Poster by Shephard Fairey / ObeyGiant.com via Amplifier Foundation
This thoughtful post was written by my friend Arne Bakker who works at Stanford. He allowed me to post it here. Pleuni
So, I spent part of my night listening to legal experts of the Stanford Law School discussing the impact of 3 recent executive orders by President Trump. It was pretty impressive, with some of the top legal scholars of the country being present. I learned about Executive Order #1 (by Lincoln), and about an Executive Order actually describing what an Executive Order is (Chicken, meet Egg). And I learned a lot about how these orders are affecting thousands of people inside and outside the US, which brought tears to our eyes and fear in our hearts.
But I also learned from these pretty amazing people what they think we can (and should) do:
***First, there was the positive reminder that after 9/11 the courts allowed many laws impacting civil liberties to pass because of broad ‘national security’ concerns, but that today it looks like the courts are actually resisting the policy changes from the Trump administration. Keeping my fingers crossed for that one.
***Second, there was the heartfelt plea to not just rely on the courts, but to continue calling your representatives to resist these policies and remain active and vocal in your protests. It actually works, people! These top legal experts attributed the recent changes in allowing permanent residents to enter the country and backtracking on some other provisions purely to the quick and vocal response of thousands of people after the Executive Orders went into effect less than a week ago.
***Third, they cautioned for protest fatigue. There is a real agenda for controlling the news cycle with new shock after new shock to wear us out. As someone said, don’t fall for forgetting yesterday’s news because of today’s new shocker. Think hard about what issue you deeply care about and keep track of it, even when the news cycle has moved on. Keep reminding people, give them updates on policy changes, victories and losses where you can. And don’t be upset if someone else knows less about ‘your thing’ and is vocal about a different issue that they care deeply about. Learn from them, since they will keep track of those issues and can share their knowledge with you.
If you are interested to read more on the travel ban by Stanford professors, see here: https://law.stanford.edu/2017/02/01/the-new-travel-ban-national-security-and-immigration/
Being A Better Scientist 