Congratulations Fellow UC Hastings Alumna Vice President Elect Kamala Harris
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I remember back in the Fall of 2003 when Vice President Elect Kamala Harris was running for her first elected office as San Francisco District Attorney, a position which she won of course. Though we graduated from the University of California Hastings College of Law in different years, Ms. Harris and I shared a common professor there, Jo Carrillo. Prof. Carrillo spoke very positively about Kamala and encouraged me to vote for her in the imminent election. She simultaneously spoke quite strongly about another candidate and former student of hers who was running against Gavin Newsom for Mayor of San Francisco, namely Matt Gonzalez, who later became the running mate of one of my favorite people in the world, Ralph Nader, when Mr. Nader ran for the US Presidency for the 5th time in 2008.
My politics are no secret. I strongly supported Bernie Sanders in this recent Democratic primary as I did in 2016. I am truly happy that Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have been elected to succeed the abomination of the Trump Administration and to bring decency and rational policies back to the office. Given the economic, military, technological, and political power and influence of the USA, our leadership in the world is essential when Climate Change, dictatorships, and the COVID19 pandemic are terrorizing us all. The maniacal and truly evil scourge of the Trump Administration is ended. May our Justice system deal with Trump and his allies just like the proud nation of Greece most recently dealt with the political leaders of the Golden Dawn party.
“The leaders of Greece’s neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn were found guilty Wednesday of forming and running a criminal organization under the cloak of a political party, in a landmark decision hailed as a victory for democracy and human rights. Following a marathon trial lasting five-and-a-half years, an Athens court deemed that crimes by Golden Dawn members including murder, attempted murder, assault and possession of weapons were not the actions of individuals operating on their own initiative. Instead they were directly planned and ordered by a party leadership that employed violence to eradicate perceived enemies. Eighteen former party lawmakers, including leader Nikos Michaloliakos, a holocaust denier who founded Golden Dawn in the 1980s as a neo-Nazi organization, were among those found guilty on Wednesday. Individual sentences are to be announced in the coming days.”
- “Leaders of Greece’s neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn found guilty of running criminal organization”, Elinda Labropoulou, CNN, October 8, 2020.
It is here that I hope that Ms. Harris uses her excellent legal education acquired at UC Hastings, the memorable influence of noble and ethical professors such as Ms. Carrillo, and her experience as a criminal prosecutor to bring the Trump Administration and its cronies to justice! Of course, I deeply hope the Biden-Harris Administration does its absolute best to also help heal the environmental damage to our planet by industrial pollution; to strengthen our Democracy through progressive election reform and by leading the national effort to terminate the Electoral College; to remedy the damage done to the US Supreme Court via both an expansion of the number of sitting justices and setting an 8 year term limit for their service; and to strengthen the government’s protection of the populace by way of expanded public healthcare options, criminal justice reform, and ecologically focused economic revitalization.
To President Elect Joe Biden and Vice President Elect Kamala Harris, I wish the very best of luck in this endeavor! And as a fellow UC Hastings alumnus, Asian American, and longtime former Oakland resident, I say to Kamala: Congratulations, and please do not forget where you came from Sister Kamala. Represent us well please!
