Sunday School 7/10/22

The luck of the draw for your Sunday School lesson went to the Face the Nation classroom on CBS. 

Vice President Kamala Harris was in the classroom via videotaped segments from her interview with Robert Costa. The first part was about mass shootings, and how conversations with first responders and families of victims always turn to assault weapons. 

Harris said those weapons "were specifically and intentionally designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly," and said  

the fact that we can't get Congress to renew...  the assault weapons ban is outrageous. 

It's OK to support the 2nd Amendment, as she does, and be against assault weapons, too. Costa wondered why so many legally get these weapons and "slip past red flag laws like those in Illinois." Harris pointed to the availability of the weapons, but didn't touch on the red flag laws.

Costa didn't follow up, unfortunately. Instead, he moved to abortion. While he mentioned President Biden's recent Executive Order, he also said that many Dems "remain very angry" with the decision in the Dobbs case, and he played a clip of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) asking

Where is the Democratic Party? Where's the party? Why aren't we calling this out? This is a concerted, coordinated effort. And, yes, they're winning.

He asked Harris if Newsom is right, and again we got half an answer. She said "all of us share a deep sense of outrage" about the Supreme Court taking a recognized right away from women. And, she said,

You don't have to agree that you want to or would advocate that you or a loved one would have an abortion to agree that the government should not be making that decision for any individual woman.

Costa followed up, asking "Did Democrats fail, past Democratic presidents, congressional leaders, to not codify Roe v. Wade over the past five decades?"

I do believe that we should have rightly believed, but we certainly believed that certain issues are just settled. Certain issues are just settled... And that's why I do believe that we are living, sadly, in real unsettled times.

Harris used voting rights as an example. This was settled, back in the 60s, but now states are "intentionally making it more difficult for people to vote." It's the same with choice, she said. And while the administration is doing what it can, such as the Executive Order, they can't do it alone.

...we also need Congress to act, because that branch of government is where we actually codify, which means put into law the rights that, again, we took for granted, but clearly have now been taken from the women of America. 

Referring to the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights act as examples of Congressional action, Harris said, "That's what we need to do with Roe and the principles behind Roe."

Another question she didn't answer? Whether Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh should be impeached for statements made during their confirmation hearings. 

I start from the point of experience of having served in the Senate. I never believed them. I didn't believe them. It's why I voted against (them).

She said it's all about the elections this November, and that "we need a pro-choice Congress." She also noted, correctly in my opinion, that it's not just Congress people need to worry about.

It means state offices, governors, secretaries of state, attorneys general. It means local races. Who's going to be your DA, who's going to be your sheriff enforcing laws that are being passed to criminalize medical health providers, and maybe even the women who seek the service?

Costa gave her a fill-in-the-blank question: "Americans need to vote for Democrats in November because____________?" 

Our democracy is on the ballot, truly, truly. If you look at an issue like choice, it's on the ballot, a woman's right to make decisions about her own body and potentially what can happen in the not-too-distant future around issues like access to and making decisions about contraception or same-sex marriage. Elections matter. 

Costa wondered how they were going to counter polls showing that "support for this administration among Black Americans has softened," and that people are frustrated about police reform being stalled. Harris said that Americans in general, not just Black Americans, should demand legislation addressing key issues is passed, whether it's police reform or anything else. 

I mean, but, again, there is a connection between what we are -- what we want to have happen and the power of Congress to actually make it happen, when it comes to changing the laws, when it comes to writing and then putting in effect, laws that create accountability and greater fairness in our system, be it our criminal justice system, be it our health care delivery system, all of that.

And, she added

What we have also seen is that Black Americans and all Americans said -- look at the United States Supreme Court. There has never in the history of that court been a Black woman to serve. There now is, because people stood in line in 2020 for hours demanding that, of the things that they would stand in line to see happen...  Ketanji Brown Jackson on the United States Supreme Court. So, there are demands that were made by voters, saying these are the things we want out of this administration. And a lot of those demands have been met in the first year-and-a-half. There's still more work to do, without any question.

Finally, when it came to the big question, she said that Joe Biden plans on running in '24, and if he does, she'll run with him. 

See you around campus.

TGIF 5/27/22

Another week in the books, a week of sadness and darkness and pain and grief and anger and distrust and disbelief and a whole lot more.

Some expectations were not met - the most important ones - while others, the banal and least consequential, were met with flying colors.

Does this flip the concept of the good week / bad week lists? I'm not sure.

Here's an assemblage of expectations met:

• Kevin McCarthy suggesting he won't comply with the House January 6th Committee's subpoena, and demanding information from the Committee before he ultimately refuses to participate.

• Ted Cruz giving all the reasons why mass shootings happen; none of them have anything to do with the easy accessibility of what I called "guns that an evil bastard can use to kill a bunch of innocent people" or anything else having to do with guns, other than the guns people see used in video games and movies. Which, often are the same ones that are used in real life mass shootings, but hey, what do I know?

• Literally everyone who, immediately after the news broke of the school shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, who congratulated law enforcement 'heroes' who did their job and saved countless lives. Little did they know...

• Everyone who said that we need to re-implement the assault weapons ban, as if this shooting, in a state where the governor was embarrassed that residents weren't purchasing enough guns, in a state has no license/no training open carry, is the one that matters enough to get entrenched opponents of anything resembling a ban on any gun to swing over to the other side. 
• President Biden finally signing an Executive Order on police reform, knowing as he did so that it didn't go far enough, and correctly placing the blame on elected officials who refused to work together on legislation. The EO was announced on the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd.

And, of expectations not met:

• Everyone at Robb Elementary School, who were mere days away from the end of the school year, and holding their awards ceremony, who thought that May 24th was going to be just another happy day.
• The teacher, who reportedly propped open the door not just once but twice - the door through which the shooter entered; surely, she did not expect that.
• The parents of the children who were killed, who had expected their children to come home on Tuesday, just like any other school day.
• Anyone in law enforcement, knowing what should have happened, and hearing what didn't happen, until it was oh so late, much too late. 
• Gov. Abbott, and everyone else in 'official' Texas, who were not given accurate or complete information about the shooting, and therefore provided false information to the families and the media.
• And pretty much everyone, everywhere, watching this nightmare unfold.

Hold these families close to your heart, and continue holding the families of the victims in the Buffalo Tops shooting close to your heart, too.

TGIF, everyone.

Sunday School 4/25/21

Our trip through the Sunday classrooms begins with highlights from Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), who talked with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

On police reform, "the intent of this is we have to find a way to hold officers accountable so this type of behavior ends." In that regard, she's not yet convinced that Sen. Tim Scott's plan that immunity be lifted for individual officers and assigned to police departments is a good idea. 

And she doesn't agree with Wallace that "if there's a bad cop, the department will get rid of them anyway," pointing out that disgraced officer and convicted murdered Derek Chauvin "had multiple complaints against him." She said the immunity issue wasn't a deal breaker, but "if Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott can show us some other way to hold officers accountable" she's willing to talk. She also noted that, had Chauvin not been convicted, it's possible the department could have been forced to take him back. That's not accountability.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Floundering for Relevance) was on the show before Bass; here's his asinine and childish response to Wallace's question on whether there is systemic racism in policing and in other institutions. 

No, not in my opinion. We just elected a two-term African-American president. The vice president is of African-American-Indian descent. So, our systems are not racist. 

Honestly, I'm surprised he didn't mention having black friends - it's about as relevant as what he did say. In response, Bass said "we have got to figure out a way to talk about race where we can talk about it objectively and people don't feel individual guilt. 

You can look back at our history's laws and over time there were many laws that were put in place that were absolutely racist and over time those laws might have changed, but the conditions haven't changed. You can look at each of our institutions. Why is there such massive inequality when it comes to education, when it comes to health care? Why does that exist? And so, we have to figure out a way to talk about it. Right now, to say it doesn't exist does not help anyone.

And on policing, Wallace wondered if we needed to distinguish between police killing armed suspects moving to attack people and people who are killed by police in other circumstances.

We absolutely need to distinguish but we also need to look at policing overall. And one of the things that I hope we really address is, maybe the focus needs to be on de-escalation. I know police officers are taught to shoot to kill. A lot of people raise, well, why couldn't he have shot her in the leg, why couldn't he have done all these different things? The point is we have got to come up with a way to stop -- there are so many people being killed in this country. 

Because yes, Sen. Graham, there are problems, and they are systemic, and they do need to be addressed. And us white folks will be better off, too, when they are. 

Down the hall in the Face the Nation classroom, John Dickerson talked with Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He wondered if what's changed since the murder of George Floyd when it comes to protests. She mentioned our history throughout the 20th century of cases where unrest led to change (the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act and Fair Housing Act were three notable examples). Still, no police reform changes came out of all of that. People are fed up now, she thinks, and "that's a good thing," - it's been seven since Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, after all.

And there's been some tinkering around the edges. There's been some movement. The most powerful movement has been that the conversation has shifted away from talking about tinkering around the edges and modest reforms to radical changes and a radical envisioning of what public safety needs to become in this country.

In response to his ask for examples of change, not just 'tinkering,' among the examples she cited is one from my neck of the woods - the city of Ithaca, NY,

where the entire police department is being set down for a new community solution and public safety core. It will include some armed law enforcement officers, but it's focusing on the root causes of crime. It's shifting resources to mental health, to homelessness services, to youth services. And then it's focusing on what is it that you actually need armed police officers to do to deal with the most violent of circumstances.

She said that's a "re-envisioning" of public safety and what it needs to be; it addresses questions of whether "an armed constabulary" is needed to address things like a bad check, or a homeless person on your porch. We've been moving at a snail's pace, but that that's changing now, she added. 

On the sentiment of police officers saying that they're dealing with communities that have been failed "by education, by the jobs system. There are guns everywhere..." and how that requires "a broader lens" when it comes to change, she agreed, saying having good relations with police, "it's not about having a pancake breakfast or playing basketball. It's about some real, honest talk."

That means police talking honestly about things like gun laws that make them nervous and that "endanger" them - but we don't hear about that, that's 'behind closed doors" stuff. And, she said, we haven't solved the community problems - education, and poverty, homelessness, and the rest - "we have just shifted all of the resources to deal with those problems into our criminal justice system." That's what we need to be talking about now, and what we need to be addressing now.

We need to be putting our resources and attention to those problems and not shunting them off to the criminal justice system and asking police officers, armed officers, to address issues that we have been too cowardly to address as a democracy.

That's a mic drop, as they say. 

Quickly, Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), a former police chief, was also in the FTN classroom, talking police reform. Dickerson asked about progress on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the House (Sen. Tim Scott is leading the Rs in the Senate). Demings said she thinks they're "closer than a lot of people realize" and said "I do believe we can meet this moment."

I am hoping that Senator Scott will lead his delegation, if you will, or the Republican members in the Senate to sit down at the table, finish the negotiations and let's get this done. George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is not perfect, but it is a major step in the right direction.

She urges her colleagues not to make this a political issue, noting historically the two parties have risen to the occasion, have met "that significant moment."

This is such a time. And so, I'm hoping that we will put politics aside and come together because we need to get this done. Our communities around the nation need it. Our good police officers need it, and quite frankly, the American people need it. We in Congress in both chambers can meet this moment as well if we have the political will to do so.

Finally, on how she'd talk to her officers if she were still a police chief, she said she has talked to some officers. She reminds them they must have the mind for the job, but also the heart for the job. And the reminds them about their training.

Utilize the training that you have, but also remember that it's human beings that you're dealing with and always have compassion for the community in which you represent. And, you know, the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers in this nation are good people who go to work every day to protect those, protect and serve our communities. I remind them of that. Always stand on the right side, speak up, and be professional and do the job that you're paid to do.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell, isn't it? 

See you around campus.