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Why We Fight<\/p>\n
1943, in the midst of World War II, movie director Frank Capra made a series of films called Why We Fight.\u00a0 <\/em>The goal was to explain to Americans why we were fighting World War II, what the stakes were, and how they could help. In the beginning stages of the War when United States forces were struggling to come back from losses in the Pacific and in North Africa, the movies helped solidify public support.<\/p>\n It is October 7th<\/sup>, 2018, the day after the Supreme Court majority was turned over to the right wing conservative Federalist Society.\u00a0 I sit here typing, watching Trump Advisor Kelly Ann Conway smiling smugly over the Trump judicial victory, and listening to her spewing layer after layer of nonsense into the air.\u00a0 It is a low point for \u201cthe Resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n As if it couldn’t get worse, a new movie has reopened the wounds of the Democratic Party of 2016, tearing at the scars of Sanders and Clinton. \u00a0The carefully re-constructive surgery performed by the National Committee is being pulled and pressed, barely knitted together after the stitches were removed. \u00a0A united Resistance to the Trump era is now starting to turn upon itself.<\/p>\n It is also twenty-nine days before the 2018 mid-term elections, the real \u201cfirst chance\u201d to change America since the disaster of 2016.\u00a0 After yesterday, with the narrowness of the defeat, and the bitterness of the failure, it would be easy for \u201cthe Resistance\u201d to quit.\u00a0 Reading post after post on Facebook, there are many who would choose that path.\u00a0 They depended on a Republican Senator, Susan Collins, to go against every power in her party, and stand up for women.\u00a0 It shouldn\u2019t have been a surprise:\u00a0 she didn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n It is time to remember, Why We Fight.<\/p>\n We fight for those who can\u2019t afford health insurance.\u00a0 There are many Americans who cannot access health care because they can\u2019t pay for insurance, and they can\u2019t pay for care. And even for those with insurance, the cost of a catastrophic diagnosis may well drive them into bankruptcy.\u00a0 Americans are forced to ruin their financial lives, to save their actual lives.\u00a0 In our modern society, this is unacceptable.<\/p>\n We fight for those who live at the lowest incomes in our society.\u00a0 We fight to create a \u201cliving wage\u201d so that getting a job means getting paid enough to live, not working full time hours only to fall short.<\/p>\n We fight for all of those who don\u2019t meet \u00a0\u201cthe norms\u201d of 1950\u2019s America.\u00a0 In the past seventy years, we have learned that being \u201cdifferent,\u201d does not mean \u201clesser.\u201d\u00a0We, as a nation, have recognized the right of folks to choose their lifelong partner, regardless of gender, and gain the legal rights that marriage offers.\u00a0 We recognize that young black men are at greater risk of violent death than any other group, and that their lives do matter.\u00a0 And we know that women are a co-equal force in every aspect of our lives, and need to be legally recognized as such.<\/p>\n We fight for a nation that recognizes that a child might determine that they are different than their biology, and should be nurtured and protected so that they can become the person of their fullest potential.\u00a0 We fight so that child, or any child, can go to a school that hasn’t become a fortified prison, get an equal opportunity with all other children to learn and grow, and be protected from the weapons of war we have distributed into our society.<\/p>\n We fight for a nation where our leaders are not indebted to a hostile foreign power.\u00a0 We recognize that Russia \u201cfooled us once.\u201d\u00a0 Shame on them, but we fight to make sure, \u201cwe don\u2019t get fooled again (thanks Mr. Townsend<\/em>.)\u201d<\/p>\n We fight for the child ripped from their mother\u2019s arms at the border.\u00a0 We believe in an America that treats everyone with respect, even those who come to us unbidden to find a better life. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t have borders, it means we treat all with humanity regardless of their legal state.\u00a0 It also means that \u00a0someone \u00a0raised in America, and \u00a0living as an American, \u00a0needs to have a way to become a legal American.\u00a0 We fight for humanity, and for an America that enjoys the benefits of all races and ethnicities.\u00a0 We fight against the white, male, elitist society that is being thrust upon us.<\/p>\n We fight to protect our world, and to make it a better place environmentally.\u00a0 We fight to stop the changes in law that will allow more pollution in our air and waters, and create more warming of our climate.<\/p>\n And we fight for the right to vote, without restrictions or barriers, so that all Americans can participate in our Republic.<\/p>\n We have a lot to fight for. We have a nation depending on us. \u00a0We know that the America of today is not the America we believe in. \u00a0And we know that we can make a difference. \u00a0This weekend we lost a single battle in a long-term conflict.\u00a0 We can mourn for the loss of the Kavanaugh seat later, for the next battle is near.\u00a0Right now, we fight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"