Our current standing in the world as a nation may be in question due to the lack of political experience which now resides in the West Wing. With that being said, no U.S. citizen should take their 'citizenship' for granted. Let me explain with a recent news article from the New York Times titled "2 American Wives of ISIS Militants Want to Return Home"
AL HAWL CAMP, Syria — She was a 20-year-old college student in Alabama who had become convinced of the righteousness of the Islamic State. So she duped her parents into thinking she was going on a college trip, and instead bought a plane ticket to Turkey with her tuition money.
After being smuggled into the caliphate, the student, Hoda Muthana, posted a photograph on Twitter showing her gloved hands holding her American passport. “Bonfire soon,” she promised.
That was more than four years ago. Now, after being married to three Islamic State fighters and witnessing executions like those she had once cheered on social media, Ms. Muthana says she is deeply sorry and wants to return home to the United States.
Now she claims as shown in the video that she was 'brain-washed' in a online by ISIS to give up her citizenship and move to Syria to join ISIS:
I have little sympathy toward someone who takes for granted their holding a 'U.S. citizenship' status. I am not saying that the United States is the best country in the world. The U.S. definitely has problems. I am speaking from the standpoint of a person who has worn the U.S. Military uniform and served overseas representing the United States of America. To serve and protect our nation will definitely give a person a different perspective. That is not to say that still after serving in the U.S. military, soldiers will not give up their U.S. citizenship -- here is an example out of Kuwait.
I frequented a base during my military service overseas in Kuwait. On that base, there were U.S. Soldiers working for the Kuwait Air Force as civilian contractors working on the F-18 Fighter Jets on loan to Kuwait from the United States Navy. Of course, the soldiers were not wearing U.S. military uniforms nor were the F-18 Fighter Jets the same color or pattern as the U.S. military F-18 Fighter Jets. The Jets on loan were painted blue and grey camouflage paint. What struck me as unusual were the conditions and pay under which the U.S. soldiers were working under.
In order to work on the same Fighter Jet as they would if enlisted in the U.S. Navy, the following conditions were met:
1) Give up U.S. citizenship to work in Kuwait for 4 years.
2) Pay was $25,000.00 tax free per year.
3) Food and Shelter paid for by Kuwait on top of base pay.
After working with the Kuwait Air Force or Kuwait Navy on F-18 Fighter Jets on loan from the U.S. military, a person could potentially earn $100K. Of course, after the 4 year contract is up, the person would have to apply for U.S. citizenship all over again. WOW!
Would you be in favor of earning $100K at the cost of giving up your birthplace citizenship for 4 years? With no guarantee of getting U.S. citizenship back? No way.
Returning to Hoda Muthana stuck over in Syria. Unfortunately, I do not think that she should be granted U.S. citizenship very easily. Possibly on the condition that she serve prison time in Guantanamo prison (short time). That might sound extremely harsh. Although, remember, she made a video (as mentioned in the excerpt above) indicating that she was going to proudly burn her U.S. passport and join I.S.I.S. That has to weigh heavily on her ability to return to the U.S.
Why did she not just leave her husband before moving to Syria? Because she was so-called 'brain washed' online. Sorry not buying it. She could have gone to authorities and expressed concern as to her possible 'brain washing' and unwanted departure. That might have resulted in her giving up any children she had at the time. Although, that would have saved her a great amount of difficulty.
I do not pretend to have all of the correct answers. Although, I would suggest that before you give up your citizenship, think twice (maybe more) about the potential ramifications. After 9/11, the Patriot Act was created to deal with foreign powers who expressed interest in harming U.S. citizens. By joining I.S.I.S. and giving up U.S. citizenship, Hoda Muthana was basically stating that she was joining a group of people who would like to harm the U.S. -- Which is extremely dangerous and serious as a punishable offense. Therefore, she should have to pay a large price in order to drive home the point.
Imagine that you just joined congress, the year is 1955. The nation just experienced a landmark court case 'Brown v. Board of Education' -- 'separate but equal'. Could you predict that over the next 59 years of your service on the nation's capital, you will experience the following events: the creation of the environmental movement, the civil rights movement, the very contested court case 'Roe v. Wade' (abortion rights), destruction of the Berlin Wall, the rise of digital technology, and finally, a bipartisan public acceptance that climate change is not just real but is man-made -- WOW.
Who is John Dingell -- Briefly?
Over the past few days, there have been historical accounts all over the internet describing Senator John Dingell. One article of interest with a brief but concise historical account of John Dingell recently appeared in 'Politico' titled "You’re Living in the America John Dingell Made" -- which accurately reflects the contributions made to the nation on behalf of the 'Junkyard Dog of Congress' ( a moniker attributed to him by the 'Detroit Free Press'). His love of the nation was unparalleled and reflective in his 59 years of service in congress. There are two paragraphs out of the article which is worth reading but highlight the enormity of his contributions to the nation:
Modern America is as much a creation of John Dingell’s life work as anyone’s. If you or a parent or grandparent have relied on Medicare or Medicaid; if you’ve seethed about the lack of gun control; if you’ve cheered that segregation of public places is illegal and employment discrimination is banned; if you’re thankful for the continued existence of the U.S. auto industry; if you’ve raged about gas-guzzling cars contributing to climate change; if your health insurance is purchased on the Obamacare exchanges; if you’ve swum in lakes or rivers or oceans free from toxic pollution; if you’ve drunk a glass of or bathed your children in tap water with confidence that it’s free from contamination; then John Dingell played a role in your life.
Then followed later in the article by the second shown below:
Among the legislation he authored or led the charge in passing: the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Water Quality Act of 1965 and the Clean Air Act of 1990. He worked to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which resulted in a bruising primary fight and the burning of a cross on Dingell’s lawn for the second time in his life (his father had been an anti-Klan activist, and even as an old man, John Jr. remembered being 5 or 6 years old and looking out the front window of his family’s home to see a flaming cross). “Of all the bills I’ve played a part in helping pass into law,” he wrote in his 2018 memoir, The Dean, “that remains the one I’m most proud of.”
The reason why I chose the two paragraphs above were to show the inevitable touch of John Dingell in all of our lives (to some degree) along with his remarkable care for the environment. As stated, he authored or played a pivotal role in passing the following environmental acts: (1) Clean Water Act of 1972, (2) the Endangered Species Act of 1983, (3) the Water Quality Act of 1965, and the Clean Air Act of 1990.
I was struck to see the legislation (issues) for which he has been fighting for are still in contention to this day. Modest improvements have been made, but there has been a large struggle for change over the past few decades with regard to saving the environment and the planet for that matter. He has not always sided with environmentalists either. Although, in sum total, he has fought vigorously for the environment. Currently, we are at a cross section where change toward reducing our dependence on fossil fuels while increasing our usage of renewable energy sources is front and center stage.
Green New Deal?
Recently, a new resolution titled "Green New Deal" has been circulating in congress over the last week. First, the "Green New Deal" is arriving in congress at an unprecedented time in history. Although, the rise of environmental policy has been emerging over decades in congress with Senator John Dingell pushing forward the addition of new regulations to move the needle of progress a tiny bit further. Currently, we are living in an unprecedented time in history. I will come back to this fact shortly, but let's return to the initial reaction of the unveiling of the "Green New Deal."
"I really don't like their policy of taking away your car, of taking away your airplane rights, of 'let's hop a train to California,' of you're not allowed to own cows anymore!" Trump said at a large rally Monday night in El Paso, Texas.
"It would shut down American energy, which I don't think the people in Texas are going to be happy with," Trump said elsewhere in the speech, eliciting cheers from the audience of more than 5,000. "It would shut down a little thing called air travel. How do you take a train to Europe?"
Trump appears to have seized on a line from an informal page of FAQs about the Green New Deal, released last week by Ocasio-Cortez, one of the resolution's co-sponsors, which specifically referred to cows and airplanes.
The blowback and support for the 'Green New Deal' is reported by Politico Energy' as follows:
A GREEN NEW DAY: The Green New Deal resolution sets out aggressive goals to achieve net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions in a decade, as well as a broad set of other transformative economic changes. Michael Grunwald makes the case that even though enacting would be impossible, the resolution still has two useful purposes for Democrats.
"It's primarily a political manifesto, a messaging device designed to commit the Democratic Party to treating the climate crisis like a real crisis, pressuring its presidential candidates to support radical transformation of the fossil-fueled economy," he writes. "At the same time, the Green New Deal is a policy proposal — or at least a sketch of one, a way to launch a substantive debate over how Democrats will attack the crisis if they do regain the White House." Read more.
THE NEXT STEPS are now in the hands of House Democrats, who only this week began to reckon with climate change at the committee level. Most House Democrats were quick to laud the goals of the resolution, but soon split on whether they'd formally back the measure, as Pro's Eric Wolff, Anthony Adragna and Zack Colman report.
Enter the select panel on climate change: Members of the new House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis say they're aiming to use the resolution as a template — even though the panel doesn't have the power to move legislation. Still, they plan to build public support for aggressive policies, as Anthony reports for Pros.
"What I hope this committee does is develop a very ambitious and very comprehensive road map to decarbonize our economy," said Rep. Jared Huffman, a panel member and Green New Deal co-sponsor.
I show the above excerpts not to lead the reader into a debate over the specific wording of the "Green New Deal" or the way out of 'climate crisis' over the next few decades. What I am here to show that the fact that there is a "Green New Deal" being discussed in congress at the moment is a testament toward the current status of the nation with regard to climate change. There is a bipartisan support -- finally -- for change toward a renewable future. Further, there are public statements emerging from Republicans about the need to move toward combating climate change (along with an admission that climate change is caused by man). WOW.
Last week, there were three different hearings in congress over the need to take action to combat climate change. This is unprecedented for both parties to admit publicly that climate change is man made and needs to be dealt with immediately. Of course, no one needs to show the obvious evidence on display around the world: increased frequency of storms, fires, population extinction, landmass destruction for agriculture, etc. -- to name a few.
The fact that there were three landmark hearings last week (and one this week), is a sign that many are stepping up and voicing their support toward a renewable (sustainable) energy future. The actual plan may change, but the direction toward a more sustainable future is inevitable and has gained a large amount of support across congress - which is greatly encouraging.
If you do not listen to any appreciable length of the above testimony, be sure to listen to the opening statements from both democrats and republicans -- which are extremely encouraging. Climate change impacts everyone. The time has come to take action.
Again, the opening statements were encouraging regarding the need to act immediately along with the bipartisan support.
The third hearing has been rescheduled for this week (Feb 13th). The House, Science, Space, and Technology Committee is holding a hearing titled "The State of Climate Science and Why it Matters." Bipartisan effort shows that finally action is being taken. Not only taken, but taken seriously and publicly announcing the need to take such action seriously -- which is a marked improvement over the last few decades.
Which brings us to the end and final note. Senator John Dingell lived until the ripe age of 92. As stated above, his life was full of great adventure and change. Congressional change which will has helped and will shape our society for decades to come. Environmentalists such as Senator Dingell have paved the way forward by laying the difficult initial ground. Just because there is opposition, the following shows that we (as in the U.S.) is late to the game and implementing action:
JOHN DINGELL DIES AT 92: Former Democratic Rep. John D. Dingell Jr., the longest-serving member of Congress whose tenure stretched from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama, died on Thursday at 92. ME offers condolences to his family, and is reminded of the prescience of his take on how the fight over climate change would unfold.
He warned in 2008 that Congress needed to act on climate change because combating it under the Clean Air Act could be a "glorious mess." (Pros will recall ex-EPA chief Scott Pruitt frequently cited that phrase to help justify his deregulatory agenda.) "It seems to me to be insane that we would be talking about leaving this kind of judgment, which everybody tells us has to be addressed with great immediacy, to a long and complex process of regulatory action, litigation upon litigation, and a lack of any kind of speedy resolution to the concerns we have about the issue of global warming," he said at a hearing that year.
His prognostication proved correct. When cap-and-trade failed to pass Congress, the Obama administration turned to existing CAA authorities to target greenhouse gases. Now — 11 years after he said EPA would be "tarred and feathered" if it tried to tackle climate change on its own — Obama's landmark carbon rules for power plants and autos have been blocked in the courts and are being rolled back by the Trump administration. "Structuring a comprehensive climate change program is a responsibility for the Congress," Dingell said in 2008. He died just hours after congressional Democrats unveiled their Green New Deal.
As I have written before on these pages, change is inevitable considering the forward momentum of the international governments. The investment capital is present and growing to match the need. The workforce is present to match the need. Elevating skilled labor to match the renewable energy sector demand will enable previously back breaking jobs to be changed out with new jobs -- jobs which match the changing technology landscape of the future. As automation plays a greater role in our society, the skilled labor can continue to educate to do more complicated jobs. Jobs such as monitoring and troubleshooting robotic teams - as Amazon does currently.
Regardless, the need for new jobs is present and will be matched by the growing demand of the renewable energy sector. The total overhaul of infrasture in our nation (existing buildings, landscapes, etc.) will require large amounts of labor. Senator John Dingell has laid down to rest in peace. Ironically, he did so after learning that his job here on Earth had been accomplished with a bipartisan deal -- "Green New Deal" being unveiled. He will not be forgotten as his work will play a more vital role as the world moves toward a more sustainable and healthy environment for all humans to live. Thank you Senator John Dingell.
