We used to speak about a glass ceiling holding women back. We seldom
hear of the Invisible Curtain that surrounds the disabled population.
For years blind people have labored to bring attention to the needs of
blind and low vision Americans. But our political leaders continue to
prefer to keep the blind out of sight. Here on the Olympic Peninsula,
for the past 25 years, Cathy and I have connected with nearly every
social services organization, spoken on every local radio station,
submitted articles and gave interviews to the newspapers, organized
support groups, participated in Health Fairs, and did the heavy
lifting in keeping the Jefferson County Council of the Blind alive and
active. And yet, do any of our Progressive state and federal
representatives speak to our unmet needs? I certainly have only one
answer, Keep On Keeping On! There are too few of us to afford the
luxury of "sitting this one out". We need more exposure, more voices,
more workers laboring in the field.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/20/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Do you know what minority group is never mentioned? The disabled.
Miriam
Published on
Thursday, August 20, 2020
byCommon Dreams
If Joe Biden Rejects His Progressive Base, Trump Will Win
He could pave the way for another Donald Trump victory in the “the most
crucial election in human history.”
byAmy Goodman, Denis Moynihan
"If Joe Biden ignores, demoralizes or actively alienates his progressive
base, he could pave the way for another Donald Trump victory," writes the
authors. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
"If Joe Biden ignores, demoralizes or actively alienates his progressive
base, he could pave the way for another Donald Trump victory," writes the
authors. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
During the official roll call at the virtual Democratic National Convention
on Tuesday, representatives from 57 states and territories declared their
delegate totals for Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, each from an iconic
setting highlighting their region. Native American delegates from the
Dakotas and New Mexico greeted viewers in their indigenous languages.
African American delegates spoke from Black Lives Matter Plaza in
Washington, DC and the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
The sweeping celebration of the Democratic Party’s diversity, however, also
highlighted the party’s fracture between its centrist establishment and its
emerging progressive wings. Yes, all the delegations enthusiastically
declared Joe Biden “the next president of the United States.” But, Bernie
Sanders’ delegate total of 1,151, compared to Biden’s 3,558, indicates the
persistence of a significant ideological divide.
Two voices from the progressive wing were granted several minutes of
airtime
in Tuesday night’s program: Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortéz and
Medicare-for-All activist Ady Barkan.
Ocasio-Cortéz, widely known as AOC, transformed Democratic Party politics
with her 2018 primary upset over ten-term incumbent Joe Crowley,
demonstrating the power of grassroots organizing coupled with progressive
policy positions to energize a young, diverse electorate.
“Good evening, bienvenidos and thank you to everyone here today endeavoring
towards a better, more just future for our country and our world,” AOC
said,
opening her pre-recorded, speaking slot for which she was allotted 60
seconds (she used 95 seconds). She continued, thanking the “mass people’s
movement working to establish 21st century social, economic and human
rights, including guaranteed healthcare, higher education, living wages and
labor rights for all people in the United States…striving to recognize and
repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny and
homophobia
and to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign
policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past; a
movement that realizes the unsustainable brutality of an economy that
rewards explosive inequalities of wealth for the few at the expense of
long-term stability for the many, and who organized a historic grassroots
campaign to reclaim our democracy, in a time when millions of people in the
United States are looking for deep, systemic solutions to our crises of
mass
evictions, unemployment, and lack of healthcare.”
Ady Barkan’s statement was also pre-recorded, for another reason: he is
dying from ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A Yale-trained
Israeli-American lawyer and activist, Barkan was diagnosed in 2016 at the
age of 32, suffering increasing nerve degeneration, muscle atrophy, and
paralysis. He can no longer speak, so composes his speeches in advance,
using a synthetic, computer voice.
“In the midst of a pandemic, nearly 100 million Americans do not have
sufficient health insurance. And even good insurance does not cover
essential needs like long-term care,” Barkan said. “Our loved ones are
dying
in unsafe nursing homes, our nurses are overwhelmed and unprotected, and
our
essential workers are treated as dispensable. In the richest country in
history…we do not guarantee this most basic human right. Everyone living in
America should get the healthcare they need, regardless of employment
status
or ability to pay.”
Ady Barkan advocated for Medicare-for-All without naming it, though he
usually does, perhaps since Joe Biden has vowed to veto any
Medicare-for-All
bill that reaches his desk if he becomes president. Shortly after Barkan’s
address aired, he tweeted, “We need to elect Joe Biden to take the next
step
towards Medicare For All. After November 4th? We’re going to put a bill on
his desk.”
Will the Democratic Party spurn the demands of its younger and increasingly
diverse progressive wing? They will try to.
This week, the Democratic National Committee quietly dropped its pledge to
eliminate subsidies and tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry, saying it
appeared in this year’s draft platform “in error”–despite appearing in the
2016 platform and being supported by both Biden and his running mate, Vice
Presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Then, the Biden campaign denounced respected Palestinian-American Muslim
organizer Linda Sarsour, after she appeared on a livestream of a Muslim
Delegates and Allies Assembly side-event to the DNC. Sarsour has publicly
fought against racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and antisemitism. She also
supports the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.
A
Biden spokesperson said Biden “obviously condemns her views and opposes
BDS.”
Ady Barkan fired back on Twitter in solidarity: “I say this as a Jew and an
Israeli citizen…the Biden campaign issued a vile and dishonest statement
against my beloved sister Linda Sarsour, a fierce advocate for justice and
freedom, and a leading antiracist and organizer against antisemitism. The
Biden campaign must retract and apologize.”
If Joe Biden ignores, demoralizes or actively alienates his progressive
base, he could pave the way for another Donald Trump victory, in what
public
intellectual Noam Chomsky has called “the most crucial election in human
history.”
Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio
news hour airing on 1,100 stations in North America. She was awarded the
2008 Right Livelihood Award, dubbed the