Concerned citizens all over Brooklyn are shuddering in anticipation of the next three years of the Trump administration, especially in light of the recent news of TrumpCare passing congress.
However, to Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (D-North Brooklyn, LES, Queens) now is not the time to panic. Now is the time to strategize.
“We are not going to agonize. We are going to organize. We are going to mobilize,” said Velazquez.
Velazquez, along with Congress Members Hakeem Jeffries (D-Central Brooklyn, Coney Island) and Yvette Clarke (D-Crown Heights, Flatbush, East Flatbush, Brownsville, Sheepshead Bay) held a town hall meeting at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights last night to lead a resistance movement against President Trump — a movement they dubbed “Organize Brooklyn.”
There, the representatives, along with officials from groups like the NYCLU, Swing Left and Indivisible Brooklyn, told attendees how to stay courageous in the face of defeat, and how to impede the Trump administration’s agenda over the course of the coming year.
Brooklyn residents, said Velazquez, have every reason to be fearful, or at least concerned. The borough is home to hundreds of thousands of people who are directly threatened by Trump’s presence: low-income families who rely on Obamacare, immigrants threatened by the prospect of deportation, and ethnic minorities who fear violence from now-emboldened white supremacists.
“Donald Trump’s extreme agenda threatens our communities and our constitution, directly. Whether it is people of color, low-income working families, seniors, immigrants, LGBTQ New Yorkers or women, the policies put forth have been unconscionable, unacceptable and destructive,” said Velazquez.
Angelica Baker, 28, a member of Indivisible Brooklyn, a political organization who publicly speak out against the Trump Administration, said that she’s especially worried about the developing new health care bill that may leave her without coverage.
“I do have my healthcare through Obamacare, so that’s obviously a big concern,” sad Baker.
The key, said the representatives, is to turn that fear into action, both by shaping public opinion and going out to the polls for every local election.
During her time on the mic, Clarke focused on the latter. She chided the state of New York for its paltry voter turnout rate of 57 percent for the 2016 election, one of the lowest in the country. She also pointed out that a third of New York’s congressional delegates are Republicans – a figure that needs to change if Brooklynites don’t want the status quo to persist.
“For the communities we represent to flourish, we have to change those numbers,” said Clarke.
Jeffries, meanwhile, talked about the former, stressing the importance of getting as many people on their side as possible.
“When it comes to presidential policy making, public sentiment is everything,” said Jeffries. “With it, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. That’s why our job as part of the resistance is to help shape public opinion… in a manner that’s consistent with our values.”
Some of the speakers also emphasized the importance of reaching across the aisle towards people who we may not see eye-to-eye with, including people with conservative views.
“We can’t talk to them as if they’re creeps. We have to talk to them and find common ground,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU.
Adrianne Lever, a representative from the online campaigning group Swing Left, shared a personal anecdote about a conservative woman named Linda who she convinced to join her side when she was campaigning for Barack Obama.
“We started having a conversation, and I told her a little about why I was voting for Obama, and why it was so important to me to put him in office, and I convinced her that he wasn’t gonna take her guns away. By the time the conversation was over, Linda agreed to walk with me down to the polls to vote for Obama,” said Lever.
Above all, the speakers beckoned the audience to face the recent defeat with dignity, and accept the fact that it might not be the last.
“We’re gonna win some battles; we already have. But we’re also gonna lose some battles. But as Winston Churchill said, ‘All that will ultimately matter is the courage to continue,” said Jeffries.
