The People’s Resolution
An ongoing project created by People in Virginia. www.iceoutofva.org
We, The People of Virginia,
Understanding that the General Assembly is an institution created by white supremacist patriarchs and has been a seat of power and inequality for more than 400 years;
In a Commonwealth first seized in 1607 by European colonizers through the genocide and forced removal of people indigenous to this land;
Having committed tremendous violence while perpetuating vast inequity held firmly in the death-grip of Capitalism that commodifies human bodies and insists on profit over people;
Whereas, slavery and land theft via Indigenous genocide along with their modern-day relatives of racism, segregation, criminalization of Black and Brown bodies, nationalism, xenophobia, sexism, transphobia and homophobia were present during the inception of the GA and are still Now Immoral practices of dehumanization brought into these continents through violence by colonizers;
Whereas, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continue to assimilate to the GA culture dubbed “the Virginia way” refusing to name and oppose racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, or islamophobia;
Whereas those same lawmakers, descendants of colonizers and slaveholders, invoke the “Virginia Way” in the same breath as Southern Hospitality and “Christian Principles” fail to show a hospitable, welcoming environment to people whom are descendants of this continent’s original inhabitants seeking a new life in Virginia;
Whereas We The People recognize that these words and many others are coded, steeped in respectability politics and are a relic of Virginia’s antebellum past;
Whereas the very constitution written by patriarchal figures of the past completely erases women, trans women, femme presenting people and any person outside the gender binary as well as consenting adults of different sexual orientations and non-traditional relationship agreements;
Whereas to this day lawmakers deny equal pay and equal rights to all people who are not cisgender men;
Whereas legislators in 2019 continue to make statements that are explicitly Islamophobic and Anti Semitic both inside and outside the Capitol building while championing legislation which limits the rights of Believers of all Faiths in the State of Virginia;
Whereas lawmakers cite their own religious beliefs to push a Christian supremacist agenda such as limiting religious education in public schools to study of the Christian Scriptures;
Whereas our state, also known as the Mother State, gives parents — Especially Black and Brown womxn — the least access and opportunity for education, housing, health care, bodily autonomy,
equal representation and protections under the law in the Commonwealth of Virginia;
Whereas Virginia’s children are targeted by the school to prison pipeline, racist and nationalist terrorism, and a whitewashed history that romanticizes the generational trauma of minority students; parents in Virginia live in fear of the school to prison pipeline, white terrorism on school grounds and public spaces;
Whereas all children of Virginia suffer when their parents are targeted and living in fear of agencies like and including ICE and overall the for profit carceral system, which is in desperate need of reform through the lense of restorative justice.
Whereas the Virginia legislature voted to support a resolution commending ICE even going as far as comparing ICE agents to US Marshalls, a post created long ago as a way to persecute, detain and return Human Beings to their cruel and violent captors. These lawmakers fail to see that these uninformed, reactionary racist resolutions and praise for dehumanizing practices of kidnapping and jailing people only hurt all Virginians and our families.
Whereas Virginia legislators who are supposed to represent their constituents consistently turn a blind eye to the most vulnerable people in their districts.
Whereas our elected Governor upon revelation of his own racist past refuses to process accountability and step down from office. Ignoring calls from both political parties, organizations, faith leaders and most importantly The People of Virginia to resign the office which The People gave him.
Whereas our Lt. Governor, when confronted with sexual assault accusations, has chosen to hide behind lawsuits instead of taking time for reflection and real accountability in action in the era of Tarana Burke’s ME TOO movement; and by his actions has created deep mistrust and even re-traumatized survivors of sexual violence all over the Nation;
Whereas both the Governor and Lt. Governor’s decisions to Ignore The People of Virginia as we call for truth, resignation from public office, and self-reflection outside of public office shows a lack of moral fiber which is of utmost importance for those who hold statewide office;
Whereas the Governor and Lt. Governor’s refusal to step down has cast a deep pall of suspicion and mistrust over the entire Democratic Party of Virginia;
Whereas we recognize AG Mark Herring did the right thing in coming forth with his own admission of guilt but Not taking away from the fact that his actions were the wrong thing we demand that his time served before stepping aside is used to undo all oppressive laws within his power.
Whereas these practices prevent all people from truly pursuing life, liberty and happiness whilst tromping all over inherent human rights;
We the People hereby Resolve, that we will bring the most disenfranchised, marginalized and criminalized voices into the halls of power;
We demand legislators to learn to hear, listen and speak the language The People rather than expecting us, The People to speak the language of our oppressor a coded language which hides violence with decorum.
We Resolve to be in solidarity with people seeking their liberation as we believe that our liberation is bound together. We resolve to leverage our privilege and power to uplift our Virginia Siblings.
We resolve to, through unity, hope and love for community, lock arms to create a force that will push out all tyrants, be they elected, appointed, cop or klan.
These disparities disproportionately affect single parent and working class households and put Virginian children at risk.
Be it resolved that Virginia public schools will no longer engage in white washing and
romanticizing the parts of our history which need to be analyzed so that the practices of inequality are abolished altogether.
We resolve that corporate interests have no place in government that is purported to be “by the people, for the people”;
Be it resolved that Dominion be immediately and forcibly removed from lands occupied by this continent’s original inhabitants, in particular that the compressor station slated for Union Hill be canceled immediately and both the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coastal Pipelines discontinued;
Be it resolved that state funding be appropriated toward coastal residents — not corporations — facing increasing hardships due to climate change;
Be it resolved that the Commonwealth of Virginia shall establish a new renewable energy agency, fully funded by the commonwealth, for the use and benefit of all Virginia residents;
Be it resolved that the Commonwealth of Virginia shall hereby establish a process for popular referendums regarding important policy issues including but not limited to minimum wage and worker rights;
Be it resolved that we the people establish to define ICE as rogue federal agency that exists for the sole purpose of hunting, imprisoning, and disappearing members of our communities and terrorizes their constituents in all parts of the commonwealth and seek the State of Virginia to be Sanctuary for
We the people demand the private prison system, the grilletes and imposition on Virginians by ICE to end in Virginia. We demand police accountability and transparency and full reform.
We demand to end bail and pretrial services practices.
We demand mass clemency and the immediate restoration of rights, the parole program re-instituted.
We demand legalization of cannabis and mass release of people convicted as a result of a failed, predatory policy of the past, created to imprison people through drug-related convictions.
We demand access to society for all residents of Virginia;
We demand free instate tuition to public institutions for all students residing in the Commonwealth of Virginia, regardless of federal immigration status;
We demand driver’s licenses and safe roads for all Virginia drivers regardless of federal immigration status;
We demand affordable, accessible, quality housing and an end to homelessness in Virginia;
We demand free admissions to institutions of the arts and education for all people who have been barred from these institutions at any time since 1492;
We demand accurate historical accounts at all Virginia historical sites drafted by committees with fair representation of all populations involved in said historical moments, repudiating the romanticization of the horrors of genocide and chattel slavery and whitewashing violence.
We demand state level funding for localities to rename major highways and schools to non white supremacists, we demand to take down all monuments built to honor Colonizers and Confederate traitors and instead, give The People of Virginia, many of whom are artists, an opportunity to create change together and recognize our own greatness.
Through this resolution,
Understanding that This institution must be dismantled: those elected officials that hide behind the power given to them by our People, and those whom have broken the trust of the Community of the Commonwealth will be swiftly replaced with elected officials that truly represent and serve all the People of Virginia.
We demand Sanctuary for ALL. Freedom for ALL. Liberation for ALL.
Thus always to tyrants,
We The People put every single legislator that seeks to oppress even One person in the state of Virginia on notice: Learn the language of the people or be cussed out of office.
As expressed by our First Nations Sister Vanessa Bolin,
“Dump your closets now or we will dump them for you.”
