Reflective Democracy

Our communities face urgent issues. Across Oregon, we struggle with the disparate impacts of an ongoing pandemic, wildfire displacement, economic hardship, racism and more. We desperately need elected leaders who understand these struggles firsthand – those who come from impacted communities themselves and who share our lived experiences. But who can afford to run for office? And if elected, who can afford to serve in office?

How does a community like Homewood, Pennsylvania, address the lead in the soil that’s harming children or the proliferation of vacant lots? Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, a nonpartisan organization that serves as a watchdog against corruption and voter suppression for Pennsylvanians, says it starts with creating civically oriented spaces where people can learn about the democratic process and unite with others experiencing the same struggles. He came to understand this long ago: His drive for social change started when he was a community organizer at Operation Better Block in Homewood, where his job was to form a civic association. He said he realized “civic associations are really the building blocks of a strong democracy.” “If you don’t talk to one another, you can’t begin to hold an elected official or a potential candidate accountable for those issues,” Ali says.

As all of his other efforts to steal the 2020 election failed, Donald Trump summoned, instigated, and ultimately set loose a violent, racist mob on the United States Capitol on January 6th. He is attempting to obstruct the committee’s work.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s swearing-in to the United States Supreme Court represents a watershed moment in our nation’s history. The eminently qualified jurist brings new perspectives as the first former public defender, first former member of the United States Sentencing Commission, and the first Black woman to serve on the High Court since its initial assembly in 1790. Her extensive professional experience in private practice and the federal bench as a trial judge and an appellate judge, and the lived experience she shared at her confirmation hearings, will broaden the perspective of a Court that will now better reflect the diversity and experiences of all Americans.

Today’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade threatens the fundamental rights of every American. The ruling is the culmination of a decades-long strategy to take the Constitution, our Court, and our country backwards on issues of reproductive freedom, and it has profound implications for every other right that could be next on the chopping block. The ruling also exposes the disingenuous sworn testimony of conservative justices during their Senate confirmation hearings when they assured Senators that Roe was established precedent, leaving unsaid their agenda to reverse it.