The Experience of Ron EdwardsA Renaissance Black Man in a White Man's WorldA Beacon for Freedom in the City
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Ron died January 2020. His column appeared in the oldest continuing Black newspaper in Minnesota, The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, for 17 years, 2003 – 2019. (His web site includes his columns, his blog entries, and his solution papers.) He also hosted long running TV programs and a world-wide blog radio program, co-hosted with Don Allen.
The Minneapolis Story was the brain child of Dennis Green, former NFL Coach of the Minnesota Vikings, and later Head Coach of the NFL Arizona Cardinals and UFL Sacramento Mountain Lions. He shared Ron's vision of "equal access and equal opportunity" for all, and need to expose the blocking of "equal access and equal opportunity" by both sets of leadership," Black ones and White ones, separately and together.
Following Ron's inaugural column of March 26, 2003, are the columns for 2019. His columns and blog entries for 2003 - 2019, are in his Archives.
Novemeber, 14, 2019 #22: The Constitutional Batting Order. Pelosi: President in 2020?
Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues..."
A weekly column by Ron Edwards, as featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
If / when the US House of Representatives' "Impeachment Inquiry" leads to "Articles of Impeachment," President Trump will go on trial in the US Senate. If convicted he would be removed from office (also if he resigns, is incapacitated, or dies). The Constitution then provides for the Vice President, Mike Pence, to be President, unless he too leaves office for any of the same reasons. The Constitution then provides for the third in line, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to be a temporary care taker President during 2020.
It is no accident that highly paid mainstream media talking heads avoid reporting this constitutional succession chess game. When Bob Mueller was appointed to investigate the dark corridors of power behind the 2016 election, the anti-Trumpers believed his report would unleash their master plan to remove Trump, a campaign started after Trump's election and before Trump's swearing in.
Regardless of outcomes, all voters, for and against Trump, are being sucker-punched by the impeachment proceedings leading to the fog of constitutional crisis and disaster.
Full disclosure: I carry no water for political parties, only for citizens left behind, regardless of color or party, especially those in minority communities, which my sense tells me will be the big losers (see my November 9, 2018 column, "A Nation Dangerously Divided,", and my July 2019 columns of July 11 (America is angry on the 4th of July), and July 28 (The race card played in Baltimore and America's cities).
I am not a Republican. I am inclined to still follow the Democratic party's path, as I have since 1960, when I first became eligible to vote.
The searching for "smoking guns" to justify impeaching Trump continue. The same "facts" remain, with half of the voters interpreting the "evidence" one way: Trump is "guilty," and the other half interpreting the same evidence the opposite way: Trump is "not guilty."
Few seem to grasp that regardless of who wins or loses, neither party will be able to return the country to the way it was, setting up potential impeachment attempts after 2020's election.
Impeachment scars and cripples elections, regardless of party, risking turning our Republic into a Parliamentary system, where a mere "vote of no confidence" will be all that is necessary to remove a President on any day, at any time, from Inauguration Day on.
This impeachment farce is turning into a governing tragedy. If Trump is impeached, Pence, who was on the call with the head of The Ukraine would also be impeached, resulting in Nancy Pelosi becoming a temporary caretaker President for the remainder of 2020.
If the "destroy Trump" project backfires, Congress will be jumping off of a high Constitutional diving board into a pool with a cement bottom but no water, as one side "interprets" the "facts" as impeachable and the other side interprets the same "facts" as not impeachable.
What happens once the blood of impeaching is tasted? In my November 9, 2018 column, I wrote that "too many on both sides of the political aisle and at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue feel we are beyond the ability to honestly work for national healing." If we think we can't, we won't. But if we think we can, we will. Let's not divide and weaken our nation domestically and internationally.
My prayers are for a united Republic, and for the well-being of the sons and daughters who fight and die for us, overseas and on our city streets. I offer prayers for America to be united, that we might live by Lincoln's March 4, 1865, Second Inaugural vision, 41 days before his assassination, that we live "with malice toward none, with charity for all."
Stay tuned.
For Ron Edwards biography and list of his books and hosted radio and TV program, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
Ed Note:
One of Ron's last considerations for a column was to be based on this "What Changed?" question raised at the end of 2019 by The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder:
His goal was to reaffirm the relevance and importance of his two books and his his web sites collection of his columns, blog entries, and solution papers. These words speak volumes regarding not onlh the continue relevance of Ron's book and web site, but their continued urgency as well, for he never took his eyes off the prize
October, 31, 2019 #21: Withdrawal from Syria, Impeachment in America. The Nation and Minnesota: equally divided
Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues..."
A weekly column by Ron Edwards, as featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Our Great American Impeachment play, like those of Shakespeare's plays about mad kings (Lear and Richard II) continues (see my October 17, 2019 column).
A poll two weeks ago showed that the Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota reflect a near equal response about impeachment: 48% for impeaching Trump, 47% for not impeaching Trump, 5% with no opinion. A national poll by Georgetown University discovered that 67% believe the nation is nearing civil war,
Mad President or not, it is maddening that the news is filled with this impeachment play instead of the tragic plays in our cities and neighborhoods, especially our inner cities, as vital topics are shoved aside and not addressed (education, employment, housing, gentrification, health care, poverty, safety, immigration, and the mental health and drug addiction issues of the homeless). Whether led by whites or blacks, too many cities are not doing well (see my column of October 9, 2019).
Democratic Representative Al Green has said impeachment is imperative as Trump will win re-election if he isn't convicted of Impeachment charges. What is an impeachable offense? Democratic Representative Maxine Waters in February 2017, and former Republican representative Gerald Ford 20 years earlier said it is anything the House of Representatives says is.
Shakespeare used the word "impeachment" in two ways: to "hinder", and to "accuse". The House is using it in both senses, inquiring into accusations that Trump is hindering the United States. If impeachment passes in the House, the Senate would hold a trial. If convicted, Trump would be removed from office. If not convicted, Trump remains in office. Regardless, Republicans want to retain power, Democrats want to get power back.
As of two weeks ago, the House was concentrating on two offenses: the Trump phone call to the Ukraine President (claiming a favor was requested in exchange for a favor), and Trump pulling our armed forces out of the Kurdish part of Syria (with the debate being between the charge of abandoning an ally vs. "end endless wars").
The American Vice President and the President of Turkey negotiated a cease fire, a "pause," for five days, to allow the Kurds to leave Turkey for a safe zone in Syria. The Syrian Kurds, told to negotiate their future, did so, with Syria, Turkey and Russia. Has America lost her reputation as an honest broker for peace among nations? Were Trump and the Vice President duped into betraying the Kurds, allowing Syria, Turkey and Russia to become the new masters of the Middle east? Is Trump crazy, creating a Great Disaster, or is he cleverly negotiating a peace settlement?
As we said in our October 17, 2019 column, this looks like a great travesty in the American experience of governing. We hope we are wrong, but for now it sadly looks as if the institutions of American democracy are disintegrating, collapsing before our very eyes, exposing America to the watching world that wonders if we are no longer the world's prime defender of democracy.
The experts say impeachment depends upon a high percentage of public opinion wanting it. Will Americans view Donald Trump and, by extension, the Republican party, as no longer advocating for democracy? Many wanted to impeach our 44th president, Barach Obama. In the future, will endless impeachment attempts be started by losers as the "new normal" on any future inauguration day?
Republicans, either temporarily or for good, are slowly joining the call for impeachment. Will that continue? Both parties are responsible for our nation being divided and torn apart. We all need to remember Lincoln's use of a slogan from our Revolutionary War: "united we stand, divided we fall." We must seek to unite together, so we can again join Ray Charles in singing "American the Beautiful?"
God bless America.
Stay tuned.
For Ron Edwards biography and list of his books and hosted radio and TV program, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
October, 24, 2019 #20: Impeachment. A Nation Divided
Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues..."
A weekly column by Ron Edwards, as featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
The United States of America is clearly divided. Will one of the key Constitutional checks and balance procedures that is now in play, Impeachment, heal or increase the division? Will the gamble pay off to remove Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States from office or so wound him he won't be re-elected in 2020, or will it act back on the gamble and help re-elect him?
I will be following this closely with a series of columns, especially in terms of how Impeachment will impact Thurgood Marshall's defense of the First Amendment to support the goals of reversing the ill-considered laws that still remain that support racism and segregation in American institutions, governments, and neighborhoods. What will impeachment do for the continuing or lessening of violence in Black neighborhoods? How about regarding Education? Jobs? Wages? Health care?
Is this high stakes "impeachment inquiry" gamble dumb or brilliant? While there have been demands for the impeachment of most presidents, it has reached the level of taking action only four times. Two presidents were actually impeached, Andrew Johnson in 1867 and Bill Clinton in 1998, but both were acquitted by the US Senate and not removed from office. Richard Nixon had Articles of Impeachment filed, but resigned in 1974 before the debate in the House began.
Impeaching Johnson, Nixon and Clinton had bipartisan support. So far, there is no bi-partisan support in the Senate or in public opinion polls, to impeach Trump. Impeachment is a political move, and is, as Gerald Ford stated regarding Nixon, "anything Congress says it is."
The actions of current members of the House of Representatives remind me of a group of nursery school children. A lot of bluster. A lot of subpoenas. A lot of committee meetings.
According to the leadership of the Democratic Party, the Impeachment Inquiry will become Articles of Impeachment by Thanksgiving 2019. Unfortunately for the majority of Americans, no matter how educated they think they are, they do not understand the arduous task of preparing Articles of Impeachment, getting them passed, and then obtaining conviction in the Senate for removal.
If there is a Senate trial of President Trump, it will be presided over by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The prosecutors (called managers), will be members of the Democratic Party controlled House of Representatives, who must make their arguments before their congressional members in the United States Senate.
People would be well advised to read and study the trial documents of the two failed attempts, the one to convict Andrew Johnson in the 19th century and Clinton in the 20th century, for insights regarding impeaching Trump in the 21st century.
These 21st century impeachment proceedings will do wonders for television ratings. People will be glued to their various screens and radios. Note that the Senate majority leader can suspend the proceedings until a later date at any time, under the rules which would be drafted by the Senate majority (Republicans).
This will be quite a show, in all of its televised and Internet glory. But it won't be easy to remove Trump from office. We are on a dangerous road. How will America, a truly divided nation at war with itself, heal itself?
Democratic leaders, after the Mueller report exonerated the collusion charge against Trump, now feel the "whistle blower" complaint will enable a successful impeachment that will change the course of American history. But in what way? How will both sides, in Trump's words, use being "locked and loaded? Will their ambitious quest for recognition and glory serve the best interests of the republic?
Stay tuned.
For Ron Edwards biography and list of his books and hosted radio and TV program, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
Permission is granted to reproduce The Minneapolis Story columns, blog entires and solution papers. Please cite the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder and www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for the columns. Please cite www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for blog entries and solution papers.
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