Community Roundtable

There is multi-cultural and social diversity on our college campuses — they seek diverse student bodies.  Yet political diversity these days is nearly as explosive as it was in the sixties, and administrators opt to avoid or mitigate campus disruptions.  I feel that as conservatives in universities increasingly continue to be in the minority  — the right-wing agenda is to push ever harder, foisting their most extreme propagandists, like Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos, on our liberal students, who for the most part don’t want to hear their hateful, regressive rhetoric.  There is a huge shift of consciousness upon us that is playing out; many feel uncomfortable with it.  White, straight males feel threatened under this changing paradigm.   There was a revolution of consciousness in the sixties, swept in by our youth; and there seems to be a reoccurrence of that revolutionary thought and action in play today. (I loved Catherine Denial’s response).

Trish Forsyth Voss

It’s very sad for “Our Town” that community gatherings and festivals are infested with the violence that is rife everywhere.  Friends of mine witnessed the Thursday evening mob incident, where a gun was displayed, but no shots fired; still bystanders were terrified, running for safety, including a pregnant woman, children crying, and people left upset.  That incident influenced our decision to not allow our teenage grandson to go there on Saturday evening, which turns out …. was a good decision, as shots rang out that evening.  We remember that early Easter morning a beautiful, young mother was killed downtown by a stray bullet, while trying to celebrate her birthday with friends on Seminary Street.  I have no useful ideas to make Galesburg safer, since there is a prevalence of firearms, angst and homegrown terrorists.   Americans can hardly feel safe attending their church, schools, movie theatres, malls or music concerts anywhere.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Sessions/Trump created a Zero Tolerance policy for border control in 2017; not enacted until this spring.  The policy procedure has ICE border units arresting people pouring across the borders illegally, which is a federal MISDEMEANOR, taking their children away from them, placing them in internment camps.  A 1997 law stated that the government could not keep migrant children in detention more than 20 days; Obama was trying to keep children with their detained parents, but that law was invoked against his administration’s practice.  MSNBC showed Tues evening, breaking news of a 4th “Tender Age” internment camp set up for INFANTS & TODDLERS!  Currently there are thousands of children who may never be reunited with their families.  As Sessions is moving to force stronger sanctions through the courts, President Trump supposedly signed an Executive Order on June 20th to Keep Families Together, just before he jetted off to Duluth, MN, for a campaign MAGA rally.

Trish Forsyth Voss

U.S. stops “provocative military exercises in South Korea” in exchange for vague agreements toward eventual denuclearization?  I think Kim is a great deal-maker!  He won — a great photo op, shaking hands with the ‘tough-talking’ American president before a bank of North Korean and U.S. flags interspersed.  A wonderful propaganda tool for Kim’s and Trump’s “cult” followers!   A meeting with “no reference to human rights issues or North Korean abductions” of Japanese and European citizens, directly followed the “President peeing in the punch-bowl of G7”.   Iran warns, “Don’t trust America!”  We have to know that Putin is pulling the strings on his puppet.  Steve Schmidt said, “I think it’s time we give Vladimir Putin his due.  He is clearly the greatest intelligence agent — ever.  He has engineered the unraveling of the western alliance, fidelity to democracy in the U.S. and the severing of the UK from the EU.  It’s a remarkable achievement”.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Democracy is messy and can be complicated!  “People today live in a virtual online aquarium, and the people watching you are probably your current or potential employers.”  The PLATFORM and CONTEXT of our posts matter.  “Academic Free Speech” from a liberal university might support more diverse or questionable discourse than might be allowed from other private businesses, which seek to protect their own reputations, confidential information, and values.  Companies can incur potential legal consequences due to actions by employees, and many may lose business dollars by ‘underlings’ offending potential customers. Censorship is a slippery slope; tread cautiously.  We live in a highly-polarized environment, from the top … down.  Hate speech incites violence or prejudiced actions against its subjects, but even ‘hate speech’ is still constitutionally protected in the U.S.,  and especially in Trump’s America, where the figurehead,  who lies incessantly, attacks viciously, purposely uses any issue he can … to create and sustain division.

Trish Forsyth Voss

An audio leak from a private meeting among NFL executives, team owners and players, reported that New England Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft, longtime Trump supporter, accused Trump of “using the NFL protest as a means to divide and conquer the nation”.   That is Donald Trump’s special talent: spiteful bully.   Trump has wanted to own an NFL team for decades; his ownership of a USFL ended badly back in 1985, hence his angst with the NFL.  There have been at least 378 police killings since Colin Kaepernick first ‘took a knee’ in 2016; race hasn’t been reported for another 253 people killed by officers.  The Donald also wanted a casino in Puerto Rico, the deal for which ‘fell through’.  The death toll from the Puerto Rican crises is around 4,645 Americans.              I would assert that kneeling is an act of reverence for the lives of minority Americans, a prayerful protest against racism and inequality in 21st century America.

Trish Forsyth Voss

While Trump fumes over ‘Spygate”, creating further uproar and discord among Americans, decorated Vietnam-veteran, Republican Robert Mueller and teams continue their diligent tasks, churning out indictments for high-level crimes, obtaining guilty pleas and inducing cooperation.  Trump demanding meetings with heads of DOJ, DNI and FBI to examine their evidence is another misstep, toward incurring more articles of impeachment.  Meeting with Trey Gowdy and Devin Nunes, excluding Dems, is pretty much ‘goin to the mattresses’.   (Hopefully Mueller will investigate Nunes’ alleged ownership of a vineyard in Russia.)  Rosenstein needs to stand firm; Speak Truth to Power!  Trump seeks diversion — to demean and “discredit Mueller’s eventual findings”; as Eugene Robinson also pointed out, “this is a crises and it will only get worse”!  Those upset by the year-long probe: compare it to the two-year witch-hunt into Hillary’s legal, private email server, the four-year Benghazi inquisition, and the six-year hunting expedition into ‘Whitewater’, which yielded a perjury indictment for President Clinton –lying about a sexual liaison with a White House aide.

Trish Forsyth Voss

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that “one particular federal gambling statute – PASPA – violated the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (often known as the commandeering clause) because it illegally empowered the federal government to order certain states to take specific actions to disallow sports gambling.  As a result, that statute is no longer enforceable against states, businesses or individuals, (federal laws are not supposed to commandeer states to pay for enforcing what the federal laws prohibit, and state laws allow).   States are now free to pass statutes that would legalize sports gambling within their borders”, which does not mean that you can launch a sports betting website, as most states will be “licensing a limited number of companies or forums such as existing race tracks or casinos”.  The consequence that interests me in this recent SCOTUS view on commandeering is … it seems to articulate that “any federal effort to require states to use their police force in any particular way, including rounding up illegal immigrants, now appears to be clearly unconstitutional”.     (Quotes by Marc Edelman).

Trish Forsyth Voss

President Trump announced on Tuesday his decision to “tear up” the nuclear deal with Iran.  Hassan Rouhani, Iranian president, said that Iran would negotiate with the other world powers to keep the pact in place, but I see the accord unraveling very quickly.  Rouhani said to a Tehran crowd, “the U.S. will quickly see that this decision will be a regret of historic proportions”.  Wednesday morning Iranian lawmakers burned two facsimiles of American flags on the floor of the Parliament (a first) in Tehran, chanting “Death to America!”  Emmanuel Macron of France said that “its allies need to be careful about how they handle Iran because terrorist groups may prosper from the conflict between Shiites and Sunnis”.  Benjamin Netanyahu is agitating for the mega-hawks in the White House to cripple Iran and stop its expansion; meanwhile ‘Bibi’ has opened bomb shelters in Israel.  Remember: oil, gas and land is the currency for all oligarchs.

Trish Forsyth Voss

The proposal to move the military World War II- era LVT (landing vehicle, tracked) to Lincoln Park behind an existing veterans memorial, I feel, would be a great new home-spot for the historic tank.  The amphibious vehicle won’t take up that much green space in the huge park.  For the neighbors concerned about the aesthetics of the tank messing up their grand views from their windows or yards, I suggest they learn to appreciate its historic significance, even using the landmark to educate those who would gaze from their windows upon it.  Possibly investing in an impressive coffee table book  … on World War II:  the battles, the heroes, what they fought for and won, and the incredible vehicles that helped “the greatest generation” to be successful in their fight for world freedom … might serve to increase the residents’ sense of patriotic pride for the distinguished landmark in their vicinity.

Trish Forsyth Voss