Consider supporting and becoming involved in the Rural Organizing Project .
http://www.rop.org/
This statement helps explain what they aim to do. Part of it is to help
address the economic struggles of folks in rural areas, which often drives
people to sympathize with groups like Bundy's.
“Where do we go from here: Chaos or Community?”– Martin Luther King,
Jr.December 2015Dear Friends of the Rural Organizing Project,
Dr. King’s quote points to the dilemma and the key question that ROP and our
members keep asking each other and our neighbors. The temperature is rising in
rural communities in Oregon, and it’s not just from climate change. As rural
families struggle more than ever to keep their heads above water, deep chasms
between neighbors are emerging, dividing, and isolating communities.
Instead of respectful disagreement and dialogue among neighbors, we see
increasing polarization, tension, and backlash in rural Oregon. Good people are
buying into xenophobic and racist explanations for the pain and frustration
they are facing in their daily lives. Militia and “patriot” groups are
successfully recruiting members, training leaders, winning elections, and
shaping how local government works in towns and counties across Oregon. Threats
and intimidation are being used to silence opposition. Rural activists in our
network are receiving death threats simply for writing letters to the editor.
ROP members are finding ways to respond that bring people back together in the
face of such polarization – to ensure that we move toward community and not
toward chaos. We know this division is emerging in part because rural
communities have been de-funded, destabilized, and seemingly forgotten. Imagine
raising a family in a place where you call 911 and only an answering machine
picks up or where it takes hours for a sheriff’s deputy to show up in an
emergency. Rural people are making the decision to leave for cities, or taking
on second and third low-wage jobs. Given these circumstances, it’s no shock
that far right groups are successfully recruiting in these communities,
offering paramilitary training, and suggesting that a neighborhood militia
would do better than the government.
As rural and small town progressives, our work is cut out for us. As rural
Oregonians, we know that we need to tell a different story or the militant
right will continue to dominate the conversation. Based in our core values of
human dignity, democracy for all, and the importance of just and welcoming
communities, we offer a different understanding of rural Oregon. An
understanding that points to systemic injustice, capitalism, and corporate
dominance as the root causes for the difficulties so many rural folks have in
accessing basic necessities like shelter, food, and health care. We believe in
building community first and foremost, and using our shared connection to
create channels for dialogue between neighbors. Groups like Feed the ‘Burg are
responding to hunger and homelessness not by pushing neighbors away, but by
serving free community meals for low-income and unhoused folks in Roseburg
every Saturday. Human dignity groups all over the state have joined the call
for a $15 minimum wage, an end to racial profiling, and access and opportunity
for immigrants.
ROP and human dignity groups are building collective security through
grassroots people power. People in small towns and rural communities are
challenging racist, Islamophobic, xenophobic, and transphobic narratives and
building community around the values we share as rural Oregonians. Mass
mobilizations have brought attention to police brutality and exposed the depths
of structural racial injustice not only in places like Ferguson, but in Oregon
towns like Bend where hundreds of people mobilized in solidarity with the call
of Black Lives Matter.
The Rural Organizing Project has a unique and important role, working with
small town human dignity leaders across the state, and building a broad
values-based movement for justice and dignity in rural Oregon.
Our agenda for 2016 is already packed:
We will be working directly with communities on the frontlines of the growing
militia movement, creating and offering organizing tools, and strategizing with
local organizers around the deeper systemic problems that create fertile ground
for militia recruitment.
We will stand together to promote living wages and to ensure all wages worked
for are received, and look for common ground as we grapple with low-wage
economies that no longer provide for our families.
We will work to defeat anti-immigrant ballot measures, digging into difficult
conversations to unpack the rhetoric that scapegoats immigrants for our
struggling economies.
ROP is tiny but mighty, reaching the far corners of the state with a bare-bones
crew of organizers and a lean budget. We need your support to continue and
strengthen the work we do to help build stronger progressive rural communities.
We are the progressive voice speaking out and addressing the challenges facing
rural Oregonians, ensuring that the militant right does not recruit in our
communities unchallenged.
This need for a progressive voice for rural Oregon continues, just as it did
when Marcy Westerling and rural leaders formed ROP 23 years ago. Your
generosity and investment in our movement will make it possible to carry this
legacy forward.
Please make a donation today or, better still, make a pledge of $10, $25, or
$50 a month. Monthly pledges give us the promise of a steady, reliable income,
which ensures our work is sustainable. Your support keeps ROP strong and, in
these divisive times, this is more important than ever.
Ultimately, it is up to all of us together to answer Dr. King’s question of
where we go from here. We know you’ll stand with us to continue to unite our
communities and protect them from chaos.
Warmly,Jessica Campbell Cara ShufeltOn Behalf of the ROP Staff and Board of
Directors
