Disenthrallment!

Disenenthrall (transitive verb): to free from bondage; liberate.

Welcome to Citric Acid’s Disenthrallment Issue

I published a comic novella some time back whose heroic female narrator --- a charming, sexy, and unshy adjunct writing instructor --- gently ridicules liberals who promised, threatened or only pretended (!) that they’d move to Canada because of political disappointment here. And this was only the prequel, called The Bush Years: orange alerts, two wars and countless civilian deaths, torture, Hurricane Katrina, civil liberties and human rights violations. Good times.

I hear it again lately, from people who should know better, or perhaps do know better yet need to distract themselves and others from what’s required just now: education, resistance, collaboration, and solidarity.

So I was especially affirmed by the newly revised introduction which veteran journalist Ian Masters provides post-election for his excellent podcast and radio program Background Briefing. It saves this editor having to write a similar manifesto (and fundraising pitch) for Orange County’s unlikeliest online literary arts journal of, you know, imagination and reimagination. So I am stealing it from Masters:

“Rather than escape to Canada for some imaginary sanctuary from MAGA fascism we now must stand our ground and rebuild an opposition movement that will bridge the divide Trump has exploited with false promises to his voters in order to reward his billionaire buddies who have already bought the Supreme Court and are in the process of buying the entire government. Being educated doesn't make you an elitist, and knowledge and opportunity should be shared with those left behind who are our brothers and sisters not our enemies. So Background Briefing’s mission of building-reality based community in post-truth America is now more urgent than ever. And as one of Trump's ‘enemies of the people,’ join me in a struggle between the plutocrats who no longer believe in democracy and the people who have to defend it or see it die.”

Of course, I’m proud to be an enemy of Trumpism, a defender of democracy, and a resident of reality-based Orange County communities. And let me tell you that you haven’t been based in reality until you’ve driven all over Brea tracking down voters whose ballots need curing. That’s right, I joined Seed the Vote to spend a day finding fellow Americans who’d failed to actually sign their Vote-by-Mail ballots, offering them an opportunity to submit an OC Registrar of Voters’ affidavit documenting that, indeed, they’d cast their votes and would affirm so under penalty of law, dated, submitted, all good, Bob’s your uncle. And, yes, Derek Tran won over Michelle Steel!

Meanwhile, after a long day of that, it’s comforting to arrive home and find that your spouse, a fellow writer and political comrade, has done her thing for civics education and anti-Trumpism. The neighbors seem to like the repurposed sign with the Lincoln quote, as do visitors, and the Fed Ex guy, too.

from Lincoln’s Annual Message to Congress, Washington, D.C., December 1, 1862:

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We -- even we here -- hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just -- a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”

Got it?

Meanwhile, thanks to so many who attended, promoted, and joined the staging of “Peter Carr: Artist for Survival” at Cerritos College Art Gallery. Thanks to its director, Professor James MacDevitt, my co-curator and guide. And thanks to the writers, editors and media outfits who helped celebrate the show: editor Tom Zoellner and writer Fiona Shen at the Los Angeles Review of Books, Gabriel San Román at the Daily Pilot/TimesOC, Walker Mimms at The New York Times. And to the generous editors at Alta, ZYZZYVA, Air/Light, and Random Lengths who featured interviews and my own writing. 

This issue features a reliably eclectic survey of art and writing from and about Orange County. It marks the end of our third year of producing an online regional quarterly journal which chronicles, analyzes, and celebrates creative production, civic engagement, triumph and struggle. Special thanks to managing editor Jaime Campbell and to UCI intern Zoha Ahmed. Thanks to Joel Cazares and Alba Pietra of our terrific community sponsor Community Hub de Santa Ana. 

Don't pretend you're going to move to Canada. Instead, please read (and share) the issue, join the struggle, and please make a tax-deductible contribution to support Citric Acid today.