America's Big Lie: 'This is not who we are'

by Vernon Williams

The first thing folk want to claim when we find ourselves in the throes of some unfathomable tragedy is, “This is not us. We are better than this.” Well, if Americans really want to ever get a grip on problems plaguing this nation, the first thing required would be to stop living a lie.

Eight senseless killings in three Atlanta spas were followed only four days later by the soulless slaughter of 10 innocent people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Horrendous as those two incidents were alone, the gruesome truth is that they were only two of at least seven mass murders in the U.S. over about a one-week stretch.In Indianapolis, there have been two mass murders since the start of 2021, including one quadruple deadly assault only days before the Atlanta tragedy. An argument over a stimulus check led a 25-year-old man to shoot the mother of his child and kill four of her relatives, the youngest victim being only seven years old.

In Chicago, during the second weekend of March, there were a total of 40 shootings reported and four killed—including 15 shot and two fatalities at one location in the aftermath of an early-morning party in the 6700 block of South Chicago Avenue. The deadly trend this month is nationwide.

https://newpittsburghcourier.com/2021/04/05/americas-big-lie-this-is-not-who-we-are/

Feinstein, 89, has been in the public eye for more than a half-century, notably since she became San Francisco’s leader after the 1978 assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. In recent years, she has faced mounting questions about her mental acuity and her old-school brand of bipartisanship that is viewed as outdated in today’s bitterly divided era. These factors led Democrats to leap into the race to replace her before she announced her intentions — a move that would previously have been considered impolitic.

Rep. Katie Porter, 49, Democrat

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The Iowa native is an attorney and a protégé of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whom Porter met while taking Warren’s bankruptcy law class at Harvard Law School. In 2011, Porter moved to California when she became a law professor at UC Irvine. The following year, then-California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris appointed Porter to be the state’s independent monitor overseeing the state’s share of a $25-billion mortgage settlement with banks.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff, 62, Democrat

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Schiff was born in Massachusetts and moved with his family to Arizona and then California. He was the valedictorian of his 1978 graduating class at Monte Vista High School in Danville high school, where his classmates voted him most likely to succeed. After attending Stanford University and Harvard Law School, Schiff became a federal prosecutor. Among his most prominent cases was prosecuting an FBI agent who became a Russian spy.

Rep. Barbara Lee, 76, Democrat

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Lee has a deep history of political activism, dating back to when she was a college student at Mills College. She worked on the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to hold a seat in Congress, and on Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale’s mayoral race in Oakland the following year.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-02-14/california-senate-candidates-feinstein-porter-schiff-lee-khanna