Memoirs or a Grassroots

We aren’t all born to be activists.  Its the influences and those significant events that move us into it.  Probably most of what has brought us to this point has been forgotten by the time we reach adulthood.  I remember a few.

Family

My parents were working class Californians.  They grew up in the 20s and 30s in Inglewood, California.  Apparently, my mother’s family was quite wealthy, but my grandfather had a political disagreement with his father and was cut from the will.

  My parents rented a house from my mother’s aunt. My father was drafted for World War II.  I remember hearing quite often that while my father was in the army, and my mother was left alone to raise my brother, her aunt raised the rent.

While he was in the army, my father contracted Rheumatic Fever.  He recovered, but was left with a heart condition.  After his discharge, he was happy to get a job in the aircraft industry.  For most of his life he hated the job, but didn’t see a lot of alternatives, and he got benefits, including health insurance.

We moved from our rented house in Inglewood to our own home in Torranceeded in 1952.  Torrance was your basic white suburb of Los Angeles.  I always considered it to be without culture, but I guess it had a culture that I didn’t appreciate.

Both of my parents loved Franklin Rooseveltsnd therefore were loyal Democrats.  My mother admitted to me that she was a socialist, but that wa not something she would make public.  We were always told that during a Democratic administration we could get a new car.  This took some time.  I was already 13 when Kennedybecame president. Myfather was not an activist at all.  He was basically afraid to do anything from fear of losing his job (and benefits), but whenever I complained about what was happening in the country, he would tell me to do something about it.

Events

The first event that I remember had a deep impact on my life was an Ed Sullivan segment.  For younger people who may not know, Ed Sullivan was a variety show on tv.  Usually, his guests were entertainers.  I remember a lot of jugglers, acrobats, and singers.  His show introduced us to both Elvis Presley and the Beatles.  However, the segment that impacted my life was a film about war.  I was about five years old at the time.  An artist had created a series of wood blocks, with scenes of houses and wildlife.  Then he implied the was a bomber , and they were all slowly burned.  For many years, no one would believe I was terrified by something on Ed Sullivan, but well into adulthood I found another anti-war boomer who had also been impacted by the same show.

When I was about 12 years old , my grandmother had a heart attack.  This was before Medicare, and my parents were afraid they would lose the house if they were charged with her medical bills.  health insurance was always a major stressor in my house.  Although my father was in a union and had good health insurance, there was that constant fear that his company would be left out of a government “defense” contract, and he would lose his job (and benefits). When he finally retired he told me he felt that the sword of Demaclese had been hanging above his head for all 41 years.

Alike all American baby boomers, we were taught to “duck and cover” in our classrooms.  No one could be sure that the Cold War wouldn’t become hot.  Then in 1962, with the Cuban Missile Crisis, it almost did.  We lived in fear for several days.  We stopped doing our homework, even going to class.  Looking back on it, the West Coast was probably not even in danger, but at 14 we were not that educated.  We assumed we were going to die, through no fault of our own, and we were not going to spend our last few days doing things we did not want to do.

Heroes

I was not brought up to be a strong Christian, so I have no idea why I felt the need for a savior, maybe it is human nature, maybe a weakness in me, but I definitely became a hero worshipper with the election of John Kennedy.  Looking back at it , I can see many flaws, but at the time I felt he would do great things and I actually became wuie the patriot.  After the Cuban Missile Crisis, I also began to worship his brother Bobby.  When John Kennedy was assassinated, I became obsessed with Robert Kennedy.  I was sure he would change the world, and I was going to help him.  As much as hero -worship is discouraged in many ways it worked for me.  In addition to inspiration, Reading his books taught me a lot about government , union corruption, immigration, and possibilities.  My last two years of high school were basically wrapped around Robert Kennedy.  I researched farm worker issues, causes of poverty, and various forms of health care systems.  I joined my high school Democratic Club and volunteered in the 1964 campaign.  I truly became an activist at 16 years old.

 Democracy vs Capitalism

Several years ago, while teaching high school, I was searching for an acceptable economics textbook to assign to my independent learning students.  In a common, “well-respected” textbook, I found the following review question,

“Which system would you prefer to live under, communism, socialism, or democracy?”

I was appalled.  I wrote a message to publisher and showed the book to my colleagues.  They did not seem to share my anger.  It has since occurred to me that my generation, and I believe the next one, were misled to believe that capitalism and democracy were interchangeable.  

Whether intentional or unintentional, this misconception has lead us down the road to destruction, including the election of Donald Trump.  I don’t think he even knows the difference.  Unfortunately neither do many of his followers.

If the United States government were to declare that we were sanctioning the people of Venezuela to bring them capitalism rather than democracy, the reaction of the American public would be much different.

Although considerable damage has been done, we can still hope and strive for a clarification of these terms for the next generation, before it is too late.

Nothing Will Fundamentally Change

“Nothing will fundamentally change” This is a quote from our Democratic Party Nominee for President.  This was told to a group of wealthy donors who I suppose really appreciated hearing that their greedy capitalist system would not be in any danger under his administration.

The Democratic Party has continued to reenforce this statement in many ways.  At a time when we so desperately need change, both our Congressional representatives and Democratic National Committee members are blocking it at every opportunity.

Even though we spend more than the next eleven countries combined, a majority of our Democratic Congressional representatives voted to increase the military budget, and even defeated a bill that would allow some of budget to be used for human needs.  In addition, they allowed the continuation of war, both through actual warfare and through sanctions that cause suffering of innocent people.

 

Party leaders insist on keeping the same control that has kept the party in the hands of the oligarchs and the lobbyists for insurance, fossil fuel industries, and the military industrial complex.  They continue to accept corporate money and to ensure that Democratic candidates will not challenge their rule.  At a time when millions of people are being cut from their employee-based insurance, the Democratic Party refuses to consider Medicare for All, a system similar to that used in every other industrialized country in the world.

The excuse for rejecting change this time is Donald Trump.  While I understand the need to defeat Trump, I also see the need for change.  The Democratic Party needs to be challenged.  We were not always a tool of corporate power.  If it’s really about defeating Trump, the people need to be ready to be in the streets as soon as the election is called, whatever the outcome.  If the Democratic party cannot be changed, and that certainly seems to be the case, a people’s party must be formed immediately, for the sake of the people and  the planet.

People who know me will tell me I should let this go, but it’s my blog and I will never let it go.

As I have mentioned before, I spent 50 years as an ACTIVE Democrat.  I knew the party had moved to the right, but I thought in time we could bring it back to progressive and to being a party of and for the people.  I suppose I was skeptical from about the time Bill Clinton came in, but I still had hope.

All that took a drastic turn on June 7, 2016, when I worked as a poll watcher for the Democratic primary at UCLA.  I knew there had been a lot of dirty tricks.  A registrar in Brooklyn had removed 150,000 voters from the roster, and in my own state of Arizona, the number of polling places had been cut so low that people had to stand in line for up to six hours to vote, and the polls in Puerto Rico were unexpectedly closed at 3:00, before people were off work.  However, nothing had adequately prepared me for California.

We arrived at the polling place before the polls open and helped them set up equipment.  Once the polls open we were sent outside to do our exit poll.  Most people voting were the college students.  They were very excited to make their first vote.  Like me, they were supporting the progressive candidate, Bernie Sanders.

Our assignment was to give them our phones to fill out the exit poll after they had actually voted.  However, we were told that if they had been given a provisional ballot, we could not ask them to participate.  By fifteen minutes into the process, we noticed that almost everyone had a pink copy, which meant they had received a provisional ballot.  Many of them had brought along their sample ballots, which clearly showed they had legitimately registered.  When we asked a poll worker why they were receiving provisional ballots, we were told that the roster of all newly registered voters had been lost, and that they were trying to find it.  One of us went to another polling place also on the UCLA campus and were told the same thing.  We were all educated enough to know that provisional ballots are not always counted, and told the students coming to the polling places that they should go take their finals and come back to vote after the rosters had been found.

I know I should have known better, but for a time I actually believed they were trying to find them.  Years before we would have been able to get a news channel involved.  No one seemed to care.  We were up front with the students.  We told they should do whatever they could to get a real ballot.  For this, we were told by the County Registrar’s representative, that we were upsetting the students and that we should just let them think their provisional ballots would count so they would be happy.  Maybe we should have.

I, for one, was traumatized.  My fellow poll watchers were too.  I think we all new that the election had been rigged and that it was over, but to see it so up close was very difficult.  I think it was harder for me because I had given the party my time, my money and my hopes, and my devotion for so many years.

So, here we are four years later.  The corruption that included our experience has been exposed, and a Supreme Court hearing denied.  It seems that the “Democratic Party” has no obligation to hold a fair election.  Another primary has taken place and another candidate has been chosen by the powers that be.  I will most likely have to vote for the chosen candidate because of the horrifying alternative. However, the Democratic Party will never again receive my time, my money, my devotion, and now my trust.

Democrat of the Year

Many years ago, believe or not, I was given an award for being Democrat of the Year and had to make a speech to a few hundred people. While I don’t remember the speech I made, I do remember the theme. I used the lyrics to a Peter Yarrow song as an opener,


“Carry on my sweet survivor, though you know that something’s wrong. For everything that matters, Carry on”.



From there I discussed where we had had our differences, but that as Democrats, we all agreed that what really mattered was the people. I continued with the ways in which people mattered, meaningful employment, quality education, dignity in retirement, decent health care, clean environment, etc. At the time, I truly believed that these were the goals of the Party that I had given and continued to give so much of my life to. I didn’t think it would ever be different. But it is. The people don’t seem to matter any longer. The DNC seems to serve corporate interests, the fossil fuel industry, and the military industrial complex. We tried to run a candidate who would serve the people, but rather than being accepted by the party, he was ridiculed by party leaders and corporate media. No, the people can’t have health care. The insurance companies might suffer. No, the people can’t get affordable medication. What would that do to the pharmaceutical companies. No, the people can’t have clean water or air, that might hurt the bottled water and the fossil fuel industries. No, people can’t live in peace, that would destroy the military industrial complex. The Democratic Party is no longer about the people, it’s about propping up our corporate system and serving its donors. The people are hurting. They want change. The corporate controlled media and the corrupt politicians try to make them believe they can just blame Trump, and claim that we will be fine if we get rid of Trump. No we won’t. We need to make the people matter again. If the Democratic Party doesn’t think that is important, I can no longer call myself a Democrat. I don’t take this lightly. Remember, I was once “Democrat of the Year”.

I have lost a daughter and a granddaughter to cancer.  I can tell you first hand that when you get that diagnosis, you go for whatever treatment is available.  You don’t consider the cost.  If  you need to change your lifestyle, you will.  If you need to go into debt, you will.  Now, we are looking at losing all of our children and grandchildren to environmental catastrophe.  Yet, there are still those whose main concern is the cost.  It is true that Bernie Sanders’ plan to save us is expensive, but we have no choice.  Fires are burning, ice is melting, crops are dying, and people are suffering.  We must change our priorities and do whatever is necessary. A carbon tax is not enough.  We need the Green New Deal, and we need Bernie Sanders to get it through.  We can create a stable economy and a cooperative planet in the process.  Our children’s and grandchildren’s  lives depend on our ability and willingness to act,