Progressives undoubtedly hoped they’d have an ally in President Hillary Clinton — even if she wasn’t far enough left for many of them. Instead, with Donald Trump, progressives will face a president who is apathetic at best and hostile at worst to their causes and concerns.
The initial signs aren’t good. President-elect Trump appointed Myron Ebell, an outspoken skeptic of climate change, to oversee the transition of the Environmental Protection Agency. And you can probably wave goodbye to the Affordable Care Act.
Locally, some activists say they are worried, but they’re not giving up. They need reassurance that their state and local officials, as well as the community, will fight with them, they say. And you can still lobby state and local governments for progressive policies and causes.
Rochesterians can push City Council to pass its recently released Climate Action Plan, for example, and they can display a Gay Pride flag to show solidarity with the LGBTQ community. Stay vigilant and make sure that hate and abuse are challenged, says Scott Fearing, executive director of the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley.
“Everything he has been saying is negative — there’s nothing positive about him,” says Ayan Abdi, job/career placement assistant at Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services, about Trump. “That scares you, especially when that person is elected to be president.”
The refugee community needs to hear that elected officials and the broader Rochester community have its back, she says.
Many opportunities exist locally for people to keep the work going to advance progressive causes. If your organization is missing from the following list, you can email your group’s name, contact information, and a brief description to themail@rochester-citynews.com. We’ll add it to the list, which will be kept up on this site.
Action for a Better Community, www.abcinfo.org
AAUW Greater Rochester Area Branch, rochester-ny.aauw.net/
BLACK, www.facebook.com/BLACKlife585/
Black Lives Matter Upstate New York, www.facebook.com/BLMUpstateNY/
Center for Disability Rights, http://www.cdrnys.org/
Christians Witnessing for Palestine, cw4p.org
Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Rochester chapter, http://citizensclimatelobby.org/chapters/NY_Rochester/
Enough is Enough (police brutality), www.facebook.com/enoughisenoughROC/
Facing Race, Embracing Equity, www.facebook.com/FacingRaceEmbracingEquity/
Flying Squirrel Community Space (activist space), www.thesquirrel.org
Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley, www.gayalliance.org
Genesee River Watch, www.geneseeriverwatch.org
Greater Rochester Coalition for Immigration Justice, https://www.facebook.com/GRCIJ/
Green Party of Monroe County, www.greenrochester.org
Ibero-American Action League (Latino-Hispanic advocacy), www.iaal.org
Interfaith IMPACT of New York State, http://www.interfaithimpactnys.org/
Islamic Center of Rochester, www.theicr.org
Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, jewishrochester.org
Judicial Process Commission (criminal and social justice), www.facebook.com/Judicial-Process-Commission-JPC-118090944937992/
La Cumbre (Latino-Hispanic advocacy), www.roclacumbre.com
Metro Justice (social and economic justice), www.metrojustice.org
Monroe County Young Democrats, https://www.facebook.com/monroeyoungdems/
Mothers Out Front (environment), www.mothersoutfront.org
M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, www.gandhiinstitute.org
National Coalition Building Institute, http://ncbi.org/
Occupy Rochester, www.facebook.com/groups/OccupyRochester/
Planned Parenthood, www.plannedparenthood.org
Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York, www.ppcwny.org
ROCitizen, www.rocitizen.org
Rochester Area QUeer Empowerment Together, https://www.facebook.com/events/733733940108558
Rochester Free Radio, http://www.rochesterfreeradio.com/
Rochester and Genesee Valley NYCLU, www.nyclu.org/gv
Rochester Intersectional Anti-Fascist Network, https://www.facebook.com/Rochester-Intersectional-Anti-Fascist-Network-190384684753280/
Rochester NOW, www.rochesternow.org
Rochester Pachamama Alliance, https://www.pachamama.org/
Rochester People’s Climate Coalition, www.rochesterclimateaction.org
Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services, www.rochesterrefugeenetwork.org
Rochester Street Medic Collective, https://www.facebook.com/RocStreetMedics/?ref=nf
Rochester Youth Means Change, https://www.facebook.com/Rochesters-Youth-Means-Change-341589243490/
Sierra Club (environment), www.sierraclub.org/atlantic/rochester
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Rochester, www.showingupforracialjustice.org
Sojourner House, www.sojournerhouse.org
Susan B. Anthony Center at University of Rochester, www.rochester.edu/sba/
Sweet Beez (advocacy for honeybees, climate change, renewables advocacy), www.sweetbeez.org
Take Back the Land (housing for all), www.facebook.com/TakeBackRoc/
Urban League of Rochester, www.ulr.org
Volunteer Legal Services Project of Monroe County, Inc., vlsprochester.org
Wilson Commencement Park, www.wilsoncommencementpark.com
Workers Justice Center of New York (advocacy for farmworkers), www.wjcny.org
Working Families Party, www.facebook.com/rochesterworkingfamilies/
YWCA (racial equity programs), www.ywca.org
This article appears in Nov 9-15, 2016.
I seem to recall a text at the Terra Cotta Warior exhibit at the ROM in Toronto which stated the future Emperor was advised to use fear rather than love to unite the war lords into a country because fear was a stronger emotion than love.
So, Ayan Abdi, job/career placement assistant at Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services is scared. This is not 9/11, quit being scared, quit acting like this is some kind of disaster. It isn’t that. There are a lot of scarier things in this world, Ayan.
William…walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.
Perception is reality.
Could you add Greater Rochester Libertarian Party to the list? I see you have the Green Party.
http://rochesterlp.net/
DCole37: Thanks for the inquiry, but we’ve decided against adding the Libertarians; the Libertarian philosophy isn’t a progressive one. We’ve included the GOP because we’d like to see some progressive reforms within.
Most typical voter has already gone into political hibernation–meaning they voted and now they are done. Democrats did the same thing when President Obama was elected. They let him have 8 years without interference. Because they assumed he would always do the,right thing. But President Obama went off course, in many ways because his supporters did not speak up–the drone strikes is one example; the need to fix and improve Obamacare is another.
Now is the time to be writing your representatives. They need to know, in more detail, where you stand on the, issues, important to you. And since President elect Trump is asking for your story, please take some time and write to him. https://www.greatagain.gov It’s like the, lottery…hey, you never know.