A bed-ridden hacker is bound to cough

I woke up November 9, 2016 to see my visibly upset wife. I never shed a tear for Clinton's loss and its consequence. I was informed that many did. The nation was not doomed to failure, to a dark age. It was no doubt in peril, but I maintained a cautious optimism, always seeing the glass as half full. The Democrats would rise again, and they did.

A glib hot head of a man, trash-talking his opponents with school-yard appellations, an ego the size of Rushmore, no problem there. Was that presidential material? Okay, so this old grifter, this proven fraud with countless lawsuits pending, earned the right to be on a debate stage by the numbers, if nothing else. This, most inexperienced, incurious, incompetent, Manchurian candidate earned the right to flank some dangerous but competent senators (and an embarrassingly out-of-place doctor) on a debate stage.

Evidently, amazingly to his staff and the candidate himself, he won state after state to secure the Republican nomination. I think this was a man, a Manchurian real-estate mogul and celebrity, who was steam-rolled to the White House. Since the early 1980s, Putin groomed him as a “useful idiot.” He was filleted, played, tagged to be a willing pawn, manipulable cat-nip in Russia's aim to ruin the world for Democracy that is unfolding as I write.

The Manchurian idiot circles his presidential opponent like a vulture, or a dog who has caught his tail and has no idea what to do. He babbles incoherently as a polished debater serves him facts to which he has only glib answers. The Russians interfering in our election: “It could have been China, it could have been a 400-pound man in a bed.” And let's not forget the puppet debate, tossed like a volleyball. He is smart because he found a way to legally stiff the IRS; this is presidential timber? At times I got the feeling even the Manchurian candidate sensed he was in over his head, stuck, strapped to a run-away train speeding from Red Square to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

He won and became the most bastardized POTUS in history. Democracy, the middle-class, the true American spirit, are fighting (and frugally winning) for life. After watching dignity, civil liberties, parks, the environment, humanity, compassion, race tolerance, the constitution's basic precepts erode for the past two years, an idea for a book came to me one night. What culminated in the title To The Front of the Bus was an exercise, a knee-jerk response, a compromise, in a movement toward a fair Democracy.

The book recounts what is and has been the tapestry of America and its tempestuous relationship with basic civil liberties. The man who currently claims to be a legitimate POTUS emboldens some predecessors' illegal acts. From Nixon to Reagan to Bush II, the door for Democracy to be overruled was with each opened a little wider. The latter day LBJ, with Vietnam, began a trend that exponentially normalized the accessibility for the government to engage in deceitful and duplicitous behavior. This book comes as a reminder, a reflection, a contemptuous song for the ages, of what America was, has struggled to be, and might one day reach.

Following History's Rules (to win)

Anger, heartbreak, frustration, indignation. These are the emotions trapped in oscillation as I watch the very real news. Add disgust and embarrassment for good measure. I am embarrassed to live in a government that would allow such a hollow, racist, mean-spirited, megalomaniac to even have a shot at being the leader of a professed Democracy. The left is handling it as best they can, although I am not sure how much control they initially had over the situation in 2015. I see the potential for the worst re-visited events of history happening, coming haltingly to light. But they are for the most part at the end of the tunnel. I listen to my father, a German-Jew who escaped to America with his parents in 1939, tell me of the similarities, of the slow-burning away of Jewish rights that amounted to the Holocaust. To me, it is unimaginable. To him though, it must me all too real. He was an eyewitness to its tempered progression, beginning with Jews' exclusion from society and ending with Kristallnacht. With the recent ICE raids, and certainly with the call for active military not American born to leave, as much has happened. I must agree that all the ingredients for a Holocaust, or at least forced removal of an ethnic group are there. But I also tend to think there is some bias in my father, a proud and politically active citizen of these United States since 1945. A smaller part of me says it is foolish to doubt him, the rest says he is exaggerating things, and in a Democracy we will always have a fighting chance, always have an impartial day in a court, however appellate it is. And, I am pleased to say, so far this administration has been on the losing end of many issues, beginning with the poorly executed Muslim ban.

To the Front of the Bus: Movement toward a Fair Democracy began as a knee-jerk reaction to this administration. Its words, I hope, echo from where we've come as a nation, the tremendous hurdles minority groups have overcome in the courts and on the streets. I take great care, as did the likes of Truman and King, in tendering narratives that went toward a fair Democracy. I looked back at what I'd written with an overwhelming sense of pride, not for my writing, or the way I chose to tell it, but for the people involved; the Quakers, the abolitionists, the African-Americans, the women, presidents who chose to be on the right side of history, and the disabled who finally saw their chance for civil rights and took it. It was a pride in a democratic system at work, one that struck down unconstitutional state rulings, allowed federal enforcement of laws when needed, one that yielded acts and amendments that could be challenged even 50 years down the road. Back before real time could be altered, when all that was available to citizens was a court, a first amendment right and newsprint. When politicians had values, certain constants that were not blurred by the homogenizing effects of wire taps, and later, tweets. In To the Front of the Bus I briefly turn attention to the corruption of politics, the point in time where I feel warping doors were inconspicuously being planed down to be opened enough to let in someone with the vitriol and political ignorance, the obvious malicious intentions of Donald J. Trump. I point out the administrations that worked to normalize that sense of callousness, the irresponsibility, the self aggrandizing and lack of accountability.

Writing the book was a learning opportunity for me, with lessons that are applicable today. Democracy is amazing when it works, however it is tedious and painfully slow. When it does not work it is “back to the drawing board,” supplying the momentum to perpetuate itself again, again and again, until it does work. All the street and courtroom battles, protests, non-violent demonstrations I write about were carried out to the letter, honoring the words following WE THE PEOPLE. That's why they worked in the end, when they made it to SCOTUS or even a lower court. The current administration is recalcitrant with regards to constitutional law. They can't be bothered by such trivialities. This is why they lose. Court records are documented and hold up. A lawyer can argue a case and have even 20 year old statements, pronouncements, addendum or verdict to throw in the face of the opposition. I was dismayed at first, thinking “why is this dragging on and on while Trump is violating any number of clauses, getting richer every day.” It must be slow, precise, measured, to have a fair shot at winning in court. It is sometimes frustrating, agonizingly slow, but its the way a Democracy functions best. The victories are worth the effort. That is what I strive to reveal in To the Front of the Bus: Movement toward a Fair Democracy.

Isolating Monuments

“Our western boundary would be the Rio Grande. With such a barrier on our west we are invincible.” These were the words our seventh president (Trump's hero) in 1845 as the annexation of Texas was mulled. In the day's before the Mexican-American War (1846-1848)war was still something America did not see as a casual line of defense. It was not until May of 1846 that President James Polk informed Congress of the invading Mexican troops, of the violence and bloodshed. Congress declared war, as America was attacked, but many Americans were against the decision, seeing Polk's agenda to expand America.

Jackson, who emulated Trump in callous legislation that ignores humanity, spoke the aforementioned words in his final days on the earth. He had thought the natural barrier of a grand river was enough to repel intruders and infidels. The world is constantly changing. The case for the United States is forever in balance, trying to supply—or deny—the demand to enter. In  To the Front of the Bus: Movement toward a fair Democracy, I trace, I show the lineage of how and from where America came to change. I address, in scrupulous detail, why those changes were made and why they were so long in their legal and mindful applications.

Drawing boundaries, securing our nation, defending America for real or heavily exaggerated invaders is uniquely American. Building barriers; walls,fences, along a 2,000 mile border 50 miles at stretch, has become the new American pastime. One small section of America will let any injustice,any immorality, hypocrisy, or human suffering go on as long as a barrier is erected. The other, much larger section of America is trying to keep the barriers down to a minimum, to build physical bridges where they are best fitted. Therein lies the divide. The fuse which has been burning since anyone cares to remember. It's the 1% versus the 99% of America. In James Madison America was divided on the War of 1812, whether it was necessary on just how autonomous from England we wanted to be. The war was, in the words of historian Sam Eliot Morison, “the most unpopular war that this country has ever waged, not seen excepting the Vietnam conflict.” In Jackson's day America was divided. In Polk's day the nation was divided on the motives to wage war against Mexico. By the Civil War, America was questioning its ability to survive as a divided nation. The rest is history slated to repeat itself like a syndicated reality show.

To the Front of the Bus: Movement toward a fair Democracy drives to the root of that mantle of divisiveness,investigates where it all began, and cites the numerous times people have conquered it with or without the law on their side. I start at the embryonic America, the “new world,” the “passage to India” that Columbus stumbled upon. On October 12, 1492 Columbus first landed in the new world, on an island he named San Salvador, claimed for Spain, and set about creating barriers that would set America's course for centuries.

“More than two centuries before America declared independence from Britain, Christopher Columbus landed in what are now the Caribbean Islands. In 1492 he landed, narrowly avoiding mutiny from his crew, in San Salvador. He claimed it for Spain. Initially meeting the natives with a mutual friendly curiosity, Columbus soon exploited and decimated them. He enslaved the people, set fire to their homes, and instigated numerous atrocities. He and his crew introduced diseases on his first voyage to Hispaniola (what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), bringing influenza, smallpox and measles to the Taino people. He rose to power, governing the new properties. By 1503, when he was charged with tyranny, he returned to Spain. Among his dubious achievements was the creation of the transatlantic slave trade.

In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon began Spanish colonization in what is now St. Augustine, Florida. The Spanish invaders experienced minimal resistance from Calusa, Timucua and Apalachee tribes. Leon built settlements and fortifications as far north as the Appalachian Mountains and as far west as Texas. Like Columbus before him, Ponce de Leon, justified by the Inquisition, coerced the tribes into accepting his God. To accomplish this, Leon established missions and churches as far north as South Carolina. By the end of the 1600s, Spanish Florida, particularly St. Augustine, faced failure as a settlement.

Conflicts of interest between the Spanish and the English, with atrocious acts and disease brought by the Europeans, nearly eradicated the indigenous people of Florida, a culture that had thrived for more than twelve thousand years before contact with the Europeans. Scholars have estimated the indigenous population of America prior to the Spanish invasion to have been as high as eighteen million. When the era of English rule began in the early seventeenth century, that estimate had shrunk to six million. When the colonies and territories the Spanish had established fell under English rule there was an exodus, a forced migration of African and Native American slaves south.”

The plundering, violence, decimation, the castigation left by the man America commemorates every October set scales of imbalance for America's destiny. From the slave trade to the movements to bring equal representation to the disabled, equal opportunity and accessibility in transportation, and all the abrogation in between, my book investigates the cause and effects of Columbus' savagery on America. To the Front of the Bus: Movement toward a fair Democracy motivates America. I throw the hurdles in front of the black race, in front of women, ahead of the disabled. I look at how and why they shall, and have overcome.

America in slow motion (to the front of the bus)

Imagine all the bus rides through history. The rides that brought us to today. Okay, bad example. All the rides that brought us to 2016. Even so, had it not been for all those bus rides, bus barriers, people refusing to give up seats on buses, America could not have maintained that distance gained in the current political climate. All these rides, motivations of people, all the willing (and unwilling) transports of people are part of To the Front of the Bus: movement toward a fair Democracy. The “freedom rides” of the early 60s were an early drive to end segregation in the Deep South. Black and white riders took their lives in hand for a cause, an end that impassioned them. Being of mixed race, I had an uneasy feeling on a visit to the Deep South 40 years ago. The South embraces diversity, perhaps only because laws for decades have made them. At the time, white southerners begrudgingly accepted them, at times requiring federal enforcement. Some 70 years later, each generation having become a little more tolerant, the laws were there in their time. They were necessary. Time has let most southerners embrace diversity—one can hope. I point these laws out in my book. I wager them, look at how they've stood in time, how they've opened future doors when litigated, how they've closed a few.

Detours

The bus boycotts in Montgomery, AL were done to desegregate municipal busing. Rosa Parks was one of many women who remained seated in the face of breaking an ordinance. They went to jail, paid court fees and fines, so future generations could sit where they wanted. It is worth noting, though, that economic had something to do with this particular win for Democracy. In the early 60s, blacks made up over 70 percent of the ridership of buses. If that much of your business is lost a company will eventually start losing money. I rarely discuss the motives.

Buses are powerful. They symbolize not just a kinetic force, but a spacial and figurative presence. They have been used as barriers meant to keep people out. In 1970 the youth of America were protesting Nixon's bombing in Cambodia. On May 7, White House advisor Edgil Krogh had the idea to corridor the White House off to the protesters with buses. He said “What's the worst that can happen, they puncture the tires, write graffiti?” If they do look over the buses we'll just “squirt a little tear gas.”

Transportation is vital. As America began to seriously consider the environment in the early 70s, public transportation became important. It needed to be accessible to everyone. On July 5, 1975 the group ADAPT (Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit) staged a protest in Denver. They sat in their wheelchairs forming a human barrier to the movement of the buses. The members attained accessibility on Denver buses.

In the beginning

To the Front of the Bus: movement toward a fair Democracy is about the movements—literal and figurative—of people. It began with the most removed, ingested, but remembered (every October) movement to displace history. Columbus visited a murderous, proselytizing, disease infested on America. They moved Natives off the land. They laid inroads for a hierarchy, inbred a sense of superiority of a class that made things like the Trans-Atlantic slave trade a sustainable activity. Like a clock's pendulum is released, Spain's actions in America set a course for unremitting movement.