holliswein's blog

One of the highlights of the JAC year is our Washington, DC conference. Women and men from across the country gather for several days of small group meetings on Capitol Hill and policy briefings. This is a unique event that is offered exclusively to our JAC members.  

After much consideration and with heavy hearts, we have decided to cancel this year's conference, which was planned to celebrate JAC's 40th year. 

After nearly four years of a Trump presidency, our country is battered and bruised. Our democracy has been stretched and twisted. We are more divided than ever before. The challenges families face grow on a daily basis. 

This election is less than 270 days away. It offers us a chance to make a change by electing a leader that will heal the wounds and begin to once again build a country that serves as a beacon of freedom and human rights. 

That leader is Joe Biden.

Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) this week once again showed that he is only loyal to the President's personal, political agenda and not the welfare of the country. He took a break from pushing through anti-choice judges to bring to the floor two bills aimed at banning abortion and criminalizing doctors who offer counsel and provide abortion services. 

The U.S. is facing a growing crisis from white supremacy. This form of domestic terrorism is increasingly linked to groups, individuals, or movements abroad. It is a direct threat to the Jewish community as well as other religious and minority groups.

On February 14, 2018, it was a sunny morning, like any other in Parkland, Florida. As the day began, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Students were getting ready for school. Teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were reviewing lesson plans.

Then at 2:21 pm the shooting began. When it was over the nation would mourn another 17 people killed in a school. Life was forever changed in Parkland. Maybe now the country was ready for change too.

"When we're dancing with the angels, the question will be asked ... what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact?" asked the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD).

The 230 members of the House that voted for President Trump's impeachment heeded that call. It was not the politically popular thing to do since many hold seats in districts Trump won in 2016. But it was their moral obligation.

Throughout our nation's history men and women have stood up against great challenges to protect our democracy.

This week marked one year since HR 8, a bill to expand gun background checks, was introduced in the House. At that time, former Rep. Gabby Gifford (D-AZ) joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to unveil the legislation. That date also marked the anniversary of her horrific shooting eight years earlier in Tucson.

Today Gabby's husband, Mark Kelly, is running for the Senate in Arizona against Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ), one of the top recipients of NRA funds.

As we approach a new decade let us evaluate where we came from. At the beginning of this decade we were in the middle of President Barack Obama's first term. We had just passed a major piece of legislation in March 2010, the Affordable Care Act. JAC's issues were safe. Israel was bipartisan, women's health had less attacks, and climate change was real. Laws were being passed in both the Senate and the House.
 

Most students today can't distinguish advertisements from news articles, fake news from actual news, or content posted by partisan groups from content posted by unbiased sources, according to findings from a recent study conducted by Stanford University's Graduate School of Education.

This, coupled with this week's news that 2/3 of our nation's students are not good readers, raises concerns for our nation's future and implications at the ballot box.

The security of our elections has been scrutinized since the 2016 election. It was also a prevalent theme during the House Intelligence Committee's recent impeachment hearing. 

President Donald Trump and the GOP have suggested Ukraine meddled in the 2016 campaign. However, evidence points to the Russians. The fact that we are even discussing two foreign countries meddling in our election is reason for concern.