Next Pendleton DSA meeting Sunday May 19th 12noon Great Pacific on the corner of Main and Emigrant.  We're talking about the Green New Deal and summarizing where we are at with the local platform.

Next People's History gathering Wednesday 6:30 June 5 at Dro and George's place 707NW10th St. We're talking about Tyranny is Tyranny Chapter 4 of Howard Zinn's People's History.

-- George 

Agenda for DSA Meeeting

Song

to pull our thinking and pulling our act together 

Is the the Green New Deal a good focus for our organizing efforts?

1. How is everything mentioned in the platform connected to the Green New Deal? Just how important is it? 

2. What will have to happen for the Green New Deal to get implemented?  

What will make a difference locally? Change local consciousness  to support the national and international efforts?

3. Thinking in terms of the following and local equivalents what will we come up against? The fossil fuel monopolies? other major corporations? military? the media? 

4. Who can we ally with to make things happen? 

5. How about the Alexandria O Cortez and Bernie Sanders group? How about the establishment Democrats? How about the Sun Rise Movement? How about the Extinction Rebellion? The EOC3?  The CTUIR environmentalist? The Walla Walla area DSA and Sun Risers? The Blue Mountain Marchers? The Local progressive Democrats? 

Summarize where we're at with the platform. 

Hand out the Seattle Platform, Pat's platform notes, Ron's rewrite. Acknowledge what we've pretty much decided. 

Ask to put together a committee to write it up for the next meeting and put it to a vote then.

Folks, Please note that Don and I won't be attending the upcoming discussion group. We're heading to Santa Fe. See you next time.
-pd

April 3rd 'No Name' Book Club Writeup

First things first:  Thanks to all for coming; George, Dro, Drea, Eleanor, Ira.

Our discussion involved Chapter 1 of People's History: 'Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress'.

Pat - The sheer gall, the lack of shame!  All of our school experience convinced us these people were heroes when, by their very words, they betrayed their petty motivations and the convoluted ways they used commerce and religion to justify themselves and betray their victims.

Drea - What surprises me most is the arrogance!  I was amazed to learn that Europeans were not accidentally destroying the native people, but that it was a systematic policy where the same things were done over and over, for bad reasons.

Eleanor - how could they not see them as human beings?  why do we have to look down on people?  What makes us better than them?  What made us so arrogant?

George - This was the beginning of massive colonization, and the worst part is that the same arguments and systems and cultural set are being used in the same ways to this day, and native peoples of the Americas continue to suffer the same oppression.

Dro - Harder to read a second time, because one simply couldn't believe the reality of this history without context the first time through, and unfortunately everything I've learned since proves that these things happened.

Ira - doesn't understand the sheer blindness of the invaders to what they were doing, how they could not imagine themselves in the place of the people they were enslaving, stealing from, killing.

Many other books suggest themselves:
1491 - Charles C. Mann
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee - Dee Brown
A Different Mirror - Ronald Takaki
Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond
The First Frontier - David Horowitz

Next meeting:  Wed April 17th, 6:30PM, place TBA; Eleanor thinks we can meet on our front lawn  (653 NW 8th Street) if the weather is fair.  Chapter 2:  "Drawing the Color Line".

Next Zinn / DSA book club meeting

This is still a 'club with no name', but....

Next meeting on April 3rd, 6:30 PM, at 707 NW 10th Street in Pendleton.  We will be discussing the first chapter of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.  

We still have 3-5 books available and you can download the PDF as well if you want it on your phone or tablet.  Call George at 541-969-6746 for more information.

Exceptional Stupidity

They . . . brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned. . . . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features. . . . They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane. . . . They would make fine servants. . . . With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.  

This is Zinn's excerpt from Columbus' log book, on the very first page of the People's History.   The last two phrases tell you EXACTLY how Europeans (not just Spanish or Genoese or Portugeuse or...) viewed anyone but themselves.  "How can we own them and take what they have." was literally the reason for their enterprise and the first thing that crossed their minds when they encountered any new people in their 'explorations'.

You can see the very beginnings of American exceptionalism, right here.  Columbus was and is lionized as a great hero throughout the West, and particularly here...the Enlightenment was not yet a thing, and in any case social innovations seldom follow empires to their periphery.

PDF download of People's History

For those of you who do NOT have a paper copy, or would just prefer to read it on a phone or tablet:

PDF Version of The People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn

...can be read or downloaded from the link above.  This is the first edition, from 1980; nice thing about history is...beyond recent archeological and anthropological revelations, the important parts of the book for our purposes probably haven't changed much in recent editions.

Zinn's inheritors would probably appreciate the money, so...if you CAN afford it, buy a new copy of the latest edition of the book eventually, even if you want the digital version to read.

The DSA "Book Club" met on 19 Mar at 6:30 pm. This is the first of a series of gatherings to read and discuss the Howard Zinn book, A People's History of the United States, 1492 - Present. Tonight's four attendees decided on the following logistics for future "book club" (I don't know what else to call it at present) gatherings.  -- Paul

• The "book club" will gather regularly twice per month on the first and third Wednesday of the month. So the next meeting occurs on 3 April.
• Gatherings begin at 6:30 pm and end at 8 pm.That is, they run 90 minutes in duration.
• The "book club" will gather at George and Dro's house (707 NW 10) unless otherwise noted.
• The "book club" anticipates reading and discussing one chapter of Zinn per gathering (two chapters per month).
• While there is no formal plan to provide refreshments at the gatherings, don't let hunger prevent you from participating. Feel free to bring something to eat if you do not have time to eat prior to gathering. 
• The "book club" will be setting up a separate blog on Blogger.com devoted exclusively to the "book club".
• Invite friends to join the "book club".
• All of the above logistics are subject to change to make the experience as meaningful and accommodating as possible to participants.