Questions to ask yourself

As we move into the dog days of summer, take a break before election season revs up again. Relax on the hammock with a cold drink, and feel free to mull over some questions that have been puzzling me recently.

Where has the money gone?

If you need one more thing to keep you up at night in 2020, I strongly recommend the HBO documentary “Kill chain: The cyber war on America’s elections,” now free on YouTube.

You will learn just how vulnerable our election infrastructure is and how unencrypted files, carelessness around data and inferior hardware open us up to criminality with the potential to manipulate history. The machines most at risk happen to be those used by 84% of New York state’s election districts.

Congress appropriated millions for election security. Where has that money gone? What is the current plan for New York, and how can it possibly happen in time to matter?

While you’re musing on money ill spent, consider the millions spent so far to update broadband in rural America, including upstate New York. Who got that money, and how was it used? Who allowed your money to be used that way?
What is the real problem?

Instead of freaking out about the (non-ionizing) radiation in RF waves, consider how 5G perpetuates the haves-versus-have-nots structure of our society.

5G technology requires density to succeed. Current transmitters send signals a few hundred feet, meaning that they must be spaced very close together to work properly. Even if 5G comes to rural areas — and it’s hard to imagine that providers will ever see it as worth the investment — it will be far slower than the spectrums available in cities.

Instead of looking only at specific instances of police violence, consider how we over-criminalize human behavior and rely on police for nonpolice actions. When I lived in Manhattan, I called the police when someone broke into my apartment and stole some stuff. That was probably a reasonable (though ultimately useless) call.

People on my block called the police when my dog barked, when a woman fell asleep in a doorway, when a drunk knocked over a trash can and when they needed a ride to the hospital. My daughter likes to point out the 3 million schools nationwide with a police presence but no school nurse.

What really matters?

We wake up daily to a new outrage, but it’s time to ignore distractions and focus on what matters. Boycotting Goya products? Sure, go ahead, but don’t imagine that any harm you cause the owners (who are from Spain, not the Caribbean) improves the lives of Latinx people here.

Maybe you should worry more about the harmful effects of COVID-19 on the Latinx population or the fact that the pandemic led immigration services to suspend naturalization interviews, thereby slashing the number of potential Latinx voters in 2020.

Worry less about Trump’s meandering press conferences and more about the fact that his administration has already successfully ripped up nearly all of the environmental regulations he promised to abolish.

How can I know what’s true?

The chair of our committee listens to right-wing talk radio to understand what other people are thinking. That’s a painful remedy, but he’s not wrong — we all need to get out of our bubbles.

We teach students to find at least two or three disparate sources for each fact in a report. Let’s apply that rigor to our own learning. I will try not to shame you for conspiratorial thinking, but I will at least suggest that you are not looking far enough beyond your own bubble for answers and facts.

If everyone you know or everything you read agrees with you, that’s a problem, not proof.

How should I promote change?

People may want you to choose between activism and politics. If any life proves that to be a false choice, it’s the life of the late John Lewis. His early activism around voting rights was obviously political, and his long political career was buoyed by his activism. Some newer members of Congress continue that tradition, melding direct action with governance to effect change.

Someone posted recently that the protests and Autonomous Zone in Seattle were responsible for a bill to tax Amazon and the plan to cut the Seattle Police Department budget. “Nothing to do with voting!” this person crowed.

Yet all of the Seattle City Council members who support those reforms were voted into office. The reforms may have emerged from direct action, but they will succeed or fail at the political level.

So, attend a protest, but register voters, too. Support a boycott or strike, but consider running for office. All county Legislature offices are up in 2021, as is half of the Common Council and dozens of town and village offices. Look to see which races are happening in your ward or town. You can plan your campaign from the hammock.

Kathy Zahler is the former Director of Communications for the Tompkins County Democratic Committee. See the committee website at www.tcdemocrats.org.