Today is a historic day for America! An outstanding Black woman, who is the daughter of a highly accomplished Indian immigrant mother from India and a celebrated Black Jamaican father, is chosen to run on a major political party ticket as the Vice President along with the leading candidate for Presidency of the greatest nation on earth, the United States of America. As promised before, Democratic Presidential candidate Biden fulfilled his first promise and has just made the right choice that represents a diverse America, which the world has come to know as a coveted place for justice, liberty, fairness, diversity and human rights. And those are the exemplary values and virtues that attracted me and many others like me to America. Our American dreams were built on those ideals.
Senator Kamala Harris is a Black woman, at the same time she is a woman of South Asian-Indian descent. As the former Attorney General of California and as an outstanding Senator of the US Senate from California, she is brilliant and has enormous governmental, legal, and political experiences, and credentials that are second to none. Above all, she has the moral integrity, tenacity, and proven leadership qualities to lead this nation with a giant $20 trillion knowledge economy.
Of late America lost its most respected place it enjoyed for decades in the world as the flourishing secular democratic nation where liberty, fairness, and justice prevailed; where church and state were deemed separate, but religious freedom and diversity flourished; where Hindu immigrants from India could rise to become the corporate CEOs of mega-corporations in America such as Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Pepsi Cola and many others; and, where America stretched its arms across despite its imperfections to achieve freedom, fairness, and justice beyond the color of one’s skin, race, and religion. However, nationalism and racism were fanned by selfish conservative politicians and religious leaders who never could think beyond the moment or rise above their personal pettiness and selfish agendas! Thus they ruined the very social and moral fabric and promise of America as the great nation and the leader of the civilized world!
In other words, America lost its greatness in the past three years to bigotry, injustice, bullying and mean-spirited leadership at the top! One anecdote that happened today would prove my point why I believed America lost its greatness due to the colossal failure of our national political leadership. The very first words that came out of the mouth of our mightiest leader of the Free World, President Trump, characterizing the Vice Presidential candidate of his opponent, Senator Kamala Harris, was that “she is nasty.” He took the earliest opportunity to denigrate her! President Trump is the leader of the most powerful and benevolent country in the world. American presidents have been known for decades abroad as honorable and decent men who have the ability, moral integrity, and steadfastness to achieve greatness by rising above their pettiness and ordinary human frailty. But he proved my point beyond doubt yet again today that he never could rise above his pettiness and bullying!
Unfortunately, our President could not even for a moment respect or appreciate the achievement of a colored woman for rightfully earning her way to the Vice President candidacy for the first time. He took the first opportunity to put down and denigrate Senator Kamala Harris! By doing that he has proven yet again that he is a racist and a sexist who never could rise above his pettiness and tyranny. He seems to be afraid and intimidated by strong women like Senator Harris!
America must be made whole and “great again” when freedom of speech and religion, justice, fairness, and diversity would prevail. I would hope these are the values and virtues a “Biden and Harris” ticket will nurture with their leadership. On those terms only America can be “Made Great Again” where science and technology will flourish with the best minds from around the world and the world will be ready to take on another pandemic like COVID-19 successfully!
If their political ticket meant "social medicine," like many others in this great country, I am also willing to pay my share of taxes from my pension so that all Americans will have the right and opportunity to seek medical assistance without going broke and hungry. That is not socialism or communism! Put in practice, that is the true message of Jesus Christ to “love our neighbor” and that is respecting the basic human rights and dignity of every American and our children and grandchildren regardless of the color of their skin, disabilities, religious beliefs or sexual orientation! Spreading white lies that the liberals are “radicals,” “socialists,” “communists,” and “baby killers” is simply “poisoning the well” for those who are gullible and cannot think for themselves. That is just plain evil and an unchristian message of the self-righteous political and religious devils!
(Matthew Isaac, Ph.D., is an Author and Retired Associate Vice Chancellor from California)