Tag Archives: presidents

Relentless Deep Diggers

General, Media, Social Justice, Women, ,

Last Friday, the Nobel Prize Committee stood up for democracy and awarded its 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to journalists Maria Ressa(Philippines) and Dmitry Muratov (Russia), “in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.”

After the last five years of our ears being assaulted by cries of “fake news!” by the last U.S. president and his minions who whined anytime they were confronted with inconvenient facts by reporters or criticized in the slightest by anyone, this announcement of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to these fearless journalists was like a breath of fresh air to me. A reminder that there are people in this world who do care about holding people in power accountable and informing citizens with FACTS.

Here’s an article from The Conversation for you that better expresses what I could write in this blog post:

Nobel Peace Prize for journalists serves as reminder that freedom of the press is under threat from strongmen and social media

I wrote of my respect and admiration of Maria Ressa in January of this year, so I am extra happy she was awarded this honor. I spent my college years managing one college paper and reporting and editing for two – and have developed over the years a soft spot in my heart and great respect for journalists like Ms. Ressa and Mr. Muratov who relentlessly dig deep to expose abuses of power, knowing that they may be jeopardizing their safety and lives in the process but continuing to work nonetheless. I admire their determination to hold those in power accountable and inform their fellow citizens.

They and their fellow like-minded journalists would be just the sort of journalists I’d aspire to emulate if I were a working journalist: possessing unrelenting, dogged determination to get the truth out.

I think we need journalists like Ressa and Muratov as long as there are humans on earth or any other planet. They are essential to humankind. They are the courageous and gutsy ones who warn us about powerful people and corporations whose abuses of power would endanger our lives, intentionally or not.

Stand with them. They deserve our respect.

Sources

The Conversation
The Independent
BBC

Stand Up for Journalists, Whistleblowers, and Peaceful Protestors Who Hold Those in Power Accountable

Civics, General, Media, Social Justice, , ,

Do you know about the press freedom violations that have occurred in the past year?

In a year’s time span – from May 26, 2020 (the day after George Floyd’s murder by a police officer, Derek Chauvin, to Chauvin’s conviction on April 20, 2021, where he was found guilty of second and third degree murder and second degree manslaughter by a jury.

Freedom of the Press Foundation’s project, U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, reports that press freedom violations were reported across 36 states and more than 80 cities. In that time, an average of 1.6 assaults of journalists occurred per day. The majority of the assaults documented — more than 85% — were by law enforcement.

Specifically, that’s 580 assaults of journalists. 153 arrests or detainments. 112 reports of equipment damaged in the field.

Here’s the article:

Between the bookends: 1 year of press freedom violations

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Perhaps the Founding Fathers ought to have added a few words about police not having the right to beat the crap out of journalists and detaining or arresting them for reporting on people peaceably assembling – especially when they assemble to protest police brutality?

Virginia was the first state to formally protect the press. The 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights stated, “The freedom of the Press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic Governments.”

Do we have a despotic government, regardless of who is in charge? I’m not talking about just the federal government, but also state and local governments.

The rough manhandling and other abuses against journalists – as well as whistleblowers and peaceful protestors – by law enforcement over the decades, have sometimes made me wonder about government being despotic. That thought has been magnified in the past several years by our preceding president who was (and still is) allergic to being held accountable and who reveled in publicly bullying and belittling journalists.

You’d think publicly bullying and belittling journalists (and in some cases, detaining or arresting them) were the hallmarks of dictators in faraway lands, not of presidents in America!

What a fucking insult to the U.S. Constitution and to those who have the courage to report on corruption and injustices in our society.

Notice the photo in the link: it shows a freelance journalist glancing back as a police line advances in Minneapolis’ Fifth Precinct on May 30, 2020 – shortly before police pushed him over a wall.

Stand up for journalists, whistleblowers, and peaceful protestors who work tirelessly for the public good – to hold those in power to account for their abuses.

Sources

U.S. Press Freedom Tracker
National Constitution Center
History.com

Idol Worship

General

For me, it’s hard not to observe the most die-hard followers of our now former president and not think about their devotion to him – to the point that if anyone expresses a critical view of the former president or his policies, the devotee may become vehemently defensive.

Defensive the way a teenager might become when their beloved pop idol is criticized by a friend or loved one.

Yes, that is a grand simplification, of course, There’s many complex factors involved, like economics and political ideology and I don’t pretend to understand and delve into their frustrations.

But just on the surface, it is astonishing to me how intense the reactions are of the former president’s most fervent followers to any words that don’t praise and glorify him.

When I was in junior high school during the ‘70s, I had a huuuuuuuge crush on a pop star and was teased mercilessly by my friends. My family allowed me my obsessive infatuation though their indifference was palpable, the way one might feel if she’d announced what she thought was a great idea to friends and acquaintances – only to be met with obligatory, patronizing half-nods and thin, toothless smiles.

I’m guessing my family was likely concerned I was idolizing him to a ridiculous, time-consuming level…instead of focusing on more important things like doing my homework.

But hey, I was a young teenager! And what teen isn’t tormented from riding on a daily emotional rollercoaster, whether at home or at school, or both? My tender feelings felt like they’d been harshly and unjustly attacked when I was criticized in the slightest for fawning over my beloved pop star.

As in: how dare you attack me for liking what I like! Don’t I have the right to enjoy music I like, just like you do? Humpf!

I joined a fan club for this pop star, bought a goldtone necklace of his image (that might now resemble an icon on a road sign if it were massively enlarged), and I also had a t-shirt of him smiling, to let the whole world I was in love with him… to tell the whole world he was the best singer in the world!

I got a couple of his records for Christmas and listened to his songs a million times til I could memorize all the lyrics, and I tried to catch him on tv holiday specials through the years.

So yeah, I had a pretty strong girl crush on him. Any criticism of him – or by extension, me (to my mind), was intolerable. An unwarranted, malicious attack. He’s my man, dammit! You leave him alone.

I was head over heels “in love” with him. And often when one is in love – and I imagine, particularly when it is only one-sided, reason goes out the window. Fiery emotions rule the day!

My beloved pop star and our now former president are apples and oranges, but when I look at the unhappy, most die-hard followers of the latter, it seems they are like I was as an obsessed, young teen when presented with opposing viewpoints: unable to handle even the slightest criticism (or perceived criticism) of their dear pop star – quick to go on the defense.

Vehemently so. Enamored of his words. Wanting to listen to him a million times.

Can never get enough of him. He’s an addiction.

Like my family and friends who didn’t understand my great obsession with my pop star, perhaps those who didn’t vote for the Dear Leader are similarly concerned for their friends and loved ones who are obsessed with him, maybe thinking to themselves:

he’s not God, for crying out loud!

If the former president’s most die-hard fans are worked up about any particular criticism of him, they might go on the offensive, saying something negative about “the other side”, usually in an accusatory tone: Why don’t they investigate the VP’s son or They’ve been mean to him [Dear Leader] from the start!

Oh, that elusive they! WHO are they, I ask you?

It’s hard to be clear and reasonable when you’re as hoppin’ mad as Yosemite Sam.

Hard, when you’re a tormented teen, with raging hormones and trying to find your way in the world amid parental and familial “control” over your life, coping in the presence of your fellow tormented teens, and feeling that you must fiercely defend all you hold dear to your heart – including your beloved popstar, from the slightest prick of criticism.

But what’s with the grown-ups who can’t even handle mere words expressing opposing views of their demigod without going nearly ballistic, as if their guy can do no wrong and is above the law?

Will these fervent followers of the former president ever outgrow their obession of him?

I still enjoy “my” popstar’s music, for sure! Am certainly not in love with him. He’s married for one thing. And to another man. More power to him!

There was a time, about 34 years ago when my pop star was scheduled to come to the city I was working in, to a bookstore near my workplace, to sign autographs of his newly released autobiography. I planned to go after work.

But then there was a bomb threat at the store; I don’t remember if it was because of him or not. There were literally hundreds of women openly weeping because his visit was announced by store management that it would be cancelled for safety concerns.

And then suddenly, I saw the local news cameras! Cameras focusing on the screaming, weeping women.

Oh dear, I thought! I’ve got relatives in the area…I don’t want the cameras to catch me! I couldn’t bear the thought of being caught on camera like a person sneaking away for a secret rendezvous and risk the possibility of my relatives calling my mom to tell her they saw me on the evening news among hundreds of women crying because they couldn’t see “our” pop star! No way.

Nevertheless, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for a just a tiny, fleeting moment of star-gazing at one of my favorite popstars. I was only half-hearted about the prospect of buying his book and standing in line for god knows how long just so he could autograph it! I’d already had a looong day at work and was very tired. But the novelty of seeing a celebrity I liked was kind of a fun idea…until I saw the tear-soaked women. More so than seeing the local news crews.

I was not weeping, just feeling disappointed…and maybe a bit startled when I saw the huge and nearly hysterical crowd. Their reaction to the news that he wouldn’t be there embarrassed me a bit; it looked to me that they had invested so much of their individual identities in the popstar. I certainly did not want to go there!

That vivid scene permanently cured me of any vestige of idol worship of him, though that incident occurred a good decade after my teen obession by that point.

Now that the Dear Leader is not in office anymore, I wonder if his most fervent followers’ obsession with him will fade with time, as mine did with my pop star? That maybe at best, they’ll still like him and admire his words, but won’t be the least bit offended at the slightest criticism of him. That they would be sorely embarrassed and startled by his die-hard fans’ worshipful behavior towards him. And that they can wholeheartedly divorce their individual identities from him.

I hope so.

They might discover there are many interesting people and things outside their attachment to him.

If our sense of self, our values and our ideals, do not originate from within – but are instead largely influenced, shaped or fashioned by celebrated characters – we fall under the spells of idol worship without realizing we have ‘souled out’.
~ T.F. Hodge

A Ray of Sunshine

Civics, General, Media, Women, , ,

Do you know who Maria Ressa is?

I only vaguely knew of this renowned journalist who was accused of cyber libel in June 2020, and then the other night, PBS’ Frontline show had a great documentary on the threatened status of press freedom in the Philippines, focusing on Maria Ressa. She is a dynamo! Intensity and reslience packed into a small stature. Check out this documentary:

A Thousand Cuts

With press freedom under threat in the Philippines, A Thousand Cuts goes inside the escalating war between the government and the press. The documentary follows Maria Ressa, a renowned journalist who has become a top target of President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on the news media. …

Her resoluteness, her confidence, and her forthrightness shine bright – so much so that she has remained ingrained in my mind for days. And I’ll venture to say, for years to come.

Ressa is a top target of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, having been an outspoken critic of his policies for many years – in particular, the extrajudicial killings, human rights violations, and fast-rising death toll from Duterte’s brutal war on drugs as well as the alleged pro-Duterte online “troll army” who were pushing out fake news stories and manipulating the narrative around his presidency. She has posted bail 9 times and has endured relentless political harrassment by the Duterte government and its supporters. Yet it doesn’t deter her from battling disinformation.

Bullies like Duterte don’t seem to faze Maria Ressa. (Would you expect less from someone who spent many years investigating terrorist networks in Southeast Asia?)

And she says she will not let herself be intimidated.

I love that about her!

For me, Maria Ressa is a ray of sunshine in these dark days of the pandemic. She is an inspiration for those who are deeply disgusted by the US wanna-be dictator who has repeatedly called the press the enemy of the people and has denounced any journalist who has committed the “crime” of criticizing him. She may be in the Philippines – she is by the way also a US citizen, but she nevertheless is an inspiration to many around the world who value and respect a free and open democracy.

Amendment I of the US Constitution clearly states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Similarly, Section 4 of the Bill of Rights in the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines clearly states:

No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.

Nice to know the US Constitution has inspired others around the globe to enshrine similar rights into their own countries’ constitutions!

But not-so-nice to know that the most powerful man on earth has been inspired by the dictators of the world with regard to how to treat members of the press, as per his own acknowledgment.

Neither the leader of the Philippines nor the soon-to-be former leader of the United States like the press, let alone respect it. Well, arguably, no political “leader” does; however, but when you, Presidents Duterte and Trump, publicly single out journalists by belittling them in front of their peers at a press conference or at a mass rally of your followers because they wrote something you didn’t like, arrest them on allegedly politically motivated charges, insinuate that a certain journalist “could be a target for assassination”, laugh when your dictator buddy calls the press corps “spies”, announce in a jesting tone that you think it’d be a good idea to arrest and maybe “get rid of” journalists who criticize and contradict your mistatements with facts just like another dictator buddy, and worst of all, say that the press is the enemy of the people, then I’d say that you, Dear Leaders – and there’s more than two of you on this planet, have an unimaginable contempt for your fellow citizens. For those who elected you as well as those who did not.

Journalists are here to hold our elected leaders accountable! Every last one of them, from the local level all the way to the president.

It disturbed me recently that CBS News had recently put out a promotional ad about themselves stating the obvious: without a free press, we don’t have a free society. Probably not the exact words – I can’t think of them at this moment…but you get the idea.

I thought to myself: What?! This is what our president inspired – that a national media company felt compelled to remind the public of this?

Fortunately, we have courageous journalists like Maria Ressa here in the US, too. Like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, who is one of my favorite investigative reporters and no stranger to having put her life on the line as has Maria, to report the news.

To Maria and Amy and all the intrepid journalists like yourselves out there in the world: you are essential to our freedom to live and breathe safely by keeping check on those in power, informing the public when you expose abuse, corruption, and goodness knows what else has occurred. You shine a spotlight into the dark nooks and crannies of our world for the public good. America needs you now more than ever. The world needs you.

I need you!

We can’t fight monsters by becoming monsters. ~ Maria Ressa

Sources

PBS Frontline
Rappler
Elle
Wikipedia
NPR
The Guardian
U.S. Constitution
constituteproject.org
Vox
Washington Post
National Review
Global News
The Guardian

Petition to President-elect Biden: Free Palestine—and the Sahrawi people too!

Civics, General, Social Justice, ,

I signed this petition from CODEPINK today:

Free Palestine—and the Sahrawi people, too!

[edited from  my codepink email]

Trump is obsessed with arming the Middle East. Last week, Morocco became the fourth Arab nation to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in yet another fake “peace deal” via Donald Trump. In a quid pro quo, in exchange for normalizing Israeli apartheid, the U.S. is recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara — an area, and native people, illegally occupied, just like the Israeli occupation of Palestine. To no one’s surprise, the Trump administration has also just reached a deal to sell Morocco $1 billion in weapons — drones and munitions made by General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing. 

After more than 200 years of occupation, Spain withdrew from the region in 1975 and split control of the land between Morocco and Mauritania — despite demands for independence from the Sahrawis. By 1979, Mauritania had relinquished power over the area, but Morocco maintained its iron grip through decades of brutal war. In 45 years of Moroccan rule, the Sahrawi people have endured endless oppression, including violent military occupation and the persecution of peaceful activists. Thousands have been forced to flee their homes and live their entire lives in refugee camps. 

Last month, on November 13, the Moroccan army invaded the Al Guerguerat village in Western Sahara where around 60 peaceful Sahrawi protestors had set up an encampment. After the military “successfully” dismantled the camp, Moroccan police launched a crackdown on the Sahrawi activists, including home raids, surveillance, and arrests. On November 30, just days before the Israel-Morocco normalization deal, Amnesty International called for a thorough investigation into human rights abuses in the region. 

No country other than the U.S. has recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Western Sahara belongs to Morocco as much as Palestinian territory belongs to Israel — IT DOESN’T! Just as we support indigenous rights in the U.S. and in Palestine, we must speak up for the freedom and dignity of the Sahrawi, people. We — including President-elect Biden — must join in solidarity with their struggle for freedom and do everything we can to block the recent sale of $1 billion in weapons to Morocco to fund their oppression.

It is unacceptable for the United States to perpetuate the oppression of the Sahrawi people, just as it is wrong for the U.S. to arm Israel in its war on Palestinian rights.

Ask Joe Biden to support Sahrawi freedom by signing our petition to undo Trump’s recognition of Western Sahara as Moroccan territory. Sign our petition asking him to reverse Trump’s declaration that Western Sahara belongs to Morocco.

 

You may also be interested to learn more about Western Sahara in this documentary from Democracy Now!, by one of my favorite investigative journalists, Amy Goodman, who’s no stranger to putting her life on the line. I didn’t know a thing about Western Sahara until this news from Democracy Now!  Transcript of documentary provided in link.

Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara —  A Rare Look Inside Africa’s Last Colony as Ceasefire Ends

[November 27, 2020]

Bullies Everywhere

Civics, General, ,

What the devil is wrong with a certain set of spineless politicians who will do most anything to overturn a national election because they can’t handle a loss?

Whose party leader inspires his followers to threaten and bully even their own party politicians who decide they have their own brains to follow the law?

Who are, in essence, behaving like schoolyard bullies, expecting everyone to kowtow to their wishes.

Sore losers!

I despise bullying.

I’m no psychologist, but I feel there has to be something sorely lacking in these people’s lives that they would willingly subvert the will of their fellow citizens who voted for another candidate.

Don’t we have enough sickness with the pandemic going on, with thousands dying daily, and new cases of people getting infected daily?

Yes, sickness.

I think you have to be sick both head and heart to want to waste people’s time (and money) trying to overturn an election that has repeatedly been shown to have no evidence of fraud. Repeatedly.

Denied by the judges! Lack of solid evidence.

Even more deeply sickening is that these “leaders” rarely condemn the violence perpetrated against others, be it politicians, poll workers, or peaceful protestors. And violence includes threatening phone calls to secretaries of state and encircling their homes in person, carrying guns.

WTF?!

I’d venture to say there’s probably a bully in every school and workplace.

But not everyone who’s experienced abuse, neglect, grief, or any kind of hardship resorts to bullying others – using someone else as a convenient punching bag to cope with their inadequacies.

Who hasn’t had at least one bully encounter in their lives? It’s painful, to say the least. It’s mean and it’s cruel.

 

To bullies, I want to say:

You like threatening to harm others because it’s soothing to your fragile ego? You can’t stand it if you don’t feel you have power over others?

What ails you?!

There’s a fucking pandemic going on, for goodness sakes! Our country can do without more meanness and cruelty from you.

Go take a walk in the park or the woods and contemplate the beauty of nature…absorb some positivity instead of infecting others with your toxic negativity!

“I would rather be a little nobody, then [sic] to be a [sic] evil somebody.” ― attributed to Abraham Lincoln