Category Archives: ADR Advisors

American Diversity Report Team: ADR Advisors

Politics, Supreme Court and Decisions 2024 – by Marc Brenman

Very recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that only Congress could keep anyone off a ballot due to “[engagement] in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The Colorado Supreme Court had kept Donald Trump off the state’s ballot because of his participation in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The Court was silent on whether Trump has committed insurrection or not. Allegedly, the Court’s 9-0 decision was due to its fear that political chaos could result if it ruled in Colorado’s favor.

This judicial philosophy is know as consequentialism, making decisions based on the anticipated consequences of the decision. Other major ways of making decisions include stare decisis, depending on previous decisions; strict constructionism, depending on the plain black letter words of Congress and the Founding Fathers; and Originalism, depending on the intent of the Founding Fathers and authors of the Constitution.

The current conservative majority of the Supreme Court has pretended to be Strict Constructionists and Originalists. They showed this tendency for example, in the anti-abortion decision, where they noted that a right to abortion is nowhere found in the Constitution. They shoved the decision off to the states to make. But wait! Secretaries of the states have always made the decision as to who would be allowed on ballots. So the current Court is at a minimum inconsistent, if not hypocritical. Another example of them straying from their beliefs is their decisions on gun control. Here they ignore the plain, original language of the Constitution, which prefaces a right to bear arms with the phrase “a well-regulated militia.” Clearly, no individual acting on his own is a well-regulated militia or a militia of any kind.

If one thinks along the consequentialist lines of the current Supreme Court, where does one end up? The next shoe to drop will be the Court’s decision on Trump’s desired immunity from prosecution. If the Court rules that he is immune, they are giving up American democracy and creating the probability of an American emperor. If the conservative majority rules this way, they will have ignored what President George Washington tried to teach us when he refused to become king.

American democracy has been a mixed bag; we’ve had only about about 140 years without slavery, 100 years of women’s rights, about 80 years of Asian-American rights, about 50 years of children who don’t speak English being able to get a public education, and less than 50 years of disability rights and environmental justice. Even those timelines were sullied by Jim Crow, segregation, redlining, domestic violence, discrimination, and inadequate enforcement of civil rights laws. It was a noble experiment, now ready to be handed back to white male nondisabled suprematists who have nostalgia for slavery and declared War on Women. Trump and his American Nazis are ready to declare victory. About 38 to 48% of the American electorate are ready to surrender their human rights to achieve their view of economic prosperity. This is similar to the Peoples Republic of China, and includes about 52% of white women, half of people with disabilities who vote Republican, and even a substantial minority of African-Americans and Hispanics, all voting against their self-interest.

There seems to be no remedy for masses of people who desire to harm themselves. Undocumented people coming across the southern border have tried to save us from ourselves. Their criminal conviction rate is about 45% below that of native‐born Americans in Texas. But maybe Texas is an aberration. On the other hand, these undocumented people have been growing our food, caring for our children, fixing our roofs, mowing our lawns, and generally doing all the hard work we’ve gotten too lazy to do.

Meanwhile, Democratic congresspeople and mayors in Michigan and senators from Maryland and Virginia are focusing on issues a third of a world away in Palestine instead of serving their constituents. For example, 47% of Cong. Tlaib’s constituents are Black, who have no stake whatsoever in the Middle East, but have many domestic challenges and needs. There must be some middle ground. But as the saying goes, if you see a turtle on its back on a fencepost, it didn’t get there by itself…

Is it just another day on the internet? – by Deborah Levine

(originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press)

My first reaction to the hacking attempts on my website was to wonder about the motivation behind it. Were the multiple failed login attempts related to the emails I just sent out  announcing an upcoming event about “Serving our Diverse Communities”? The event’s purpose is to highlight and honor those who serve and have them share their expertise. So, given its diversity element, could the motivation behind these attempts to mess with the back end of my website be at least partly political? 

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Governor “King on Steroids” Mark Robinson – by Terry Howard

 

on steroids“Martin Luther King on steroids!”

Huh? Did I hear that right? No wait. Maybe it was a buildup of wax in my ears. Did I see that right? Or perhaps it was a coffee smudge on my eyeglasses. 

But no, as much as I’d like to blame it on my lying eyes or deceitful ears, I heard and read that right. Those were the exact words from the mouth of former president Trump in endorsing Republican Mark Robinson for governor of North Carolina. But he didn’t leave it at that – “I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you’re Martin Luther King times two.”

Okay readers, calm down and take a deep breath. We’ll get through this. I promise.

Continue reading Governor “King on Steroids” Mark Robinson – by Terry Howard

Sisterhood for Women’s History Month – by Deborah Levine

Is Women’s History Month still relevant today? Is the need for sisterhood activism over as some say? We look back at the first group to advocate for women’s right to vote nationally and see that it was ultimately successful. The Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention was held long ago in1848. But the words of its organizer Elizabeth Cady Stanton still hold true and yet are still controversial, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”

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Diversity and Speech Part 44: Generations of Gender Talk – by Carlos Cortés

Keeping up with the ongoing changes in diversity language has become a matter of lifelong learning.  For a near-nonagenarian  (I turn 90 on April 6), this means continuous learning as well as relentless unlearning.  That is, trying to unlearn old uses of language that decades of repetition have deeply wired into my brain.

Take gender.  Growing up in 1940’s Kansas City, Missouri, I learned that men were men and women were women.  I inhabited a world of man talk and woman talk, men’s jobs and women’s jobs, men’s clothes and women’s clothes.  It wasn’t much different in college during the 1950’s.   We were men and women, not cisgender or transgender men and women. 

Continue reading Diversity and Speech Part 44: Generations of Gender Talk – by Carlos Cortés

Why not a “Sully” Sullenberger for President? – by Terry Howard

Some voters are burned out on outrage!” 

That’s the recent headline in a national publication. That outrage? The eyebrow raising rancor, silliness and general awfulness surrounding the upcoming presidential election.

And the truth is that if we strike out the first four letters in the word “outrage” what’s left are three letters many voters are particularly burned out on…. age…as in President Joe Biden’s age! Count yours truly among them. Shucks, if I had a dollar for every time Biden’s age is cited in the news, I could purchase a luxurious mansion in Miami, Malibu (or, eh, Mar-a-Lago). 

Continue reading Why not a “Sully” Sullenberger for President? – by Terry Howard

Know history so it will not have to repeat – By Deborah Levine

Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press

I thought of this saying on Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day: “History repeats itself. So you might wanna pay attention.” A comment from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum resonated with me: “As we are witnessing an alarming rise of antisemitism around the globe, it is more important than ever for us to recognize the critical lessons of Holocaust history as we commemorate the victims and honor the survivors.” At the same time, there is growing noise about the “Holocaust Industry,” which asserts the American Jewish establishment exploits the memory of the Nazi Holocaust for political and financial gain and to further Israeli interests.

Continue reading Know history so it will not have to repeat – By Deborah Levine

COVID Extremists Unite – by Deborah Levine

Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press

I freaked when I saw this article online, “The Covid extremists can’t bear that nobody is listening to them”. I’d just recovered from Covid and then, something called Covid Rebound. Having escaped Covid for years, and been thoroughly vaccinated, I thought I was safe. I complained to my daughter, the doctor. After briefly expressing sympathy, she said, “You’re old! Be grateful for those vaccinations. Otherwise you could be dead.” 

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STEM Women Storytellers – by Deborah Levine

Women GroundBreakers Storytelling

The push to attract women to STEM education and careers is gaining steam, but the impact is questionable. Young women have ample cause to be discouraged given the decrease of the number of women professionals in many STEM fields. Bucking the trend, efforts to encourage women to embrace STEM have increased dramatically. Those efforts span the country, including in Tennessee where Chattanooga’s Women GroundBreakers Storytelling featuring women in STEM.

Continue reading STEM Women Storytellers – by Deborah Levine

Hate and the cost of silence – by Deborah Levine

Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press

Many quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr. were posted on line this week. A fellow Chattanooga colleague got my attention with, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”  Then I got an email from a synagogue buddy asking me why Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) was being silenced and suggested that I write about this for my TFP column. Interesting coincidence! But I was busy mailing a DEI book that I’d written. Holding the book in one hand, I picked up an unmarked envelope mailer only to find that there was something already in it. And that’s when coincidence became weirdness. 

Continue reading Hate and the cost of silence – by Deborah Levine