“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work, reporting or approval of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com.
Omens of Oppression and Resistance in the New Year
A perspective from Chris Mayfield
This new year was barely underway when we awoke to the news that the US government has once again invaded another sovereign nation, and kidnapped its president. I see this news as mostly a horrifying replay of many other US invasions—especially of Iraq and Libya—but with an interesting new openness of intent. Visible already, too, are the effects of the grossly bloated military budget, and consequent budget cuts elsewhere, on North Carolinians. We have seen protests both against the cuts and against this specific invasion this weekend in towns and cities across NC.
Trump’s attack on Venezuela is remarkable for its candid focus on seizing Venezuelan oil. Although Trump and Marco Rubio are employing the fig leaf excuse of this being a “law enforcement operation “ to bring Maduro and his wife to the US to face charges of “narcoterrorism,” Trump’s main focus during Saturday’s press conference was on the oil: “We’re going to be taking a tremendous amount of oil out of the ground. . . .we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to.”
This statement echoes claims made by President George W. Bush about the Iraq invasion: that the oil produced in Iraq would pay for the intervention. We have all seen how the Bush plan worked out: hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, thousands of dead and wounded US soldiers, a fractured Iraq, and the rise of ISIS.
The chaos and death that US intervention has caused in multiple nations since World War II (along with our funding of the genocide in Gaza), and the threats that Trump and Rubio are issuing to several other nations—all are igniting fear and anger across the globe.
It’s certainly true that many Venezuelans both in and out of that country have been dissatisfied with the Maduro government. While corruption and repression have been documented, many studies have also shown the devastating effects of US sanctions on the Venezuelan economy, and the major hardships these have caused. But even assuming that the allegations of corruption and repression are accurate, we obviously see these in many other countries around the world—including our own.
How does this invasion—in the context of the trillion-dollar Pentagon budget—affect us here in NC? To fund the Pentagon, cuts were made elsewhere. Starting this month, almost a million Tar Heels will see their monthly health care costs rise 149% on average, and 36,000 people look likely to lose health care altogether, due to rising ACÁ costs and cuts in Medicaid. Meanwhile, Trump has frozen all federal child care funding to all 50 states; clearly, this will impact thousands of families and child care providers across the state. And on New Year’s Eve, the Trump administration made large abrupt cuts to core staffers in regional FEMA offices throughout the country. This can’t be good news for western NC, still working to recover from Hurricane Helene.
Signs of hope and resistance are also strengthening. One is the remarkable response in communities across the state to the heightened incursions by ICE and the Border Patrol. Neighborhoods, schools and community groups organized quickly and effectively to support vulnerable families—from spreading accurate information to documenting abuse to helping children get safely to and from school.
Regular protests have also emerged in our communities—sometimes under the “No Kings”/Indivisible umbrella but often more spontaneously in town squares and centers. In Pittsboro, for example, protests on Saturdays (at 11:00) have grown from two or three people in the dead of summer to sometimes 40-50 recently.
This past Saturday, while Trump was giving his press conference, some twenty or so of us gathered in 40-degree drizzle. In addition to the signs advocating for our national parks, free speech, a nation of immigrants, public school funding and universal health care, many signs focused for the first time on foreign policy as well, demanding an end to wars and especially to this invasion of Venezuela. These garnered positive honks and thumbs up from many—though not all—of the passing motorists. While our government so far seems determined and able to ignore our concerns, we still are able to communicate with each other. That strength is something worth building on.
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
