Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Now is the Time -- Plowshares of Possibility

Hillary Clinton scored an impressive victory in the New York Democratic primary. She significantly exceeded the expectations of the most politically knowledgeable. Now we must unite the forces in the Democratic Party which when united will win the White House and, with work, retake the Senate and even win the House. The words of Dr. Martin Luther King come to mind:
Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity … Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
This significant victory by Hillary Clinton in the New York Democratic primary should be the time for all those in Senator Sanders’s impressive movement to be united with Hillary Clinton to win the general election. Now is the time to unite the Democratic ranks, who as Secretary Clinton said, have more in common than the differences that keep us apart. Let us come together in unity of purpose most in the Democratic Party and others who support our causes share.  Not to do so invites more Republican obstructionism, more suppression of the vote, more money in politics, more racist hate, millions of cruel deportations, more persons of color imprisonments, economic politics and trade deals that are impossible to keep. It will mean alienation of important allies no matter the flowery Trojan horse sounds that emanate from the Trump campaign. He cannot and never will do what he says he can. In fact, his ignorance of foreign policy even invites nuclear war.
 
If that is not bad enough a Republican stranglehold on the U.S. Supreme Court would be entrenched probably surpassing my lifetime and yours. Last but not least a woman's reproductive control of her own body would cease taking us back to the glory days of illegal unsanitary abortions killing women who, out of desperation, sought them.
 
I said that if Senator Sanders was the ultimate nomination winner he would have my support and he would. Through this significant New York win by Hillary Clinton the path to the nomination for Senator Sanders is very difficult and, in truth, nearly impossible.

Those who vociferously supported Senator Sanders began a movement to erase the choke hold of money that corrupts the very nature of this nation, the democracy of which we try to advocate for others to attain. This movement Senator Sanders began will live long after the efforts he made. I know this movement is not lost on Hillary Clinton. She has heard it. Senator Sanders began a movement that will go beyond the 2016 election into the vast future of our nation if it survives Republican attempts to create a 1% winner take all country leaving nothing for the majority middle class who historically have been its true strength.

Now is the time for those who vociferously supported Senator Sanders and began that movement to have a lasting effect. Now is the time to unite with the other half of the Democratic Party who, I believe, want the same things and that is to make this nation true to the tenets of its origin the words of which lie in New York Harbor at Lady Liberty’s feet:

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Now is the time, indeed, to turn the swords of discord into the plowshares of possibility, work together and live out the true egalitarian creed of our nation.

We can do this and we can do this together if we unite. We merely have to will it so by working for it and, I believe, we will mightily win the day.

A Place in Hell

This is, as I have said, what the world must confront in its Herculean attempt to eradicate polio. It is ignorance at its MOST sickening. Religious fanatics are attempting to interfere with those who valiantly try to stop the spread of one of the most debilitating viruses often occurring mostly in children. Is this possible?

I am usually not a vindictive person but I will confess I can only hope those who kill human beings who are attempting to eradicate the dreaded disease of paralytic polio, should know what it means to suffer permanent paralysis of their limbs and/or the ability to breathe that the virus causes. The global effort to permanently erase the disease from the face of the earth is miraculous but is roadblocked by noxious actions like those described in the article below.

May the killers of those risking their own lives to save others -- especially children -- from this potentially life-long ruinous disease have a special place in hell reserved for them. The story is here or below.




http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/police-officers-guarding-polio-workers-killed-karachi-pakistan-n559041

NOT ANYMORE

  I wrote this last week and for the most part sat on it because I did not want my writing to imply anything against Israel. As stated agai...