thenation--2020-10-22--What the Berlin Wall Means to a New Generation

In 1990 , the oil baron and philanthropist Robert Hefner III sent a representative to Germany to purchase a section of the recently dismantled Berlin Wall .
The portion he eventually acquired consists of three panels weighing 8,818 pounds , which stand 12 feet tall and 16 feet wide .
Hefner and his wife , MeiLi , loaned the panels to the University of Virginia in 2014 , where they stand today in a glass display case in the middle of campus .
“ The installation serves as the centerpiece of a year-long celebration of that unforgettable day , November @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kelly in the Fall 2014 edition of the university ’ s arts magazine , “ when the whole world looked on to witness the power of the human spirit to triumph over oppression and to celebrate those unalienable rights which Thomas Jefferson so famously championed and cherished.
” Throughout their 65-minute documentary , The American Sector , Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez interview people at more than 50 segments of the Berlin Wall that have been brought to the United States to commemorate the reunification of Germany and America ’ s victory in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two students stand in front of the installation , but they don ’ t look particularly excited to be there .
“ I am curious about it but not overly impressed , I guess , ” says one of the young women .
“ It ’ s got a piece of history , tied to a piece of history that I don ’ t…as an American know very much about or have much connection to.
” The other student adds , “ I ’ ve always thought it was kind of out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t know of the university ’ s connection to anything with the Berlin Wall , ” before noting the material history of UVA : “ It ’ s built by slaves .
The lawn rooms , which [ are ] considered the highest honor for students to live in , with the highest academic standing , were built by slaves .
The bricks were laid by enslaved laborers ’ hands , and I think that UVA seems to have a lot of issue [ s ] with physically acknowleding its relationship to slavery.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ mythology of their school and , likewise , of their country , refusing to accept the line that Thomas Jefferson “ so famously championed and cherished ” unalienable rights and leading into a deeper conversation about our history and who and what gets celebrated .
Across the country , on campuses and in city squares , Americans have opened a dialogue , both rhetorical and physical , with the troubled history of monuments .
And yet the Berlin Wall , now scattered in segments across this country , has somehow come to represent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Why does this particular length of concrete maintain its hold on the American imagination , 30 years after the wall came down ?
And what does a monument to winning the Cold War mean to those of us who have only ever known the War on Terrorism and the other violent borders it produced ?
The only thing the scenes of the film share in common is the wall .
One piece is in a lobby at Microsoft ’ s headquarters in Redmond , Wash. , one at Ripley ’ s Odditorium in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park , N.Y. , and a few on private properties .
The interviewees range from a Hard Rock Cafe server at Universal Studios on his lunch break to a CIA bureaucrat only reachable by phone , who remarks that the fall of the wall caused an identity crisis for the agency .
“ The only enemy we had known was the Soviet bloc , ” the bureaucrat admits .
“ There was even talk about whether we needed a Central Intelligence Agency after the wall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did we even have a purpose anymore , you know , after we had defeated this monolithic adversary ?
” Needless to say , the CIA found other purposes .
The film ’ s strengths lie in its simplicity .
The shots are carefully composed and lingering , giving us a visual representation of the United States from Los Angeles ’ s Mulholland Drive to a Chicago subway station to a food court in Seattle .
Furthermore , the thoughts of the subjects are captured with the ear of an ethnographer and edited @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for moments of gravity as well as humor .
For each person , the wall means something explicit about freedom , democracy , and patriotism , but implicit in these descriptions are ideas about propaganda , indoctrination , our intergenerational relationships with history , and the broken promises of capitalism .
In the American political imaginary , both liberal and conservative , it is widely agreed that the Berlin Wall was “ bad , ” because it represents the Cold War dichotomies of the US versus the USSR , capitalism versus communism , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other contemporary examples of border walls enjoy wide support , such as the one at the southern border of the United States or the “ separation barrier ” between Israel and the West Bank .
Despite the differences in policy between the Democrats and the Republicans , neither mainstream political party supports a demilitarization of the US/Mexico border or the Green Line .
This contradiction is highlighted by a few subtle moments in the film .
Some subjects are unapologetic about their support for borders , whereas others offer nuanced perspectives .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ panel of the wall in Baldwin Hills , Calif. , opines , “ It ’ s a barrier but also a statement .
When you have [ the ] focus of an enemy , it ’ s easy to forget your own differences .
As the enemy from the outside dissipates , the enemy from inside grows .
There ’ s no threat from the outside ; the threat from the inside is bias and bigotry .
People don ’ t feel free.
” If the whole point of knocking down the wall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread American freedom , it does seem counterintuitive that the borders of the United States have only become more militarized since 1989 .
The American Sector reminds us of the weight of the Berlin Wall as a cultural artifact and asks us to reconsider the role that the United States plays in that story .
One young boy out of a group of children playing outside near a piece of the wall at Eureka College in Illinois explains that “ Mr .
Gorbachev teared it down [ sic ] because Reagan told him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that a new generation has been tasked with carrying the myth of American exceptionalism forward .
A young man in a group of Latinx teenagers in downtown Miami remarks that coming from immigrant backgrounds means he and his friends relate to the people of East Germany .
“ Is there a way it could be a symbol of hope ?
” an off-camera Velez asks .
Another teen answers , “ For somebody who comes from a financial background that allows them to pursue a more legitimate route of citizenship , sure , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think for a lot of other people , it ’ s a reminder that they are one step away from being thrown out , [ or ] their loved ones , that they might not see people on the other side.
” For Americans who lived through the Cold War , the fall of the Berlin Wall was a moment of triumph , a sigh of relief , and a media event .
For those born after , it is another story we are told about an American victory that has no benefits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by precarity , instability , and anxiety .
Toward the end of the film , Stephens and Velez visit a panel of the wall at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas , where a Black military veteran strikes up a conversation with Stephens off camera .
“ You guys said you ’ ve been around the country , ” he asks while we watch a separate shot of him drawing in his fishing line .
“ Have you been to Illinois yet ?
I have relatives who live in Illinois .
I ’ ll try @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doing that.
” Then he laughs , and Stephens replies , “ No , actually , it would be great to talk to you.
” The veteran explains that he ’ s retired and only comes onto the post to fish when no one ’ s around .
“ I did 36 years , I ’ m glad it ’ s over—I don ’ t want to get shot at no more , ” he adds , laughing .
“ Desert war , Afghanistan , and before all that I was [ in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still in one piece .
Only combat that I want is combat with a catfish.
” This is followed by a closeup of the catch in his cooler , and the camera zooms out to show the panel of the wall in the foreground , which has a drawing of the Statue of Liberty scrawled on its gray concrete .
The man is good-spirited and generous with his story , but the small glimpse we get into his past speaks to the price of this post–Cold War freedom that Americans have enjoyed .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Berlin Wall , George H.W .
Bush deployed more than 25,000 troops to Panama and almost 700,000 troops to the Arabian Peninsula to defend America ’ s “ vital interests ” in those regions .
Stephens and Velez ’ s film reveals the contradictions implicit in America ’ s glorification of these Berlin Wall relics and asks us to consider what the material consequences of this “ victory ” have been : the proliferation of militarized borders all around the world and a state of war that never ends .
While showing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strong hold on the American imagination , The American Sector also gives us glimmers of hope as a younger generation grapples with this history .
The wall means something very different for the generation born after its fall , a generation that has been sold a different enemy but the same American dream .

In 1990, the oil baron and philanthropist Robert Hefner III sent a representative to Germany to purchase a section of the recently dismantled Berlin Wall. The portion he eventually acquired consists of three panels weighing 8,818 pounds, which stand 12 feet tall and 16 feet wide. Hefner and his wife, MeiLi, loaned the panels to the University of Virginia in 2014, where they stand today in a glass display case in the middle of campus. “The installation serves as the centerpiece of a year-long celebration of that unforgettable day, November 9, 1989,” writes John Kelly in the Fall 2014 edition of the university’s arts magazine, “when the whole world looked on to witness the power of the human spirit to triumph over oppression and to celebrate those unalienable rights which Thomas Jefferson so famously championed and cherished.”
Throughout their 65-minute documentary, The American Sector, Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez interview people at more than 50 segments of the Berlin Wall that have been brought to the United States to commemorate the reunification of Germany and America’s victory in the Cold War. At UVA, two students stand in front of the installation, but they don’t look particularly excited to be there. “I am curious about it but not overly impressed, I guess,” says one of the young women. “It’s got a piece of history, tied to a piece of history that I don’t…as an American know very much about or have much connection to.” The other student adds, “I’ve always thought it was kind of out of place, just because I don’t know of the university’s connection to anything with the Berlin Wall,” before noting the material history of UVA: “It’s built by slaves. The lawn rooms, which [are] considered the highest honor for students to live in, with the highest academic standing, were built by slaves. The bricks were laid by enslaved laborers’ hands, and I think that UVA seems to have a lot of issue[s] with physically acknowleding its relationship to slavery.” These students push back against the mythology of their school and, likewise, of their country, refusing to accept the line that Thomas Jefferson “so famously championed and cherished” unalienable rights and leading into a deeper conversation about our history and who and what gets celebrated.
Across the country, on campuses and in city squares, Americans have opened a dialogue, both rhetorical and physical, with the troubled history of monuments. And yet the Berlin Wall, now scattered in segments across this country, has somehow come to represent the enduring spirit of American freedom. Why does this particular length of concrete maintain its hold on the American imagination, 30 years after the wall came down? And what does a monument to winning the Cold War mean to those of us who have only ever known the War on Terrorism and the other violent borders it produced?
The only thing the scenes of the film share in common is the wall. One piece is in a lobby at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., one at Ripley’s Odditorium in San Antonio, another at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y., and a few on private properties. The interviewees range from a Hard Rock Cafe server at Universal Studios on his lunch break to a CIA bureaucrat only reachable by phone, who remarks that the fall of the wall caused an identity crisis for the agency. “The only enemy we had known was the Soviet bloc,” the bureaucrat admits. “There was even talk about whether we needed a Central Intelligence Agency after the wall came down, right? Like, did we even have a purpose anymore, you know, after we had defeated this monolithic adversary?” Needless to say, the CIA found other purposes. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
The film’s strengths lie in its simplicity. The shots are carefully composed and lingering, giving us a visual representation of the United States from Los Angeles’s Mulholland Drive to a Chicago subway station to a food court in Seattle. Furthermore, the thoughts of the subjects are captured with the ear of an ethnographer and edited for clarity and curiosity, which allows for moments of gravity as well as humor. For each person, the wall means something explicit about freedom, democracy, and patriotism, but implicit in these descriptions are ideas about propaganda, indoctrination, our intergenerational relationships with history, and the broken promises of capitalism.
(Courtesy Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez)
In the American political imaginary, both liberal and conservative, it is widely agreed that the Berlin Wall was “bad,” because it represents the Cold War dichotomies of the US versus the USSR, capitalism versus communism, even democracy versus authoritarianism. However, other contemporary examples of border walls enjoy wide support, such as the one at the southern border of the United States or the “separation barrier” between Israel and the West Bank. Despite the differences in policy between the Democrats and the Republicans, neither mainstream political party supports a demilitarization of the US/Mexico border or the Green Line.
This contradiction is highlighted by a few subtle moments in the film. Some subjects are unapologetic about their support for borders, whereas others offer nuanced perspectives. The foreman of a shipping crew moving a panel of the wall in Baldwin Hills, Calif., opines, “It’s a barrier but also a statement. When you have [the] focus of an enemy, it’s easy to forget your own differences. As the enemy from the outside dissipates, the enemy from inside grows. There’s no threat from the outside; the threat from the inside is bias and bigotry. People don’t feel free.” If the whole point of knocking down the wall and winning the Cold War was to spread American freedom, it does seem counterintuitive that the borders of the United States have only become more militarized since 1989.
The American Sector reminds us of the weight of the Berlin Wall as a cultural artifact and asks us to reconsider the role that the United States plays in that story. One young boy out of a group of children playing outside near a piece of the wall at Eureka College in Illinois explains that “Mr. Gorbachev teared it down [sic] because Reagan told him to,” thereby assuring the audience that a new generation has been tasked with carrying the myth of American exceptionalism forward. A young man in a group of Latinx teenagers in downtown Miami remarks that coming from immigrant backgrounds means he and his friends relate to the people of East Germany. “Is there a way it could be a symbol of hope?” an off-camera Velez asks. Another teen answers, “For somebody who comes from a financial background that allows them to pursue a more legitimate route of citizenship, sure, that could represent hope. But I think for a lot of other people, it’s a reminder that they are one step away from being thrown out, [or] their loved ones, that they might not see people on the other side.” For Americans who lived through the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall was a moment of triumph, a sigh of relief, and a media event. For those born after, it is another story we are told about an American victory that has no benefits for our lives, which are marred by precarity, instability, and anxiety.
Toward the end of the film, Stephens and Velez visit a panel of the wall at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where a Black military veteran strikes up a conversation with Stephens off camera. “You guys said you’ve been around the country,” he asks while we watch a separate shot of him drawing in his fishing line. “Have you been to Illinois yet? I have relatives who live in Illinois. I’ll try to be quiet since you guys are doing that.” Then he laughs, and Stephens replies, “No, actually, it would be great to talk to you.” The veteran explains that he’s retired and only comes onto the post to fish when no one’s around. “I did 36 years, I’m glad it’s over—I don’t want to get shot at no more,” he adds, laughing. “Desert war, Afghanistan, and before all that I was [in] Kosovo—very fortunate that I’m still in one piece. Only combat that I want is combat with a catfish.” This is followed by a closeup of the catch in his cooler, and the camera zooms out to show the panel of the wall in the foreground, which has a drawing of the Statue of Liberty scrawled on its gray concrete.
The man is good-spirited and generous with his story, but the small glimpse we get into his past speaks to the price of this post–Cold War freedom that Americans have enjoyed. In the year following the fall of the Berlin Wall, George H.W. Bush deployed more than 25,000 troops to Panama and almost 700,000 troops to the Arabian Peninsula to defend America’s “vital interests” in those regions. Stephens and Velez’s film reveals the contradictions implicit in America’s glorification of these Berlin Wall relics and asks us to consider what the material consequences of this “victory” have been: the proliferation of militarized borders all around the world and a state of war that never ends. While showing that Cold War messaging still maintains a strong hold on the American imagination, The American Sector also gives us glimmers of hope as a younger generation grapples with this history. The wall means something very different for the generation born after its fall, a generation that has been sold a different enemy but the same American dream.


thenation--2020-10-22--Biden, Use This Debate to Prosecute Trump’s Covid Crimes

Donald Trump is terrified of accountability .
That ’ s why he walked out of a critical interview with Lesley Stahl for CBS News ’ 60 Minutes on Tuesday , and that ’ s why he ’ s been attacking the moderator of tonight ’ s final presidential debate , veteran NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker .
Trump ’ s desperation is so evident and so politically self-destructive that it might lead Democrats to imagine that former vice president Joe Biden should simply coast on his lead in polls both nationally and in most of the 2020 battleground states @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go easy on Trump .
The president is stumbling ; Biden must deliver the knockout blow tonight .
The former vice president is fighting not just for himself at this point ; he ’ s fighting for Democrats running in Senate contests that could flip control of the chamber—ending majority leader Mitch McConnell ’ s tenure as head of the partisan wrecking crew that refuses to respond to a surging pandemic and the economic devastation that extends from it as millions of Americans face unemployment , eviction , and hunger .
Biden should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has prepared for tonight .
Despite the president ’ s obsession with foreign intrigues involving his rival ’ s son , no one is going to change their vote because of what Rudy Giuliani claims to know about Hunter Biden .
Nor will any “ undecided ” voter—if such a person still exists—be convinced by Trump ’ s incoherent ranting about Medicare for All , the Green New Deal , Black Lives Matter , Bernie Sanders , Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , or “ the radical left.
” If the polls are to be believed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loathing may appeal to the president ’ s dwindling base but it has no growth potential .
Biden , on the other hand , can build his numbers—and the numbers for Senate candidates who are running on the Democratic line—with a stark , unapologetic , and unrelenting accountability argument .
This is a pandemic election , and Biden must indict Trump .
As of Wednesday , 8.32 million Americans have been diagnosed with Covid-19 , and 221,000 Americans have died .
The numbers are spiking .
Hundreds of thousands of new cases have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , thousands of new deaths have been recorded .
And some of the worst numbers are in the battleground states that will decide the 2020 election .
There have been : • 1,660 deaths in Wisconsin , with more than 100 of them recorded in the past week .
• 1,728 deaths in Nevada , with more than a dozen new deaths recorded Tuesday in Clark County .
• 7,386 deaths in Michigan , with dozens of additional deaths reported in recent days .
• 7,494 deaths in Georgia , with disproportional suffering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Pennsylvania , with a rising count in rural regions .
• 16,104 deaths in Florida , with dozens of new fatalities just this week in Miami and Palm Beach counties .
• 17,644 deaths in Texas , with 80 more lives lost on Tuesday alone .
If Biden speaks of the death toll and the states where the pandemic is raging , where people are losing jobs , and where businesses are shutting down , he ’ ll can Americans where they are as they prepare to mark their ballots .
Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , counties , and regions where Covid-19 is surging and killing Americans .
He should detail the disproportionate damage this virus has done to people of color , the elderly , low-income Americans , frontline workers , and the vulnerable millions who lack adequate access to health care .
Iowa Could Make Joe Biden President , and Give Him a Democratic Senate to Work With What Joe Biden Can Learn From Jacinda Ardern The facts are on Biden ’ s side .
Trump has admitted to lying to the American people about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the critical early stages of the fight to contain it .
Trump has attacked governors who have tried to contain it while he mocked public health orders , peddled snake-oil “ cures ” and promoted “ reopening ” schemes even after he was warned that doing so would allow the disease to spread .
The former vice president ’ s job tonight is to indict the sitting president , and to explain why Trump can not be allowed to continue .
Though he ’ ll be in the virtual presence of the incumbent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ millions of Americans who are tuned in , and bluntly declare—as he did Sunday in response to Trump ’ s latest assertion that the United States has “ turned the corner ” in this pandemic struggle—that “ Things are getting worse .
He continues to lie to us about the circumstances.
” Trump will continue to lie .
He will deny , deflect , dissemble , and interrupt .
That ’ s what guilty men do .
Biden can not allow himself to be distracted .
There is too much at stake .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ not just against a president who deliberately endangered the nation he swore to protect but also against the Republican senators—like Joni Ernst in Iowa , Steve Daines in Montana , Cory Gardner in Colorado , Martha McSally in Arizona , Susan Collins in Maine , Thom Tillis in North Carolina , David Perdue in Georgia , John Cornyn in Texas , Lindsey Graham in South Carolina , and , yes , Mitch McConnell in Kentucky—who refused to hold the president accountable back when these crises might have been averted .
This is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Biden should prosecute Trump and his co-conspirators with a sense of urgency and righteous indignation that will be understood and embraced by an electoral jury that has the power to convict and punish the wrongdoers .

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Donald Trump is terrified of accountability. That’s why he walked out of a critical interview with Lesley Stahl for CBS News’ 60 Minutes on Tuesday, and that’s why he’s been attacking the moderator of tonight’s final presidential debate, veteran NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker.
Trump’s desperation is so evident and so politically self-destructive that it might lead Democrats to imagine that former vice president Joe Biden should simply coast on his lead in polls both nationally and in most of the 2020 battleground states. But this is no time to go easy on Trump. The president is stumbling; Biden must deliver the knockout blow tonight. Like John’s writing? You’ll love him in conversation. Check out John Nichols and an extraordinary group of speakers at the first-ever virtual Nation festival, Nov. 18-21
The former vice president is fighting not just for himself at this point; he’s fighting for Democrats running in Senate contests that could flip control of the chamber—ending majority leader Mitch McConnell’s tenure as head of the partisan wrecking crew that refuses to respond to a surging pandemic and the economic devastation that extends from it as millions of Americans face unemployment, eviction, and hunger.
Biden should not worry about the distractions that Trump has prepared for tonight. Despite the president’s obsession with foreign intrigues involving his rival’s son, no one is going to change their vote because of what Rudy Giuliani claims to know about Hunter Biden. Nor will any “undecided” voter—if such a person still exists—be convinced by Trump’s incoherent ranting about Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, Black Lives Matter, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or “the radical left.” If the polls are to be believed, the Republican strategy of fear and loathing may appeal to the president’s dwindling base but it has no growth potential. Embracing Covid The Power of Covid-Positive Thinking Jeet Heer and The Nation
Biden, on the other hand, can build his numbers—and the numbers for Senate candidates who are running on the Democratic line—with a stark, unapologetic, and unrelenting accountability argument.
This is a pandemic election, and Biden must indict Trump.
As of Wednesday, 8.32 million Americans have been diagnosed with Covid-19, and 221,000 Americans have died. The numbers are spiking. Hundreds of thousands of new cases have been identified over just the past week, thousands of new deaths have been recorded. And some of the worst numbers are in the battleground states that will decide the 2020 election. There have been: Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
1,660 deaths in Wisconsin, with more than 100 of them recorded in the past week.
1,728 deaths in Nevada, with more than a dozen new deaths recorded Tuesday in Clark County.
7,386 deaths in Michigan, with dozens of additional deaths reported in recent days.
7,494 deaths in Georgia, with disproportional suffering in urban areas.
8,591 deaths in Pennsylvania, with a rising count in rural regions.
16,104 deaths in Florida, with dozens of new fatalities just this week in Miami and Palm Beach counties.
17,644 deaths in Texas, with 80 more lives lost on Tuesday alone.
If Biden speaks of the death toll and the states where the pandemic is raging, where people are losing jobs, and where businesses are shutting down, he’ll meet Americans where they are as they prepare to mark their ballots. Biden should be specific, naming the cities, counties, and regions where Covid-19 is surging and killing Americans. He should detail the disproportionate damage this virus has done to people of color, the elderly, low-income Americans, frontline workers, and the vulnerable millions who lack adequate access to health care. More From John Nichols A GOP Debate Without Trump Is the Definition of Pointlessness August 11, 2023 A Win for Abortion Rights, a Win for Democracy: Ohio Voters Reject Issue 1 August 9, 2023 The Biggest Threat to Donald Trump Could Be the Constitution Itself August 4, 2023
The facts are on Biden’s side. Trump has admitted to lying to the American people about the scope and severity of the pandemic in the critical early stages of the fight to contain it. Trump has attacked governors who have tried to contain it while he mocked public health orders, peddled snake-oil “cures” and promoted “reopening” schemes even after he was warned that doing so would allow the disease to spread.
The former vice president’s job tonight is to indict the sitting president, and to explain why Trump cannot be allowed to continue. Though he’ll be in the virtual presence of the incumbent, the Democrat must focus on the millions of Americans who are tuned in, and bluntly declare—as he did Sunday in response to Trump’s latest assertion that the United States has “turned the corner” in this pandemic struggle—that “Things are getting worse. He continues to lie to us about the circumstances.”
Trump will continue to lie. He will deny, deflect, dissemble, and interrupt. That’s what guilty men do.
Biden cannot allow himself to be distracted. There is too much at stake. Tonight, he can close the case not just against a president who deliberately endangered the nation he swore to protect but also against the Republican senators—like Joni Ernst in Iowa, Steve Daines in Montana, Cory Gardner in Colorado, Martha McSally in Arizona, Susan Collins in Maine, Thom Tillis in North Carolina, David Perdue in Georgia, John Cornyn in Texas, Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, and, yes, Mitch McConnell in Kentucky—who refused to hold the president accountable back when these crises might have been averted.
This is not a debate. This is a trial. Biden should prosecute Trump and his co-conspirators with a sense of urgency and righteous indignation that will be understood and embraced by an electoral jury that has the power to convict and punish the wrongdoers.


thenation--2020-10-22--It’s ‘Court Reform,’ Not Court Packing

It’s ‘Court Reform,’ Not Court Packing

With the likely imminent confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett , the Republicans will succeed in entrenching a solid 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court for many years to come .
Already , questions have arisen as to how Democrats should respond .
There has been much discussion of blunting the impact of this ideological coup through the expedient of court-packing .
The term “ court packing ” itself evokes President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ’ s controversial proposal to appoint up to six additional justices to the Supreme Court—one for every justice older than 70— after he was decisively reelected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The president himself didn ’ t use the term .
He called his measure the “ Judicial Procedures Reform Bill ” and argued that it was necessitated by the actions of the Supreme Court , whose rulings had already eviscerated many important New Deal programs , thereby jeopardizing economic recovery .
Even historians sympathetic to FDR have largely classified his bold 1937 proposal to reconfigure the court as a maladroit political failure .
But they ’ re peddling a myth .
While FDR ultimately failed in his bid to increase the number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coincidental that soon after the president broached it , the justices themselves began to shift their views on subsequent New Deal welfare and regulatory legislation , notably Social Security , the pro-labor National Labor Relations Act , minimum wage legislation , and other progressive forms of economic regulation .
Despite FDR ’ s ultimate legislative successes , “ court packing ” remains an emotive term suggesting something underhanded or even illegal , akin to stacking a deck of cards .
Yet there is nothing in the Constitution that specifies the number of justices @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nine as sacrosanct as the Holy Trinity .
Still , the GOP thinks they are on to a winning issue , and Democrats remain defensive about the concept .
They needn ’ t be—if the message is framed as a broader issue of court reform and social justice , as well as one that is consonant with historic precedent .
What Amy Coney Barrett Means For the Climate The Election Isn ’ t Over Until Trump ’ s Gone Texas and the Long Tail of Voter Suppression More in this series According to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the method most frequently employed to bring the court to heel has been increasing or decreasing its membership.
” It is also perfectly legal , given that the “ size of the Supreme Court is not fixed by the Constitution .
It is determined by Congress.
” During the first hundred years or so of the Republic , Congress showed little inhibition using that power : As Smith notes , the original Judiciary Act of 1789 set the number of justices at six .
That number was reduced to five in 1800 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jefferson government .
Then , in 1807 , Congress increased the number of justices to seven , then to nine in 1837 under the administration of Andrew Jackson .
During the Civil War , it was increased to 10 , only to be reduced to seven again when Andrew Johnson succeeded the assassinated Abraham Lincoln , before Ulysses Grant restored the number of justices to nine in 1868 .
“ The switch in time that saved nine ” refers to the court ’ s sudden jurisprudential shift in 1937 , notably that of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s proposal to stack the court with judges more likely to be favorably predisposed to his New Deal legislation .
Justice Roberts himself subsequently denied that Roosevelt ’ s threat had any impact on the evolution of his own legal thinking .
That ’ s understandable : No justice would ever want to concede capitulating to the whims of mere public opinion or political pressure .
Yet , for all the talk about its alleged independence and neutrality , the Supreme Court has been anything but neutral throughout its history .
It has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interpretation and devised novel theories that constitute de facto legislative acts .
Ironically , both liberals and conservatives have often agreed on this point , even regarding the emotive issue of abortion .
However , whereas there are checks and balances on the other two branches of the US government , there is no corresponding attempt to curb the power of the judiciary , which , in the words of Michael Lind , “ is now a legislature—a legislature that is vastly more powerful than the U.S. Congress and far less democratic.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aggressively to secure ideological majorities in the courts , to undermine long-standing abortion rights , hard-earned voting rights , and various health care protections .
The independence of the US judicial system itself is undermined by the fact that in 38 of the 50 states , state court judges are elected , not appointed .
This is germane because the lower circuit courts constitute the “ farm system ” for elevation to the Supreme Court .
The problem is that these elections , and the corresponding flood of money that accompanies them , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ judicial independence , ” in the words of the late Justice Sandra Day O ’ Connor .
What Justice O ’ Connor failed to recognize is that even when she made these remarks , judicial independence was more apparent than real .
It beggars belief that simply because an elected judge is suddenly elevated to the highest court in the land , he/she will suddenly abandon the ideological predispositions ( or ignore the sizable historic campaign contributions ) that got him/her there in the first place .
Chief Justice John Roberts may indeed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ umpire calling balls and strikes , but his conception of the “ strike zone ” is conveniently tailored to a specific jurisprudential tradition that is profoundly conservative and pro-corporation .
The deeper problem with the Supreme Court , therefore , is less with the number of justices or even their political makeup and more with the way this myth of independence effectively legitimizes the court ’ s persistent efforts to nullify decisions taken by elected legislatures and the executive .
This is not a recent problem .
As early as 1937 , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the power of the Supreme Court has become so great , the views that dominate it so backward , as to jeopardize the security of our society by blocking adjustment to changing conditions.
” Which would , at a minimum , suggest using the expedient of increasing the size of the Supreme Court to mitigate this profoundly illiberal power that the judiciary has arrogated to itself .
In theory , term or age limits could achieve the same end , but Congress can not retroactively impose such limits on existing justices ( many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Court packing still represents the most effective means of dealing with the existing problem .
There Is Only One Way Out of This Crisis : Expand the Court Biden and the Democrats should not be intimidated by specious GOP arguments .
FDR may have lost his battle to increase the Supreme Court ’ s numbers , but he still managed to win the war : The country recovered from the worst economic crisis in its history , vital pro-labor legislation was enacted by Congress and sustained by the Supreme Court , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Social Security are about the closest thing there is to an untouchable third rail in American politics .
Elections do have consequences , and Democrats need to make the case that the 2020 results should not be nullified by unelected justices , who will remain in office until they voluntarily resign or die .
The party should be aggressively making the case for reform now that takes away some of the power courts have arrogated to themselves and gives it back to the people ’ s elected representatives .
Court packing—whether called by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ means to that laudable end .

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With the likely imminent confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, the Republicans will succeed in entrenching a solid 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court for many years to come. Already, questions have arisen as to how Democrats should respond. There has been much discussion of blunting the impact of this ideological coup through the expedient of court-packing.
The term “court packing” itself evokes President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s controversial proposal to appoint up to six additional justices to the Supreme Court—one for every justice older than 70— after he was decisively reelected for a second term in 1936. The president himself didn’t use the term. He called his measure the “Judicial Procedures Reform Bill” and argued that it was necessitated by the actions of the Supreme Court, whose rulings had already eviscerated many important New Deal programs, thereby jeopardizing economic recovery.
Even historians sympathetic to FDR have largely classified his bold 1937 proposal to reconfigure the court as a maladroit political failure. But they’re peddling a myth. While FDR ultimately failed in his bid to increase the number of Supreme Court justices, it is not coincidental that soon after the president broached it, the justices themselves began to shift their views on subsequent New Deal welfare and regulatory legislation, notably Social Security, the pro-labor National Labor Relations Act, minimum wage legislation, and other progressive forms of economic regulation.
Despite FDR’s ultimate legislative successes, “court packing” remains an emotive term suggesting something underhanded or even illegal, akin to stacking a deck of cards. Yet there is nothing in the Constitution that specifies the number of justices or justifies treating the current complement of nine as sacrosanct as the Holy Trinity. Still, the GOP thinks they are on to a winning issue, and Democrats remain defensive about the concept. They needn’t be—if the message is framed as a broader issue of court reform and social justice, as well as one that is consonant with historic precedent. Supreme Court It’s Time to Abolish Legacy Admissions Harold Klapper Inside the Cynical Campaign to Claim That Affirmative Action Hurts Asian Americans Kali Holloway Let Trump Run Bill Lueders
According to the historian Jean Edward Smith, “the method most frequently employed to bring the court to heel has been increasing or decreasing its membership.” It is also perfectly legal, given that the “size of the Supreme Court is not fixed by the Constitution. It is determined by Congress.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
During the first hundred years or so of the Republic, Congress showed little inhibition using that power: As Smith notes, the original Judiciary Act of 1789 set the number of justices at six. That number was reduced to five in 1800, a change subsequently repealed by the incoming Jefferson government. Then, in 1807, Congress increased the number of justices to seven, then to nine in 1837 under the administration of Andrew Jackson. During the Civil War, it was increased to 10, only to be reduced to seven again when Andrew Johnson succeeded the assassinated Abraham Lincoln, before Ulysses Grant restored the number of justices to nine in 1868.
“The switch in time that saved nine” refers to the court’s sudden jurisprudential shift in 1937, notably that of Justice Owen Roberts, after FDR’s proposal to stack the court with judges more likely to be favorably predisposed to his New Deal legislation. Justice Roberts himself subsequently denied that Roosevelt’s threat had any impact on the evolution of his own legal thinking. That’s understandable: No justice would ever want to concede capitulating to the whims of mere public opinion or political pressure. Current Issue View our current issue
Yet, for all the talk about its alleged independence and neutrality, the Supreme Court has been anything but neutral throughout its history. It has often stepped beyond mere legal or statutory interpretation and devised novel theories that constitute de facto legislative acts. Ironically, both liberals and conservatives have often agreed on this point, even regarding the emotive issue of abortion. However, whereas there are checks and balances on the other two branches of the US government, there is no corresponding attempt to curb the power of the judiciary, which, in the words of Michael Lind, “is now a legislature—a legislature that is vastly more powerful than the U.S. Congress and far less democratic.” That explains why conservatives are now working aggressively to secure ideological majorities in the courts, to undermine long-standing abortion rights, hard-won voting rights, and various health care protections.
The independence of the US judicial system itself is undermined by the fact that in 38 of the 50 states, state court judges are elected, not appointed. This is germane because the lower circuit courts constitute the “farm system” for elevation to the Supreme Court. The problem is that these elections, and the corresponding flood of money that accompanies them, represent “the single greatest threat to judicial independence,” in the words of the late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
What Justice O’Connor failed to recognize is that even when she made these remarks, judicial independence was more apparent than real. It beggars belief that simply because an elected judge is suddenly elevated to the highest court in the land, he/she will suddenly abandon the ideological predispositions (or ignore the sizable historic campaign contributions) that got him/her there in the first place. Chief Justice John Roberts may indeed profess that he is simply a neutral umpire calling balls and strikes, but his conception of the “strike zone” is conveniently tailored to a specific jurisprudential tradition that is profoundly conservative and pro-corporation.
The deeper problem with the Supreme Court, therefore, is less with the number of justices or even their political makeup and more with the way this myth of independence effectively legitimizes the court’s persistent efforts to nullify decisions taken by elected legislatures and the executive. This is not a recent problem. As early as 1937, the journalist I.F. Stone observed that “the power of the Supreme Court has become so great, the views that dominate it so backward, as to jeopardize the security of our society by blocking adjustment to changing conditions.”
Which would, at a minimum, suggest using the expedient of increasing the size of the Supreme Court to mitigate this profoundly illiberal power that the judiciary has arrogated to itself. In theory, term or age limits could achieve the same end, but Congress cannot retroactively impose such limits on existing justices (many of whom are still relatively young). Court packing still represents the most effective means of dealing with the existing problem. Future of the Court There Is Only One Way Out of This Crisis: Expand the Court Elie Mystal
Biden and the Democrats should not be intimidated by specious GOP arguments. FDR may have lost his battle to increase the Supreme Court’s numbers, but he still managed to win the war: The country recovered from the worst economic crisis in its history, vital pro-labor legislation was enacted by Congress and sustained by the Supreme Court, and today, New Deal reforms such as Social Security are about the closest thing there is to an untouchable third rail in American politics. Elections do have consequences, and Democrats need to make the case that the 2020 results should not be nullified by unelected justices, who will remain in office until they voluntarily resign or die. The party should be aggressively making the case for reform now that takes away some of the power courts have arrogated to themselves and gives it back to the people’s elected representatives. Court packing—whether called by that name or any other—is simply a means to that laudable end.


thenation--2020-10-22--The Disabled Community Doesn’t Want Your Pity

The Muscular Dystrophy Association is bringing back its signature event : the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon .
Running from 1954 to 2014 , the show , which could last as long as 23.5 hours , defined the genre .
Crying mothers and disabled children were trotted out along with a variety of entertainers and celebrities to convince an audience of millions to donate .
And they raised a lot of money to search for a cure—an estimated $ 2 billion , according to Time magazine .
In 1989 , NPR ’ s Scott Simon described it as “ the largest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world.
” Now hosted by the comedian Kevin Hart , the October 24 telethon will be a star-studded affair with appearances from Michael B. Jordan , Jack Black , DJ Khaled , and others .
The show hopes to reignite MDA ’ s fundraising efforts , which have lagged during the pandemic .
That same day , activists with muscular dystrophy , many of them former MDA poster children , will protest the telethon with their own counterprogramming , including a Twitch stream to raise money for Neuromuscular Disabilities United , a disabled-led @ @ @ @ @ @ @ MDA telethon bingo card , highlighting the ableist cliches of disability charity events .
At first glance , this may seem baffling : Why would anyone protest a disability charity and its fundraising efforts ?
The answer is complex and has been heatedly discussed for decades .
The activists I interviewed talked about everything from the role of nonprofits in providing services to the use of children to comments made by the late Jerry Lewis himself .
But one thing was repeated again and again : These activists do not want to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been one of the biggest fundraising tools in any disability charity ’ s arsenal .
The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon was a celebrity extravaganza , at its height featuring acts like Frank Sinatra , the Jackson Five , and professional wrestler Hulk Hogan .
Later , as the telethon declined , it leaned heavily on amateur acts .
In 2003 , Washington Post television critic Tom Shale described the telethon as a “ triumphantly campy pageant—comics , magicians , cheerleaders , tap dancers , impressionists , Vegas-style singers in shiny tuxedoes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Ariz. ’ One could feel truly teleported in time , as if show business had been stopped and frozen in 1962.
” These acts were interspersed with commentary from Lewis , as well as Muscular Dystrophy Association poster children , known as Jerry ’ s Kids .
The show deliberately presented children with muscular dystrophy to elicit pity from viewers .
Lewis said himself in a 2001 interview with CBS Sunday Morning , “ If it ’ s pity , we ’ ll get some money.
” These children , audiences were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ viewers called and donated .
The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon , and telethons in general , have long had critics in the disabled community .
Evan Kemp was foremost among them .
Kemp had a form of muscular dystrophy and served as the commissioner of the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission for six years .
He also played a major role , behind the scenes , in authoring the Americans With Disabilities Act , which established the right of disabled people to access stores , bathrooms , buses , and every other form of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kemp was one of the first people to decry the telethon .
In 1981 , he wrote an op-ed in The New York Times , headlined : “ No pity , please.
” It is still routinely read in Disability Studies classes .
“ I am acutely aware of how many people in our society consider the disabled to be childlike , helpless , hopeless , nonfunctioning members of society , ” Kemp wrote .
“ Playing to pity may raise money , but it also raises the walls of fear between the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the telethon ’ s focus on children was also harmful to adults—and to the adults that the disabled children would become .
“ Handicapped children are not made aware that many disabled people can and do function in society as useful adults , ” he noted .
Kemp died in 1997 , but opposition to the telethon continued .
Mike Ervin founded Jerry ’ s Orphans , a group opposed the telethon , in 1991 .
“ It was a sarcastic take on this whole rebelling poster child thing .
You ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ as long as you ’ re cute and young .
But once you grow up and you ’ re an adult , all of a sudden you ’ re abandoned , and you become one of Jerry ’ s orphans , ” Ervin said in a short documentary titled The Kids Are All Right .
Ervin is a former MDA poster child .
He and his late sister both had a disability called spinal muscular atrophy , which is one of several neuromuscular disabilities that MDA is seeking to cure .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just called everything muscular dystrophy , ” Ervin explained .
More granular genetic tests didn ’ t exist yet .
When Ervin was first diagnosed , he wasn ’ t expected to live very long .
But today , he is 64 years old and writes a regular column for The Progressive titled “ Smart Ass Cripple.
” “ Something always rubbed me the wrong way about [ the telethon ] .
I couldn ’ t figure out what it was for a while .
I was almost afraid to say that I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was sort of like being a Communist .
How could you not like something so wholesome and all-American ?
” Ervin told me .
Eventually , he was able to name his discomfort : “ I came to realize I was seeing myself misrepresented on TV.
” Ervin also recognized that charity serves disabled people poorly .
“ Everybody says , ‘ Oh , I don ’ t want charity.
’ Well , the reason people say that is because the position of the charity recipient is a very unenviable one .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
You have no agency .
You sit there , and somebody else decides what you want , ” Ervin said .
Dr. Christopher Rosa , a former MDA board member with limb girdle muscular dystrophy , doesn ’ t entirely agree with Ervin on charity .
“ The social needs , the independence needs , the access needs should be a human right .
But given the arc of our history in the United States , there was an unmet need .
That vacuum was filled by MDA , ” he said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the telethon , calling it “ a form of social media before digital social media…a virtual community , a network of support.
” He fondly remembers meeting Bob Sampson , a former vice president for United Airlines , through the telethon .
Sampson was the first adult with a neuromuscular disability that he had ever met .
But Ervin and other disabled activists also took issue with Jerry Lewis personally .
Lewis had no personal connection to the muscular dystrophy community .
He did not have a disabled child or other family @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disability himself , and once wrote in Parade magazine that if he did , he ’ d be a “ half person.
” Over the years , Lewis had made dozens of disparaging remarks about disabled people .
For example , in the same 2001 interview with CBS Sunday Morning , Lewis said , “ If you don ’ t want to be pitied because you ’ re a cripple in a wheelchair , stay in your home.
” Rosa , when asked , did not recall Lewis saying anything disparaging about disability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very deeply about families impacted by neuromuscular disease , ” he told me .
But there are dozens of videos , articles , and first-person accounts that reflect a different reality .
Hart doesn ’ t have the same baggage as Lewis , at least when it comes to disability .
Hart has not , to anyone ’ s knowledge , called a person in a wheelchair a “ living waterbed , ” as Lewis allegedly did during a 2005 telethon protest .
But Hart similarly lacks a connection to the disability community @ @ @ @ @ @ @ celebrities listed to appear in the new 2020 telethon .
It ’ s true that there aren ’ t many celebrities with neuromuscular disabilities , but the few that exist are absent .
Only one celebrity announced so far has a neuromuscular disability : the actress and fashion model Jillian Mercado .
Mercado did not watch the telethon growing up , and was never an MDA poster child .
Strangely , Mercado was surprised to learn she was listed on promotional material for the new telethon .
When I interviewed her , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with MDA , she had not agreed to appear .
“ I never signed anything , ” Mercado told me over the phone .
“ It was not a ‘ yes ’ ; it was a ‘ maybe.
’ The only way I would say yes to it is if my opinions and concerns were heard and changes were made.
” Among other issues raised , Mercado made clear that she did not want to be the only visibly disabled person attached to the project .
“ If you ’ re going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cohost , ” she said half-jokingly .
Mercado expressed concern , but was optimistic about the tone of the telethon overall .
“ Fundraisers , when they ’ re associated with disability , can be this whole fucking mess of pity.… They told me that they ’ re doing a lot of videos of just kids being kids .
Like if a kid really likes baseball , they ’ ll show that , not the hospital or something .
Or they ’ ll profile someone like myself who ’ s in movies.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the newest iteration of Jerry ’ s Orphans , is not as hopeful .
As a former Ohio poster child , he has little trust in the organization .
He remembers being treated well by his local MDA chapter , but as he got older , everything changed : “ When we were no longer cute , we were no longer profitable.
” Drawn to entertainment from a young age , Evans basked in the attention he garnered as one of Jerry ’ s Kids .
“ I couldn ’ t even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of being a poster child without people knowing who I was .
I would have people come up to me on the street and be like , ‘ Hey !
I saw you on TV , ” he recalled .
“ I got to sing .
I sang on the telethon regularly .
I thought I was doing something good .
I thought I was helping people .
And yet every day , I was suicidal .
Every day I wanted to die .
And it was because of the message the telethon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the most damaging aspects of the telethon was the focus on finding a cure .
“ I spent so many years wanting to be cured and wanting to be saved .
And all of that could have been [ avoided ] if I had understood that I didn ’ t need any of that.
” Evans isn ’ t against finding a cure for neuromuscular disabilities : “ Some of us have disabilities that can kill us .
We need to talk about treatment options.
” He is , however , against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He explained that “ cure mentality is the idea that without a cure , we ’ re broken or something ’ s missing , and that whole mentality breeds hatred.
” The concept of cure and the concept of pity are , to Evans , Ervin , and others in their movement , inextricably linked .
To its credit , the Muscular Dystrophy Association has an advisory committee for the new telethon made up of people with neuromuscular disabilities .
“ When we thought about reimagining the Telethon , our number-one goal was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is accurately portrayed , and funds raised to support the families we are here to serve , ” Mary Fiance , MDA director of public relations , told me .
Ervin remains skeptical .
“ I don ’ t know if they feel they can create a new and improved , more accessible , hip , progressive telethon .
I don ’ t think such a thing is possible , ” he said .
We will have to wait and see .

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The Muscular Dystrophy Association is bringing back its signature event: the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. Running from 1954 to 2014, the show, which could last as long as 23.5 hours, defined the genre. Crying mothers and disabled children were trotted out along with a variety of entertainers and celebrities to convince an audience of millions to donate. And they raised a lot of money to search for a cure—an estimated $2 billion, according to Time magazine. In 1989, NPR’s Scott Simon described it as “the largest single-day, private fundraising effort in the world.”
Now hosted by the comedian Kevin Hart, the October 24 telethon will be a star-studded affair with appearances from Michael B. Jordan, Jack Black, DJ Khaled, and others. The show hopes to reignite MDA’s fundraising efforts, which have lagged during the pandemic.
That same day, activists with muscular dystrophy, many of them former MDA poster children, will protest the telethon with their own counterprogramming, including a Twitch stream to raise money for Neuromuscular Disabilities United, a disabled-led nonprofit. One protest group released an MDA telethon bingo card, highlighting the ableist cliches of disability charity events. At first glance, this may seem baffling: Why would anyone protest a disability charity and its fundraising efforts?
The answer is complex and has been heatedly discussed for decades. The activists I interviewed talked about everything from the role of nonprofits in providing services to the use of children to comments made by the late Jerry Lewis himself. But one thing was repeated again and again: These activists do not want to be pitied. And pity, historically, has been one of the biggest fundraising tools in any disability charity’s arsenal.
The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon was a celebrity extravaganza, at its height featuring acts like Frank Sinatra, the Jackson Five, and professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. Later, as the telethon declined, it leaned heavily on amateur acts. In 2003, Washington Post television critic Tom Shale described the telethon as a “triumphantly campy pageant—comics, magicians, cheerleaders, tap dancers, impressionists, Vegas-style singers in shiny tuxedoes, even ‘the Dancing Dads of Peoria, Ariz.’ One could feel truly teleported in time, as if show business had been stopped and frozen in 1962.” These acts were interspersed with commentary from Lewis, as well as Muscular Dystrophy Association poster children, known as Jerry’s Kids.
The show deliberately presented children with muscular dystrophy to elicit pity from viewers. Lewis said himself in a 2001 interview with CBS Sunday Morning, “If it’s pity, we’ll get some money.” These children, audiences were assured, would die soon, unless viewers called and donated. Current Issue View our current issue
The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, and telethons in general, have long had critics in the disabled community. Evan Kemp was foremost among them. Kemp had a form of muscular dystrophy and served as the commissioner of the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission for six years. He also played a major role, behind the scenes, in authoring the Americans With Disabilities Act, which established the right of disabled people to access stores, bathrooms, buses, and every other form of public accommodation. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
But before that, Kemp was one of the first people to decry the telethon. In 1981, he wrote an op-ed in The New York Times, headlined: “No pity, please.” It is still routinely read in Disability Studies classes.
“I am acutely aware of how many people in our society consider the disabled to be childlike, helpless, hopeless, nonfunctioning members of society,” Kemp wrote. “Playing to pity may raise money, but it also raises the walls of fear between the public and us.” To Kemp, the telethon’s focus on children was also harmful to adults—and to the adults that the disabled children would become. “Handicapped children are not made aware that many disabled people can and do function in society as useful adults,” he noted. Kemp died in 1997, but opposition to the telethon continued.
Mike Ervin founded Jerry’s Orphans, a group opposed the telethon, in 1991. “It was a sarcastic take on this whole rebelling poster child thing. You’re one of ‘Jerry’s Kids’ as long as you’re cute and young. But once you grow up and you’re an adult, all of a sudden you’re abandoned, and you become one of Jerry’s orphans,” Ervin said in a short documentary titled The Kids Are All Right.
Ervin is a former MDA poster child. He and his late sister both had a disability called spinal muscular atrophy, which is one of several neuromuscular disabilities that MDA is seeking to cure. “When I was a kid, they just called everything muscular dystrophy,” Ervin explained. More granular genetic tests didn’t exist yet. When Ervin was first diagnosed, he wasn’t expected to live very long. But today, he is 64 years old and writes a regular column for The Progressive titled “Smart Ass Cripple.”
“Something always rubbed me the wrong way about [the telethon]. I couldn’t figure out what it was for a while. I was almost afraid to say that I didn’t like it, because it was sort of like being a Communist. How could you not like something so wholesome and all-American?” Ervin told me. Eventually, he was able to name his discomfort: “I came to realize I was seeing myself misrepresented on TV.”
Ervin also recognized that charity serves disabled people poorly. “Everybody says, ‘Oh, I don’t want charity.’ Well, the reason people say that is because the position of the charity recipient is a very unenviable one. You have no power in the relationship. You have no agency. You sit there, and somebody else decides what you want,” Ervin said.
Dr. Christopher Rosa, a former MDA board member with limb girdle muscular dystrophy, doesn’t entirely agree with Ervin on charity. “The social needs, the independence needs, the access needs should be a human right. But given the arc of our history in the United States, there was an unmet need. That vacuum was filled by MDA,” he said. He has a generally positive opinion of the telethon, calling it “a form of social media before digital social media…a virtual community, a network of support.” He fondly remembers meeting Bob Sampson, a former vice president for United Airlines, through the telethon. Sampson was the first adult with a neuromuscular disability that he had ever met.
But Ervin and other disabled activists also took issue with Jerry Lewis personally. Lewis had no personal connection to the muscular dystrophy community. He did not have a disabled child or other family member. He did not have a disability himself, and once wrote in Parade magazine that if he did, he’d be a “half person.” Over the years, Lewis had made dozens of disparaging remarks about disabled people. For example, in the same 2001 interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Lewis said, “If you don’t want to be pitied because you’re a cripple in a wheelchair, stay in your home.”
Rosa, when asked, did not recall Lewis saying anything disparaging about disability. “I think Jerry Lewis cared very deeply about families impacted by neuromuscular disease,” he told me. But there are dozens of videos, articles, and first-person accounts that reflect a different reality. More From Sara Luterman Can Americans Really Make a Free Choice About Dying? May 31, 2023 For Women Under Conservatorship, Forced Birth Control Is Routine July 15, 2021 Life in Gaza With Down Syndrome June 1, 2021
Hart doesn’t have the same baggage as Lewis, at least when it comes to disability. Hart has not, to anyone’s knowledge, called a person in a wheelchair a “living waterbed,” as Lewis allegedly did during a 2005 telethon protest. But Hart similarly lacks a connection to the disability community, as do almost all the other celebrities listed to appear in the new 2020 telethon. It’s true that there aren’t many celebrities with neuromuscular disabilities, but the few that exist are absent.
Only one celebrity announced so far has a neuromuscular disability: the actress and fashion model Jillian Mercado. Mercado did not watch the telethon growing up, and was never an MDA poster child. Strangely, Mercado was surprised to learn she was listed on promotional material for the new telethon. When I interviewed her, she was adamant that while she had met with MDA, she had not agreed to appear. “I never signed anything,” Mercado told me over the phone. “It was not a ‘yes’; it was a ‘maybe.’ The only way I would say yes to it is if my opinions and concerns were heard and changes were made.”
Among other issues raised, Mercado made clear that she did not want to be the only visibly disabled person attached to the project. “If you’re going to tokenize me, at least make me cohost,” she said half-jokingly. Mercado expressed concern, but was optimistic about the tone of the telethon overall. “Fundraisers, when they’re associated with disability, can be this whole fucking mess of pity.… They told me that they’re doing a lot of videos of just kids being kids. Like if a kid really likes baseball, they’ll show that, not the hospital or something. Or they’ll profile someone like myself who’s in movies.”
Dominick Evans, one of the leaders of the newest iteration of Jerry’s Orphans, is not as hopeful. As a former Ohio poster child, he has little trust in the organization. He remembers being treated well by his local MDA chapter, but as he got older, everything changed: “When we were no longer cute, we were no longer profitable.”
Drawn to entertainment from a young age, Evans basked in the attention he garnered as one of Jerry’s Kids. “I couldn’t even walk down the street at the height of being a poster child without people knowing who I was. I would have people come up to me on the street and be like, ‘Hey! I saw you on TV,” he recalled. “I got to sing. I sang on the telethon regularly. I thought I was doing something good. I thought I was helping people. And yet every day, I was suicidal. Every day I wanted to die. And it was because of the message the telethon was spreading.”
For Evans, one of the most damaging aspects of the telethon was the focus on finding a cure. “I spent so many years wanting to be cured and wanting to be saved. And all of that could have been [avoided] if I had understood that I didn’t need any of that.”
Evans isn’t against finding a cure for neuromuscular disabilities: “Some of us have disabilities that can kill us. We need to talk about treatment options.” He is, however, against what he calls “cure mentality.” He explained that “cure mentality is the idea that without a cure, we’re broken or something’s missing, and that whole mentality breeds hatred.”
The concept of cure and the concept of pity are, to Evans, Ervin, and others in their movement, inextricably linked.
To its credit, the Muscular Dystrophy Association has an advisory committee for the new telethon made up of people with neuromuscular disabilities. “When we thought about reimagining the Telethon, our number-one goal was to ensure that the neuromuscular disease community is accurately portrayed, and funds raised to support the families we are here to serve,” Mary Fiance, MDA director of public relations, told me.
Ervin remains skeptical. “I don’t know if they feel they can create a new and improved, more accessible, hip, progressive telethon. I don’t think such a thing is possible,” he said. We will have to wait and see.


thenation--2020-10-23--Watch the Last 2020 Presidential Debate With ‘The Nation’

This morning , the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to move confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Senate floor , making it almost inevitable that the 48-year-old will be named to the US Supreme Court before Election Day , November 3 .
What ’ s not inevitable is that the high court will decide the election—because at this point what will happen on Election Day and in the days following is anyone ’ s guess .
I ’ d like to meet the psychic octopus who predicts correctly what happens next .
Shortly after Trump ’ s Covid-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Military Medical Center , he held an in-person superspreader event in Des Moines .
That behavior , as it turns out , isn ’ t playing so well in states now seeing dramatic increases in Covid cases , and the political winds seem to be turning against Trump and his Republican foot soldiers in Iowa and Nebraska ’ s bellweather 2nd Congressional District .
That ’ s promising for Democratic Senate candidates , like Iowa ’ s Theresa Greenfield , who knows the price of a bushel of corn .
The thing is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them can be wrong—we learned that the hard way in 2016—and we ’ ve not held a pandemic election in a long time , so it ’ s hard to know what the Covid margin of error really is .
Meanwhile , Republicans continue to fight the right to vote with everything they ’ ve got , with Trump ’ s encouragement , of course , perhaps because his narrow path to victory is paved with voter suppression court cases .
During Trump ’ s town hall last week the president continued to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seemed genuinely interested in making a connection with the potential voters who asked him questions .
And , to the surprise of many pundits , he won the ratings battle .
Funny how numbers don ’ t matter when Trump coverage isn ’ t “ winning.
” The candidates face each other again tonight , and though this may be the last presidential debate of the 2020 cycle , it ’ s possible we have a long way to go .
As we discovered in 2000 , the race isn ’ t always @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year , counting will likely take longer because a lot of states will count their mail-in ballots after Election Day—and there will be a record number of them to count .
Both sides are already gearing up to fight to the last ballot .
So get comfortable with the discomfort of not knowing , everyone .
Though we ’ ll be one step closer after tonight , it could still be a while .
But The Nation will be right there with you , because friends don ’ t let friends watch election @ @ @ @

This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to move confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Senate floor, making it almost inevitable that the 48-year-old will be named to the US Supreme Court before Election Day, November 3. What’s not inevitable is that the high court will decide the election—because at this point what will happen on Election Day and in the days following is anyone’s guess. I’d like to meet the psychic octopus who predicts correctly what happens next.
Shortly after Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis and brief stay at Walter Reed Military Medical Center, he held an in-person superspreader event in Des Moines. That behavior, as it turns out, isn’t playing so well in states now seeing dramatic increases in Covid cases, and the political winds seem to be turning against Trump and his Republican foot soldiers in Iowa and Nebraska’s bellweather 2nd Congressional District. That’s promising for Democratic Senate candidates, like Iowa’s Theresa Greenfield, who knows the price of a bushel of corn. The thing is, polls and the pundits who analyze them can be wrong—we learned that the hard way in 2016—and we’ve not held a pandemic election in a long time, so it’s hard to know what the Covid margin of error really is. Meanwhile, Republicans continue to fight the right to vote with everything they’ve got, with Trump’s encouragement, of course, perhaps because his narrow path to victory is paved with voter suppression court cases.
During Trump’s town hall last week the president continued to dissemble. Biden, by contrast, seemed genuinely interested in making a connection with the potential voters who asked him questions. And, to the surprise of many pundits, he won the ratings battle. Funny how numbers don’t matter when Trump coverage isn’t “winning.”
The candidates face each other again tonight, and though this may be the last presidential debate of the 2020 cycle, it’s possible we have a long way to go. As we discovered in 2000, the race isn’t always over on election night. This pandemic year, counting will likely take longer because a lot of states will count their mail-in ballots after Election Day—and there will be a record number of them to count. Both sides are already gearing up to fight to the last ballot. So get comfortable with the discomfort of not knowing, everyone. Though we’ll be one step closer after tonight, it could still be a while. But The Nation will be right there with you, because friends don’t let friends watch election debates—and election results—alone.
— Anna Hiatt, executive digital editor