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Good morning, everyone! Phoenix Woman here, substituting for Lysis.
On the day when he is officially honored, today's Hillary News & Views is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Here’s a story from April of 2014 on how a youthful Hillary’s life course was shaped by her encounters with both Dr. King and a King-inspired Methodist youth minister named Don Jones:
“Probably my great privilege as a young woman was going to hear Dr. Martin Luther King speak," Clinton said earlier this year at an event at the University of Miami. "I sat on the edge of my seat as this preacher challenged us to participate in the cause of justice, not to slumber while the world changed around us. And that made such an impression on me."
Clinton has traced much of her life in politics and activism to King's words that night. But there was another minister, not famous like King, who also influenced her views on social justice and stoked an intensity for action.
Don Jones was the Methodist youth pastor who organized the trip of like-minded teens to see King, and mentored her for the rest of his life.
"Don opened up a new world to me," Clinton said in 2009, the year he died, "and helped guide me on a spiritual, social and political journey of over 40 years."
The influence of these two spiritually powerful preachers caused the teen who had been a Goldwater Girl to pursue civil rights studies during time in law school. In an era when the expected course for a top-notch law student was to concentrate on lining up a cushy gig with a white-shoe firm, Hillary went to work for the Children’s Defense Fund — and not at a desk job, either:
The future Mrs. Clinton, then a 24-year-old law student, was working for Marian Wright Edelman, the civil rights activist and prominent advocate for children. Mrs. Edelman had sent her to Alabama to help prove that the Nixon administration was not enforcing the legal ban on granting tax-exempt status to so-called segregation academies, the estimated 200 private academies that sprang up in the South to cater to white families after a 1969 Supreme Court decision forced public schools to integrate.
Her mission was simple: Establish whether the Dothan school was discriminating based on race.
“It was dangerous, being outsiders in these rural areas, talking about segregation academies,” said Cynthia G. Brown, a longtime education advocate who did work similar to Mrs. Clinton’s.
Today will be a busy day for all three Democratic presidential candidates. They will all be in Columbia, South Carolina for the annual King Day celebration, a popular event for South Carolina Democrats ever since it was created in 2000 to protest the flying of the Confederate Flag on the statehouse dome:
This year’s rally will focus on education, a top legislative issue as state lawmakers return to work this week to address a court order to improve the state’s rural, poor schools.
Last week was a very busy one for the former Madame Secretary, one in which she showed her considerable power to influence events. Just as a word from her and her husband stopped Patriot Coal from screwing over its retired employees, tweets from her had caused Big Pharma stocks to tumble and Big Prison stocks to tank, and her announced opposition to the TPP put its once-assured passage in jeopardy, her being involved in the poisoned-water crisis in Flint forced Michigan’s Republican governor Rick Snyder out of his torpor on the subject:
During her interview Thursday night with Maddow, Hillary took Gov Snyder to the woodshed for not asking for federal help in dealing with Flint's ruined water supply. Maddow sent Snyder a copy of the transcript. Hours later, Snyder finally asked for federal help.
In fact, Hillary spent much of the week focused on specific nuts-and-bolts plans for getting justice for Flint’s residents. Last Monday, before the rest of America even realized there was a public health crisis in Flint, the Black Star News published an editorial by her that called for Federal assistance — and for Rick Snyder to come clean:
The people of Flint deserve to have safe drinking water restored as quickly as possible. Their children deserve to immediately get the health care they need. And they deserve to know what Governor Snyder knew and when he knew it.
[...]
FEMA should conduct an expedited review of the city’s water infrastructure for damage, and the federal government should step up to be a partner in making necessary repairs.
I also urge the Obama Administration to immediately set up a health monitoring and surveillance system to test Flint residents for lead poisoning. Children who have been exposed to lead need to be immediately treated and monitored. And if there are long-term health impacts, those children and their families should be compensated.
She also wrote a Spanish-language editorial for Univision where she discussed the importance of the Supreme Court — and of picking a president who will pick the right judges (English translation courtesy of El Mito):
Las decisiones de este tribunal tienen un profundo impacto sobre las familias estadounidenses. Tan solo en las últimas dos décadas, la corte declaró como presidente a George W. Bush, significativamente debilitó la Ley de Derechos Electorales, y abrió la puerta a una avalancha de dinero secreto en nuestra política. También legalizó el matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo a nivel nacional, reafirmó la Ley de Cuidado de Salud Asequible –no una, sino dos veces– y aseguró la igualdad de acceso a la educación para las mujeres.
The decisions of this court have a profound impact over american families. Just in the las two decades, the court declared GW Bush as President, crippled Voting Rights, and opened the gates for shadow money flooding our politics. It also made Marriage Equality a right across the nation, reaffirmed the legality of the ACA, twice, and assured access to education for women.
The floor is yours. Enjoy!
