Month: April 2019

I admit to being undecided about which of the twenty one democratic presidential candidates to back. As of today, I haven’t contributed one dime to any one of them. I’ve been watching the coverage of their town halls and interviews, but I’m still undecided. I have a few ideas about how I will make a decision though.

First, I won’t support an elderly candidate unless that person is paired with a competent younger running mate who can take over should the older president’s health fail. Of course, I’m referring to Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. They would need a younger running mate. And in 2020, I would prefer that running mate to be a female. On policy issues, I’m more in line with Joe Biden than Bernie Sanders on many issues. So, I’m actually a little to the right of Bernie Sanders.

Second, I appreciate intelligence. I am impressed by major Pete Buttigieg. He is a Harvard grad, a Rhodes Scholar, a former Naval Intelligence officer, and he speaks eight languages proficiently. He is the opposite of the current president in intelligence, articulation, and good character. The fact that he is gay will matter to Christians in middle America who won’t be able to overlook that when every day they give this lying, adulterous, draft-dodging, thief of a President a pass in the face of what they should understand to be good moral character. At only 37, Buttigieg brings great energy to the table. I’ve liked how he talks about his reasons for running and how he defends his faith against those who would judge him. I haven’t heard enough about his policies though. He’s a wait and see for me.

Quite the opposite of Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren is clear about where she stands on a host of issues and she is ready for a fight. I like her energy. She is passionate, articulate, and bold. She is a tough lady and would make an interesting president. I just don’t know if some of her more radical ideas will be accepted or just lead to greater gridlock. Sure the rich need to pay more. But I don’t necessarily agree with tuition free public colleges. I agree that student loan debt is too high, but I think the government should provide greater financial aid in the form of greatly increased Pell Grants for the poor and middle class to afford to go to college. Rather than simply forgive student loan debt like she suggests, I would like it forgiven in exchange for public service. I’d like to see her embrace government funded merit based grants for STEM areas as well. I’m for regulating the big tech companies like Facebook, but not for her plan to break them up as they are working together to create greater technological advances in competition with China.

Kamala Harris is one of my sorority sisters, a proud Alpha Kappa Alpha woman, so I support her. I’m in the process of reading her book, “The Truths We Hold” and I find her to be likeable, thoughtful, and honest. She, too, is smart and passionate and I love watching her in senate hearings. She’s a stand out. However, I’m having a tough time figuring out where she stands on a few key issues like health care and reparations. She needs to be more concrete on a few key issues. I have been thinking that she and Biden would be a Dream Team with her as Vice President and then as President in 2024.

There is Beto O’Rourke. I love his energy, but I’m not entirely sure of what he stands for on a number of issues. I know he seeks a different policy on ICE immigration enforcement, meaning fewer deportations of undocumented immigrants and no more family separations. He has endorsed a more moderate healthcare plan that I like called Medicare for America https://slate.com/business/2019/03/beto-orourke-health-plan-medicare-for-all-america.html

There isn’t a candidate among the 21 that I’m against. All recognize climate change as a threat. All of them care about a woman’s right to choose. All of them recognize that we have a huge problem with wealth inequality and want to do something about it. All recognize that we need to do something about gun regulations. And every one of them has a better moral character than our current president and want to restore dignity to the White House. I find that I am leaning in the direction of the more moderate candidates with ideas that are both sellable and doable.

For now, all I can do is watch and listen and learn. I’m paying close attention and as soon as I decide who to back, I will back that person with my voice and my pocketbook.

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate need to know that enough Americans actually care about the rule of law and holding a sitting president accountable for corrupt conduct. The news narrative has been that Americans don’t care about the Mueller Report or the President’s lying and dirty dealings. I do and so should every American.

Most of the reporters seemed to interview white folks in middle America as if they are the only ones who matter. One man said that he thought that the president was a “despicable human being” but that things were okay because the president was doing so much good for the country. A woman said she was more likely to vote for him in 2020 than she was in 2016 because he is a good businessman and all his wrongdoing was just what businessmen do. These are the people that Congress is listening to? These are the voices of Americans that the media gives a megaphone to? I have an entirely different take and I want my voice to be heard too. I care about good policies (which he doesn’t have) but I also care about ethical lawful conduct coming out of our White House. We deserve and can have both.

Despite Attorney General William Barr’s summaries and press conferences to try to shield the president ahead of the release of the Mueller Report , the Report itself makes clear that Donald Trump and his administration did some pretty suspicious things during the election and beyond and then tried to cover up their wrong doings. Apparently, Mueller was never going to indict the president, he was going to leave accountability actions to Congress. And so now, Congress must act on our behalf, as is their Constitutional duty. They can censure or they can impeach. But it’s become obvious that they need to be encouraged to act. It comes down to what we want.

I don’t want a president who fools around with foreign governments to get elected. I don’t want a president who actively tries to obstruct justice. I don’t want a president who lies to the American people on a daily basis. I don’t want a president who appoints corrupt, incompetent and self-dealing people to cabinet positions. I don’t want a bully in the White House. I don’t want a president who vilifies immigrants and cruelly separates children from their parents. I don’t a president who is ignorant of science and doesn’t care about the environment. I don’t want a president who won’t show his tax returns. We have a person in the White House who would rather hide his dealings and endure the speculation of wrong doing that to actually let the American people see the truth.

To me, all this hiding only means that the reality that would be revealed in his tax returns is far worse than the speculation about what is in them. The same was likely true about all those meetings with the Russians. Everyone lying about the meetings during the election and then no note takers in his Russian meetings afterward. But too many people are willing to ignore all this corruption. I’m not.

I spent time on Friday writing to my congresswoman and senators as well as the speaker of the house (Nancy Pelosi) and the senate majority leader(Mitch McConnell) to let them know that I want them to fully exercise their Constitutional duty of oversight with regard to this president and the Mueller Report, his taxes, and the other areas of wrongdoing. They must investigate on behalf of our nation, even if many in our nation are only focused on “kitchen table” topics. Congress has to walk and chew gum at the same time. They must hold Trump accountable since middle America won’t. It is therefore up to the rest of us to push Congress and especially the Senate to do the right thing and hold this president accountable. Our very democracy and the rule of law are at stake.

Do we really need to lock people up for everything?  According to multiple sources, in the “Land of the Free”, we have the highest prison population rate in the entire world, accounting for about 25% of incarcerated individuals worldwide while only comprising 5% of the world’s population.  It makes me wonder what country actress Lori Loughlin thought she was living in when she mistook the threat of prison time for her role in the college admission scandal as only a bluff.  I only wish it were a bluff.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m all for the rule of law and holding everyone equitably accountable when they break the law.  What Loughlin assumed was that she wouldn’t be held accountable because she is both rich and famous.  That too, has been how America has operated for a very long time.  The rich can hire high priced lawyers to defend them while the poor take plea deals for crimes they may not have even committed because they have no money to mount a good defense under the threat of an even longer prison sentence.  Last year I served on a jury where the defendant, a poor Latino male with mental health issues, had already served nine years hard time for possession of marijuana-time that wouldn’t even warrant arrest today. Of course this is the nature of our broken and inequitable criminal justice system.  The poor, black and brown people, and the mentally ill make up the majority of our prison population.  Many shouldn’t even be there. The poor, particularly black and brown people, are more frequently targeted by police, prosecuted, and then given longer sentences for similar crimes committed by wealthier Americans.

On top of this, our society has made the mistake of allowing capitalism to infiltrate our prison system. When there is a profit to be made in incarcerating people, the whole society loses. Not only is the system is unfair to the people locked up and to their families, but it is unfair to the tax payers. We could and should find alternative methods that improve society while also holding people accountable.

Lori Loughlin shouldn’t go to prison.  She also shouldn’t just be given probation. She should instead be made to pay monetary retribution to society and social retribution in the form of community service.  These people who steal from the common good, should pay what they stole three-fold, first to the people who were directly harmed and second to society in general.  In Loughlin’s case, I would like to see her pay 1.5 million dollars in endowed scholarships for low income students to attend the elite college (U.S.C.) where her undeserving daughter was enrolled because of her $500,000 payoff.  Second, I would like to see her do community service where she helps to improve the lives of others through her own labor.

In my estimation, the only people who belong in prison are those who have committed violent crimes against other human beings and animals.  This includes those politicians in Flint, Michigan who allowed whole communities to be poisoned by lead in the water.  Prison should be reserved for rapists, murderers, and violent offenders.  Everyone else who breaks the law should be forced to provide restitution to their victims and to society in general.  If you are caught stealing a car, you should be required to pay the owner back as well as pay a fine to the community plus doing community service.

Our current system punishes us all.  We spend an estimated $80 billion in taxpayer dollars to keep people locked up, feeding them three square meals a day, and providing them with medical attention.  Those dollars would be better spent on giving would be offenders actual jobs, improving education, childcare, health care, mental health care, and infrastructure.  Our current criminal justice system is a misappropriation of tax payer dollars.

It is high time that we demand that our lawmakers reform our system of justice so that it is not only more just, but also more cost effective with our tax dollars. I want Lori Loughlin to pay for her misdeeds. I don’t want the rest of us to pay for her to go to prison while lining the pockets of the private prison industry.

As a society, I think we’re headed in the right direction toward respect for the female body as more than a playground for men. As a female who has been the victim of unwanted sexual contact on three separate occasions and one horrific stocking incident, I fully support the Me Too Movement and the Time’s Up Movement. Our culture is past due for a change, but with the Biden non-sexual touching issue being raised this week, I wonder if we are about to lose valuable human contact.

My first reaction to the young woman recounting her experience with Joe Biden’s hands on her shoulders, smelling her hair, and kissing her on the back of her head, was that he was a grandfatherly guy trying to show his support, encouragement and affection. We’ve been watching the touchy-feely affectionate Joe Biden for years. It is one of the things I have appreciated about him. We need more caring people like him in the world. That said, perhaps he takes it a bit too far at times and doesn’t recognize that some people don’t want to be touched that way, particularly by mere associates. This is the reality that we must all recognize to be the case. Biden must be more sensitive to this reality and watch for cues that signal a reception to his affection or an aversion to it. I believe we tend to give these signals to one another. Biden just needs to pay attention to them.

With all the women coming forward to talk about how uncomfortable they felt about Biden’s non-sexual touching, I’m afraid our society is about to lose the kind of physical contact that helps connect us to one another. We need to acknowledge how sometimes a hug and a pat on the back are welcomed. Physical touching of this sort actually boosts our immune systems, improves our emotional well being, and builds human bonds. This is healthy for our society and confusing it with real sexual assault is a mistake. Lets keep touching. Many people touch as a means of greeting through hand shakes, hugs, and kisses. Granted, some people don’t like any of it, but we can respect these people’s “hands off” approach by paying attention.

I would say that people have an aura about them. Some are warm and approachable and exude a welcoming of affection. Just this past week, a former student of mine and now colleague, saw me while on a walk across campus. As I approached her, she opened her arms wide, signaling an oncoming embrace. We hugged. In a separate incident, I met a campus visitor at a meeting in our office on Monday and invited her to a luncheon that Thursday. When I arrived, she was already present and she greeted me with a warm embrace. A male international student whom I hardly knew hugged me after a meeting where I helped him resolve an issue important to him.

Each time, the hug seemed natural, warm, and welcome. I hadn’t initiated any of these hugs, but I was definitely receptive to them. I’m glad that these three people were able to rightly discern my vibe, otherwise they might find themselves being talked about on the six o’clock news. Joe Biden doesn’t need to stop being affectionate, he just needs to read the signals better. Granted he has a tougher job by being surrounded by so many people and trying to make quick connections, but he has to do it.

In reality, I guess this is true of all of us, because while we need the touch of other human beings we must also respect other people’s space. However, in the world we live in today, now is not the time to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you see me, bring on the hugs and kisses. I open to “respectful” human touching.