Open Letter To Heather Cox Richardson
Open Letter To Heather Cox Richardson
WHY are you so eerily silent...?
Prologue
I spent a whole complete year as the primary administrator of “The UNOFFICIAL Heather Cox Richardson Resource and Discussion Room,” on Facebook… When I took the private group over, via the invitation and request of its previous active administrator, the group was static, no longer inspired and dying… By the time this group was pirated, in a hostile takeover, just one full year later, it had grown hugely and almost exponentially to nearly 40K members, and had also become incredibly vibrant, inspired and active, as well as deeply inter-active between many of its members…
And now, a year and some months after the take over, that old group has not grown hardly at all, and once again is stagnant, minimally active, uninspired, and irrelevant… (I have a stealth FB account still in the group)
I am now the administrator of a much smaller private group, with our members originally made up mostly of the more active, concerned and involved members of our old group... Most of us having been limited,, removed and banned from the hijacked group, for showing our serious concern for what happened…
Our (now not so) “new” group is similarly vibrant, inspired and active, as well as deeply inter-active, as our old group once was…
This new much smaller (300+) FB private group can be found and joined here- https://www.facebook.com/groups/awareness.diversity.democracy
The story of that shift and the hijacking can be found in its various parts here- https://www.unofficialhcr.com/
I believe this history along side current circumstances gives me some relevant and valid standing to address Heather Cox Richardson in and via the following…
And now HERE also, a followup, the next day… Though I suggest reading this post first…
Part One
Dear Heather,
WHY are you so eerily silent regarding the U.S. government’s, the Biden administration's and the U.S. media's direct and active involvement and complicity in the hiding of what is now actually happening in Gaza, which MANY responsible people all around the world are calling genocide... This now on top of the apartheid, repression, evictions and not so massive or visible killing that has been going on in the fenced off areas where Israel has been containing Palestinians for decades....??
And the history and context for all of that... Repeat, history, context…??
You are a U.S. citizen just like many if not most of those who may eventually be reading these words… You frequently speak and write about U.S. values and U.S. policies abroad as well as domestic, and almost incessantly in glowing and even fawning terms about the Biden administration, over and over and over…
You are behaving most of all now like a publicist for Biden, not to mention as a lobbyist for the liberal ruling class elite, and even as a campaign worker for Biden as well… I would also not be surprised if you are maneuvering for a position in his second term administration as well…
You have become in many ways merely a puppet of the liberal ruling elites, in their fight with the now extremely regressive conservative ruling elites… You have nearly totally ceased in being the critical interpreter of current events in the context of history, that once you were, and that you actually made your reputation being and doing… So you are now just a perfect example of how establishment systems continue as always to coopt all those critics and media speakers who they cannot or decide not to first destroy…
It is OUR U.S. government and most especially the Biden administration that is acting and being most out-in-front in support of what is now going on in Israel, Gaza and the Middle East… And this also includes Israeli actions in the past, for decades even for Biden, regarding the Palestinians and Palestine...
In other words all of that destruction and killing, including the massive killing of children, women and old people, is being supported, fueled, excused (and bombed) in OUR names, which very much includes YOUR name... And even MORE so in your name, simply because you have the bully pulpit of your fame and followers to speak from, and actually BE HEARD… And still you do not…
You are STANDING where you could actually DO something, which is not even remotely true for most of the rest of us...
To not speak up now, LOUDLY, as anyone of us can from wherever we are, which is one of your very own slogans from a more responsible (response-able) past, with ALL that is going on both here in the U.S. and abroad, is the very WORST thing anyone, and especially someone with your standing, can (not) “do” now...
Your behavior, exactly now as I write, is NO different from not speaking up in Germany (as well as here in the U.S.) back in the 1930s...
80% of the bombs so far dropped on Gaza are U.S. manufactured and supplied bombs... Soon it will be close to 100%... At 6 days in it was 6000 bombs dropped on Gaza, by the Israelis' own count... And now as I write it is likely more than 20,000... A recent calculation of the tonnage of TNT dropped on Gaza up until now (Oct 31) is that it is equivalent to the explosive power of the Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945…
Many many people all around the world KNOW about the U.S.'s complicity and involvement in the Gaza genocide, a whole huge lot better than most of our very own U.S. citizens do even... And it seems even more than you yourself are willing to look at and speak to…
You are a PhD historian and Professor of History at the highly ranked (top 50) Boston College... You definitely know what has been going on around the world and in the middle east, historically as well as presently, even if it is not your so called "speciality"... You hang out a lot with history professors and post grad historians, and many others of similar stature...
When you write that “it is not your lane,” I see it as merely a serious and to my mind craven and cowardly sidestepping and avoidance of responsibility... Break that down… Response ability, ability to respond…! Instead you are running away from taking ANY risk to speak the truth that you are very much more than capable of seeing and writing about, and to DO this no matter what it personally costs you…
In other words, risking your favoritism status with the liberal elite ruling classes as well as with the Biden administration, for a couple things...? And DO stand up for what is right, caring, and appropriate(!), especially for someone who is in your very unique position…
Heather, you know the history of the region far better than I do, and this even as I know a whole lot of it... I can say plenty that is accurate (enough), and matters... But just not nearly to as many people as YOU can speak out to, in some ways that matter…
Part Two
I certainly agree that we need to not make it easier for the MAGA crowd...
But the balance is presently such that we are falling and failing, in a free fall now almost, socially and morally, no matter how much you try to glowingly write about Biden’s actions… All of your words mostly blah blah blah these days, borrowing from Greta…
It is going to take some rather brave and risky action just as it is, if we as a U.S. society are ever going to “catch” ourselves so to speak, in time, and come back into some steady, shared and relatively balanced ways as a functional society… AKA get onto our collective feet...
"Even-handedness,” as you seem to be attempting to be, mostly by what appears to be some rather calculated avoidance, is how the educated Germans were also behaving in the 1930s... Which can also very easily become, as it mostly did back then, a kind of sticking of one’s head in the sand...
And so, say, you were living back then and the Nazi's won the war, and you had been able to keep your university job as well as standing with what eventually became a Fascist government…? How do you think that (and you) would have become, over time…?
Yet the fact is, there is NO winning this “war,” a war by many other terms that is actually right now destroying the whole world and Earth as we know it... More and more quickly, nearly ever day… Just like those in Germany who played it safe still lost their asses, so to speak, because their war WAS lost and destroyed their whole country and society in the process...
This current war, at all its levels and in all its skirmishes by whatever names and labels it goes by all around the world, will also be lost, by all of us, as well as by much of the rest of life on our planet… Destroying near everything in the process… And after this war has run its course their will be no “Marshall Plan” to bail us out and restart our planet and societies…
Everyone of us needs to be ready and willing to risk our lives and livelihoods now, while there is still a chance to catch our balance, and so that we as a country and an example might find some different momentum and trajectories for us go upon, differently, and together... And ESPECIALLY this is true for people with your visibility and standing…
And so yes, again repeat, you are exactly a perfect example of how success in the worlds of power, "business" and wealth coopts the very people who do actually become able to speak, with them always being coopted by fame, fortune and approval...
And again as always, the coopted become merely another part of the problem(s), with them very (if not most) often lending a rather bland, apologetic and "nicely" liberal "face" to the the deeper and destructive actualities of the our shared problems in the beliefs of separation...
And this all the while as the Nazis in their various forms, labels and guises keep taking over more and more, behind the scenes... In other words like the MAGA republicans are doing today, state by state...
You and Biden, exactly BECAUSE of the positions you hold, need MORE than anyone to actually take some risks... Otherwise you are just like so many others, protecting your positions merely for as far ahead as you can see, with your heads still buried in the sand of your own illusions, fears and attachments to your self images, privileges and comforts...
This Earth, our human world, our shared environment for the most part, and even a bit of enlightenment and culture, actually survived the last World War...
NONE of that will survive the next...
Cowards in positions like yours and Biden's, in other words positions where the truth could be spoken and actually be heard by large numbers of people, is NOT what our world needs now...
ALL of us are going to die anyway... Nobody lives forever... So at least let's die doing what we know to be right, the very best we can, and no matter the personal cost... This is what Biden is asking (and you all of us are expecting) of every member of the U.S, military…
And yet NEITHER of you are willing to take any risks to your own lives, not any real risks, in other words… That is other than merely your typical, usual and calculated “risks” that can lead further into the possibilities of even greater rewards, in those realms of power and wealth you both gravitate to and within… Biden of course being much more “advanced” in these ways than you presently are…
In other words speaking and acting from the truth the very best you can... Rather than merely holding out for more rewards… Something that EVERYONE of us who really cares must now begin to do, wherever we are at, and no matter what the personal cost… Or, we are ALL lost…
In other words and for instance, like the medical workers and doctors and humanitarian workers and emergency workers and utility workers and reporters and just plain citizens are trying to do in Gaza right now, daily and hourly… And this EVEN as they are also dying by the multiple dozens and hundreds under the bombs, daily...
Part Three
There is an old saying, ancient even, that choosing between the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil...
So, instead of allowing evil to keep catching us in that eternal trap it keeps catching so many of us in, why NOT choose to speak the truth the best we can, in the open, out loud, to the world, and then and yet, once spoken, ALSO keep looking, always reaching to keep seeing and learning better and deeper ways to keep speaking the truth to each other...?
And if we made a mistake the truth now simple becomes that we made mistake… And so now we can see past that mistake, because we are STILL looking for and and being willing to see the truth the best we can... And acting and speaking from wherever that may be, or finds us…
Yes, early adopters of this "path" so to speak do take some very serious risks (Jesus got crucified for instance), but if WE keep doing it, and enough others follow our example in similar ways, eventually what REALLY needs to change, evolve and fall away, will...
And our always shared world will be more and more reflected by that which is actually true and real, rather than continuing to be reflected back to us from out of all the lies we have surrounded ourselves with, for such a long long time... Sooo many generations upon generations of lies and mistaken beliefs…
THIS is the kind of honesty and willingness I am asking of you, Heather, right now...
There is not a person anywhere who does not know what is most true in their very own hearts, right now, whenever they are able to sit and be still, inwardly and outwardly, for a moment…
And it is just THAT truth, which we all know in each of our own heart of hearts, that everyone who can hear needs to begin to be able to share and reflect back to each other...
This kind of pattern or path does not start "somewhere else," it starts right here and right now, in whatever way(s) we are able to begin to listen, hear and speak, in truth, to each other...
Part Four
Heather, for you to fall back onto excuses like "not my lane,” in what is actuality and merely a cowardly silence and avoidance, as well as the manipulations of privilege, and in the process very visibly IGNORE all the lies and deceit coming out of the Biden administration these days, is a SHAME ON YOU of the first order…
Acting for only one's own personal "best" (aka separate) interests, is NOT the way now, for ANYONE who really cares about what is happening in the world around us, especially in the long term…
THIS intentional ignorance is exactly what got us here, into our currently catastrophic predicament, as a human race... The lane you are "staying" in, right now in these very minutes even, is LITERALLY rolling over the bodies of thousands of Palestinians, even as you just keep driving and following between your own self-determined dotted white lines...
Truth is literally the only way and the ONLY path, out of this insane world that is constructed of secrets, hidden powers, lies, and deceit..
And what I'm calling truth needs to come from somewhere other than our heads, where most of us tend to fort up behind all of our fears' (mis)interpretations...
I suggest it is our hearts (meaning also yours Heather) that literally need to break open and become free, and then speak speak speak, so that our individual as well as collective “heads” can start to learn how to serve and follow different sorts of possibilities... In other words our heads also breaking free of all the fears that keep us believing we are separate from each other, from ourselves, and from the world around us...
When in truth we are NOT separate, and it is our hearts most of all that KNOW this... Heads are meant to serve, hearts lead, and NOT the other way around...
And do realize I am not talking about emotions, nor instinct, but something much deeper and more profound, prior to all these words, that every one of us knows each time we are able to be present, still and quiet with ourselves, for a little while...
And it is you Heather who has an opportunity like most of us do not, and very very few elsewhere remotely do, to actually speak real and hard truths to the liberal middle and elite ruling class worlds here in the U.S... Your primary audience in other words... Jill Biden may even hear, and if so maybe some of it will actually reach through her and past Biden's defenses as well...
No knowing, and it doesn't matter... It is the speaking that matters, In these realms where words have literally become our actions, for some of us...
Part Five
Maybe consider refreshing yourself, Heather, regarding some of the root causes of the conflict in Palestine, now called Israel…? Perhaps you could even start with this article about the "Nakba," https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948
And then maybe do some googling outside of your typical guide bars, so as to become even more informed…? Developing your perspectives merely via U.S. corporate-owned mainstream media information streams is not ever going to be helpful towards a fuller understanding of our whole world’s actualities...
Israel has always had all of the power, in relationship with the Palestinian people... Any conflict between people with power and people without power is never ever balanced, and never ever fair... Whether or not you approve of conflict as a way to settle differences... I personally do not... And Israel has always and now continues to take full advantage of that very extreme power imbalance...
When people are contained, repressed (and killed) for generations now, and have their lands and houses continually taken from them, and are forced to move into crowded "refugee camps," and try to rebuild their lives in such "camps" once again, and then have even those "camps" taken and bombed...
Well, they WILL eventually react, and even often in unpredictable, horrific and stupid ways...
Responsible and erudite people all over the world have been calling Gaza the largest open air prison in the world... For years now... Apartheid, control, domination and repression in the very worst ways... And all of it direct Israeli government policy…
There is something called "laws of proportionality" when it comes to things like this as well... It is deeply embedded in international law as well as national law... Do google it...
There is a saying in Palestine "from the river to the sea"... The idea behind that saying is that it is ONE country, and that both Jews and Palestinians CAN choose to live in one country in peace...
It is the Israelis who have been denying and keep denying this possibility most of all… And who have had and continue to have the extreme and hugely dominating and disproportionate power to deny this possibility... A power they are continuing to wield now in spades… And it is our very own U.S government that has always and continues to support them in doing so, that is, wielding their disproportionate power over the Palestinian people…
The "two state" solution for the rightwing in Israeli society, which is relatively speaking even more powerful than the rightwing here in the U.S., is their “code” (and continual excuse) for isolating and repressing Palestinians, and taking more and more of what is left of their land... With the whole huge settler movement in Israel being an extremely important and fully government supported part of this takeover of Palestinian land, shops and homes...
The Israelis in power, for the most part, from the "beginning" in 1948 and continuing now in spades, have been seeing it, whether we call it Palestine or Israel, as a country or nation of ONLY Jews... And they are now using what happened on October 7 to scare and foment fear, holocaust guilt, antisemitism guilt, and then of course international support from both governments and individuals, not to mention their own citizens, for their now hugely expanding and escalating actions and reactions...
With October 7 now giving them some additional powerful excuses and opportunity for this continued and expanded takeover... There is credible reporting that the Israelis and Netanyahu were warned and knew the attack was coming, and ignored it…
It is also well know that Netanyahu supported the Hamas in its early rise in influence, mostly as a manipulative way to diminish the influence and power of the Palestinian Authority... This behavior of course actually being not a lot different from U.S. strategies abroad in the past, including the invariably terrible outcomes of that U.S. behavior as well…
Though it has not yet come to bombs (for the most part), all this current behavior of the Israeli government is really not much different from the extreme MAGA rightwing Christian movement here in the U.S., who see “us” as needing to become a nation country of white heterosexual 'christians," with men in charge...
Countries founded on religion are NOT good... Our own constitution was originally written so that could not happen here... Even as and all the while the MAGA crowd definitely do not accept this, and clearly and blatantly have every intention of changing it...
I have no doubt there are huge things, negotiations, plays and counter plays going on behind the scenes in the halls and back rooms of world power now, regarding Gaza… All the while as the individuals involved are also of course negotiating their own positions and realms influence, and in many if not most cases (with some notable exceptions) most of all...
All we need do is look at our very own U.S. Congress and at as well many of our own state legislatures, to see how all that typically “works"... Or look for another instance at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, aka COP, ”works”…
And so, how IS all that working...?
And in the meantime what can now ONLY be called genocide is going on in Palestine, because no one with any real influence and/or standing wants to take some very serious political and influential risks to MAKE it stop...
Instead, lots and lots of safe blah blah blah words all over the place, for corporate owned mainstream media to play out in front of mostly U.S. and European mis-informed citizens...
Except that the educated and informed youth in our country are mostly not buying it, and large swaths of populations in other countries around the world are not swallowing it either...
If you ever actually happen to read this, Heather, well, the ball is now in your court…
John Fridinger
Talent, Oregon
Fall 2023
And now HERE also, for a followup, the next day… Though hopefully you will have read this post first, for the full context and effect…