Freedom in America #263
By Hank Silverberg
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| (The Statue of Liberty welcomed millions of our ancestors to America.) |
I am not going to blame Democrats or Republicans in general.
But the climate we have right now is not healthy for our democracy, and for the first time in my 69 years of life, I know what my parents must have thought as Nazism, Fascism and Communism spread around the world in the 1930's and 40's.
We are faced with a rise in antisemitism AND Islamophobia. Our schools are under attack for teaching real history, and our Congress is dysfunctional because of small minorities on the far right and far left who won't let the rest of them do anything. Frankly, the people who run for government office these days seem to think ideology, party and extreme views are more important than progress toward a more perfect union. Some of them don't seem to be schooled in real American values. Isolationism, or "America First" has replaced America as a leader for peace for which my parent's generation went to war.
America is about more than saluting the flag and singing the national anthem.
For those of you who may have forgotten, and that group seems to be growing, here are some basic American beliefs we have lost track of during the current political quagmire.
Let's start with the most important 28 words ever written by man--the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. "
It guarantees freedom of speech--the right to speak your mind and protest peacefully on whatever you want without fear that the government, in all its shapes and forms, will put you in jail or harm you.
But there are limits. The classic example: you are not allowed to yell "fire" in a crowded theatre when there is no fire.
Hate speech IS protected, but that doesn't include any speech that will incite violence or insurrection.
The First Amendment also guarantees freedom of the press. The GOVERNMENT can not tell the media what to say or how to report anything. Nor can they shut down a media operation for what they report (Sorry Trump, you can not shut down MSNBC).
It's unclear if social media can be considered press or not, but the First Amendment only applies to government censorship. So unfortunately, Elon Musk can do what he wants with Twitter-X, or whatever he wants to call it. But if his platform becomes nothing but a major source of incitement to violence or hate, he may find his company in legal trouble.
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion. But it also guarantees freedom from religion and the separation of church and state. Shoving your religious beliefs down someone else's throat, or passing legislation based on one religion's doctrine is not an American concept. In fact, many of our Founding Fathers warned directly against that.
"An alliance or coalition between Government and religion cannot be too carefully guarded against...religion and government will exist in greater purity, without (rather) than with the aid of government."-- James Madison
Thomas Jefferson described the relationship between government and the church as "a wall of separation".
Second: America is also a land of immigrants. Everyone's ancestors came from somewhere else, unless you are a full-blooded descendant of one of the indigenous tribes that lived here in the 15th century before Europeans arrived.
About three-quarters of all the people living in the United States today are just three or fewer generations away from their immigrant ancestors. (My grandparents came here in the early 20th century.)
And finally: Fair and free elections and a "peaceful transition of power" are almost exclusively an American experience throughout our history (1860-1865 is the exception). Despite all the misinformation from Mr. Trump and his minions, there is NO evidence of widespread election fraud in 2020 or any other election, and perpetuating that myth creates a specific attack on the peaceful transition of power.
There are, of course, other aspects of the Constitution that are very important, like the 4th Amendment that prevents illegal search and seizure, but the First Amendment is first for a reason.
You can spout all the rhetoric about family values, and freedom all you want. But the three items above are what The United States of America is really about. Recite them again, freedom of speech, religion and the press, a welcome for immigrants and a peaceful transition of power.
An Unseen Scenario for 2024
We are only a few weeks away until the Iowa caucus (Jan 15) and the New Hampshire primary (Jan 23) when voters will actually start picking a
There is, however, another scenario looming that could create chaos which we have not seen since 1860.
Abraham Lincoln won that election. But he did not have the majority of the country's vote in what was a four-man race.
Republican Abe Lincoln (Illinois)
180 electoral votes, 18 states, 1,865,908 votes
Southern Democrat John Breckinridge (Kentucky)
72 Electoral votes, 11 states, 848,019 votes
Constitutional Union John Bell (Tennessee)
39 electoral votes, 3 states, 590,901 votes
Democrat Stephen A. Douglas (Illinois)
12 Electoral votes, 1 state, 1,380,202
With that in mind, let me present a scenario that no one has been talking about. Let's just suppose that Trump does not win the GOP nod. Let's say it goes to Nikki Haley, who has momentum right now.
Trump, and we all know his nature, is not just going to give up.
So he runs as an Independent.
Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee, so he's on the ballot as the Democrat. Then there is the possibility of Robert Kennedy, Jr., also running as an Independent, or the No Labels group convincing Joe Mansion or Mitt Romney or someone else who is well know to also run as an Independent.
The ballot would look like this:
Nikki Haley (R)
Joe Biden (D)
Donald Trump (I)
Robert Kennedy (I)
Joe Mansion/Mitt Romney or? (No Labels)
Could any of them get the 270 electoral votes needed to win?
Such a situation, according to the Constitution, would throw the election into the House of Representatives. There will also be an election for Congress next November, but it's probable that the makeup would be similar to the current one. That's the same group that had a lot of trouble picking their own Speaker of The House.
Adding to all this is the possibility that Trump might be a convicted felon by next November and we could be in a big constitutional crises.
Some of you who read this may brush off this scenario and go with the conventional wisdom of a close Trump/Biden election.
But I will point out conventional wisdom was wrong in 2016 when no one thought Trump could beat Hillary Clinton, and in 2020 when no one predicted how tight it actually was. Conventional wisdom also did not predict anything like the Supreme Court battle that settled the 2000 Bush/Gore race.
2024, like 1860, could end up as a seminal year in the history of The United States.
Who Is Watching The Kids?
Child care is becoming a crisis in this country. With so many couples forced to work just to pay the bills, and with little help for single parents, getting someone else to watch their kids continues to be a nightmare. It may be getting worse.
Grandma is not always available. She is likely to be working also. And despite the "work at home" phenomenon left over from the pandemic, most employers don't want to hear about your childcare issues.
So what can be done about it?
A new report done by a Virginia General Assembly Commission which came out in October (see link below), indicated 85% of those with infants and 74% of those with preschoolers can't afford child care. Plus the shortage of space at child care centers is getting worse. Virginia alone needs 140,000 slots for children right now, and that does not include the 25,000 spots that will disappear when their COVID funding runs out.
Even more disheartening: the report says there's not much Virginia can do about this since the state has already implemented nearly every approach that has been used to improve the availability of child care. That includes incentivizing staff and providers to stay in the child care business, additional training, scholarships for those who work in child care and retention bonuses, among other things.
The problem is far from new. The pay for workers stinks, so no one wants the job, or won't stay there long. But raising their pay across the board would push a lot of child care providers out of business. And then there's the overall labor shortage hitting many parts of the country. Virginia child care workers earn just a bit over the minimum wage, with lead teachers getting about $16 an hour, and their assistants about $13 an a hour.
It's the worst in rural areas where parents sometimes have to drive an hour or more to get childcare for their kids.
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| (Courtesy zippia.com) |
https://www.zippia.com/advice/us-child-care-availability-statistics/
Some in politics would have you think this is caused by the decline of the nuclear family, but that is nonsense. We need some creative solutions here which will not be found in the past. I wish I had an idea, but I don't.
Dumbest Quote of The Week !
This week's dumb quote comes from Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. During a hearing on gun violence this past week, Kennedy had a question for expert witness. Dr. Megan Ranney of Yale's School of Public Health.
Kennedy, who had been focusing on gun violence only in large northern cities with large Black populations mostly run by Democrats, asked this question:
"You think Chicago has become America’s largest outdoor shooting range, do you think it’s because of Chicago citizens who have no criminal record but who have a gun in their home or perhaps for hunting or do you think it is because of a finite group of criminals who have rap sheets as long as King Kong’s arm?"
(Your comments and suggestions are welcome)
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