Author Archives: Laura Wells

Anti-WHAT???

Republished from Laura Wells Solutions (https://laurawells.org/)

This past week a couple of articles caught my eye. I find myself pausing while writing this because of the enormity of what’s happening in Palestine — it seems impossible to visualize it as real — and because of the courageous attempts so many people are making do whatever they can to STOP the killing.

Sometimes it takes a young person to express what’s happening clearly and concisely. This quote by singer/songwriter Kehlani is from an article in SFGate entitled “Bay Area superstar dropped from festival bill due to Israel comments” by Timothy Karoff. It can be found at this link.

“I am being asked and called to clarify and make a statement yet again for the millionth time that I am not antisemitic nor anti-Jew. I am anti-genocide,” Kehlani said in a video statement shared on social media. “I am anti the actions of the Israeli government. I am anti an extermination of an entire people. I am anti the bombing of innocent children, men, women. That’s what I’m anti.”

The second piece that caught my eye is well-researched and also clear and concise in countering the excuses given for the killing. The article was published in the online political publication LA Progressive, and was entitled “No, Senator Sanders, Israel Did Not Have ‘the Right to Defend Itself’” by Mike Males. Here are some excerpted paragraphs from the article.

Israel is an occupying power that killed 1,200 Palestinians in the 60 months PRIOR to October 7, 2023, and thousands before that. Occupying powers cannot claim self-defense.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who increasingly exemplifies the few political leaders willing to challenge the U.S.’s arming of Israel, recently reiterated this baffling claim at his Idaho rally: “Israel, like any other country, has the right to defend itself from terrorism but not the right to wage all-out war against the Palestinian people.”

It didn’t start on October 7
From October 7, 2018, through October 6, 2023, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) killed 1,230 Palestinians, 90% of them civilians, including 470 children (Palestinian Health Authority, reported in Israel-Palestine Timeline). During that period, the PHA reports 27 Israelis killed by Palestinians. These figures are considered accurate by international agencies and fact-checkers based on verifiable names and the numbers Israel assigns every Palestinian (yet more evidence of Israel’s occupying-power status).

Israel had also kidnapped and imprisoned over 5,000 Palestinians prior to October 7, a number that has since doubled. The overwhelming majority have not been charged with any offense, and most are subject to torture and severe deprivation, United Nation reports document.

Washington DC could have stopped the killing by stopping the delivery of weapons. Biden could have. Trump could. A growing number of Americans, who concur with the people quoted above, would.

Values, Values, Values

Republished from Laura Wells Solutions (https://laurawells.org/)

If you ask me for the three things that matter in politicians, I would say VALUES, VALUES, VALUES.

Yes, age, gender, and ethnicity are important. Class is also important, although classism was less acknowledged before the 2000s. Spellcheck used to underline “classism” as not-a-word!

As to ageism, I hear talk about Biden and Trump being too old to be presidents. But, if they had great values — values that benefited people, planet, peace and democracy — and if they surrounded themselves with cabinet members and advisors who were also on our side, the side of regular folks, I would not care how old they were. Would you?

Speaking of values, let’s not just be satisfied with what politicians say, let’s focus on what politicians do. There are speakers who can fire up a crowd, but what do they do? What values have they demonstrated when they’re in positions of power? These days I often hear friends tell me they admire how strongly a politician has spoken out about important matters.

Great, but when they and their political party were in power, what policies did they push to actually get enacted? What were their values? Green New Deal? Affordable and accessible healthcare? Despite Obamacare improvements, the US still has less affordable and accessible healthcare than other wealthy industrialized countries — even worse than other not-so-wealthy countries.

Recent presidents for at least the past 45 years have all pushed the system in the wrong direction: favoring bigger defense budgets and more military weapons over peace; favoring exploitation, waste and destruction over a beautiful and livable planet; and favoring super-rich individuals and corporations (the “oligarchy”) over real opportunities and real democracy for people.

Are there solutions? So far, not within the two-party system. So many things just get worse every four years. Both parties are too easily bought out and/or already aligned with the oligarchy, not with the rest of us.

We need to get out from under the broken two-party system. The Green Party has been targeted for annihilation since it was born 33 years ago as a ballot qualified party. We have stayed alive because of our values, including the value of no corporate money for candidates or the party itself. Consider registering Green now, at this link registertovote.ca.gov in California, or vote.gov for all US states.

The only time voter registration with a party affects how you can vote in California is on presidential primary day every four years. Meanwhile, every day, when you are registered Green, you explicitly push for changing this decayed two-party system, and you declare your values.