Social Justice - A Conversation

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Charles Stanton 0:16
Good evening. My name is Charles Stanton. I'm on the faculty of the Boyd School of Law and the UNLV Honors College. My

Kira Kramer 0:23
name is Kira Kramer. I'm a fourth year honors college student, a public health major and a pre law student. And this

Charles Stanton 0:30
is social justice a conversation, a conversation

where Well, welcome back, everybody. This is Professor Charles along with my cohort, Kiera Kramer, here to discuss the many activities of the Trump administration and beyond in our in our little program today. And I think I wanted to talk about, I call it the agenda of inhumanity, and I say inhumanity because so many of the recent decisions that have come down the pike from the current administration really indicate a complete disinterest or caring as to the people the administration and the President is supposed to serve, and we'll get to a few of them right off the bat, one of the one of the first ones, which I actually, I actually thought I was misreading what I was reading, has to do with the Veterans Administration. Now we know, of course, that there have been massive cuts in the Veterans Administration. We know also that a lot of the people who work there, who have been let go, were veterans themselves. So of course, there's the there's that complete insensitivity to those people. But there was an article in New York Times having to do with the psychiatric services that veterans receive now in most sane situations. No pun intended. When a person sees a psychiatrist, therapist, what have you there is the unwritten rule, of course, that what, what is discussed between those two people is a private matter and is not something that the world knows about for obvious reasons. And the most obvious reason, of course, is that when, when, when, when, once, when somebody needs psychiatric counseling, the most important thing to get that person to be able to discuss what what bothers them is the trust in their therapist and and the setting that they're in. So one would obviously want a setting which is comfortable for the for the patient, and also convey a convey an environment of trust and security. Well anyway, for reasons that truly escaped me, they're trying to do away with that in the Veterans Administration. So what you have basically now is in a number of these, a number of these facilities, basically a huge room, not individual rooms, which is the way it should be. A huge room people not spaced apart that far. And basically you're talking to your therapist, psychiatrist, what have you in that setting, and you might have 1015, 2025, patients at one time, each talking to a therapist so everybody can hear everybody else's situation, and obviously conveys an atmosphere that would pretty much make anybody uncomfortable. But this is, this has become the new norm. And what's even, what's even crazier about it, which although it's it's crazy to begin with, is that when people complained who were working there, obviously, for obvious reasons. And a lot of, a lot of people who, who were people that were fired, and a lot of people who want to leave now for, for obvious reasons. I don't know why you want to work in such an environment. They have, they have complained about the working conditions and the the therapists were told they were they were given two choices. The one choice was to to build a partition, to build a partition where they were working, or to get a white noise device and block out and block out the other the other patients problems. I just

Kira Kramer 4:13
think, like you said, the inhumanity and the disgrace that it is to treat our veterans who have sacrificed their lives to uphold the morals that this country prides itself upon upholding, which it's currently not upholding whatsoever, but regardless what many of our veterans fought for, which was our rights and freedoms are being stripped from them, their right to privacy, to confidentiality, and I would even argue, to life and their pursuit of happiness is very much threatened as a result of these injustices. And we're not just going to see it in the cuts to the VA, but we'll see it very soon here in our classrooms, when students with unique needs and who may not be able to. Learn in the same way that other students do, and pretty much any student in general will pretty much receive the bare minimum of what a teacher can provide in a large class size, which undermines the whole ability of our country to like move forward and continue making progress and solving the big problems that we are faced with every single day. We need our young, our youth and our young minds to be able to think critically. And cuts to the Department of Education simply undermine that. Yeah, yeah.

Charles Stanton 5:30
It's um, it's extraordinarily disturbing. And you get the idea from from from what they're doing in their regard to the VA, pretty much exactly what you said, which is a really, a disregard and an indifference to the sacrifice that these people made. A lot of these people, you know, were in Iraq, they were in Afghanistan, they were in all these places. And they, you know, they suffered, they suffered mental calamities. You would think that the government would be supportive of those of those efforts. So, so, so that's so, that's one thing that troubled me. Then the the other thing that troubled me is how the migrant children are being treated, regarding having some legal representation, which was always the case in the Biden administration, that there was always funding for, you know, people to come forward as attorneys and try to to help these young people who were basically adrift at what was going to happen to them. So, so that's been eliminated as well. So you have the you have the children who are basically helpless because they don't have any parents here, but they did at least have somebody trying to look out after their situation. And then you have the you have the thing with the veterans does not send a good message to the rest of the world, even even beyond ourselves. No, in

Kira Kramer 6:59
fact, the rest of the world is declaring America a country unsafe to travel to, which is pretty terrifying if you think about having to live here and live and work and go to school continue being just a part of the everyday life. Many people's ways of life are being disrupted as we speak, and especially for children who don't have representation, they're most definitely not able to advocate for themselves. And I feel that the administration, I think, is missing a key point about how when everyone benefits economically, we are able to have a system in which people are able to contribute positively to society. And ultimately, you want that level of productivity. I think that type of people who are educated and problem solvers and people who are able to advance their respective fields, solve serious problems that ultimately can continue the economic upturn that people in this administration and in this plutocracy that we have going on really care about and however they want to reap the benefits alone. And I think that's where the line gets drawn.

Charles Stanton 8:09
Yeah, well, I think I think what you say is absolutely true. I think that there's been an indifference to the welfare of the vast majority of our people. They had, they had a thing in the news about how, you know, the the major food, food programs that they have in this country for children and lunches and other things as well are being greatly reduced. We see the idea that they want to, basically, if not eliminate Medicaid, really cut down on Medicaid. And what, what's, what's interesting about that is that the major states where that would be the most harmful are Kentucky, West Virginia, Alaska and Mississippi, which is which, as far as I know, were all states that were supportive of the president. What you say, what you say, is interesting, because what you were just talking about, you know, planning and innovative ideas has also to do with though, the people that are running the agencies. So if you put in positions of authority, people say in the Health Administration, people who have no experience are not physicians who support quack theories, basically, as to, you know, various health solutions, innovation is unlikely to come from them. And it is, it is amazing how many of these people have been put in places of authority. I mean, even a person who was totally disingenuous would, almost as a matter of self survival, want to put competent people in these positions. Obviously, because they would, they would themselves lack expertise in these matters. So you would want to get somebody who and. Had that experience. And, you know, they were reversed in these things. It's also, it also goes over into the to the mass of government cuts. I mean, you know, you know that there is, everybody says, well, there is waste in the government. Well, there's waste, and there's waste in private industry too. There's waste all over but if you're going to remove people from these agencies, the idea would be to remove people who were not necessarily essential, but not to just remove, like whole, whole groups of people, completely ignoring their experience and expertise. The idea you see one of the problems that we're gonna we're gonna face even, even if, even if this guy is not the president for that long, is all those agencies have been decimated. How do you bring them back to life? Where do you find people? Where do you find people who have that knowledge, and the NIH and the CDC and all these different agencies? It's not, it's not something Well, I'm going to learn on the job. You've got people you know, who work in places like Hopkins and places like that. They have 3040, years experience. You just can't bring somebody in say, oh, you know, you're going to take over the job. There's, there's like a great air of unreality in what's going on. Where he, this guy believe, I don't know whether he believes it or not, but he seems to, he seems to think, basically, well, you know, I could put anybody in there. They can do the job, and they're all replaceable. But that's not true, as you know.

Kira Kramer 11:27
I think ultimately, what we can only hope from that situation is that people who are fired from these agencies form collective groups in which they're able to share their knowledge, their wealth of knowledge and experience. And should the day come when that experience is respected and valued once again, then they are called upon to be the leaders that this country

Charles Stanton 11:49
needs. Yeah. Well, the question, the question, too, of course, is how much will be how much will be left for them to do that? What will be the remnants of this? I don't know, experience, the section of the government, basically, you know, and what's, what's also interesting too, when we start talking about, you know, the subject at hand in this broadcast is how we have, in so many ways, alienated so many of Our friends and trading partners to really what purpose I don't understand, because the tariffs, that's just part of it, are going to come back on the American consumer. The situation with our prices now, the prices have not gone down. The prices have continued to go up. The price of car insurance is going to go up. That the price of car parts is going to go up. That affects the average person. In

Kira Kramer 12:47
the meantime, we have no investment into public transportation infrastructure, which makes it pretty much impossible for people to have a way of life outside of the car. And as a public health major myself, that's a significant conundrum that we, especially we face here in Las Vegas, with having just public transportation infrastructure that is significantly lacking and having a significant amount of our fatalities in our community coming from driving. So ultimately, like you said, the American consumer pays the price, not only in their wallets, but even sometimes their lives. And ultimately, we just see a wave of this inhumanity that is pretty much indifferent to whether people live or die. And if you are not making money and monopolizing on this opportunity the President has given to his target audience, then no one is in government that currently is caring about what happens to the real American community,

Charles Stanton 13:47
yeah, well, that's, that's, you know, we've, we've talked about this throughout the throughout the semester and throughout the year. The problem basically, is in America, which gets which is the heart of the problem is the indifference. It's the indifference of each other, vis a vis our particular situation, about other people that we come into contact with, that we know might need help, or something that we're indifferent to. But it's also the indifference of our government, and there's a almost acceptance of it, I think the society, I think the society, in many ways, has radically changed. I believe that the society, the society's turn toward individualism, has in many ways impaired the society's ability to congregate and to be communal. That the almost Exaltation of the of the individual, the individuals needs, what the individual wants, has subsumed society's needs, and that people have rationalized amongst themselves, that as long as I get whatever I want to get, I can remain immune. Tune, or apart from anything that goes on in the society. So you don't have, you don't have a unified society. And because you don't have a unified society, when you see the things that are going on now, you don't have a unified response, either you have, you have a lot of people who are trying to fight what's going on. We saw that over the last week or so with Bernie Sanders, Alexander Ocasio Cortez. We saw it in the protest against Tesla. We're seeing it interestingly enough now across the country, in a lot of mainly Republican districts where people are interestingly enough, become very vocal about what the government has been doing, and have been voicing their opposition to a lot of these policies. One of the things that's disturbing also, though, is what makes our country run is the exchange of ideas and and free and fair debate about policy. So you you certainly would be expert in this, as far as you know, public health policy, and everything that the public health policies would be would be established through the debate of people who were experts in the field, and as you yourself, you know your experiences and how you could bring your experiences into you know, possibly creating an agenda for making things better. But what you're having now, particularly of going to Republican Party, is almost a policy of not even attending town halls, to your to your own constituents, and then the subset of that to the vast majority of people that voted for you, that you're not answerable to them. And

Kira Kramer 16:51
we don't just see it in Republican counties and cities. Our own representatives in Nevada, both, two of whom are Democrats, or pretty much, I believe all of our representatives in the US, Senate and House, are Democrats, and none of them have shown up. In fact, Senators Bernie Sanders and AOC showed up to listen to our community and our communities and concerns before our own elected representatives. And so I think there's just a lot like we're seeing that the Democratic Party is not mobilizing. They're not unifying. They wholeheartedly should be unifying behind Bernie Sanders and AOC and really pushing harder the past CR is just a testament to that. Fact, always, government shutdown has been a tactic that has been used to bring politicians to the table. If the tables were turned, Republicans would have shut down the government in a Harvey. Of course, yes, and I just think it's unacceptable that Democrats aren't like they sure. We may not know how long a government shutdown would last, but it would be cumbersome for everyone involved. And not only that, it simply cannot last forever. However, the effects of the current administration and the effects of that CR will be long lasting, and the effects, main, like in the families that they will impact, may never recover from the effects of the resolution that is being passed and that budget resolution, budget resolution. And so I think it is a very small price to pay to bring Republicans to the table, and that Democrats have absolutely failed their constituents. Yeah,

Charles Stanton 18:30
well, I think I think there's two things there. I think there's a lack of unity in the Democratic Party. I think there's a lack of leadership, except for certain people who we know who they are. But you have two things working. You have the lack of unity in the Democratic Party, but you also have, in a sense, the representatives from the Republican Party who have taken, who have taken a page from Donald Trump's playbook, which is basically, I'm not answerable to anybody. I don't have to go to any town hall meeting. He's the president. I'm here, and you're out of luck, and

Kira Kramer 19:04
we'll see if they get voted in again. Well, that's the

Charles Stanton 19:06
thing. See, that's the thing. The thing is one of the things that's retarded progress in this country. And I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, I'm not just gonna say it's the part of the country I'm gonna talk about, but in the south, particularly generation after generation after generation of people have voted Republican, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, just to name three states, their lot has not gotten better. The status of their roads, the status of their education, the status of their health care has been abysmal. What is the connection? Why do these people repeatedly, repeatedly support a party who has basically done nothing for them. And that has to do with mythology. It has to do with people who are raised in a certain way. The Democrats, you know are you know for you know every excess under the sun, the Republicans, you know. They're protectors of the of your of your. A religion. Religion would have been, you know, sexual stuff and abortion, which is, which is all, which is all great, but it doesn't pay the grocery bill. It doesn't pay the doctor bill. It doesn't do any of the things that you need to function as individuals, a family or as a community. No,

Kira Kramer 20:19
and the Democrats just have not been strong enough about communicating those connections. They have not been able to mobilize in a way that really conveys how the like Republican policy and trickle down economics don't work.

Charles Stanton 20:33
Why? Why do you think you know we see, we see Bernie Sanders, and we see AOC and you know the senator from Arizona, Mark Kelly, where do you think, or why do you think the rest of these people who are in the Democratic Party? Why are they so dis involved in it?

Kira Kramer 20:52
I think at the end of the day, they know that these other their Republican colleagues, are their colleagues, and they know that they have their own agendas to be passed, and they also benefit from the system themselves. They benefit from keeping people out of knowledge and power. They benefit from the lobbyists and the lobbying groups and the pen, the trips and the dinners. They the whole system of having money in political power benefits both sides. And we see like that, like unsurprisingly, but also harrowingly, AOC is willing to admit 100% where her campaign funding comes from, and until there's a lack of or until there is full transparency, I don't think that we'll ever have representatives that truly represent our interests and have our interests at heart. And I'm sure that can be said for our representatives here in Nevada, I was able to listen at this legislative session to Catherine Cortez Masto and her defense of her decision to support the CR bill. And it was really just a PR speech. It was, Oh, I think that I'm helping more people by passing this devastating CR instead of putting the government on hold for a couple weeks, or even days, because that's how long people would really let it last. And you're not helping America. You're not helping Nevadans, and you're not helping Americans by playing the by the rules when no one else is playing by the rules. I think there's like Democrats, especially many traditional Democrats, think that they can take the high road right now, and that not stopping that, like not allowing a government shutdown, is taking the moral high ground, but there is no moral high ground. Americans are suffering, and many of them may lose their lives due to a lack of health care, education and other very systemic issues that are being undermined and attacked by this administration. And there is no excuse. There is no civility about anything that's happening on the hill, and I really wish that Democrats would stop pretending that they have a moral high ground, because all they're doing is losing more leverage that their constituents desperately need.

Charles Stanton 22:52
Yeah, well, what you what you're saying, which you're saying, you know, when you went to this conference, which is interesting, because I believe and this, you know this, because we've talked about this, I believe that our elected officials suffer from a lack of belief. I think that, and I've said this before, your duty is to your constituents. That is your number one duty, whether it's whether it's in the legislative district that you're elected in, or whether you're a senator or whatever you are. And as you say correctly many times, that duty is not followed. And you know you were saying about how Cortez Masto gave the speech, and you know it was, it was like a PR thing. The problem is, the problem is, to me, though, you know we're talking about lobbies and all the rest of that stuff. I think the problem is even deeper than that. Though, the problem, the problem is the problem of money. The way campaigns are financed today, you have to basically break bread with the demand of iniquity. You have to, you have to make deals and all the rest of that stuff. That's just the way it is to I mean, I knew a guy who was running for District Attorney several years ago, and he was saying basically that he had no shot to get elected. He was, you know, he was a good guy and everything, and he believed in whatever different things, but he had no shot. But the problem, the problem, I think, goes beyond even all those things, to a question of belief. And by question of belief, I mean to say that we're not getting people in our elective office who are people who have deeply held beliefs. And by deeply held beliefs, I mean certain basic moral principles that supposedly everybody who runs for office should have. Without those principles, everything is negotiable. So when you see this woman at the conference and what she has to say, when you see the senators or representatives basically justifying the fact that they put through this. Ill, even though it was harmful. That's only possible if the people don't believe in anything, right? And I believe, I believe, really, that is the problem. The problem is, the vast majority of these people have no beliefs. I mean, think about it. Now you've got young woman, Ocasio Cortez, and I wouldn't say he's a dinosaur creature, Bernie Sanders, but he's, he could get into Jurassic Park probably at some point. These are the two voices out of how many 100 people in the Congress, not only that, but how many people in the legislatures? And you got this older man and this young woman going around, it's almost like Don Quixote looking for Dulcinea. I mean, they're going around to all these places, and what they're saying, what they're saying, is true. There's no doubt about that, but it's two people. I mean, you know, I mean,

Kira Kramer 25:49
as we wrap up this program today, I just want to echo the idea that even though our leadership is limited, there is still opportunities for people to have their voice heard. And during the whole the whole time that the CR was being passed, I encouraged my everyone that I knew, to call our representatives. And ultimately, it did make a difference. We did have senators in our state who were going to vote to pass the CR who inevitably voted no. And so I think the political pressure that we're seeing is can is and can be effective. And so I encourage everyone listening to follow what the House and Senate is voting on, and to call your representatives. You can email them, call them at their Las Vegas and Washington DC offices, and make sure to be as civically engaged as as civically engaged as possible during this time, yeah,

Charles Stanton 26:40
well, I think highlighting exactly what you said, the precedent for all of that, though, is to be informed. We need to have a more informed electorate, and we need also for people to search out more than one source of news. We need to get a population of people. You can look at Fox, look at MSNBC, look at CNN, look at all of them, and then when you bring in all that knowledge, you make a decision. But unfortunately, we have a situation now where people have one zoom source that's all that they look at, and it's a kind of brainwashing, and it's very hard. I mean, I will tell you, from my personal experience, it's like, it's like talking to people who are, I say, brainwashed. There's no other way to put it. And you'll talk to them. You'll sit down with down with them, and you lay out every logical thought and, yeah, right, okay, yeah. But then it's the same decision. But you know, there's something, there's something wrong there, but what you say is absolutely right. And I think our hope is the young people. But I also, I also, I also think that there is a, there is going to be a an attack on our academic institutions as there has been an attack on our scientific institutions, and I think that's what we have to be prepared for, and what that response is going to be from the leaders of our colleges and universities. Absolutely.

Kira Kramer 27:55
Thank you all for joining us for this week's episode, and we hope that you'll join us next week. Thank you very much, and stay safe out there,

Charles Stanton 28:02
thank you again from the both of us, and good night.

Kira Kramer 28:14
Thank you for listening to this broadcast, and if you have any questions or ideas for future discussion topics, please contact myself at K, R, A, M, E, K, two@unlv.nevada.edu. Or Professor Charles Stanton at C, H, A R, L, E, S, dot, S, T, a n, t o n@unlv.edu, see you next time we

Charles Stanton 28:43
look forward to it.

SFX 28:44
You.