Tag: United States

The Six Triple Eight

During World War II, mail between service members and their loved ones was crucial for morale but delivery mechanisms broke down in Europe, resulting in millions of pieces of mail being stuffed into airplane hangars in Scotland.

Meanwhile, the 6888th Women’s Army Corps (WAC) battalion has been trained to an exemplary level but, despite their level of excellence, has not been assigned because it is comprised of Black and mixed-race women.

Finally, they are assigned the seemingly impossible task to go to Scotland and clear the backlog within six months. Under the command of Major Charity Adams, they use their training, skills, creativity, experience, and intelligence to complete the task in under three months. They then are deployed to France, where they clear a similar backlog.

This amazing history has now been brought to the screen, thanks to Tyler Perry, who directed and co-produced the film and wrote the script, based on an article by Kevin Hymel. Kerry Washington delivers a strong performance as the formidable Major Adams, with Ebony Obsidian touchingly portraying Lena Derriecott King, a servicemember of the 6888th who is grieving the loss of a friend who was killed in action.

While the film was released in theaters in December, most people are probably going to view it now via Netflix.

I wanted to lift up this film today in particular because the United States is commemorating the 95th birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. A major figure in the area of civil rights, especially for Black Americans, King was assassinated at the age of 39.

I appreciated that the film includes the later history of the women of the Six Triple Eighth. Given the racism and sexism they faced, recognition of their work was long delayed.

In 2023, a military base in Virginia was re-named Fort Gregg-Adams in honor of Lt. Col. Charity Adams and Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg, the first time Black Americans had been so honored. This was part of an initiative to finally remove the names of Confederate officers from United States military bases.

I am appalled that Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, wants to undo the re-naming. Some other Republicans have agreed.

No.

We need to recognize, lift up, and celebrate leaders like Charity Adams.

Thank you to Tyler Perry, Kerry Washington, and all who were involved with The Six Triple Eight for bringing this inspiring story to the public.
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Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/20/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-20th-2025/

The ERA at last!

Vote for Democracy #28
The Equal Rights Amendment

There is always a flurry of activity in the last few weeks that a president is in office, with various declarations, awards, pardons/commutations, executive orders, rules, and other summations being offered and Joe Biden has been actively engaged in this.

On his last full day in office, I’d like to highlight one in particular, the declaration that the Equal Rights Amendment is the 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

I’ve been waiting for this for my entire adult life.

When Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, it put a time limit on its ratification by the states, 38 of which had to vote in their legislatures to reach the constitutionally required three-fourths of the states. However, this limit was not part of the amendment itself. In 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA, so it should have been recognized and added to the Constitution at that time. Lawrence Tribe and Kathleen Sullivan explain all the legalities in this piece in The Contrarian.

Many legal scholars and organizations have been working on this issue. In particular, I would like to raise up Carrie Baker, a distinguished faculty member at my alma mater, Smith College, for her legal and journalistic skill in advocating for the ERA.

I have no doubt that there will be a flood of lawsuits, claiming that the Equal Rights Amendment is not in effect, either because of the original Congressional advisory deadline or because several states have said they want to rescind their ratification. However, states have never been allowed to rescind ratification and amendments remain open for ratification in perpetuity. For example, Mississippi did not ratify the 1865 13th Amendment abolishing slavery until 1995 and their vote wasn’t certified until 2013.

I hope that having the Equal Rights Amendment in the United States Constitution will help protect the rights of everyone, especially women and girls. This is especially important now when some states are denying health care to women and even trying to restrict their ability to travel.

When new democracies form around the world and the United States is assisting in writing constitutions, the US insists that equal rights for women be included. It’s fundamental to civil and human rights. I’m glad that it is now part of our Constitution, which should strike down discriminatory state laws. It will also align with many of our state constitutions that already include equal rights in regards to gender.

With so much else going on in the United States and the world right now, this momentous news has flown a bit under the radar. I’m hoping that it will be embraced and followed by all the people.

Its text is very simple. The 28th Amendment states:

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Yes!

Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/19/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-19th-2025/

SoCS: DT’s Cabinet picks

So, yikes! Going to try to post for Stream of Consciousness Saturday with a political post…

Linda’s prompt this week is “pack/peck/pick/pock/puck” and the first thing that popped into my head was the hearings in the US Senate over the past week for President-elect Trump’s Cabinet picks.

The scariest hearing so far has been for DT’s pick for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth. While he is a military veteran, he is best known for being a host on Fox News. Unfortunately, he is also known for public drunkenness, misogyny, and mismanagement of charitable organizations. His defense against this evidence was that the accusations against him were “anonymous smears” even though many of them are on public record and that he has now found Jesus and is happy with his third wife and won’t drink if he becomes Defense Secretary.

While I sincerely hope that Mr. Hegseth has mended his ways and retains his new-found maturity and sobriety – or potential sobriety, as I don’t think he said that he has stopped drinking yet – this is not a person whose history suggests he is capable of managing over 3 million employees and a $1 trillion budget. (Apologies if I’m misremembering the figures. Stream of consciousness writing does not allow for side research.)

The vote on his nomination, first on the committee before whom he testified and then, if he passes that, by the full Senate, has not yet been scheduled. I would hope that such an unqualified individual would not be confirmed but the Republicans do hold the Senate majority, so it’s entirely possible.

I’m afraid.
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The Contrarian

Vote for Democracy #27

I have decided to end my subscription to the Washington Post; I’ve cancelled but was a yearly subscriber so it will still be available to me through early April. I had been trying to stay on in support of the journalists and editorial team members that I respected, but the level of interference from owner Jeff Bezos is too much to look past.

Jennifer Rubin recently resigned from WaPo and has started a new outlet with Norman Eisen called The Contrarian on Substack. I realize that platform will pose a problem for some readers but it’s what I need to do to access their content. A number of experts whom I already trust, such as Joyce Vance and Ruth Ben-Ghiat, will be contributing. The Contrarian is dedicated to truth-telling, which is what we all need to counter the tech oligarchy, skewed social media algorithms, and government liars.

The Contrarian just started and I am currently a free subscriber. If I find it valuable, I will upgrade to a paid subscription, which will actually cost less than WaPo.

I hope interested people will check out the site and subscribe, if they are so moved.

It looks to be a great resource for those of us who are dedicated to democracy in the United States.
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Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/17/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-17th-2025/

President Biden’s farewell

Vote for Democracy #26

Last night, US President Joe Biden delivered a farewell speech from the Oval Office. Among other things, it warns against the increasingly powerful tech oligarchy that threatens our democracy. You can read the address here.

The penultimate paragraph is:

My eternal thanks to you, the American people. After 50 years of public service, I give you my word, I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands — a nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure. Now it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith. I love America. You love it, too.

Yes.

I, along with millions and millions of others, will heed the call. Each of us doing the work that is ours to do will keep our democracy intact.

Some will have a bigger, public role and others will be working in a much smaller sphere of influence, but all of us can participate.

It’s what democracy means.
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Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/16/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-12th-2025-2/

No US Expansion!

Vote for Democracy #25

One of the outrageous lines of comment that Donald Trump has hammered recently is that the United States should take over various places, including Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. He seems to think he can do this by buying them or attacking them economically, diplomatically, or militarily.

This is totally unacceptable and violates both national and international law and treaties.

Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, one of our NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies. Both the leadership of Denmark and the mostly indigenous government and population of Greenland have made it clear that Greenland is not for sale.

Like Denmark, Canada is an original 1949 member of NATO. They are consistently one of our top five trading partners. They are a nation with a long, storied history and diverse cultural influences and heritage. Canadians do not want to be part of the United States. They value their own democracy with its own laws, freedoms, and ways of doing things.

While the Panama Canal Zone was a US territory under a 99-year lease, it was returned to Panamanian sovereignty in 1999, in accord with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, negotiated by the administration of President Carter, whose state funeral was on Thursday, which was ratified by the Senate in 1978. Panama has made it clear that they will remain in control of their sovereign territory.

So, no, Trump cannot add to the United States in violation of law and treaty. Any members of the military, Congress, or executive branch who are asked to assist in these efforts must reject those requests or orders because they violate their oaths.

If Donald Trump wants to expand the number of states, he should concentrate on granting statehood to the District of Columbia and to Puerto Rico, if their citizenry votes to change their status. He should also work toward granting House voting status for the remaining US territories and our indigenous nations. As Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the US Virgin Islands pointed out during the selection of the Speaker of the House earlier this month, 4 million Americans had no vote for Speaker because they have no votes in Congress.

I call on Donald Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress to prioritize full recognition of those living in current territories and our nation’s capital, not trying to take away the sovereignty of citizens of other nations.
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Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/12/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-12th-2025/

LA fires

Here in the US, the dominant news story this week is the horrific wildfires in Los Angeles, California. The area has had less than a quarter inch of rain since May. This should be their rainy season but nothing has fallen. The year prior had been very wet so there had been a lot of vegetative growth but it had dried out because of the drought, making it more susceptible to fire. The dry, Santa Ana winds are blowing through the mountains at near-hurricane strength.

So, widespread fires hitting populated areas in Los Angeles.

The fires are so widespread and numerous that the local firefighters, supplemented by others from as far away as Canada, plus aircraft cannot contain the fires, so entire neighborhoods have been leveled.

Some people are blaming the government for not being more prepared but the truth is that the scale of these fires is beyond any hope of control.

Many of the reports are talking about how climate change has altered the conditions so much that what has always been a risk in the LA area has become an epic disaster. Insurers have been refusing to renew homeowner policies in these areas as the danger increased and there is a question if some of these neighborhoods will be able to be rebuilt or if their residents will, in effect, become climate refugees.

There are, of course, already climate refugees around the world. People on islands or low-lying areas that are facing rising seas or catastrophic flooding. People facing prolonged drought and crop failures. People who have lost access to fresh drinking water. People fleeing armed conflicts that erupted over control of scarce resources.

The uncomfortable truth is that many of the people who come to the US as refugees are doing so because of an underlying climate-related cause. For example, asylum seekers from the Northern Triangle of Central America (Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador) are most often fleeing from climate-change-induced conditions.

Will the devastation of the LA fires finally get through to climate-change deniers what humanity has done to our planet? Trump and his team are promising to ramp up fossil fuel production, despite the US already being at record-high production levels and despite the fact that people in the US and around the globe are already being devastated by climate change.

I can’t muster hope anymore.

If only the country had taken the environmental message of President Jimmy Carter, whose state funeral was yesterday, seriously, we would not be in this state now.
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Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/10/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-10th-2025/

January 6th

Vote for Democracy #24

Under the United States Constitution, January 6th is the date that Congress meets in joint session to certify the electoral college votes for president and vice president that took place the prior November.

Today, this certification happened smoothly and quickly, marking the peaceful transfer of power that had been the norm in the US until it was shattered on January 6, 2021, when a mob violently stormed the Capitol after weeks of unfounded claims by Donald Trump and his team that the election had been stolen from him, even though government officials around the country had certified that the election results were fair and valid and dozens of court cases challenging the results had failed.

Members of Congress had to be evacuated to safer locations, but about 140 police officers were wounded in the assault, with five deaths being attributed to the attack and its aftermath. Donald Trump waited for hours to ask his supporters to leave the Capitol. When Congress re-convened later that night, there were still 147 Republicans who voted against certifying all the electors, which was unconscionable, given the threat that the riot had posed to them and their colleagues. (To read the most comprehensive report about the January 6th, 2021 attack, please visit this link, which has the full report from the House Select Committee plus supporting materials, such as court documents, videos, interviews, and depositions.)

Despite all of this, Donald Trump managed to convince enough voters that the attack didn’t happen at all, that it was a “day of love,” and that the people who had been convicted at trial or had pleaded guilty in the attack planning or execution were political prisoners, that he won the 2024 election which was certified today.

Trump has indicated that he may pardon all or most of the convicted after he is inaugurated on Jan. 20th. He has threatened to arrest the people in Congress and the Justice Department who investigated the attack and his role in it.

I will continue to be part of the millions of Americans who believe in the truth, the Constitution, and the rule of law. Trump and his Republican gang cannot erase the mountain of evidence against them. Bizarrely, one of the things that Trump is claiming the members of the House Select Committee did was to destroy all the evidence; the link above shows that they instead made the evidence public.

Don’t fall for Trump’s lies about January 6th, 2021 or anything else. Look at the evidence. Find the truth and proclaim it.

We are going to need to do it a lot to get through these next four years with our democracy functioning.
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Join us for Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/06/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-6th-2025/

in gratitude for Jimmy Carter

(Photo credit: The Carter Center, 2015)

Jimmy Carter died on Sunday, December 29, 2024 at the age of 100. He was United States president from 1977-1981. After his term ended, he was active as a peacemaker, author, and humanitarian well into his nineties. Much of his work was accomplished in partnership with his wife, Rosalynn, who predeceased him last year after 77 years of marriage.

Carter was president during a formative time in my life, late in high school going into my early years at Smith College, and there are things from that time that have had lasting impact on my life.

Carter’s actions on renewable energy, energy conservation, and environmental protection were formative for me. Because of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, oil and gasoline were high-priced and in short supply. We lived in a very rural area at the time. Reaching our high school, supermarkets, stores, doctor’s office, etc. involved at least a twenty-mile drive, so fuel efficiency became even more crucial for us. Being very aware of the efficiency of our vehicles is something that B and I have retained. The first car we bought after our marriage was a small, fuel-efficient compact; we assumed that our next car would be electric, given the emphasis that had been placed on them by Jimmy Carter. Unfortunately, that was all derailed by Reagan and the fossil fuel industry and we didn’t get our first electric car until 2017.

We also continued to take home energy efficiency seriously. B and I were talking recently about how we never got into large, lighted Christmas displays for our yard, choosing instead to just put our Christmas tree, now with super-efficient LED lights, near our front window. That all started back in the Carter administration with its emphasis on energy conservation. Carter, who was an engineer, installed solar panels on the White House roof to heat water; Reagan later removed them. I’m proud to say that our home and most of our transportation are powered by solar energy. We have very efficient heat pumps for hot water and heating and cooling our home. We are also well-insulated and choose appliances and lighting carefully with our eyes on efficiency. The appalling thing is that, while President Carter saw clearly what we needed to do as a country to address environmental/climate protection and energy security long-term and set us on that path, subsequent political and corporate leaders abandoned those efforts with grave planetary consequences. We would not be in such dire circumstances around the globe if we had tackled these issues around renewable energy and environmental/climate protection back then.

I appreciate Carter’s example of living out his faith. He set out to serve humanity, especially those who are most vulnerable. He was long active with Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for people experiencing poverty. Through the Carter Center, he spearheaded a massive effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease in Africa and Asia. In 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases; in 2023, under 20 human cases were reported.

Carter was also a champion for human rights. As president, he appointed people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds and many women to executive and judicial branch posts. He created the Department of Education, which had previously been part of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, to help promote excellence in education regardless of race or economic circumstances. He also created the Department of Energy to spearhead reforms.

I’m grateful that President Biden will still be in office for the state funeral for Jimmy Carter on January 9th. The then-young Senator Biden was an early endorser of Carter’s run for the Democratic nomination in 1976 and the two have been friends for decades. While Biden and Carter are both one-term Democratic presidents who were largely derailed by high inflation rates, what is more striking to me is that they are both dedicated public servants, motivated by love of country and their faith, Carter as a Baptist and Biden as a Catholic. Both celebrated the diversity and pluralism of the United States and tried to protect and preserve our environment.

I am worried that the incoming Trump administration will try to dismantle the gains made under President Biden in the same way that Reagan undid many of Carter’s initiatives.

A hallmark of Jimmy Carter’s life was always telling the truth, even when that truth was difficult to hear. Donald Trump is known for lying, thousands of times in his first term and thousands more since. It would have been distressing to have Trump overseeing the plans for Carter’s state funeral.

After the funeral and observances in Atlanta where the Carter Center is located, Jimmy Carter will be laid to rest beside Rosalynn under a willow tree near their long-time home in Plains, Georgia. There is a comfort in that for me – to think of them as reunited after such a long and fruitful partnership on earth. Both his longevity and the length of their marriage set records among US presidents, records that may well stand for as long as the United States endures.

Let’s all work to uphold the ideals that Jimmy Carter espoused so that the United States will become a “more perfect union” and grow as a democracy, not devolve into oligarchy or autocracy.

Vote for Democracy #23

MAGA versus DOGE

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

The transition to the Trump administration is a mess.

The ethics document for the transition was signed belatedly and is very weak regarding conflicts of interest. Many of Trump’s nominees for high level positions are openly hostile to the departments that they are slated to head. Some have no experience leading large organizations. A disturbing number are most well-known as media personalities rather than subject area experts. Several have had serious allegations against them that would raise red flags in a thorough background check. Many are extremely wealthy. Some of these nominees, such as Cabinet secretaries, require Senate confirmation and it remains unclear if enough Republican senators will oppose problematic nominees or not.

There is also the bizarre creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), co-chaired by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Despite its name, it is not an executive branch department, which would require an act of Congress to establish. Its apparent aim is to cut $2 trillion from the budget, even though this would mean cutting benefits for the public, such as Social Security and Medicare. However, they seem dedicated to extending tax cuts for wealthy people and corporations.

The whole enterprise seems dedicated to strengthening American oligarchy rather than democracy.

In recent days, though, there is a major, public battle going on between DOGE and MAGA over the topic of immigration. (For those who might not know, MAGA stands for “Make America Great Again” and is shorthand for the populist, anti-immigrant, sometimes Christian nationalist, base that follows Trump.)

Musk and Ramaswamy, along with other rich, high-tech executives, some of whom gave major amounts of money to elect Trump and many of whom are, like Musk, immigrants themselves, favor raising the number of H-1B visas offered by the US. These visas are given to highly skilled foreign workers. They are controversial because some employers have used them to bring in lower-waged foreign workers rather than hiring, training, and/or retaining US workers.

Those who speak for MAGA oppose all immigration and want the H-1B program to end.

A war of words has broken out between DOGE and MAGA; Heather Cox Richardson published a helpful recap. A lot of it happened on Elon Musk’s platform X, formerly Twitter. (I used to cross-post from Top of JC’s Mind to Twitter/X but no longer do so.)

To have this level of in-fighting before we even get to inauguration day on January 20th does not bode well for the functionality of the incoming administration.

The differences between the rich, powerful DOGE faction and the large, non-wealthy, populist MAGA faction extend to other areas of endeavor. For example, DOGE is talking about cutting earned benefit programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, as well as social safety net programs, such as SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. Many MAGA households rely on these programs to make ends meet. The House Republicans haven’t been able to get their act together this last term and their majority in the next term is even smaller.

I don’t know if we will have a largely dysfunctional government or one in which Trump attempts to concentrate all power in the executive branch, trying to govern by executive order and intimidation rather than legislation.

I’m scared but trying to listen to trusted voices and organizations that are preparing for all eventualities.

We need our diverse, pluralistic democracy to prevail.