Reflections On the Birthing of a New Nation and a New World and Why I Endorse Bernie Sanders

Photos are from a recent overflow rally in New York in which Bernie Sanders was endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

There are many reasons that I need to give voice to as to why I stand strongly with Bernie Sanders. First and foremost, my support comes from being a mother, a grandmother, a lifelong advocate for children and all beings, and out of my deep spiritual commitment to alleviate the suffering in the world. I understand that without dramatic and far reaching changes now which are backed and fueled by millions of us nationally and globally, that the climate and ecological crises will success in dooming most life on Earth. 

I am absolutely clear that Bernie Sanders has the strongest and most comprehensive plan to address the climate emergency — along with economic and social injustice and a host of other related issues — which is why he also has the endorsements and support of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bill McKibben, Cornel West, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Minnesota Rep. Ihan Omar, Norman Solomon, and so many others. (One list of notable endorsements can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bernie_Sanders_2020_presidential_campaign_endorsements.)

Secondly, this is about much more than any one man. What Senator Sanders represents is a movement, a movement which includes more than our nation alone and spans beyond our borders to encompass movements which are linked worldwide. In the much larger picture, what this man and these movements symbolize is the birthing of a new nation and a new world — one which is united in the work of our human evolution and the struggle to dismantle the obstacles which have long stood in the way of living in a humane society which protects and values life and cares for us all.

This is why the first meeting of activists supporting Bernie Sanders that my husband and I attended several months ago in Vancouver, Washington was one of nearly 500 meetings nationwide and in 30 other countries.

This movement has the strength, passion, and fierce commitment to backing Bernie Sanders exactly because there is no presidential candidate who has consistently and over the course of a lifetime remained consistent in their message. Many have written and spoken to this consistency, and this is but one of countless examples: https://www.npr.org/2015/12/11/459231940/bernie-sanders-has-stuck-to-the-same-message-for-40-years.

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Bernie Sanders' platform and agenda connects the dots between the "rigged economy" and its many symptoms — the extreme and ever increasing redistribution of wealth upwards, a political system in which most politicians from both political parties are serving their corporate donors rather than the interests of people and the planet, Mr. Trump and the current administration, millions of people who did not vote in the last election, the deep corruption of the DNC and RNC, the continued increasing and deadly use of fossil fuels and the rise of CO2 to 415ppm, catastrophic wildfires and hurricanes and floods and more extreme climate disruption events, exploding poverty and homelessness, thousands of bankruptcies and deaths every year due to the American for-profit "healthcare" system, college graduates burdened with many thousands of dollars of immoral student loan debt, tax laws designed to protect and shield the most wealthy from anything even remotely requiring them to pay their fair share, three families owning as much wealth as half the nation, endless devastating wars and war profiteering, 22 veterans committing suicide each and every day, immoral foreign policies which fuel terrorism and exasperate suffering nationally and globally, racism and nationalism and brutal immigration policies, high levels of child poverty and child abuse and and neglect, epidemic levels of addiction and despair and violence, the climate and ecological crises which now threaten most life on Earth with extinction by the end of the century... And the list goes on.

There is an intersectionality between all of these symptoms and the systematic oppression and violence rooted in our neoliberal capitalist economic system and the domination-related belief systems and ideology which fuels it. Riane Eisler writes brilliantly about this much larger picture in her piece about breaking out of the domination trance: https://www.kosmosjournal.org/kj_article/breaking-out-of-the-domination-trance-building-foundations-for-a-safe-equitable-caring-world/=

Because Bernie has never been shy or held back about speaking the truth, he also represents the greatest threat to the status quo long promoted by enormous special interests of Wall Street, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the insurance and pharmaceutic industries, the prison and educational industrial complexes, the agricultural animal and corporate media industries, and other huge financial interests. The elites that Bernie Sanders has been standing up to throughout his lifetime fear a Sanders presidency more than all others exactly because he is the single greatest threat their power — and especially because the movements he inspires embody way more than Bernie. Millions of us are yearning and working for this new world, this New Story by which we live. NOT ME. US.

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Please go here for Bernie Sanders on the issues: https://berniesanders.com/issues/. This is why I support Bernie Sanders. This is why there are millions of us who are part of the movements to break free from the chains that constrict and sever any possibility of true radical change. Instead, we hold a vision that is attainable — that of a nation and a world united in the work of birthing a truly advanced humane society. For more on these positions, please also go here: https://www.politico.com/2020-election/candidates-views-on-the-issues/bernie-sanders/. For the voting record of Bernie Sanders, please also go here: https://www.ontheissues.org/Bernie_Sanders.htm. And please research deeply through independent journalist resources which receive no corporate funding.

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What I fear more than any outside interference by a foreign government in our elections is the interference within our own American government and its corporate influences and corporate owned media. My concerns are with those politicians and media pundits who report for the powerful rather than holding the powerful accountable. When 70% of Americans do not understand the urgency of the climate emergency — and when they back any politician who is not 100% supportive of the Green New Deal, when there is continued support instead for the status quo rather than the enormous changes that are needed to make possible a livable planet for our children, and when any of us believe the polarizing propaganda and relentless distractions that we are fed which disempower and divide us rather than empower and unite us — that is what rattles me deep into my bones.

Here is one example of the intense and insidious propaganda leveled at Bernie Sanders by the corporate media: 

Here, too, is another important piece from Common Dreams today: The Lies Corporate Media Tell When Bernie Sanders Is "Extreme" and Trump's GOP is Mainstream — https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/10/30/lies-corporate-media-tell-when-bernie-sanders-extreme-and-trumps-gop-mainstream.

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It is incredibly important that we not bite the hook of those huge financial interests which seek to feed the epidemic of disempowerment and division, distraction and denial, misinformation and lies. As long as we turn solely or mostly to corporate media resources — like the Washington Post, NPR and PBS, CNN and MSNBC, etc. — without working hard to balance what we are taking in with independent resources which have no corporate funding — like Democracy Now!, Truthout, Common Dreams, The Guardian, The Intercept, etc. — we will be depriving ourselves of the information we need to be an informed populace. 

And perhaps never before has it been as vital as it is today to inform ourselves, to embody, as Chris Hedges frames it, a profound commitment to truth. In the larger picture, this is about putting principles before personalities and being in alignment with our deepest values. 

More than ever before, it is also vital to come together, to unite behind these highest values and within our deepest and most evolved visions of what is possible, what is attainable, what we can link arm in arm and heart-to-heart to embody and create together. Let us all fight for someone we do not know! Everything that we love and cherish is at stake.

Bless us all, no exceptions...

Molly

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"... So yes, Barack Obama looks very good [in comparison to Trump]. He was the brilliant black face of the American empire with all of its ugly militarism and racism and materialism and poverty. And Donald Trump is the know-nothing white face of the American empire with the same things and much worse. He’s got neo-fascist sensibilities that needs to be called into question...
  
"I just don’t think that a neoliberal centrist can generate any of the deep fire that we need ..., the best fire or the best sensibilities among our citizens. You’re going to have to have somebody who’s got a long history and longevity of integrity [speaking about Bernie Sanders]...

"I’m never optimistic or pessimistic about any empire. I’m a prisoner of hope. That’s something different. And hope is not something to talk about. It’s something to be. You got to be a hope. You got to fight. You got to struggle. You got to swing. It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing, brother. That’s Duke. That’s Ella Fitzgerald. And that swing has to do with intellectual, moral, spiritual weaponry. Tell the truth, bear witness, live and be willing to die. That’s my tradition." — Cornel West

(Please go here for the full interview I quoted from above that can be found on The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2019/03/07/cornel-west-on-bernie-trump-and-racism/.