Reap The Whirlwind

Casus Belli

I am searching for an idiom that captures my emotions from last night. An homage to my rural Iowa family farm roots perhaps — Engardio’s chickens have come home to roost? No. You reap what you sow? Better but still not right. Pay the piper, face the music, your sins will find you out… no, not quite.

He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind.

There you go. Yesterday I received several links to a video that San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio posted on Instagram and X. In the video, Engardio starts out with his standard, tinny, shallow lines about parks and parades and bullshit like that, and then he descended into a place that I thought even Joel Engardio would not go.

But I was wrong about that, Engardio quickly transitioned into a disgusting display of voter intimidation and doxing of District 4 voters who have shown great personal courage in standing up and standing against him and his crypto & tech-bro billionaire backers. He held up a collage of photographs of the faces of Recall Engardio Campaign volunteers.

He who sows the wind…

There is no other way to interpret this act. At a time in this country when people are rightfully anxious and fearful about government making lists and targeting individuals in order to intimidate them, this is beyond the pale.

Sometimes people ask me, or tell me, to use simpler language. OK, here you go. This is a Donald Trump tactic. The President threatens to send troops to patrol the streets of San Francisco, but why bother? Joel Engardio is already here, doing it for him, setting the stage — doing. the. same. thing.

You think I am joking? Being a bit hyperbolic John, are you not? No. I am not. I have worked in scores of campaigns. I have asked thousands of people to stand with me in those campaigns. I have seen a lot of hateful, vitriolic words thrown at volunteers, shamefully so. But I have never seen the opposition create an “enemies list,” a photo array of everyday citizens just doing their best to lift up their voices and participate in civic life in their community.

Engardio’s behavior is beyond the pale. It is reprehensible. He has stripped away any honor or decency that his campaign could ever have claimed.

A funny thing happened on the way to The Sunset.

I am a newcomer to The Sunset. I came here to spend the rest of my life with the love of my life. As it happens, when I got here, she was involved in this little, at the time, recall campaign. And she asked me; would you like to help? I said yes.

That seems to me to be a good reason to get involved, but then a funny thing happened. I met the rest of the volunteers. I met scores of volunteers from all over The Sunset and some from across San Francisco. They accepted me, and not just a little, they took me in, they called me friend. And they worked their asses off, so I did my best to follow suit.

I canvassed, walked miles and miles, climbed hill after hill and countless flights of steps. I did media work, fundraising, made phone calls and brought coffee and donuts for canvass mobilizations. No matter how hard I worked, I could never match the efforts of the best volunteer corps that I have ever seen. I am so proud of them.

When we turned in 10,985 signatures to the SF Department of Elections, we proudly marked each white banker’s box with a label that said 85% of signatures gathered by volunteers. It was just a small way to recognize this cadre of Recall Engardio Campaign volunteers. These individuals who disrupted their lives, worked daily and tirelessly, poured their time, their treasure and their very lifeblood into leveling the scales of justice in their community — and now, because they took me in, our community.

And these are the people that you chose to dox and try to intimidate Joel.

And there is the rub. I said I would help, and I did. The Recallers told me I was welcome, and they made that real. As the Recall Engardio Campaign marched on they became my friends, and then they became family. Last night Joel Engardio held up an “enemies list” plastered with pictures of my friends… my family.

Engardio’s actions are repugnant and reprehensible. But more than that, he has sown the wind, he has written his “enemies list” like some modern-day Senator Joseph McCarthy, and he put the faces of my big, lumpy Sunset family on that list — Lisa A., Lisa T. (twice), Heather, Dave, Jen, Stephen, Rich, Tony — and that cannot be allowed. In my world, that is what we call casus belli.

So, I will stand in the breach.

Moreover, it will not be allowed to stand. Just as if he had held up an “enemies list” with pictures of my biological family, I will stand in the breach. I will do everything in my power, everything, to ensure that Engardio is brought to justice, that he is recalled and removed from office and that he is held to account for doxing and threatening my Sunset family.

Just as I will always stand with my brothers and sisters from back on that Iowa family farm — Larry, Elaine, Sterling, Debbie, Kenny, Peggy, David, Harris and Laura (And then there were six) — I will always stand in the breach, for and with, my brothers and sisters here in The Sunset as well.

He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind.

Engardio sowed the wind with his “enemies list,” his betrayals, his deceptions and his corruption. The sides have been chosen, and the battle is joined. I know which side I am on. And the whirlwind is coming, but it is not coming for me and mine, it is coming for you Joel.

Joel Engardio, you picked the wrong side, and you did so in a very bad way. In truth, you have chosen a path from which you will not be able to return. I will, however, say this to you anyway. Do not ever try to intimidate and dox my family again, not ever. Next time you decide to create an “enemies list,” start with me Joel. Here’s a picture you can use. Let’s just see how that works out for you.