Won’t Wake Up, Go Bankrupt, Demand Corporate Accountably from Tractor Supply

Action planned for Saturday, July 6, 10 am to 12 Noon at Tractor Supply Stores in SC Lowcountry

REVISION AND UPDATES EXPECTED - PLEASE MONITOR THE UP IS GOOD FACEBOOK PAGE

On June 27 Tractor Supply capitulated to a six week right wing hate campaign and repudiated its commitments to inclusion, fairness, non-discrimination, public accountability and a sustainable human presence on planet Earth in a public statement posted on what used to be twitter. They wrote off the survival of the human race with a tweet.

t is a victory for the right’s, “Go Woke, Go Broke” campaign to reverse a generation of modest gains made with corporations to get some accountability and responsibility into the boardrooms of the descendants of the robber baron industrial combinations of the gilded age when Carnegie built libraries with wealth gained slaughtering workers in conditions Moms for Liberty would prefer our children never read about. Lives of suffering Unity City would be happy to see return in their dream of industrial serfdom in their new age of faith.

We can’t wait to push back. Other corporations would be happy to shed the tiny shreds of restraint that two generations of advocacy have thrust upon them. A deluge of political blood money to keep the Maga Naton off their backs and fund projects like Unity City would be certain to follow. The longer we wait, the harder this will be to stop.

Our answer to “Go Woke, Go Broke” is “Won’t wake up? Go Bankrupt.”

Even though we’re all trying to enjoy what may be the last decent July 4th weekend of our lives and sweating through the beginning of a big hurricane season, we have to act now. The planet is dying. Our democracy is sick.

On Saturday, July 6, from 10 am to 12 noon, we’re going to attempt to organize demonstrations near the entrance of all four Tractor Supply locations in Charleston, Dorchester and Berkeley Counties on public property. The Administration unity of DiversCity will demonstrate at the Tractor Supply in Awendaw, where will put up our popup and serve Rosa Park Pancakes with fresh local peaches to any friendly people who come by. We’ll inform Sherriff Graziano and hope her deputies will maintain order. This is at the very edge of our territory. Anyone participating should expect a lot of snark and hostility.

As always, we’ll coordinate with law enforcement, stay on public property and conduct ourselves with discipline and restraint. We’ll maintain our perfect record of 8 years of public advocacy without a single act of violence or property damage. Each tractor supply will get one of our gift baskets. We’ll make sure they learn what those white roses stand for.  

Nichole Broach, head of our government working group, may try to organize a demo at the new Summerville Tractor supply.

It’s going to be a hard, hot morning organized at the speed of light in the face of a critical holiday weekend. Louise Brown’s entire tribe is coming to Charleston for their family reunion, so we may be without the presence of our mother of the Movement. If she can’t make it, we’ll have to stop these tanks ourselves. When we’re done, I’m taking the bus to the beach.

• William Hamilton (843-870-5299, wjhamilton29464@gmail.com) will coordinate the actions at the two coastal Tractor Supply locations on Highway 17, South and North of Charleston. Nichole Broach will coordinate the two actions at the Inland locations in Summerville and Moncks Corner. Communications will be managed by Merrill Chapman MerrillTownsChapman@gmail.com  (843-200-1977)We need a quick mobilization and volunteers.
  
  We’ll provide printed boycott cards that participants can either take into Tractor Supply in person or leave with us to mail to their Corporate Agent by certified mail. We’ll have an online petition to sign so bring your tablet or phone.

This kicks off a week of intense activism that includes completing drafting of our Declaration of Resistance and culminates on Bastille Day when we publish the declaration, introduce our new leadership. Unveil our permanent logo and sing our new songs. New to us anyway. Louise already knows them. She says they stop tanks. We’ll see. 

How We'll Defend our Hummocks

 Defending Our Lowcountry's Seven Hummocks

How We Will Defend Our DiversCity

Read the Press Release Announcing our Organizational Plan to the Community as we move towards July 14.

Unity City, Moms for Liberty and the other Christian Dominationist organizations working together to take over our community, organize themselves around the seven mountains of influence doctrine, an anti biblical plan which justifies Dominionists abandoning the teachings of Jesus to achieve coercive secular power over the people of the SC Lowcountry. This violates the US Constitution and the teachings of the New Testament.

Image, Left, by Tate Nation, featured on our current outreach card. 2500 are being distributed throughout the Lowcountry between now and July 14

It also violates geography. There are no mountains here. Ours is a flat, moist land mingled with the sea. Our green marshes are dotted with hummocks, small mounds, usually associated with freshwater springs and covered with wax myrtle bushes which are a haven for life, refuge from the heat and saltiness of our vast marshes. We have no mountains to defend, but we’ll fight for our hummocks.

Image, Right, pedestrian accessible hummock at Shem Creek Park, Mt. Pleasant, SC, USA. This hummock has been claimed as they symbolic home of the Administrative team

Our organizational structure, like our land, is flat and fertile. Seven working groups form a council of nine with one vote from each working group and one from Administration and Communications/Fundraising. Each working group has 3-5 expert members well connected to and be highlynowledgeable about their sector/hummock. Instead of a hierarchy funded with right wing money from out of state, ultimately sourced from billionaires who could care less about any kind of religion (the false Gods of the right), our organization will call up resources from the organizations connected to our network through their working group/sector/hummock. Each working group will lead a small rapid response force or trained people who can connect with and mobilize their part of the community.

We’ll build on and connect the power the Lowcountry already has, which is massive. We won’t sneak into organizations to compromise them, we’ll bring them together with honesty and vision to save our Hummocks, our Lowcountry. (There will be T-shirts.) We know we will come together, with some bickering, because this is our land.

Our first effort will be to staff the seven working groups and draft the Lowcountry Declaration of Resistance so that we can present them and sign the declaration on Bastille Day, Sunday, July 14 at a celebration of human freedom, DiversCity and hope. We’ll also read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that night. 

We cannot save America from SC. That battle will take place elsewhere. We may not be able to save South Carolina. We shall hold this blue island, our Lowcountry, our home. 

Here are the Seven Hummocks and the status of Organization of Each. Contact info will be inserted here when each group is fully organized and ready to begin operation. 

Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. will control the effort until January, 2025 when DiversCity will become self-governing. Effort until then will focus on training, fundraising to support efforts to build and sustain resistance, and local elections. 

The Hummocks  We Fight For in the Lowcountry

Hummock	Charge,  areas covered	Leadership
Family	Includes traditional nuclear families, extended  multigenerational families and non traditional, voluntary families, LGBTQ inclusive families, and childrens issues, Included Birth and coming of age celebrations and community efforts. Anti gun violence community efforts (not law enforcement or legal anti gun violence efforts)
Education	Includes day care, traditional schools, middle and high schools, private schools, charter schools, home schooling, higher education, and adult education. Also includes Libraries and non government educational organizations.	Began operation June 14. Dameon Fordham organizing with support from Administration and Communications.
Science and Technology	Includes science, applied science and engineering, architecture, medical care, electronic communication, internet services, community access to technology, environmental science, recycling, infrastructure planning and transit.
Business and economy	Includes economic issues, employment, union activity, government investment programs, transportation, transit, internet hardware. Also includes housing and tenant’s rights.
5, Faith, Religion and Spiritual Practice	Includes religious faith communities, self actualization disciplines, interfaith efforts, religious celebrations, community celebrations of birth and death	Began operation June 10. Leadership announced on July 14.
6. Art and Culture	Art, theater, music, foodways, Gulluh Geeche, Ethnic celebrations, Latinx culture, and public monuments, Creative nurturing initiatives.
7. Government	National government, state government, county government, municipal government, special purpose districts, law enforcement, courts and HOAs.	Leader Nichole Broach Members Thomas Dixon, Aaron Comstock, began operation May 18.
8. Administration and Logistics	Policy development, fundraising, coordination, operation of organization collaborative council, supply, funding and execution of planning	William Hamilton,  Administrator (843) 870-5299 began operation May 18.
9. Communications & Accountability	Production of written policy and documents, research, video content, Internet presence, field outreach, accounting and financial management	Merrill Chapman Communications director (843) 200-1977 Began operation on May 20

Timeline to July 14, 2024

• Now to July 9- Recruit, organize and train members of seven hummocks working groups
  July 4- Push to prepare for full activation begins with small event in front of Isle of Palms County Park

• 

  June 27 to July 12- Draft and recruit endorsers for Lowcountry Declaration of Resistance

• July 8- In person Markup of Lowcountry Declaration of Resistance, Afternoon and evening meetings on major bus lines

• July 10- Pirate Party at Container Bar to celebrate Lowcountry Up is Good’s success at building ridership on the Bus to the Beach, 7 to 10 pm. Not really political, but we need a party and our mburning man and container bar friends want to help us “relax.” 

• July 13- Isle of Pirates, 10 am to 5 pm. Our burning man friends say we need to have more fun, so they’ve invited us to join their pirate takeover of the Isle of Palms to celebrate and build ridership on our Bus to the Beach, the result of seven years of struggle to return transit to the Atlantic in the Lowcountry. They are a very Diverse grop of pirates, old pirates, young pirates, pirates of several races, mixed races, LGBTQ, and those who identify as pirates. They remind us there is no revolution without dancing. You don’t have to be a pirate, but they swear it helps. Get on the bus and meet us out in front of IOP County Park.

• July 14, Bastille Day, but a day big in  history for many other reasons, including the target date for the Denmark Vessey rebellion in Charleston. Read all the significant events on July 14 at https://www.onthisday.com/events/july/14 Join us for an evening celebration where well celebrate, sing, read the international declaration of human rights, unveil our new logo/symbol for DiversCity and Unveil, read and subscribe to the Lowcountry DiversCity Declaration of Resistance. 

Ops and Safety Plan for June 24 Demonstration at Home of Ed Kelly

Safety and Ops Plan for June 24

Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc.

See full press release on Demonstration

Plan submitted to and reviewed by Mount Pleasant Police Department

Mount Pleasant, SC, USA - This is to be a peaceful and lawful public assembly on public property authorized by the first Amendment. All details will be coordinated with the Mt. Pleasant Police Department in advance. We will not approach residents of Carolina Park during our presence there, but will speak to them if they approach us. We will not attempt intense engagements with the public whale on Wilkes way, but are willing to do an in person meeting or zoom with them later, provided the in person meeting is at a location with a security station which scans for weapons. A minimum separation of 10 feet between demonstrators and residents or counterprotestors will be maintained. All activity within the neighborhood will be conducted on the public right of way. 

4:30 - We will set up a small popup tent near the South End of the Wando Library parking lot with a table and chairs, adjacent to the NE corner of the intersection of Caroliana Park Blvd. and Tomahawk Road. We’ll hang a flag and a few signs on it. This will be our standoff HQ for the event. Cars can park in the South end of the Library Parking lot, which is so far from the door that it’s almost never used, so we won’t be using parking needed by library patrons. We’ll set up to monitor the Board Meeting using the power pack and a laptop. We’ll try to have a small bluetooth speaker so it will be audible. We’ll have snacks, chicken and cold water. People who are having trouble with the heat can wait inside the Library. No demonstration activity is planned inside the
library.

5:15 - School Board meeting begins. We’ll assemble our demonstrators, count off 20 and get them ready to ride to the Kelly house. Live webcast begins using phone and booster battery. If the police decide we can march, we’ll still extract our people by vehicle. 

5:30- If Kelly doesn’t appear downtown, we’ll move the first group of demonstrators out and start rotating them by vehicle between Wilkes Way and the Popup HQ, with the number and frequency depending on the number present. We’ll continue the Demonstration until 7 pm if Kelly isn’t at the meeting. It’s possible we’ll go longer if something significant happens, but we’ll end at Sunset regardless and have all people off both locations by the end of Civil Twilight. 

6:00 - If Kelly does appear downtown, we’ll make a short, symbolic appearance on Wilkes Way, rotating people in and out quickly so everyone present gets a chance to participate. The total length of that demonstration should be less than 30 minutes.  

6:15 to 6:30 If Kelly is downtown, we’ll leave the conscious raising gift basket on the sidewalk in front of his home for someone to collect for him later. We do not plan to go to his door, per the request of the Carolina Park HOA. The small basket will consist of a package of gummi bears because he didn’t get any last week, while his neighbors did. There will also be a printed copy of our critique of his campaign finance disclosures and four white roses, wrapped in green tissue paper. Demonstrators may place notes to kelly in the basket. The police can inspect the basket.

If we’re not allowed to leave the basket, we’ll take it downtown to deliver to him in person. 

We’ll clear out shortly after 7 pm, with some participants getting dinner before heading down to join the group at the School Board Meeting. If we still have the basket, we’ll deliver that to Kelly at the meeting, by give it to School District security.

If the police can’t cover the HQ Popup standoff location, the two people left there to monitor it will lock themselves inside their vehicle with the front of the vehicle pointed outward. If someone vandalizes or tries to steal the equipment, they’re to leave the area immediately without leaving the car. 

William Hamilton

Executive Director

DiversCity Project, Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc.
32 Sowell St.
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
wjhamilton29464@gmail.com

Communications director (who will be off site monitoring media) Merrill Chapman at (843) 200-1977

Citizens Plan Protest at CCSD Board Member Kelly's House to Force In Person Attendance at Meetings

Citizens to Protest School Board Members Remote Control Presence at Meetings at His Home in Mt. Pleasant

From Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc.  To         Lowcountry Press & Media

Date June 22, 2024

Mount Pleasant, SC, USA- Charleston County School Board member Ed Kelly’s home in Carolina Park, a development in Mt. Pleasant near Wando High School will become the setting for a sidewalk protest on Monday, June 24 should Kelly choose, again to participate in another board meeting over the internet instead of occupying his chair at CCSD Headquarters,  75 Calhoun Street. The demonstration is sponsored by Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC. Inc.

Sympathetic participants can sign up to participate in the demonstration and adjacent social gathering on eventbright at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dont-chicken-out-show-up-ed-kelly-protest-party-tickets-929641963137?aff=oddtdtcreator

• The sidewalk in front of Kelly’s home will become a free speech zone with up to 20 people holding signs, chanting and singing. The theme of the demonstration is Don’t Chicken Out Ed Kelly. The protest will be paired with an adjacent social.  The pot luck supper at the party will consist of any chicken but Chick-fil-A, salad and desert. 

The homes of 49 of Kelly’s neighbors, everyone living within 500 feet of his house, received a written notice of the demonstration on June 20 in a doorknob hanger bag which also contained information on DiversCity and a small package of gummy bears. One resident was hostile. Another demanded that DiversCity never visit her home again. However, several residents were very excited about the demonstration and are eager to become involved. You can read the notice online. 

There are no plans to block vehicular or pedestrian traffic. A Mt. Pleasant Police presence is anticipated. A safety plan for a constitutionally lawful and peaceful protest will be drafted to be shared with the police department and the community. 

CCSD Board meetings have become dysfunctional, oppressive horror shows. Ed Kelly was removed from Chairmanship of the CCSD board last year after allegations that he threatened a transgender staff member with armed violence. Some meetings have been over six hours long and contain lengthy secret executive sessions. A major controversy looms over the board Monday with new allegations of misappropriation of Covid funds, a cover up and racially biased treatment of an alleged whistleblower. The board also has to conduct a public hearing and attempt to pass a budget, which Kelly has been stalling by fighting a pay increase for teachers. 

This demonstration is part of the DiversCity Charleston project, a coordinated resistance to the attempt by Moms for LIberty, Unity City and other right wing religious groups to take over public life in the SC Lowcountry. DiversCity will network existing progressive and tolerance celebrating organizations and faith communities across the Lowcountry to strengthen and maintain our community’s imperfect, but enduring 350 year tradition of acceptance and freedom.

For more information on DiversCity Charleston contact spokesperson Merrill Chapman at (843) 200-1977 or William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299. More information can be found at https://tinyurl.com/DiversCityCHS  online.

END END END

Why Up is Good is going to Ed Kelly's House on Monday

Why We're Going to Ed Kelly's House on Monday
And Where Lowcountry Up is Good has been for the past 9 years.

The demonstration and social are all set up for Monday, June 24th. at and near Ed Kelly's house in Carolina Park subdivision in Mount Pleasant, SC. You can sign up to participate and find more information through the link at the bottom of this post. Lowcountry Up is Good is fully committed to this safe, legal protest action. Nobody else has to come. We can handle this.

You can signup on Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dont-chicken-out-show-up-ed-kelly-protest-party-tickets-929641963137

Not everyone is cool with this and we expected that. That is what life is like when you are, as we have been, the most aggressive leftists PAC in SC, Lowcountry Up is Good PAC. 

• 
  People didn't like the tactics we used to drive Mark Sanford from office. We nailed him for opposing transit funding with saturation leafleting and online outreach in Summerville and downtown Charleston. Charleston County had already voted to build a transit system and passed the tax to pay for it. Sanford lost to Katy Arrington. Arrington lost to Joe Cunningham and the 1st District had it's first Democratic Congressman in 38 years. Cunningham decided to play safe towards the middle on the advice of the Democratic party and lost. 
• Lots of people thought the fight to build a major transit system was way beyond what we could do (we'll see) but we got it paid for (not built yet). We won a narrow victory the night other people, using traditional methods lost the entire country to Donald Trump.
• Affordable Housing- They wanted to do petitions and meetings, We built a tiny house on Martin Luther King Weekend, then a village, which the City demanded we get rid of. We did. We gave the tiny houses away with no record of who got them or where they went so it was impossible to track the new owners down and force them to give up that affordable housing. From what we know, people are living in those tiny homes today. (we still don't know exactly who has them or where they're located.)
• We saved one progressive Democratic incumbent from defeat by a suspect out of nowhere opponent in a primary in the middle of a pandemic. We held the challenger out of nowhere to 30% of the vote.
• 
  We fought for seven years to return pubic transit to the beach in Charleston. Now the Chamber of Commerce supports it. Louise Brown, aged 81, led a 4.8 mile march to the sea in 2015 from Mt. Pleasant Town Centre to the Front Beach at the Isle of Palms. It was 97 degrees. Image right . She led the march because William Hamilton was ordered on to the sag wagon for dehydration. Jack was 55 years old.
• We picketed Seacoast Church on Palm Sunday 2023 and learned profound things about how the Christian right was operating though local Mega Churches that helped prepare us for Unity City. We did it on public property and didn't block anyone from getting to church. The police were fully involved in the planning. We met with them. We had an agreed on safety plan. Seacoast refused to come down and talk to the PD. 
• We used Pirates to double ridership on the Bus to the Beach in two years, this year achieving a 92% increase in ridership for the first three weeks of service. In 2022, CARTA achieved a 3% increase over the first year of service. As the buses to IOP full, we're preparing a campaign to push transit out to Folly Beach. On July 12, IOP will stand for Isle of Pirates. You won't want to miss it.
• We backed up CARTA and the COG against the Exchange Club in the fight to keep a rapid transit stop at the fairgrounds. They stuck to their guns. They're going to court to take the property, as previously agreed by the exchange club before it suffered a right wing takeover. 

Every time before we went out and won, people told us to calm down and stay home. Calm people who stay at home lose. Now we're surrounded by Tumpism with our backs to the sea in SC. The entire state, except for Richland County and a few very poor rural counties, is under right wing control. Our Governor wants to hunt us with dogs. Progressive people are leaving SC for other places. At this rate we won't have the critical mass to sustain resistance six months after Trump is reelected, if that happens. It's now or never.

We didn't ask for this job. We went to a dozen other organizations to do this. We specialize in small, highly focused actions for Better Transit, a living wage and affordable housing. When nobody else stepped up, it was resist or run. We chose to resist. 

We're working actively with the police on the demo Monday. We're drafting a safety plan. It will be legal and should be safe. If anyone is going to be targeted at the demo or at their home, that's going to be William Hamilton and he and 32 Sowell are fully equipped to deal with that. If you want to participate, sign up. If not, we'll be down to full in the seats being empties at CCSD Headquarters as the first shift on what is supposed to be a very long and dysfunctional school board meeting goes home for their long delayed dinners. We will be fresh, well fed and ready to sit on top of the M4L people until 2 am if necessary.

Monday is no ordinary day. It was on that date, four years ago that Julia Hamilton left 32 Sowell Street for the last time in an Ambulence. She died the next day, shortly after a prayer from Louise Brown was made for her that she heard on her cell phone. Julia heard the prayer. We know because she squeezed Jacks hand, letting him know that she had heard at least some of what he and others had said to her that afternoon in the ICU. 

Eventbrite signup. - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dont-chicken-out-show-up-ed-kelly-protest-party-tickets-929641963137

Unity City and Religion- Curious Confusions and Conflicts

What Churches in the Lowcountry are Saying about Unity City, Moms for Liberty and Christian Dominionism

We are organizing a committee of Clergy and Theologians to challenge Unity City's misuse of scripture. This page is scheduled for future revision, but we're posting links to give you something to start with since this has been so important. 

Clergy Speak Out Against Unity City

Image, right, Unitarian Church, right and St. John's Lutheran Church, left, these two neighboring Churches are one of many symbols of religious pluralism in Charleston. Gateway walk also joins the Unitarian Churchyard to St. Phillips Episcopal Church and Circular Congregational Church. 

Unitarians- In a powerful message delivered from one of the Holy City's historic pulpits on May 19, the Minister of the Unitarian Church in Charleston delivered a sermon challenging Christian Dominionist theology, Moms for Liberty, and Unity City on May 19 during their regular worship service. She preached, among other things that the 7 mountains political agenda contradicted the teachings of Jesus and that Christians were supposed to seek crosses, not crowns. You can watch the Unitarian Church service, May 19, 2024. Relevant content begins at 20 min and the Sermon at about 40 min. A statement like this is quite unusual for the Unitarians, who usually practice deferential tolerance. https://boxcast.tv/channel/rbkmm8zn0ugm4poobpkf?b=h0snzyfzzvkqtdc6vp1d

Rev. Thomas Dixon- Pastor Thomas Dixon discussed Unity City on May 24. He's the area's most outspoken activist minister and is on the front line of every struggle here. See Rev. Dixon's statement on Unity City. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/yV6bsf84BK9VW4N9/

Unity City Undermines Local Churches and Indulges in Antisemitism

How can you make a speech about infiltrating local churches, undermining their leadership and sewing dissention among their membership in contravention of the teaching of St. Paul even worse. Slip is a joke about Jewish people and put it on the internet after everyone laughs. See the short videoclip.recorded at their May 25 training sessionshort videoclip.recorded at their May 25 training session on how to use stealth to take over your church.  

Want to Help Maintain Charleston's Religious DiversCity?

If you are interested in participating with our Religion, Scripture and Faith study group, please contact William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com