Choose Your Fighter!

We'll see you next Tuesday.

Well, Secular Fam, we are one week out from this 2024 Election Day, and I can not WAIT to see you next Tuesday at the polls with your charisma, uniqueness, nerve, AND talent. 

All of our hard work is (hopefully) about to pay off, and there’s a really good chance we won’t have definitive answers until several days after Election Day. If you don’t have a plan to keep your sanity in the subsequent days after November 5th, you should probably develop one. 

My political focus is solidly on school board, countywide, and legislative races, but there is no escaping the national circus of the 2024 Presidential Election. I’ve been lucky this month to have two political tourists as guests in my townhouse in the ‘Slope. They both came from progressive states to lend a helping hand in Arizona, and hearing them talk about their own states’ political systems and processes had me feeling a certain type of way. 

Like, their signature-gathering isn’t complicated. Their state legislatures and assemblies have not actively worked to destroy democracy or make it difficult to put ballot initiatives in front of voters. It’s wild! It’s almost like, when extremists aren’t running things, democracy and voter input become priorities. 

I’m guessing most of you who read this Substack are aware of Arizona’s political makeup, but in case you’re not, Arizona’s legislature has been controlled by the Republican Party (for the most part) since 1966. Take a look at the Wikipedia page about Arizona’s political party strength over the years. With a few isolated exceptions (Janet Napolitano, Terry Goddard, Carolyn Warner), Arizona has largely been controlled by the GOP for decades. 

If you’re unsure about how our state has become dead last in the nation in public education for several many years, look no further than state leadership. In the 1990s, Governor Fife Symington, approved the establishment of charter schools, and the rest is history. Now, Save Our Schools Arizona leader, Beth Lewis, travels the country warning other states NOT to follow Arizona’s lead when it comes to school privatization measures.

I didn’t get involved in local politics until about 2008, so I’ve never witnessed what a bipartisan, collaborative state legislature can do. I’m hopeful that we may see a shift in power in our state government. I see how hard folks are working in these “purple” districts, but Lucy Van Pelt has wrenched that football away from me so many times, I’ll wait until the very last vote is counted before I celebrate. 

I really believe that reason and compassion will prevail this cycle, but jeremyfckingchrist, if these sycophants don’t make finding hope difficult. I try to avoid coverage of the hate rallies happening throughout the country, but the full-on Nazi rally that took place on October 27, 2024 at Madison Square Garden (MSG) in New York City should snap all of us to attention. 

In case you’re not a history buff like me, this rally was a nod to white supremacy and fascism. The choice in venue, speakers, and tone was intentional. The event was modeled after another rally that took place at MSG in 1939. Fascism was on the rise throughout the world, and a pro-Nazi party wanted to bring it to the US.

Here we are, 85 years later, and a bunch of racists, xenophobes, and bigots gathered again in the Big Apple to let their fascist freak flags fly. 

There was a racist there, posing as a comedian, and all of his “jokes” reminded me of the bullies I had in class when I was a teacher who, when attacking their victims with hateful vitriol, would say, “I was just joking, Ms. Casteen.” 

But bullying, bigotry, and racism just aren’t funny.

So all these calls to just “agree to disagree” fall on deaf ears with this Secular Activist Lady™.

When I attend school board meetings and hear people refer to trans students as “boys pretending to be girls” or attend trainings that assert that schools are “trans-ing our kids” I don’t like you, and I won’t pretend that you’re anything less than a monster. 

I won’t stop at not pretending. I’ll actively call you out. And the rest of us should too. I cannot predict what this election will bring, but it’s high time that bigoted vitriol is called out whenever it happens. 

It’s easy for me to say this from behind a computer screen, but it’s much harder to do it in-person, and in real-time. My hope is that reasonable candidates will win their races, and in the next generation or two, we get back to the idea of promoting the Common Good. Those (rational candidates) who win their races this year, from school board to legislature to congress, need to call out hate speech whenever they hear it. 

Because the extremists have boldly used hate speech in their campaigns, speeches, websites, board updates, etc., it seems to have become normalized to the general public, and that is a DANGEROUS place we find ourselves. 

Did anyone see the CNN clip of 1776 Project PAC founder, Ryan Girdusky, making a racist “joke,” directed at Mehdi Hasan, about exploding pagers. Gross, right

What’s even grosser is the fact that countless school board members across the state have received the 1776 PAC endorsement, including the three Peoria (PUSD) candidates above: Becky Proudfit, Janelle Bowles, and Jeff Tobey. 

Since these religious zealots show no signs of stopping their hate speech, it’s up to the rest of us to call it out. If you’re an elected official, you should use your time at the dais to dispel mis/disinformation, either immediately after the hate speech occurs or during your board reports. You can also go to your social media channels and websites to highlight and dispel hate speech.

If you’re a member of the public and you hear hate speech, you have a few options: 1) if you’re at the meeting and public comments can still be made, call these mahfckers out.

You may have the perfect 1-5 minute speech prepared, and public speaking may not be your strong suit, but if you feel so moved AND agile with your words, quote and respond to the hate speech as it occurs. 

2) if you’re NOT at the meeting, you can go to your social media channels and quote and respond to these fascists using virtual means (that’s kinda the vibe of this Substack). 

When I canvassed in 2022, I met a lovely woman who lives in the Moon Valley area of Maricopa County, and she shared her experience as a German-American whose parents migrated to the US to flee the Nazis. Her late husband was a Russian immigrant who fled the Soviet Union after WWII, and he died in the late 20th century. She shared some war stories (literally), and she was ADAMANT that EVERYONE must call out fascism whenever they see it. 

She shared that as a lifelong Republican, she was voting a straight Democratic ticket, and couldn’t remember the last Republican she voted for. Here at Secular AZ, we’re nonpartisan, but holy (no pun intended) cow, Secular Fam, when the elders from fascist countries counsel me? 

I listen. 

We have a week to change the course of history, and make it better for future generations. 

Yesterday, I canvassed my neighborhood using the “Neighbor 2 Neighbor” Project from Indivisible. This is a very safe introduction to the wonderful world of door-knocking where folks who sign up will receive a list of their actual neighbors who lean progressive. It was awesome, and I had very different discussions with these folks than I normally do. We mostly discuss our dogs, missing delivery packages, and the “problem” neighbors who are always loud after dark. But now when I see them, we’ll likely have deeper conversations and I’ll feel safe discussing current events. 

ONE MORE WEEK, SECULAR FAM! We can do this thing! I am hopeful that in one week, we’ll be celebrating a resounding rejection of fascism and authoritarian patriarchal theocracy. And whether we end up celebrating or commiserating, this election cycle (and the last couple of decades, for that matter) has hopefully taught us all a lesson: Democracy is not a spectator sport. Even after the dust settles, we must commit to engaging in our school boards, city councils, and state legislature.

Keep on keeping on, and as always, support the work we do at Secular AZ today.