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Biden to the Rescue with The American Rescue Plan

After an unprecedented 2020 election season that threatened the very foundations of our democracy, President Joseph R. Biden has promised a transformative agenda for his first 100 days in office. The importance of “the first 100 days” goes back to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s, where Roosevelt’s ambitious agenda established the first 100 days as a key metric of evaluating a president’s success.  However, few have lived up to their promises of what they planned to do in their first 100 days. Within his own first 100 days, Roosevelt drove 15 bills through Congress, reconstructed our country’s agricultural and financial sectors, focused on unemployment relief, and helped foster economic recovery following the Great Depression. Now in the second month of his presidency, President Biden has been racing to enact new legislation trying to contend with the COVID-19 pandemic, national economic recovery, a global climate crisis, a national reckoning with social injustice, and an unbelievably divided Congress.

On January 20, 2021, the day President Biden took the oath of office, he signed an extraordinary number —17 to be exact — of executive actions. Of these, 15 were actions to reverse former President Trump’s policies. Following this hailstorm of executive orders, Biden greatly strengthened protocols for preventing the spread of COVID-19, starting with a mask mandate on all federal property and a coordinated federal COVID-19 response. In terms of global changes, the United States, under President Biden’s lead, has already rejoined the World Health Organization as well as the Paris Climate Accords. These moves are in stark contrast to Trump’s “America first” foreign policy, checking off another box in terms of returning the United States to our former position as a world leader on the international stage. 

The cornerstone of Biden’s initial legislative agenda is his American Rescue Plan, which the Senate passed on March 6, 2021, by a vote of 50 to 49. All Democratic senators voted yes, all Republican senators voted no, despite support from 59% of Americans identifying as Republican. With support from 77% of Americans overall, this plan is one of history’s most popular pieces of legislation. Despite support from their constituents, Congressional Republicans vowed to stall this legislation, taking a standard Republican stance against a government role in regulating business, providing an economic social safety net, and encouraging the growth of infrastructure. Despite voting for a similar bill under former President Trump, Republican lawmakers have used their vote on this bill to directly oppose President Biden’s agenda.  Although the bill has yet to pass the House, fortunately for the American people, its passage is now considered imminent. 

Through the plan, millions of low and middle-income Americans will receive $1400 stimulus checks. In addition, families will receive support through child tax benefits, higher unemployment payments for unemployed workers, and the authorization of many additional programs to facilitate a quick recovery from the intense recession caused by the COVID-19 crisis. The effects of the American Rescue Plan are far-reaching, including pandemic relief for unemployed Americans and direct payments to qualifying Americans, funds which have the potential to cut child poverty in half.  

As such, the American Rescue Plan is a game-changer for both Joe Biden’s presidency and the American government. This plan gives the Biden Administration the chance to reestablish the pattern and expectation of government as a force for good and positive change in the average American’s life. For almost 50 years since the rise of Ronald Reagan, government has been seen as the problem, not the solution. However, the tremendous crisis caused by COVID-19 has provided this administration an opportunity for the government to step forward as a force for reform and to unify an intensely divided country. Joe Biden’s presidency has already been scrutinized for actions that both please and displease voters, but the American Rescue Plan gives President Biden a chance to define his presidency through his dedication to help the average American. 

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Can We Still Call Ourselves a Democracy?

Today, we should have been observing a transition of power as Congress prepared to certify the results of the December 14, 2020 vote by the Electoral College, electing Joe Biden as president. Today, we should have been acknowledging the progress our country has made by electing Georgia’s first Jewish and Black senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. The real victory for America would not have been who won or lost, but a peaceful transition of power from one set of leaders to another, keeping with a history of more than two centuries. The fact that we could not do this — that we could not have this transition of power — is a tragic failure of the American system. It is possible that the United States of America is no longer a democracy; this behavior is bordering on authoritarianism. The leader of the world’s most powerful nation has frequently engaged in mobilizing domestic terror, and today is no exception. Today, we think back to Donald Trump’s tweets of “Liberate Michigan,” “Liberate Virginia,” and the kidnapping of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer by conservative extremists angry with the governor over her coronavirus policies. Donald Trump has been the ringleader of the mob that is currently assaulting our United States Capitol building and democracy. During the presidential debates of 2020, Trump was unable to unequivocally condemn white supremacists on national TV, and today, he signs his tweets aimed at the violent rioters with “thank you!,” and “WE LOVE YOU.” For a president claiming to be the leader of the “party of law and order,” things sure seem to be out of control in Washington D.C. 

The Republican party has undergone a complete transformation over the last four years, with recent events snowballing into the complete separation and the creation of the Trump-Republican party. What started as one wealthy man campaigning for president in 2016 has morphed into supposedly-democratic leaders advocating the undermining of our democratic systems and the fueling of false conspiracies about voter fraud four years later. Donald Trump’s actions today are not surprising, as two months after the November 2020 general election, the president still has refused to concede or congratulate president-elect Joe Biden. Now claiming that the election results for Ossoff and Warnock are fraudulent, Trump and his supporters clearly have no boundaries of what they are willing to do to stay in power. Shots have been fired into our Capitol as our lawmakers hunker under their desks praying for their lives. Today, our country inches further and further away from the confines of a true democracy. 

President-elect Joe Biden addressed the nation today, demanding that President Trump end the “siege.” The New York Times and Washington Post, among other news outlets, has gone from calling the Trump supporters in D.C. “protesters” to calling them a “mob.” This full-fledged spectacle of mob mentality is obnoxiously characteristic of the new political party that has been created over the last four years.

 Activists are furious with the clear show of white privilege – white cops posted pictures with the rioters, not condemning their actions, but letting them continue to storm the Capitol building; if these protestors were people of color, the police would not be so inclined to hold their fire. Activists point to how the Black Lives Matter protests were treated by Conservatives and Trump supporters. Our democracy is crumbling before our eyes. Our lawmakers are in peril. Our so-called president is thanking the mob for its support. What will it take to get us to walk back from mob rule to democracy?

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Revisiting The Hate You Give – How and Why I Read this Book Differently than in 2016

As a freshman in high school, I went to see The Hate U Give in the theater with my family over fall break. I was so passionate and fired up about the film that I spent days talking about it with my family, and I decided to start my own blog. The Hate U Give was the topic of my first post. Since then, I’ve gone through four years of high school, developed my college and career interests, and lived through one of the most controversial presidential terms and elections in history. Today, in 2020, I have watched and been a part of one of the most influential civil rights protests of my generation, the Black Lives Matter movement. The words I wrote as a freshman in high school could be published today in the New York Times, and my call to action would not have changed—but the list of victims of police brutality and systematic racism continues to grow. 

Now I’m a senior in high school, and in my AP Literature and Composition class, we are reading this novel and analyzing recent police shootings to connect these events to themes in the book. It is my second read of The Hate U Give. As a white teenager living in Southern California, I will never identify personally with the experiences of author Angie Thomas’s main character, a Black teenageer named Starr Carter. However, what makes Thomas’s book so difficult yet compelling to read is that she blurs the lines of race. 

In The Hate U Give, victim Khalil Harris was shot on the side of the road by a white police officer. Starr spends the novel wrestling with an identity crisis; she was born and lives in Garden Heights yet attends a white prep school 40 minutes away. Starr struggles with the idea of speaking out and defending her Black community, as she has allegiances to both sides. Starr deals with justification from white news media, white classmates, and police officers, and while Khalil was indeed a drug dealer, the question Thomas is asking her readers to think about is did he deserve to die? Thomas writes white characters that are stereotypically racist. But she also draws a picture of whites who are allies to the Black community.My rereading of this book and my differing responses over time show me just how much the presidency of Donald Trump, the polarization caused by current politics, and BLM have affected my perception of life in our country. Black Lives Matter forces us to confront systemic injustices within our country. Black Lives Matter forces us to realize how much all people in America need to think about perspectives other than their own. Looking at this issue through Starr’s eyes humanizes someone stereotyped within the Black community. When I wrote about this novel the first time, I wanted to make a point of understanding new perspectives other than my own. As I write about it again, I want to draw attention to how drastically different our political climate is. This post is more than saying Black Lives Matter. What Thomas does with her characters is introduce readers, particularly white readers, to the experiences of Blacks living in America – to the systemic injustices inherent within our system.. The Black experience in America is different from the experiences of other Americans, and it is time our politicians join with the rest of the country in changing systemic injustices that have persisted throughout the last few centuries. A Black professor at American University recently told me that in order to walk in someone else’s shoes, you have to first take off your own. The Hate U Give offers readers an opportunity to truly set aside political biases and talk a walk in the shoes of a Black teenage girl.

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And the Winner Is…

https://www.ipp-journal.org/blog/and-the-winner-is

Check out my post discussing the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize winner and the correlation between conflict and hunger in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Public Policy!

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RBG and the Power of Resilience

https://www.ipp-journal.org/blog/rbg-and-the-power-of-resilience

Check out my post commemorating RBG and calling voters to action published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Public Policy!

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Vote Like Your School Depends on It

I attended my first drive-in movie theater the other day. Who knew those still existed? As I seek extraneous activities to keep me sane during quarantine, I continue to reflect on both past and present events of this pandemic. In March I thought I’d be back in school by April. Then it was May. Then junior year was over. Now I feel as if senior year were gone too. As the milestones of my high school career continue to slip out from under my feet like a pulled rug, and as I read about lives lost to this virus, I can’t but help feel angry, depressed, dumbfounded. And yet I still have friends who continue to socialize, who don’t wear masks, practices both shocking and defeating. 

With this context as my background, I decided to take a summer class in international relations (IR). I had to write a paper on an international issue about which I was passionate, and  I chose understanding climate change deniers. I researched and read and wrote pages about understanding cultural factors that eventually lead a person to deny science and facts. Psychological factors, like choosing to read only “evidence” that corroborates our own beliefs and defending our personal backgrounds and beliefs at all costs, lead to the polarization we see in today’s political scheme. Interestingly, the same principles apply to public thinking about this virus. Only in this situation, the climate change deniers are those who refuse to wear masks. 

The United States was the country most prepared to handle a pandemic – we had the science, the forethought, the observations of viral outbreaks elsewhere, such as SARS, Ebola, and the Zika virus. But here’s the crucial difference between now and then: we took those viruses seriously. According to the Global Health Security Index, published 45 days before the world’s first suspected COVID-19 case, the US ranked first in preparedness to handle a serious outbreak. Clearly, the situation didn’t unfold as planned, for this index did not account for the extremely polarized political climate that exists currently within the United States. In 2016, the Obama administration urged the incoming Trump administration to examine preparations for a potentially devastating pandemic. Trump’s response in May 2018 was to, according to Time Magazine, “shut down a White House office devoted to pandemic preparedness that President Obama set up after the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic.” 

Since the American Revolution, Americans have had this sense of “American exceptionalism.” This idea encompasses beliefs that America is the best country and that nothing bad will happen here. However, while events like 9/11 and now the coronavirus pandemic challenge this assumption, today’s violently divisive political climate, led by President Trump’s America First Agenda, has stalled a sane response. And we continue to see rallies of irrational protest from Americans who refuse to believe in scientific facts and raise their voices to exercise their right to not wear a mask.

As a teenager living in California, currently a COVID hotspot, I reflect on the lessons from my IR class and how we might do so much better if we learned from other countries, and if we worked together. Rather than feeling hopeless or embarrassed as I watch news stories of irrational mass gatherings for Trump rallies or parties, all attendees sans masks, I look at the social media posts of my international friends, now hanging out with friends and going inside restaurants. I read about Chinese kids who are already back in school in an ingenious modified environment, and I watch people on television in Denmark back at work. What did other countries do so well that my country just can’t seem to grasp? Two pretty simple things: their leaders took the pandemic seriously, and they understand the necessity of testing and contact tracing. As other countries figure out innovative ways to work around this challenge, my country gets ready to lockdown again. 

It seems several of my blog posts here end with me preaching about the importance of voting. This post will be no different. I’ve been frequently asked by the adults in my life what classes I will be taking during my senior year. A varsity tennis athlete last year, many ask if I will continue with my athletics. My answer: it depends on who is elected in November. As of now, all fall sports have been moved to spring, and there’s an idea that we might go back in January to in the classroom learning. But I don’t have hope. Not unless our country makes a real change to prioritize the lives of its citizens. The 2020 November election will determine what are supposed to be the most fun, exciting, and interesting years of my life. So, America, put on your masks, socially distance, and VOTE!

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Period 10

If you’ve ever sat in an AP United States History class, you’re very familiar with the time periods: Periods 1-9, the time periods that define United States history as we know it, from the discovery of the Americas through Reagan Conservatism and the 1990s. These time periods, characterized by key words and phrases, give the historian a window to look through to see, analyze, and learn from past events. Example periods include: Period 4: the era leading up to the Civil War, an era plagued by sectionalism; Period 6: the Gilded Age, the age of titans of industry and inequality; or Period 7: the Progressive Era, the age of change and well, progress. And if you are familiar with this schema, you will also recognize the question posed by all history teachers, “What do we call our era? What is Period 10?” 

I propose that Time Period 10 is Innovation and Inequality, a period defined by two opposing developments. Period 10 encompasses the rapid technological success fostered by the rise of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, sophisticated medical care, the rise of social media, and increased globalization. However, at the same time that our society has progressed so much, we’ve left so many behind. While Time Period 10 encompasses progress and technology, it also has to reckon with the extreme poverty, inequality, and divisiveness that have been left behind in the shadow of all of this progress. 

The decades following WWII were full of technological experimentation, eventually leading to the first internet connection running from UCLA to Stanford University. However, this technological boom came with extreme socioeconomic consequences. The creation of smart industry along the coasts slowly created a divide within our country, leaving a group of mostly less educated, less upwardly mobile Americans in the middle of the country. Representing innovation, opportunity, and success, smart cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and New York City cultivated a city-centric culture, fostering man-made urban geography patterns such as white flight and urban sprawl. The middle of the country lagged at a lower education level as smart cities continued to boom and flourish. As a result, the scientific advances that inadvertently divided our country have widened a cultural divide and fostered partisanship. These regional divides have not only led to inequality regarding technology but also created a political environment driven by nationalism and marked by anti-elitism, anti-immigrant sentiment, racism, an uptick in hate crimes, and a widening of the poverty gap.

Yet the difference between 2020 and the decades following WWII is young people. We have drive. We have passion. We have anger. We have a voice. The youth characterize Period 10. With the benefits of technology and innovation, within seconds young people have posted their opinions and spread information. Within days, passionate young leaders have organized mass protests to protest police brutality. Within weeks, Greta Thunberg had the globe’s attention as she spoke to the United Nations about the necessity of acting now to subvert climate change. And Emma Gonzales and her peers rapidly rallied a nation around gun violence prevention. Through these social media campaigns, through technology and innovation, young people have had a voice. But we need to look back at history and realize a voice through social media is not enough. Although most of us are yet too young to vote, we need to recognize the importance of our future vote. During the founding of our country, when the first two-party system was being developed, voting qualifications were put in place to keep the “common, uneducated man” from “interfering” with our nation’s political systems. For years this system endured, until Andrew Jackson and Jacksonian Democracy arrived, revolutionizing how our country sees voting. By 2016, however, this right to vote was taken for granted. Many young people who could vote may have shared their thoughts through social media, but didn’t exercise that right to vote and now realize the significance of standing silent. As we turn to the election of 2020, young voters must decide, in the face of racism, poverty, climate change, and now coronavirus, to vote and demand a change. 

So as we continue to define Period 10, the period of innovation and inequality, we need to recognize that as new horizons of nuclear energy, military drones, and the next iPhone continue to develop, the political divide in our country will continue to grow, magnifying inequality. Quoting one of my favorite movies, The Hate U Give, “It’s the same story but a different name.” While this quote references the tragic killing of a black teenager by a white police officer, remarkably fitting for this time as we see the BLM movement unfold, this quote also represents the bigger picture of current American culture and politics. We have a history of anti-immigrant sentiment in this country which remains. We have a history of extreme sectionalism and racism which remains. We have extremes of inequality and partisanship that persist. As we recognize these tragedies of Period 10, we need to realize that the fate of Time Period 11 is resting in the sweaty hands of passionate, determined, driven young people. We need to vote for lasting change. 

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How much is fifteen seconds of fame worth?

Growing up, my role models included my mother, Michelle Obama, and Aly Raisman, women I look up to because of their work ethic and amazing achievements. Today, many kids look up to Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae, two of the app Tik Tok’s most famous stars, young women who in this case are role models simply because of their fame. Whereas I was taught that achieving my goals required hard work, generally academic, and overcoming challenges, today “influencers” on social media preach to young kids that if they make enough “good content,” they will become famous and be successful financially, very successful. I have spent my years in high school participating in sports, volunteering in my community, and conquering a full advanced placement course load so that I can get into my dream college. Today, kids spend their free time repeatedly making Tik Toks in the hope of going viral and getting signed to a talent agency, yet another example of America’s worship of celebrity culture. This phenomenon is not new; America has been dealing with a warped celebrity culture for years. The Kardashians are famous based off a reality show where they exploit and put each other down. Paris Hilton is an international celebrity solely based on her wealth. Donald Trump gained his fame and notoriety through a reality television show,“The Apprentice,” and now as president he has the platform to spew incorrect “facts” that continue to rivet the media. Being young, beautiful, able to push out your image, and on your way to or already rich, are suddenly criteria for social importance.  These social media stars  are famous for being famous, a phenomenon social media apps, such as Instagram and Tik Tok, have amplified. 

Around the world, 800 million people have downloaded the Tik Tok app. Instagram has one billion active users. According to Statista, the average American spends 2 hours and 3 minutes on social media per day. As a Tik Tok and Instagram user myself, I am not saying social media is the root of all evils. Many medical professionals are using social media apps like Tik Tok to put out credible information about the coronavirus during this pandemic. Social media has also provided a great outlet for people to stay in touch during quarantine and to develop their creative talents. However, as I have grown up during the age of technology, I have noticed a significant difference between what made someone impressive when I was in elementary school versus what makes someone noteworthy today. As an elementary schooler, the people on the news were doctors, politicians, and famous athletes. You were considered impressive by the kind of degree you had, or the tier of college you attended. Today, your value is measured based on how many followers and views you have. It is based on how many likes you have accumulated on your platform, or how many viral videos you have produced. 

Tik Tok has created a culture where it is cool to drop out of college to become an influencer. Ten years ago, being an influencer wasn’t a job that existed. Now, kids are putting out content on their social media accounts, begging for followers, so they can prove to their families they can be influencers and circumvent college altogether on a fast track to success. On Tik Tok, I see multiple viral videos of kids asking for viewers to help them hit a certain number of views so they will hit that new benchmark of fame and success. Addison Rae, one of the most successful individuals on the platform with 36.3 million followers, stated in a James Charles video that she “resigned” from LSU to pursue her Tik Tok career. Tik Tok Star Charli D’Amelio has 51.3 million followers, more than the entire population of California. Based off of her popularity, D’Amelio has hinted on her accounts and the Ellen Show that deals for a reality television show and going on tour may be in the works. Going on tour for what exactly? During quarantine due to coronavirus, our social media use has only increased, and each day the message is pushed out to more impressionable kids that they should trade their as yet hazy career goals for instafame, living with a collective of influencers like Tik Toks “Hype House” or “Sway House.” Honestly, I love making Tik Toks because I enjoy dancing and it is fun – I consider it my fifteen seconds of fame, but the idea that our culture is undergoing a shift exacerbated by this quarantine, where we now value influencing over education, is an idea we should reject. Tik Toks and their creators should stay as they started out as fun ways to pass the time with friends and not a replacement for hard work, academic rigor, and a college education.

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Indisputably Essential

According to Miriam Webster’s Dictionary, the definition of essential is “of the utmost importance: basic, indispensable, necessary.” Three months ago, I thought going to the movies was essential. Going to the mall seemed essential. My weekends away from schoolwork were essential. The experience of being quarantined has made me realize it wasn’t the movie release that was so necessary, and it wasn’t the shoes I wanted at the mall that were essential. What was essential was spending time with my friends. It was time with my family on vacation experiencing new adventures together outside of our house. The coronavirus has forced us all to reconsider what is really “essential.” 

While it is for the good of our local community and the world that we stay quarantined to stop this virus from spreading, it is important to consider the effect on our civil liberties. It is now against the law to gather in large groups in public spaces. More than 200 million people across America are under stay-in-place orders. Our lives have been turned upside down to accommodate this new normal. We sit on our couches watching the progression of disease even as new public health ordinances are rolled out, crossing off the list more and more places we can’t go to do what used to be our normal daily activities. As we reflect on these compromises for the good of our neighbors and our friends, we should give careful thought to which of those activities cannot be compromised. And perhaps our local and federal officials can do the same.  Clearly food services should make the cut. Medical facilities should make the cut. But what about gun stores? What about churches? 

 Gun owners argue that they “want to protect their family in case things go the other way” (NPR). While this argument may have some validity during pre-COVID times, the idea that a gun will protect you from an airborne virus is not only illogical, but it is also ignorant and misleading. Since the outbreak, gun and ammunition sales have dramatically increased with panic driven purchases, with advocates using the second amendment as justification. The right to bear arms is not the right to buy arms. 

According to National Public Radio (NPR), the Los Angeles County sheriff has ordered gun shops in the county to close twice now. The decision of whether to leave gun shops open is determined by county, not state, officials, leading to a variety of decisions all over the country. Groups like the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the National Rifle Association are working with the Trump administration to “make sure firearm manufacturers do not experience a disruption during the pandemic” (NPR). While some make the argument that if gun stores close, a pandemic-inspired growing panic to purchase firearms may lead to a backlog in the background checks system and a new population of uneducated, untrained gun owners, this doomsday forecast has not come to be. Drug arrests in Chicago have dropped 42% in the last few weeks since the city shut down. The rate of key crimes in Los Angeles has dropped 30% since March 15. In New York City, one of the hardest hit epicenters of coronavirus, crime has decreased by  double digits. While outside crime has been decreasing, the rate of domestic violence, however, has been skyrocketing (Forbes). Purchasing a gun counters every public health official’s orders to stay at home. While living during a time where each day is a new unknown provokes fear and uncertainty, purchasing a gun will not stop this pandemic and may raise the level of danger in domestic violence exponentially. Guns are not an essential business. And why should our government protect the firearm industry when the rest of the nation is struggling to put food on the table.  The New York Times reports that in the last 3 weeks more than 16 million Americans have been put out of work. Where’s the relief for them?

Amidst debates about firearm stores being essential businesses, new debates have arisen regarding churches, synagogues, and mosques. In Kansas, legislation dictates that people stay at home, except “going to church, buying or selling guns or running a childcare center” (US News). We all understand it’s difficult to have your life interrupted for a virus. We all understand what it’s like to miss activities you used to do. But what has always been essential for some (spiritual life) may be done differently for the greater good. A virtual spiritual community has the potential to offer religious support, education, and community while still saving lives. Both are essential.

Within the last month, our cities, counties, states, and nations have had to debate what we consider essential. We need to urge each other to stay home, to connect virtually, and to go out only for truly essential reasons. We need to urge our elected officials, particularly as the presidential election approaches, to continue to ask these same questions and to make difficult decisions that are nonpartisan and focused on our health and safety.  All of our lives may depend on it.