WHERE DO YOU STAND FOR THE SOUL OF AMERICA

We have a critical election coming up next week.  As a Nation we appear to be as divided as this country was in 1860.  How history will remember this time will likely depend on our decisions in November.  Who we elect will define the Soul of America.  When you begin to make decisions for whom you will vote, consider who best answers the following questions as what kind of society we wish for America.

Option A	Option B
Should we continue to be a society built on welcoming and facilitating legal immigrants and people of all backgrounds?	Should we be a society that fears any people that may look or act different and thus limit immigration of any type?
Should we be a society that believes in protecting the weak, the sick and the elderly?	Should we be a society that treats any kind of government protection as irresponsible socialism unless it is for corporate beneficiaries?
Should we be a society that believes in the importance of a free press in order to assure our own freedom?	Should we be a society that considers reporters and the press as the enemy of the people and the generators of “fake news”?
Should we be a society that believes in the integrity of science and make decisions based on scientific consensus?	Should we be a society that believes that science is simply someone’s opinion that can be ignored?
Should we be a society that believes in freedom of religion for all faiths?	Should we be a society that believes in religious freedom only if it involves our Christian religion?
Should we be a society that can distinguish fact from fiction and truth from falsehoods?	Should we be a society that accepts only what is consistent with our preconceptions?
Should we be a society that believes in the rule of law and access to justice for all?	Should we be a society that provides access to justice only if one has money and power?
Should we be a society that believes that education for all is a foundation for our future and that it needs improved funding?	Should we be a society that believes that education is a commodity that should be available to those who can pay the price?
Should we be a society that recognizes existing racial disparity and work to expand efforts to end such disparity?	Should we be a society that defines trouble makers by their skin tone and treats protests as riots that should be forcible squelched?
Should we be a society that believes that being a citizen of the world makes us better citizens of America?	Should we be a society that believes that we must focus on America first to the exclusion of the rest of the world?
Should we be a society that expects our political leaders to demonstrate honesty and integrity?	Should we be a society that accepts dishonesty from our political leaders if it will help our party maintain power?
Should we be a society that believes that unless we work to address systemic racial and economic disparity, we may ultimately destroy the foundations of America’s middle class?	Should we be a society that believes that there are no systemic racial or economic disparities and that people earn what they deserve?

          

Although the devil may be in the details, I will select Option A to all of the above questions. I believe that Kamala Harris has similar perspectives.  Unfortunately, I have little doubt that Donald Trump has always selected Option B.  This has become even more evident during recent campaign events.  It is this difference in perspective that will define the Soul of America. Join me in supporting and voting for the Harris /  Waltz ticket to preserve the true Soul of America.

Jim Dickson

HOW CAN SO MANY PEOPLE BE SO STUPID

This country held an election on Novmber 3, 2020. While a record number of voters participated, approximately 1/3 of voting age eligible people did not vote. Over 80 million voters selected Joe Biden. While Donald Trump had more votes than he garnered in his 2016 election, he still lost by over 7 million popular votes and had 74 Electrol College votes less than Biden. Still the President and his supporters claimed fraud and rejected the election results. A Bill Barr led Justice Department sought but could not find any material voting irregularities. Audits in key states including those run by Republican Governors sought but could not find any materrial irregularities. The Trump campaign filed over fifty lawsuits asserting a variety of voting irregularites. All Courts including many with Trump appointed judges, rejected such claims for a lack of evidence. While some Trump supporting media such as Fox News and Newsmax had loudly claimed without evidence

that voting machine and other fraud had occurred, such enterprises immediately retracted such assertions and acknowledged that there was no such evidence when threatened with lawsuits for defamation by voting machine manufactures. In spite of a total lack of evidence that any significant voting irregularities had occurred in the 2020 election, polls suggest that 80% of the voters for Donald Trump still believe that he won the election and that the Presidency is being stolen from him. This unfettered belief appears to be premised on the continued tweets of the President that he could not have lost because he had more votes than he had gotten in 2016. Unfortunately, he seems incapable of accepting that a lot more people took the time to vote this year than in past years. He does not accept that a substantial majority of those voters wanted to tell him that "Your Fired" using his favorite line from his old television program. Hundreds of years ago, civilized people believed in witches and burned people at the stake in such belief. Today with so many sources of credible information it remains inexplicable that so many Americans, almost 40% of voters, continue to believe in such unsubstantiated falsehoods asserted by the President. It makes me wonder, whether the victims of the Salem witch trials would fare any better today.

DEFUNDING THE POLICE: A CLASSIC 2020 POLITICAL RED HERRING

The term “Defund the Police” has become a rallying cry of extremes on both the right and the left in this difficult political season.  Some on the far left believe in anarchy and cry out that there should be no police. Anarchists have been around for centuries and will never gain any meaningful support. The far right immediately asserts that any one that questions police behavior is an anarchist that seek to remove all police force so that crime will quickly run rampant especially in cities with Democrat governance The reality, however, is that no will ever choose to eliminate all police service.  No community could exist without reasonable policing.  There has been no occasion where a police force has been disbanded and a community left without any form of policing. 

The loud cries that communities will be left to the mercy of murders, looters, and thieves is simply a red herring attempt to distract from legitimate political debate over the much more complex and difficult issues relating to police practices in our communities. We can and we must discuss tough questions such as: 

•  Are police asked too often to act as social workers?   
• Are officers adequately trained to deal with mental problems of citizens they must confront?  
• Do police unions have too much power?
• Should blanket immunity apply to virtually all police actions?
• Does the duty of loyalty to fellow officers too often cause silence from the vast majority of wonderful police that in the absence of silence would likely result in the removal or reduction of bad conduct by questionable officers?
• Why has there been historically disparate treatment of Blacks and Hispanic? 
• Why do incidents like the deaths of George Floyd or Breanna Taylor keep occurring?  

Police are part of the critical team of first responders that protect all of us.  We cannot simply remove that protection.  We cannot however, be forced to have only the choice of silence in the wake of questionable police action or be considered adverse to police action. A third way and better way is to accept that police officers are not perfect, to accept that an officer should not be sanctioned on making a split second decision that might be questioned in an after the fact review but to also not accept that nothing more can be done. We can provide better police training. We can develop better methods of hiring.  We can enhance diversity.  We can remove the unwritten rule of unequivocal silence among officers.  We can do better in addressing the above questions without political litmus tests. We are a great nation but we can be better.  We cannot be distracted by red herring political pablum.

THUMBS UP FOR MASKS FOR THE SAFETY OF US ALL

 I routinely read articles of people protesting the requirement that they wear a mask to access schools, meetings, stores, restaurants or any gathering where social distancing is not possible.  The common argument appears to be that a person has a right to choose to go maskless and that government has no right to limit such choice.  I find such argument bizarre.  The medical and scientific community have demonstrated strong consensus that masks protect not only the wearer but also others around them.  You may have the right to choose to become infected.  You do not have the right to choose to infect others around you.  The refusal to wear a mask is simply a selfish claim that the person can choose to harm anyone that they meet.

The wearing of masks is not one of personal convenience.  It is an act of medical necessity in order to begin to control this massive pandemic.  Masks clearly provide mutual safety to all.  No person has the right to infect others with disease any more than that person has the right to walk into a crowd with a lighted stick of dynamite.  As a society, we routinely require drivers to pass a test to obtain a license to drive a vehicle. We prohibit driving vehicles while under the influence of alcohol. In most school districts, we require children to be vaccinated to attend school. We are not bothered when shirt and shoes are required to enter a restaurant.  All citizens have a legal duty use reasonable care to avoid harm to others.  Such failure can result in being sued for “negligence”.   These standards all part of society’s compact to live together without causing each other intentional harm.  

Many have attempted to turn masks into political statement.  Others claim some vague constitutional right of choice.  None applies when their acts cause direct harm to others. To consider masks anything other than a necessary response to scientific and medical consensus is a fool’s errand.  The refusal to wear a mask is dangerous and can only lead to tens of thousands additional unneeded deaths and permanent medical harm.  

Make November 3, 2020 Our True Independence Day

As a long time Florida business attorney, I view myself like most Americans as socially progressive but fiscally responsible.  While I have always voted, I have not felt that an upcoming election needed active participation. That is until now. I believe that the election on November 3, will determine the Soul of America for the foreseeable future.   

In evaluating a political candidate, I first look to their character.  I then look to their history and qualifications. Finally, I look to their stated positions. Based on these considerations, I am writing with deep conviction in support of Joe Biden. He is honest with deep personal integrity.  He has repeatedly demonstrated character.  He has excellent experience both as Senator and as an active Vice President. His policy views tend to be similar to mine. 

Donald Trump does not appear to ever know truth from fiction. Cartoons have explained that Trump won't wear a mask because his nose has grown too long from so many lies.  Unfortunately, this simple perception dramatically understates the propensity for Trump to lie.  His former Secretary of Defense General Mathias confirms his propensity to lie. His former Chief of Staff, General John Kelly acknowledges his propensity to lie.  His former NSA Director John Bolton has written a detailed book on his lies. His niece, a clinical psychologist has just released a book on Trumps’ “cheating as a way of life” and his pathological tendency to lie.  Twitter even begun to acknowledge that many of his tweets are not true.  Depending on one’s sources, fact checkers have confirmed thousands of misstatements and falsehoods.  Fact checkers from the Washington Post calculated that in the three years from inauguration to June 1, 2020 the total oral and twitter misstatements totaled over 19,000.  This past weekend, he asserted that Covid-19 impacted only 1% of those that got sick.  Since there are 130,000 deaths based on 2.9 million cases, 4.5%% of those infected have already died.  Death is certainly an impact. 

His personal history prior to election was not impressive. He filed business bankruptcies six times.  He had filed over 3500 lawsuits.  For many years, his attorney was Roy Cohn who had gained fame as the counsel to Joe McCarthy during McCarthy's years of attacking the patriotism of any that challenged him.    Trump appears to have learned well from Roy Cohn.

A review of his personal history confirm numerous questionable character traits.  He acknowledges that it is okay to grab a women’s vagina. He litigated extensively with the federal government over a refusal to rent to minorities. He was also a defendant in many lawsuits including federal actions for violation of fair housing laws, fraudulent practices with Trump University and improper use of funds from charitable organizations under his control.  

Trump routinely brags that his lack of experience in government is his greatest strength.  The result of such inexperience is best demonstrated over his inability to deal or even acknowledge the science behind the Covid-19 pandemic that has led to catastrophic results for this country.  With a little over 4% of the world’s population the US has had well over 25% of the world’s cases under his "leadership".  He has repeatedly dismissed the need for wearing mask. In February he asserted that the then known 15 cases would soon drop to 0.  Four months later, the US covid-19 cases total 2.9 million with 130,000 deaths.  This is a 4.5% death rate and growing. 

Over the weekend of the 4^th of July his only comment on the pandemic was to state that 99% of people that come down with it have few problems.  This certainly ignores the 4.5 % death rate and the 20% hospitalization rate and numerous reported long term health impacts on those that do recover.  These conditions can be directly tied to Trump's refusal to acknowledge the need for masks and social distancing.  His attitude has caused millions of citizens to believe that there is no crisis and certainly no need for the inconvenience of wearing a mask or maintaining social distancing.  His rallies in Tulsa, Phoenix and Mt Rushmore with supporters without masks or social distancing over the past several weeks demonstrate such dissonance by his hard core followers with undisputed medical science.  As a result, the rate of the disease will only continue to increase to the peril of large segments of our community.   

Similarly his defense of southern statutes of confederate generals and of his opposition to NASCAR’s ban of the confederate flag seem to simply confirm his personal racism and desire to play a race card in the election.  Southern generals were traitors to the United States.  The only significance of their statutes is to stand as a reminder that the South sought to destroy the Union in order to preserve the slavery of other humans. NASCAR recognized the inherent adverse symbolism of the confederate flag and banned it.  Even the State of Mississippi this year removed such reminder from its State Flag.  Only the President seems intent on preserving the symbols of southern slavery and white supremacy.

Trump has not demonstrated the ability to unite or lead this country.  Rather he appears intent on sowing division and racial anger in the hope that he can somehow garner a majority of Electoral College votes. Recognizing that the majority of Americans do not support such actions, he has already begun to lay a framework to claim fraudulent election results through mail voting. 

These observations would be more than sufficient to work to defeat Donald Trump.  A review of his policies remove any further doubt.  His policies are structured to create a society that:

• fears any people that may look or act different and thus limit immigration of any type;
• treats any kind of government protection as irresponsible socialism unless it is for corporate beneficiaries;
• considers reporters and the press as the enemy of the people and the generators of “fake news”;
• believes that science is simply someone’s opinion that can be ignored;
• believes in religious freedom only so long as it involves our Christian religion;
• accepts only what is consistent with one’s preconceptions;
• provides access to justice only if one has money and power;
• believes that education is a commodity that should be available to those who can pay the price;
• defines trouble makers by their skin tone and treats protests as riots that should be forcible squelched;
• believes that we must focus on America first to the exclusion of the rest of the world;
• believes honesty and integrity of our leaders is unnecessary and that we must assure that our party wins the fall election regardless of the consequences to our country;
• believes that it is good for America that the wealth of the top 1% increased from  $8.4 trillion in 1989 to $29.5 trillion in 2018 while the wealth of the bottom 50%  decreased from $.7 trillion to a negative $2 trillion during that same period;
• removes environmental protections developed over decades;

I oppose such a society.  Rather I support as does Joe Biden a society that unifies and builds on our diverse strengths. We must be:

• A society built on welcoming and facilitating legal immigrants and people of all backgrounds;
• A society that believes in protecting the weak, the sick and the elderly; 
• A society that believes in the importance of a free press in order to assure our own freedom; 
• A society that believes in the integrity of science and make decisions based on scientific consensus;
• A society that believes in freedom of religion for all faiths;
• A society that can distinguish fact from fiction and truth from falsehoods;
• A society that believes in the rule of law and access to justice for all; 
• A society that believes that education for all is a foundation for our future and that it needs improved funding;
• A society that recognizes existing racial disparity and work to expand efforts to end such disparity; 
• A society that believes that being a citizen of the world makes us better citizens of America; 
• A society that demands that our political leaders to demonstrate honesty and integrity;
• A society that believes that unless we work to address systemic racial and economic disparity, we may ultimately destroy the foundations of America’s middle class; and 
• A society that restores common sense environmental protections.          

Come November 3rd, 2020 vote for Common Sense and a society that makes America Proud.  Vote for Joe Biden. 

LADY LIBERTY WELCOMES HOMELESS HUDDLED MASSES AND WRETCHED REFUSE FROM OTHER NATIONS

Lady Liberty Reinforces American Ideals

The Statute of Liberty has long represented to the World the wonderful ideals of America. Inscribed on the plaque attached to Lady Liberty is the following.

    The New Colossus  

Not like the brazen giant of Greek Fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand 
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame 
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name 
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand 
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command 
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. 
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she 
With silent lips. “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!”

Over the past four years, I have often heard Donald Trump belittle immigrants and use them as excuses for many ills that our nation must address.  His administration sought to separate families seeking access.  It denied basic rights of persons seeking asylum. He has been aggressive in seeking to eliminate options of legal migration.  He sought to even to deport Dreamers who have lived in this country since childhood and offer many contributions to our communities.  As I see these actions and policies, I wonder if he ever visited Lady Liberty in the years that he lived within sight of her and if so, whether he read her words of inspiration.  His actions suggest not.

In contrast to his opposition of even legal migration, he has expressed adamant support for preserving statutes of treasonous Confederate Generals who sought to destroy this Union of the United States.  He has called white supremacists at Charlottesville “some good people”.  He recently retweeted a video of white seniors in golf carts calling out “White Power”.

Unless one’s heritage is solely Native American, all of our ancestors were immigrants.  Some came to this country to find a better life.  Some were carried in slave ships. Today we together make this nation great.  Our nation's strength comes from the diversity of backgrounds and heritages that fill this country from sea to shining sea. It is our diversity that makes this country the greatest in the World.  As Lady Liberty cries out, our nation must continue to welcome from all nations around the World “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.  We must lift Lady Liberty’s lamp to welcome all on their way to our shores. We must make legal migration easier and not more difficult. Our future and our economic growth may depend on that recognition. More important, we must maintain the heritage of diversity that built this nation. 

Trump Campaign Speeches Sound A Lot Like A Reincarnation of Joe McCarthy

Seventy years ago this nation first experienced the demagoguery of Senator Joe McCarthy who prided himself on indifference to rules and who would recklessly level charges of treason however unfounded at anyone he choose. This was a time of fear of Russian expansion in Europe and its own development of the atomic bomb. McCarthy artfully played on these fears of the country without opposition of members of his own party. He routinely accused government institutions of being filled with communists without any evidence. As a chair of a Senate Committee he required officials of the U.S. Army to appear before his Senate Committee to listen to diatribes against them personally. An exchange between McCarthy and the attorney for the Army, Joseph Welch as the result of McCarthy’s attack that a young attorney in Welch’s law firm was a communist subversive become legendary. Welch in response to McCarthy's attacks said. “Until this moment Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness…. Let us not assassinate this lad further. Senator you have done enough. Have you no sense of decency. Sir at long last, have you left no sense of decency? Ultimately this event began a trail by which McCarthy was ultimately censored by the U.S. Senate and his influence waned. Today the term “McCarthyism” is broadly used to mean demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations and public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents. 

The speeches that I heard from Donald Trump on the 3rd and 4th of July this year could have been written by Joe McCarthy. They were demagogic, abusive, divisive and essentially untrue. As Roy Cohn, who was McCarthy’s chief counsel during the Senate hearings and would later became counsel to the Trump family who introduced Trump to Robert Murdoch, the principle owner of Fox News, there may be some legacy of thought. In any case, as the demagogic and reckless statements of McCarthy led to his downfall, the similar demagogic and reckless assertions by Trump must similarly lead to a denial of his reelection in order to save the Soul of America.