positive influence – Peaceful Reader

One day last Spring while folding laundry I channel surfaced looking for something to grab my attention. I found this guy that I didn’t know at all speaking with Trevor Noah, one of my favorite people, and I stopped to listen and was so moved I had to know more. If you are on the fence or simply need to know more here is that interview:

In Iowa as in other caucus states we are inundated with candidates, their messages, their meetings, and their staffers. It’s hard to get away from yet as I canvassed the other day I met more than a few people who had never caucused ever and who really had no interest in candidates that were running. This was a little shocking to me except I’ve always been interested. Politicians have everything to do with our daily lives even though people may not realize it. I think this presidency has a least been a much needed sometimes brutal wake-up call on how influential a candidate can be. Think of the tidal wave of inhumanity caused by the person in the White House now. From immigration to climate change this person continuously is on the wrong side of history.

Mayor Pete for me is the ideal presidential candidate; he is extremely smart, well-spoken, balanced, with a healthy love of country that does not bypass the rest of the world. I believe he will be a great president for all Americans because he has a concern for everyone. He is empathetic and I see this at events when he speaks one-on-one with people and with how he weights issues. His youth appeals to me as I think that is what we need to move us forward in a big way. I encourage you to look into Mayor Pete if you have any hope to change our current presidential situation. I have in the past been on the Bernie bus and at one time was an Elizabeth Warren fan; at this present moment though I believe Pete is the one to win and change our entire political climate. And we need that. We don’t need same old, same old. We need brighter and better. If I’ve nudged you at all please take a look at Mayor Pete’s website and let me know your thoughts.

I don’t know the whole story of the stand-off between the young “Make America Great Again” hat wearing Catholic student, Jake Sandmann and Native American, Vietnam Vet Nathan Phillips or any of the other students involved but what I can recognize is a clear smirk on Jake’s face and his choice to stand as close as possible to Nathan, which to me is a sign of disrespect. He is attempting to stand down and act superior to the Native elder person in front of him. It’s just one more unbelievable moment in time showcasing how much work we have before us. It feels like it is a constant battle whether peacefully done or not. I bare witness to it in school when young people choose to leave the one black student to sit at a table on their own, or when head-scarfed young mothers have trouble fitting in to our school culture. Will it always be this way? I am one who is filled with an unbearable amount of hope and yet I wonder.

I have a few heroes that I look to when I wonder. How would Dr. King view our world today? Would Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, or Maya Angelou feel we’ve made positive strides compared to their early days or would they feel like I do that we are traveling back in time. I see a new slew of representatives in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kamala Harris, Hodan Hossan (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MN); these are women who quite possible can make a change in government. Right now with our current administration we need ALL the help we can get and it’s more than just good representation. We need a mindset shift so the haters don’t get out of hand. Everything Dr. King tried so desperately to teach us had to do with the power of love. How am I carrying that torch? What are we doing as a nation to carry the torch? the first step would be to end the current administration, the entire lot. Or we could build a wall around the White House.

Tag: positive influence

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My heroes