EDITORIAL NOTE Vote for justice and liberty BY Manuel Fernández Ayuso
Republicans want to “make disappear what this country has always been: a democratic leader for everyone.” They disqualify those seeking a fairer society. Voting Trump is voting injustice, supremacism, and Ku Klux Klan. To vote Democrat is to vote for freedom and justice.
Republican politicians call any Democrat who puts forth any request they do not agree with a socialist. The serious thing about this is that they are referring to socialism-Stalinism. The intimidation, scaring and downgrading of people is what these Republicans intend.The reality is very different. That advanced liberalism that old Democrats want is what allows Europe to improve its way of life.
If what we observe every day and the mention of improving human rights is called socialism, I am a socialist.
If the claim that companies that make exorbitant profits at the expense of their employees’ work, share a portion of their profits with their workers is socialism, I am a socialist.
If I reaffirm that a woman owns her body and dispute what men, almost always white and with far-right tendencies, intend to impose is socialism, I am a socialist. (I learned from a very young age that intolerance is fascism).
If wanting the minimum wage to be in line with the net profits of a company is socialism, I am a socialist.
If recognizing the achievement of women being able to perform the same job as men, earning the same salary is socialism, I am a socialist. And the same goes for men and women of color.
If reforming the immigration system and treating these human beings as legal citizens, who left their countries many years ago for a better life and worked in agriculture and in branches of production where there is no presence of natives, is socialism, I am a socialist.
If I defend the thousands of children who came with their parents years ago and grew up in the United States and became people of benefit in this country (the Dreamers); if pretending that it is fair for those people to be declared citizens of the United States is socialism, I and more than half a country are proud socialists.
If I pretend that a country like the United States must have health insurance for all, as Europe has, is socialism, I am a socialist.
If medications are within reach of everyone’s pockets and the drug companies have a little less profit, if that aspiration is socialism, I am a socialist.
If wanting that perennial and rooted racism so alive in this country towards people of color, Muslims, Jews, etc. to disappear, if that is socialism, I am a socialist.
If I take climate change seriously ̶ which we know we are experiencing now more than ever̶and put forth the resources to prevent it, if that is what we call socialism, I’m a socialist.
If wanting that disease that this powerful country carries to disappear, that misery of more than twelve million children who go to bed hungry, is socialism, I am a socialist.
If aiming to change the prison system, where the largest number of inmates are African American or Latino, arrested for nonviolent offenses (drug offences), with draconian sentences, is socialism, I am a socialist.
If providing students with free education and enrollment rights in all public colleges and universities is socialism, I am a socialist.
We are going through a political period in which we intend to make disappear what this country has always been since its founding: a democratic leader and a hope for everyone. We must fight for what we believe in and must defend our country, which is the most durable and stable democracy in the world.
Manuel is originally from Spain and is also an American citizen, currently based in Granada, Spain. He worked for several years in California as a linotype operator in the Chronicle, The Examiner, The San Mateo Times, The Independent Journal of San Rafael, as well as in several commercial printers. He is retired and likes to spend time with his family and write in his own language.
