks together on democracy. Don’t worry if you were a bad student, if you have no child in your school, or if you’re old or young. Read my book A Graver Danger and you’ll understand education better than most of the people working in our schools. You’ll be a hero.
My book explains how to end school shootings. I doubt there’s a more popular issue to run on.
But do it with three others so you control the vote. Alone, they’ll eat you alive the way they do teachers so they can turn them into zombies. You must do this in a solid group!
Since fascists own the guardrails now, we must spread this truth so we can plant the flag of democracy all over this country and have power that’s ours.
Instead of focusing on who’s next, we must build democracy’s power one school district at a time.
Bottom line it’s all about power. We must not let them bury us in fear and hopelessness. We must and can build our power.
As you watch so many kneel in fear thinking they can’t do that to me, I’m not afraid, keep in mind that hopelessness is their tool for you. Their plan is bury us all one way or another. The solution is be proactive. Do something.
We need a grass roots get on school boards movement. Get one going in your district; even if you can’t run, you can help make it happen. Our thought leaders need to talk about solutions, not just the horror of the day. Until you look into what truly is our deep state - our education system - you’re leaving us vulnerable.