Open letter from
Hòa Voscott and Ned Schaub
Dear Friends, Family, Elected Officials, Fellow Residents of the United States,We imagine that all of you have been watching and reading coverage of the horrors which our country is purposely causing in Texas. Because you are people of goodness, we know that if you are watching, you are agonizing and angry as we are. It is shocking and yet not entirely surprising that our country, under its current administration, has created this humanitarian crisis. We believe that stopping this horror and reuniting the babies, children and parents that are victims of our Nation's ruthless acts -- which are being committed in all of our names and with our tax dollars -- should be a top priority for us all as Americans. A clarion call has now been sounded. We must save these children and families, and save our nation.
You’ve likely also heard good news, news of hope. One of the best qualities of Americans is the desire, the natural reaction, to pitch in and help others. We do it in our own communities, when others across the country need help, and when people in other nations around the globe need it. Now, faced with the horrors that our own government has inflicted on thousands of people from other nations, and within our own country, we are hearing the call. The difference, this time, is obviously that we, as a nation, have caused terror and irreversible damage to children in our own country in a concentrated way in a short amount of time – on our own soil. This is not more important than the fact that what we do this to so many of our own children, gradually, individually – those that live in poverty and violence across our country.
However, yesterday, as news started coming in that hundreds of thousands of Americans have already been giving money and rushing in to provide support, that law firms are committing to help U.S. employees that refuse to do what is immoral and illegal, that religious leaders and leaders of every kind from across our nation are speaking out. What we can do now will not erase the damage that we collectively have done through some of our elected officials, but it means that our spirit is still there.We respect that everyone will make their own choices about how and whether to be involved and know that some of what follows may be obvious to you, and / or that you may have already found ways to engage. However, in case you’re looking for ways to help, there are good suggestions in the article beneath the text of this email.
Here, in brief, are some of them and a couple of others:
• Travel to Texas to volunteer with the organizations that are doing everything they can to help migrants and refugees. For example, if you're willing to travel and you speak Spanish and / or have legal experience you can volunteer with the Texas Civil Rights Project to help with legal intake and interview families.
• Donate to organizations working on this crisis and the preservation of our nation.
• March in the nation-wide Families Belong Together protest that will be held in cities across the land on June 30th, and in other demonstrations.
• Talk calmly, respectfully and clearly with your neighbors, family members and friends, and even those you chat with while waiting in line at the grocery or elsewhere. Of course, it is very important to be careful and follow your instincts about when, where and how to do this. The publishing company McSweeney's offers ideas about approaching supporters of the current administration in their guide for doing this with loving empathy (PLEASE NOTE: The first strategy listed by McSweeney’s seems to be for the extreme supporter. But, if you read on, you'll get info for more general situations.).
• Contact your federal representatives. We have been calling and emailing our elected representatives, and their staff members are answering and glad to get our calls. At a recent meeting in Evanston, our Congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky, urged that we all continue to call and email her, even when we don't believe it will help, or are certain that our representative will do what we believe is right. She said that being able to speak of the numbers of constituents that are communicating with her is critical. If you're not sure who all your representatives are or how to get a hold of them, here's how to find out.
What is obvious also, is that our country is in deep trouble. In so many ways, it is falling before our very eyes and authoritarianism is quickly rising in its place. Protections for all of us, including the most vulnerable among us, are being rescinded, draconian policies are being enacted and much of our government is trying to confuse us about the truth, to gaslight us. The nation's highest elected official is working diligently to align the United States with dictators around the globe, praising them and their power, overlooking and applauding their ruthlessness, removing checks and balances on them that have safeguarded our nation and the rest of the world. At the same time our greatest allies, democracies that have stood with our country through good and bad, are being disrespected and betrayed by us -- and they are determining how to move forward without us.
Please ask yourself why. Is it a high-risk strategy, simply a series of mindless impetuous acts and tantrums, something dark and sinister -- or a combination of all the above? The truth is we just don't fully know, but we do now know with certainty that any of the above is possible. And, we know that any of it could lead to the gradual -- or rapid -- collapse of the United States.
Freedom has slipped through the hands of people from other nations, who believed that it never would or could. We can’t fool ourselves into believing that it could never happen here. To understand one of modern history's most horrible examples of this and to see how horrifically it parallels what is happening in our own nation right now, see this 5.5-minute TED-ed video about the rise of Hitler. Even though all the ingredients Hitler used are not in place here, we urge you to consider what you can do to ensure that our nation is safe from tyranny.
We believe that the time for pretending that it's not so bad or that it will all be just fine has passed -- and we think that sentiments that are purely political and party affiliations are no longer as relevant as they have been. Those are luxuries that we have had because our freedoms and democracy were something we could be certain of. All Americans and our freedoms, democracy, and values are at risk in ways that we have never before seen.
Each of us has our own way of describing what we believe is unique about the American experience -- for better and for worse, and of seeing ourselves in that context. At our house, we've been talking about that and wondering what others would describe. On the positive side of what this nation means to us as a family, is being able to be all the things we (Hòa, Ned and our son Julian) collectively are: gay, straight, Asian, white, Latino, black, biracial, of Vietnamese descent, of European descent, of Mexican and African descent, born in Vietnam, born in the Land of Lincoln, born in California, adopted, survivor of war, refugee, U.S. citizens. It has been possible for us to create a life and to thrive, even though in other places, and during other times in the U.S., it would not have been. There are very few places in the world where this could happen, and only in this nation could it happen exactly as it has here. We want to continue to know the freedoms and acceptance we have, and to do everything we can to ensure that others have it too.
Well before these times, there was already so much work to be done within our own country to achieve peace and justice, eliminate disparities, create equity, protect those most vulnerable among us, and right wrongs. Now, every day that passes brings new tears in the fabric of our nation, attacks on our democracy and acts that diminish the truth, justice, benevolence and the light of freedom and hope that this country has aspired to be and stood for. That light has flickered and dimmed in many ways through the years, but we believe that it remains one of the world's best hopes.
With all our hearts, we ask that you join us during the weeks leading up to this Fourth of July, and well beyond, in pledging to do everything you can to save our nation and get it back to the work of making it better for all of us and of being good and humane neighbors to the rest of the world.
During our entire history, we the people have fought to build this nation, to preserve it and to perfect it. It has continued to have so many flaws, including grave injustices, but we have continued to work toward what it could and should be, and to strive for better. Let's keep doing that -- and moving toward the dream that Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed. As he warned us in his "I Have a Dream" speech, "This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism."
His words mean so much today about continuing to strive for equality and fairness for all of our own people, and also for those that come here from other parts of the world. Read some of them again: "I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men [and women and children] are created equal'."
Let's keep responding to his call and remain determined that we will do everything we can to stop inhumane acts inflicted on people from other parts of the world -– and here at home, to stand up to tyranny and to save all that is good about our country.
Let’s not rest until there is safety, equality and justice for all.
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Ned Schaub (right) chats with fellow Rotarian Gene Servillo
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Ned Schaub is a media strategist, reporter and writer. Social justice is the cornerstone of all his work. His activities as an Evanstonian reflect that, too. For the satisfaction of helping tackle some of our community's most pressing needs--and the possibility of seeing me at lunch on Thursdays--he's a member of the Rotary Club of Evanston. He's served on a number of boards and committees, including as board director and president of the San Francisco organization Art with Elders, as a founding advisory committee member for the California State University Institute for Palliative Care, and as a board member and chair of Oakland-based LeaderSpring.
