[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a Letter to the Editor, written and submitted by a verified Burien resident. It represents the opinion of the author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of South King Media or its staff.]
Yesterday a group of 15 Burien neighbors met in a beautiful home to discuss an ugly thing: authoritarianism in our country.
But the beautiful thing is that there are things we can do about it. People are talking, getting together, concerned to support our democracy, and part of that growing consciousness and movement is an initiative called One Million Rising.
Everyone in that living room on our late, sunny Sunday afternoon here in Burien, had a lot more questions than answers: how can we safeguard our American way of life which is democracy? Whether we’re Republican, Democrat, or none of the above, we love our freedom, we love our rights, and we want ourselves and our children to live in a prosperous society. For that, we need rule of law and equal rights under the law.
One Million Rising is about joining with others to not cooperate with authoritarianism. The example I heard that I liked best was that a teacher wanted to put a poster in her classroom that said “Everyone is Welcome Here” and she was told to take it down. She refused. People heard of this incident and supported her sentiment – the positive message spread.
The question we neighbors were asking is, besides boycotting certain products or going to protests, what can we do? The authoritarianism spreading in our country, with accumulating power in one branch of government even though we all studied in school that our democracy is based on “checks and balances” of power of three independent branches – the executive, legislative and judicial – isn’t touching our own daily lives yet, but we’re concerned as hell. We want to play our parts.
I woke up this morning with these same questions, but I also woke up with one answer: my parents’ country is staring me in the face as a country famous for fighting like hell right now for democracy, and what I know because I live there half the year, is that EVERYONE is involved.
You don’t have to be fighting on a front to be playing your part in a democracy.
Studies in Ukraine have shown that there is one kind of person that is admired tremendously above all others: “the volunteer.” But the thing is, virtually 100% of the Ukrainian population is a “volunteer.” What does that mean? There might not be a single adult in Ukraine who hasn’t donated money or time to someone or something to keep their democracy alive.
Also, while Ukrainians don’t demonstrate often, when they do, they get results: just recently people turned out massively in all the big cities when they didn’t like a new law the government passed that would have weakened the national anti-corruption bodies. The next day, the president signed it out of law as quickly as it was signed in.
When at the end of our meeting, a neighbor expressed a feeling of frustration, helplessness, that while he wants to do something, he has no idea what to do, we started coming up with names of groups we could join.
When you feel alone: join. We in Burien can join Southend Indivisible, for example – join with neighbors in Des Moines, Tukwila, SeaTac, Kent who come together monthly to hear what others are doing, what might fit our time and interests to get involved in. And there are so many other groups we can become members of – participate online or in-person.
I was not sure how this neighborhood meeting would turn out. But it turned out great because we neighbors who never have time to get together as a group to express our concern on where we’re heading as a nation, did it. And we got some answers from each other on what we can do.
I’d love to see other neighbors in Burien getting this kind of support, sharing concerns and information. If growing authoritarianism in our country worries you, and a community gathering like ours based on the basic ideas in One Million Rising sounds good to you, feel free to contact me (irenedanysh@gmail.com). I didn’t lead our meeting and it makes sense for a neighbor in your neighborhood to lead yours, but we can always find leaders – volunteers! 😊 – in whichever neighborhood we live.
– Irene Danysh
Burien
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