Okay, now, I’m really mad! The right wing bullies at Fox News—Glenn Beck and his ilk, are going after a man who I know personally from years of progressive work in the Bay Area—Van Jones. Jones is a grass roots organizer who started the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, as well as the program Green For All. He wrote a best-selling book, one of the few books on environmental action written by an African American: The Green Collar Economy.
Now he’s being targeted by Glenn Beck and Fox News. His crimes: He once called the Republicans ‘assholes’. (Is there a thinking person in this country who hasn’t?) He was arrested at a demonstration after Rodney King was beaten. (He was a legal aid, arrested in a sweep when the S.F. police surrounded the crowd and arrested everyone, including grandmothers who had just stepped out for a carton of milk. I remember that day—I escaped arrest myself because I stopped to order a pizza and arrived just ten minutes too late. Charges against Jones were dropped and he was given a settlement by the city of SF for his false arrest.) And in 2004, he signed a petition asking for an inquiry into the truth of 911. (If every person in the country who questioned the 911 commissioned is now to be banned from public office, we’d be left with a pretty sorry field of the utterly compliant from which to choose our public officials.)
Van Jones’ real crime? He’s the triple threat: he’s black, he’s effective, and he is doing effective work to empower the people in this country who have the least resources.
Make no mistake—the attack on Jones is racism rearing its ugly head. White folks in this country are allowed to carry guns into political meetings and call for the murder of the President on national TV. Black folks who might at some point in their life expressed dissatisfaction with the going order are always at risk of being targeted.
The racism and the bullying isn’t actually very subtle—but here’s one sort of subtle point: the right wing is constructing a definition of ‘America’ that leaves out the perspective of most people of color, most poor people, most truly progressive people—and then vilifying anyone who disagrees or even questions. Come to think of it, they’ve been doing that for decades.
If we let them target Jones, rest assured all of us who have any sort of progressive perspective whatsoever are on their hit list. If we let them define the terms of the argument, we are lost. If we give in to bullies, they will hit back harder. And if Jones goes down, the vital work he is doing, the attempt to bring together the environmental and social justice movements, will go down as well.
I try to restrain myself from sending out posts asking people to call and write and sign petitions, because otherwise I’d be sending one an hour. But I’m going to ask you to do this now:
Call the White House and urge Obama to stand firm with Van Jones. Write Obama and leave your comments on his page. If you are from the Bay Area, let them know that we are Jones’ homies and we stand with him and with the work he is doing. And that we are proud of the progressive values he represents.
Buy his book and read it, if you haven’t already. Royalties are the best revenge! And it’s a damn good book!
Go to the Color of Change website and sign the petition to urge advertisers to drop Glenn Beck. It’s having an effect (which has riled them up all the more!)
The only way to stop bullies is to stand up to them!
http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
White House Phone numbers:
Comments: 202-456-1111?Switchboard: 202-456-1414?FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD
Comments: 202-456-6213?Visitors Office: 202-456-2121
Color of Change:
Color Of Change | We help you do something real about injustice
I find it odd that they’ve decided to attack Van Jones. He’s so easy to defend. I know his work from Yes Magazine which is focused on positive change. That’s his focus too, positive change. All they’re going to end up doing is highlighting a brilliant man’s career. Such an attack is a desperate, grasping attempt at control by frightened people. I’m sorry they’re so scared but I don’t know how to help them realize they’ve manufactured their own demons out of thin air. I’ll write to the President but I bet he’s already actively supporting Mr. Jones.
And, just to be fair, at least one of the gun toters at President Obama’s events was a young black man. So they aren’t just all white nutters out there. Equal opportunity madness.
I just read that he resigned his post. Un-freaking-believable. What a loss for us all. I can understand why he wouldn’t want to put his young family through this kind of hellish attack though.
He will continue to do his work! beck can’t do much without faux news but Van Jones has a much broader arena in which he works effectively. I asked that the President continue to reach out to Mr. Jones for advice because to lose such a voice would be a tragedy.
[…] Stand With Van Jones! […]
Too late. He’s been thrown under the bus. Anyone, and, by “anyone,” I mean President Obama, who thinks this does anything but blood the hounds is batshit insane. Once again, the Democrats fail us.
[…] Stand With Van Jones! […]
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Do you make money out of this blog? just curious
Nope–I don’t make a penny from this blog.. In fact, it costs me money in terms of the time I spend doing it and the money for the website. I know there are ways to make money from the web–I just haven’t figured out how.
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