Last
fall, I had to start this new blog
honduraspeacecorps2.blogspot.com
when
the old one,
honduraspeacecorps.blogspot.com stopped
working, though my posts on it still remain. Now I’ve just discovered that in creating
this new blog, I’d failed to properly link the cover of my first book, Triumph
& Hope, to its purchase site on Amazon. Now, belatedly, I’ve done so. (Click
on the cover image.)
On
a recent night or, rather. early morning, near 3 am, we were awakened by helicopters
flying continually overhead. They were monitoring efforts of a group in
nearby Lincoln park to topple a statue of Lincoln
condescendingly extending his hand to a kneeling former slave. (Better to attack statues than
other people.)
Trump is apparently doubling down on
protecting statues, so it’s uncertain now what will be done about the park's
Lincoln statue. It's interesting to have that drama playing out so close by.
Our
local post office has been greatly reconfigured inside. No more
chairs and a table where people can sit down to organize their mail. A
smaller, moved-forward space for 2 clerks with plastic barriers between waits on
customers in a distanced waiting line extending outside.
I'm wondering if the local Citibank may have cut off all after-hours
access now to inside ATMs because homeless people would sneak in when a
cardholder entered, then fall asleep in the ample carpeted space inside. But
that blocked access has been tough for us now in making deposits or withdrawals
while the bank has remained closed during the pandemic. We can only use a drive-through
ATM situated in the parking lot behind, with no protection from others standing
around outside observing us.
Hooray for the House
of Representatives for finally supporting DC statehood! After living in Washington,
DC, for more than 50 years, I’ve always been amazed when traveling around the country
and the world by meeting other Americans who are totally surprised to learn that
we DC citizens have no voting representation in Congress. When DC license
plates say “No taxation without representation,” we mean it! Wyoming and Vermont, each with fewer people, nonetheless
have two senators and a congressperson. Wyoming gave us Vice President Dick
Cheney and Vermont’s Bernie Sanders has frequently come close to becoming
a presidential nominee. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has been able to bring in national
guard troops from other states to protect statues and to withhold federal funds
normally allocated to states because we have no effective mechanism to object. Some
think he is punishing the District for being over 90% Democratic and voting
against him in the presidential election.
Che Guevara's
birthplace put up for sale
|
The Supremes had been doing better lately, but now have slid
back.
Supreme Court Says Rejected
Asylum Seekers Have No Right to Object in Court.
Unfortunately, this was a 7-2 decision, with Sotomayor and Kagan
dissenting.
Justice Alito’s majority opinion holds that there is no constitutional right
to challenge “any” removal orders and no due process rights for undocumented
immigrants.
Here
is Justice Sotomayor's warning in dissent:
"Today’s decision handcuffs the Judiciary’s ability to
perform its constitutional duty to safeguard individual liberty and dismantles
a critical component of the separation of powers."
The Trump appointee most responsible for pressing so relentlessly
against the entry of any and all immigrants and refugees, whether legal or undocumented,
has been Stephen Miller. By golly, he is going to get rid of those he
considers outsiders, whether or not that harms the economy and people already
here. And Trump has been willing to do Miller’s bidding. What may
have sparked Miller’s extreme animus toward
“others” is a mystery. Even Trump himself has married women
of foreign birth.
Possible immigrant landing on Palm Beach
Nonetheless, desperate and inventive people will take
desperate measures and, indeed, all this may have been happening for a while. The
passengers who just got off at Palm Beach in the dark of night may have planned
to disappear quietly into their immigrant communities. But it couldn’t happen from
Cuba unless port authorities were paid off, because Cuban private boats are not
allowed in Cuban waters, and other vessels, such as foreign cruise ships, are strictly
regulated and searched for stowaways before departure. It may be getting harder
for the Cuban government to control everybody now because it all takes manpower
and so is hard to pay for, even at low wages. Also, now that a Castro is no
longer head-of-state, government authority, de facto, has become more
limited as there are fewer loyalists now. The Cuban government restricts
citizens’ movements within the country and even in the capital. But for
refugees from other countries where commandeering a local boat for a clandestine
drop off is possible, such landings might actually have been occurring for some
time. It might be tough for the Coast Guard to stop it
all, especially if boats land somewhere other than in Florida. But having those
making drop offs leave the scene makes it harder to control. However, it won't
work from Cuba because Cubans are not allowed to have boats, even for fishing.
That's why they make rafts launched in the dead of night. But other countries may have been doing it and evading the
Coast Guard all along.
Russian and Chinese heads of state must be rubbing their hands gleefully
at Trump’s naivete and be still doing their level best to promote his
reelection, since his presidency has led to the United States’ precipitous decline
both relatively and absolutely. Four more years of Trump will create a hole
that the nation may be unable to climb out of. There was no need for Trump to actually
ask for reelection help from the Russians and Chinese, they’ve already
been providing it on their own. That he may have known in advance about Russian
bounties offered to the Taliban and other rogue elements to ambush and kill American
soldiers and did nothing to prevent it and to protect them is a searing
indictment. He might argue in his own defense that their deaths would then help
make his case for leaving Afghanistan.
Of course, Trump and his allies will simply try to dismiss such
allegations as “fake news.” Trump, whose perspective does not extend beyond the
end of his nose and the immediate moment, is easily manipulated by more
sophisticated leaders. It may be uncharitable to affix pejorative labels, but, as
Chairman Kim once observed, Mr. Trump is a “dotard.”
While Mr. Trump may blithely model freedom of
choice and personal independence by rejecting face masks and encouraging folks to
congregate freely, the virus doesn’t care about individual rights. Exercising your
right to risk getting sick does not protect either you or those around you. Trump
supporters who rallied around him in Oklahoma and Arizona are
finding that out. Predictably, cases have spiked after Trump rallies in both
states. And does it make any sense to try to get rid of Obamacare now during
a pandemic? Red-state governors are becoming alarmed by the surge in virus
cases, but dare not call out the president. Meanwhile, anti-vaxxers have been
largely silent. As has been said, no man is an island. Like it or not,
we are all in this pandemic together.
Donald Trump has been unable to articulate any
plans for a second term or say what he hopes to accomplish then. That soft-ball
question, lobbed at him by his pal Sean Hannity on Fox, seemed to
befuddle him. He rambled on about how he came to Washington with no prior
political experience, as has been evident. He has even contemplated the
possibility of losing, saying that then he “will do other things.” He already sounds
defeated. Posts on social media are encouraging Trump to resign before
he loses. Doing so might help him save face by saying that since the election has
been rigged against him, he’s quitting. If he quits, he won’t be tagged with
the “loser” label he so fears. It might also help him avoid taking down so many
Republicans with him, though I’d certainly like to see McConnell go.
Has anyone so ill prepared and ill-suited for
the presidency ever before held that high office? And now Trump’s campaign is questioning
the mental capacity of Joe Bide!?? Give me a break! They should
be careful about calling attention to that quality. All this is exposing the problem
with an Electoral College system that can bestow victory on a candidate
who starts out with such a big deficit in voter support. Trump has never
managed to win over a majority of citizens. In winning over undecided voters,
it helps that Biden had a reputation for moderation.
If Donald Trump had actually even once
told the truth, would we believe him? Is that something he’s even capable of
doing? Can voters afford to really trust him, a key component of any leadership?
After all, lives are at stake. It may be too late for him to change the ingrained
habits of lying and cheating that have served him so well throughout his life. After
all, those tactics have befuddled rivals, catching them off guard, and even gotten
him to the US presidency. What higher office would someone with ambition ever aspire
to in this mortal life?
No doubt, Mr. Trump will go down in the
history books as the weirdest, most unorthodox, most unlikely US president ever,
a prime example of chaos theory in action. It’s something that could never happen,
but it did. His place in history is assured. Can we even imagine what might happen
to a commemorative statue of Donald Trump? It would need a 24-hour
guard. Whew!
A Trump-like figure has even invaded my
dreams, while a female colleague and I have tried to undermine him in a work
setting. Wake me up when all this is over!
Mary Trump, Donald’s niece, plans to come out
with still another tell-all book while the market is still hot. (I don’t
remember any such books being published during the 8 years of the Obama presidency.)
Predictably, Trump is trying to block its release. Once his presidency is over,
its value will plummet. Neither Democrats nor Republicans will want to be
reminded of the sordid details of the Trump era.
My local public radio station aired an interview
recently with Joshua Greenberg, an entrepreneur and author of a
new book, Hello Darkness My Old Friend. He talked about losing his sight
while in college, then going on to achieve success and fortune with the help of
his wife. Greenberg has now set up a foundation aimed at totally eliminating
blindness, which he characterizes as a terrible scourge preventing the natural
enjoyment of God’s own creation.
Certainly, vision is a very useful and
enjoyable sense that should be preserved if at all possible. It is universally
valued.
But adaptatio
Here is our family with President Jimmy
Carter in 1979.
In my Confessions book there is also a
photo of me with Carter when we were both volunteering as observers at the 1990
Nicaraguan elections.
From our earliest days together, my husband
and I had become close friends and collaborators of blind legal scholar and UC
professor Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, who founded the National Federation
of the Blind. TenBroek and his associates promoted a version of blindness
that did not regard it as a scourge, rather as an inconvenience to be sure, but
one that could be overcome. Removing barriers to hiring and supplying adaptive
equipment were and still are federation goals. The federation’s position has
been that negative attitudes toward blindness that do regard it as a scourge and
an unmitigated tragedy not only impact the adaptation of those who lose their
sight, but also end up stigmatizing them,
preventing them from
obtaining employment and from leading a normal, useful, and satisfying life. In
other words, the considerable practical challenges of living without sight are
compounded by negative attitudes toward blindness itself. Therefore, a
prominent blind individual like Greenberg, whose effort seeks to cure or totally
eliminate blindness, while perhaps a worthy endeavor, ends up stigmatizing those
whose sight will never be restored. There will always be blind people. I can
imagine tenBroek and my ex-husband rolling over in their graves at the effort being
promoted now by Greenberg.
I’ve expressed before on these pages my unease about “abortion
rights,” including use of the very awkward term “anti-pro-choice.” I do lean
toward the progressive spectrum on most other issues, including opposing the death
penalty. My nuanced position on abortion comes partly from being both a birth
and an adoptive mother, having adopted babies born before Roe who probably would
not have been born had that law been in effect then. I also have worked as a
social worker, later for 16 years at the American Occupational Therapy
Association, then as a health volunteer in the Peace Corps, and, more recently,
as a Spanish interpreter accompanying therapists working with children with disabilities.
I’ve seen babies born at 22 weeks gestation who are actually doing quite well,
albeit still needing some help, even though the upper limit for abortions under
Roe is 24 weeks.
As I’ve said before, not all embryos frozen in suspended animation
will ever be implanted. Many women have early miscarriages. The abortion pill
is a reality and can be used privately. There is consensus in polls of the
American public showing that a bare majority support “abortion rights” in the
first trimester, but not thereafter. These polls have been consistent over
time, indicating discomfort with the idea of abortion as a woman’s right
after that point. But just when does the fetus’s right to survival kick in? When
can it feel pain if a later abortion is deemed necessary? Former presidential candidate
Pete Buttigieg held that birth is when the soul enters the body
and a fully human being emerges. Obviously, these are not matters of black-and-white.
And, of course, not every baby born, however innocent at
first, will grow up to become an upstanding citizen. A child’s upbringing will always
be be a major factor and a single mother bearing the entire burden of care
without financial and practical assistance from the father is at a
disadvantage. Therefore, I am in favor of supporting single mothers both
financially and with services, while still pressing fathers to do their part. Maybe
Joe Biden, despite, so much else on his plate if he becomes president, can
help spark a more cooperative debate on the abortion issue because it never has
been really settled.
I would never discount the very real discomforts and risks
of pregnancy and giving birth, the only way, so far, that human beings have
been able to come into the world. And there are also the related questions of how
long people should work and whether their lives lose value when they become
unproductive? How long should people live? How should they be
supported? What is a “normal” lifespan and how satisfying are lives inside
nursing homes? Many Covid deaths in nursing homes have been discounted. As I
enter my own later years, I don’t want to be dismissed as superfluous and expendable.
I think the value of all lives, even in the womb, should continue to be
debated.
