We have to become masters at exploiting pain [View all]

[Tom Rinaldo]

Of course I mean pain that we wished did not exist, pain that we tried our best to prevent, and pain that we will do all that we can to end. Trump's presidency will cause massive pain. That is certain. Since we could not prevent it the best that we can do is make sure that all the suffering is not completely in vain. We must be prepared to turn it to our political advantage where and whenever possible. That's what I mean by exploitation in this context.

We have to make sure that Trump and the Republicans receive all of the blame for all of the pain that they will cause. We all know the rhetorical question, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Well, if suffering occurs in a neighborhood and no one is there to document it, is anyone hurt? Obviously yes, for those who suffered, but outside of that neighborhood the suffering can still be invisible. The suffering can not be invisible. It must be captured, and broadcast, and shared in emails endlessly.

Horrible suffering existed for generations in the Jim Crow south. Part of the genus of civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. was to highlight and shove that suffering into the faces of "ordinary Americans" (whites) so that they could no longer could hide from their complicity in perpetuating it.

Americans were no less racist in 1964 and 1965 when the Civil Rights and Voting Acts were passed than they are now. And fundamentally they were no less racist in 1964 and 1965 than they were in 1960 and 1961. The difference was that they watched Bull Connor sic police attack dogs on peaceful Black protestors on their TVs. The difference was that they saw broadcasts of mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers mourning the deaths of young black school girls at funerals for the children killed in a church bombing in Birmingham.

When legitimate refugees get murdered in Guatemala after Trump forcibly deports them, Americans should see the bloody details on TV. When an elder dies in an unheated apartment because she couldn't afford her bills Americans need to learn her name. Yes there sometimes is coverage of this sort on American media now. A little bit here, a little bit there, for the most part easily avoidable for most people, who go on as if nothing is happening. We must be experts at amplifying that news. It can't remain avoidable.

The people who are already on our side already understand. The people who hate people who are different from themselves will continue to celebrate their suffering. But their are others who can be touched. Social change, political change, happens when they are.