"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Friday, February 5, 2016

Hillary to Bernie in Last Night's Democratic Debate: "If You Have Something To Say, Say It"

This, to me, was the single most decisive moment in last night's Democratic Presidential debate: Hillary objecting to the innuendo of Bernie Sanders and his campaign, the implication that because she spoke as a former Secretary of State on Wall Street, and received hefty speaking fees for her talks, that she was somehow in Wall Street's pocket.  "If you have something to say, say it," Hillary asked Bernie - by which she meant, if you know of any examples or evidence of my being influenced by Wall Street, of supporting them and the one-percent over the American people, let's hear them.

And, of course, though Bernie made a disparaging sound, he had no examples, because there are none.   And if you think about it, why would there be?   As a professor, I talk in lots of places about social media and their impact.   Sometimes I receive nice fees (not as hefty as Hillary's, but nice, for a professor).  Does this mean I agree with or support the political views of the places where I speak? Hey, I'm a Professor at Fordham University, a great Jesuit university, but that doesn't mean I follow the Church's bidding on all of its views.   Sometimes our views in are in agreement, as in opposition to capital punishment.   Other times they are not.  I am in favor of a women's right to decide what to do with her body, when she becomes pregnant.   The fact that I receive money from Fordham University, make a large part of my living as a professor, does not mean I am an advocate of all of views of the institution which is at its foundation.

By the way, I agree with some of Bernie's views vis-a-vis Clinton's.   Bernie is against capital punishment, as am I.  I also agree with Bernie's call for free higher public education for everyone who wants it.  

But I'm bothered by the "smear" from Bernie's campaign, as Hillary put it, that she's somehow a pawn of the establishment, on their leash, when in fact she's spent a lifetime fighting for the rights of children, women, people who can't afford decent health care, and others who have been victimized by the establishment that both Hillary and Bernie oppose.



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