Vegan; left-wing (and very fed-up) Dem; retired lawyer and law prof, lover of animals, art, Ireland, Yiddishkeit.
Near Albany, NY
Joined December 2007
- Tweets63.6K
- Following5.2K
- Followers2.2K
- Likes183K
I love when you can identify the candidates' respective parties just by their appearance.
Look at this little miracle! Studying birds is such a revelation in beauty, creation, and wonder.
I hadn't seen much today in Central Park until I stopped by the grassy knoll. Suddenly. a Red-tailed Hawk, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, a White-breasted Nuthatch, an Eastern Towhee and this Ruby-crowned Kinglet appeared! See the li'l crown! 👑👑👑 #Kinglet #CentralPark #birdcpp
Anne Arbor retweeted
Yes! FDR’s second bill of rights died with him. It’s time to resurrect it. More fundamentally, recognize that economic rights are as important as civil and political rights.
A wonderful moral assessment and statement. Vivek's depraved advertisement, and all the ugliness surrounding it, were indeed a "grave moral failure." I would wish in fact for even stronger language.
I have been holding my tongue about something that happened during the Ohio gubernatorial race. I refused to speak while the election was underway because I did not want my words mistaken for an attempt to influence anyone’s vote.
But now that the election is over, I have something to say.
For nearly twenty years, my ministry has taken me among the homeless, the abused, the exploited, and the forgotten. I have sat with victims of sexual violence and witnessed the lifelong wounds of childhood trauma.
What Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign did to Amy Acton was among the most morally repulsive things I have witnessed in American politics.
They took a woman whose stepfather was indicted for raping her when she was twelve years old and featured her mother, from whom she had been estranged for nearly fifty years, in a political advertisement attacking her credibility.
The advertisement challenged Acton’s account of her childhood without mentioning the sexual abuse allegations or the circumstances of that estrangement. When people expressed their horror, the campaign defended it.
Imagine examining another person’s childhood suffering and fractured family relationships, then deciding those wounds might help win an election.
Anyone who has worked with survivors of childhood sexual abuse understands the painful realities of denial, betrayal, shame, and estrangement. A child growing into a successful adult does not erase what happened. Nor does a parent’s denial make that suffering disappear.
I find it equally disturbing that an elderly mother, whom Acton herself described as unwell, was brought into this spectacle. Whatever her own struggles or responsibility for the past, exploiting that fractured relationship was grotesque.
To everyone who defended this, consider the message you sent to survivors. To the young woman whose family refuses to believe her. To the man who has carried the shame of childhood abuse for forty years. To the frightened child who has yet to tell anyone.
What did you teach them about the value of their suffering?
I am a priest. I believe in repentance, forgiveness, and redemption. But none of those things requires me to pretend that deliberate cruelty is anything less than a grave moral failure.
Your political allegiance does not absolve you of moral responsibility. You do not get to set aside your conscience during an election and retrieve it afterward.
If your loyalty requires you to defend the exploitation of a childhood sexual abuse survivor, your loyalty has become an idol. And if your conscience cannot recognize the wrong here, examine what political tribalism has done to it.
This is not about Republicans or Democrats. We have a choice as a people: continue excusing cruelty from our preferred political camp, or summon the courage to condemn it wherever it appears.
Amy Acton deserved better. Every survivor who watched this unfold deserved better.
And God help us if we have reached the point where winning an election matters more than protecting the dignity of a wounded human being.
Yes, if Dems fail, this is what will happen. Man up.
Anne Arbor retweeted
It’s my duty as a historian to remind you that one of Obama’s biggest blunders was not prosecuting any members of the Bush/Cheney administration or the Wall Street crowd behind the 2008 crash, granting impunity to war criminals, torturers, and white collar criminals.
Let’s not repeat history.
I rarely use vulgarity but this calls for an exception . . . FU, Hakeem. FU, FU, FU.
Anne Arbor retweeted
Hard to watch Americans elect authentic, uncompromised, charismatic younger Dems all over the country… and then have @SenSchumer & @RepJeffries immediately step out as the front men — who are really none of those things.
It was all of these, for sure. Do not forget, please, and don't let others forget either.
Anne Arbor retweeted
No no no.
The corruption, barbarity and criminality of MAGA is on a level we haven’t seen in our lifetimes. There should be investigations and prosecutions. You have a mandate to do it. There is no excuse not to.
Men? He couldn't say "men and women"? Disgusting, imo. He does not keep faih with women and girls.
Pope Leo at General Audience: “The political community exists for the sake of the common good, which consists of ‘the sum of those conditions of the social life whereby men, families and associations more adequately and readily may attain their own perfection’ (GS, 74). The exercise of political authority must always be directed towards the common good.”
this.
Do not confuse "retribution" with "justice". Justice is the retribution. And it's what we voted for. We will not allow you to let grass grow under our feet after what WE just accomplished @CoryBooker @hakeemjeffries Go @SenSchumer @SenDuckworth and any others channelling Merrick Garland. Go for it, @RobertGarcia!
Does no one else remember November 2020? Joy, dancing in the streets? And gone so quickly in 2024, jus 4 years later!! Are we really determined to learn nothing from that?
Make it meaningful, make it just. But not vindictive. Remember - we want a country governed by the rule of law.
Listen up, @TheDemocrats: NO MERCY.
On day one, you start turning the screws. I better not see Chuck Schumer wearing his stupid little glasses and reading a strongly worded letter a single time.
This is vendetta time. I want you to make it hurt.
Please - do this.
