“YOU can no more resign citizenship in time of war than you can resign from the human race.” — Wayne Collins
“If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought – not free thought for those who agree with us, but freedom for the thought that we hate.” — Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.” — Maya Angelou
I must admit that I got to appreciate US President Barack Obama much earlier than Madame Secretary Hillary Clinton. Both get put down by the media, yet they seem unflappable, articulate and unaffected by the sensationalism games being played by Fox News and even of late, CNN. They are standing tall on their convictions, values and principles, but mostly from the strength of their public records, in alignment with our American values of democracy.
If the US Constitution allowed for a third term, my vote would go to Barack Obama. But, the US Constitution limits presidential term to two terms — 8 years. Besides, the president said, “the White House needs new blood.”
But, whose blood? Whose blood carries the DNA imprint of diversity, humanity of citizenship and principles of the Constitution?
Diversity in thoughts and actions
When presidential candidates speak of diversity, notice that Donald Trump speaks to only his own kind as worthy individuals. Noticed how he demonized folks of color, starting with Mexicans, insulting them, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems. They’re bringing drugs, they’re crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting.” He said this in June 2015.
Notice what Trump says to the crowd, “They’re not sending you,” addressing a mostly all- whites, with a few folks of color. It is a dangerous form of demonizing, reminiscent of what Adolph Hitler did, favoring Germans, while denigrating: “The Whites have carried to these (colonial) people the worst that they could carry: the plagues of the world: materialism, fanaticism, alcoholism, and syphilis. Moreover, since what these people possessed on their own was superior to anything we could give them, they have remained themselves… The sole result of the activity of the colonizers is: they have everywhere aroused hatred,” as Martin Bormann wrote in “Adolf Hitler, The Political Testament Of Adolf Hitler: Recorded.”
That‘s the GOP side, not a single presidential hopeful amongst them (Carson, Rubio, Cruz, Christie, Fiorina and more) even took moments to distance themselves from Donald Trump and to tell him that theirs is a non-racist party. Not a single Republican presidential candidate!
It took Hillary Clinton to denounce Trump’s demonizing tactics during the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas on Oct. 13.
She went further even months earlier, when she approached the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which defines diversity as “committed to acknowledging, respecting and celebrating differences.”
That definition of diversity does not go deep enough to embrace folks. Diversity in practice goes beyond acknowledging differences, it means understanding the world not just from our own American perspective, but considering other ways of knowing, including those totally different from us. It is understanding the culture enough to recognize genuine nuances and those not.
That diverse understanding of the world, the intricacies of cultures, are what Hillary Clinton, even while as Secretary of State, enabled her to strengthen ties with foreign leaders, including that of the Philippines, and demonstrated her DNA of diversity in practice.
It shows how diversity is not simply favoring Whites over folks of color, but recognizing that each of us has a God-given potential, which needs access to opportunities to pursue a decent quality of life, education, jobs and a habitable place to live in, around the world.
Humanity of citizenship
I love listening to US Senator Bernie Sanders, as he is fired up with passion and convictions. He illustrates categories of inequalities, as in his daily memes on facebook: how government favors Wall Street over ordinary folks who live in Main Street: the students who need free college tuition, the drug offenders who are jailed for years, while bankers who engineered the meltdown have not been brought to justice.
But, let us face the facts, US Bernie Sanders has been cocooned in his mostly white Vermont state, with a population of 626,562, 95 percent of whom are white, predominantly English, Irish, French, German and French Canadians. It would be extremely difficult for Bernie Sanders to comprehend what is diversity of knowing and diversity in practice, having been socialized to deal with mostly whites in his beloved Vermont, but also reflected in his campaign staffing, who are mostly whites.
When his rally was disrupted by #BlackLivesMatter, he chose to leave and not engage with them, which was revelatory to me, and made me recall our daily experiences of being habitually shunned.
But, it took Hillary Clinton to engage with the activists of #BlackLivesMatter into a dialogue. It is a conversation amongst equals, a chance of common ground to be made, but also for these activists to understand that disruption is not the only tactic for engagement, that constructive dialogue is as effective.
For all the memes that US Senator Bernie Sanders have been illustrating on facebook, it took Hillary Clinton to specify that 9 million Americans lost jobs during the recession of 2007, under Pres. G.W. Bush, that 5 million Americans lost their homes, $13 trillion in wealth vanished, and that when Democrats are in office, the economy does much better.
As an aside, Pres. Bill Clinton left a surplus of $280 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, which quickly ballooned into a deficit of $6 trillion under Pres. G.W.Bush. Now this deficit during Pres. Obama’s tenure has shrunk to $426 billion as of August 2015, that is an exponential change by the way.
Indeed, after 7 years of a near collapse of the US economy in 2007, we are seeing a boom in construction in Los Angeles, with apartment buildings, condos and high-rises going up, making us verify, that unemployment rate is down, from 10 percent to 5.1 percent, as Pres. Obama reported on Oct. 10, 2015. Not only did he save the automobile industry and its dependent industries, but created new alternative industries to do the hard work of climate change.
A big sigh of relief for my community as well, as musicians, artists, directors, actors now have Obamacare, along with 17 million others, who signed up for affordable health care, and are more at ease in pursuing their artistic ventures.
We also have seen the rise of jobs in solar industry, as friends are now employed as solar engineers, “with 20 more jobs in this industry” compared to 2008, and even wind industry jobs, as reported by the President on Oct. 10.
Constitutional limits of war and relentless hard-core diplomacy
While male presidential candidates from both parties are still boning up in foreign affairs, Hillary Clinton has flown over a million of miles, to not just shake hands, but to solidify friendships amongst nations. She has been able to do this, during a period when America did not enjoy goodwill amongst nations, as a result of the prior Pres. G.W. Bush’s tenure.
Recently, Pres. Obama said: “We were in the middle of two wars, and the world’s opinion about America was as low as it had been in a very long time. And not only were we able to end those wars and bring our troops back home to their families, but around the globe we brought about changes that showed how to lead not just militarily but lead by example, and lead through our values, and lead through diplomacy. Whether it’s dealing with Ebola and we mobilized the entire international community to save hundreds of thousands of lives in West Africa; or opening to Cuba for the first time in a long time — or making sure that Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon, but doing it in a way that doesn’t lead to war.”
I believe part of that global paradigm shift is due in part to the efforts of Hillary Clinton.
A footnote, a Plaridel Award from the Philippine American Press Club, was given to Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, for best international reporting, for his personal essay on Ebola activities, reporting on his training of medical professionals on the proper use of autoclave to kill off the Ebola virus and to stop its spread in medical waste. While it might be too soon to celebrate that only two cases remain — down from thousands — America has shown its strengths of collaboration, its ability to export medical technology, and knowhow and even demonstrate compassion to those who might need America’s strengths in science, research and diplomacy.
I believe Hillary Clinton is most adept to be our next US President, not because she is a woman, but because she has diversity in her DNA, demonstrable humanity in her public life, compassion in her private life, but most of all, peace-making, both here and abroad. If necessary, she has the ability to mount defense capabilities for our national security and America’s allies. We would not want, for example, our West Philippine Sea, to be “plucked off” the oceans by China’s man-made islands and destruction of coral reefs and the beauty of Mother Nature. China’s aggression must stop, upholding the sovereign security of the Philippines and its neighboring ASEAN nations.
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Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz, J.D. writes a weekly column for Asian Journal, called “Rhizomes.” She has been writing for Asian Journal Press for 8 years now. She contributes to Balikbayan Magazine. Her training and experiences are in the field of science, food technology, law and community volunteerism for 4 decades. She holds a B.S. degree from the University of the Philippines, a law degree from Whittier College School of Law in California and a certificate on 21st Century Leadership from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has been a participant in NVM Writing Workshops taught by Prof. Peter Bacho for 4 years and Prof. Russell Leong. She has travelled to France, Holland, Belgium and Mexico and 22 national parks in the US, in pursuit of her love for arts.