Supporting DumTeeDum friends in USA

[YorkshireLass]

Question for Witherspoon and US Dumteedumers.

Many of us here in UK are shocked & horrified by what is happening in your country and ashamed of the actions of our PM.

Is there any thing, in addition to taking your minds of it by chatting about the delightful goings on in Ambridge, we can do to help?

[Jena Ravioli]

Here are some of my initial thoughts from New York:

Reinvest your energies at home! Be models for us to follow! But also talk to your MPs about not fecklessly supporting our government if it is going to actively violate our people’s rights. A lot of us have been calling our Congresspeople this week. Do the same. We need the “international community” to make it known when what’s happening here isn’t ok. Fight with and for us. Thank you for caring.

More broadly, after we figure out how to defend Constitutional rights, we all need to support the development of new leadership by those eager to do public service, be more utilitarian, and look at policy for what works, rather than what is superficially and momentarily popular.

My example: defend your NHS. Keep reminding people that health care is a right and it is a huge achievement, and a deserved point of pride, that Brits take care of each other in this way. If you don’t defend it, it can be taken away. Don’t descend into easy individualism. I say this as I soon stand to lose the little financial security I have against unforeseen emergencies or hospitalizations with the repeal of the ACA, along with 20-30 million other people. Madness.

Support your working classes. Support the people of the Northeast and Northwest. Support the districts that voted for Brexit. Build new grassroots movements that forefront the problems in these disaffected communities, so they want to work with and for each other. Be proactive, so that your not reactively putting out fires, which we’ve had to do so much of lately. I am still learning how to do this here.

Building something proactive might mean you won’t have to firefight piece by piece. But the closing of women’s shelters in Sunderland is one piece that I imagine bothers a lot of us:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jan/22/why-do-cities-close-refuges-unless-they-want-women-to-die

Finally, find some proper diplomats for your Foreign Office if we’re going to have to listen to them talk about our “special relationship.” It’s not cute, Boris.

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