15 Minutes with Bernie Sanders by Alex Paramo

As the Author of From the Left Field Bleachers, my sports blog that begins with sports and examines social issues, you should know that I am unabashedly progressive. I have been since I became politically/ideologically conscious as an undergraduate at Queens College at the City University of New York (CUNY). In college I was exposed to the thinking of “radical” professors from the University of California system who migrated to CUNY because it was one of the few free public institutions left.

Shifting Radicals

I came to realize that these professors were not radical at all in their belief that public learning institutions should be of the highest quality and should be free to all, regardless of income. Another one of their so-called “radical” beliefs is that all the residents of our great country should have free access to quality health care. Also on their so-called radical list is the belief that no one should work a full-time job and not be able to feed themselves or their families.

I discovered that their “radical” beliefs/convictions/ideas were not “radical” and rather we based upon a principled belief in human rights. These ideas were based on the founding documents of the USA, the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Of course we know that all people are created equal and therefore should not have their basic unalienable rights impinged upon.

The Real Radicals

The real radicals are those folks that believe that we all need to fend for ourselves regardless of circumstance. They believe that profits are more important than people. They believe that folks should not receive public assistance but corporations should. They believe that people should not be entitled to receive a living wage, while it is fine for corporations to hide their billions in foreign tax havens. They believe that people should have to navigate all kinds of obstacles to vote but reserve the rights for folks to walk in to a gun-show and purchase a military assault rifle without extensive back-ground checks. They say they believe in personal liberty but they do want the government to dictate what women do with their bodies. The real radicals are those who have been duped by the sociopaths that dominate our corporate and banking leadership positions into voting against their best interests.

Weekend at Bernie’s

I have been an ardent Bernie Sanders supporter for many years. I have admired his ideas/ideals from afar and have been exposed the Senator thanks to the Thom Hartmann show. Bernie Sanders came to New Mexico this past weekend and through a combination of dedication, perseverance, luck and a 9 year old little girl’s tears, myself and my little girl Marisol were able to meet Bernie and engage in a 12 person Q&A session with the Senator. Marisol asked him what he would do to alleviate the homelessness epidemic. He answered that he would create quality affordable housing and push through the living wage.

I always explain to Marisol that the movement is not about Bernie per se rather it is a movement to reclaim our basic human rights that begins with Bernie and will be fulfilled by her generation.  I decided not to ask him a question. I didn’t not ask him a question because in my heart I already knew the answer, and that is why I support Bernie and his movement, our movement.
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Alex Paramo is a native New Yorker of Colombian descent. He is an Author and Co-Founder of Community Publishing. He currently resides in Albuquerque, NM. Read More about him here.

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