OpEd

EDITORIAL

The Whole World Is Watching Us Now

The U.S. has always been the channel to watch by those who live outside of this country. There is so much to see and learn from this nation that touts itself as the leader of the Free World. In the U.K, France, Germany and Russia, the U.S. is studied as if it were a cell in a Petri dish, watched closely to see what our president, or Congress, is doing to or for its citizens that will most assuredly impact their government and its citizens, as well.

In smaller countries, places we rarely hear about in Africa, the Caribbean and other developing nations, the U.S. is watched closely, too. The recent presidential election, and its apparently never-ending aftermath, is viewed as a salacious and tantalizing soap opera full of twists and turns and a lot of suspense. Many fortunate enough to still be working during this world pandemic say they rush home to watch CNN to see what President Trump said or did. They are fascinated by the growth and impact of Black Lives Matters but nervously curious about potential conflicts with white supremacists across the U.S.

And while women are leading in many countries around the world including Barbados, Ethiopia, Togo and Gabon, as well as Lithuania, Greece, Bolivia and Germany, the U.S. is finally catching up with its first female vice-president who also happens to be an African American, born to a Jamaican-American father and a South Asian mother. This story couldn’t be better.

Besides the drama going on inside the U.S., what matters most is how a single document, drafted more than 200 years ago, continues to govern the land, illustrating the power of our Constitution. The lesson learned is that this document, and the powers it established to interpret it, to govern by it and to amend it when needed, serves as the glue which keeps America from becoming unhinged. It trumps those who believe their name gives them greater power. It protects citizens no matter from where they have come.

No one expects America’s democracy to be overturned.

But they’re undoubtedly enjoying the chance to watch, wait and see how America survives, once again. WI

America Must Choose Between Needs of the Many or Rights of the Few

One of the most cherished and defining characteristics of America has long been the ability of its citizens to exercise their individual rights as detailed and guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and subsequent amendments. Obviously, not everyone would be allowed to enjoy these rights because of their race, gender or economic status when the nation was first formed. But progress and changing attitudes about “justice for all” have slowly leveled the field.

For centuries, millions of people have overcome unimaginable obstacles, leaving their native lands and moving to America in search of a nation which prides itself as one which affirms democratic rule over dictatorial enforcement.

But there remain moments in history when our insistence to exercise our individual rights must be subverted for the good of the country – the many.

The ongoing coronavirus health pandemic serves as such a moment in time.

During a press conference on Nov. 17, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R) reinstituted COVID-19 stage two protocols which had been enforced during the summer as infection rates surged to then-unprecedented heights. Among the changes which go into effect on Friday, Nov. 20: no hospital or nursing home visitations (with limited exceptions); no fans allowed at stadiums; no dine-in service at restaurants or bars after 10 p.m.; and capacity for in-door dining limited to 50 customers.

“More important than any public health order is your willingness to take personal responsibility,” Hogan said.

Indeed, Hogan aptly describes the situation which we, as one nation, face.

Clearly, many Americans have grown weary of remaining locked up, isolated from friends and loved ones, unable to return to enjoying such things as taking last-minute cross-country trips, bar hopping on Friday nights, rooting for our favorite team during high school football games on crisp Saturday nights or watching young children learn how to play together as new kindergarteners or first graders.

But if we value life over individual rights, we must move toward a national policy and follow it to the letter.

Only if the majority of Americans can put away pride and selfishness in order to consider the needs of the many, will we succeed in overcoming our common enemy: COVID-19 WI

Let's Get to Work!

Loved seeing my president-elect and vice president-elect on your last cover! What a sense of joy and relief the nation experienced when the election was called. We did it! But the real work begins now as our democracy comes under attack from disgruntled losers who don't believe in the peaceful transfer of power.

Lynn Eclaire Washington, D.C.

TO THE EDITOR

Black Votes Matter

I'm so glad Joe Biden made it clear that African Americans are the reason he was able to give a victory speech as president-elect over Donald Trump. I loved it! "To the African American community you have always had my back and I'll have yours!"

Marguerite Johnson Washington, D.C.

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OPINIONS/EDITORIALS

Guest Columnist

By Julianne Malveaux

Resistance to Racial Equity — California's Proposition 16

President-elect Joe Biden has included working toward racial equity in his administration’s agenda. They outline how he will expand opportunities for Black folk and other people of color. Specifically, his Build Back Better document includes a 20-page report titled, The Biden Plan to Build Back Better by Advancing Racial Equity Across the American Economy. It is a comprehensive blueprint, highlighting "Now is when the real work begins. The hard work. The necessary work. The good work. The essential work to save lives and beat this pandemic. To rebuild our economy so it works for working people. To root out systemic racism in our justice system and society. To combat the climate crisis. To unite our country and heal the soul of our nation. The road ahead will not be easy. But America is ready. And so

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris made a brilliant choice in opening her remarks at the Democratic presidential ticket’s victory celebration with a quote from civil rights icon and former Georgia congressman John Lewis, who wrote before he died, “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.”

Lewis, who was nearly killed several potential programs. Some of the initiatives require legislation. The Democratic Caucus has shrunk while still becoming more diverse, with a split between the progressive and moderate wings of the party. Despite differences, though, they are likely to pass any legislation Biden proposes.

The problem? Currently, the composition of the Senate will be 50-48 with a Republican lean. A Georgia runoff will take place on Jan. 5, 2021, to decide to two remaining seats. If Republicans win those two races, or are Joe and I." – Vice President-elect Kamala Harris

The 77 and a half million votes for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris are the most ever cast for a presidential ticket, breaking the previous record set in 2008 for President Obama.

In this election, as in 2008, Black voter turnout made the difference. They were not voting for a symbolic victory. The nation is in crisis. They want action. And so does the National by racist police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., knew better than most of us that taking action to defend democracy can be dangerous. But he also knew, as Harris reminded us, that there is joy in the struggle.

Brothers and sisters, defeating Donald Trump was an occasion for great joy. I loved seeing people post videos of a dancing John Lewis to celebrate. But we have more actions to take, more bridges to cross, more elections even just one of them, the obstructionist Mitch McConnell will remain in power and likely attempt to slow or block Biden’s proposals. Biden spent thirty-six years in the Senate and has strong relationships there. He and McConnell are reportedly friends. Those friendships didn't help President Obama and certainly didn’t keep the Senate from stealing a Supreme Court seat.

The other main opposition to racial equity is likely to come from disaffected whites and those from other ethnic groups. In 1996, California passed

By Marc H. Morial

Urban League.

This week, we sent a letter to President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris outlining what needs to be done.

As they prepare to enter the White House, more than 10 million Americans have been infected with coronavirus. A record 65,000 are currently hospitalized, and nearly a quarter-million have died. Our fellow citizens are standing in food lines, missing mortgage and rent payments and trying to keep the lights on. This pandemic has

By Ben Jealous

to win—right now, and right in John Lewis’s home state of Georgia.

Georgia was in the rare position of having two U.S. senate races on the ballot in the same year. Both races had more than two candidates, and both races have now gone to runoff elections, according to Georgia law, because no candidate got over 50 percent of the vote.

That means that on Jan. 5— actually for early voters starting Dec. 14—Georgia voters have Proposition 209, which amended the state constitution to prevent affirmative action in employment, education, and contracting. Proposition 16, which appeared on this month’s ballot in the Golden State, would repeal Proposition 209. But Proposition 16 lost with 56 percent of voters rejecting affirmative action as a policy. Affirmative action always has been controversial, with some whites saying it gave African Americans and Latinos an unfair advantage. But Latinos are the largest ethnic group in California. I don't

Guest Columnist

NUL Offers Biden Admin an Agenda for Racial, Economic Justice

know if they supported Proposition 16 upended their lives. For them, relief now is imperative.

That's why our first demand is an immediate stimulus response package of no less than $3 trillion. We support a stimulus that aligns with the provisions of the Heroes Act passed by the House early in the summer.

Additionally, we're calling for a $2 trillion economic recovery and infrastructure package to build an inclusive economy that eliminates structural inequality and opportunity gaps.

This economic recovery plan must the power to decide whether the U.S. Senate will have a majority willing to work with the Biden-Harris administration on behalf of the American people, or whether we’ll be stuck with a Republican majority led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who brags about turning the Senate into a graveyard for legislation coming from the House of Representatives.

McConnell is the reason American families and small or not, but if they didn't, it wouldn't be the first time Blacks and Latinos held different positions.

Many whites support racial equity, but not at their expense. Too many don’t even realize there is systemic racism in our society. Nor do they believe that past discrimination should be rectified. Biden’s plan for racial equity would close the unemployment rate gap between whites and Blacks a bit, and it might narrow the wealth gap as well. But can President-elect Biden

MALVEAUX Page 45

not only rebuild the nation's roads, bridges and railways, but it also must address water systems, parks, community facilities, affordable housing, and broadband. Such an initiative would create millions of jobs as well as business opportunities for all Americans.

Central to this is a specific emphasis on providing job opportunities for Black and Brown workers who have been particularly left out and battered by the COVID-19 recession.

Guest Columnist

Georgia’s Black Voters Can Make History Again

MORIAL Page 45 businesses suffering from the economic fallout of the pandemic have had no relief for months. McConnell is the reason Trump has been able to pack federal courts with the worst, most unqualified, most anti-civil rights judges we’ve seen in a long time.

On the Democratic side, we have two Senate candidates we can be excited about.

Rev. Rafael Warnock is the senior pastor of Atlanta’s historic

JEALOUS Page 38

Guest Columnist

By Marian Wright Edelman

Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris: Forging a New Path for Our Girls

"Brecklynn, when you think about the future, I do believe the future is bright. And it will be because of your leadership, and it will be because we fight for each person's voice through their vote and we get engaged in this election—because you have the ability through your work, and through, eventually, your vote, to determine the future of our country and what its leader-

Comments for the week must be preceded by congratulations for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Compared with most elections I have experienced, the wait for confirmation of their electoral victory seemed interminable. The wait was at times painful, but the outcome exquisite! As expressed during many television interviews, when the Biden-Harris ticket was declared

We all know that U.S. Secret Service agents would "take a bullet" for the president, or whomever they are assigned to protect. We saw the courage of agent Clint Hill, who raced from the car behind to sprawl himself over first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and her mortally wounded husband John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963. ship looks like." — Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, responding to a question in the vice presidential debate from Utah eighth grader Brecklynn Brown

When Sen. Kamala Harris stepped onto the vice presidential debate stage she made history simply by showing what our country's leadership can and will look like. A ceiling has been lifted for every little girl in America and especially every little girl of color in America. During the vice presidential debate many watchers cheered on her self-assured retort: "Mr. Vice President, I am victorious, I felt that our long political nightmare had ended.

Whether relief is realized or not, their victory portends a reawakening of a movement toward national unity. At noon on Jan. 20, 2021, the fractious, divisiveness of the #45 administration will come to an end. I am not suggesting that oneon-one hostilities will immediately end, but I know that the bully pulpit of the presidency will no longer promote cross-cultural animus. The never-ending expression of grievance politics will come to an end and I hope we'll then focus on what should be our commonalities.

And then there was agent Tim McCarthy. He, D.C. Police Officer Thomas Delahanty and White House press secretary James Brady were injured along with the president when John Hinckley attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan.

But oh, how times have changed in the 39 years since Reagan. The sad fact is that Donald J. Trump — probably the most loathsome person ever to walk into the executive mansion, not to mention reside there — has himself endangered the lives of the very agents speaking!" Now, as vice president-elect of the United States alongside President-elect Joe Biden, she is an inspiration for Black children, Asian American children, children of immigrants, and every little girl who has the chance to see someone who "looks like me" as our nation's vice president. It's also a special source of pride and joy for all alumni of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) like me and members of Black sororities and fraternities who recognize our own experience in hers as a Howard University graduate.

By E. Faye Williams

True to promise, the first act of the Biden-Harris administration is a program to bring control to the Coronavirus Pandemic in the U.S. Nationally and for inhabitants of the rest of the world, COVID-19 has reshaped our respective cultures, methods of social interactions, and economies. Through words (encouraging COVID-19 best practices), actions (exemplary wearing of face masks), and a proposed national plan to control/end COVID-19, the Biden-Harris administration has articulated an intelligent and viable approach to reducing the effect of or eliminating this disease. sworn to protect him.

More than 130 Secret Service officers who help protect the White House and the president when he travels have recently been ordered to quarantine because they tested positive for the coronavirus or had close contact with infected co-workers. What's worse, they may have gotten infected from Trump. Their illnesses are believed to be partly linked to a series of campaign rallies that Trump held in the weeks before the election which he lost badly.

In addition to mismanaging the pan-

For decades, historically Black colleges and universities (and the "Divine Nine" historically Black Greek institutions) have worked to produce a pipeline of community and political leadership. Shirley Chisholm (a Delta Sigma Theta member) and Jesse Jackson (a North Carolina A&T graduate and Omega Psi Phi member) helped blaze the path towards the highest political offices in the land. Vice President-elect Harris became the first HBCU graduate on a major party's presidential ticket, carrying a long and proud legacy of struggle and

Unfortunately, my sense of relief lasted little more than 24 hours. I guess it was foolish for me to expect expressions of familiar norms or propriety from #45's campaign or the Republican Party. No congratulations! No concession! The presentation of contrived non-evidentiary, legal objections to election outcomes came! Firing of the secretary of defense came and poses an immediate and existential threat to national security! Then came a challenge to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) before the Supreme Court, which could remove health insurance coverage for over 20 mildemic and allowing it to run rampant while he told folks to shine lights into their bodies and to drink bleach, Dude is himself apparently the superspreader-in-chief, not only recklessly requiring agents to be exposed to potential threats at several unsafe campaign events, but also cramming into a vehicle with agents while he himself was being treated for the virus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. What a lout!

A former good friend of mine became a Secret Service agent. Fortunately, he was mustered out before being achievement on her shoulders.

Vice President-elect Harris has spoken often about the impact of Howard University on her life: "The beauty of Howard [was that] every signal told students that we could be anything— that we were young, gifted, and black, and we shouldn't let anything get in the way of our success." HBCUs gave this signal to all students even when the rest of our nation tried to send relentless messages saying otherwise. I am so

Guest Columnist

What Is Still Needed?

EDELMAN Page 46 lion citizens and for over one million citizens with preexisting conditions! The nightmare continues!

It's a nightmare of negativity promulgated by maniacal, ego-driven psyche of insecurity. Like a petulant child, #45 has established handicaps that retard the ability of Biden-Harris to engage in the transition process as established by law. Through an agent of discord, General Services Administration Commissioner Emily Murphy, the Letter of Ascertainment that provides legal authority for the Biden-Harris transition

Askia-At-Large

By Askia Muhammad

Trump, the Official 'White President'

WILLIAMS Page 46 exposed to the likes of The Donald.

Kenneth Banner and I were college schoolmates in Los Angeles. His life's ambition was to be a "top cop." We often even went on "double dates" and his lust for law enforcement far exceeded any carnal lust he showed at the time.

His mother would let him drive her new, white 1964 Chevrolet Nova. It looked like an unmarked cop car. In those days, before there was FM radio

ASKIA Page 46