October 11, 2017 cover photo: Tom as the “good shepherd” stands above politics.
January 4, 2017 cover photo: Family, flags, GOP Speaker Ryan, fake smiles.
Do these photos reflect a change in campaign strategy? Is Tom Reed distancing himself from Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, and the GOP? One wonders.
Whenever I switch cars, I have this odd experience; maybe you can relate. You’re driving around in your new vehicle, and suddenly you see your same make and model EVERYWHERE! “I didn’t know there were so many of these on the road!” you think. It’s a weird little consumer-based “empathy,” so odd, because we don’t usually think of empathy as having component parts, in this case recognition sans emotion or outreach.
Empathy, in each of us, has its dimensions, and they increase with aging, as we experience struggle, triumph, love, and especially loss. As an example, if you have lost a loved one to cancer, and later one of your friends announces that someone s/he loves has been diagnosed, you feel for your friend. You remember every moment of your family’s agony, from the medical appointments and the hospital smells to faint glimmers of hope you leapt at, to the day you sat down with yourself and said, “This is happening.” Then the aftermath, what that loss did to your family. Life goes on, but that loss stands like a stone arch between you and the person you were before. You know the dimensions of your empathy around cancer.
Imagine an unspeakable family trauma that lasts a lifetime. What would be the dimensions of grief and of empathy resulting from that? I have a friend whose brother suffered traumatic brain injury at birth, such that he has been institutionalized his entire life. Not only does he require constant professional care, but he is, for all intents and purposes, unresponsive. She loves him.
For a young girl in a lively Irish/Italian family, it must have been hard to accept or even comprehend how this boy could be so set apart from his own loved ones, missing the events, the personalities, the memories. As she grew older, she must have begun to calculate all that he was missing against the various opportunities that came her way. I believe that early on she dedicated herself to living a bigger, more aspirational and generous life, as if to live for the two of them, herself and her beloved brother. She knew that a life dedicated to accumulating wealth would not be a worthy choice for the two of them. Having never not known profound grief and its counterpart, selfless, helpless love, she chose a life that matched the dimensions of her empathy.
Her name is Tracy Mitrano. A long life of service as a sister, a mother, a teacher, and a leader has brought her to this time when she offers her hard-earned education and experience, her (desperately needed) expertise in cyber security policy, her insight as an historian, and most of all, her profound empathy as a fellow traveler to us, the voters of NY Congressional District 23. Mitrano wants to represent the Southern Tier, Finger Lakes, and Western NY in Congress so she can speak for us in the place where systemic change becomes possible according to our system: the U.S. House of Representatives.
I can hear the backlash already. She’s strumming on our heart strings! Using her brother as a tool in her campaign. She is not. If you believe that you have to be a scoundrel to want to work in government, I’m sorry for you. Tracy does not know I am writing about this, and I hope she will forgive the intrusion into her privacy. But I’ve been watching her for a few years now, trying to understand what it is about this person that is so magnetic. I have often encouraged her by saying “when people meet you, they will vote for you.” I believe this, and here’s why: yes, her intelligence is striking; yes, her resume is formidable; but it’s her empathy that pulls you in. Not that she’s a “bleeding heart,” whatever that is. She’s a determined, talented woman who sees and feels the suffering of others and believes she can make things better. This is the fire in her belly. If you’ve paid attention to her dizzying schedule and her exhaustive understanding of issue after issue, you know there’s a fire there. If you haven’t, do yourself a favor. Get out to an event near you and meet Tracy Mitrano. You may end up feeling as if you’ve known her all along. Empathy works that way.
This article was written by Lee Marcus is a writer, artist, and activist who lives in Steuben County.
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I think an educational dollar going to a school resource officer would be a good use of an educational dollar.–Tom Reed at Enfield as reported by Matt Steecker in the Elmira Star-Gazette
Earlier today, I had the pleasure of speaking with students at Red Jacket High School where we discussed current events and the Capitol Hill Challenge with the SIFMA Foundation.–Rep. Tom Reed, facebook 5/4/18
Thinking I might like to teach HS Mathematics, I once took an introductory course in Education. The professor explained that while colleges attempt to graduate effective teachers, the biggest influence on how teachers teach is the teacher’s own experience in the classroom. Teachers tend to teach as they were taught.
It is too much to expect that all teachers will be knowledgeable, fair-minded, and effective. One must take the good with the bad. Teachers have varied experiences and political views. However, one might hope that education isn’t too much influenced by special interests.
It is reasonable to expect education to be unbiased by special interests. I am uneasy when Tom Reed addresses students on any subject, because I fear his views are unduly influenced by self-interest. I know from having heard him on the subject of economics, that he will tell students things that are untrue. If and when he speaks about school safety, I have no doubt his views are unduly influenced by the NRA.
At Red Jacket HS, Tom reportedly spoke to students about SIFMA’s Capitol Hill Challenge. “SIFMA is the voice of the U.S. securities industry.” Neither SIFMA nor members of Congress belong in schools. Both represent special interests.
The SIFMA Foundation’s annual Capitol Hill Challenge™ (CHC), presented by the Charles Schwab Foundation, is an exciting national financial education competition for junior high and high schools that reaches all 50 U.S. states and their members of Congress. CHC matches Members of Congress with students, teachers, and schools competing in The Stock Market Game™ in their respective district or state. Student teams manage a hypothetical $100,000 online portfolio and invest in real stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Since its inception in 2004, CHC has made 3,800 matches of U.S. Representatives and Senators with schools, encompassing more than 103,000 students across the country.
The Capitol Hill Challenge sounds like fun, but the fun overshadow the financial interest of the securities business–there is a danger that this is indoctrination rather than education.
When Tom Reed does speak to students, I hope their teachers take care to explain that his views need to be examined critically. Being elected to office doesn’t make one an expert on any subject.
News release from John Plumb’s Campaign for to represent the NY23rd Congressional District
JAMESTOWN—Fourth generation Western New Yorker, Navy Reserve Commander, and Democratic candidate for Congress John Plumb today responded to news of a 
Washington, DC meeting between GOP Presidential hopeful Donald Trump and three-term Congressman Tom Reed:
“With his dangerous rhetoric, proposals to expand the use of torture, and threats to target civilians, Donald Trump is weakening our standing internationally and is putting our military men and women at risk in every geographic combatant commander’s area of responsibility around the globe.
It’s clear that by endorsing Donald Trump last week and meeting with him in Washington today, Tom Reed fully supports Trump’s reckless rhetoric that makes our country less safe. This isn’t really surprising, as Reed himself, a New Yorker, threatened our national security by voting to shut down the Department of Homeland Security.
Western New York and the Southern Tier deserves a leader who will put region before politics, especially when it comes to protecting our national security – unlike Tom Reed. As someone who has defended this country under the water, in the Middle East and at the highest levels of national security, my highest priority is keeping Americans safe. That’s what I’ve done my entire career and what I will continue to do in Congress.”
John Plumb is a fourth generation Western New Yorker, Navy Reserve Commander, and Democratic candidate for Congress in NY-23. Over the past two decades has served the country – first as a submarine officer in the Navy, later as an official at the Department of Defense, and most recently as director of defense policy and strategy at the National Security Council. He has not previously held public office. Use of his military rank and job titles does not imply endorsement by the United States Navy or the Department of Defense.
Background: Congressman Reed en route to meeting with Donald Trump. Via @LukeRussert https://twitter.com/LukeRussert/status/711946358039650304
For the 2018 mid-term elections, an unprecedented number of women are standing, with more than 250 in the running for Congressional office following the selection of candidates in the primaries.–BBC News
Congress poorly reflects the population; in particular, women are underrepresented. The chart gives data on ethnicity; a chart which showed representation in Congress by party affiliation would show another disparity–due to gerrymandering, voter suppression, and other factors, Democrats (liberals, moderates, progressives) are underrepresented.
Tom Reed says he cares, but in eight years has done nothing to show that he does. NY-23 remains an economic backwater. His campaigns are funded by out-of-state special interests. It is wrong to reward a self-serving politician. Let’s give Tracy Mitrano a chance to show what she can do for us.
In The First Circle, a novel by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, Stalin suspects there is a spy in the Soviet Foreign Ministry. Scientists, working as slaves in a government laboratory, are asked to identify the spy by analyzing voice recordings.
The scientists report they have narrowed the suspects down to three. Good enough is the response from the dictator–we just shoot all three.
The Trump Administration reportedly has started a witch hunt to identify the author of the inflammatory NY Times editorial using textual analysis. This is unlikely to be conclusive–they may identify a number of suspects. What then, fire them all?
I don’t understand the intent of the unknown author. If part of a clique working to protect the republic, why blow the whistle?
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This article was submitted by Lee Marcus of Arkport.
America is the country where children are routinely shot dead in school.
Woke now?
I’ll tell you who’s woke. Steve Bannon. Last week, Bannon announced that what we’re seeing today is the end of patriarchy, and it’s going to be bigger than the tea party movement!
He’s right about the patriarchy, even if the comparison to the tea party is hilarious. Any movement in the direction of equality between the sexes is, of course, a threat to patriarchy. You can pick your moment in modern history: was it 1848, when American women (settlers), (inspired by the power, dignity, and true equality of the women of the Haudenosaunee nation) met in Seneca Falls to introduce the Declaration of Sentiments and demand the right to vote; or in 1920, when we finally got it? Was it the 1970s, when women met in CR (consciousness raising) groups and again took the revolutionary step of comparing notes about the lives we were living, turning that into a sweeping liberation movement? Or was it in the aftermath of the 2016 election, when American women saw a presidential candidate more qualified than any other in modern memory defeated by one less qualified than, not only any candidate in history, but arguably any average child. Pick your moment when you think the patriarchy began to falter.
But Bannon was talking about the MeToo movement. For him, the idea that women’s bodies are no longer up for grabs just rocks his world. It’s even more revolutionary than white supremacists walking around with tea bags dangling from their headbands and spouting anti-black, anti-Muslim, anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, anti-woman, anti-education, anti-free press, anti-voter … you get my meaning. It’s big.
Do you think it’s possible for white men (and the remaining obedient women) to do something other than spew hate and shoot bullets? Where is the male counterpart to the Haudenosaunee woman in this story, the role model of male decency, fairness, and “good mind?” Because it’s all too obvious that we’re raising white men for a world of privilege and entitlement that does not exist, and when they get old enough to realize this, they go haywire. Fundamentalism/pornography/domestic violence/pedophilia. Undermining everything America has stood for with last-ditch efforts like the tea party, a regular smorgasbord of politicized hatred. Fantasizing about going down in a blaze of bullets and taking a dozen or so innocents with them. How long before one of them decides to shoot the moon and take us all, all of humanity, with him?
The group that Americans and people all over the world have to fear is white men. If you want to dispute that, consider this: how many Muslim men with explosives in their shoes does it take to make us all take off our shoes in the airport? One. What percentage of all rapes need to be by Latinos before we commit to building a $33 billion wall to keep them out? 9%? So let me ask you, how many mass murders will it take before we are able to identify the demographic group responsible? If the unhinged actions of one Muslim can be used to smear 1.8 billion Muslims around the world, why are the deaths of thousands of innocents not enough to even whisper the words “white male?” Have you ever heard a broadcaster say those words?
In 1963, Betty Friedan published a book called The Feminine Mystique, which codified exactly how femininity had been distorted to keep women powerless. Fast-forward 50 years. We’re way ready for The Masculine Mystique. Isn’t there a single male writer who can figure out what’s going on with white men? Why are they killing innocent people in numbers that make the combined casualties of all of our wars pale by comparison? Women may think we know the answer, but that’s not going to help. Men need men to figure this out, man up, and solve it.
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Ryan Lizza, writing in the Jan. 22nd issue of “The New Yorker,” tells us that voters no longer care much about ideology–who is the most conservative–but about class. Trump has stolen the show by appealing to a large class of disgruntled voters whom he says are getting a raw deal from their representatives, the political elites. Lizza may be right; class resentment may explain not only Trump’s success, but Bernie Sanders’ as well.
Lizza writes “Central to his (Trump’s) platform is his insistence that Americans are being cheated. To protect themselves, he says, they need to hire someone who will cut them a better deal.” Trump’s views needn’t reflect Republican orthodoxy (and they don’t) because it is no longer about orthodoxy, but about disenfranchisement and disgruntlement of the 99%. Trump’s rivals are attacking fruitlessly when they talk ideology, Trump’s supporters don’t care what he believes, right or wrong, but they do believe he will fight for them.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/01/the-duel-faceoff-ryan-lizza
This article was written by Cath Kestler, a nurse and Silver Creek resident and a friend of New NY 23rd This past Saturday there was a packed house at the Town Hall meeting with Tom Reed;most of you will … Continue reading
Posted in Health Care Tagged Big Pharma, Health Insurance, Lobbyists, Tax Payers Pay for Research
The following was written by Jim Carr, Chair of the Chemung County Democratic Committee Ethics reform is a hot topic in Albany, yet our local legislators have not expressed publicly their positions. The key local player is Senator Tom O’Mara. … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics, NYS Government Tagged Conflict of Interest, Lobbyists, NYS Government Ethic Problem, Sen Tom O’Mara
It’s the First Amendment For A Reason!
