Friday, January 04, 2019

History being Made on this Friday.



Today, history has been made among many ways. New people have been elected into the Congress and they were sworn into office today. Also, we see over 100 women members of Congress which is a record. It is the most diverse Congress in history. Families came into Congress to celebrate a new era of politics in early 2019. During this era, new investigations about the Trump regime will happen. Also, Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as the new Speaker of the House. She is the first Speaker of the House who won it two times since decades ago. The Sister Rep. Wilson helped to allow Nancy Pelosi to win the Speaker of the House. Also, it is important to mention the 15 Democrats (most of them didn't even vote for an alternative candidate, so they were disingenuous) who voted against her for petty reasons. Many of these Democrats, who voted against Pelosi, are once again centrists who care for the status quo instead of revolutionary justice. Representative Maxine Waters voted for Nancy Pelosi too. We witness the 116th Congress now in our time in January 2019. Congresspeople's relatives and children were present. Also, it is important to note that the fight isn't over. Infrastructure, health care, education, Trump being made accountable for his actions, the social safety net, and other important issues have to be discussed too. We want voting rights respected and police brutality abolished. The government shutdown should end without xenophobia. Democracy ought to be strengthened, so justice for all is made in existence for real.

Days ago was the Birthday of Sister Renée Elise Goldsberry. She is now 48 years old. For decades, she has been a singer, an actress, and a songwriter. San Jose, California is the place of his birth. She is famous for playing the role of Angelica Schuyler in the Broadway musical Hamilton, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Her other Broadway credits include Nettie Harris in the original Broadway cast of The Color Purple, Mimi Márquez in Rent, and Nala in The Lion King. She has the role of Evangeline Williamson on One Life to Live, for which she received two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series nominations. Throughout her life, she has loved music and theater. She received a Master of Music in jazz studies, graduating in 1997. In 2017, Goldsberry starred as Henrietta Lacks in the HBO television film adaptation of Rebecca Skloot's nonfiction work, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. In 2018, she appeared in the Netflix science fiction series Altered Carbon as Quellcrist Falconer. Henrietta Lacks was a real life black woman whose cells were taken from her without her permission. These cells have treated many diseases and illnesses for generation. Lacks' family fought for decades for control over her cells. She can sing and rap too. Renee Goldsberry is married and has many children. I wish Sister Renee Elise Goldsberry more blessings.

Also, we have a long road ahead of us. Right now, Trump is trying to get rid of environmental regulations that protect the air, the land, and the water. We have a male in the White House promoting a wall that won't work and is immoral (along with the fact that many refugees have experienced tear gas in Tijuana when they are escaping war zones). The shutdown is harming lives right now. It has harmed Coast Guard workers, federal workers, and people who need health care and other resources. Trump has bragged that he loves a shutdown because he's a callous xenophobe. The shutdown is causing a cutoff of funds for Indigenous nations whose treaties called for federal money for education, health care and other services, in exchange for vast territorial concessions. So, we shouldn't be neoliberal centrists. We are unapologetic progressives.There is no question that Trump should be impeached for numerous reasons. Also, we have to question authority. Pay as you go is no long term economic fix. A total restructuring of the economic is a necessity. War mongering and austerity are antithetical to freedom, justice, and real democracy. Also, individual efforts isn't enough since collective uplift is a prerequisite for true human liberation.

Centrism is basically something that I don't believe in ideologically because of the obvious reasons. Every social moment in human history never got anything done by centrism or being a moderate. Frederick Douglass said that there is no liberty without a demand and he wasn't a moderate on the issue of slavery. He wanted slavery abolished completely. Malcolm X was definitely not a moderate since his speeches condemned the policies of America constantly. Malcolm X traveled the world, promoted self-defense, and wanted America to be brought up on charges by the United Nations for violating the human rights of black Americans. Malcolm X criticized numerous Presidents and he forthrightly opposed the Vietnam War long before 1965.

Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't a moderate. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s revolutionary views have been downplayed in some quarters. Yet, this is a new generation and we know of his progressive views more and more from his advocacy for reparations to him exposing health care disparities in America.  Dr. King criticized capitalism. Dr. King said he wanted no nuclear weapons on the Earth. Dr. King also praised democratic socialism and wanted a radical redistribution of economic and political power plus he opposed the Vietnam War. So, Dr. King was never a moderate. Ella Baker wasn't a centrist and neither was Septima Clark. Not only is centrism wrong. It's obsolete and has no place in the 21st century or any century for that matter.


By Timothy


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