we have the power!
So, yeah, as I expected last year, a lot of fucked-up shit is happening.
Even though I even remember that “temporary hardship” was an explicit campaign promise of the shadow president—I low-key freaked out when that promise was made—I nevertheless can’t say I expected this particular fucked-up shit, nor that it would be quite this fucked up.
But, here we are.
As an educator and librarian, I am committed to open knowledge: the understanding that knowledge is a public good, to be produced and shared openly. In fact, much of my writing here—about looking at art, definitions of the novel, Don Quixote, and so on—arises from this commitment.
Among the many things the government of the United States does is produce knowledge, much of which is shared openly. The health information put out by the CDC, statistics collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Census Bureau, discoveries by NASA about supernovas, Mars, the Sun, the Moon—all of this, and more, belongs to us. Much of it is in the public domain, which knows no borders, so this “us” really is everyone. Meanwhile, the current administration is doing its best to hide, steal, or destroy it all.
Creating and sharing knowledge openly is one way to fight back. For example, on Bluesky recently, Mariame Kaba suggested that people could make informative zines to distribute at protests and elsewhere. This, I can do! Given that not enough people truly understand what is going on right now, I wanted to make a zine explaining that the power of the purse belongs to Congress, not to the President and certainly not to any rando billionaires he chooses to empower. But my attempts to make that zine brought me back to the foundational principle, popular sovereignty. And so I began there.
We Have the Power, No. 1
The file below is a PDF that you can download, print (choose “Actual size” or the equivalent when printing), fold into a small 8-page zine, and distribute.
I’m pleased with my beginner’s effort.
More to come!
Long description of the zine for the visually impaired:
cover: We Have the Power! The “We” is an image from the Constitution of the United States.
pages 1–2: The first three words of the Constitution of the United States are “We the People.” The “We the People” is an image from the Constitution.
pages 3–4: This means that the entire Constitution is based on the power of “We the people.” Image: a diverse group of smiling people gathered together
page 5: The Constitution belongs to us. Not to judges and lawyers. And certainly not to the president, who is trying to ignore it anyway.
page 6: It’s time to stand up and fight for our government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Get organized. Speak out. Join with other people to protest. Call, write to, or meet with your Congressfolks—they represent you! Know your rights. Share your knowledge. We’re in this fight together.
back cover: Democracy doesn’t end in the voting booth. It begins with us. “We Have the Power” No 1. by Rae, licensed CC BY-NC 4.0
