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Maui, The GOP Debate, an Ex-President’s Arrest, Who Shall Lead America?

On a week that an ex-president is arrested and arraigned for an historic fourth time, one must wonder what kind of leader the American public really wants. Especially when the four-time indicted ex-president is leading all Republicans to be our next president.

Published

1 year ago

August 31, 2023

Oakland Post

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See his web talk show on www.amok.com

By Emil Guillermo

On a week that an ex-president is arrested and arraigned for an historic fourth time, one must wonder what kind of leader the American public really wants.

Especially when the four-time indicted ex-president is leading all Republicans to be our next president.

Here’s one measure. On Aug. 21, 1983, Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino, the Philippine political activist in exile in the U.S., went home to win back freedom for Filipinos living under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

Aquino never made it out of the airport, assassinated on the tarmac, apparently by a single gunman. After an investigation, his murder was pinned to 16 members of the Philippine Army loyal to Marcos.

Within 10 days of the assassination, I was in Manila at Santo Domingo Church reporting for the San Francisco NBC station from the funeral Mass, and then observing the procession to the Manila Memorial Park.

More than 2 million people were in the streets following the casket of Ninoy, their exiled leader. But they were also angered by the lost chance at real democracy.

That demonstration was the precursor to People Power, which would lift up Ninoy’s wife, Cory Aquino, and ultimately topple Marcos.

I have never seen 2 million people in one place, before or since.

That’s the spark missing in American politics. We just don’t have leaders who are beloved and respected as we’ve had in the past.

Instead, we have a personality cult that has a stranglehold on our politics. And even after this week, some people still won’t quit the indicted one.

Think of the Philippines. Could we even see 2 million people on the streets for a real bi-partisan pro-democracy movement in the U.S. today?

Maui Disaster a Test in Leadership

President Joe Biden went to Maui on Monday, as he should. Last week, he announced $700 per household in cash aid to victims of the Maui wildfires. By Friday, FEMA pledged $5.6 million in assistance to nearly 2,000 families in Maui. But money isn’t everything. This will be the time for Uncle Joe to act like ohana (family).

We needed to see some compassion from Biden. And he delivered. He wasn’t like Trump who threw toilet paper at the Puerto Ricans in 2017 after Hurricane Maria.

In Maui, Biden stood by a surviving banyan tree, saw it as a symbol, and vowed that the whole country will be behind Maui. And then he said the government would be respectful of the traditions, and “rebuild the way that the people of Maui want.”

That was an important acknowledgment if you know Hawaiian history.

We need leaders to admit that Hawaii is ground zero for a form of economic imperialism. A reminder about how Hawaii did not come begging for statehood and how it was made a U.S. protectorate via a coup staged against her.

Those are the words of Marianne Williamson from her Substack article, “Hawaii’s Broken Heart.”

“Hawaii is deeply sacred land,” she wrote “And her heart has been wounded by the soulless economic overreach of everyone from Dole to Monsanto.”

Specifically, James Drummond Dole, who was known as “The Pineapple King.” Aided by exploited Filipino labor, he colonized the spiky fruit and sent it around the world.

He was inspired by his cousin Sanford Dole, a Republican appointed by the U.S. imperial president William McKinley as territorial governor. That wasn’t enough for Dole, who then led a coup against Queen Lili’uokalani in 1893 and became the first president of Hawaii.

Corruption, connections, and greed. This is how paradise has been co-opted in the past. In the modern day, it falls victim to the fury of climate change.

We’ve got to help Hawaii and make sure we don’t have another wildfire disaster that kills more than 100 people.

It can’t happen again.

“If this country cannot ramp down the fossil fuel extraction that is exacerbating these weather catastrophes, then the message is loud and clear that we are on the wrong road,” Williamson said last week.

Williamson is one of those candidates for president you don’t hear much about. She’s the other Democrat who is running, who speaks from the heart about people and government in a way that seems more honest and caring.

If more politicians talked like that, could we end our divides and work together? Or does the loving language of Williamson only deepen the divide?

It’s surely a moral rhetoric from left of center that exposes the right-wing theocracy and all its hypocrisies.

But few people talk about Marianne Williamson.

Maybe because she makes too much sense?

GOP’s Anti-Asian Hate and the Personal Debate of Tucker /Trump

You’re likely not going to hear much candor about Maui from Republicans at this week’s first GOP debate.

But there will be a debate, and Donald Trump won’t be there.

Trump will show his stranglehold on Republicans by refusing to debate the also-rans. Instead, at the same time, he’ll submit to an interview by the disgraced former Fox host Tucker Carlson, a noted Trump sycophant.

I will be watching the debates mostly because Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign has been exposed as adopting an anti-Asian, name-calling approach against Vivek Ramaswamy, the businessman who’s quickly catching up to DeSantis.

There’s a reason to go after Ramaswamy — wanting to cancel the Juneteenth holiday is one.

But what we’re seeing is standard after conservatives won the Harvard affirmative action case.

White people going after affirmative action was a no go. The folks who led the Harvard case saw that. With a white plaintiff, they lost. With an Asian plaintiff, they won.

So, the model for conservative causes will be to lead with the Asian. Let the ‘model minority’ do it. It may even be the reason we see so many Asians in local races leading conservative recall efforts.

Vivek is a congenial panderer who will do anything for attention – even rap like Eminem last week at the Iowa State Fair.

He’s making headway by being the likeable non-white white.

It hasn’t worked that well in this campaign for Nikki Haley. But it may yet work for Tim Scott.

For now, Vivek is the dynamo among the also-rans and it’s getting to DeSantis. If you hear DeSantis say “Vivek the Fake,” you’ll know he is running out of gas.

Call it model minority politics, acceptable for white consumption. And after the conservative win over Harvard to defeat affirmative action, expect to see more of that in the future.

It’s fighting race with the non-white face.

You won’t get 2 million marching in the streets. But it gets a candidate what he needs in our polarized society, one more vote than the minority.

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See his web talk show on www.amok.com

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Oakland Post: Week of November 27 – December 3, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of November 27 – December 3, 2024, 2024

Published

3 days ago

November 30, 2024

Oakland Post

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Giving Birth Shouldn’t Be a Nightmare for Black Women

WORD IN BLACK — Now, more than two years after the fact, the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that protected a women’s right to an abortion, has complicated things for physicians like Joy Baker, an OB-GYN in LaGrange, Georgia. In Southern states with some of the strictest abortion bans like Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, Black women are facing more barriers to access reproductive health care.

Published

4 days ago

November 29, 2024

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By Anissa Durham | Word In Black

(WIB) – At 40 weeks pregnant, Georgina Dukes-Harris drove to her weekly OB-GYN appointment in Clemson, South Carolina. It was 8 a.m. on Dec. 14, 2011. The doctor told her there’s no need for her son to “bake any longer.” So, the first-time mom returned, as instructed, at 6 p.m. on the same day. Health care providers gave her Pitocin to induce labor.

Next, they gave her an epidural and broke her water. Dukes-Harris was now on a time clock. She had 48 hours to give birth before complications could set in for her and the baby. Even though her cervix wasn’t fully dilated to 10 centimeters, doctors told her to push.

Four to five hours of pushing and nothing was happening.

“I was pushing, and they used forceps to try to pull him out, and it left a big scar on his head.” she says, “It’s like I had two births in one.”

At that point, Dukes-Harris’ heart rate spiked, and the baby showed signs of distress. Doctors decided to give her an emergency C-section on Dec. 16, which she describes as a deeply traumatic experience.

At 19-years-old and in the best shape of her life, Dukes-Harris recalls following her doctors’ instructions to a T. But the trauma that came with her unplanned C-section left her dealing with postpartum depression and anxiety for more than a year afterward.

Dukes-Harris’s story is one of many that highlight the challenges Black birthing people face in America. Maternal care deserts, abortion bans, and the overutilization of C-section have all traumatized and even ended the lives of Black women. Now Black birthing people, physicians, and holistic care providers are pushing for a more patient-centered approach.

Black Mothers Face Higher Risks and Limited Options

A 2024 March of Dimes report found that 35% of U.S. counties are maternity care deserts, which are counties with no birthing facilities or obstetric clinicians. Chronic conditions related to poor health outcomes for birthing people like pre-pregnancy obesity, hypertension, and diabetes have increased since 2015 and are most common in maternity care deserts. These conditions are also most common among Black and American Indian and Alaska Native birthing people.

Pregnant people who give birth in counties that are identified as maternity care deserts or low access areas have poorer health before pregnancy, receive less prenatal care, and experience higher rates of preterm births. Most states have between one and nine birth centers, but that still leaves 70% of all birth centers residing within 10 states.

“We serve four different counties that do not have any OB-GYNs at all,” says Joy Baker, an OB-GYN in LaGrange, Georgia. “The real issue is these are communities that already have diminished access to social determinants of health … I think of them as political determinants of health. These places don’t become under resourced by accident.”

Barriers to Maternal Health Care

Pregnant people in areas identified as maternity care deserts often travel between 26 to 38 minutes for obstetric care. During pregnancy and childbirth, longer travel time is associated with higher risk of maternal morbidity, stillbirth, and neonatal intensive care unit admission, the report states. And Black women are already at a higher risk for gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and postpartum hemorrhage.

“There’s not one condition that I can think of that gets better in pregnancy,” Baker says. “It’s usually exacerbated.”

Now, more than two years after fact, the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that protected a women’s right to an abortion, has complicated things for physicians like Baker. In Southern states with some of the strictest abortion bans like Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, Black women are facing more barriers to access reproductive health care.

But it’s not just patients who are struggling.

Each state has a different abortion ban or restriction, often making it unclear as to what a physician is able to do. For example, in Georgia, abortion is restricted to six weeks or less. Although the law has exceptions to protect the “life of the mother,” the language is vague and can leave loopholes for doctors to be prosecuted if a physician intervenes too early.

In Baker’s personal practice, she hasn’t been affected too much by the abortion bans. But she says there are physicians in neighboring counties that have struggled with caring for their patients due to the law.

“Doctors are afraid. When you have spent your entire life training and building a career, the last thing you want is to go to prison for just doing your job,” Baker says. “There is a lot of fear surrounding that. It’s been horrible to the physician patient relationship.”

Birthing Shouldn’t Be Traumatic

Courtesy of Lauren Elliot.

At 38 weeks pregnant, Lauren Elliot’s doctor told her the umbilical cord was wrapped around her son’s neck at least three times. Later, they realized it was wrapped around his neck five times. Delivering vaginally no longer became an option when her son was in distress. Elliot, 29 at the time, had a C-section.

“I was paralyzed with emotion from wanting him to be OK,” she says.

Shortly afterward she developed postpartum preeclampsia. And like Dukes-Harris, Elliot, now 36, described a C-section as a traumatic experience. Although her son was delivered healthy, the mental health toll from her first birthing experience loomed over her for two years. She struggled with anxiety and panic attacks. To cope she created Candlelit Care, an app-based behavioral health clinic that supports Black birthing people throughout a pregnancy and afterwards.

For her next pregnancy, Elliot determined to have a vaginal birth after a cesarean section or VBAC. But many doctors worry about a uterine rupture even if a patient has fully healed from a C-section. She also made the intentional decision to have a Black OB-GYN.

But even that wasn’t enough.

During labor with her second child, Elliot wasn’t dilating fast enough. Then, doctors informed her she would need to have a second cesarean. Initially, she felt like a failure for not being able to have a vaginal birth. But she finds comfort in knowing she at least experienced labor.

In 2023, according to the World Health Organization, about one in three births in the United States were C-sections.

There are a few reasons why.

The overutilization of C-sections, Baker says, is because physicians are afraid of malpractice claims and lawsuits. While in training, she recalls physicians encouraging a C-section because “you never have to apologize when the baby comes out.” But this default decision has increased the risk of complications for patients.

“Not only is it a traumatic mental imprint that is forever left (on a patient),” Baker says, but they also face an increased risk of hemorrhage, infection, and postpartum complications. “There is a time where a C-section is needed … but this whole knee-jerk reaction to just do a C-section, if you’re unsure, needs to stop.”

Will I Die Giving Birth?

In 2023, when Dukes-Harris became pregnant again at 33, she was determined to do things differently with her birthing experience. To prepare for her daughter’s arrival, Dukes-Harris got a prenatal chiropractor and hired a team of three doulas and a home birth midwife.

“I can’t die giving birth,” she says. “My OB-GYN said that having a baby at 30-plus, over 300 pounds, is basically a death sentence.”

But her diagnosed anxiety kicked in and led her back to the hospital at 4 a.m.

“I physically prepared, but I didn’t mentally prepare for birth,” she says. “I was having an out-of-body experience.”

Doctors wanted to push for a C-section, but Dukes-Harris refused. Once her 6-foot-5 husband and midwife entered the room, she was able to successfully deliver her daughter vaginally. Now, after two birthing experiences that didn’t go exactly as planned, she created swishvo, a platform that connects patients and providers to access holistic health options.

On a national scale, certified nurse midwives have been shown to improve birth outcomes for Black and American Indian, and Alaska Native communities. Currently, 27 states and D.C. have policies that allow certified nurse midwives full practice authority.

“Community-based birth workers, doulas, nurse navigators, lactation consultants, childbirth educators, we need all of that,” Baker says. “Our doulas are magnificent; they educate patients. We’re not able to do this by ourselves as physicians and midwives. We need a community of care for our patients.”

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Odessa Woolfolk Honored at Reception with 2024 Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award

BIRMINGHAM TIMES — “That is an award of a lifetime,” Woolfolk said before the ceremony. “Rev. Shuttlesworth has been my idol since I first met him when he was here doing his work in the late ’50s and ’60s. To be associated with his values, his mission, his courage, his belief in people, equality and justice to … have something on my shelf that associates me with those values doesn’t get better than that.”

Published

4 days ago

November 29, 2024

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The Birmingham Times

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) last week presented Odessa Woolfolk, the city’s renowned educator, civic leader and lifelong advocate for civil and human rights, with the 2024 Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award.

“That is an award of a lifetime,” Woolfolk said before the ceremony. “Rev. Shuttlesworth has been my idol since I first met him when he was here doing his work in the late ’50s and ’60s. To be associated with his values, his mission, his courage, his belief in people, equality and justice to … have something on my shelf that associates me with those values doesn’t get better than that.”

Odessa Woolfolk, center, renowned educator, civic leader and lifelong advocate for Civil and Human Rights and the 2024 Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award winner with Rosilyn Houston, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Board Chair; and Mike Goodwich, (Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation) at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s 32nd Anniversary Celebration. (Provided)

The award, named after the legendary civil rights leader and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), recognizes individuals who have made enduring contributions to the ongoing fight for equality, justice and human dignity.

“We are honored to present the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award to Odessa Woolfolk, whose lifelong dedication to human and civil rights has shaped the course of history in Birmingham and beyond,” said Rosilyn Houston, newly elected chair of the BCRI Board of Directors, in a statement. “Her vision, leadership and tireless advocacy continue to inspire new generations to stand up for justice and equality. Odessa Woolfolk exemplifies the very essence of what this award stands for.”