“The question is: ‘What are we going to do with that fear?’”
By Mayor Robb Davis
Following the election there was much concern throughout the community about what this change means. The first response was a candlelight vigil organized quickly by a group of citizens, held in Central Park on November 12, the first Saturday night following the election. With only 3 days’ notice, relying on word of mouth and social media, over 700 people attended this event.
This is a transcription of remarks by invited speaker Mayor Robb Davis submitted by Alan Hirsch.
I’m not sure if we know what’s coming, but we want to remain faithful as representatives of the community. I want to bookend my remarks with two stories.
One is the story of my grandson Jaime. Jaime came home the day after the election. Jaime’s papa is undocumented—my son-in-law. Jaime came home the day after the election and said to my daughter, Mommy, when does Mr. Trump take office? He is in 2nd grade. She said why do you want to know? He said because I want to know when Papa has to go back to Mexico. Jaime is afraid. He has fear. Is Jaime’s fear justified?
Are the fears of our Muslim brothers and sisters—who may not even feel comfortable coming into this space tonight—are they justified? Are the fears of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, are they justified? Are the fears of the immigrants of this nation, some of whom are undocumented, some of whom were born and raised here, are they justified? Are their fears justified? Are the fears of those who are concerned about global climate change and the protection of our planet, are they justified? Are the fears of those who wonder about the unending stream of violence in the world, violence that begets violence and war, are their fears justified?
And I don’t say lightly—I don’t say lightly—that yes: those fears are justified.
I don’t say it lightly because: I cannot—we cannot—succumb to those fears.
But make no mistake, words have consequences and words were spoken, not by accident, not with a slip of the tongue, but words were spoken during this campaign with meaning, with intent and those words have consequences. And the consequences for us today are that we have legitimate fear within our community. We have to acknowledge that.
What are we going to do with that fear is the question before us tonight?
We are going to do three things.
First, we are going to do what we are doing right now. I want you to hold onto someone right now. Just hold on; just hang on. We are going to come together and this is just the first. There will be another in early December where groups that are feeling the most fear are invited to come into safe spaces. We are going to come together, and we are going to renew our commitments to one another as a community: our commitments to love one another, our commitments to honor one another, to honor the differences, to honor the needs. We’re going to make commitments about how we are going to protect the most vulnerable in our community and we’re doing that tonight. And we’ll do it again. And we’ll do it again. And we’ll do it again.
Second, we are going to continue to do what we’re already doing. We’re going to. And I ask you to please consider committing your time to institutions in our community. Yes institutions within our community who are working at the forefront of creating a different kind of community: the Yolo Interfaith Immigration Network, the Yolo Conflict Resolution Center, The Phoenix Coalition of Davis, the Yolano Climate Action Group. (I’m going to forget some of the names. Call out some others.) From the crowd: ACLU, AB 540 Center on Campus, Cool Davis, Mosaic Tea, Black Lives Matter, Empower Yolo, Sierra Club, Davis Community Meals and Housing, the Culture Co-op.
Do you see what we have as a community already? These are organizations committed to inclusion, not exclusion, to confronting bullying and hate in our community every single day. We need to move away from our television sets for a while, and we need to join these groups that are making change in our community now. We need to join them; we need to redouble our efforts. We need to continue to do what we’re doing. We have the social capital in our community that many other communities in this nation would dream of. Join them and join our City. We have instituted a diversion program for youth, which is focused on giving youth an alternative called restorative justice. We have within our police force the ability to have alternative conflict resolution.
We have the resources within our community to deal with conflict. If we are going to create a narrative that stands against what we have seen this week and if we are going to deal with the fear, it will be by doing what we are already doing.
Number three, we are going to prepare ourselves. And this is another thing… I don’t want to say this lightly. But we must. Given what we have heard, we must prepare ourselves to resist. Some may feel it is unseemly for an elected official to even suggest that there may be resistance against the State, but that’s what I’m saying. If we find that we’re being asked to compromise our values, if we are being asked to compromise what we hold dear and the commitments we make to one another, to our immigrants, to our gay brothers and sisters, to the Muslims in this community, or to any other group that faces exclusion. Then we will resist and we must prepare ourselves to resist. That resistance cannot be violent, otherwise we are merely mimicking the violence that is being perpetrated now. We have the resources. The Fellowship of Reconciliation, a national organization you may not know, the executive director, Kristin Stoneking, lives among us and can help train us and prepare us. These are the resources we have. This is what we’re going to do.
This is how we’ll face the fear. And I’m confident. I’m confident that we will do this in a way that spreads love from this community to others around us.
I want to finish with a story. This one is even harder to tell than the story of Jaime. So forgive me. The same day Jaime came home and asked his question, my brother wrote one of the most vitriolic, angry screeds, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant. What am I going to do with my brother? What are we going to do with our brothers and sisters in this nation with whom we disagree? Against whom we have some anger and hurt in our hearts? What am I going to do with my brother? And when I thought about that question and when I thought about my anger and all the things I wanted to say to him, it hit me today that not more than 3 weeks ago my brother’s wife had fallen and broken a limb. And I had been too busy to even send her a card wishing her speedy recovery. Where is my love? Where is my love for my brother? And I confess that to you in order to say that we have to have the courage as well to reach across the lines of difference and go into places that we absolutely do not want to go, in order to make peace, in order to bring reconciliation, in order to model the things that bring us to this place tonight. And that’s the hard work before us.
I thank you for coming. I thank you for lighting a candle. There will be more events like this in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. And I want to thank the organizers for putting this together.
Go out to love and serve one another in this community.
A series of community gatherings to discuss the issues raised by Mayor Davis – and actions we can take — are being organized by the Phoenix Coalition at the encouragement of Mayor Robb Davis. The first community gathering will be this Sunday, Dec 4th at 3 pm at the Davis Senior Center at the corner of A Street and 7th. A second is set for the afternoon of January 8th. Walk-in attendees are welcome but to assure space, please RSVP at www.DavisGathering.Eventbrite.com.
I was at a fund raising event that evening and so unable to attend the vigil. My congratulations to Mayor Davis for his address to the group which eloquently summarizes the feelings of those of us who see this election as a tragic step backwards for our nation.
Thanks Rob.
Democrats are (hopefully) discovering that there is a limit to the political capital they can milk from identity politics. In fact, it started to cost them elections six years ago and it will continue to cost them unless they get off it and focus on a new strategy to argue why their way is better for the country. I think the other thing that needs to happen is that more coastal liberals are going to have to move to the Midwest. Because coastal liberal don’t procreate and because the immigration flood will be stopped… the political picture does not look good for Democrats unless they color the red states more blue.
I hear Omaha is beautiful in the fall.
All snarkiness aside… getting more industry to move to the Midwest is really the only way that progressives can begin to see more of their national agenda move forward. It comes down to the human needs hierarchy. Coastal liberal territory has benefited from the changes to the economy and hence more voters have all their lower-level needs met and are focused on achieving self-actualization (for example, getting a table at the French Laundry and scoring a bottle of 2008 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières). However, in the red-state territory many people are still stuck on fulfilling their lower-level needs to be financially secure. They just hope to take the family to Applebees once a month. In fact, it has become more difficult for them to fulfill these needs since global trade agreements were passed.
So, Democrats should advocate for economic policy that incentivizes economic growth and also helps encourage more business to locate in red-state territory. It would be good for coastal liberals in a couple of ways. One – it would relieve population pressure on the coastal cities. Two – it would bring more political diversity to the red-states.
Or Democrats can just keep up with the divisive name-calling to denigrate everyone that does not share coastal liberal values… and continue to shrink into political irrelevancy.
Well, let’s see… how can “progressives” move any ball forward, given the “conservative” hegemony we’ll have come January”…
It’s time for the “conservatives”/Republicans to ‘put up or shut up’… ball is in their court… it is what it is, and time will tell…
[not sure, but last Republican labelled as a “progressive”, as I recall, was Robert La Follette] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._La_Follette_Sr.
hpierce – I think Democrats have essentially teed it up well for Trump. There are many trillions sitting in corporate accounts and bank balance sheets that are just looking for a reason to be invested in job-producing business growth. It has basically been a coiled-up spring that Obama and Democrats have prevented from unwinding with their global new-world-order, tax-for-welfare and anti-industrialism regulatory agenda.
Democrats have developed OCD over global warming and bad cops and ignored the REAL problems facing the country.
As they say, it is the stew-ped economy stew-ped (phrase not directed at you of course).
Brexit, Trump… next up is the French election… two candidates that are Trump and Trump-lite in terms of their platform for national sovereignty. Then Italy probably exiting the EU.
The current form of liberal progressivism is being destroyed primarily because they failed to put economic health at the top of the list.
That and immigration policies. Even Merkel who has been very pro refugee has said she will deport 100,000 immigrants.
http://www.businessdayonline.com/merkel-to-deport-100000-migrants/
I’ve typically supported Republicans because of their support for business growth, but lately that is coming with more and more craziness that I just can’t support.
Frankly
And did you not see any “identity politics” on display in the Republican campaign for the presidency?
No playing to the “identity” fears of white economically disadvantaged folks at all ? No divisiveness in the idea that if you are Mexican or Middle Eastern or non Christian, that you are not one of “us” at all expressed by our president elect and his supporters. As I am sure you all know, I have stated frequently that I believe that each individual should be judged on their own merits and not as a member of a specific group. You have also stated this Frankly, but the fact that you choose to acknowledge it coming from only one side seems to contradict this as your actual belief.
I don’t remember any Republican candidate or politician nor any right-leaning media making the case that Obama or Hillary Clinton was/is racists against whites, or that hates men… and when she called all Trump supporters a basket of deplorables… they made teeshirts that demonstrated their pride and self-confidence in supporting Trump.
You got nuttin’ here. You do this frequently… search for a moral equivalency blame of your political opposition that does not exist.
The political left has perused a strategy of fear mongering over every victim group they can manufacture and invent… calling people racist, misogynists, xenophobes, Islamiphobes, homophobes, etc., etc., The use of this divisive language is a big reason that Democrats have had their hat handed to them in this election and also it contributed to Brexit.
If you want to push a liberal progressive new world order, then explain why it will be better for people. But attacking them by calling them all these mean, nasty, hateful and disgusting names just because they do not agree with coastal liberal values… well this is what you get.
Hopefully Trump will be able to put several conservative judges on the Supreme Court. The younger the better. That’s the main reason he got my vote.
And the main reason that liberals are so despondent.
They gained control of the media.
They gained control of the education system.
Their last leg of their strategy was to gain control of SCOTUS with a majority liberal activist judges.
This election has set back their agenda by probably a generation. And the Republicans are going to work on fixing the education system political/ideological corruption. The mainstream media is a lost case, but the liberal progressive agenda cannot succeed with only the media.
They can only hope that Trump flops to selecting judges that are moderates and that the teachers unions continue to prevail in the states.
Hate to break it to you – it’s not just liberals that are despondent. I’m no liberal except perhaps compared to you. However, I don’t see a man who is rational and in control of his conduct. That makes him dangerous. On top of that he is mean, nasty, and vindictive. Finally, I really don’t know where he’s coming from. He has moderated his tone at times and for periods of time, but then you look at what he has surrounded himself with. People have the right to be concerned.
“Mean, nasty and vindictive” are labels that fit very well into the Clinton and Obama camp. We will have to agree to disagree on which candidate was/is more dangerous. He is different for sure. We have never had a business person as President. Sure everyone has a right to be concerned. But only if they apply intellectual honesty to an assessment of the alternative.
You’re either not being honest or too partisan to see the difference. I would support a business person as president, just not this one.
Who are we kidding here? You’re no more a conservative than Frankly and I are liberals.
Said to some conservative around November 9, 2008…
You’re either not being honest or too partisan to see the difference. I would support a community activist person as president, just not this one.
Point is that we all see different strengths and weakness and process them though our own experience and moral filters. Historically, there have been many successful presidents that have said and done much worse than Trump. For example, let’s talk about JFK.
Frankly (because I am), I see much of the FOT (fear of Trump) to be people allowing the media hyperbole to excite an emotional reaction lacking factual assessment.
In terms of your point that you don’t know where he is coming from… this is almost 20 years ago and he is saying the same things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEPs17_AkTI
Frankly…please define “business person”… many previous presidents had “business” experience in farming, law, surveying, engineering, habadashers, etc., etc. Looking for your definition, but depending what you come up with, your statement of ” We have never had a business person as President.” certainly appears to be patently false…
Frankly: Historically, there have been many successful presidents that have said and done much worse than Trump. For example, let’s talk about JFK.
Were you going to finish this thought? What do you think JFK said and did that was much worse than Trump?
Said, or did?
Does your outrage only count things said, and not behavior and actions?
Should have been more specific. He is the only President elect coming from a business background never having served in any other significant political or government capacity. This makes him significantly unique and intriguing given the track record of all those that have come before him.
Frankly: And the Republicans are going to work on fixing the education system political/ideological corruption.
Betsy DeVos, the nominated Secretary of Education, has a history of activism in Detroit Public Schools. Are there success there (Detroit) that you’re excited about that you would like to see her implement elsewhere? I’m curious what you think.
And for that matter, where the millions of illegal voters are that Trump claims from a recent tweet about the recent election. I’ve seen a lot of media outlets say that this claim is not substantiated. But maybe you would say that’s because they’re “liberal” media outlets. Perhaps you can substantiate the claim?
I think the Betsy DeVos selection is maybe one of the most promising and exciting cabinet picks coming from Trump. The fact that the NEA and standard pay-for-play Dem politicos are decrying it gives us all the information we need that she is the right selection.
The first thing she can do is re-authorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program that helps poor intercity primarily minority children escape from their crappy public schools and have a better chance at top-level academic outcomes. This program worked but the NEA and Obama (always a friend to the teachers union that funnels money to Democrat politicians) killed it and sent Michelle Rhee packing. I think DeVos should make D.C. a total choice school system as the model for the rest of the country. However, I doubt she will have much impact as the Trump plan is to return education decisions back to the states. They may manipulate the Federal dollars to try and influence states to be more supportive of charters and choice, but ultimately it is going to be the states that decide.
Illegal voters..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65Ybzr6QNUY&feature=player_embedded
Do you expect the liberal mainstream media to report on this?
You’re seriously citing Lou Dobbs? There’s been plenty of analysis of the repeated lies about massive numbers of immigrants voting. They’re false. They’re lies. The president-elect repeated them again. So he is lying.
factcheck covers it pretty thoroughly here: http://www.factcheck.org/2016/10/trumps-bogus-voter-fraud-claims/
http://www.matchdoctor.com/blog_141905/Factcheck_org_–_A_Fraudulent_Fact_Check_Site_Funded_By_Biased_Political_Group.html
I certainly trust that report from Lou Dobbs more than I do factcheck.org. So should you unless you are so hopelessly left biased that you cannot take facts that challenge your views.
The point is that Trump has some basis for his claims despite the denial from the left and left media… the completely discredited left and left media that told us all Hillary would win in a landslide.
So now you post some blogger from 2012 to discredit factcheck? Really?
FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
Here is information about their funding: http://www.factcheck.org/our-funding/
The article I linked was detailed, well-sourced, and factual. You posted some screed from Lou Dobbs, who has a very controversial history on immigration issues and a well-earned reputation for poor reporting on the topic. Assuming you don’t think Wikipedia is part of the liberal media cabal, you can read about him there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Dobbs#Illegal_immigration_and_border_security
So, no, Trump has no basis for his clear allegation of “Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California,” nor is there any basis (nor has his staff provided any when pressed) that “I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” If he believes those things, then he should demand a recount, and we should be very concerned about who he gets his information from. If he doesn’t believe them, he’s lying. Or he is just sort of blabbing stuff that comes into his head, which I would think would be a cause for concern.
Almost everything that you tend to use as proof sources has been discredited this election Don. It is also quite humorous that you and the discredited mainstream media and “fact” checking resources hosted by liberal universities work on attacking Donald Trump and other conservatives on their concerns about voter fraud, while your candidate and party do a pay-for-play move with shill Jill Stein to force a recount because they all claim voter fraud.
The hypocrisy of those on the left is breathtaking in its complete lack of transparency now. Your Party and politicians pursue voter fraud and yet you defend it while attacking the right for suggesting the same.
On the fraudulent voting…
http://www.wsj.com/articles/do-illegal-votes-decide-elections-1480551000
I’m not a WSJ subscriber, but I’d be interested in that article. I have read Spakovsky and Fund on this subject before. They are strong supporters of the voter ID laws that the Republicans have been pushing for years, and whenever they cite examples it seems the examples have no evidence.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/29/the-voter-fraud-myth
Maybe they’ve found something new? But Von Spakovsky is not exactly an impartial observer on this issue.
Here is an except:
The authors of the report you are linking have a long history of misrepresenting other studies, and of making factually incorrect assertions.
The sources in the article you cite start with this headline: Alien Invasion in Virginia.
That is the Public Interest Legal Foundation. Here’s the board, a very, very hard-right crowd, to put it mildly.
https://publicinterestlegal.org/about-us/board-of-directors/
Von Spakovsky is a member of the board of this group. Essentially they are citing their own work in support of their own work.
The Heritage Foundation list of 700 “recent” convictions go back to 1948. 1982, 1997, 2004, 2005, 2007. Many include buying votes, not actual voter fraud.
We agree that it is important to prosecute these things, but statistically this is trivial with respect to the claims Donald Trump has made.
Given their history of misleading publications, it’s hard to give any further credence to the authors here. You have not done anything to substantiate Donald Trump’s false assertions.
I’m happy to read alternative views, but these are not persuasive in the least. A myth has been created about illegal voting. Trump has repeated it. He is either misinformed or lying, which is an ongoing pattern with him.
Frankly
“I see much of the FOT (fear of Trump) to be people allowing the media hyperbole to excite an emotional reaction lacking factual assessment.”
So if you believe that this all an over reaction to the “media hyperbole” do you not believe the actual words that our president elect spoke repeatedly about mass deportations, threats to reinstitute torture, targeting the families of terrorists, registration of Muslims ( which he said he would “certainly do”) ? That he said these things is fact, not subjective assessment. Was he just lying ? Or was this an accurate representation of his intent in your opinion ?
How about his tip of the hat to eugenics caught on tape while he was bragging about his ancestry ? Ok, with that from the leader of an extremely powerful nation ?
None of this is about the media. These are all right out of his own mouth. None of this is bothersome to you ? Or are you feeling so safe in your own white maleness that you cannot see how this could possibly worry anyone ?
Tia – give me the confirmation that you want to be embarrassed that everything you listed above has also been advocated for by Hillary Clinton (and Bill Clinton) and I will will post all of those quotes and links to the videos of her making the statements.
I can’t help thinking that all the ignoring of what Hillary has said and the corresponding explosion of “concern” over Trump saying the same… is really an indication of sexist bias coming from the political left.
Frankly
Please do. I would love to see your actual clips of Hillary Clinton ( not Bill for heavens sake since he was not on the ballot) saying the “exact same things”. It would be optimal if you were to pair the actual clip of our president elect with the corresponding statement from HRC.
First lets clear up that Hillary Clinton has held the same positions as Donald Trump on Mexico, illegal immigration and the wall… that is until her one of two public personas thought to change for political advantage.
https://youtu.be/DckY2dRFtxc
Here is Hillary Clinton’s campaign strategy on how to attack Obama for being a Muslim.
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/7860
And this is real embarrassing for Hillary… calling black people “super predators” and that we should “bring them to heel”.
https://youtu.be/LqLfvQfuvsA
Here he used the slur “f__king Jewish Bastard”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jul/18/uselections2000.usa
You are correct in that Hillary Clinton has not said or held the same position as Trump on Isamic terrorism in our country. The very clear reason for this is that Hillary Clinton and liberal Democrats have attempted to milk every terrorist attack as a “gun” crisis to further their agenda to take away American’s Second Amendment rights. It is so transparent that Tim Kaine can’t wait to find out that the last Islamic terrorist attack was with a car and knife.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/29/tim-kaine-blames-gun-violence-ohio-state-car-and-k/
She’s also held the same view about flag burning.
No, I don’t think she’s ever called for people to have their citizenship revoked. Perhaps because she knows that natural-born citizens cannot have their citizenship revoked.
Tia–what did Trump say about eugenics? I don’t know how he possibly could have bragged about his ancestory–nothing to brag about, unless he’s got Irish blood.
tribeUSA
On my way to a meeting so can’t find the site now, but just Google Trump and eugenics or Trump and “good genes” and you can find a video of him discussing this issue.
29 November 2016: Every single Trump cabinet member so far opposes LGBT rights
First, that is way too broad a generalization. That is like saying David opposes law enforcement because he opposes some current rights of police. Second, aside from Pence in some rare cases, these are cabinet members and not law makers.
26 November 2016: Letters To California Mosques Praise Donald Trump, Promise Genocide
The Islamic Center of Davis is also reported to have received this letter.
The comments I have read that have quoted senior officials that have read and analyzed this letter is that it was written by someone very familiar with Islam. That certainly does not fit the profile of a typical Trump supporter does it?
I think it is probable that this was written by someone anti-Trump knowing well that the lazy liberal media would pick the story up and run with it, and Trump-hating liberals would post the stories on blogs and social media.
FEARS ? what a whiny pc bunch of noncompoops…. and if ya know who ya are, wtf is there to be scared of
the only sure thing on this planet is death and taxes
and yes, he is not president yet, but the markets are loving it.
If the dems hadn’t sold out Bernie for the likes of HRC we would have Bernie..
there is no one to blame but the likes of BO/Clintons etc…..
I hope the Donald has trusted secret service. REAL friends and family. JFK did NOT…
most of my new Gay friends in PV voted for the Donald.. they have money why else would they be buying condos on the beach in PV? and my seat mate flying down the last time lives in SF and he is HIV positive and his partner of 25 years is dying of AIDS….since I was here alone we hung out…and guess what..
They were for Bernie but couldn’t stand HRC and are hopeful that the Donald will be okay.. so much for all the stupid stereotypes etc.
flourish and prosper..help those who cannot help themselves…leave those who can but won’t behind….right? help those when you can….it is never about the money it is always what is right and fair
if ya look around, many of the new rich are in the minority classes…hands up…like with BO…and where was he during these past 8 years? on vacation….look, listen and learn
UCDavis had many many persians in the 70s and 80s…many were Christians…some married my blond friends….
Now when you walk at UCD< the numbers of women in islamic head gear is quite something…
In fact if ya look around, what stands out as blatant is that the real minorities are white boys….way more women than guys….and even the guys are mostly non causcasians…
and my new friends from Pakistan who arrived in the 80s also voted for the Donald. They spend at least a week a month here to destress ha ha
Now this is holiday entertainment!
https://youtu.be/sW85ZcswiqM