R.I.P. Larry Kramer: "I don’t want to lose my anger. There’s work to do."

If you don't know anything about Larry Kramer, you should. Gay or straight, black or white, young or old -- whatever. He saw what was true and real, and dedicated his life to justice.

Crashing into the limits of his entitlement turned Kramer into an activist. “I grew up nonpolitical,” he told me in an interview some 15 years ago. “I was out in Fire Island laughing at Gay Pride marches on TV. What politicized me was a couple of friends dying real fast” — and his shock at the lethal indifference of government, medical, religious, and media institutions.

"Lethal indifference" is the universal in all this. The arbiters of established orthodoxy care little for those regarded as different, unless the "different" (are they really?) can be used as scapegoats for one or the other of polite society's myriad failings.

Larry Kramer’s Righteous Rage, by Alicia Solomon (The Nation)

His jeremiads against the state and those complacent during the AIDS crisis galvanized generations of activists.

At that exasperated point (in 1991), Kramer had been sounding such jeremiads for a decade, and he did not let up in the nearly 30 years since, not until his death last Wednesday, at age 84. He is survived by his husband, David Webster; two generations of activists galvanized by his vision and fortitude; and untold numbers of people whose lives were saved because of his writing, the service organization Gay Men’s Health Crisis (which he cofounded in 1982), and the direct-action group ACT UP (which he cofounded in 1987).

"I don’t want to lose my anger," Kramer told The Economist in 2011. "There’s work to do."

Thank you to Larry Kramer for doing that work.

Progress, indeed: "An organic effort by black millennials and Gen Z-ers to influence older family members against Mr. Biden."

The parody site still appears first.

Meanwhile the enduring mystery in New Albany pertains to the ruling Democratic Party's failure over a period of decades to empower the African-American community. There has been lots of platitudes and a few higher ranking political patronage positions, but no real commitment.

Would the situation improve under a Republican administration? Maybe, maybe not, although it couldn't possibly be any more cynical than it is now. After all, when we refer to them as the DemoDisneyDixiecratic Party, reality comes perilously close to negating the satire. 

Young Black Voters to Their Biden-Supporting Parents: ‘Is This Your King?’ by Astead W. Herndon (New York Times)

An organic effort by black millennials and Gen Z-ers to influence older family members against Mr. Biden may be important in the Democratic primary.

... But if (Biden) is to be overtaken by one of his more progressive rivals, the most powerful tool against him may not be opposition research or negative advertisements. Instead, it may be an organic effort by younger black voters — concerned about Mr. Biden’s age and more moderate ideology — to sway their older family members.

ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: Ghosts within these stones, defiance in these bones (2018).

Originally published on May 17, 2018. What's the turnout going to be for Tuesday's primary election? I've already made my choice: David White.

---

ON THE AVENUES: Ghosts within these stones, defiance in these bones.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

"Might the accused gentlemen be prepared to admit their mistakes and publicly drag themselves and their politics through the mud, while at the same time admitting the strength of the Soviet state and the correctness of our collectivization strategy? That would be nice."
 -- Stalin, note to Molotov (1930)

It is my theory, one subjected to earnest consideration and reconsideration about as often as spike-helmeted insomniac Helmuth von Moltke habitually polished and revised the Schlieffen Plan – only for the meticulous German general to be foiled by mathematical equations pertaining to amassed railway logistics – that insofar as ordinary humans ever think much at all outside the limitations of their own corporeal and localized skins, they prefer fixing their gaze on faraway topics rather than the street where they live.

Except for potholes.

Everyone bitches about potholes.

Stated another way, apart from the minimum daily requirements of family, work and the perpetually horrible service at McDonald’s – and as God is my witness, I’ve never going to eat there, ever again – we’re at our most passionate and insistent when ranting and raving about matters over which we have little input, and most of the time absolutely no control whatever.

Let’s face it. There’ll be zero opportunity for most of us to quiz Kanye about his tweets, or personally threaten manufacturers of firearms. We have nothing to do with the outcome of basketball games unless we’re participating in them, and the royal couple of the moment isn’t aware of our existence.

On and on it goes, and we remain ordinary Joes, just plain schmucks, the 98% of us, and yet we’ll prattle forever about occurrences a million miles away from the front door, even as only 17% of registered voters in Floyd County bother offering their insight into purely local issues by voting in a primary election.

Now, I’m not here to argue with the unmistakable verdict of so many non-voters, who instinctively grasp that with 35 variations of Ranch dressing on Kroger’s shelves and only two hardwired political parties, there’s no sense in voting given the absence of any semblance of genuine choice.

What’s more, it’s all about the money, isn’t it?

Yes, it is about the money, which flows from our salad dressing selections, soft drink addictions and McDonald’s melancholy meals straight into the mouths of the engorged corporate wealth mongers hovering above us – but let’s not complicate the argument with pitchforks.

Non-voters merely reinforce the participatory conundrum, wherein anyone can walk outside at any time they like, risk arrest (or internet video notoriety) by filling potholes with arsenic-laced oatmeal, or better still, by painting phallic symbols around them, but almost no one does, and yet these same folks are quite positive they understand the inner workings of Donald Trump’s brain, having never once met the man.

Consequently, my latest variation on a theme: We’ll get involved locally only for so long as we’re spared responsibility for our opinions. In fact, the less we can do about anything, the better.

At the end of the day, perhaps it isn’t a bit counter-intuitive that so many people refrain from involvement in local political decision-making, because politics is about the distribution of power, and as such, there’ll be winners and losers.

When there are winners and losers, there’ll be arrogant triumphant pricks and downcast sad faces, sometimes accompanied by rancor, and these hard feelings can run deep – then without notice, the fellow who absolutely hates your guts turns the corner at neighborhood stop ‘n’ rob and comes face to face with you, right there by the rotisserie hot dogs.

And then what?

I’ll tell you what.

You remain true to your principles.

You indulge in meaningless pleasantries, smile and grin.

Then you return to the business at hand of calling out the villainous petty bastard, because even Trump himself once inhabited a venue smaller than the vast United States, and the grassroots remain the most relevant of laboratories.

The self-appointed community pillars detest you, eh?

Cool.

It’s how you know you’re on the right track.

---

As a non-swimmer who dove into the deep end just shy of 14 years ago and did my share of thrashing, at least until I learned to tread water by gathering a few stylistic chords into a floatation device and patrolling a corner of the pool, I’ve learned about the vacuous viciousness of big fish in small ponds.

Many, especially the ones gathered together into a governing clique of circled wagons fed by dependable rivulets of pay-to-play patronage for sustained beak wetting, don’t much like being questioned, challenged, or exposed to the cleansing properties of transparency.

That’s why they should be, and relentlessly.

They’re actually capable of incredible feats of creativity, although not unless the task at hand is evading questions, dismissing challenges, keeping the room dark, and exhibiting symptoms of junior high school snobbery – making a show of looking the other way on those rare occasions when they walk past you on the street (because their gas-guzzling, tinted-window sofas on wheels are so pricey and comfy, and besides, don't you have a car?), removing your address from an e-mail list or slapping your back a little too forcefully when exaggeratedly feigning a display of good-old-boyness that might easily be mistaken for deep-seated anger issues.

That’s why you keep at it.

It’s why you don’t quit.

Their greed and clannish bad behavior is predicated on power, entirely insignificant on a global scale, but all the more annoying here on the flood plain owing to the sad absence of both humility and gravitas.

We just keep digging.

Our motivation is based on principles like fair play, justice and equality of opportunity. We can’t wait for these to trickle down from above, but must do what we can to expand them, right here … right now.

Allow me to state this clearly and with the utmost force, because in the city of New Albany, the major obstacles to progress are DemoDisneyDixiecrats in the lamentable habit of viewing their multi-salaried chief campaign finance accumulator, Mayor Jeff Gahan, as the most glorious of all Great White Hopes.

It’s absurd, and it's a viewpoint of jaundiced self-delusion, one that this blog will continue to contest, disprove and oppose. Perhaps there’ll come a time when the administration’s abundantly burgeoning bad karma coagulates into a massive sewer fatberg and explodes into the faces of the poseurs.

That would be nice.

So-called Democrats, if you’re tolerating in New Albany what you’re decrying elsewhere, then the looting clique isn’t to blame. Rather, you’re the hypocrite, and it’s YOUR problem to resolve – and honesty’s always a good place to begin if you’re serious about supporting a civil society.

---

Old dogs can learn new tricks, but zebras assuredly cannot erase their stripes. I’m entering a phase of my life where there’ll be less time to devote to the blog, even if my dander remains at highest-alert dudgeon.

I’m not going away, and neither is this soap box. The more they ignore us, the closer we get – and stealth is a many and varied treasure, capable of being molded into numerous tools.

"After one comes, through contact with its administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it."-- Ernest Hemingway, from "Death in the Afternoon"

However, I could use some help, so consider this another in a series of requests to become a part of the written, expository resistance effort.

Please consider submissions to NA Confidential. You needn’t be a polished professional writer to be eligible for inclusion, because I’m certainly not. I can help you state your case, acting as an editor and advisor.

In terms of editorial thrust, longtime readers know I’m a contrarian progressive socialist, a misplaced European who values books, a disgruntled former everything and a hopeful future something. If you’ve read this far today, you know exactly where I stand going into the 2019 municipal election cycle.

However, opposing points of view are welcome. I’ve always read them myself, and still do.

What I will not do apart from rare occasions of Facebook-impelled intellectual rabies – and conceding this blog’s identity policy (anonymity only under strictly defined circumstance – is to block, ignore, silence and disenfranchise you from expressing your point of view.

It’s what some of Team Gahan’s and the Democratic Party’s bootlicking functionaries have done and continue to do to us, so to hell with all that.

Let’s see if we can level this playing field a tad. Take away their money, and what have they got?

Nothing, that’s what.

---

Recent columns:

May 5: ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: Our great and noble leader soon will be going away, so let's break out the țuică and make a joyful noise.

May 3: horse-race-rehash-sadly.html">ON THE AVENUES HORSE RACE REHASH: Sadly, the Kentucky Derby no longer is decadent and depraved. It’s just another vacuous capitalist bait ‘n’ switch.

April 30: ON THE AVENUES: Greg Pennell tells his story.

April 23: ON THE AVENUES: Gehenna, Franklin Graham, Jean-Paul Sartre and Fred Astaire lead us straight to Hell.

April 16: ON THE AVENUES: Amid Deaf Gahan's "victory" over grassroots activists at Colonial Manor, the toxic paranoia is no less rancid.

April 9: ON THE AVENUES: It's time for a change, and David White understands that change begins with a whole lotta scrubbing.

April 2: ON THE AVENUES: Donnie Blevins tells his story.

Reacting to Mt. Tabor Road council sidewalk resolution, Deaf Gahan declares Monday as "High School Weight Room TIF-cake Day."

The Green Mouse received this from the citizen activists on Mt. Tabor Road.  

---

Mt. Tabor Rd. Residents (and all other concerned neighbors),

Please mark your calendar for this Monday, March 4th at 7 pm as the City Council will be discussing the Mt. Tabor Rd. project. Al Knable has drafted a resolution requesting the proposed sidewalks on the northern side of Mt. Tabor Rd. be removed from the plans. IN DNR told the City and its engineers to not build on the northern side of the road and residents have stated they don’t want the sidewalk. Since the administration has ignored all involved, the City Council is stepping in and making its request known.

If this resolution is passed it will be important to discuss this change with your attorney as the City will no longer need 10’ of land for a grass buffer and sidewalk. See Indiana Codes:

IC 32-24-1-15 Forfeitures; failure to pay damages or take possession

     Sec. 15. (a) If the person seeking to take property under this article fails:

(4) to take possession of the property and adapt the property for the purpose for which it was acquired not later than six (6) years after the payment of the award or judgment for damages, except where a fee simple interest in the property is authorized to be acquired and is acquired; the person seeking to acquire the property forfeits all rights in the property as fully and completely as if the procedure to take the property had not begun.

     (b) An action to declare a forfeiture under this section may be brought by any person having an interest in the property sought to be acquired, or the question of the forfeiture may be raised and determined by direct allegation in any subsequent proceedings, by any other person to acquire the property for a public use. In the subsequent proceedings the person seeking the previous acquisition or the person's proper representatives, successors, or assigns shall be made parties.

[Pre-2002 Recodification Citation: 32-11-1-11.]

As added by P.L.2-2002, SEC.9. Amended by P.L.163-2006, SEC.13.

IC 32-24-2-17 Attorney's fees

     Sec. 17. If applicable, a landowner who incurs attorney's fees through the exercise of eminent domain under this chapter is entitled to reasonable attorney's fees in accordance with IC 32-24-1-14.

As added by P.L.163-2006, SEC.14.

IC 32-24-1-14 Costs of proceedings; litigation expenses

     Sec. 14. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b), the plaintiff shall pay the costs of the proceedings.

Attached are the minutes from the last council meeting as well as the proposed resolution.

Monday, March 4, 2019 At 7:00 P.M.
Regular Council Meeting
Third Floor Assembly Room
City/County Building

Deaf Gahan assures the community there is no swastika sticker problem, then putters off to attend another ribbon-cutting. In the wake of Gahan's usual hypocrisy, let's take a closer look.

Yesterday was the day after.

HRC says: See a swastika sticker? Don't destroy the evidence -- call the police.

An NA Confidential reader commented.

I hope this is just a step one and not all that they plan on doing.

It's helpful to recall that American Vanguard white supremacist recruitment posters were appearing in New Albany all the way back in February of 2017.

In a disgusting sign of the times, white supremacists have landed in New Albany.

There is no known record of Jeff Gahan commenting publicly about this. Then, as the Courier-Journal notes ...

In August 2018, authorities reported multiple cases of swastika-related vandalism on a New Albany-Floyd County school bus and in front of the Azalea Hills retirement community. Police did not investigate the incidents as a hate crime.

More recently the social media discussion of swastika stickers dates to around late October of 2018.

In a late phone call, Mayor Gahan addresses our swastika sticker problem.

Gahan remained silent throughout. Now it's different, and suddenly Our Shining Eminence needs to be seen as a leader.

That's because it's an election year: "Mayor urges Indiana hate-crimes bill after swastikas, stickers appear." Seems that Gahan has spent the past 24 months building up a full head of steam to boldly and heroically ... contradict the testimony of citizens attending the Human Rights Commission meeting two nights ago?

The New Albany Human Rights Commission addressed the issue Tuesday evening after reportedly "hundreds" of hate speech stickers were seen throughout the city over the last couple of months.

Mayor Jeff Gahan said police have seen much fewer than "hundreds."

"To date, two incidences have been reported to police dealing with approximately 8 stickers and those matters were investigated immediately," Gahan said.

Of course, there's the recent non-history of the Human Rights Commission itself. Gahan beams with a play-actor's pride at his creation, leaving out the important part where he kneecapped it into oblivion several years back rather than allow the first sign of autonomy to challenge the tumescence of his own widening personality cult.

In January of 2017, we reported this: "CM Phipps, we're mystified as to why the New Albany Human Rights Commission is moribund."

During the appointments phase of this evening's city council meeting, President Pat McLaughlin (4th District) asked Greg Phipps (3rd District) about the council appointments status of the Human Rights Commission.

According to the ordinance, council and mayor each appoint members to the HRC, and then the four pick the fifth.

Phipps waved him off, briefly indicating that the HRC seems dead, with no meetings for the past 18 months and no apparent interest. McLaughlin was more than happy to move to the next commission, and that's all we know. It isn't much.

In 2018, with the municipal election season looming and Republicans taking the initiative on the HRC's re-enablement, it was time to start pretending again.

In the final analysis, the overarching point has nothing to do with any of the HRC appointees, save for (Warren) Nash's inexcusable presence, because Gahan's and (Adam) Dickey's objectives with their mismanagement of the HRC has not been to represent the community’s diversity.

It has been to assure their continued control of a “human rights” product in pre-packaged, controllable form.

Welcome to Jeff and Adam's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test -- hypocrisy-flavored, please.

Progressives, pay heed. The HRC's comeback needn't have occurred, because it shouldn't have neglected, and once it became necessary, your own party's leadership has politicized it again; if Dickey and Gahan don't get what they want from the HRC, they'll smother it a second time.

What you permit, you promote. What you allow, you encourage. What you condone, you own.

Don't let Dickey and Gahan speak for you. They may be "Democratic" in the sense of a two-party duopoly, but they're by no means "democratic" in any meaningful way.

In closing, this observation from a Facebook friend.

NAPD (Chief Bailey) is full of it, because many concerned people in New Albany tried reporting these stickers every time, and they told us to stop calling them! They weren't concerned about it until it made them look bad for not having already acted once the story was finally picked up by the local mainstream media.

Alt media has been talking about this issue for 6+ months. No one cared! The human rights commission didn't even get involved until late 2018, when the stickering had been near-CONSTANT for months at that point. At least they finally did something, but they also got a nice pat on the back for solving BUPKIS.

This isn't over. This hasn't changed. Why did that feel like the last we hear of it? This city's officials can do better. The local media can do better.

The people of this town deserve better than this.

Is this enough for you? I mean... honestly.

Is it?

Let's be realistic. Gahan, Dickey, Bailey, Nash -- they're not going to stop pretending. They're incapable of viewing this issue apart from their own "big fish, little pond" political considerations, and we need to stop pretending they'll even try.

It's top-down control for them -- always has been and will continue to be -- and grassroots activists opposed to these tangible manifestations of white supremacy have little choice; they must push back simultaneously against the swastika bearers and the public officials who seek primarily to neutralize testimony differing with their Disney-fried civic facades.

Tell us YOUR experiences. This space always is available to those wishing to speak about whatever our pillars are reluctant to hear.

Local businesses are supporting federal workers. Dysfunctional elected representatives are still being paid. Think about that for a moment.

Photo credit.

I was the greeter at Pints&union on Thursday night, and it was a wonderful scene given the ridiculous circumstances. Thanks to Joe, our team and the volunteers for rocking it.

Save your Darwinian drivel for another time, and urge Senators Young and Braun, and Representative Hollingworth, to be accountable to their constituents.

And now for local chain newspaper guest columnist Amanda Beam's commentary on this matter, as picked up by CNN.

Congress and the President continue to weave a web of partisanship born out of pride. My husband and federal workers like him have gotten trapped in their sticky mess. They ask people deemed "essential" to execute their duties despite withholding funds but neglect their job of approving a workable budget.

Yet somehow the representatives who fail to pass legislation are still receiving their paycheck. A trip through Alice's looking glass couldn't produce a more mixed up world.

No matter your party loyalties, you must admit this is no way to run a household, much less a government.

Enough is enough. Not resolving this shutdown through courage and compromise is a dereliction of Congress's sworn duty. Generate bipartisan legislation. Bring it to a vote. And, if vetoed by the President, work among yourselves, override the veto and fund our nation.

To conclude, it's great to see an increasing number of local businesses picking up the pace.

Local businesses offer free services for federal workers, by Brooke McAfee (Bill Hanson's Tom May Content Reciprocator)

SOUTHERN INDIANA — As the weeks have passed, Floyds Knobs resident Robin Huntley has had to save her money while furloughed from the U.S. Census Bureau in Jeffersonville.

But a few local restaurants have made it easier for her family, along with many others, by offering free services for federal employees affected by the government shutdown. This week, she received free meals at businesses such as Pints & Union and Cox's Hot Chicken in New Albany.

Huntley said the businesses' support of federal workers defines community, and she plans to support the participating restaurants after the government shutdown is finished.

"Everyone is going through it together," she said. "When a new business opens, we come down and support them, and when they see that some of their clients are not able to come in, they pitch in and help. It really is a community relationship" ...

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Evan Stoner for the first time.

Evan Stoner's reputation as a principled human being long preceded our chat over coffee. He is an organizer and an activist in the cause of protecting and furthering fundamental human rights and freedoms, not from shabby and shallow political expedience, as in the case of Nawbany's Adam Dickey and Jeff Gahan ...

Gahan belatedly rediscovers "pride," appoints Warren Nash and Idi Amin to the long lost Human Rights Commission, and disappears back into the bunker.

... but out of deep personal commitment. In short, speaking as an oldster, Evan is one damned impressive young man. Many readers already know Evan, so for those who don't, here's a dollop of background.

From March of 2016, a statement of first principles.

A Better Future for Jeffersonville

Jeffersonville Pride is about working towards a better future for all of our residents. Take a moment, close your eyes, and imagine how bright the future in Jeffersonville can be. Jeffersonville can be a destination city for people all around the world. Jeffersonville can be a place where people build others up, not tear them down. A place where everyone treats their neighbor with respect and dignity. A place where students can reach their full potential in school without fear of harassment and discrimination. Jeffersonville can be a place where people are judged by the content of their character, not our differences as human beings. Jeffersonville is better together. That’s why in order for everyone to reach their highest potential, we must take steps to ensure freedom and equality for all our residents.

More recently in the local chain newspaper.

June 2018 proclaimed LGBT Pride Month in Jeffersonville, by Brooke McAfee (That Tom May Joint)

JEFFERSONVILLE— Mayor Mike Moore proclaimed June 2018 to be LGBT Pride Month in Jeffersonville this morning for the first time in the city's history.

“The city of Jeffersonville encourages all citizens to stay connected with one another and to treat all people with love and kindness,” he said.

Moore issued the proclamation before this Saturday's third annual Jeffersonville Pride parade and festival.

LGBT Pride Month is celebrated nationwide each year in June. In the proclamation, Moore stated that “this celebration by the LGBT community is about inclusion to promote dignity, equal rights, self-affirmation and is a way of increasing society's awareness of the issues we face.”

Jeffersonville Pride founder Evan Stoner said the city's recognition of pride month is an historic day for LGBT inclusion in the community. Having the city's first pride parade and festival in 2016 was one gigantic step, he said, and this proclamation is another step forward.

“This is a historic day for the city of Jeffersonville,” he said. “With this proclamation and the mayor's signature, we are leaping Jeffersonville forward yet again.”

Stoner said it was a courageous act for the mayor to sign the proclamation.

“This is something that just a couple years ago was completely unimaginable in the city of Jeffersonville,” he said. “It takes courage for a Republican mayor especially. He's a pioneer. He's a leader in his party. He's a leader in his city. He cares about Jeffersonville. He puts politics behind him, and he focuses on the city of Jeffersonville, and Mike, this means so much to so many people in the city of Jeffersonville.”

“It doesn't take courage,” Moore added. “It simply takes an open mind.”

Let's take another look at Mike Moore's incisive comment.

“It doesn't take courage. It simply takes an open mind.”

Never has the contrast with Deaf Gahan been so vivid. Note that just as Jeffersonville was proclaiming LGBT Pride Month, our dim bulb ("no courage -- never mind") was contemplating pride on the down low: Not to be outdone, Deaf Gahan plans a Pride Parade route for New Albany.

October is a long way off, but put this one on the calendar now. Think of it as another level.

Southern Indiana PRIDE Launch Event (Hosted by Jeffersonville Pride)

On National Coming Out Day 2018, Join Southern Indiana elected officials, political candidates, business owners, faith leaders, education leaders, and passionate citizens as we officially launch the new Southern Indiana Pride parade & festival! The evening will consist of guest speakers, special announcements, live music, 21+ drinks, and excellent Hors d'oeuvres & dinner. Tickets are $35 in advance, $50 at the door. Business professional attire is requested. #SoInPRIDE

ON THE AVENUES: Ghosts within these stones, defiance in these bones.

ON THE AVENUES: Ghosts within these stones, defiance in these bones.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

"Might the accused gentlemen be prepared to admit their mistakes and publicly drag themselves and their politics through the mud, while at the same time admitting the strength of the Soviet state and the correctness of our collectivization strategy? That would be nice."
 -- Stalin, note to Molotov (1930)

It is my theory, one subjected to earnest consideration and reconsideration about as often as spike-helmeted insomniac Helmuth von Moltke habitually polished and revised the Schlieffen Plan – only for the meticulous German general to be foiled by mathematical equations pertaining to amassed railway logistics – that insofar as ordinary humans ever think much at all outside the limitations of their own corporeal and localized skins, they prefer fixing their gaze on faraway topics rather than the street where they live.

Except for potholes.

Everyone bitches about potholes.

Stated another way, apart from the minimum daily requirements of family, work and the perpetually horrible service at McDonald’s – and as God is my witness, I’ve never going to eat there, ever again – we’re at our most passionate and insistent when ranting and raving about matters over which we have little input, and most of the time absolutely no control whatever.

Let’s face it. There’ll be zero opportunity for most of us to quiz Kanye about his tweets, or personally threaten manufacturers of firearms. We have nothing to do with the outcome of basketball games unless we’re participating in them, and the royal couple of the moment isn’t aware of our existence.

On and on it goes, and we remain ordinary Joes, just plain schmucks, the 98% of us, and yet we’ll prattle forever about occurrences a million miles away from the front door, even as only 17% of registered voters in Floyd County bother offering their insight into purely local issues by voting in a primary election.

Now, I’m not here to argue with the unmistakable verdict of so many non-voters, who instinctively grasp that with 35 variations of Ranch dressing on Kroger’s shelves and only two hardwired political parties, there’s no sense in voting given the absence of any semblance of genuine choice.

What’s more, it’s all about the money, isn’t it?

Yes, it is about the money, which flows from our salad dressing selections, soft drink addictions and McDonald’s melancholy meals straight into the mouths of the engorged corporate wealth mongers hovering above us – but let’s not complicate the argument with pitchforks.

Non-voters merely reinforce the participatory conundrum, wherein anyone can walk outside at any time they like, risk arrest (or internet video notoriety) by filling potholes with arsenic-laced oatmeal, or better still, by painting phallic symbols around them, but almost no one does, and yet these same folks are quite positive they understand the inner workings of Donald Trump’s brain, having never once met the man.

Consequently, my latest variation on a theme: We’ll get involved locally only for so long as we’re spared responsibility for our opinions. In fact, the less we can do about anything, the better.

At the end of the day, perhaps it isn’t a bit counter-intuitive that so many people refrain from involvement in local political decision-making, because politics is about the distribution of power, and as such, there’ll be winners and losers.

When there are winners and losers, there’ll be arrogant triumphant pricks and downcast sad faces, sometimes accompanied by rancor, and these hard feelings can run deep – then without notice, the fellow who absolutely hates your guts turns the corner at neighborhood stop ‘n’ rob and comes face to face with you, right there by the rotisserie hot dogs.

And then what?

I’ll tell you what.

You remain true to your principles.

You indulge in meaningless pleasantries, smile and grin.

Then you return to the business at hand of calling out the villainous petty bastard, because even Trump himself once inhabited a venue smaller than the vast United States, and the grassroots remain the most relevant of laboratories.

The self-appointed community pillars detest you, eh?

Cool.

It’s how you know you’re on the right track.

---

As a non-swimmer who dove into the deep end just shy of 14 years ago and did my share of thrashing, at least until I learned to tread water by gathering a few stylistic chords into a floatation device and patrolling a corner of the pool, I’ve learned about the vacuous viciousness of big fish in small ponds.

Many, especially the ones gathered together into a governing clique of circled wagons fed by dependable rivulets of pay-to-play for sustained beak wetting, don’t much like being questioned, challenged, or exposed to the cleansing properties of transparency.

That’s why they should be, and relentlessly.

They’re actually capable of incredible feats of creativity, although not unless the task at hand is evading questions, dismissing challenges, keeping the room dark, and exhibiting symptoms of junior high school snobbery – making a show of looking the other way on those rare occasions when they walk past you on the street (because their gas-guzzling, tinted-window sofas on wheels are so pricey and comfy, and besides, don't you have a car?), removing your address from an e-mail list or slapping your back a little too forcefully when exaggeratedly feigning a display of good-old-boyness that might easily be mistaken for deep-seated anger issues.

That’s why you keep at it.

It’s why you don’t quit.

Their greed and clannish bad behavior is predicated on power, entirely insignificant on a global scale, but all the more annoying here on the flood plain owing to the sad absence of both humility and gravitas.

We just keep digging. Our motivation is based on principles like fair play, justice and equality of opportunity. We can’t wait for these to trickle down from above, but must do what we can to expand them, right here … right now.

Allow me to state this clearly and with the utmost force, because in the city of New Albany, the major obstacles to progress are DemoDisneyDixiecrats in the lamentable habit of viewing their multi-salaried chief campaign finance accumulator, Mayor Jeff Gahan, as the most glorious of all Great White Hopes.

It’s absurd, and it's a viewpoint of jaundiced self-delusion, one that this blog will continue to contest, disprove and oppose. Perhaps there’ll come a time when the administration’s abundantly burgeoning bad karma coagulates into a massive sewer fatberg and explodes into the faces of the poseurs.

That would be nice.

So-called Democrats, if you’re tolerating in New Albany what you’re decrying elsewhere, then the looting clique isn’t to blame. Rather, you’re the hypocrite, and it’s YOUR problem to resolve – and honesty’s always a good place to begin if you’re serious about supporting a civil society.

---

Old dogs can learn new tricks, but zebras assuredly cannot erase their stripes. I’m entering a phase of my life where there’ll be less time to devote to the blog, even if my dander remains at highest-alert dudgeon.

I’m not going away, and neither is this soap box. The more they ignore us, the closer we get – and stealth is a many and varied treasure, capable of being molded into numerous tools.

"After one comes, through contact with its administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it."-- Ernest Hemingway, from "Death in the Afternoon"

However, I could use some help, so consider this another in a series of requests to become a part of the written, expository resistance effort.

Please consider submissions to NA Confidential. You needn’t be a polished professional writer to be eligible for inclusion, because I’m certainly not. I can help you state your case, acting as an editor and advisor.

In terms of editorial thrust, longtime readers know I’m a contrarian progressive socialist, a misplaced European who values books, a disgruntled former everything and a hopeful future something. If you’ve read this far today, you know exactly where I stand going into the 2019 municipal election cycle.

However, opposing points of view are welcome. I’ve always read them myself, and still do.

What I will not do apart from rare occasions of Facebook-impelled intellectual rabies – and conceding this blog’s identity policy (anonymity only under strictly defined circumstance – is to block, ignore, silence and disenfranchise you from expressing your point of view.

It’s what some of Team Gahan’s and the Democratic Party’s bootlicking functionaries have done and continue to do to us, so to hell with all that.

Let’s see if we can level this playing field a tad. Take away their money, and what have they got?

Nothing, that’s what.

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Recent columns:

May 10: ON THE AVENUES: Seeing is believing.

May 3: ON THE AVENUES: Sadly, the Kentucky Derby no longer is decadent and depraved. It’s just another vacuous capitalist bait ‘n’ switch.

April 26: ON THE AVENUES: The wonder years.

April 19: ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: Our great and noble leader is here to stay, so let's break out the țuică and make a joyful noise.

Red-faced old white guys howl in fury as March for Our Lives successfully occupies Bicentennial Park.

Photo credits: social media.

According to reports from social media and first-hand testimony, the crowd at Bicentennial Park for Saturday's "March for Our Lives" may have reached as many as 200. That's very solid for a bone-chilling, waterlogged morning in March.

The Green Mouse was told that the police presence was muted, and Democratic Party heavy-handedness gratifyingly kept to a minimum. That's amazing. When the AdamBot gets out of the way and lets the kids speak, you know it might actually be meaningful for once.

Congressional candidates Dan Canon and Liz Watson both briefly spoke. City council member (and retired teacher) David Barksdale was present, but it isn't clear whether any other elected officials attended, although is is said that somewhere deep within the curled linoleum of a living room in Westendia, Councilman Cappuccino grimaced in mute nostril agony.

As confided to us by an attendee, a final curious feature of the rally was a preponderance of students from Jeffersonville and Clark County. Let's hope the Bulldogs and Highlanders aren't falling behind the curve when it comes to principled activism.

After all, their nominal "leaders" aren't very good at it.

Nationally and locally, March for Our Lives seems to have been a success. Can the movement endure, and can it beat the stacked decks of Big Money, Big Racial Divide, Big Patriarchy and Big Dumbass?

We'll see, and remain hopeful.

Southern Indiana protesters brave cold and rain in Saturday's 'March for Our Lives', by Mandy McLaren (Courier Journal)

NEW ALBANY, Ind. — Braving bitter cold temperatures and a steady rainfall, about 100 people gathered in downtown New Albany on Saturday morning to call for stricter gun laws.

"A bulletproof vest should not be a part of my school uniform," Nicole Gomez, 18, told the crowd gathered at Bicentennial Park.

Several students spoke at the rally, which was connected to the national "March for Our Lives," a movement organized by the survivor's of last month's school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.

Right on, Dwyane Wade: "We will not just SHUT up and dribble."

If the degree of free speech allowed hereabouts pertains to pay grade, there are quite a few old, rich white guys I'd like to see shut up.

Etan Thomas: Now a Different Kind of Player, by Sopan Deb (NYT)

With the advent of social media, politically active athletes seem more common now than ever before.

Indeed, N.F.L. players kneeling during the national anthem, a movement started by Colin Kaepernick and echoed by others, became a cultural flash point last season after President Trump aimed his ire on the movement, accusing them of disrespecting the troops.

But before Kaepernick, there was Etan Thomas, an N.B.A. forward who played for nine seasons, seven with the Washington Wizards. Thomas built a reputation for himself as a socially conscious activist and poet, including frequently speaking out against the Iraq War and the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. (Of course decades before Thomas, there were activist athletes like Bill Russell, Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali.)

In his latest book, “We Matter: Athletes and Activism,” due out on March 6, Thomas interviewed a number of basketball staples, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat, about the consequences of publicly voicing opinions off the court or playing field. He also talked to figures like Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and Ted Leonsis, who owns three sports franchises, including the Washington Wizards, about their perspectives.

Perhaps most notably, Thomas spoke to family members of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Terence Crutcher and Philando Castile — all victims of shootings that received widespread attention from prominent athletes.

I spoke to Thomas by phone about the recent comments from conservative commentator Laura Ingraham about LeBron James and Kevin Durant, his experience sharing a locker room with Michael Jordan and why he wrote the book. This is an excerpt from that conversation.

In fact, the intersection of athletics and politics is a constant, here and abroad. If you don't see it, perhaps your eyes are shut.

Pep Guardiola’s yellow ribbon ties football up in knots over true enemies, by Barney Ronay (The Guardian)

Thirty years on, the basic premise of Football Against the Enemy illustrates a different world where the game was a point of resistance against control and oppression

This summer it will be 30 years since an event that helped inspire what is still one of the most deliciously moreish football books in English.

Football Against the Enemy is a collection of excellent, energetically compiled essays by Simon Kuper. It can seem a little dated in parts now, postcards from a world still shrouded in pre-internet mist but in a week of apparently irresolvable moral confusion over Pep Guardiola, yellow ribbons and all that, it also feels like a point of illuminating contrast.

At which point the pages rustle, the screen dissolves and we are back at the 1988 European Championship. It is hard to get a sense of the unsettling emotional power of the Netherlands’ defeat of West Germany, the feelings of delighted surprise as a fine team saw off one of the more sharp-elbowed West Germanys.

Ruud Gullit ran the semi-final in Hamburg, striding about with such regal ease you half expected to look down and notice he had spent the last 90 minutes playing in tails, top hat and wing collar. Marco van Basten scored the winner at the end. People in Amsterdam threw bicycles in the air shouting “we’ve got our bikes back”, a reference to the transport-thieving crimes of the Nazi occupation during the second world war.

Kuper, then in his early twenties, notes all this with an amused but also quietly brutal note of fascination. Asked about the morality of holding this generation of West German footballers to account for the sins of the past, one Dutch celebrant notes: “Well, they had the wrong ancestors” ...

"No demolition without a plan to replace" ... We Are New Albany meeting tonight at 6 at Destinations.

Previously:

Last night at city council, the News and Tribune looked the other way as McLaughlin condoned Duggins' TASER hilarity.

Week in review: Jeff Gahan created the Duggins debacle at NAHA, so stop normalizing his efforts to remain aloof.

The next meeting of We Are New Albany is on Wednesday, February 7 from 6 - 8 p.m. at Destinations Booksellers, 604 E. Spring Street.

In Spring 2017, New Albany, Indiana Mayor Jeff Gahan announced his intention to demolish more than half of the town's public housing stock. Apart from vague promises of housing vouchers, residents have been told almost nothing about the plan or what will become of them. Sign the petition: No demolition without a plan to replace!

It's hard to believe that Gahan's hostile takeover was launched a year ago.

ON THE AVENUES: A luxury-obsessed Jeff Gahan has packed a board and now seeks to break the New Albany Housing Authority. Can we impeach him yet?

But marvel at the pomposity of the raw cheek: Gahan writes his own Comprehensive Plan, and before it is so much as finalized, he’s already referring to it as though the document were Biblical, bearing force of law. Evidently this is a side effect of personality cults.

I’ll return to this Comprehensive Disneyfication Plan, and explain how the rush to approve it pertains to an accompanying push to eradicate the city’s affordable housing safety net. Since it’s hard to find a good starting point, let’s just dive into it.

Major thanks to so many readers for writing your council representatives to protest the "interim" NAHA director David Duggins' recent TASER verbal misbehavior, and for your continued support of this grassroots effort to restore sanity to public (and affordable) housing in New Albany.

We Are New Albany: Join the campaign and come to the next meeting.

The next meeting of We Are New Albany is on Tuesday, January 9 from 6 - 8 p.m. at Destinations Booksellers, 604 E. Spring Street.

In Spring 2017, New Albany, Indiana Mayor Jeff Gahan announced his intention to demolish more than half of the town's public housing stock. Apart from vague promises of housing vouchers, residents have been told almost nothing about the plan or what will become of them. Sign the petition: No demolition without a plan to replace!

It's hard to believe that Gahan's hostile takeover was launched just a few weeks shy of a year ago.

ON THE AVENUES: A luxury-obsessed Jeff Gahan has packed a board and now seeks to break the New Albany Housing Authority. Can we impeach him yet?

But marvel at the pomposity of the raw cheek: Gahan writes his own Comprehensive Plan, and before it is so much as finalized, he’s already referring to it as though the document were Biblical, bearing force of law. Evidently this is a side effect of personality cults.

I’ll return to this Comprehensive Disneyfication Plan, and explain how the rush to approve it pertains to an accompanying push to eradicate the city’s affordable housing safety net. Since it’s hard to find a good starting point, let’s just dive into it.

Help us make the housing putsch Jeffrey's personal Waterloo. St. Helena would be nice ... but let's not be greedy.

"I know a place where your voice really matters and where your opinions and actions can make a definite impact: your own neighborhood."

It was a bizarre dream.

I was having breakfast at Daisy's with 15 Republicans, a lone European-style Social Democrat (read: independent) amid the Floyd County GOP.

They were talking about local issues, only briefly touching on wider Indiana state matters and with not mention of national or international affairs.

In this dream, I was aware of a certain uneasy caution, because in all likelihood their political ideologies and chosen candidates for state and national office were sure to differ radically from my own.

What struck me was the knowledge that for so long as the discussion remained centered on local problems and solutions, differences seemed less pronounced than similarities.

When I awoke, my first task was to find a toothpick, as there seemed to be a shard of bacon lodged in my teeth.

I'm neither stupid nor naive, but rather increasingly determined to remain non-aligned, capable of speaking with whomever I please for so long as the conversation makes sense to me.

Keeping it local tends to aid and abet this objective, and since so many local Democrats are unwilling or unable to converse with me about local topics, I've no compunction about having intelligent chats with those non-Democrats who will. It is of little concern to me who they are or which clique they belong to.

Rachel Quednau wrote these words months before the current tax "reform" measures -- which I oppose, for what's it's worth. I feel the way I always have: peel back the layers, strip away the dross. Life's all about the haves versus the have nots.

There's probably a Bible verse to this effect, though as you know, I'm an atheist.

I know full well that a spruced up public space in my neighborhood isn’t going to solve America’s immigration problems or infrastructure crisis. It’s not even going to solve the problems of poverty and crime in my city. But it's not worthless. And it's activism on a scale that everyone is capable of and equipped with the tools to do.

We ought not to let the immenseness of the problems facing our nation paralyze us into inaction. Yes, there is work we can do to change national politics, but there is also so much work to be done close to home, and we have a much better chance at getting it right. Whether that's work on immigration issues that impact your community or on a small public space that might make your neighborhood a more pleasant place, keep your eyes open for what needs to be done and don't wait for someone else to do it for you.

There you have it.

I'll do what I can, as I can, when I can. I possess my own indie social democratic principles, and I'll apply them to the local realm, because in spite of everything, my immediate vicinity remains the place where my efforts will be devoted. I'll push for little pockets of sanity, and hope they grow. Trump won't ever hear my voice; Gahan has already.

If a Republican can be of assistance, great. If it's a Democrat, fine. Beyond this, it's impossible to predict the future. I don't know why I feel compelled to share these thoughts. Perhaps it's necessary to re-declare independence from time to time.

Now, back to pub planning.

FRUSTRATED BY NATIONAL POLITICS? IT'S TIME TO THINK LOCAL, by Rachel Quednau (Strong Towns)

 ... I know a place where your voice really matters and where your opinions and actions can make a definite impact: your own neighborhood.

At the beginning of 2017, I wrote about how renters can be neighborhood advocates, in spite of some of the unique challenges that come with trying to have a voice in your community when you’re not a homeowner. I offered some advice and shared some from friend and member of Strong Towns, Michael McGinn. I’ve been doing my best to live by that advice for the past few months.

This Tuesday, for example, I went to a community forum discussing local businesses, public safety and public space. It was incredibly refreshing to sit in a room full of people who care after a day spent glancing at social media posts from people who feel the need to shout loudly that they care, and spend far less time actually showing their care. At this meeting, we listened to a representative from our neighborhood association talk about business closures and openings (four long-standing businesses sadly departed from our commercial street this year, but two new ones have already filled their spaces!). We heard a brief report from our alderman about traffic safety at problematic intersections and streets, and thanked him for taking our questions. I even got the chance to check up on the status of a traffic study about the one-way streets that I’d like to see turned to two-ways and saw a majority of the people in the room express their agreement about the necessity of this change.

We concluded the meeting with an extended discussion about a small strip of green space next to sixty odd yards of bike/walk path that connects two streets in our neighborhood, led by an architect who’s been working to redesign the space to be more inviting. I couldn’t help but mentally step back and reflect on the fact that, here was a group of 25 or 35 people listening attentively and seriously discussing a 50’ x 200’ strip of land for the better part of thirty minutes. Maybe that sounds like a waste of time to you. But it doesn’t to me ...

THIS JUST IN: ‘We Are New Albany,’ a campaign to save the homes of more than 1,700 New Albany residents from planned demolition, will publicly launch on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. at the City-County Building.

I believe the release speaks for itself. See you on Thursday. 

Feel free to copy the text below and redistribute any way you please.

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Press Conference: ‘We Are New Albany’ Campaign to Call on Mayor Gahan: “No Demolition Without A Plan to Replace”

New Albany residents to launch campaign to save public housing from demolition

New Albany, IN ­ – ‘We Are New Albany,’ a campaign to save the homes of more than 1,700 New Albany residents from planned demolition, will publicly launch with a press conference at 4PM on Thursday, November 16 at the pillars/steps on the NE corner of the City-County Building in downtown New Albany.

“I was born and raised in New Albany, bouncing around house to house because of unaffordable rents” says ‘We Are New Albany’ campaign Deputy Chair Brandon Brown, a resident of one of the properties slated for demolition. “I will not let the homes in my neighborhood be demolished, forcing children into the insecurity I struggled with at their age. Mayor Gahan, we call on you not to demolish a single unit without a plan to replace it.”

‘We Are New Albany’ is a campaign of Hoosier Action, a community organization building the power of Southern Indiana’s working families. To learn more about the campaign, visit www.hoosieraction.org/ wearenewalbany. Hoosier Action’s official statement of values, “Building The Indiana We Deserve,” can be read online at www.hoosieraction.org/what-we- do/. For more on Hoosier Action, see our press coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere at www.hoosieraction.org/press.

Who: The ‘We Are New Albany’ campaign: public housing residents, faith leaders, New Albany tenants, local business leaders, community allies

Where: By the Pillars/Steps, NE corner of the City-County Building, downtown New Albany. Live stream will be available.

When: Thursday, November 16th, 4PM-4:30PM

Visuals: Residents, faith leaders, and business and community allies in front of City-County Building, “We Are New Albany” banner

(Press Contact: Jesse Myerson, 914-582-3938, outreach@hoosieraction.org)

Strong Towns Week: “This blog has changed my life in profound ways and, in the process, your reaction has given voice to a movement that is slowing seeping into those cogs of government.”

The Copperhead can be intimidating.

You know, this guy up in Minnesota getting involved, and finding it discomforts the governing cliques, the sycophants serving them, and the oligarchs being served by them.

Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable? Marohn is an engineer, but it almost sounds like journalism.

STAYING STRONG, by Charles Marohn

... I wanted to share this because I know there are Strong Towns advocates out there who occasionally get similar responses in their communities: Why don’t you move? Let’s see you run for council. Why don’t you show up? These are really destructive and dysfunctional notions that are meant to intimidate and shame the receiver. We can’t let that change what we do.

We all need to understand, first and foremost, that you don’t need to attend a meeting to care. You don’t need to be involved in the system that has been set up for you in order to be involved in your place. A base assumption of the Strong Towns movement is that the city is ours. We are not relegated to secondary citizens simply because we are not following the process set forth by those in power.

One of the more deeply offensive moments of my professional life was at a meeting of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s citizen’s board where one of the outspoken board members stated that, “the world is run by those who show up.” This was said in the context of defending the actions of a wealthy, highly-connected group of prime property owners who not only could afford to take time off work and travel 150 miles to the meeting, but retain legal staff and professional experts to advocate on their behalf. Needless to say, their opposition didn’t “show up” in the way that they had — their concerns thereby invalidated with a pompous remark.

City council meetings are incredibly unfair environments for a member of the general public wanting to be heard. The layout of most council chambers is intimidating and isolating. A person asking to speak has to come up to a podium, stand there alone and face an assembled group of officials who are seated behind an intimidating table and, often, elevated above the crowd. In my city, they are on television to boot. I’ve seen grown men shake with fear when asked to address the council in this way.

This is the home field for the staff and the city council. They have the benefit of having spent a lot of time in this abnormal environment. They know how the protocols work, how to control the floor and how to direct the discussion. They have inside information that members of the public don’t have, adding to the asymmetric power structure. I will never fault someone for not subjecting themselves to that, no matter how important their cause.

The format of a council meeting creates feedback that is disjointed and unhelpful. There is little opportunity for back and forth dialogue. Complex issues must be discussed in limited timeframes. Members of the public are often given cursory slots at the beginning and the end of the agenda and frequently leave feeling as if they are being patronized or tolerated, not listened to. I don’t blame anyone for finding little value in spending their time this way.

And this:

Here is what are we called to do as Strong Towns advocates:

1. A Strong Citizen is a leader by example, sharing the values of a Strong Town in the way they live their own life.
2. A Strong Citizen is actively involved in their community, although not necessarily in local government.
3. A Strong Citizen knows their immediate neighbors and works with them to resolve conflict and build a strong neighborhood.
4. A Strong Citizen seeks connections with others outside their neighborhood as a way to gain knowledge, build understanding and strengthen the community.
5. A Strong Citizen honors the work of past generations, respects the needs of the current generation and protects the interests of future generations.

Don’t be intimidated by haters. Keep doing what you can to build a strong town.

Concerned about Gahan's public housing putsch? You are invited to a meeting of We Are New Albany this Wednesday at Destinations Booksellers (7:00 p.m.)

Back to the bulldozers, ladies.

Previously: In truth, Gahan's public housing putsch is an assault on working people -- and Floyd County's Democrats OWN it.

I was thinking back to my mayoral campaign in 2015, which is something I seldom do -- water under the bridge, and all that. It seems to me that while the topics of affordable housing and homelessness were broached two years ago, both my opponents generally ducked them.

As significantly, I can't recall the issue of public housing being discussed at all, at least to any length. I was aware that the NAHA had an ongoing plan to leverage tax credits into a 1:1 demolish and rebuild, and I knew that Bob Lane was on top of it. I'm not sure anyone outside the inner sanctum was aware of Jeff Gahan's intentions. It was off the radar, and Gahan preferred to keep it that way.

Gahan's entire 2015 campaign came down to this: "Look at all these bright shiny objects -- want more? I'm your man."

In fact, Gahan's entire political career has been based on non-transparency, and so it's not surprising that while his public housing putsch was being planned during term one, no mention of it was made publicly during the 2015 campaign.

Privately? That's another matter. White New Albanian males of Gahan's generation possess their own array of dog whistles pertaining to the ancestral mythology of public housing as mortal threat to a suburbanite's placidity and a city's progress.

Too bad Gahan didn't have the courage to place his cohort's socio-economic prejudice on the 2015 ballot. He'll have another chance in 2019. I wish I'd have been more pro-active about it.

But as always, I digress.

On Wednesday evening (November 1), 7:00 p.m. at Destinations Booksellers (604 E Spring Street), there'll be a meeting of We Are New Albany, a grassroots movement being organized by Hoosier Action, as summarized by this recent NAC header.

Meet WE ARE NEW ALBANY, and tell Jeff Gahan: No demolition of public housing without a plan to replace!

I'd like to invite my friends and co-conspirators from the 2015 pirate raid to attend this meeting and learn more about this movement.

And don't forget the on-line petition.

More about Hoosier Action, and a reminder: We Are New Albany.

Don't forget: there's an on-line petition to sign.

Meet WE ARE NEW ALBANY, and tell Jeff Gahan: No demolition of public housing without a plan to replace!

In Spring 2017, New Albany, Indiana Mayor Jeff Gahan announced his intention to demolish more than half of the town's public housing stock. Apart from vague promises of housing vouchers, residents have been told almost nothing about the plan or what will become of them. Sign the petition: No demolition without a plan to replace!

Learn more about Hoosier Action in this interview from July.

Organizing in the Heartland: Indiana Group Builds Working-Class Momentum, by Sarah Jaffe (Truthout)

Today we bring you a conversation with Jesse Alexander Myerson, an organizer with Hoosier Action who hosts an Indiana-based podcast called From the Heartland about people who are organizing in the interior of the country and in places where leftists aren't normally thought of as being.

Just a snippet.

Telling these stories is an important part of this kind of organizing, but you can also end up with people thinking that just telling a sad story is going to be enough to move their senator and then wondering why that doesn't work. I would love for you to talk a little bit more about the way this storytelling does and doesn't fit into your organizing strategy.

It is definitely integral. As you imply, it is not sufficient unto itself, but basically, the essence of the organizing we are doing is relational. The idea is that any organizing that takes place absent the building and deepening of relationships between people is going to be basically facile. It is one thing if you can get 12 people in a room to talk to us and it is another thing if you get 400 and that 400 really only comes when people have deepened their relationships with one another.

A lot of this organizing is based on having long one-on-one discussions with people, what their lives are like, what they are interested in, what they are concerned about, what they are afraid of, what they are angry about, what they are hopeful for and growing relationships that way. That is both on the doors and ideally in follow-ups after people get knocked or called. Those stories are important in the actual day-to-day organizing, talking to people and letting them know who you are and finding out who they are. As a kind of public expression, really what we hope to do is to mobilize people with that, but ultimately that mobilization should turn into becoming a dues-paying member, coming to monthly member meetings, joining a team and taking on work. That can be going and knocking on doors, it can be doing data entry, it can be helping to promote issues or taking on a shift at the farmers market or at a county fair, flyering or taking petitions, but ideally it is not a high temperature sort of organizing such as you and I saw at Occupy Wall Street where it is lots of marches, lots of heat, lots of intensity.

Really, that emotional heat is being channeled into really well-functioning systems that people can take on discrete amounts of work that make sense with their working lives and their family lives, but that they can see serving to proliferate the organization.