I never expected that when I was in my 60’s I’d be fighting some of the very same wars we fought in the 1960’s for human dignity, human rights, and against racism, moral and political corruption and the blatant disregard for the Rule of Law by the President of the United States.
But here we are again, and here I am, along with many others who have been there all along as well. Only now, 50 years later, remarkably, I have more energy than the first time around, and am more outraged and more determined than I’ve ever been in my lifetime to fight to my last breath to make this country a better, fairer, more just place, with respect for all.
Oddly, although I have many more financial assets today than I had 50 years ago as a college student, I feel like I have nothing to lose by giving this fight everything I’ve got. In fact, I have everything to lose, if I don’t fight hard, including my ability to look my granddaughters in their pure, innocent eyes and tell them I did all I could to make life better for them.
So, with the entire direction of the US Supreme Court and the Judicial Branch of government for generations now up for grabs, don’t even think of telling me to temper what I say or how I say it, or to be reasonable or “civil.” Being reasonable and “civil” and playing by the rules is what gave us the non-candidacy of Justice Garland, and the election of the Russian tool and kleptocratic Fascist Donald Trump. Being “civil” has put the very existence of civil society at risk.
Being reasonable has led to the forced separation of refugee children from their mothers, the blatant religious discrimination against Muslims, and the continued battering and abuse of young black men. This is a terribly racist nation and it has been since its inception, but now America is teetering on the brink of totalitarianism, or worse, indifference to totalitarianism, aided and abetted by an avowed enemy of democracy—Russia—which has financed nationalist, anti-democratic movements around the world, including in the US Elections of 2016, as documented by every single American & British Intelligence Agency.
I refuse to be quiet or polite or courteous or “civil” or to play by any rules except these:
- · to preserve what’s left of our democratic institutions;
- · to save this country and guarantee human rights for my granddaughters.
I will use any means necessary to protect the people I love.
I will settle for nothing less than total obstructionism by the Senate Democrats to stop–in whatever way they can–any and all further nominations by Donald Trump to the Federal Courts, and to the US Supreme Court, now over the next four months, and for the remaining two years of Trump’s term, if he isn’t forced to resign sooner for criminal conduct or conspiring with the Russians to undermine democracy and our national interest.
The mere concept of a President under an ominous cloud of a far-reaching criminal indictment and of conspiring to undermine democratic institutions and the Rule of Law with a foreign adversary, is, on its face, enough to disqualify any nomination for any judicial position, especially the Supreme Court. To do otherwise is tantamount to enabling Gambino Crime Family Boss John Gotti to select his own judges and juries.
I will continue to work as hard as I can, write as much as I can, and contribute as much money as I can afford, to ensure a Democratic take-over of the US Senate and the House of Representatives this fall. There can be no compromise on this and no surrender. Any Democrat who caves in, deserves disgrace and defeat. Anyone calling for moderation, or for making peace with mendacity and extremism, has lost all credibility in this grave new world in which we live.
I’m tired of the timidity of too many liberals and progressives who luxuriate in wringing their hands over how horrible everything is, but are too reserved to wring the necks of the people who are the causes of the horror. Shaming public officials in public places for their shameful behavior as public officials is a perfectly valid form of protest, advocated and practiced by Dr. Martin Luther King, as a form of direct Civil Disobedience. I am committed to doing it even more aggressively, and to make it my mission to ensure that the comfortable find no comfort.
Like Dr. King, I am neither a liberal, a conservative, nor a progressive, but a radical in the truest sense of the word. I am dedicated to rooting out the underlying causes of the inhumane governmental actions and hateful private attitudes which are rotting the very foundations of this society.
I am not intimidated by the current turn of events in the courts, in Congress, nor by the constant ooze of lies, hate, lawlessness and massive corruption flowing out of the Executive Branch, like lava from an active volcano. If anything, my senses are sharper and on high alert, and I am emboldened, and far, far more dangerous than I ever was the first time I fought this war 50 years ago.
I have been through the valley of death and defeat many times, and I fear no man.