Uncategorized – Page 40

Dear Ted Yoho

Some incidents have a way of sinking us or enhancing us. How we handle them can be career changing.

I am referring to the degrading words you spoke recently to your fellow congressperson, Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, D (NY).

Till now, you have been what the British call a back bencher in congress. I had never heard of you.

I am sure you would like to be more prominent than you are now and, perhaps because of it, you spoke as you did to the congresswoman.

Let me explain.

It cannot be easy, to sit in the House, year after year, and not have made much of an impression. Then you see someone like Ocasio Cortez, a brown woman from New York, daughter of immigrants from Puerto Rico, shoot into the consciousness of the nation, flying high up into the American political firmament, and in her very first term become a speaker in great demand, sharing a stage with former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders during the primaries.

The young lady has got it.

She’s tapped into something that energizes others. She’s got the markings of a leader with staying power.

You sit there, watching all of it, looking at her meteoric rise, and you resent it.

Dear Mr Yoho, that is okay. That makes you human.

Like you, there are thousands if not millions of Americans, from the Right and the Left, who would like to be in Ocasio Cortez’s shoes.

It is okay.

Yes.

It is okay.

That journey is her journey. You have your own, like I have mine.

Let her have hers. No need to go insulting her. No need to call her the words you did.

But you did.

So let me tell you what I think you have to do, because it would be good for you and, believe it or not, would be good too for your political career. If fact, it could be the start of it.

Okay, here it is.

You have to apologize to her. In person. In private.

That’s right.

You have to summon all your courage, which I know you have, and ask for a private audience with her and simply apologize.

‘Alexandra… I am sorry for what I did. What I said was degrading to you and to me as well. I am better than that. I was envious of you, envious of your talents and your drive and ambition, all of which I wish I had. Please, accept my deepest apology, on behalf of myself and my constituents.’

Ted, you do that and I assure you, your star will rise. Of course, you have to mean every word.

If you do, then you will have to go back to your constituents and explain. Explain the source of your resentment, and then ask your supporters to examine themselves also, look into their hearts and see if they have felt or feel as you did.

To the extent that what you said to Ocasio Cortez represented a belief shared by your constituency, then to that extent you have to work with them so they can examine those beliefs. Examine to transform.

Ted, we are at a very important juncture in our nation’s history and you can play an important part in the process and no longer be a back bencher. We have to come together. No one side owns the truth. We have to talk. A nation divided will not be able to muster the energy to confront the challenges other nations are presenting to us. And all of it starts at the local level. All of it starts with the constituency each member of Congress represents.

Ted, I have no doubt, that by your apologizing in person to Ocasio Cortez, your example will inspire other lawmakers and politicians to join in a much needed dialogue. So rise to the occasion, Mr Yoho, rise!

Rise and join those in the vanguard of change the nation is aching for.

Best wishes.

Oscar Valdes oscarvaldes.net

PS.

Not long ago, upon hearing of Amy Klobuchar’s announcement that she was taking herself out of the running for the democratic vice presidential spot, I wrote to her asking to reconsider. She had chosen to drop out because 20 years before, while a DA in Minnesota, she had failed to press charges on police officers suspected of abusive behavior toward African Americans. My point to her was that she had evolved, and the pugnacity and fairness she had displayed in the primaries marked her as a very worthwhile choice for vice presidential nominee. I remarked that there is no purity. There is, however, the courage to confront our prejudices and act on them. That’s what elevates us.

The blog is entitled Dear Amy and is available on my website.

US China Relations. The Big Picture. The Challenge.

Are we better than them? No, we’re not.

Are they better than us? Not either.

Are they dynamic, hard charging, smart, ambitious? Yes.

And so are we.

It would take doing the ostrich number, burying our heads in the sand, to not allow for the possibility they may surpass us in the near future.

They are moving up in the world, not by committing to security issues but by doing business. In Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, the rest of Asia, Australia.

While we’re battling racial issues, they’re pushing ahead with their plans to rise as fast as they can in every dimension. Space exploration? They’re already there and moving confidently.

Liabilities? Yes. Their autocratic regime. The intrusive governmental vigilance.

It has to be suffocating. But at this point, their fast rise in world standing allows the Chinese people to say to themselves, ‘we’re getting something for our sacrifices.’

Have the Chinese stolen intellectual property? They have and probably will continue to do so. But to think their rise is owed to their theft of knowledge from the West is to miss the fact that they have enormous scientific, technological and industrial capacity of their own.

It’s there in plain sight.

To deny it is to do the ostrich number.

We have not had an adversary of such stature since the Soviet Union in the Cold War. We went on to win that war because of our stronger economy. But China is clearly different.

The Chinese are not tying up their economy building nuclear weapons like the Soviets did. No, they’re making things, and selling what they make to a world eager for their products.

We pride ourselves with our ability to compete. Now the Chinese are saying to us, ‘let’s compete.’

They are saying to us, ‘you brag about your ability to compete. Well, we say to you, we will out compete you, and move past you.’

They are daring us and the whole world is watching.

Do we take them on?

Sure, they took advantage of preferred status in the World Trade Organization and even tried to rig the rules. But there they are. Strong and ambitious. Not willing to bow to anyone. Period.

It has to be exhilarating for their citizens. A nation that has been ruled by western nations and Japan, now standing tall and saying, ‘we have arrived!’ “We’re here on earth and we’re out there in space, too!’

So what are we going to do?

We can complain that they’re ungrateful, as if American companies didn’t make and keep making plenty of money from the vast Chinese markets.

We can and should decry their human rights abuses, their treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang, and the violation of their accord with the British in Hong Kong.

But that doesn’t address the main issue, the fact that their star is rising faster than ours.

And we either confront it or let them move past us.

Our pride is too strong to go with the second option. But to confront China’s rise we have to do some major work in our nation. Long overdue work we thought we could ignore and it would go away by itself.

Let us first consider leadership.

We don’t have any at present. A person who divides is a tribal leader. America has no use for that now. Never did.

The fact that we elected one is a sad chapter in our political history.

But a leader, man or woman, who is able to sit down and talk to us, will have a powerful healing effect. In our hearts and minds, right now, today, we’re all hoping for such a person to step up.

It could well be Joe Biden.

If he has it in him, then he would have to address every sector of this country, address it and say, ‘we can’t do this alone. We’re all part of the solution, we have to come together. Everyone has something to contribute, no one is better than the other. If we don’t pull together, we’ll fall behind. The task for the nation is clear. We must act now.’

To do that we have to forgive. Yes. Forgive that in the matter of race we’ve made blunder after blunder. And so, too, in the matter of growing inequality.

Of course, every group will have complaints and grievances, and every group will feel they should be first in line.

Our leader, will need to hear all of it, to understand and then use it to start down the road to compromise. We’ll have to go down that road because without compromise we won’t get ahead.

We can look at China and say they’re not free. But neither are we. There’s no freedom in disrespect of others, no freedom in systemic racism, no freedom in institutionalized unfairness, no freedom in not having access to proper education and health care, no freedom in living in a dangerous neighborhood without clean and safe water and proper lighting and housing.

The Chinese are saying to us, ‘we’ll move past you because you can’t get your house together.’

They’re saying to us, ‘you can’t manage your differences.’

And they have a point. That is the Chinese challenge to us. They are telling us, to our faces, ‘dare to be more productive than we are’.

Can we do it?

I think we can. And as we learn to do so we’ll discover great riches. Human and creative riches. Riches that lie trapped in differences not understood.

For instance, how we address immigration will be key. Immigration has contributed enormously to who we are. We should be open to it.

The genetic pool from which China draws talent is enormous, nearly three times ours.

But we have always been a magnet for people from all over the world wanting to improve their lot. There are riches in staying open to the world.

A strong, compassionate leader will help us work with our differences to come together.

Renewal is essential to survival. China is challenging us. We are more than capable of taking them on. And also capable of botching the opportunity.

Oscar Valdes is the author of Psychiatrist for a Nation. Available on Amazon.

Oscarvaldes.net

Oh Race, when will we cast you from our minds, when will we be free?

There are vast amounts of human energy trapped in dysfunctional relationships. Energies that can be put to good use and so ease the burden of pain we live with. Energies which can be channeled constructively to improve our lot and pave the way for those who come after us.

In the mind of the racist lives the desire to seek advantage. To get ahead. Just as it lives in the minds of those who are not racist. We need such impetus to move forward, to battle whatever our circumstances and push ahead.

It is tempting to wish to narrow the field we compete against by devaluing others.

Say that, since times past, people with the color Orange had been assigned a certain minus (-) value, for whatever reason.

When we inherit that notion, and choose not to challenge it, then it is easy to attempt to exclude Orange people from our interactions.

This exclusion, however, carries consequences. The implicit devaluing means we will not benefit from whatever gifts nature has given them.

I use Orange to designate anyone – non white – now comprising nearly 90% of people on earth.

Our history offers some telling examples of how devaluing people suppresses energies.

At the outset of the Civil War there were clear differences in the strengths of the economies of the North and the South, the economy of the North being the stronger. Racism lived in both the North and the South but in the South it was overwhelming. African Americans escaped from the South to the North, not the other way around. In other words, the relative freedom of African Americans in the North contributed to the greater wealth of that section of the country.

In time, their power and strength would be marshaled into the Army and they would go on to play a decisive role in the victory over the South. Without them, victory would not have been possible.

Sadly, after the war, in one of the most shameful periods in our history, prejudice prevailed, and the country would go on to endure racial repression in forms overt and covert until this day.

Now think of how much farther ahead we would be today as a nation if we had confronted our prejudices?

In today’s world, it is Asian families that are the richest (2018 figures). Do we take on that challenge? Do we set out to release the energies trapped in our dysfunctional race relations?

We are proud to say that we live in a country where the rule of law and self determination prevail but, in fact, they are constantly undermined. The already advantaged continue to find ways to persuade others to give them even more advantages and so, with growing inequality of opportunity, the differences in wealth, level of education and health keep increasing.

The population of our prisons is a stark reminder of all that we have been doing wrong. Step into one and you see masses of African Americans and Latinos – whites being the minority.

What happened? Why are African Americans and Latinos so disproportionately represented in our prisons?

Why did they so disproportionately violate the law?

The answer is so clear that it is hard to accept.

Had they had the same opportunities you and I had they wouldn’t be there.

But clear as the answer is, we struggle to embrace it.

Every race has the same potential for development as any other race. That one group gained an initial advantage, was an accident of history.

When we take in that notion, then we open our minds to allowing for the development of others, even as we strive to maximize our own.

We will see the other who is troubled as someone who needs help to connect with their strengths and build on them.

Look a little closer still and we see something surprising. We see ourselves in them.

We do because they are us.

Us without the benefit of the advantage.

Us without the benefit of affordable housing.

Us but for the burden of poverty.

Us but for the drag of inferior schooling.

Us except for police brutality.

Us except for the chance to develop what abilities we have.

Yes. All of that.

Lots of work has been done to close the gap between the development of white and Black people in America, but we must speed up the pace.

To do that we have to stay open.

To stay open we have to talk.

Talk without blaming,

Talk without hating,

Seeking to understand,

And using our imagination,

To accept and forgive,

Forgive ourselves,

Perchance even to embrace the Orange people,

The Orange people that is us.

Oscar Valdes is the author of Psychiatrist for A Nation. Available on Amazon.

Oscarvaldes.net.

Trump and the Power of Pardons

Trump is in the Oval Office at the White House. He’s sitting alone behind his desk… feeling sad and lonely.

He clasps his hands and pushes back in his chair. This is not a good spot he is in. Joe Biden is ahead in the polls. The number of Coronavirus infections has kept going up. The death toll is mounting.

True, the economy’s charge back is a bright spot… but will people forget the death count? Will they forget the pain?

China had not been fully transparent at the outset of the epidemic but still there had been time to take better precautions, and if he had acted promptly the numbers would not be so horrible.

He rubbed his face, looked down at the ground.

He had made a note to himself to call up Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, to thank him for the extraordinary foresight and energy he and his team had shown injecting massive funds into the economy to ensure liquidity, but he hadn’t got around to it. Would he?

It was hard for Trump to acknowledge Powell’s grand moment.

Hard for him to acknowledge that it had not been his press conferences or his refusal to wear a mask that had boosted the spirits of the nation. No. It had been the feisty governors, mostly democratic, and yes, through it all, Jerome Powel and the Federal Reserve. The bankers, with their commitment to their work, had seized the spotlight and taken it from him.

Congress had acted, too, and passed very important relief bills – but the spotlight was Powell’s.

Trump crossed his legs, brought his palms together beneath his chin and looked up at the ceiling. He felt his eyes grow misty… he felt so alone.

A lump of emotion formed in his throat and he took a deep breath.

If he had been a songwriter… he would have started to write the words for a song… ‘Don’t cry for me, USA, don’t cry for me…’

He shook his head disconsolately.

There were still three and a half months to election day but he already felt defeated.

Beaten down.

Then, abruptly, he clenched his fists. ‘What am I doing?’

He sat up and sprang to his feet, crossing to the window where he threw open the curtains.

Ah, yes… there was the city in its full splendor. Yes. And he felt a rush of relief. All was not lost. Not at all.

It wasn’t Biden that was defeating him, it was the Corona virus. All the mistakes he’d made, the talk of Russian interference, the bruising of long held alliances, the Ukrainian imbroglio, nothing of that had stopped the economy from rising steadily… until the virus hit.

Yes, Biden and the democrats had the virus to thank. If it weren’t for it, Biden and his lot of socialists would be well behind in the polls.

But the virus had happened.

Maybe it was divine intervention. No. Not that. God was on his side. It was more like a test.

Trump looked out and smiled. He loved the sight of the city from his window. And he loathed the idea that he might have to surrender it to a democrat.

He would’ve been glad to surrender it to Pence, instead, after serving a second term.

But no, he would not go down easily. If he had to sign bill after bill of relief funds, he would. And he would because his supporters were counting on him and he would not disappoint them.

He was an embattled president, wasn’t he? Yes, he was. He loved a good fight. And yes, he was going to do everything he could to beat back the socialists and fascists who wanted to tear up the very heart of America.

He would not let down the great nation, like he would not let down his friends.

Just the day before he had signed a pardon for his old time ally, Roger Stone, as he was about to start serving a three year sentence. No, he would not allow Roger to suffer that indignity.

Trump kept looking out the window and crossed his arms. He was feeling better now. A little better. He had friends, yes, people who counted on him. But he knew, too, that he was running out of time. So he needed to face the facts. He had dealt with many painful situations in his life, having had to declare bankruptcy many times, and if he hadn’t acted decisively then the Trump brand would not have existed and he would not be standing in the Oval office.

He smiled to himself.

So, no, he was not going down without a fight… and even if he went down, bloodied and bruised, there would still be life after the White House. ‘Let’s face it,’ he said aloud, ‘I’m a historical figure, a turning point in the history of America. From here on out there will be two eras, the B.T., Before Trump, and the A.T., After Trump. Now, that was power. Great power.’

And yes, he would have to live with the regret that there would be no Nobel Prize for him, like there had been for his predecessor, the African born president passing himself as Hawaiian.

He chuckled. It was not deserved anyway, he consoled himself. The Swedes and Norwegians gave the prize to Obama at the start of his presidency before he had done anything, which was just as well because he didn’t do anything. In effect, Obama had got a Nobel Prize for being Black.

‘But don’t cry for me, USA!’ Trump exclaimed defiantly, surprised that he had shouted the words.

He nodded thoughtfully, closed his eyes and rubbed his chin.

Yes, he was a businessman at the core… and he had to protect the downside. He must, because there was the possibility that this time the polls were right, and Biden would beat him.

Never mind the debates, where he was sure to trounce Biden (surely Biden had something to say about that). He would have no mercy for Joe, Trump continued, because he didn’t deserve any.

Trump checked his watch. It was 4:58 pm. He had asked Pence to meet him at the office at 5.

He stayed looking out the window and two minutes later, exactly on time, there was a knock at the door.

‘Come on in!’ he cried.

And Pence stepped in. He went over to where Trump stood and they shook hands. Trump signaled for Pence to take a seat opposite him at his desk.

Quiet followed.

Then Trump began. ‘Mike… there is the possibility that, this time, the polls are right.’

‘What?’ Pence shook his head vigorously. ‘I don’t believe them. Not one of them. It’s all fake news.’

‘Thank you, Mike, you have been so loyal. To the point that you chose not to wear a mask when you visited Mayo Clinic. You went into the hospital wards where all the doctors were wearing them and you, alone, stood out for not having one on. That took guts.’

‘Thank you,’ said Pence, though it occurred to him that he had acted like an idiot, ‘I’d do it again, too,’ he added.

‘That’s precisely the kind of spirit we need when the chips are down. Now Mike… the reason I’ve asked you in… is that I need your help.’

‘Anything… you know that,’ said Pence.

They paused for an instant.

‘I had a dream last night,’ resumed Trump, ‘where I was standing on top of the staircase to Air Force One, ready to board, and I waved back. I had lost the election.’

‘No way,’ said Pence emphatically. ‘It won’t happen, the economy is bouncing back, before long it will be reaching record highs, and there will be major breakthroughs in getting the vaccine. People will be back to work and the unemployment rate will be close to where it was before Corona.’

Trump smiled wistfully. And he wanted to believe his loyal friend but he needed to cover his downside. He was, after all, a practical man.

‘Mike… if I lose…’

‘Don’t think that way,’ interrupted Pence, leaning forward, ‘You’re a winner, you’re what America needs.’

Trump nodded slowly, then, ‘Mike… if I lose… I need you to pardon me.’

Pence stared back at Trump, startled, then sat back in his chair and looked down at the desk in front of him.

‘Pardon you for what? You haven’t done anything wrong.’

‘I know, but you don’t know what these democrats will come up with, anything to drive me down into the muck… when all my work has been to elevate America.’

Pence nodded thoughtfully.

‘But how could I do that, I’d have to be president to pardon you?’

‘True… so I would make you president.’

‘What?’

‘If I lose… which I don’t think I will, but if I lose… I’d resign before the end of my term so you would become president… and then, after a week or so in office, you would turn around and pardon me.’

Pence raised his eyebrows. ‘You would be willing to do that?’

‘Yes.’

‘When would you resign?’

‘Right after New Year’s Day… which would leave you about 3 weeks in office. Enough time to handle one crisis or another, and then you would become former president Pence, and that would make you the leading candidate against Biden in 2024.’

Pence nodded approvingly, the possibilities dawning on him. ‘I would be the leader of the Republican party, with plenty of time to raise money to beat Biden or whoever became the democratic candidate.’

‘That’s the idea. Of course, if you want, I’d be glad to campaign for you,’ said Trump, ‘if you want.’

There was quiet again.

Then Pence smiled a big smile, his eyes sparkling, and extended his hand to Trump.

‘Deal,’ Pence said, gushing. And Trump’s sagging spirits were suddenly lifted.

‘You made my day, Mike,’ said Trump.

‘Now let’s get on with it and win this next election,’ said Pence, effusively.

And the two men rose, walked toward each other and embraced.

Oscar Valdes is the author of Psychiatrist for A Nation. Available on Amazon.

Oscarvaldes.net

The Race to unRace. Virtue in the Browning of America

Our nation created conditions that vigorously stimulated global growth since the end of World War II.

The many advantages implicit in our system of governance made possible the peaceful resolution of the Cold War. Our push for trade liberalization led to China’s rise and yes, while they rose we profited too. Now China is no longer the sleeping giant of yesterday. It is a giant with aspirations to surpass us.

So what do we do?

Is there a parallel between the Soviet bloc that challenged us but crumbled in the 1980’s and the China of today?

There is. And it is their autocracy.

With autocracy comes inefficiency and the stifling of possibilities.

Will the newly affluent Chinese put up for long with the current restrictions?

I say no. Slowly, their suffocated spirits will join forces to demand greater freedom. When will it happen is hard to predict.

As it now stands China is challenging us. In the face of it, do we examine ourselves or do we pound our chests and shout that we are great?

We have a clear advantage over China, if we care to reflect. It is the undeniable fact that our openness to the world has made us rich. People want to come to America. People from all over the world are pulled by an attraction to be part of this process.

That is the big American advantage.

How do we enlarge such advantage?

We unRace.

That’s right. Racial differences hold us back.

Confronting and resolving them will further the Browning of America, and with that, a new dawn will arrive. Efforts to suppress the development of other human beings results in the blocking of their possibilities. But when we do so we also block our own.

The challenge that China presents to us, is the challenge to reform our way of relating to one another. Race has been holding us back from being the best we can be since the very beginning. It is time to reflect and do the hard work of resolving the differences.

We have known all along what the answer is. Now is the time to square with it.

It was openness to the markets of the world that built up China. We gave them openness and they ran with it. But they didn’t go far enough. You cannot do so with an autocratic regime that hinders the political freedom of individuals.

If we gave China openness, why can’t we give it to our own?

China’s challenge is a call to reassess who we are.

Our land has had freedoms, yes, but in allowing profound racial disparities to fester we have blocked ourselves. The challenge of China forces us to ponder and discover where those repressed energies may lie.

It is not hard to find out.

They lie in the relationships that have not been fostered. They lie, trapped, in the prejudices that we have held so dear.

But understand them, work through them, and we will be on our way to enlarging our minds and souls and increasing our creativity. We will be on our way to freeing the giant in us.

Virtue lies in the Browning of America. Which is the unRacing of America.

Move confidently in that direction and we will confront our fears, and as we do we will grow stronger and richer, kinder and gentler.

The Browning of America will do that for us.

Then, as China and other countries witness our gradual transformation, they, too, will act again to emulate us. And the Uighurs will be grateful. And the Hong Kongers and the Taiwanese, and all the peoples of this earth on whose necks the crushing boot of repressive authority has come to rest.

Leadership carries great responsibilities but also great benefits.

Do we want to lead? Do we want to breathe the lofty air that comes to those who strive to become the best they can be?

Oscar Valdes is the author of Psychiatrist for A Nation. Available on Amazon.

Oscarvaldes.net

Dear Amy

You’ve made your decision. And I think you are wrong.

The cruelty of some police officers has brought to the surface one aspect of the repression under which we live. There is a measure of freedom in our country but there is much political repression as manifested by the vast differences in the quality of our schools and the profound disparity in longevity, access to health care, housing and opportunity between sectors of our nation.

Racial differences are a way to direct that repression, and African Americans bear the brunt of it. That does not mean, however, that it should fall to an African American to lead the effort to remedy the problems.

That distinction should fall to the person presently most qualified.

The reason you were in contention to be the Vice Presidential candidate owed to your performance during the primary campaign. You had distinguished yourself by your pugnacity and balanced approach to difficult matters.

That has not changed.

Other candidates came and went but you persisted.

So why disqualify yourself?

A fair allocation of resources is an urgent matter in our country, and it will take contending with reluctant and entrenched interests to push through the needed changes and make them stick.

That’s where your pugnacity comes in.

Though Trump continues to make one error after another, it is not a certainty that Biden will become the next president so we will need a strong ticket that appeals to a majority of Americans to elect him.

Your performance as a prosecutor in Hennepin County in Minnesota proved to be flawed when you declined to file charges against officers involved in the death of African Americans. That was 20 years ago. You then embodied strong community biases. But you now convey the sense of having evolved.

That quality is essential to persuade all of those who have yet to evolve, to adopt a fair and non discriminating frame of mind which will be needed to push through critical reforms.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Canada wore a black face at a party when he was younger and later apologized. So have others.

There is no purity. There is, instead, the willingness to accept our mistakes, confront the prejudices we grew up with and work with them.

I think you have done that and are doing that. The task never ends.

So don’t take yourself out of the contest to become Biden’s VP. Put yourself back in. Call him back and say you’ve reconsidered. Great saints were great sinners.

It is laudable that you wish to defer to an African American woman insisting that there are plenty who’re qualified for the job, and I agree that there are. But you have been in the thick of the fire and learned a good deal along the way.

Given the polarization Mr Trump has fostered, a white woman in the Democratic ticket will have greater appeal for the undecided voters than an African American woman would.

Democrats need to win in November. We have to do that first.

Should that happen, the woman candidate Biden chooses will get a chance to pick an African American woman to be her running mate in 2024, should Biden not wish to run again, or in an environment more receptive to women candidates, face an African American challenger.

There is a profound sense of renewal flowering in our country. The brave youth of this nation is leading a vigorous movement. They will need people with much experience and a commitment to reform so that their efforts are not wasted.

You have a chance to be a leading figure in the tough task ahead. Don’t sit this out. Fight the good fight. Biden will make his choice but don’t you step back.

Later today, some of the best our country has to offer will be protesting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the President will hold a rally. He has already warned that protesters will not be treated with a kind hand. It is difficult to accept that our president is so willing to ignore the spirit of justice that animates the protests. He can do so, because he seems incapable to accept their courage. When he sees the protesters, instead of being struck by their willingness to step front for what they believe, he is filled with envy.

I say envy because it is unacceptable that, in the face of protests across this nation, he has yet to muster the strength to address us all and say, ‘we will do what we must to bring justice to our land’.

As I write this blog, just hours before the protesters convene in Tulsa, it is my fervent hope that no one is injured or killed.

Oscar Valdes is the author of ‘Psychiatrist for A Nation’, available on Amazon.

Oscarvaldes.net

The Atlanta Killing of a Black Man. The Failure of Imagination.

Rayshard Brooks was shot Friday night (6/12/20) outside a Wendy’s restaurant in Atlanta.

Yes, he had a Taser gun in his hands,

Yes, he had fought with the police moments before,

Yes, he should not have.

But Rayshard Brooks was running away from the officers when he was shot.

He was not a threat to them.

Why did the two white officers,

As they approached Rayshard Brooks in his car where he had fallen asleep And where he sat intoxicated with alcohol (he failed a sobriety test),

Not say, to themselves, under their breaths,

‘Let us not kill a black man today.’

Why did the two white officers not say,

‘Let us consider the offense as we approach this man asleep in his car,

Let us consider the offense before we react.’

Why did the two police officers not say,

To themselves, not to anyone, just to themselves,

‘Let us not kill a black man today.’

They could have said it,

And if they had, maybe Rayshard Brooks might be alive today.

There was a failure of imagination in the police department in Atlanta.

A profound failure.

When the entire force gathered at their stations before going out on their shift,

Those in charge should have said to the officers,

‘Our reason for being is to protect the lives and property of the city of Atlanta,

But let us not kill a black man today.

Please, not again.

Let us think before we use our weapons,

Let us ask ourselves, are we really in danger?

Let us not overreact because our pride has been hurt,

And let us never forget that a man running away is not a threat to us.

So please,

Let us not kill a black man today.’

There was and is a failure of imagination in the police department of the city of Atlanta,

A failure of imagination that led to the excessive use of force,

A failure of imagination that didn’t allow the officers confronting Rayshard Brooks,

To ask themselves,’ now why would a man be asleep in his car, drunk, and blocking the drive thru lane? What could possibly be happening in the life of this man?’

If there had been imagination in the police department of the city of Atlanta,

Then maybe the officers approaching Rayshard Brooks might have said to him,

‘Say young man, good evening, you have fallen asleep at the wheel,

And you’re blocking the lane,

Seems like you’re needing some help.’

Rayshard Brooks was not hurting anyone, but himself,

And who knows what pressures he was under that he had taken to overdrinking.

Imagination opens the door to compassion,

And we all need a little of that, don’t we?

Even the two officers who approached Rayshard Brooks.

Imagination and compassion.

And let us not kill a Black man today.

Masking Forward. And the Risk of Denial.

Financial markets reacted sharply today with a sell off as news surfaced of a pickup in new cases of Covid-19 infections and the dampening impact it may have in the reopening of the economy.

I think it is an overreaction.

The greater incidence of new cases may well reflect enhanced testing capacity. The trend on the number of deaths continues to be downward. Furthermore, we know more about the illness and are better prepared.

That said, a real increase in infections may be at work, and the reopening of the economy a factor.

Still, I favor the continued and gradual reopening so long as it is done cautiously.

There is no reason for example, for dispensing with the protection of masks. We need only turn to the example of Japan – South Korea also – for a salutary reminder.

The pandemic continues to rage through the world but, as of this writing, the number of deaths in Japan does not even reach 1000. By contrast we have nearly 114 thousand here at home. Much of the difference can be ascribed to cultural differences, i.e. the Japanese custom of bowing to greet instead of shaking hands, and their long standing acceptance of mask wearing.

There can be a continued reopening of all sectors of the economy while maintaining the basic triad of prevention – mask wearing – social distancing – frequent disinfecting.

But it appears that sectors of our population are choosing to ignore such measures.

To not follow them is an instance of massive denial.

I fault principally our current leadership for not setting a clear example of what should be done.

It was an act of grand denial to begin with, for us to have reacted slowly to the arrival of the virus. And here we are again repeating the same behavior.

Denial is an enormously destructive force.

I see its effects every day in the field of mental health, where I work. Patients with severe illnesses get well from the taking of meds, then once they feel recovered, they stop taking them and promptly get sick again. You’d think that since it happened once, that would be enough to learn the lesson. But no, they make the same mistake a second, third, fourth or fifth time, with the cumulative effects having serious consequences.

Reason seems difficult to accept.

And so it appears to be with Covid-19.

In the absence of leaders who prefer not to set an example for the nation by wearing a mask, we are on our own.

Good luck.

Oscar Valdes is the author of ‘Psychiatrist for A Nation’. Available on Amazon.

See Oscarvaldes.net for other titles.

My Definition of Racism

Racism is a false belief, born out of a desire to prematurely close the inquiry into what makes each of us human. At the root of such desire is fear – fear of knowing the other – which when unexamined leads to their devaluing, their mistreatment, their abuse and death.

Oscar Valdes is the author of ‘Psychiatrist for A Nation’, available on Amazon.

The President Self Destroys. The Virus and George Floyd.

There had been one blunder after another during his disruptive tenure, and yet the economy had held up.

Then came the virus.

The President failed to take measures to protect us against it. Over 106,000 deaths later, the best he can do is to point the finger at China and say that it was their fault. It has to rankle him that China, with a population over 3 times larger than us, has had only a little over 4,600 deaths.

But the President is doing what he’s best at, deflecting blame.

To this day, he remains unable to admit that he was late in responding, unable to admit that he was distracted with the impeachment and that the challenge to his authority was what concerned him the most. Never mind that, with a clear majority in the Senate, there was no doubt he would be acquitted of the charges.

Then came George Floyd.

And the President lost it.

To this day, he has been unable to address the nation. A nation riven by protests and looting. A wounded nation in search of clear guidance and support. A nation bleeding from a deep wound to its soul.

And there the President stands, watching over us as we bleed.

The moment a person becomes elected to the highest office in the land, they become the person to turn to for answers to our deepest troubles. It may be too much to expect for one person to have all the answers, but we look to that person because even if they don’t have the answers, they will have access to our best and brightest, to our wisest and most serene.

But our President appears unable to take such responsibility.

And so he fails us.

It is a profound failure.

A blatant shirking of his duty.

When protesters circled the White House, he was hurried to his bunker. Please. No. Don’t you hide from your fellow Americans.

With every day that passes and you don’t address us as a nation, the greater the sense that we are truly leaderless. Someone is in the White House, sleeping and eating… we hear him rant, tweet, insult, call for the Army to take over our cities and silence the protests.

But we don’t hear a man take us into his heart and say to us, ‘I am deeply pained… that during my tenure, in this great land, a police officer had the audacity to pin down and slowly kill a man while others who were watching, begged him to stop. But it happened, happened here in this great land, on Memorial Day, in the great city of Minneapolis. To the extent that I have not endeavored to heal this nation, I, too, am guilty of what happened to George Floyd. And so I am deeply sorry that I have failed you. In this day of sorrow for our nation, I ask that we forgive each other… and forgive me… forgive so we can come together and work as the great family that we are… and join in the effort to not let this happen again.’

Our President, however, cannot say that.

To do so he would have to shed a tear for George Floyd.

And yet… still we look to the White House… only to realize that it is empty… and as we shed a tear for George Floyd… we shed a tear for ourselves.

Oscar Valdes is the author of ‘Psychiatrist for A Nation’. Available on Amazon.

Oscarvaldes.net