Re: Wade’s Bio
I am 63. I was 19 when I started going to same sex dances at Alternative Futures Commune. I read your bio and unbeknownst to me, I discovered you’ve been behind or integral to most of the stuff I have been involved with all of my life: Network Against Psychiatric Assult, Madness Network News, Other Avenues Food Store, The Tenderloin Times, etc.
Just sayin’.
Best wishes
–Dennis Conkin
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My friend…he has and continues to change the world…one conversation at a time.
–Charla Doughty
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Impressive credentials, sir!
–Rene Burke Ellis
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I think this is the best thing you’ve written. Thanks.
–Nedi Safa
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Excellent piece, Wade. I’m proposing that the “our revolution” movement, following up on the Bernie political revolution, include a spiritual openness that speaks directly to your concerns for compassion towards all.
–Alan Levin
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Re: Birthday Reflections: 2016
Thanks for sharing — your dream and your frustration. I support the former and somewhat understand the latter.
The one suggestion I have is as follows:
Create an online ‘community of interest’.
Initial members = those you know and have communicated with in the past.
Each is encouraged to invite others to join.
All are encouraged to share ideas and respond to ideas.
Separate action groups can be formed as ideas gain traction.
Engages the introverts who are not face-to-face oriented.
Engages the young who are online oriented.
Has national reach potential – with local action groups as useful.
I have run a modest version of this for 13 years and have found it personally effective and rewarding.
Happy to share ideas on this.
–Larry Walker
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Thanks Wade for sharing from your heart and soul. Jan and I would like to get together again sometime. Have you tried the Green Party? Jill Stein presents a real altrnative to the two war candidates. The lack of community in SF is tragic.
Talk with you soon.
Peace,
David Hartsouugh
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Re: Class Myopia
I think you are really onto something very important, Wade. Myself, I pride myself as class-conscous, but I think I too, as low on the class totem pole as I am (or was? I am not sure), I was still looking down at certain people.
As regards Trump, I see lots of prestigious people getting all excited about the GOP establishment to some extent turning on Trump, but they don’t seem to see how few Trump supporters really give a shit about what they think. Nobody wants to be condescended to.
–Ted Chabasinski
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Sad story …! On point:
–Yahya Abdal-Aziz
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I think you have made important points. If the interests of working people were really paid attention to by the existing “major” parties, someone like Trump would get no attention.hadn’t thought much about this “upward mobility” stuff before. I’m glad to be in this discussion…. We see this elitism on the left within its own organizations as well. For all the talk of “the one percent,” it is the well-off people who dominate our organizations.
I have seen that talking about classism seems almost banned on the left, especially by the people who have a lot of class privilege. They are very good at dishing it out, but when they are criticized, they almost go berserk.
I too used to think talking about class was pretty far out and sounded sectarian. Not any more. If we don’t deal with it in our own organizations, how can we say we are trying to create a more democratic society?
–Ted Chabasinksi
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unless by progressive you mean Hillary and the democratic party i can’t accept your characterization fully… progressives have been working for single payer and many of the benefits that cohere with that view but they haven’t, until Bernie, really had a platform. those with the platform have ranged from middle or moderate to extreme right so though we’ve worked on working class issues we haven’t been heard… business-as-usual has created alienation & that trump captures, part of it, Bernie another part. True, progressives I know, including me, rarely attempt to bridge the gap with right wing workers but we support left workers, unions etc;
–Tom Ferguson
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Interesting Wade. As you know, I read your emails, but rarely reply. This one calls me to respond: “But his [Donald J. Trump’s] performance has provided a great service. He has helped expose how progressives have ignored, disrespected, and failed to address legitimate concerns felt by white poor and working class people who suffer immensely from economic injustice. ”
This, I believe, is NOT TRUE. “Progressives have not ignored, disrespected… etc.”
College graduates, at least those of us who are women, ARE THE WORKING CLASS. We have, for the most part, failed to achieve our highest possible potential, only because we are female (and hold up half the world? Pretty heavy burden, eh?) Not that we haven’t tried, and still are moving forward. Our daughters and granddaughters do indeed have more options than we ‘baby boomers’ did, and we’re not about to stop now.
I am feeling sad to find you on the side of the white male power structure Wade. Donald Trump is a buffoon.
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Re: “The Original Underclass”
This point, of elitism among liberals, needs to be talked about a lot more. Thanks for discussing it.
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i definitely agree, in fact it’s imperative. ego’s been running things for a long time. if that doesn’t change we’re going to have to leave the experiment with consciousness to some other galaxy. my guru in this area is eckhart tolle (as you know Wade). I dabble in a combination of tolle’s idea of becoming present by suspending or observing mind chatter, and chomsky’s idea of activism – the latter enhanced in effectiveness by the former… but I also am interested in pursuing music as a means to fun, yes, but also to presence. The liberals that appear on TV, aside from Bernie who is still quite marginalized, and a few uneven personalities on MSNBC, seem more like republican-lite to me, like Hillary. And yes, poor whites don’t see much addressing of their lives… the TPP , NAFTA etc; have impacted working people big time and all i see is more of the same in the mainstream… thus trump’s appeal, false of course but all there is, like brexit, to many.
–Tom Ferguson
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Re: Hillary, Be Vulnerable and Be Positive
Great post, Wade, as usual, I hope she reads & heeds!
–Joyce Beattie
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