{"id":4186,"date":"2017-02-19T18:28:44","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T02:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=4186"},"modified":"2017-02-19T18:35:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T02:35:30","slug":"not-watch-trump-resistance-catches-fire-bay-area-mercurynews-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/02\/19\/not-watch-trump-resistance-catches-fire-bay-area-mercurynews-com\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not on our watch\u2019: Trump resistance catches fire in Bay Area (mercurynews.com)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"header-features default\">\n<figure>\n<div class=\"image-wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-article_feature lazyautosizes lazyloaded\" title=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cct-resist-0208-051.jpg?w=525\" sizes=\"929px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cct-resist-0208-051.jpg?w=525 620w,http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cct-resist-0208-051.jpg?w=660 780w,http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cct-resist-0208-051.jpg?w=863 1020w,http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cct-resist-0208-051.jpg?w=795 940w\" alt=\"cct-resist-0208-05\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cct-resist-0208-051.jpg?w=525\" data-srcset=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cct-resist-0208-051.jpg?w=525 620w,http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cct-resist-0208-051.jpg?w=660 780w,http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cct-resist-0208-051.jpg?w=863 1020w,http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cct-resist-0208-051.jpg?w=795 940w\" \/><\/div><figcaption>\n<div class=\"photo-credit\">(Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group) \u00a0<em>Annette Madden, of Concord, from left, and her husband Tim Smith, sit with Carol McKenna, of Bay Point, as they attend a huddle meeting at the home of Judi Herman, in Concord, Calif. on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017. Donald Trump\u2019s election has sparked a grassroots movement of progressives and moderates around the country. The Women\u2019s march organizers have called for people around the country to start \u201chuddle,\u201d small gatherings in people\u2019s homes and elsewhere to organize people to take specific actions.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"byline\">By <a class=\" author-name\" title=\"Posts by Tammerlin Drummond\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/author\/tammerlin-drummond\/\" rel=\"author\">TAMMERLIN DRUMMOND<\/a> | <a href=\"mailto:tdrummond@bayareanewsgroup.com\">tdrummond@bayareanewsgroup.com<\/a> |<\/div>\n<div class=\"time\">PUBLISHED: <time datetime=\"2017-02-12T17:00:34+00:00\">February 12, 2017<\/time>\u00a0| UPDATED: <time class=\"updated\" datetime=\"2017-02-16T06:02:07+00:00\">February 15, 2017<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"body-copy\">\n<div id=\"ndn-widget-embed-1\" class=\"ndn_embed ndn_embedContainer ndn-widget-embed-1 ndn_widget_VideoPlayer-Single ndn_embedded\" data-config-widget-id=\"2\" data-config-type=\"VideoPlayer\/Single\" data-config-tracking-group=\"90757\" data-config-playlist-id=\"19353\" data-config-video-id=\"31974157\" data-config-site-section=\"bangnews\" data-config-width=\"100%\" data-config-height=\"9\/16w\">\n<div class=\"ndn_floatContainer ndn_floatContainer_disabled\">\n<div id=\"inform-viewer-container-0\" class=\"ndn_playerContainer ndn_floatContainer_contents inform-viewer-container\">\n<div class=\"inform-viewer-module-inform inform-viewer-module ndn_videoPlayer ndn_videoPlayer_largeView ndn_videoPlayer_view1198 ndn_videoPlayer_view1022 ndn_videoPlayer_view999 ndn_videoPlayer_view849 ndn_videoPlayer_view784 ndn_videoPlayer_view766 ndn_videoPlayer_view702\">\n<div id=\"inform-player-container-1\" class=\"akamai-html5 akamai-player akamai-desktop akamai-controls-auto akamai-normal akamai-ready akamai-vod akamai-medium-video akamai-inactive\" data-amp=\"\">\n<div class=\"akamai-poster akamai-layer\">\n<div class=\"akamai-poster-content\">\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/launch.newsinc.com\/?type=VideoPlayer\/Single&amp;widgetId=1&amp;trackingGroup=69016&amp;playlistId=19132&amp;siteSection=bangnews&amp;videoId=31974157\" width=\"590\" height=\"332\" frameborder=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n<div class=\"ndn_videoTitle\">Bay Area residents fed up with President Donald Trump huddle up to take action. \u00a0(Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n<p>OAKLAND \u2014 Before Donald Trump was elected president, Dave Emme had no idea who his congressional representative was. The 32-year-old environmental engineer, who lives in Oakland, was so disengaged from national politics that the first time he voted for president was for Hillary Clinton in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Now, not only does he know Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, represents his district, he has her number on speed dial.\u00a0Emme is a co-organizer for Indivisible Lake Merritt \u00a0one of many grassroots groups that have sprung up in recent weeks to resist the Trump agenda. It\u2019s part of a mass movement sweeping the Bay Area and the nation since the inauguration of the 45th president.<\/p>\n<p>It might seem like visiting Lee\u2019s office would be preaching to the choir. She\u2019s already one of the most liberal legislators in Congress and a vocal Trump opponent. Yet grass-roots organizations want to make sure their allies don\u2019t get complacent and are fighting as hard as they can. They\u2019re also seeking to build a strong coalition in left-leaning areas that can in turn support those seeking to flip red congressional districts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone is just trying to figure it out,\u201d Emme said. \u201cIts a bunch of people who weren\u2019t politically active and said we have to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Strangers connecting through social media and Slack are crowding into living rooms in Concord and San Jose. They\u2019re spilling out of rented church space in Berkeley and gathering at co-working office spaces in Oakland. What they all have in common is their visceral reaction to Trump and fears that he is leading the country down a dangerous and authoritarian path.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have this unprecedented response because Trump is hitting the nerve around our democratic principles and values and what our nation stands for,\u201d said San Jose State sociology professor Scott Myers-Lipton, citing in particular the president\u2019s continuing attacks on the press and the judiciary.<\/p>\n<p>Myers-Lipton, who teaches a class on effecting social change, says opposition isn\u2019t just focused in more liberal parts of the Bay Area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were 10,000 people at the Women\u2019s March in Walnut Creek and over 35,000 in San Jose, which is not seen as a hotbed of political activity,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s Democrats, Republicans and independents that say, \u2018No, you\u2019ve crossed our democracy.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>The question now for grass-roots organizers, he said, is how to harness that energy into a long-term strategy.<\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-Cube_Article\" class=\"dfp-ad dfp-Cube_Article\" data-ad-unit=\"Cube_Article\" data-google-query-id=\"CJPuxbTPndICFRcyaQodg28A0A\"><\/div>\n<p>Indivisible is a national network of individual chapters inspired by a guide authored by former congressional staffers. It explains how to use tactics the tea party employed with great success to block Barack Obama, to resist his successor. The basic playbook calls for organizing lots of small but dedicated local groups to turn up at congressional district offices and call representatives about key issues.<\/p>\n<p>Indivisible and other groups turned up the heat under U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, recently after she voted to approve Trump\u2019s first five cabinet picks. A Feinstein aide joked that Indivisible blew up his Blackberry and almost broke his laptop. Feinstein did vote against Betsy DeVos, Trump\u2019s education pick, and Jeff Sessions for attorney general.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf politics is the castle, you look at these walls and this moat, and you say I can\u2019t influence anything that\u2019s going on in there,\u201d Emme said. \u201cAnd then suddenly you get this treasure map that tells you how to sneak through this secret passageway and have an impact. That\u2019s how I felt when I read that document.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Within a few days, he and Rob Norback had launched Indivisible Lake Merritt. They held their first official meeting Wednesday in a conference room at the Port Coworking space in downtown Oakland where Emme works. Nine people came.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Women\u2019s March on Washington organizers urged people to start small gatherings called \u201chuddles\u201d in homes Feb. 2 through Feb. 12 to build on the organic momentum from the national and sister marches that drew millions of people.<\/p>\n<p>Judi Herman decided to host a \u201chuddle\u201d in her Concord home because when she went on the website, all the ones near her were full.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, 17 people squeezed into her living room. They introduced themselves and why they had come. They spoke of Trump\u2019s divisiveness. His attacks on immigrants. The GOP\u2019s assault on abortion rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can either sit in my living room alone and scream at my TV or I can do something,\u201d said Annette Madden, a 72-year-old Concord retiree.<\/p>\n<p>They wrote up specific actions and strategies they would like to see taken over the next four years and posted them on Post-Its on the wall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like mass therapy,\u201d Herman said. \u201cYou meet other people, and you feel like I\u2019m necessary, I can do something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Daphne White, a freelance journalist in Berkeley, started an Indivisible group with a Facebook page. She rented a room at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists church on\u00a0Martin Luther King Day weekend. Thirty-seven people attended. By the second meeting, a week after Trump had been in office, five times as many showed up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had people standing outside on the balconies looking into the windows,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was so awesome and so unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the Occupy movement, Indivisible is developing a structure with specific tasks for people. These range from sending out emails and calling and visiting congressional representatives, such as they did to urge Feinstein to vote against DeVos.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s been a benefit to me and has made me feel less panicky and more focused as the days go forward,\u201d said Liz Kelley, a 31-year-old Oakland office manager who helps coordinate media for Indivisible East Bay.<\/p>\n<p>Other Bay Area residents are finding individual ways to resist Trump\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n<p>When Iris Kokish, a 27-year-old Oakland labor and employment attorney, found out on social media about all of the people stranded at San Francisco International Airport due to Trump\u2019s travel ban, she headed there to offer her pro bono legal services. When she arrived at SFO, she walked through the crowd of protesters to the speaker, announced that she was an attorney and asked how could she help.<\/p>\n<p>For starters, she was told, she could help distribute the 20 pizzas that had just been delivered to feed those working to help those caught up in the ban. She did, and soon received an email from an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey said, we\u2019re going to be announcing every once in a while to protesters if you have a friend or family member or know someone detained we have lawyers here for you to talk to,\u201d Kokish said. \u201cAnd I was given a list to collect the flight number people were on, their arrival time, how large the family was and what country they were coming from. Then I passed that off to the ACLU.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She stayed from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m. that Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Kokish said she has since gone from someone who was not even remotely politically active to having her congressional representatives numbers programmed into her phone. And she calls them regularly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes their \u00a0voicemail is full, but sometimes I get to talk to someone,\u201d she said. \u201cI really feel like it\u2019s working. I feel like everyone is becoming a little bit more militant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One thing is certain. Trump\u2019s election has jolted many people out of complacency. They\u2019re taking an interest in their government and how it works. They\u2019re searching for ways to get involved and influence the political process. Could it be that the man so many fear will destroy America could end up unwittingly helping to strengthen it?<\/p>\n<p>That optimistic thought has crossed Emme\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt could be that he ends up being the thing that unites, rather than divides us,\u201d Emme said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group) \u00a0Annette Madden, of Concord, from left, and her husband Tim Smith, sit with Carol McKenna, of Bay Point, as they attend a huddle meeting at the home of Judi Herman, in Concord, Calif. on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017. Donald Trump\u2019s election has sparked a&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/02\/19\/not-watch-trump-resistance-catches-fire-bay-area-mercurynews-com\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4186"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4191,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions\/4191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}