[mpen-dayton4] "FW: Demo & Rally in Dayton" and FW: "Pearl Harbor and today" & "FW: Nancy Pelosi's Response to "Yes, I am a Muslim" & "Equality under attack in U.S. Supreme Court" and more
FYI. Best, Munsup
P.S. Please reply back to me with 'unsubscribe' on the subject line if you no longer want to receive my e-Newsletters. The convenient link to unsubscribe is no longer available due to security reasons to protect my email servers.
P.P.S. "He who dares not offend cannot be honest" - Thomas Paine
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· (Dec. 12 in Dayton) Demo in Dayton
· (Dec. 12 in Dayton) FW: Newtown Vigil and End Gun Violence Rally
· FW: Urgent: 4 days left to get 2016 coverage
· FW: Pearl Harbor and today
· FW: The New Fascism
· FW: Nancy Pelosi's Response to "Yes, I am a Muslim"
· FW: Psyching Out the Tea Party - by Vern Turner
· FW: It Wasn't Just Waterboarding
· FW: Equality under attack in U.S. Supreme Court
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From: Hilary Lerman; Daytonians Against War Now (DAWN)
Subject: [DAWN] Demo in Dayton
DAWN! is calling for a demonstration this Saturday, December 12 on the corner of Stroop and Far Hills at 1:00 pm.
With blowhard Donald Trump calling for a ban on Muslims entering the US., this further intensifies the war hysteria here. We need to show our solidarity with the Muslim community and stop the escalating war in the Middle East which overwhelming targets Muslims. Especially in the time of religious holidays such as Christmas and Hannukah, we need to reaffirm our commitment to PEACE!!!
From: Donald Nguyen, MD, FAAP & Matthew Noordsij-jones, MD; Co-Directors for Doctors for America, Ohio.
Subject: Newtown Vigil and End Gun Violence Rally
Date: December 12, 2015
Time: 10:30 am - 12 noon
Location: Dayton Cultural Center
40 S Edwin C Moses
Dayton, OH 45402
If you are as frustrated, saddened, and upset as I am about the gun violence epidemic of our nation, you should know that there is renewed hope and resolve on the part of Doctors for America along with a tsunami of organizations and faith based groups to fight to end gun violence. Just hours before the shooting in San Bernardino, California, DFA physicians along with our partners descended on Capitol Hill to deliver a petition of over 2000 physicians asking Congress to stop and lift the ban on gun violence research that has been in existence in this country for 20 years. Back in 1998, Jay Dickey, a former Republican member of Congress from Arkansas, introduced a legislation to limit funding to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on gun violence research. This ban effectively stated that "None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the CDC may be used to advocate or promote gun control", and has had a chilling effect on all gun violence research since then. Furthermore, Congress extended the Dickey Amendment to prevent similar research to be done at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in 2011. Can we all say "Stupid is as stupid does?". You should also know that DFA also delivered to Congress on the same day a letter from Jay Dickey himself, who regretted that he wrote that legislation, and now is in favor of lifting and end this horrible ban on gun violence research. He stated "Doing nothing is no longer an acceptable solution."
In comparison, $240 million are spent annually on traffic safety research and seat belts, air bags and numerous traffic safety measures have saved over 613,000 lives since 1960. The same type of safety research on concussions, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, lead poisoning, etc. has saved countless lives. Can you imagine if gun violence research had been done the same way and many more lives would have been saved?
This Saturday, Doctors for America will partner with Organizing for America, Ohio State Lead, and Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence to gather and remember those innocent lives that were taken 3 years ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and for a vigil to remember 30,000 Americans killed by gun violence every year. I will join the following speakers and I invite you all to join me in this event:
Monica Lofton, Case Manager at Community Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence, City of Dayton;
Jennifer Thorne - Executive Director - Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, Columbus, Ohio;
Rev. Dr. Crystal Walker - Executive Director, Greater Dayton Christian Connections
Rev Dr. Rosario Picardo, Pastor at The Point, Trotwood, Ohio
Host will be Martha Clark, Organizing For Action, Ohio State Lead
From: The HealthCare.gov Team
Subject: Urgent: 4 days left to get 2016 coverage
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From: James Lucas
Subject: Pearl Harbor and today
What Can Pearl Harbor Teach Us About 9/11 And Other 'Surprises?' By Mickey Z. on 02 November, 2015
When I was 10 years old Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I remember how during the 4 years of that war a virulent bigotry against the Japanese was fomented by our leaders. Later I learned that we as Americans had been deceived into believing that the Japanese were innately "sneaky" and that the true factors that led to that attack were kept from the American people just as the key facts today about the causes of terrorism against the US are concealed from us. The link below to an article by Mickey Z. elaborates on those days three-quarters of a century ago. Will we learn from that history or will we continue to be led like sheep by war mongers? - Jim Lucas
http://worldnewstrust.com/what-can-pearl-harbor-teach-us-about-9-11-and-other-surprises
What Can Pearl Harbor Teach Us About 9/11 and Other 'Surprises?'
Author : Mickey Z.
Photo credit: Mickey Z.
In my 2004 book, Seven Deadly Spins, the first propaganda "spin" I decoded was "The Sleeping Giant."
It's an excuse we all learn in childhood: "He started it" or "She hit me first." From this rudimentary alibi grows the myth of the "sleeping giant." By portraying oneself as the innocent target of an unprovoked sneak attack, all bases are covered. Translation: Once rudely awakened, don't blame the sleeping giant if he responds a tad overzealously towards all those sneaky enemies (e.g. Native Americans, communists, Muslims).
We are fast approaching the 74th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 -- the mother of all "sleeping giant" spins. The day after the attack, the sainted Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Congress. The United States was "at peace" with Japan, he stated, yet had been "suddenly and deliberately attacked."
However, as historian Thomas A. Bailey wrote: "Franklin Roosevelt repeatedly deceived the American people during the period before Pearl Harbor… He was like the physician who must tell the patient lies for the patient's own good."
The diplomatic record reveals some of what Dr. Roosevelt neglected to include in that now-mythical "Date of Infamy" speech:
· Dec. 14, 1940: Joseph Grew, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, sends a letter to FDR, announcing that, "It seems to me increasingly clear that we are bound to have a showdown (with Japan) some day."
· Dec. 30, 1940: Pearl Harbor is considered so likely a target of Japanese attack that Rear Admiral Claude C. Bloch, commander of the Fourteenth Naval District, authors a memorandum entitled, "Situation Concerning the Security of the Fleet and the Present Ability of the Local Defense Forces to Meet Surprise Attacks."
· Jan. 27, 1941: Grew (in Tokyo) sends a dispatch to the State Department: "My Peruvian Colleague told a member of my staff that the Japanese military forces planned, in the event of trouble with the United States, to attempt a surprise mass attack on Pearl Harbor using all of their military facilities."
· Feb. 5, 1941: Bloch's Dec. 30, 1940, memorandum leads to much discussion and eventually a letter from Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner to Secretary of War Henry Stimson in which Turner warns, "The security of the U.S. Pacific Fleet while in Pearl Harbor, and of the Pearl Harbor Naval Base itself, has been under renewed study by the Navy Department and forces afloat for the past several weeks ... If war eventuates with Japan, it is believed easily possible that hostilities would be initiated by a surprise attack upon the Fleet or the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor ... In my opinion, the inherent possibilities of a major disaster to the fleet or naval base warrant taking every step, as rapidly as can be done, that will increase the joint readiness of the Army and Navy to withstand a raid of the character mentioned above."
· Feb. 18, 1941: Commander in Chief, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel says, "I feel that a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor is a possibility."
· Nov. 25, 1941: Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson writes in his diary that, "The President ... brought up entirely the relations with the Japanese. He brought up the event that we're likely to be attacked [as soon as] next Monday for the Japanese are notorious for making an attack without warning."
· Nov. 27, 1941: U.S. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall issues a memorandum cautioning that "Japanese future action unpredictable but hostile action possible at any moment. If hostilities cannot ... be avoided, the United States desires that Japan commit the first overt action."
· Nov 29, 1941: Secretary of State Cordell Hull, responding to a speech by Japanese General Hideki Tojo one week before the attack, phones FDR at Warm Springs, GA to warn of "the imminent danger of a Japanese attack," and urge him to return to Washington sooner than planned.
Obviously, this was a not exactly a surprise attack but why would Japan attack Pearl Harbor? The brutal combination of capitalism and white supremacy, perhaps?
The events of Dec. 7, 1941, were roughly two decades in the making. In 1922, the United States and Britain imposed upon Japan an agreement that the Japanese navy would not be allowed more than 60 percent of the capital ship tonnage of the other two powers. That same year, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Japanese immigrants ineligible for American citizenship, and one year later the Supreme Court upheld a California and Washington ruling denying Japanese the right to own property. The year 1924 saw the passage of the Exclusion Act -- which virtually banned all Asian immigration. (Sound familiar?)
On the economic front, when Japan textiles began out-producing Lancashire mills, the British Empire (including India, Australia, Burma, etc.) raised the tariff on Japanese exports by 25 percent. Within a few years, the Dutch followed suit in Indonesia and the West Indies, with the United States (in Cuba and the Philippines) not far behind. Such moves, combined with Japan's expanding colonial designs, brought the United States. and Japan ever closer to conflict.
When France fell to Germany in 1940, the Japanese moved quickly to take military control of French colonies in Indochina (the primary U.S. source for tin and rubber). On July 21, 1941, Japan signed a preliminary agreement with the Nazi-sympathizing Vichy government leading to Japanese occupation of airfields and naval bases in Indochina.
Almost immediately, the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands instituted a total embargo on oil and scrap metal to Japan -- tantamount to a declaration of war. This was followed soon after by the United States and UK freezing all Japanese assets in their respective countries.
Radhabinod Pal, one of the judges in the post-war Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, later argued that the United States had clearly provoked the war with Japan, calling the embargoes a "clear and potent threat to Japan's very existence."
Since the attack wasn't a total surprise, you may be wondering how the Americans still managed to get caught with their pants down on Dec. 7, 1941. Again, I urge you to not underestimate the collective power of capitalism, white supremacy, and arrogance.
Racists within the U.S. military and government never imagined that Japan could orchestrate such a successful offensive. Few Westerners took the Japanese seriously, with journalists regularly referring to them as "apes in khaki" during the early months of their conquest of Southeast Asia.
"Many Americans, including Roosevelt, dismissed the Japanese as combat pilots because they were all presumed to be 'near-sighted'," historian Kenneth C. Davis writes. "There was also a sense that any attack on Pearl Harbor would be easily repulsed."
Which brings us neatly to a more recent case of the sleeping giant: 9/11. Putting aside theories about remote-controlled planes or devices planted in the WTC, it's easy to imagine both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had more than an inkling that Osama and Co. were plotting something big. Why not? As in the decades leading up to Pearl Harbor, the United States was again acting as "a clear and potent threat" to many peoples' existence.
It's equally as palatable to assume that either party would gladly exploit any attack on the homeland for their benefit and that of their corporate benefactors.
In addition, and here's where the Dec. 7 angle really comes into play, what reasonably objective observer would be shocked to learn that both U.S. regimes never believed a group of cave-dwelling nomads could pull off anything approaching the success of 9/11?
One more parallel to ponder: Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, with the image of a uniquely treacherous enemy spread throughout America, U.S. Admiral William Halsey (soon to become commander of the South Pacific Force) vowed that by the end of the war, "Japanese would be spoken only in hell." His favorite slogan "Kill Japs, kill Japs, kill more Japs" echoed the sentiments of Admiral William D. Leahy, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who wrote that "in fighting with Japanese savages, all previously accepted rules of warfare must be abandoned."
Change the word "Japanese" to "Muslim" and well, you know the rest…
When attempting to discern the truth about the events surrounding 9/11, in this history-challenged society, it never hurts to examine what's come before.
Mickey Z. is the author of 13 books, most recently Occupy these Photos: NYC Activism Through a Radical Lens. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, you can "like" his Facebook page here and follow his blog here. Anyone wishing to support his activist efforts can do so by making a donation here.
From: Michael Keegan; President, People For the American Way
Subject: The New Fascism
A Special Note for Our Valued Supporters:
As Donald Trump further solidifies his commanding lead in the polls, the growing movement on the Right that continues to prop up his candidacy looks terrifyingly familiar. There's a word for it. That word is fascism.
And it's a problem that is much bigger than Trump:
- Republican candidates across the board have pledged to vote for Trump if he or someone just as extreme ends up with the nomination... they must know how dangerous this divisive demagoguery and scapegoating is, but they put party over country without pause.
- Pundits have been saying for months that the Republican establishment will do whatever it takes to stop Trump. But that's not true. The Washington Post just reported on a confidential memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee that actually urges other Republican candidates to be more like Trump.
- The Tea Party has dragged the GOP farther and farther to the right for years, and now Trump's success is dragging the party even farther … and while the entire Republican Party and all of its candidates move more towards the right-wing fringe, to many voters, they look almost moderate next to Trump. THAT will be a huge challenge for progressives in elections at every level next year.
Trump is just the face of a much more profound crisis: his style and rhetoric speaks directly to the fears and passions of a sizable part the Republican base.
No matter what happens with his candidacy, too many people's worst instincts have been awoken and encouraged, and the Right Wing is perhaps a bigger threat to our fundamental rights and values than it has ever been.
2016 will not just be another election. Frankly, it will be the year we fight domestic fascism.
And that is a fight we better win.
Any doubts that what Trump represents is a sharp move towards fascism by the political Right?
His supporters have roughed up a Black Lives Matter protester at one of his rallies and committed at least one act of violence against a homeless man that was seemingly inspired by his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Just over the last couple of weeks:
- Trump has aggressively spread lies about thousands of American Muslims celebrating on 9/11, even after the lies were refuted, insisting HE is right and everyone else -- especially those in the media -- are engaged in a sinister cover up.
- He mocked a reporter's physical disability.
- He gave a speech to a Jewish organization that leaned heavily on bigoted stereotypes and included lines like, "Is there anyone in this room who doesn't negotiate deals? Probably more than any room I've ever spoken." and "You're not going to support me because I don't want your money."
- Without any evidence whatsoever, he recklessly accused the family of one of the San Bernardino shooters of having advance knowledge of the attack. He even singled out the shooter's sister and said, "I would go after a lot of people and find out whether or not they knew. I'd be able to find out. Cause I don't believe the sister."
Trump's assertions that he is the only one who can Keep Us Safe™ and restore our nation to glory -- or, "make American great again" -- bear the mark of rhetoric used by demagogues and despots throughout the last century. And in the case of Trump, many Republicans are swallowing it hook, line, and sinker. A new poll shows that "more Republicans (46%) think Trump can handle ISIS better than his closest competition (Cruz at 15%)."
It CAN happen here.
The New York Times analyzed "every public utterance" by Donald Trump over one week "from rallies, speeches, interviews, and news conferences" and detailed the striking level at which he "uses rhetoric to erode people's trust in facts, numbers, nuance, government and the news media," and uses techniques commonly associated with divisive political figures like Joseph McCarthy and George Wallace.
The report also noted, "a significant difference between Mr. Trump and 20th-century American demagogues is that many of them, especially McCarthy and Wallace, were charmless public speakers. Mr. Trump, by contrast, is an energetic and charismatic speaker who can be entertaining and ingratiating with his audiences."
Soak it in, but remember, Trump was just the spark that started this fire. The real problem is that this modern version of right-wing ultra-nationalism is only growing.
The Republican Party created this monster. Republican leaders realized that a party wholly owned by economic elites and corporate special interests could only win elections by distracting people with fear and xenophobia, exploiting the anxieties of some about our rapidly diversifying country. The racists, nativists, homophobes, religious extremists, and conspiracy theorists who fueled the Tea Party are now serving as fertile ground for a movement even more dangerous.
Freedom and equality loving Americans from coast to coast need to be sounding the alarm now. And, more than that, we need to be getting organized for 2016.
Defending the American Way was never more important. And your support for People For the American Way was never more needed or appreciated.
From: HealthCare.gov Reminders by The HealthCare.gov Team,
Subject: 1 week left: December 15 deadline
The deadline is only 1 week away. Now's your chance to get covered! |
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Remember: You must enroll by December 15 for coverage starting January 1.
8 out of 10 people who enrolled in a health insurance plan qualified for financial help. In fact, most people can find plans for $75 or less per month.
From: Nancy Pelosi
Subject: My Response to "Yes, I am a Muslim"
Did you see Mansoor's email? It's very important -- please read it.
Hateful policy has become the new normal for Republican Presidential candidates, and Congressional Republicans are backing them up.
Will you please pitch in $5 to hold Republicans accountable?
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From: Mansoor Khadir; Northeast Field Director, DCCC
Subject: Yes, I am a Muslim
I'm an American and also a Muslim.
Today, I'm asking all Americans of every faith to join me to denounce Donald Trump's hate speech.
His plan to shut Muslims out of America has no place in our Democracy.
His prejudice against Muslims is reckless, dangerous and racist.
Trump doesn't understand what makes America great.
We are a nation of different faiths, but we share a common belief that our differences only make us better, and together -- we can build a stronger America.
That is the greatness of our nation.
Will you stand with me and other progressives in denouncing Trump's hateful comments?
Every day, Muslims in America like myself are working hard to strengthen our communities.
Muslim Americans own businesses. We are leaders in communities, teachers in local schools and members of the Armed Forces. We are fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers. And we are your neighbors.
Simply put: We are Americans.
And as an American -- I think it's time we said NO to the hate.
Join me to denounce Trump's Muslim prejudice.
Paid for by the DCCC | 430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington, DC 20003 | (202) 863-1500 | www.dccc.org | Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
From: Kathleen To
Subject: FW: Psyching Out the Tea Party - by Vern Turner
A good friend, Vern Turner, is an accomplished author specializing in political writing I believe you'd learn from his latest article below: - Kathleen
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From: Vern Turner
Subject: Psyching Out the Tea Party - by Vern Turner
This, my latest article, might explain things in a little more depth.
Psyching Out the Tea Party
By Vern Turner
Much to my embarrassment and self-loathing, I have been exchanging very nasty e-mails with a true believing Tea Party activist in my area. This person disagrees with anything and everything concerning politics that are even a little outside his concrete room, aka his mind. See what I mean. Well, this person doubles down on his critiques of my statements, and comments by directing all sorts of psychological blather at me for even having the temerity to disagree with him – as if he knows what he's talking about. Finally, after four years I decided to research real authority about Tea Party true believers and why they are the way they are. I think it's important to know this since there are presidential candidates out there who actually think they can win and create the kind of theological anarchy found in garden spots of democracy like Iran.
The most succinct analysis comes from a 2010 article by Dr. Michael Bader, DMH, titled We Need to Have Empathy for Tea Partiers. He begins with the profile: They are usually straight, white, protestant native-born Americans who are afraid of change and compromise. The typical TP-er has paranoia issues as a basis for his/her thoughts about everything. They have feelings of helplessness and worthlessness and try to solve what they perceive to be profound problems in ways that distort reality. I think that is evident in the rhetoric of people like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump who are playing to this audience. The TP-er is also compelled to delusion that makes sense to them as an antidote for low self-esteem and a yearning for a sense of meaning and a search for a possibility for redemption. The Tea Party is a collection of these people and they've generated a group narrative that explains everything to them. They've developed a set of beliefs of how things are supposed to be and anyone or any other idea not in line with those beliefs becomes an enemy. They do this to reduce their own guilt and project blame to others by creating straw men as one method. If the "enemy" can be destroyed, the paranoid person's feelings of helplessness and devaluation go away.
The political entity, the Tea Party, tends not to align with mainstream Republicans, labels them RINOs and denigrates every moderate politician on both sides. These folks are generally political neophytes, were activated by the Bush recession and surf right-wing extremist websites constantly. This is a kind of group bonding activity for this mindset that feeds their need to avoid the feelings mentioned above. Their feelings of victimization are then transformed into ones of self-righteousness militancy that distorts reality into malevolent conspiracies, hence the paranoia factor.
The right-wing media is a provider for this "market" with the likes of Glenn Beck, Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh and a host of others – all becoming millionaires for feeding the beast of these people clinging to their manufactured reality. This gives them relief from that helplessness by believing that everything is falling apart and that their way is the only way to salvation. What they want to save, however, is not the nation, but themselves. The TP true believers feel real pain, and move from legitimate feelings and normal longings to paranoid political positions that are dangerous and cruel. They cannot, unfortunately, be reasoned with by logic for reasons known only to them; each individual case having its own parameters. So, the job of the therapist, Bader says, is to find a way to mitigate the pain through therapy and bring the individual back to some sort of reality-based life.
To illustrate how much angrier opposing views have become, John Wayne in 1960 said that even though he didn't vote for John Kennedy, he hoped he would do a good job. Rush Limbaugh, on the other hand, wished that Barack Obama would fail as President. This is not a conservative view. This is reactionary behavior from people who are getting rich off those folks struggling with their own demons. Frankly, I can't think of anything more disgusting and sinister as Limbaugh or the talking tree stumps on Fox News who CONSTANTLY assail the current President for everything. This sort of media effort does nothing more than drive the already hurting people toward even more pain as it is compacted in the ideology of fascism. Here are some comparisons between Germany of the 30s and 40s and recent remarks from the leading Republican candidate for President, Donald Trump:
Germany | Trump |
Used racism to gain power | Uses racism to gain power |
Proposed mass deportations | Proposes mass deportations |
Promised to make Germany great | Promises to make America great |
Anti-Jew Fascist | Anti-Muslim Fascist |
Blames Jews for Germany's problems | Blames immigrants for America's problems |
Made Jews wear special ID tags | Thinks Muslims should wear special Ids |
It doesn't get more parallel than that.
Looking back at my columns from six years ago until recently, I've been beating around this bush (no pun intended) regarding the creep toward fascism and the Tea Party's involvement in promoting it. Nazi psyche has been worked over for decades and seems to fit the same profile as that mentioned above. Of course, the difference is that Hitler went completely around the bend; the power he acquired enabled his madness and he lost any credibility as a world leader when he attacked the Jews and blamed them for everything. The Holocaust and the mindless slaughter everywhere else was the tragic result of paranoia run amok without constraint.
The point is that in order to prevent a recurrence of the horrible events of the last century, we the people must be made more aware of what causes them. Exposing Hitler's madness gave us insight into deranged, unhinged leaders during the adolescence of mechanized war. Today, warfare is not just mechanized, it is instant, devastating and broadly applicable. Can the world allow similar personality traits to lead any nation with these conventional and nuclear capabilities? We simply cannot afford political failure anywhere that allows "modern day" demagoguery to rule any country with such vast power and control over life on Earth. It is not only dangerous, but inherently irresponsible. That means that, in a democracy, the eligible voters must be registered and informed of the choices before them. Uninformed or lazy voters enable demagogues to gain power and are enabled to destroy freedoms and democracy, one law at a time.
Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are all saying things that destroy various Amendments to the Constitution. Why would they do that, unless their audience wanted to hear it? Their audience favors the kind of anarchy the Tea Party psyche wants in order to feel less afraid, less guilty and less suspicious of all others. If America does in fact wake up to this, this radical wing of the Republican party will be kicked to the curb and we as a nation will be better able to deal with our problems instead of our fears. 
From: Judy Burnette
Subject: FW: "It Wasn't Just Waterboarding"
" ... Read about six of the most flagrant 'enhanced interrogation' methods used by the CIA—and remember why they must never be used again. ... " - Judy
It's been one year since the U.S. Senate released the bombshell findings from its report on the horrific torture methods employed by the CIA.
Now, as some of the presidential candidates support reviving those discredited techniques, it's important to recall exactly how brutal—and ineffective—they were.
© Jim Watson/Getty
Read about six of the most flagrant "enhanced interrogation" methods used by the CIA—and remember why they must never be used again.
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From: Richard Cohen; President, Southern Poverty Law Center, FIGHTING HATE // TEACHING TOLERANCE // SEEKING JUSTICE
Subject: Equality under attack in U.S. Supreme Court
The far-right backlash against our civil rights progress reaches the U.S. Supreme Court this week with two critically important cases that could dramatically set back efforts to achieve racial equality in our nation.
In Evenwel v. Abbott, heard by the Court yesterday, the plaintiffs are seeking to demolish our longstanding "one person, one vote" standard, so that only voters, not all people, are counted when legislative districts are drawn.
This is nothing less than a power grab and a frontal assault on the core of the 14th Amendment, which was enacted after the Civil War to give equal representation and protection to all people.
Voting rights experts say that by not counting everyone – including children, unnaturalized immigrants and others who can't vote – our political system inevitably will become even more skewed toward the political right, because urban areas will lose representation.
In Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, being heard today, the plaintiffs hope to strip our universities of the right to consider racial diversity as a compelling factor when making individual admissions decisions.
You and I understand that diversity in our institutions of higher learning enriches all of us. It expands opportunity to talented minority students who face so many barriers in life. It reduces racial isolation, which helps us overcome prejudice. And, the exposure of all students to the perspectives of others is critical to our future in an increasingly complex and globalized world.
That's why we filed a brief supporting this affirmative action policy. To foster diversity, universities must have the ability to help level the playing field for disadvantaged or marginalized young people.
We've made so much progress. But I'm concerned about the erosion of rights that have made us a more just nation.
It's particularly worrisome that both cases are part of a systematic legal campaign by the same right-wing legal organization – called, ironically, the Project on Fair Representation – that earlier succeeded in gutting the Voting Rights Act.
In Evenwel, the lead plaintiff is a Texas Tea Party activist who has promoted far-right conspiracy theories about President Obama. Her co-plaintiff says that "[t]he Jew is the enemy of the Cross" and has characterized the Holocaust as a "miracle."
I hope you'll take the time to read more about these cases and make your voice heard.
And, if you're in Washington on Wednesday, please join others who will be gathering on the Supreme Court steps at 8 a.m. to show support for diversity in our universities.
Thank you for everything you do for justice and equality
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End of MPEN e-Newsletter
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