"Remove Barriers" and removing a barrier

 In a Zoom call this morning, friends and I discussed Biden's first campaign ad, his speech commemorating January 6th, and the likelihood of his winning the election. Our consensus was that the ad focused on Democracy was nice but insufficient and likely ineffective at moving people, getting people to feel an urgency to support and vote. His January 6th speech was likewise admired but found too removed from the public's immediate concerns for the welfare and security of their family. 

Someone of us suggested we ought to write a speech for Biden, and it was taken up as a challenge. In fact, two speeches were suggested: a campaign speech and the speech we'd like to hear Biden make. Here are my takes on each. 

First, Remove Barriers:

                                                                    A Biden Campaign Speech

My Fellow Americans:

I have been listening to your voices and concerns in face-to-face conversations with many of you across this great nation, through focus groups and surveys my campaign staff have conducted, through conversations with your Congressional Representatives and Senators, and through what you have been saying to interviewers and commentators. What I hear is that you are frustrated by barriers to achieving your goals and realizing your wishes for yourselves and your families.

I hear you. And I pledge to you tonight my dedication to removing those barriers. In fact, I intend to make “removal of barriers” the central theme of our Democratic Party, the central idea behind our proposals and the priorities of my administration – not waiting to start until after the election but to set out on this crusade to remove barriers right now, tonight, tomorrow morning.

What kind of barriers need to be removed?

•  The barriers of cost of education and the burden of student loans need to be lessened if not removed.
• The barrier of prescription drug costs, especially for the elderly, needs to be lowered. 
• The barrier of restricted access to Medicaid and Medicare needs to be removed.
• The barriers to fair, fast, compassionate and responsive processing of legal immigrants need to be removed – now -- but the barriers to illegal immigration need to be raised..
•  The barrier to affordable housing are beyond the powers of a President, of either party. But I pledge to understand and enact policies that will facilitate development, affordable financing, fair and equitable rental processes, and policies that will accommodate Federal Reserve support of affordable lending and mortgage rates.
• The barriers to unionization, to creating and joining a union, must be removed.
• The barriers to open and candid exploration of history and expression of ideas in whatever venue – books, school rooms, media of all sorts, must be removed.
• The barrier of monopoly and concentrated market power that stifles the innovator and entrepreneur must be reduced if not removed.
• The barriers to voting must be removed.

In short, we intend to address and reduce if not remove all the barriers that stand between you and good healthcare, between you and your and your grandchildren’s attainment of aspirations, between you and your comfort and security in the American middle class.

We have accomplished much these past three years, but we still have much to do. With your support Removal of Barriers will become synonymous with the Democratic Party and our guiding star as we prepare policies and programs and set priorities for 2025 and beyond. Give us your endorsement and support, and together we will remove barriers and make 21^st century America a beacon of democracy and of effective and compassionate capitalism, a beacon shining out to a world cowed by paranoid autocrats, centrally controlled economies -- a world hungry for optimism and freedom.

(Chant: REMOVE BARRIERS! REMOVE BARRIERS! REMOVE BARRIERS!)

Thank you, and God bless you and these United States of America. May God protect our troops.

True, this speech addresses only domestic issues and avoids the rocky rapids of Ukraine aid, of Israel and Palestine balance, of China and Taiwan. But I believe domestic issues are the ones that will hold the center-left and motivate independent voters.

And now, for removing a barrier --

The Biden Speech I Yearn For

My Fellow Americans: 

Tonight, I announce a decision I believe will invigorate our democratic republic and inject new energy into our American experiment to demonstrate that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people – to quote a great Republican, President Abraham Lincoln – shall bring to every American the freedom and opportunity to thrive and prosper in the 21^st Century.

Jill and I have been deliberating on the relentless passage of time; on the contributions we both have made over the last 24 years; on the pressures of national and world affairs with which we have dealt; and on the examples set by Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Jim Clyburn. Jill and I have decided that I will not accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for President in the election of 2024. Instead, I will stand aside and welcome a new generation of Democratic leadership.

AS BIDEN SPEAKS, CURTAINS PART BEHIND HIM, REVEALING A GROUP OF 24 SEATED ON RISERS BEHIND HIM.

Here are twenty-four young, talented, energetic Democratic leaders capable of managing our affairs of state and guiding the ship of our Republic. (INTRODUCING EACH TO STAND AND BE RECOGNIZED.)

Representative Pete Aguilar

Mayor Karen Bass

Secretary Antony Blinken

Senator Cory Booker

Secretary Pete Buttigieg

Secretary Julian Castro

Representative Juaquin Castro

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

Vice President Kamala Harris

Senator Mazie Hirono

Governor Kathy Hochul

Representative Hakeem Jeffries

Secretary Deb Holland

Senator Amy Klobuchar

Governor Wes Moore

Governor Gavin Newsom

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Governor Jared Polis

Governor J. B. Pritzker

Representative Jamie Raskin

Representative Adam Schiff

Senator Jon Tester

Governor Gretchen Whitmer

Mayor Michele Wu

And these 24 are merely representative of many, many more Democrat leaders on whom we will call this year and in the future.

These folks and others of their peers are our future.

I am not endorsing any young Democrat tonight, but I will endorse and actively support any of these or any other energetic, competent, pragmatic Democrat the party nominates to be my successor.

Fellow Americans: Nancy Pelosi, Bill Belichick, Nick Saban, Pete Carroll all have recognized that it is time to move over and make ways for others. They go out winners -- and Jill and I have chosen to join them.

Ours Democratic Party is the Party of Progress, the Party of Plenty, the Party of Empathy and Compassion, the Party that develops leaders -- and here they are, today. 

God bless these men and women; God bless you; God bless these United States of America, and God protect our troops.

This speech would negate any chance of President Trump being returned to the White House and assure Democratic majorities in the Senate and House. I yearn for it.

Isn't it Past Time to Cancel The Nutcracker?

‘Tis the season to sit through another Nutcracker. Molly, our beautiful granddaughter, danced again as she has for several years, this year as a party guest, a snowflake, a flower, and so on. She is a lovely and graceful dancer; I love to watch her dance. She is also an awesomely powerful lacrosse mid-fielder with a wickedly accurate shot. I love to watch her play. But of the two, lacrosse is harmless and engrossing entertainment. The Nutcracker not so subtly, not so.

Don't misunderstand. Tchaikovsky's music is glorious; the costumes and sets in a good production are beautiful and evocative; the dancing, entrancing. It's the content I and many object to, and should be cancelled.  

It is disconcerting to hear myself talk of cancellation – I who believe proscription of speech is wrong and speech should only be judged appropriate or inappropriate after it has been delivered. But if found inappropriate many times year after year and in many places, is it not then OK to cancel it?

About The Nutcracker, of which Tchaikovsky said “ . . . in spite of all the sumptuousness it did turn out to be rather boring:” it is not merely boring but also unforgivably racist. The Chinese tea dance has attracted opprobrium for years, with New York, San Francisco, London, PNB and scores of other companies hoping that by revising it they’d minimize racist overtones and avoid offending Asians (Feministi, 2010; Dance magazine, 2013; New York Times, 2019, 2021, and lots more.)

But that’s not all; there’s the sexy Arabian Coffee number with stereotypical harem-pantalooned temptress; the good girl/bad boy stereotype; the violence; and I’m sure animal rights folks are lurking. And over it all the Freudian acting-out of adolescent dreams of heroic, macho princes rescuing virginal maidens.

Boredom, racism, ethnic and gender stereotypes, chauvinism, violence, and sexual repression – what’s not to dislike? OK, some of you will accuse me of being excessively woke. But explain away bored.

It is time to relegate to the music library this 19^thC pean to Czar Nicholas’s empire – for Tchaikovsky’s music is beloved – and anoint some new Christmas tale to render in dance.

A ballet ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, anyone? 

Hamas Has Won the War

Who wins a war? Those who kill the most people? Or those who achieve their political aims?

Hamas, not Palestine and not Israel, has already won this war at a fearsome cost of thousands of their constituents' lives, horrific displacement of millions of their hostage/constituent Gazans, and a senseless massacre of 1200-some Israelis. 

Israel can kill Palestinians and shoot down Hezbollah, Hamas, and Houthi rockets but can never kill the extremists' dreams of ridding the world of Jews. In the meantime, Hamas' war has 

• restored Palestine to Arab center stage; 
• disrupted the inevitable process of reconciling the Arab street to the existence of neighbor Israel; 
• resuscitated the nearly dead two-state necessity; 
• forced the world to look with opprobrium upon illegal settlements of occupied West Bank land; 
• dealt, perhaps, a death-blow to the political life of Binyamin Netanyahu; 
• strengthened the hand of progressive, liberal Israelis; 
• and -- most important -- weakened America's unquestioning resolve to support Israel.    

Big wins -- at horrific cost -- but big wins for Hamas.  

Values

On a Zoom discussion Thursday, one break-out group got onto discussing values – what, the question was, are truly your values? The group agreed that reflecting on and assessing one’s core values was a difficult and valuable regimen.

In follow-up to my catalog of my beliefs, developed in the same reflective and difficult process (Northwest Ruminations: Sept 11^th, below) here are what I regard as my values:

The Rghts to be Respected and to be Heard: everyone has value and deserves to be understood.

·          Facts, History and Science: information and perspective are necessary to dealing with the world.

·          Pragmatism: what works trumps ideology and theory.

W     Equity, Justice, and Fairness         

        Life: living beings are connected in a web of force, the origin of which is unknowable. Best bet: treat sensate beings as sacred.

·           Skepticism: a grain of salt is a required ingredient for effective citizenship.

·           Community: better to go slow by consensus and collaboration than fast alone; I’ll go further in the end.     

·           Accountability, i.e., accepting and acknowledging responsibility for one’s (my) acts.

·           Humility: nobody likes a know-it-all – and you don’t know it all.

·           Loving: healthier than hating – for everyone.

·           Empathy, the glue holding community together.

·           Compassion and Forgiveness.

·           Foresight.

F      Freedom, to be exercised and granted to others.

 

A Postscript to Elephants in the Room (re Nuclearization of the World's Hot Spots)

I just posted letters (real ones, with envelopes and stamps and addresses and all) to my Congressman Adam Smith and Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell in follow-up to my post about nuclear dangers.

Here is the text sent to each of them:

I recently posted on my blog a piece about the danger of potential nuclearization of hot spots in the world (The Elephants in the Room, at Northwest Ruminations.) I said there “. . . world leaders are acting as if they do not see these elephants, but they must. I cannot believe they do not. But what are they doing?”

The latest kindling being laid is Putin’s revocation of Russian Federation ratification of the test ban treaty. I see that Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Arms Control Association have raised the alarm. We need more voices doing so.

What we really need is a Nuclear Greta Thunberg to alarm, arouse and energize young people around the world to this second source of existential danger. And your voice and presence can help find her or him and encourage them.

Please weigh in publicly on nuclear risk – in Kashmir, in Zaporizhzhia, in Dimona and Natanz, in Pyongyang and Seoul, and now in possible resumption of testing by Russia, North Korea, China and who knows whom else. Please, make sure US testing does not resume. And please help ignite the youth of Washington and the US to rally and raise their voices about these elephants in the rooms.

Sincerely

Consider doing the same, please. Copy this if you want; no pride of authorship here. We need more voices about this existential threat, arguably one more immediately deadly than the progression of global warming. Whether you view nuclear arms exchange as #1 or #2 threat of extinction doesn't matter; we must address both. Send a letter or an e-mail to your Congressional representatives, please. Arise. 

They're Back

 I've sent something like this before, but they're back:

  

  

Yellow-orange leaves

blanket silent roots dreaming

of green springs to come.

The Elephants in the Room -- Three Rooms

There are four elephants in three rooms that the world pretends not to see. I'm not sure what your and my voices might mean, but I urge you to raise yours -- to your editors, your Congress-person, your Senators. I will if you will.

Two elephants hang out in Kashmir. India and Pakistan are increasingly hostile and irrational, each whipping up religious intolerance against the dangerous "other" to marshal patriotic and nationalistic support for their regimes. Both India and Pakistan are armed with nuclear warheads mounted on long-range ballistic missiles. The one is infested with terrorists; the other with fascist intolerance.

Another elephant lurks in an Ukranian room. Russian troops have taken the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. According to the IAEA they are running it sloppily, holding Ukrainian operators at their stations under the barrel of a gun, working them understaffed and overtime. The cooling water reservoir has been drained, the power supply jury-rigged. Were cooling to be disabled, Europe and the world might face a catastrophic nuclear melt-down exponentially worse than Chernobyl's.

The fourth elephant is in an Israeli room. Israel is the only mid-east nuclear power; they reputedly have an inventory of warheads that sit on long-range missiles, smaller tactical warheads in air-delivered bombs, and nuclear artillery shells. Their center is Dimona, in the Negev, just 30 km south-east of Be'er Sheva and even closer to the Jordan/West Bank border within easy reach of Iranian, Lebanese, Jordanian, Saudi, or Yemeni rockets. And given the rage Israelis are in, . . .? 

The world leaders are acting as if they do not see these elephants, but they must. I cannot believe they do not. But what are they doing??? 

That's what I have written about, to my two Senators and to Adam Smith, my Congressional Representative and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee. Call out these elephants, demand action -- at least, talk about them. How is the world to tie them down? Who can tranquilize them? Alarms need to be rung -- perhaps our voices can set them off. 

Have you ever written your Senator or Representative? As we used to say at Kenner: It's easy, it's fun! Go on the web; give it a try. You might be surprised. Enough small voices can add up to a thunder that cannot be ignored. (Just ask Seahawks' opponents playing here in Seattle.) Let's get started.