From the Chair, Michael Fields
August 28, 2024
To the Gladwin Record & Clarion Editor:
A Lesson For All
In order for our democracy to function we need the ability to peacefully express our opinions and preferences without fear of retribution. Unfortunately that was not to be the case in Gladwin County in the past week. An individual or a group of individuals decided that they could and did take the law into their own hands. This person uprooted a political sign in another person’s yard, carried it over to a boat that was for sale on the same property and used the sign as a fuel source to burn not only the sign but the boat in the cloak of darkness.
Such action is intolerable. It runs against the very fabric that makes a democracy work. The intent of this action is to create fear of some other unknown among us. It is meant to intimidate people. There are healthy ways to disagree with another person’s choice in a democracy.
We know what they are, your parents and elders have taught them to you since you were young. I encourage you to express your point-of-view so long as it shows
respect to others and causes no harm or loss of property. That is what makes our country work. If you want to keep America great, then follow the rule of law, and show respect to those who you differ with your opinion. Regardless of your political persuasion, or if you have no political affiliation at all you must be outraged by this act of aggression against democracy.
Join me in condemning this dangerous action as a form of political speech.
July 5, 2024
On July 1st, the Supreme Court of the United States effectively removed the checks and balances set forth in our constitution and created the groundwork for an authoritarian autocratic form of rule. Six justices on the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Republican Party to begin the end of our democratic republic and begin an autocratic authority regime if they win this fall’s election. By giving complete and total immunity to any act deemed to be an official act of the president. This court has given the president unimaginable ability to dismantle the checks and balances created for the federal government.
If this ruling was in place in 1972 Richard Nixon could not have been held accountable for the Watergate Break-in because it would have been deemed an official act of the presidency. Gerald Ford would have never taken office in 1974.He would never have been asked to grant a pardon to Nixon in order to heal the country. Can anyone who lived through those turbulent times think that those rulings of Thurgood Marshall’s court would so quickly be turned on their head?
The rulings of the Marshall court held Donald Trump in check during his first term in office. He feared crossing the line and creating a situation where he could be held accountable for his action after leaving office. This current ruling, from John Robert’s court, removes any such concerns. If Trump gets back in office he will be able to call on the military to shoot unarmed protesters in the leg (as he wanted to before) and get away with it. There is no longer any doubt about that. The Supreme Court ruling will allow the president to use the justice department to indict political rivals because he feels threatened by them or he determines that they are not sufficiently loyal to him. He can take bribes or collect gifts in exchange for favors. The new court ruling as of July 1st, 2024, states that if an act is determined to be an official act then that act cannot be used as evidence to support a quid pro quo arrangement.
Trump tried to overthrow a lawful election in 2021. He created a plan and conspired with others to carry out the plan. We are still, as a nation, trying to hold him accountable for his actions but the Roberts Supreme Court created conditions that will make it legal for him to overthrow another election using the same plan with new people to carry it out. There will be no Mike Pence’s to get in the way, or William Barr to tell him he cannot do this or that.
That is why we cannot allow Trump and the MAGA crowd anywhere near a seat of power. Not only must we defeat Donald Trump, but we must take back the House of Representatives, and build our numbers in the Senate. We must change the current configuration of members on the Supreme Court; it has not always been 9 members and does not have to remain only 9 members. By holding a trifecta of power on the national landscape we can move to make changes in the Supreme Court and reverse this dangerous decision handed down by this politically motivated Supreme Court.
Vote this fall and vote for Democrats in order to save our democracy.
May 15, 2024
To the Gladwin Record & Clarion Editor:
Concerned Citizen
Those who avoid studying history tend to be the ones who try to justify being less successful or influential than others by “unfair” competition for opportunities or jobs. Much of the political discourse today reflects the whimpering of those who avoid self-inspection by pointing fingers at people they do not know and making childish claims of life being unfair. Success is earned and history has never claimed that life was “fair”.
The big issue in such blame game politics is immigration, specifically from Central and South America. To put today’s polemic into perspective let’s do a tour through American history. The White House in our capital was built with the labor of (non-consensual) African immigrants.
The wealth of New England textile mills was derived from cotton raised and harvested in the south by African slaves. The railroads that connected the eastern seaboard to the west coast were built mostly with immigrant labor from China, the Philippines, Mexico and Ireland, and thousands of them died in the process. The lumbermen who made Michigan rich were recruited laborers from Germany and other European nations. The supervisors and managers of a growing America were entirely drawn from people whose own immigrant pedigrees were less than four generations old and who stole the land from native populations.
In today’s America nearly all of the produce we find in the grocery stores is picked, cultivated, and planted by immigrant labor. Nearly a third of all home construction and landscaping laborers in the U.S. speak Spanish as a first language. Nursing homes, even in Texas, are begging state governments for more immigration in order to provide trainees and labor. All of these roles in our society are dependent on immigrant labor because native-born sons and daughters do not want to do such hard work for pathetically low pay.
It isn’t rocket science.
The vicious hoopla about the “Southern Border” and “flood of refugees and asylum seekers” is not based on economic or social realities at all. It is based on racial and ethnic bigotry and ignorance. MAGA commentaries wouldn’t be so ugly if most immigrants were from Northern or Eastern Europe. Our nation, with an aging population, needs immigrant families and laborers, and the vitality and enthusiasm that they’ve always brought with them. If we forget how this quality of life came to be, then we will decompose into a nation of whiners and fools.
April 17, 2024
To the Gladwin Record & Clarion Editor:
This election cycle offers the voters something that most cannot. People need to understand that this election is unique in so far as these two men are the most recent presidents we have. Usually you have one candidate that runs on what they have done since becoming president and the other runs on what they promise to do if elected. However, in this election both men have the most recent records which voters can compare when making their choice.
During the Trump administration more jobs were lost than under any president in the last 95 years dating back to the great depression of 1929. During the Biden administration over 14 million jobs have been added to the economy, the highest percentage of working age women are employed in our history, and the highest percentage of working age men in more than seventy years. The Biden administration passed the largest infrastructure bill creating billions of dollars for high speed internet nationwide, more money for much needed highways, bridges, and trains infrastructure improvement, and all the time bringing good high paying jobs. During the Trump administration the idea of an infrastructure week was brought up several times but no legislation was even brought up to be voted on in Congress.
The United States is producing more oil for market than any other time in our history including from 2016 -2020 when Trump was screaming “Drill baby Drill”. We are also dedicated to the largest commitment to clean energy in our history which should be a comfort to the younger generation in our Country.
I am going to make one last comparison for this article although many more could and should be made between now and November 2024. Here is a list of individuals that Trump appointed to his administration that are warning against giving Donald Trump a second term: Alyssa Farah Griffin, Sarah Matthews, Cassidy Hutchinson, Mark Esper, General James Mattis, General John Kelly, General Mark Milley, NSC Advisor John Bolton, Anthony Scaramucci, Stephanie Grishamand, Vice-President Mike Pence. That is a list of ten people that Trump trusted enough to have them work for him on a daily basis. This is the list of people that worked in the Biden administration that will not vote for him. ______ That’s it zip, zilch, zero.
That is worth thinking about. I encourage you to look at other aspects of the two administrations to help you make an informed decision at the ballot box this fall. Do not vote out of fear or concern of what may happen. Do not spend more time listening to the candidate then looking at what each of them have done during their presidency.
February 21, 2024
To the Gladwin Record & Clarion Editor:
On February 2, 2024 President Biden attended the dignified transfer for U.S. service members killed in Jordan. President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown and other military officials walked up to the aircraft housing the fallen service members at Dover Air Force Base and solemnly bowed their heads as a chaplain offered prayers. Each flagged draped casket was placed inside a black vehicle as the president, the first lady and service members saluted them to pay their last respects before being driven away.
Thousands of young Americans are serving throughout the middle east and around the world in hopes of preserving peace. Our President gave these fallen patriots the respect they deserved. He showed these young patriots and their families some measure of dignity as he should have done.
We need to contrast this to the way former President Trump referred to the fallen soldiers of Vietnam when he refused to visit the cemetery of the fallen, because the weather would mess up his hair, calling them “suckers and losers” for serving in Vietnam. To paraphrase Trump on wounded veterans, we do not need to see wounded veterans because nobody likes seeing that.
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