This clearly could be the start of the coalition that will put the United States on the road to change in the 2018 midterm elections. Puerto Ricans are now largely in Florida and in some other states after leaving Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria. Americans must never forget all the negative things that Trump perpetrated by his actions and inactions, resulting in poor leadership. Tom Perez called the NAACP “first responders” and just like the very best firemen, police officers, or medical unit, African-Americans, under some adverse voting conditions, responded amazingly, enormously, successfully as Trump would say.
Tom Perez mentions that African-American women in Alabama and Virginia made things happen or their votes help Doug Jones (98 percent for Jones) and others win. The law forbade the involvement of the Democratic National Committee in Alabama in the election. The NAACP got the job done after their members were arrested in the office of Senator Jeff Sessions before he became attorney general. The senator chose not to give his constituents a meeting. This was another major mistake made by Sessions as the Republican campaign fell apart. This will keep going on with the team of Trump-Pence-Sessions.
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“Turn on the light of truth,” said Tom Perez and you will see truth within this article that is contradictory. You will also see things that we should all know.
Perez helped pass the Hate Crimes Prevention Act which helps us all.
Defeat hate today is the theme. Trump increased that hate and even more and more Republicans are complaining. Uniting is another matter. There are things that keep us apart that will continue to keep us apart.
Tom Perez remarked that more voting is needed and that “Democracy is not a casual sport.”
The governor says that Puerto Rico does not have equality in education, but the governor has been a charter school advocate and seems to have another Betsy Devos working for him. The NAACP has already rejected charter schools by passing a national moratorium on charter schools. I would strongly recommend that the governor ask for the resignation of Julia Keleher. Tom Perez said that public education needs someone who understands it. I see a great lack of understanding by almost everyone even as progress is being made (see The NAACP Convention Speaks in Jewish Business News).
Governor points out that in Cook County where a Puerto Rican woman was verbally assaulted with police looking on just for wearing a tee-shirt with the Puerto Rican flag. Perez did not mention that a 92 Mexican was brutally assaulted by a woman in California, using bricks to pummel the man. Ripping children from their parents which was part of slavery and the Holocaust (see The Holocaust Chronicles and Three Suicides in Jewish Business News).
There was a call for unity which means making a difference with the NAACP and standing up for Puerto Rico and which is a great way to build a better nation (together). There was a Puerto Rican Admission Act resolution that passed right in front of Roselló.
The list of things mentioned include:
Civil Rights’ work and labor work. Predatory lending and voter rights’ restrictions.
Calling for full freedom job interviews (ban the box and required education credentials that really are not part of the job description), better court room justice, and diminished traffic stops for no reason (criminal justice reform).
He could not mention Trump’s name which he is prohibited to do. Opportunity for everyone.
He says that Democrats stopped talking to people. People were taken for granted. Elect Democrats everywhere (strong partnerships) and organize for it (in all states).
I speak to African-Americans in Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana who still want to see more from the Democrats (as I do). Even President Obama took years to sign the executive order for our nation’s Dreamers, but I also find fault with people in local communities that are not convincing enough. Also minorities often see that great jobs are just not there for them. It’s hard for minorities to catch up economically.
Perez said that Trump White House says that the War on Poverty is largely over and he called that “fake news.” And it has been written up in the New York Post. Alabama has been recently investigated by the United Nations and that state compares to some third world nations in its terrible conditions. I am sure that other states demonstrate the same types of desperation that have existed in other nations, particularly Ireland throughout much of its history.
There was praise of diversity: access to jobs for minorities including women. Crimes were solved in the last decades: hate crimes.
This is the time to choose a world defined by common hope, optimism and/or a return to Obama’s initial thoughts before taking over the White House (The Audacity of Hope). Health care was on his lips, better wages, factory workers, teachers, and the middle class. Gun violence in school or outside it was mentioned. Being able to pay the rent and have retirement security, holding police accountable (a phone is not a gun), and equal rights for all and that everyone can vote who is eligible.
A NAACP staff member introduced the Puerto Rican governor and his people as Americans for all to know and recognize. Governor Rosselló immediately spoke about Jose Barbosa of Puerto Rico who went to Michigan to attend medical school. He was not allowed in college in Puerto Rico because he was Black (late 1800s). He became the father of the statehood movement in Puerto Rico. He graduated from medical school and was the valedictorian. Then Puerto Rico would not accept his educational credential, because it was not from a European university and the American Consulate intervened in the matter. Thanks to that intervention, Barbosa became a doctor in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. He introduced a form of health insurance to his employees and he worked tirelessly to help people all over the island. During the Spanish-American War he treated both Puerto Rican and Spanish soldiers and faced the danger of cannon fire.
The United States Post Office in Bayamón was recently named for him by act of Congress in the George W. Bush years.
Our medical system has been described by conservative talk show hosts as the best in the world, which is probably not true. States like Kansas, Colorado, and others badly need doctors and clinics and people have long distances to travel to get medical care. Maybe Obama Care is not the right fit for that, but Trump told everyone that he would give great low-cost medical care to everyone (after replacing Obama Care on Day 1), but we have learned that people are still working on that medical plan.
Puerto Rico has a great record in the United States military including the highest per capita rate of all Americans in signing up for war or the military. The governor pointed out that Texas and Florida were treated better than Puerto Ricans were when Maria hit. Trump did not even recognize the high suicide rate, the increase in violence in Puerto Rico, and he did not shine the light of truth on the number of deaths (lied). This indicates that even as a conservative who wants to protect Americans he has failed (as he fails us at home).
I have been told that the Trinitarios (a gang that Trump has not mentioned) who have filled the vacuum left by MS-13 are in my community and they have just been reported for having murdered a youth in the Bronx. Remember I live in that community visited by Attorney General Sessions and that Trump keeps talking about. This is the moment for people from El Salvador and Honduras whose nations are afflicted by the gangs to come together with African-Americans and Puerto Ricans and to learn from each other. The Trinitarios are Dominicans and there is no reason why Dominicans cannot join in this coalition to defeat Trump. I just learned that the school district where some of gang violence has taken place just got My Brother’s Keeper this last year (Obama’s program). What took it so long?
I found out this weekend that at-risk students are learning about golf in a program called Par 4, but I see nothing about this program in the school bulletins online. I would recommend that the parents’ organization hold online FACEBOOK live presentations with the parents watching and communicating from home or their local place to relax so that more people in the community could take advantage of that program and other programs. And I want to know just how at-risk those students really are. And I would call upon the faith-based community to work with at-risk students by having a golf program to be coordinated with a Bible program. Education matters!
For my readers in Israel, Michael Oren writes about the “burgeoning communities” that include African-Americans and Hispanics. He noted a 74 percent support level in the United States, but that was an Israel without the right hand of Donald Trump and the hugs of Israel’s president. This is not yet the defining moment for Israel as the world turns politically. The world is watching the NAACP and the victories it is bringing about in the Congress of the United States. Let’s us all defeat hate together!
