Fall 2021

   

 

 

 

Fall 2021  

As we enter the quarter-century mark of the 21st century, new events and old challenges remain. The Fall of 2021 is here. We live in a time that the Earth is rapidly heating up with an urgency to do something about climate change. We have political polarization and racial tensions. There were heroic souls from Texas who fought against unjust voter suppression in Texas. They came into Washington, D.C. These brave people wanted to inspire the U.S. Congress to pass federal voting rights legislation. We live in a time where controversies flourish, and people debate on cancel culture. Yet, there always remains a remnant of the dedicated human beings who follow justice, compassion, and integrity. Long ago, some of our ancestors stood up against the Maafa and slavery. Some sacrificed their lives for civil, human, and voting rights. We know about the global anti-apartheid activists who fought to defeat a racist apartheid regime in South Africa. Now, we have more people desiring an end to police brutality against black human lives (just recently, there were officers charged in the death of the innocent unarmed black human being named Elijah McClain). Marginalized communities are having their voices despite the far right-wing backlash. The far-right movement is not omnipotent. Therefore, we have every right to reject their cruel agendas (of harming voting rights, of harming the rights of women, scapegoating black people, advancing xenophobia, and loving austerity measures). This Fall of 2021 makes us aware of how valuable life is. We are dealing with the variants of Delta and now Mu. Never wasting time is vital. We are certainly entitled to peace, justice, and equality. We shall see what the future holds involving the 2022 Midterms, the pandemic's future, and the economic situation in the United States of America. I will always maintain my core convictions too. 

 

Everyone is talking about the Hurricane Ida. It is the most powerful hurricane hitting Louisiana since Hurricane Laura in 2020. Thousands of people have fled the Gulf Coast region in order to try to survive literally. Over 1 million people have lost power in the Gulf Coast region during the initial days after Ida landed in the Gulf Coast. FEMA, the state governments, and the local governments have shown great preparedness in contrast to the federal, state, and local responses to Hurricane Katrina which happened 16 years ago. In fact, this year is the 16th anniversary of the 2005 Katrina natural disaster. The concern is about many issues from flooding, power outages, and other matters. The levees being about 18 feet in New Orleans have given New Orleans added protection. With new technologies from I Phones to social media, communication is quicker and more widespread. Throughout the week, the storm did travel up the Delta into West Virginia, Virginia, and other places of America. This storm was as fast as 150 mph with wind gusts of 185 mph. Ida making landfall is a reality. It was a tropical storm now moving quickly. People are waiting to see if the pumping prevented more damage to New Orleans. The pumps and leeves did work in New Orleans, but the wind damage has been catastrophe in the South. The devastation has been horrendous in Houma, Louisiana. Charities and other organizations are helping the victims of Ida constantly. President Biden has given Louisiana federal aid after the Governor of Louisiana has requested it. 

There should be more of an analysis of the historic flooding of the Northeast, including of New York City by the storm of Ida. The storm was historic in causing New York City to have its first flash flood emergency in history. In New York City, there has been massive flooding in subways, in Queens, in Brooklyn, in the Bronx, and in Central Park. Many people were stuck on trains and in subways without electricity, ventilation, food or water. Thousands of people were stranded. Flooding also existed in Connecticut, New Jersey, and in Philadelphia. More than 11 people have lost their lives via the weather. The weather is a reflection of the climate change reality that has made the world warmer in general. For decades, the Earth's temperature has increased by the increase of CO2 levels. Even back in the 1960's, scientists have warned the public about global warming. New York has a state of emergency. The New York Fire Department rescued hundreds of people from subways stations and in other locations. New York Governor Hochul has shown great leadership in the situation.

 

Senator Joe Manchin proves once again why many moderates have been disgraceful. Now, he wants a pause before the Biden $3.5 trillion bill is enacted. Manchin doesn't like the price tag. He should tell that to the members of his own state (of West Virginia) suffering or the victims of the storm of Ida in the South and in the North. Moderates don't get that extreme situations cause for progressive measures to rectify problems. Manchin doesn't agree with the time-frame that Democrats have proposed. He doesn't believe that people should spend trillions of new government programs and new stimulus funding when men, women, and children in many cases are evicted from their own homes. Many human beings have their homes destroyed via historic natural disasters tragically. Callousness defines not only reactionary views but moderation. Moderation never did a single thing to end the Confederacy or Jim Crow apartheid. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Steve Biko, and other heroes weren't moderates. They were progressive men and women who sought an end to injustice, so goodness can flourish in the Universe. Senator Krysten Sinema is just like Manchin. The filibuster is nothing more than an equivalent to nullification from the old days. It's archaic, and it should be thoroughly abolished 100 percent. There should be no delay in our freedom. There should be passage of the For the People Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Acts, the living wage (of $15 dollars an hour), infrastructure laws, and other things that will help the lives of millions of Americans. We have the largest attacks on our democracy (including racist voter suppression laws) since the American Civil War. It's that serious, as America has more voting rights protections in 1965 than in 2021. That is a shame. Therefore, the urgency is now.

 

   

Kamala Harris

 

History is made by her is real. She led a life filled with rising above the political world. She is a part of America despite what anyone says. Her father is an Afro-Jamaican man, and her mother was an Indian American woman. Kamala Harris has a wide-ranging cultural experience. She worshiped at a Baptist church. Harris sang music at a Hindu Temple. Also, she graduated from the prominent Historically Black University of Howard University. Afterward, Harris earned her legal degree to be a powerful lawyer. Kamala Harris has always been an expert of legal policies and political debates. This work will describe her life, her accomplishments, her errors, and her inspirational power for many women who desire their dreams to be fulfilled. Without women, there is no human life. So, in order for justice to exist, we have to walk side by side women as equal human beings in building up our communities via love for humanity. That is certainly real talk. Over many years, we have had massive changes in American society. No one should sugarcoat her life, and we reject the falsehoods about her life as well. From being a United States Senator to be the first black American and South Asian Vice President of the United States of America, her historical rise to power has been extremely historic. With her charisma, intellect, convictions, and activism, her story has the right to be presented to the world. Also, it is important to promote our independent thinking. We believe in reparations for black people in America, we believe in policies to address economic inequality, we believe in justice for black farmers, and we reject imperialism 100 percent. 

  

 

The Beginning of Kamala Harris' Life

 

To understand Vice President Kamala Harris's life, you have to start from the beginning. In the beginning, Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California on October 20, 1964. Her mother was Shyamala Gopalan, who was a biologist whose work on the progesterone receptor gene stimulated advances in breast cancer researcher. Shyamala came into America from India in 1958 as a 10 year old graduate student in nutrition and endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley. Gaopalan received her PhD. in 1964. Harris's father is Donald J. Harris. Donald J. Harris is a Stanford University professor emeritus of economics. He arrived from the United States from Jamaica in 1961 for graduate study at UC Berkeley, receiving a PhD. in economics in 1966. He is of Afro-Jamaican descent. Donald Harris and Shyamala Gopalan met via the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement changed the whole world, beyond changing America alone. Kamala Harris and her younger sister Maya lived in Berkeley, California during and after her parents' studies. They stayed briefly on Milvia Street in central Berkeley, then at a duplex on Bancroft Way in West Berkeley, That area is called the flatlands with a large black population. When Kamala Harris was in kindergarten, she was bused as part of Berkeley's comprehensive desegregation program to Thousand Oaks Elementary School, a public school in a more prosperous neighborhood in northern Berkeley which was previously 95 percent white. After the desegregation plan went into effect, northern Berkeley became 40 percent black American. A neighbor regularly took the Harris girls to an African American church in Oakland where they sang in the children's choir. The girls and their mother also frequently visited a nearby African American cultural center. Their mother introduced them to Hinduism by taking them to a nearby Hindu temple where she occasionally sang. As children, she and her sister visited their mother's family in Madras (now Chennai, India. It said by some that the apostle Thomas meant into India too) many times. Kamala Harris said that she was heavily influenced by her maternal grandfather P.V. Gopalan, a retired Indian civil servant shoe progressive views on democracy and women's rights impressed her. Kamala Harris has always remained in touch with her Indian aunts and uncles all over her adult life. Harris has also visited her father's family in Jamaica. 

  

When she was 7 years old, her parents divorced. Kamala Harris said that when she and her sister visited their father in Palo Alto on weekends, other children in the neighborhood were not allowed to play with them because they were black. When she was 12, Harris and her sister moved with their mother to live in Montreal Quebec, where Shyamala had accepted a research and teaching position at the McGill University-affiliated Jewish General Hospital. Harris attended a French-speaking primary school, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, then F.A.C.E. School, and finally Westmount High School in Westmount, Quebec, graduating in 1981. Wanda Kagan, a high school friend of Harris, later told CBC News in 2020 that Harris was her best friend and described how she confided in Harris that she had been molested by her stepfather. She said that Harris told her mother, who then insisted Kagan come to live with them for the remainder of her final year of high school. Kagan said Harris had recently told her that their friendship, and playing a role in countering Kagan's exploitation, helped form the commitment Harris felt in protecting women and children as a prosecutor. After high school, in 1982, Harris attended Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, D.C. While at Howard, she interned as a mailroom clerk for California senator Alan Cranston, chaired the economics society, led the debate team, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Harris graduated from Howard in 1986 with a degree in political science and economics. Kamala Harris then returned to California to attend law school at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law through its Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP).  While at UC Hastings, she served as president of its chapter of the Black Law Students Association. She graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1989  and was admitted to the California Bar in June 1990. Therefore, the early part of Kamala Harris's life is characterized by huge accomplishments. 

 

 

Her Early Career

 

Later in Kamala Harris's life, she was a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California in 1990. This was where she was described as "an able prosecutor on the way up." In 1994, Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown appointed her to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Boards and later to the California Medical Assistance Commission. It is no secret that Willie Brown once dated Kamala Harris during this time. Harris took a 6 month level of absence in 1994 from her duties. Then, she resumed as prosecutor during the years she sat on boards. Harris has defended her work. By February 1998, San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan recruited Harris as an assistant district attorney. Kamala Harris became the chief of the Career Criminal Division. So, she supervised five other attorney where she prosecuted homicide, burglary, robbery, and sexual assault cases. There were three strikes cases too. By 2000, Harris reportedly clashed with Halinan's assistant Darrell Salomon over Proposition 21. This policy granted prosecutors the option of trying juvenile defendants in Superior Court rather than juvenile courts. Kamala Harris campaigned against the measure, which passed. Salomon opposed directing media inquiries about Proposition 21 to Harris. He reassigned Harris or a de facto demotion. Harris filed a complaint against Salomon and quit. By August 2000, Harris took a job at San Francisco City Hall. She worked for city attorney Louise Renee. Harris ran the Family and Children's Services Division representing child abuse and neglect cases. Renne endorsed Harris during her D.A. campaign. 

 

  

 

 

Being  District Attorney of San Francisco

 

By 2002, Kamala Harris prepared to run for District Attorney of San Francisco against Hallinan (the incumbent) and Bill Fazio. Harris and Hallinan advanced to the general runoff with 33 and 37 percent of the vote respectively. In the runoff, Harris pledged never to seek the death penalty and to prosecute three-strike offenders only in cases of violent felonies.  Harris ran a "forceful" campaign, assisted by former mayor Willie Brown, Senator Dianne Feinstein, writer and cartoonist Aaron McGruder, and comedians Eddie Griffin and Chris Rock.  Harris differentiated herself from Hallinan by attacking his performance.  She argued that she left his office because it was technologically inept, emphasizing his 52 percent conviction rate for serious crimes despite an 83 percent average conviction rate statewide. Harris charged that his office was not doing enough to stem the city's gun violence, particularly in poor neighborhoods like Bayview and the Tenderloin, and attacked his willingness to accept plea bargains in cases of domestic violence. Harris won with 56 percent of the vote, becoming the first person of color elected as district attorney of San Francisco. Kamala Harris ran unopposed for a 2nd term in 2007. 

 

Kamala Harris made many contributions as San Francisco district attorney. In 2005, she organized an environmental crimes unit. By 2007, she and city attorney Dennis Herrera investigated San Francisco supervisor Ed Jew for violating residency requirements necessary to hold his supervisor position.  Harris charged Jew with nine felonies, alleging that he had lied under oath and falsified documents to make it appear he resided in a Sunset District home, necessary so he could run for supervisor in the 4th district.  Jew pleaded guilty in October 2008 to unrelated federal corruption charges (mail fraud, soliciting a bribe, and extortion). Ed pleaded guilty the following month in state court to a charge of perjury for lying about his address on nomination forms, as part of a plea agreement in which the other state charges were dropped. Jew agreed to never again hold elected office in California.  Harris described the case as "about protecting the integrity of our political process, which is part of the core of our democracy." For his federal offenses, Jew was sentenced to 64 months in federal prison and a $10,000 fine. For the state perjury conviction, Jew was sentenced to one year in county jail, three years' probation, and about $2,000 in fines. Under Harris, her D.A. office got more than 1,900 convictions for marijuana offenses including people simultaneously convicted of marijuana offenses including serious crimes. The rate at which Harris's office prosecuted marijuana crimes was higher than the rate under Hallinan, but the number of defendants sentenced to state prison for such offenses was substantially lower.  Prosecutions for low-level marijuana offenses were rare under Harris, and her office had a policy of not pursuing jail time for marijuana possession offenses.  Harris's successor as D.A., George Gascón, expunged all San Francisco marijuana offenses going back to 1975.

 

By the early 2000's, Kamala Harris had to deal with crime. The murder rate in San Francisco per capita outpaced the national average. She had a high rate of convictions for homicides and felony gun violations. She fought for higher bail for criminal defendants involved in gun related crimes. Kamala Harris made a gun crime unit. Harris opposed releasing defendants on their own recognizance if they were arrested on gun crimes, sought minimum 90-day sentences for possession of concealed or loaded weapons, and charged all assault weapons possession cases as felonies, adding that she would seek prison terms for criminals who possessed or used assault weapons and would seek maximum penalties on gun-related crimes. It's not a secret that Harris formed a Hate Crimes Unit to fight hate crimes against LGBT kids and teens in schools. Harris supported the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act (which is named after the 17 year old American transgender human being named Gwen Araujo who was murdered by 2 evil men).  In September 2006, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed A.B. 1160 into law; the law put California on record as declaring it contrary to public policy for defendants to be acquitted or convicted of a lesser included offense on the basis of appeals to "societal bias." Harris supported the ban on gun shows at Cow Palace. It would be until 2019 when the Cow Palace Board of Directors voted to make a statement banning all future gun shows.

  

Kamala Harris had said that she doesn't agree with the death penalty and wants life without parole as the highest punishment. She believes that it is a cost saving measure. After the officer Isaac Espinoza was shot and killed in San Francisco, Kamala Harris refused to support the death penalty. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, Oakland mayor Jerry Brown, and the San Francisco Police Officers Association wanted Kamala Harris to support the death penalty. Yet, Harris refused to do so. Polls show that 70 percent of voters supported Harris's decision. When Edwin Ramos, an undocumented person and alleged MS-13 gang member, was accused of murdering a man and his two sons in 2009, Harris sought a sentence of life in prison without parole, a decision Mayor Gavin Newsom backed. There is the recidivism issue. In 2004, Harris recruited civil rights activist Lateefah Simon to form the San Francisco Reentry Division. This was a flagship program part of the Back on Track initiative, a first-of-its-kind reentry program for first-time nonviolent offenders aged 18–30. Initiative participants whose crimes were not weapon- or gang-related would plead guilty in exchange for a deferral of sentencing and regular appearances before a judge over a twelve- to eighteen-month period. The program maintained rigorous graduation requirements, mandating completion of up to 220 hours of community service, obtaining a high-school-equivalency diploma, maintaining steady employment, taking parenting classes, and passing drug tests. At graduation, the court would dismiss the case and expunge the graduate's record.  Over six years, the 200 people graduated from the program had a recidivism rate of less than ten percent, compared to the 53 percent of California's drug offenders who returned to prison within two years of release. Back on Track earned recognition from the U.S. Department of Justice as a model for reentry programs. The DOJ found that the cost to the taxpayers per participant was markedly lower ($5,000) than the cost of adjudicating a case ($10,000) and housing a low-level offender ($50,000). In 2009, a state law (the Back on Track Reentry Act, A.B. 750) was enacted, encouraging other California counties to start similar programs. Adopted by the National District Attorneys Association as a model, prosecutor offices in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Atlanta have used Back on Track as a template for their own programs.

 

There was the truancy issue too. By 2006, there was an initiative to reduce the city's skyrocketing homicide rate. Harris led a city wide effort to stop truancy for at risk elementary school youth in San Francisco. This program would be debated to this very day in 2021. Declaring chronic truancy a matter of public safety and pointing out that the majority of prison inmates and homicide victims are dropouts or habitual truants, Harris's office met with thousands of parents at high-risk schools and sent out letters warning all families of the legal consequences of truancy at the beginning of the fall semester. Kamala Harris said that she would prosecute the parents of chronically truant elementary students; penalties included a $2,500 fine and up to a year in jail. The program was controversial when introduced. In 2008, Harris issued citations against six parents whose children missed at least fifty days of school, the first time San Francisco prosecuted adults for student truancy. San Francisco's school chief, Carlos Garcia, said the path from truancy to prosecution was lengthy, and that the school district usually spends months encouraging parents through phone calls, reminder letters, private meetings, hearings before the School Attendance Review Board, and offers of help from city agencies and social services. Two of the six parents entered no plea, but said they would work with the D.A.'s office and social service agencies to create "parental responsibility plans" to help them start sending their children to school regularly. By April 2009, 1,330 elementary school students were habitual or chronic truants, down 23 percent from 1,730 in 2008, and down from 2,517 in 2007 and from 2,856 in 2006. Harris's office prosecuted seven parents in three years, with none jailed.

 

 

Kamala Harris as Attorney General of California

 

 

Nearly 2 years before the 2010 election, Kamala Harris announced that she planned to run for the Attorney General of California. She also said that she would only run if then-Attorney General Jerry Brown didn't seek re-election for that position. Brown chose to run for Governor, and Harris gained support from California Democrats. Both of California's senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, United Farm Workers cofounder Dolores Huerta, and mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa all endorsed her during the Democratic primary. On the date of the June 8, 2010 primary, she was nominated with 33.6 percent of the vote, defeating Alberto Torrico and Chris Kelly. During the general election, she faced Republican Los Angeles County district attorney Steve Cooley. Cooley led most of the race. Cooley ran as a nonpartistan person, and he distanced himself from the gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's campaign. The election was held November 2 but after a protracted period of counting mail-in and provisional ballots, Cooley conceded on November 25. Harris was sworn in on January 3, 2011. Kamala Harris was the first woman, the first African American, and the first South Asian American to hold the office of Attorney General in the state's history. Harris announced her intention to run for re-election in February 2014 and filed paperwork to run on February 12.  The Sacramento Bee,  Los Angeles Daily News,  and Los Angeles Times endorsed her for re-election. On November 4, 2014, Harris was re-elected against Republican Ronald Gold, winning 57.5 percent of the vote to 42.5 percent.

 

 

One of the greatest accomplishments of Attorney General Kamala Harris was her policies on consumer protection. In 2011, Harris announced the creation of the Mortgage Fraud Strike Force. This came during the 2010 United States foreclosure crisis. In that year of 2011, Harris obtained two of the largest recoveries in the history of California's False Claims Act – $241 million from Quest Diagnostics and then $323 million from the SCAN healthcare network – over excess state Medi-Cal and federal Medicare payments. In 2012, Harris leveraged California's economic clout to obtain better terms in the National Mortgage Settlement against the nation's five largest mortgage servicers – JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Bank.  The mortgage firms were accused of illegally foreclosing on homeowners. After dismissing an initial offer of $2–4 billion in relief for Californians, Harris withdrew from negotiations. The offer eventually was increased to $18.4 billion in debt relief and $2 billion in other financial assistance for California homeowners.

 

Kamala Harris worked with Assembly speaker John Perez and Senate President pro tem Darrell Steinberg in 2013 to introduce the Homeowner Bill of Rights. It was considered one of the strongest protections nationwide against aggressive foreclosure tactics. The Homeowner Bill of Rights banned the practices of "dual-tracking" (processing a modification and foreclosure at the same time) and robo-signing and provided homeowners with a single point of contact at their lending institution. Then California Attorney General achieved multiple nine figure settlements for California homeowners under the bill mostly for robo-signing and dual track abuses. She prosecuted instances in which loan processors failed to promptly credit mortgage payments, miscalculated interest rates, and charged borrowers improper fees. Harris secured hundreds of millions in relief, including $268 million from Ocwen Financial Corporation, $470 million from HSBC, and $550 million from SunTrust Banks. From 2013 to 2015, Harris pursued financial recoveries for California's public employee and teacher's pensions, CalPERS and CalSTRS against various financial giants for misrepresentation in the sale of mortgage-backed securities. She secured multiple nine-figure recoveries for the state pensions, recovering about $193 million from Citigroup, $210 million from S&P, $300 million from JP Morgan Chase, and over half a billion from Bank of America. 

  

By 2013, she didn't authorize a civil complain draft by state investigators who accused One West Bank (owned by Steven Mnuchin) of violation of California foreclosure laws. Harris received a donation from Mnuchin. She was criticized as Mnuchin was accused of being profited form the subprime mortgage crisis via OneWest Bank. She voted against his confirmation as treasury secretary in February 2017. In 2019, Harris's campaign stated that the decision not to pursue prosecution hinged on the state's inability to subpoena OneWest. Her spokesman said, "There was no question OneWest conducted predatory lending, and Senator Harris believes they should be punished. Unfortunately, the law was squarely on their side and they were shielded from state subpoenas because they're a federal bank." Kamala Harris worked on criminal justice reform too as Attorney General of California too. Kamala Harris was a trailblazer  California Attorney General indeed. 

 

 

In November 2013, Harris launched the California Department of Justice's Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry in partnership with district attorney offices in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Alameda County  In March 2015, Harris announced the creation of a pilot program in coordination with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department called "Back on Track LA". Like Back on Track, first time, non-violent, non-sexual, offenders aged between 18 and 30. 90 men participated in the pilot program for 24–30 months. Assigned a case manager, participants received education through a partnership with the Los Angeles Community College District and job training services. Some people have criticized Harris's record on wrongful conviction cases as Attorney General. 

 

Law professor Lara Bazelon contends Harris "weaponized technicalities to keep wrongfully convicted people behind bars rather than allow them new trials." After the 2011 United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Plata declared California's prisons so overcrowded they inflicted cruel and unusual punishment, Harris fought federal supervision, explaining "I have a client, and I don't get to choose my client."  Harris declined to take any position on criminal sentencing-reform initiatives Prop 36 (2012) and Prop 47 (2014), arguing it would be improper because her office prepares the ballot booklets.  John Van de Kamp, a predecessor as attorney general, publicly disagreed with the rationale. In September 2014, Harris's office argued unsuccessfully in a court filing against the early release of prisoners, citing the need for inmate firefighting labor. When the memo provoked headlines, Harris spoke out against it, saying she was unaware that her office had produced the memo.  Since the 1940s, qualified California inmates have the option of volunteering to receive comprehensive training from the Cal Fire in exchange for sentence reductions and more comfortable prison accommodations; prison firefighters receive about $2 a day, and another $1 when battling fires. Kamala Harris is a known supporter of LGBT rights. She opposed Prop. 8 that defined marriage as only being a man and woman.  In June 2013, the Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that Prop 8's proponents lacked standing to defend it in federal court.  The next day Harris delivered a speech in downtown Los Angeles urging the Ninth Circuit to lift the stay banning same-sex marriages as soon as possible.  The stay was lifted two days late.

 

The anti-truancy efforts have been debated. Critics charged that local prosecutors implementing her directives were overzealous in their enforcement and Harris's policy adversely affected families.  In 2013, Harris issued a report titled "In School + On Track", which found that more than 250,000 elementary school students in the state were "chronically absent" and the statewide truancy rate for elementary students in the 2012–2013 school year was nearly thirty percent, at a cost of nearly $1.4 billion to school districts, since funding is based on attendance rates. Attorney General Kamala Harris deserves high marks for environmental protection. She secured a $44 million settlement for deal with damages an costs for the Cosco Busan oil spill. She supports Planned Parenthood, and opposed sex crimes. Harris, as Attorney General, targeted crime groups for fraud schemes, smuggling, drug trafficking, etc. like the Tijuana Cartel (2011),  the Nuestra Familia, Norteños, and the Vagos Motorcycle Club (2011),  the Norteños (2015),  the Crips (2015),  the Mexican Mafia (2016),  and businesses in the Los Angeles Fashion District accused of operating a major money-laundering hub for Mexican narcotics traffickers (2014). Therefore, Attorney General Kamala Harris has been involved in many historic issues. 

 

  

 

United States Senator Kamala Harris

 

 

After more than 20 years as a U.S. Senator in California, Senator Barbara Boxer said in January 2015 that she would not run for re-election in 2016. Kamala Harris then announced her candidacy for the Senate seat the following week. Harris was a top contender from the start of her Senate campaign. It was Kamala's time. By this time, the 2016 California Senate election used California's new top two primary format where the top candidates in the primary would advance to the general election regardless of party. In February 2016, Kamala Harris won 78% of the California Democratic Party vote at the party convention, allowing Harris's campaign to receive financial support from the party. Three months later, Governor Jerry Brown endorsed her. During the June 7 primary, Kamala Harris came in first with 40% of the vote. She won with pluralities in most counties. During the general election, she faced Congresswoman and fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez. It was the first time a Republican didn't appear in a general election for the Senate since California began directly electing senators in 1914. On July 19, 2016,  President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Harris. In the November 2016 election, Harris defeated Sanchez, capturing over 60% of the vote, carrying all but four counties.  Following her victory, she promised to protect immigrants from the policies of President-elect Donald Trump and announced her intention to remain Attorney General through the end of 2016. Kamala Harris was always an outspoken Senator from 2017 onward. She was sworn into office by Vice President Joe Biden on January 3, 2017. 

 

 

By 2017, Senate Kamala Harris criticized the Executive Order 13679 (from Trump) that barred citizens from several Muslim-majority countries form entering America for 90 days. She said that the xenophobic order was a Muslim ban. It existed on January 28, 2017 being supremely xenophobic and horrendous. She told White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly that she opposed the unjust executive order. She disagreed with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on many issues. In early March, she called on Sessions to resign, after it was reported that Sessions spoke twice with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. She voted against the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kamala Harris visited California troops in Iraq and the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, the largest camp for Syrian refugees. In June, Harris garnered media attention for her questioning of Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, over the role he played in the May 2017 firing of James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecutorial nature of her questioning caused Senator John McCain, an ex official member of the Intelligence Committee, and Senator Richard Burr, the committee chairman, to interrupt her and request that she be more respectful of the witness. They are wrong, because Kamala Harris interviewing people in seeking the truth is the epitome of being respectful. A week later, she questioned Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, on the same topic. In December, Harris called for the resignation of Senator Al Franken, asserting on Twitter, "Sexual harassment and misconduct should not be allowed by anyone and should not occur anywhere."

 

In 2018, Kamala Harris was appointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Later that month, Harris questioned Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for favoring Norwegian immigrants over others and claiming to be unaware that Norway is a predominantly white country. Even when I was a teen, I knew that Norway has mostly white people residing in it. In May, Harris questioned Secretary Nielsen about the Trump administration family separation policy, under which children were separated from their families when the parents were taken into custody for illegally entering the U.S.  In June, after visiting one of the detention facilities near the border in San Diego,  Harris became the first senator to demand Nielsen's resignation. By September and October of 2018, Kamala Harris questioned Brett Kavauangh during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings. One question was about a meeting he may have had regarding the Mueller Investigation with a member of Kasowitz Benson Torres, the law firm founded by the President's personal attorney Marc Kasowitz. Kavanaugh was unable to answer many questions and repeatedly deflected (making bizarre comments about beer).  Harris also participated in questioning the FBI director's limited scope of the investigation on Kavanaugh regarding allegations of sexual assault. She voted against his confirmation. Kamala Harris was a target of the October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts. In December, the Senate passed the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act (S. 3178), sponsored by Harris.  The bill, which died in the House, would have made lynching a federal hate crime. In March of 2019, (after Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election), Kamala Harris called for U.S. Attorney General William Barr to testify before Congress in the interests of transparency. Kamala Harris also team up with Kristen Gillibrand to urge the Trump administration to investigate the allegations of Uyghur genocide by the Chinese Communist Party. In November 2019, Harris called for an investigation into the death of Roxsana Hernández, a transgender human being and immigrant who died in ICE custody. In December, Harris led a group of Democratic senators and civil rights organizations in demanding the removal of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller after emails published by the Southern Poverty Law Center revealed frequent promotion of white nationalist literature to Breitbart website editors. In 2020, Kamala Harried opened the impeachment trial of Donald Trump on January  16, 2020. She said that she wanted the American justice system to have integrity. She voted to convict the President Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. She worked on bipartisan bills with Republican co-sponsors, including a bail reform bill with Senator Rand Paul,  an election security bill with Senator James Lankford,  and a workplace harassment bill with Senator Lisa Murkowski. Following her election as Vice President of the United States, Harris resigned from her seat on January 18, 2021,  prior to taking office (as the Vice President of the United States of America) on January 20, 2021, and was replaced by California Secretary of State Alex Padilla. Kamala Harris is part of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues. 

  

 

Her 2020 Presidential Campaign

 

 

As early as 2018, there has been words about Harris being considered a top contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President. Kamala Harris said that she wasn't ruling it out in June of 2018. In July 2018, it was announced that she would publish a memoir, a sign of a possible run.  On January 21, 2019, Harris officially announced her candidacy for president of the United States in the 2020 United States presidential election. In the first 24 hours after her candidacy announcement, she tied a record set by Bernie Sanders in 2016 for the most donations raised in the day following an announcement. More than 20,000 people attended her formal campaign launch event in her hometown of Oakland, California, on January 27, 2019, according to a police estimate. Kamala Harris' 2020 campaign was huge and a big deal. She was in the first Democratic debate in June 2019. She criticized Joe Biden for the remarks he made speaking  fondly of senators who opposed integration efforts in the 1970s and working with them to oppose mandatory school busing. Kamala Harris, as a child, was involved in the busing program to go into an integrated school. Harris's support rose by between six and nine points in polls following that debate.  In the second debate in August, Harris was confronted by Biden and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard over her record as Attorney General. It is no secret that Tulsi Gabbard and Kamala Harris don't like each other even before that debate. Harris accused Tulsi of being an Assad puppet, and Gabbard accused Harris of not doing enough to fight the prison industrial complex. The San Jose Mercury News assessed that some of Gabbard's and Biden's accusations were on point, such as blocking the DNA testing of a death row inmate, while others did not stand up to scrutiny. In the immediate aftermath, Harris fell in the polls following that debate.  Over the next few months her poll numbers fell to the low single digits. Many progressives during that time had concerns about Kamala's views on the criminal justice system. For example, in 2014, she decided to defend California's death penalty in court. Kamala's supporters said that her record has been distorted and taken out of context. Since  Kamala Harris was a victim of racist and sexist attacks by extremists, the KHive group existed on Twitter to defend her record. 

On December 3, 2019, Harris withdrew from seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination, citing a shortage of funds. In March 2020, Harris endorsed Joe Biden for president. Also, we know that Gabbard is very much hypocritical. She claims to be the progressive superhero, but she opposes the Iran nuclear deal and has an obsession with "radical Islam." She respects the far irhgt Indian leader Narendra Modi. Gabbard said that she is a hawk in the war on terrorists and a dove on regime change. She supports the use of drones. In 2014, she introduced a bill that halted the is a waiver program for countries whose citizens had gone to fight with extremists claiming that the program puts American lives at danger. Trump had talks with Gabbard which were set up by extremist Steve Bannon (who expressed admiration for Gabbard). Gabbard met with and praised the Egyptian dictator Adbel Fattah el-Sisi. Kamala Harris never did these acts at all. Gabbard is progressive on many issues to her credit, but Kamala Harris has a strong progressive record too. That is why Kamala Harris rose above the fray. 

 

 

Making History as Vice President of the United States of America

   

As early as May of 2019, senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed the idea of a Biden/Harris ticket. In late February of 2020, Biden won a landslide victory in the 2020 South Carolina Democratic primary with the endorsement of House whip Jim Clyburn, with more victories on Super Tuesday. By early March of 2020, Clyburn suggested that Biden choose a black woman as a running mate. He said that "African American women needed to be rewarded for their loyalty." Black women are deserving of getting all of the praise in the world for birthing the human race and being a beacon of light for the Universe. In March 2020, Biden committed to choosing a woman for his running mate. On April 17, 2020, Harris responded to media speculation; Harris mentioned that she would be honored to be Biden's running mate. In late May of 2020, concerning the murder of George Floyd and the protests plus demonstrations, Biden faced renewed calls to select a black woman to be his running mate. Many people highlighted the law enforcement credentials of Kamala Harris and Val Demings. The New York Times reported on June 12, 2020, that Kamala Harris was emerging as the frontrunner to be Biden's running mate. She was one of many African American women with the political experience typical of vice President. On June 26, CNN reported that more than a dozen people close to the Biden search process considered Harris one of Bidens top four contenders. Their names are Elizabeth Warren, Val Demings, and Keisha Lance Bottoms. Joe Biden announced that he had chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate on August 11, 2020. She was the first African American, the first Indian American, and the third woman after Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin to be picked as a Vice Presidential nominee for a major party ticket.  

 

Kamala Haris was recorded calling Biden saying, "We did it! We did it, Joe. You're going to be the next President of the United States." This was one of the top 10 tweets of 2020. After the 2020 election of Joe Biden as U.S. President, Harris assumed office as Vice President of the United States on January 20, 2021. Kamala Harris is the first woman vice President and the highest-ranking woman elected official in U.S. history. She is the first African American and the first Asian-American vice President. She is the 2nd person of color to hold that position. The first was Charles Curtis, a Native American and member of the Kaw Nation, who served under Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933. She is the third person of color to get one of the highest offices of the executive branch after Curtis and former President Barack Obama. Harris resigned her Senate seat on January 18, 2021, two days before her swearing-in as vice president. Her first act as vice President was swearing-in her replacement Alex Padilla and Georgia senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, who were elected in the 2021 Georgia runoff elections. Kamala Harris cast her first of two tie-breaking votes on February 5, 2021. In February and March, Harris's tie-breaking votes in her role as President of the Senate were crucial in passing the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 stimulus package proposed by President Biden since no Republicans in the Senate voted for the package. In April 2021, Harris indicated that she was the last person in the room before President Biden decided to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and commented that the president has "an extraordinary amount of courage" and "make(s) decisions based on what he truly believes ... is the right thing to do." Vice President Kamala Harris conducted her first international trip as Vice President in June 2021, visiting Guatemala and Mexico in an attempt to address the root causes of an increase in migration from Central America to the United States. During her visit, in a joint press conference with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, Harris issued an appeal to potential migrants, stating "I want to be clear to folks in the region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come." Kamala Harris said that America is not a racist obvious. I disagree. History and just life experiences prove that America is a racist nation. In 2005, the National Black Prosecutors Association awarded Harris the Thurgood Marshall Award. That year, she was featured along with 19 other women in a Newsweek report profiling "20 of America's Most Powerful Women."

 

 

The Legacy of Kamala Harris and Epilogue

 

It has been long decades since the end of the Cold War. We witness a new chapter of American society where demographic changes are heavily abundant as documented by the 2020 U.S. Census report. We are still dealing with the pandemic, the aftermath of the 1/6 terrorist incident, and other events. The story of Kamala Harris has been an American story. She stood up to bullies when she was in Kindergarten. She has traveled the world. She was a legal expert who used her knowledge to confront polluters, domestic violence abusers, and other corrupt entities. She recognizes and loves her black heritage and her Indian heritage too. That is why Kamala Harris has a great amount of empathy of human beings. Now, she is the Vice President of the United States of America. When Pence interrupted her, Kamala Harris just gave him a look and said, "I'm speaking." That is part of our culture as black Americans. There are a lot of unsung contributions to society that Kamala Harris did that many folks don't know about. There have been many distortions of her record. The reality is that Kamala Harris reduced truancy in San Francisco by 20 percent during her tenure.  Kamala Harris opposed Proposition 21 (that made new criminal penalties for youth offenders), co-founded the Coalition to End the Exploitation of Kids, changed the treatment of underage people from being treated as prostitutes/criminals to being treated as victims, helped to create the Center for Youth Wellness, and invested in re-entry programs that has helped many lives. She is not perfect (as her imperfections should never be omitted) like her statement on America not being a racist nation, but she is not the caricature that the far right portrays her as. She is a black woman on a mission to improve the lives of us. Her legacy is about seeing how a historic black woman has risen into the heights of power by her own merit in American society. She may run for President during the near future. Only time will tell. Yet, it is true that we have to continuously work to defend our human rights and build in our communities progressively. 

 

 

By Timothy