Beware This Silencing Tactic

"You ain't from around here." Remember that line from the movies, and in some cases, real life? It's being used to silence folks. Please don't fall for it!

Mason, Tennessee, just approved opening a concentration camp. The newest “Alligator Alcatraz” is happening there. I was listening to Tennessee Brando about the vote, as he was there, and caught wind of a silencing tactic that I’ve seen before: the old “you ain’t from around here” chat. The mayor of the city, who also happens to be an immigrant, was shouting at the people in the meeting, accusing them of not being from Mason (though they were mainly from the state at least), and therefore didn’t have a voice needing to be heard, because they wouldn’t be the ones hosting the concentration camp.

I heard the same argument used by Abbott in Texas, telling people to stay out of Texas politics, regarding the Democrats who broke quorum. I’ve heard it said about DC as well. It’s an oft-used silencing tactic, but here’s why it should be ignored in all of these cases, and everything political. I’ll use Mason as an example.

First, the stakeholders in political choices are never just the residents of that locality. Take Mason, a small town with a population of around 1304 or so, smaller than the town that I grew up in, which I call “the middle of nowhere,” so no offense, but this town is tiny. So for the people in the city, a prison is a job engine. It was the case before the prison was closed down, and so opening it up would provide a few jobs, which in a town that small, is a pretty big deal! However, my tax dollars go into the federal bucket, and this federal bucket is proposing having ICE run the center and use it as a concentration camp.

I don’t want my tax dollars used for that. I’m already funding Alligator Alcatraz, and I like that one closed. Why would I want to spend more money on another concentration camp?

I don’t. From that perspective alone, I already have an interest in this small town in Tennessee, as my federal dollars will be paying for that prison. It’s a different thing for the prison to reopen and potentially be used for something else, other than a concentration camp. But that’s not what’s happening, and so I have a stake. But also, I have a stake because I might be sent to this place.

Not exaggerating here.

When people are being stolen away in unmarked cars without due process of law, literally anyone can end up in any of these concentration camps. So it’s in all of our best interests not to have any concentration camps at all. So now I’ve got two reasons to care.

The similar argument for politics in Texas is obvious: we all have a vested interest in how the redistricting happens because it’s not just local politicians being elected due to the maps they’re trying to draw. The abuse of power we’re witnessing in DC is a problem for all of us because it’s just the first of many such abuses, and allowing such a thing to happen paves the way for similar violations, like what’s happening in LA, for example, across this nation.

There’s also this general rule: states, towns, and localities are lines on paper. No matter how much Texas may want to believe they are special, the truth is that people enter and leave the state all the time. So even local decisions, such as making abortion illegal, influence other states around Texas as they must absorb the people fleeing Texas to get abortions or even to get prenatal care, since Planned Parenthood has all but shut down in the state, and since an abortive procedure might be necessary to save a woman’s life. Therefore, it’s better to be pregnant somewhere else, and Texas citizens aren’t as stupid as the government seems to think.

All of the above to say there’s no such thing as a strictly local issue. We’re all part of the same community, and the lines separating us are pencil-thin. The same extends to the world. What happens in the United States has a global impact. So the voices and opinions of other world leaders, like the Canadian Prime Minister or the President of Mexico, matter as they are stakeholders in decisions in the United States as well, and our opinions and thoughts should matter to them as well.

So if someone tries that silencing tactic on you, blow right through it and ignore them. You have a right to speak on any issue, anywhere in the world, and to protest it, and to take your truth to the powerful in any locality. You do not have to be “from around here” to be heard. Understand that and internalize it.