Words vs Actions
I’ve pulled together some examples of governmental figures/municipalities saying words that seem supportive but actually practicing violent & oppressive actions. I hope you can see the connections between these examples. There’s a lesson in here about distrusting liberal/progressive words of support that often are obscuring actions that are contributing to our worsening apocalypses.
1. At the end of June, I received a grass & weeds correction notice for my front, side, & back yards, which have grown into an abundant native prairie that hosts a wide variety of beings who I consider to be my precious non-human neighbors. The notice stated that if I did not mow my yard to less than 8 inches, the city would hire contractors to mow it & then charge me the contractor fee.
If you’d like more context about the prairie & a beautiful perspective on our responsibility to protect the land & each other, please check out People Live Here by my friend Morgan.
I knew I had to try & prevent the mowing, since my yard was intentionally planted & people (non-human) were already living there! As I searched for anything that could support this fight, I came across the City of Lansing Sustainability Action Plan published in 2022.
“Objective 5.3: Invest in and incentivize neighborhood features that minimize environmental impact
Encourage a reduction in traditional, non-native, grass-only lawns, and encourage and incentivize lawns that feature native plants, food-producing and biodiverse gardens, and tree planting
Provide education for residents willing to replace their grass and/or create rain gardens, amending ordinance if necessary
Prioritize widespread pollinator habitat planting and protection
Establish native species planting guidelines”
The City published this visionary statement, but in practice, the action plan sat on a shelf for 3 years while the Code Enforcement Office continued their long time practice of mowing down residents’ gardens & yards when they didn’t comply with the strict landscaping ordinances, then charging residents the cost of hiring contractors to mow.
This happens all the time with all kinds of progressive changes that are needed to create a different world - governments do the research, publish the statement, & then do not follow up with the needed actions to implement or enforce the change, unless someone decides to be a squeaky wheel.
In this case, I decided to become the squeaky wheel, & so far I have been successful in saving my own yard from mowing & convincing city officials to finally draft new ordinance language to align with the sustainability plan.
2. Lansing Weaponizing the Courts to Sweep Dietrich Park by Khadja Erickson from the Mid-Michigan Tenant Resource Center:
“The City of Lansing has filed a lawsuit against 2 small businesses near Dietrich Park because unhoused residents have dared to survive near or on their properties.”
“Here’s what makes this beyond outrageous: Lansing has publicly acknowledged the need for a sanctioned encampment & even explored how it could work. They approved permits for the Mobile Health Unit to do outreach at this exact encampment. City officials have admitted there are not enough accessible shelter beds. Lansing has spent taxpayer dollars on research & reports that recommend real solutions. Mayor Andy Schor himself has expressed support for a Homeless Bill of Rights, even trying to get buy-in from other cities.”
“They’ve said all the right words. They’ve held the meetings. They’ve done the research. & THIS is the solution they came up with? A lawsuit that weaponizes the courts to erase people, to make them someone else’s problem, while the city washes its hands & calls it progress. This isn’t just paperwork. It’s a blueprint for future sweeps.”
“If Lansing wins this case, they will have a legal roadmap to clear every encampment in the city by forcing private businesses to do their dirty work. Every time they do it, unhoused residents will lose what little stability they have left. What does it mean when a city says the right things in public but uses the courts to do the opposite?”
“This is about more than Dietrich Park. It’s about whether we let Lansing set a precedent that survival itself is a crime. Where are you allowed to exist? Displacement is not a solution. Housing is.”
“Share these demands: Drop the lawsuit, implement a sanctioned encampment the city already acknowledges is needed, actually invest in accessible shelter & housing options. Show up 8/13/25 at 2:00 pm at Veterans Memorial Courthouse, Courtroom 5 to stand with the residents of Dietrich Encampment.”
Lansing residents, I encourage you to email City Council in support of the demands: city.council@lansingmi.gov
3. In a sort of reversal of this same theme, this week we’ve reached the point in the latest escalation of the genocide in Palestine that more Democrats & liberal celebrities/influencers are finally speaking up because the atrocity has escalated to the point that over 2 million people in Gaza will imminently die of starvation. It’s challenging to see politicians who have directly funded & supported the genocide sharing words of support when they have actively contributed to the suffering.
EVN the Bioethicist posted a video perfectly illustrating the theme by replying to Cory Booker’s concerns about the effects of poverty & malnutrition on children, while calling him out as a politician who has supported the funding of Israel’s oppression & starvation of children in Palestine.
“Genocide is only bad in hindsight. The powers that be won’t do anything until they’re forced to apologize years later. It isn’t until people can’t deny what they’re looking at any longer that people start to have any kind of morality about what they participated in.” - _madiswan_ on Tiktok
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
His viral tweet in Oct 2023: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.”
“The narrative – as enshrined in countless constitutions & declarations and charters which are so often held up as the differentiating marker of superiority of this world over the other – demands moral purity, opposition to injustice, adherence to the principle that all innocent lives are equal & deserving of dignity. The reality is that an ally of the west is killing civilians by the tens of thousands & it would be politically inconvenient to call this wrong now when for months, years, decades it has been deemed perfectly fine.”
Click here to donate to The Sameer Project & offer aid to people in Gaza
An extremely simplified but useful description of this pattern