Think about these questions as you mark your ballots

“Voting is an expression of our commitment to ourselves, each other, this country and this world.”

— Sharon Salzberg, American author/teacher

Hello Downstream,

With ghosts and goblins, princesses and cowboys arriving tomorrow — and the terrifying prospect of election night next Tuesday — let’s take one last look, shall we?

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Do you know the word chattel?

The formal definition is that it represents ‘a comprehensive category of goods relating to movable property’.

But it is also the definition of slavery; that someone can be considered the legal property of another.

I bring this up because American women are being transformed into human property before our eyes – thanks to a Supreme Court ruling and draconian laws that now limit their right to control their own bodies.

Doesn’t that fit the definition of property, of slavery?

Of course, Michigan voters established a woman’s right to control her own body, but that is not the case in many other states, pushing women who suffer from serious medical conditions to travel great distances for care – or suffer disastrous consequences.

You’ve heard and read the stories, so I don’t need to tell them here.

But I have a very simple question leading into next week’s election: Do you respect the women in your family?

If you do, then…?

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Are you a member of a trade union family?

I come from one country (auto workers and steel workers) and so does my wife (miners).

I was even a Teamster for a short time after I got out of the military.

As a result, I was impressed by Joe Biden’s walk with UAW strikers at GM’s Willow Run plant a year ago — the first president to ever walk a picket line.

I was also impressed (in a different way) when Trump gave a speech to a non-union business a day later – incredibly asking for the UAW’s endorsement.

Can you spell chutzpah?

Last Wednesday, U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell and Rashida Tlaib, and state Rep. Jaime Churches of Wyandotte (all Democrats) joined UAW officials in supporting the union’s complaints against Stellantis over promises made about the Trenton location as part of last year’s contract negotiations.

“Stellantis signed that contract and UAW signed that contract in good faith,” Dingell said, “because commitments made are legally obligations that must be fulfilled.”

This is how you fight for union families – and for the middle class.

Are you in one or the other – or both?

If so, your vote can help protect your way of life.

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‘Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?

Trump asked his Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, in response to Black Lives Matter demonstrators.

And Gen. Mark Milley said Trump wanted to “crack the skulls” and “beat the shit out of” protesters marching against police brutality and systemic racism.

But the most remembered story came on June 1, 2020, when peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters gathered in Lafayette Square Park across from the White House were forcibly and violently removed to allow Trump to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to hold up a Bible hold (upside down). in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Oh, and don’t forget that Trump launched his first campaign questioning Barack Obama’s birthright.

Recently, of course, Trump has attacked Kamala Harris’ legacy; that he had “read where she was not black,” and then “read that she was black.”

He concluded with, “Both were okay for me.”

If you are an African American, my question is: are you okay with this?

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My neighbors are from the US territory of Puerto Rico.

I haven’t asked them yet, but I was wondering what their response was to a so-called comedian who said at the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden last week:

“I don’t know if you know this, but there is literally a floating waste island in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

Yes, Trump’s campaign protested this comment – a day later – but Trump himself never did that.

The problem is that such a comment falls well within Trump’s nativist bent: anyone who isn’t from the United States is suspect.

(Yes, he is ignorant: Puerto Ricans are American citizens, you stupid…)

So, if you’re Puerto Rican, how do you feel about the election right now?

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Continuing a theme I have written repeatedly in these pages: we are all immigrants.

Yet Trump’s deranged syndrome continues to drive him to demonize those who come from elsewhere. (Just like his family didn’t?)

There simply isn’t enough space here to document all the lies Trump has spouted over the years, all with the intention of dividing us.

So extreme (and crazy and weird) has he gotten that he’s latched onto one of the most laughable rumors ever: immigrants in an Ohio town eating people’s pets.

The first time I heard this I almost spit up my coffee.

Unfortunately, Trump’s attacks on immigrants are no laughing matter – he goes back to ripping children from their parents’ arms and placing the children (some as young as two years old) in cages.

Remember that definition of movable?

Yes, we need to improve our immigration system, but we don’t need to demonize immigrants while we do it.

Of course, if you’re not a citizen, you can’t vote, but if you are…

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Our First Amendment is clear: You have a fundamental right to exercise your choice of religion – or no religion at all.

But since he came on the scene, Trump has demonized Muslims.

He initially proposed establishing a national register of Muslims and banning immigration from Muslim countries.

But today, many in the Arab-American community view Trump through an Israeli-Palestinian lens; that he will somehow solve a problem that has plagued the region since the founding of the Jewish state in 1947.

Of course, Trump has been tempted to say “only I can fix it” – whatever “it” is – but he never has, and he has yet to articulate what he would do differently from the fourteen presidents to date came.

(And that number includes Trump’s first term, during which he solved nothing.)

Still, he hopes those desperate for a solution will see him as a “why not?” option.

My question remains: why?

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The abbreviation LGBTQ+ can be confusing for many of my generation; we knew ‘gay’ and ‘straight’.

These days, however, I am acutely aware that our world does not fit into neat binary (no pun intended) choices; as is the case with all life, we find ourselves in the gray areas.

But Trump doesn’t feel that way at all.

According to the ACLU, his administration has “engaged in a sustained, years-long effort to erase protections for LGBTQ people.”

“This included an effort to ‘eliminate transgender,’ eroding protections for transgender students and workers and weakening access to gender-affirming health care that most transgender people already struggled to access.”

Over the years, my wife and I have learned that many of our friends have family members who live in those non-binary worlds – and have faced discrimination (and worse).

I’m curious to see how they will vote.

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According to several reports, Trump says he wants “10% global tariffs, which would worsen inflation; he wants to deport 20 million people, which would worsen inflation; he wants to politicize the Federal Reserve, which would worsen inflation; he wants to devalue the dollar, which would worsen inflation.”

Top economists even say that Trump’s economic plan would “shrink the nation’s gross domestic product by $8 trillion. That is more than a quarter of the country’s economic output in 2024.

“At the end of the (next) term,” they continue, “prices would be about 25% higher. Employment would decline. The dollar would sink.

“Apocalyptic stuff,” they conclude.

So if you don’t like the price of things now, a Trump election could make things MUCH worse.

Yes, that’s what we want.

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Finally, do you believe in America and what it stands for?

Do you believe in the rule of law – or in the divine right of kings; democracy or fascism?

We can – and should – debate the issues I’ve raised on this page (and many others), but how can we hope to do that in a future where Donald Trump reigns supreme?

He’s already told us what he’ll do if elected – so why not take his word for it?

In fact, this is the paradox you face as a Trump supporter: If you believe in everything he says he will do to make America better, then you must also believe in everything he says he will do to make our democracy better. destroy and create new democracies. a fascist people.

If you want one, you get another.

I think by now you know where I stand on issues facing our society: a fiscal conservative (spend money wisely) and a social liberal (everyone has value).

But in the end it’s all about character.

I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020 — he was and remains deeply unfit to lead our nation — and I certainly didn’t vote for him this time (via absentee ballot).

Although Martin Luther King Jr. talked about race, he famously said that he hoped for a future in which people would be judged “by the content of their character.”

I agree, that’s why I voted for Kamala Harris, and for what it’s worth, you should do the same.

Craig Farrand is the former editor-in-chief of The News-Herald Newspapers. He can be reached at [email protected].

How to vote

As a reminder, polling stations open at 7am next Tuesday on Election Day and close at 8pm. You can vote if you are in line when the polls close that day.

If you vote absentee, your ballot must be received by 8:00 PM on Election Day – by mail or in person.

If you do not have an absentee ballot and would like one, you must request one by Friday, November 1 at 5 p.m.

If you have not yet registered to vote, you can do so until 8:00 PM on Election Day.

In addition to absentee voting, you can also vote early in Michigan. Check with your city or municipality for the locations.

To help you figure all this out, click on the Michigan Secretary of State’s voting website mvic.sos.state.mi.us/Home/Index.

You can also view your ballot paper on that site before you vote. (Suggestion: take notes and take them with you to the voting booth.)

Remember, our democracy won’t work if you don’t participate.