At Town Hall, Rep. Marshall Challenged on Racist Policies

I asked Rep. Marshall the following question at his Junction City town hall:

Thank you for holding this town hall, Rep. Marshall!

At your town hall two weeks ago, Christopher Renner asked you how you are responding to the racism coming from the Trump administration.  The Manhattan Mercury wrote that you avoided answering that question, despite repeated reminders from the audience.

Racism was also a non-issue to your Republican colleagues in the Senate when they voted unanimously to confirm Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. 

As you know, Jeff Sessions has a past so troubling that when he was nominated by President Trump the Alabama NAACP staged a sit-in in his office.   They remembered well his politically motivated prosecutions intended to suppress the Black vote.    Coretta Scott King testified about those actions in 1986, saying Jeff Sessions had used the legal system to do what Alabama sheriffs had done 20 years earlier with clubs and cattle prods. 

Fast forward to 2017:  At this very moment  there are 3 initiatives coming from Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department that have the appearance of racism—that is, they disproportionately direct negative impacts against communities of color.

Maybe having specific policies to respond to will make it easier for you to answer the question of how you are responding to the racist policies of the Trump administration.

   

1.)     Attorney General Sessions has placed under review and therefore halted all the consent decrees with troubled police departments, where investigations had revealed patterns of corruption and/or excessive brutality, disproportionately directed against citizens of color.   He said he didn’t want police to have to operate in fear of “viral videos.”  Here in Geary County our law enforcement agencies videorecord all interactions.  They say it brings out the best behavior from everyone involved.   But Sessions seems to be calling for a return to policing without accountability. 

2.)     He is bringing back the war on drugs.   The last war on drugs A) was not effective; B) led to mass incarceration & mandatory minimum sentences;  and C) savagely targeted communities of color, even though white people use and sell drugs at a higher rate than people of color.

3.)    And finally, Sessions is establishing a mass deportation force, with 32,000 beds already leased.  Is this force going after the Scandinavian students at American universities who overstay their visas?    On the contrary:  Sessions went to the border with Mexico to say that he vows to stop “the filth” coming across that border. 

All three of these initiatives cut one way, and they all cut against people of color.  

As the representative of all the people of the Big First, how are you responding specifically to these three initiatives?

Thank you.

Margy Stewart

11003 Lower McDowell Rd., Junction City, KS  66441

Margystewart785@gmail.com

Rep. Marshall replied that President Trump is not a racist and that he (Rep. Marshall) is not a racist.   He said he hoped that Jeff Sessions had changed over the years, and that Sessions told him that he had.   Rep. Marshall seemed to think racism was just a matter of what lies in someone's heart--a subjective issue.  Since only God knows the mysteries of the soul, how can anyone make declarative statements about who is and is not a racist?   I hope Rep. Marshall will learn to consider the objective dimensions of racism--results, not intentions.  Institutionalized racism is a matter of policies which disproportionately impact communities of color with negative effects that can actually be measured.  

In response to the 3 policies I mentioned, Rep. Marshall had no response. 

We may have loving hearts, but if we choose not to notice institutionalized racism when it is right in front of us, how can we claim to be innocent of it?   Isn't willful ignorance a matter of intention?

I was so glad to build on Christopher's initial question; I hope other Big Bluestem Rapid Responders will build on mine!   

Constituents Challenge Rep. Marshall at Junction City Town Hall (cont.)

Stan Cox of Salina asks Rep. Marshall if he supports the priorities in Pres. Trump's budget.  Pres. Trump "is a negotiator," Rep. Marshall replies.  "The budget is just a starting point."

Here a well-informed constituent takes issue with Rep. Marshall's proposal to turn patients into consumers and health care into a commodity.

Not caught on camera is a young man who says that Trump's "locker room talk" is not that at all, but rather bragging about sexual assault.   Rep. Marshall starts out his response by putting some daylight between himself and the President but ends by praising and supporting Trump.  Finally, a constituent comments on Trump's choice of opponents of departments to head those departments.

Rep. Marshall Challenged on Coal Waste in Streams: Junction City Town Hall, April 14, 2017

Rep. Marshall told us he approved the dumping of coal waste into streams because he looked into it and the streams involved were not near population centers.  "It won't be harming the environment, " he said.   




Salina resident Genie Boaz then introduced Rep. Marshall to Ecology 101!

Rep. Marshall Challenged on War--Town Hall in Junction City, April 14, 2017

Two citizens challenge Rep. Marshall to consider President Trump's recent military actions and the dangers of war.  They cite mistaken wars of the past:  the Viet Nam War, which cost millions of lives; and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which cost hundreds of thousands and which destabilized the entire region.  They ask, "Have we learned our lesson?" and "Why should it be any different now?"

Rep. Marshall Challenged on Poverty, Again--Junction City, April 14, 2017

The poor are always with Rep. Marshall, apparently, as once again he had to explain his notorious remarks in which he cited Jesus ("the poor are always with us") to justify not expanding Medicaid.

The Big First is the largest food-producing congressional district in the country--and yet there is food insecurity in our district, Rep. Marshall said in his opening remarks.   He then invited Live Well Geary County to make a 30 minute presentation on efforts to get food to hungry people.   These are efforts that square with right-wing philosophy--local, charitable, no entitlements involved.   However, when Miranda Klugascherz, Live Well's Executive Director, returned to the microphone later on as a constituent, the unexpected happened.   She called Marshall out for shaming the poor!    The video below starts right after her remarks.



You can see that Marshall thinks his bad publicity was because people thought he was mean.  He therefore lists his personal good works to prove that he is not.  He has not yet realized that his bad publicity was also because he opposed a structural change in our society that would not only have provided health care but liberated people from having to be objects of charity.

Genie Boaz challenges him on just this point.   How about a living wage--a structural change that would keep people from being hungry in the first place?   Marshall's answer is interesting!  He's a free-market guy, but he did not oppose a state minimum wage--just a federal one.  Maybe he felt it safe to support a state living wage, given the state of our state!

After Marshall boasts about the number of good jobs in the state, Genie asks, "Why is there so much pov--"  My recording cut off the rest of her sentence.  Her whole question was:  "Why is there so much poverty if there are all these good jobs out there?"

His answer:   "We make it too comfortable for them."  Can you believe it?    When it comes to the poor, he just can't speak respectfully.

Salina attorney Janice Norlin challenged Rep. Marshall even further.

She also does pro-bono work for impoverished clients--but that doesn't keep her from opposing cuts to legal aid.

Charity alone cannot meet the existing need, she said.  It's wrong to pretend that it can--or, that it's the fault of the poor if it doesn't.

In other words, Rep. Marshall, it's not all about you and how charitable you are or aren't.   It's not all about the poor and the faults you think they have.   It's about the structure of our society and the need for change so that education, family-supporting jobs, healthcare, and legal aid are available to all.

Tough Questions for Rep. Marshall at Town Hall April 1, 2017

 Next Town Hall:  Friday, April 14, 8:30 a.m. in Junction City, at the C.L. Hoover Opera House, 135 W. 7th St.  

Town Hall with Rep. Marshall in Manhattan on April 1, 2017:  Standing Room Only!  

Standing Room Only at the Town Hall!

On April 1, all the questions, and all of the questioners, were excellent!  

A pretty good description appeared the following day in the Manhattan Mercury, in an articled entitled "Marshall Ducks Questions at Forum."  That article is appended to the end of this post.

I was so happy that my camera picked up three of the presentations, and a fourth arrived via cell phone and YouTube (Thank you, Dr. Sarah!).

First is the statement by Dr. Sarah L. Wesch.  

Dr. Sarah Wesch at Rep. Marshall's Town Hall

Her message to Dr. Marshall?  

"Please be courageous.  Address corporate greed in health care!"

Here is a video of her presentation.  Some of her ad libs are great!  The video is followed by a longer written statement which she left with the congressman:

Dear Congressman Marshall, 

I noticed on your website that you were disappointed with the recent failure of the American Health Care Act. I don’t think you’ll find an American who doesn’t agree with you that health care costs are a serious problem facing our country. My concern is that the failed Republican proposal was aimed solely at reducing the cost of health insurance. While it is essential that we find ways to lower the cost of health insurance, I believe that there is an important distinction between lowering the cost of health insurance and lowering the cost of health care.

We can lower the cost of health insurance in a number of ways. We can simply charge more to those who have chronic illness or who are high risk for needing care, such as pregnant women or the elderly. We can just avoid providing care to those who are too ill or too disadvantaged to have a job with health care benefits. These are some of the ways that we can lower the cost of health insurance. This is what health insurance companies have done for years to help keep their bottom line profitable. And, it has worked quite well, for the insurance companies. In no other country are there for-profit, publicly-traded health insurance companies that skim off 20% of the the national health care spending into their own pockets. In 2014, the CEO of United Health Care came away with 66 million dollars in income. 66 million dollars for one person.

What I want you to consider is how you can make meaningful changes in our healthcare system that will not just bring down insurance premiums, but will lower the cost of the healthcare. The United States spends more per capita on healthcare than any other country yet has some of the worst health outcomes. We have the highest maternal and infant mortality rate among the developed countries. It’s a disgrace.

Please consider introducing money saving changes that can provide universal, affordable health care. This doesn’t mean that we need to extend Medicaid. I would like for our country to learn from the successes of countries like France and Germany, who do not have socialized systems of medicine. They have less government spending on healthcare per capita than the United States. Everyone contributes a percentage of their income and everyone has health coverage of their own choosing. They use private insurance companies. The difference is, their insurance companies are all, private not-for-profit with administrative costs of 5% or less on the basic health plans..

Americans need courageous representatives in the national government who are willing to consider dramatic reform in the way that our healthcare system works. We need to relieve our employers from the burden of providing healthcare. We need to develop a system, working with private, not-for-profit companies that can provide basic health care coverage without taking an absurd amount of profit out of the system. We need to address the price gouging, advertising and administrative costs found in the pharmaceutical industry. We need to streamline our system by using Smartcards for medical records, reducing the staffing needed to manage a healthcare office. And finally, we need to take steps to improve the health of our country by considering how our agricultural subsidies have changed the American diet, leading to world record levels of obesity, which surely contributes to our poor health outcomes and health care costs.

A system that merely focuses on lowering the costs of health insurance is one that pushes our most vulnerable citizens to the side. As health care costs continue to rise, making basic health care a privilege, rather than a right, is a form of social genocide. It’s unsustainable and needs to change.

Thank you for listening to me.
Dr. Sarah L. Wesch

Next, Dr. Ron Young asks Dr. Marshall what he means by "patient-centered care."    How can care be "patient-centered" if people don't have coverage?

Rep. Marshall was not able to put any substance to the slogan.  He answered with another slogan--about doctors and patients making decisions, "not bureaucrats in Washington."  Rep. Marshall should be above empty sloganeering, and I think he knows it, because (if you listen carefully at the end, when Ron offers to help him with substance) Rep. Marshall says, "Touche'."

In this third clip, a member of an immigrant rights group tells of one of the many injustices which his particular organization is trying to combat.  The members of his group, all of whom hold Masters or Ph.D degrees, are here on visas for highly-skilled workers.  They are not allowed to start businesses or change jobs or protest their pay or working conditions.  The man on the left said that too often they are treated "like indentured servants."   The man speaking in this clip says that his wife if not allowed to work part-time, even though her recovery from an illness requires that she slowly build back up to full-time.

Rep. Marshall opened the Town Hall with a Christian prayer, asking us all to bow our heads while he prayed "in Jesus' name."  He asked this of a room that included Jews, Muslims, Hindus, skeptics, agnostics, and atheists, as well as many Christians who just hate to witness, let alone be asked to participate in, a micro-aggression "in Jesus' name" against those of other faiths.

Rep. Marshall said that he was glad he was in several legislative groups that opened every session with prayer.   This assertion was met by the raising of the sign at the right.






This constituent (in the clip below) says (to cheers) that he believes in the separation of church and state, so normally he would not mention religion at a congressman's town hall.    But, he explains, Rep. Marshall's discussion of his legislative prayer-practices has compelled him to contest Rep. Marshall's recent statement that, "as Jesus said," the poor are always with us.   

This article from the Manhattan Mercury gives a good overview!

Remember, next town hall is April 14, 2017, 8:30 a.m., in Junction City at the C. L. Hoover Opera House, 135 W. 7th St.