| From the Villa ge of Brook ly n |
OUR TIME PRESS THE L OCAL PAPER WITH THE G LOBAL VIEW
| VOL. 22 NO. 37
Septmber 13 – 19, 2018 |
Since 1996
Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Serena Williams Challenge W Status Quo … Admirably
View From Here ■■
By David Mark Greaves
ith their tough questioning of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris spoke for wide swaths of the American public, giving a glimpse of what the future of presidential politics may look like. However, the real key to denying his appointment to the Court, may rest with the concerns of Alaska’s native population. On issues from minority rights to climate change and native fishing rights, they are bringing the pressure to Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. And while subsistence fishing might not mean much in Brooklyn, the truism “All politics is local” may apply in Alaska, where the native population and not the Republican Party elected Murkowski. Writing in Slate, Rachel Leahy says, “Murkowski is only two years into her third-term as senator. In 2010, she lost the Republican primary and ran as an independent, securing an historic win with a write-in campaign. ‘Whose support didn’t she have? The Republican Party,’ HuffPost wrote. ‘Whose support did she have? Alaska Natives, who turned out for her and fueled her victory.’ To whom will her loyalties lie?” It is the strength of those loyalties to indigenous people that could determine the course of the nation. Main Senator Susan Collins, professing to be an abortion rights defender, is another one who will have the hammer of every progressive PAC come down on her if she stays with the Party and votes to confirm. This is where the Booker and Harris efforts, by energizing and awakening Independent voters to the danger at hand, and causing them to put pressure on Collins, can help sway the senator’s thinking. Make no mistake about it. If they vote to appoint, then for the next decade at least, this increasingly non-white country will have the final arbiters of the nation’s laws being four conservative White men and the ultra-conservative Clarence Thomas. This is a recipe for continued division in an increasingly capitalist-driven, White supremacist, taxstarved nation.
Mad Man in Charge September 7, 2018 - Washington, United States Senators Cory Booker (Democrat of New Jersey), left, and Kamala Harris (Democrat of California) challenge the Senate's old guard during the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh before the US Senate Judiciary Committee on his nomination as Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC (Credit Image: © Ron Sachs/CNP via ZUMA Wire)
It is becoming more and more apparent, and spoke about openly, that we have a truly emotionally disturbed person as President of the United States and there is nothing the Republican majority in congress will do about it. Pray, and work for, for a Democratic sweep November 6. One of our institutions has to put the brakes on this guy before he careens into the rest of us.
Power, Grace and Excellence
9/11 We Will Never Forget
NYFD Firefighter Leon Smith remembered by the Foundation named in his honor. Page 5
"We tell the stories every year, not because we wish to relive the horror of that day, but we tell them to pay homage to those that were blessed to be able to navigate through that chaos, and to those who perished in that chaos, because aside from all of the terror and devastation, we learned on that day that we are all one. And at this time in our nation, that’s a lesson worth remembering." Marlon Rice See Page 5
Tennis stars Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka show love at the 2018 US Open Finals September 8. Page 9
"Celebration, Remembrances, Drums for Randy Weston" by Dr. Olivia Cousins Page 8