Monday, December 23, 2024
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M.J. Hegar: This Woman is Running for Office and You Should Watch Her Ad

Reading Time: < 1 minute When women run for office the reasons they do it are far and wide more personal than political. More women are running for office than ever before. Record numbers of women making the very vulnerable decision to run for office, many without the support of the systems that have elected their career politics opponents.

Most political ads are a bunch of campaign mumbo-jumbo intended to build name recognition. This one is different. This candidate is different. Buckle up, buttercup. Meet MJ Hegar, she’s running for Congress in Texas District 31. It’s personal for this woman on yet another mission.

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Confluence

This Is Not Who We Are – Except It Is and It Always Has Been

Reading Time: 3 minutes The unrelenting pressure on the Trump administration to stop the family separations may pay off. More importantly, it may signal that this is not who we want to be anymore. For those families, and especially for those children, it’s an unconscionably high price to pay for us, as a nation, to find a moral compass that won’t allow that kind of human mistreatment moving forward.

However, generations of black and brown people in our country are still paying the price for a reality most of us do not want to remember. Until we own our past, it is unlikely we will ever fully learn how to stop the cycle of history repeating itself.

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Confluence

Prison, Justice, and Abuse by Power

Reading Time: 5 minutes What came to my mind was a definition I read earlier this week by Ijeoma Oluo in “So You Want to Talk About Race.” She says how we are unable to talk about race in this country. She says one definition is: “Any prejudice against someone because of their race. Or any prejudice against someone because of their race, when those views are reinforced by systems of power” (pg. 26.) This second definition is how I define racism and how I invite you to define it as well.

My friend was a black immigrant and the judge represented the system of power. The disdain the judge had for this person was palpable in the courtroom. You may say that the judge’s disdain had nothing to do with race. Maybe not. But I know that the punishment did not fit the crime.

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Confluence

A Get Real Q&A About Immigration

Reading Time: 4 minutes There is no process for due entry. At this point, immigrants and asylum seekers are being told if they enter the border at legal entry points they will not be separated from their families, (read we won’t steal your children). However, those entry points are closed. They arrive at the legal entry points and are turned away. This is a direct violation of international law, but Trump’s current policy has closed the Southern borders to asylum seekers.

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Confluence

Make No Mistake, Russia is Behind the Shift In Our North Korea Policy

Reading Time: 4 minutes Russia has been one of North Korea’s very few allies since the Cold War. Maybe it’s because of that tiny shared border. Maybe it’s because they share similar totalitarian political viewpoints.

Almost everyone concedes nothing was gained for the U.S. in this sham of a summit. While some believe it was a run-up of political theater intended to distract from other issues that threaten Trump’s Presidency, there might be a more ominous answer to the why question.

The military isn’t jumping at the words of our Commander in Chief. While they have their own logic for putting the breaks on, I’m left wondering who our Commander in Chief is. Who does Trump take direction or even orders from? We know he’s not taking direction, input, or guidance from our international allies who’ve been in this game with us for a long time. We know he’s flying in the face of long-held U.S. foreign policy under both Democrat and Republican administrations.

We also know that Russia wanted the U.S. to stand down regarding North Korea and has wanted that for a very long time.

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Confluence

Confessions of a Woman of Color at an Ordinary Summer Cookout

Reading Time: 9 minutes Then I realized that I felt vulnerable. I felt overly vulnerable and not “safe” around the men who held very different views from mine in the world but that was not the issue. The issue was that their worldview did not have space for someone like me and my worldview held space for them. I did not shame them for believing differently from me. But they said, “O, that is just naive. That is just ignorant.” I believe the white male shut me down because he is not used to listening to a woman talk for 15 minutes, and a black, immigrant, and articulate one at that. Finally, they walked away. Not because they were not heard because I was sure to make sure I invited their perspective into the conversation, but they left, probably because they could not dominate the conversation or engage in a different viewpoint. They put their stake in the ground and it did not matter what anyone else thought. 

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Confluence

Trump and Kim Jong Un: We Will Be Known By the Company We Keep

Reading Time: 4 minutes I wish we could send out an SOS to the international community begging for help. My prayer is that they recognize what’s happened to us and that someday someone will send help. My fear though is that we will be judged by our president as if we chose him and that history will not smile on that choice.

2018 will go down in history as the year that decided the fate of our democracy. The congressional races at hand matter more than we can predict at this point. There is no excuse for apathy. The price of apathy is way too high. The most effective and quite possibly only SOS we can send to the world is a 2018 election cycle that rejects Trump and what he stands for. As the world watches, we need to show them without question that we did not choose this and we never will.

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