Social Justice - A Conversation

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Wesley Knight 0:06
this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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.

Charles Stanton 0:29
And this is social justice a conversation, a conversation.

Well, good evening, everybody, and welcome back. Charles Stanton here with my partner, Hi,

Kira Kramer 0:48
dear Kramer, and we are ready to get into everything that has evolved since the new president, yes,

Charles Stanton 0:56
took over the old president, who was the new president, who was the rejected President, who has come back again? Felon president. Yeah, felon president. But let's not hold it against them, you know. But yeah, so yeah, it's, it's very, very interesting. It's very, very interesting, because I think, I think we got to say of him that he's kept his word that basically all the anti democratic procedures and practices that he talked about during his campaign, he is trying to implement them with the help of a number of people who some who know better, and others who don't care. And I think we can, I think we can see that beyond the policies. We can see it in his nominees. We can see it in people who, in many cases, are completely unfit to be anywhere near the positions that they supposedly aspire to. I can we can talk about Pete hegseth. Is just one example that was an that's an interesting case, because if you look at if you look at Pete heck says, you know resume, he, in no way has the credentials to be Secretary of Defense. Of course, you know to be, to be on the charitable and fair side. Sometimes people can grow into a position. We've all seen that where people are called upon to do jobs that you know they never envision doing. I mean even people who became President, when, when, when former presidents died or were assassinated, turned out to be very credible successors. The problem here, though, I think more than the strict adherence to procedures and qualifications is the matter of character, and that matter of character or lack of character is not an opinion that I present against this man as that I have intimate knowledge of him, my qualifications and my reservations about his character were delivered. Were delivered not by people who opposed Donald Trump. They were not they were not brought by progressive Democrats. They were brought by his mother and his sister in law. In the case of the Mother, the the letter that she wrote regarding her son's deficiencies is, is is sad. Is sad in a profound way that a woman who this is her son, would write such a letter to him about his obvious shortcomings and basically his lack of moral fiber, character, decency, whatever you however you want to put it. And then, of course, you know, she, I guess, under pressure, you know, changed her mind and revoked the letter. But in the case of the sister in law, I think that was even more powerful evidence against him. She had gone to the senator from North Carolina, Senator Tillis, and told Senator Tillis about all these various things that Pete hex it had done. And Senator hexa encouraged the sister in law to come forth and to make a statement, to be interviewed, to make that statement under oath as to what these deficiencies were. And then, after having done all that, and you know, made her case, and you know, under the penalties of perjury, Senator Tillis still voted for P taxes to be the secretary of defense, which of which, if, if there were not so, if that were not so, it would not have gone to a 5050, tie. And of course, you know the vice president breaking the tie. What's sad to me, though, what's sad to me about this whole thing is that there was not, it was not a matter of ignorance when these people voted to confirm him, the facts. About them, about him, were very, very well known, but those facts gave way to the fealty of all these people because of their fear of Donald Trump. That's really, that's really what this is about, because all of these people who were, you know, voting in the Senate, took the oath to be senators to uphold a higher duty than just servitude to one man. And that higher duty, basically, is that you're going to do things that are going to be protective of our nation, which, which they which they obviously fail to do. But that duty, but that duty comes with one great requirement, that great duty comes with a requirement of belief in certain moral principles and certain legal principles and certain basic ethic principles that unfortunately our Congress, particularly in the Senate, seems to have forgotten about, and if we do not have men and Women in the Congress who believe in those basic principles, then the likelihood of them being able to carry out that sacred duty and that trust which they owe to us as being public servants will not occur. And we're seeing this now all through all through these nominees. We're seeing it through the denomination of Kennedy. We're seeing it through the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard, when the sin, if you want to call it a sin or a crime, however you want to put it, is not so much. Is not so much that they were ignorant of what was going on, but that they knew and knowing that, and knowing that they deliberately and wantonly basically just went along with this because they were afraid. They were afraid to offend the president. But that that that weakness is is a weakness of moral belief. And we're seeing that. We're seeing that not just in the Congress, we're seeing in that in our court system, primarily, primarily Supreme Court, where, basically, law can be invented and immunity, immunity given to the President, is developed out of whole cloth, without precedent, without any without any basis in law and without in the case of a Supreme Court, judgments made by a body that doesn't even have a code of ethics and doesn't desire one, and basically is resistant to getting one. So when you put those two things together, the court system, the legislative branch, and then a man who basically, you know, scoffs at any of the beliefs that he's supposed to possess, that's the problem you have absolutely

Kira Kramer 7:39
I think as we are navigating these next few years, we really have to remember that at the end of the day, not only are our senators afraid of the President, but so is everyone else. And I think it's really pertinent that we remember that we're not powerless in this situation. I was listening to a live broadcast from AOC this past week, and I really want to echo her words that we cannot just sit down and pretend that this isn't happening, and we can't sit here and act like that there's nothing we can do about it, and that he is just going to keep making and dishing out all these executive orders. We do see that federal courts are standing up to him, and we are capable of mobilizing support for the causes that we care about, and there are many avenues and options for people to express their political dissent and throughout the the next semester, during this podcast, I will be sharing things that you can do locally and nationally in order to get involved, because we can't settle for this, and there should not be a moment that we feel that we have To right.

Charles Stanton 8:59
But I agree completely. I agree completely. I call him the other AOC. And the other AOC is the agent of chaos, where all these things are dumped on people, like 16 things in one day. And he was these executive orders that he was, he was creating one of the interesting things that struck me, you know, in observing him in the office of the president, was that he treated it as a joke. It's like you have the you're sitting in the office of the president United States. He has no reverence for the for the office that he holds. And he's, he's really, in a sense, created his own reality show in in Washington and in Florida. And he really the interesting thing about he was talking with somebody, and he was saying, well, the presidency is wherever I go. So I don't necessarily have to be in Washington, wherever I go. I'm the president. And, you know, I think there's so I think. Two classes of people, I think there's there's the burned out people who have had to deal with this for as long as he's been the president. And then you have people who are basically believers in Him, but I think a lot of them are starting to have buyer's remorse when they see that these programs that he wants to cut are directly going to affect them, and

Kira Kramer 10:22
I think it's important to remember that this was not a landslide election. Did she lose the Electoral College? Horribly, yes. Did she lose the popular vote? Horribly? No. This was still a close election with half of this country not approving of him for President, and I think that we can't lose sight of that. Yeah,

Charles Stanton 10:47
yeah. Well, his numbers, hers, now, his numbers were at 45 or 46% now, for somebody who's who's recently been elected, to have those numbers, that's not good. That's not good, 4545 6% usually ascribes to a person who's been in the office for a while. He's only been in the office for a couple of weeks. But the question is that you raise it, which is the most important question is how, as how we how we respond? And I think one of those responses is a legal response, that we as citizens involve ourselves in our country's laws and start to really educate ourselves about what law allows the president to do and what it doesn't allow that person to do. And I think that's one of the one of the weapons that he's trotted out, that he's created this idea that he's the law. He's above, he's above whatever is in the statutes or laws that are passed in the States, what have you, and that he's the last word. And as you said correctly, that you know, a number of courts have rebuffed him in that, in that effort. But we need a more politically active group of people in our country. I think, I think a lot of the country has been asleep, and they have just treated him as kind of like a television character, without weighing the ramifications of what he's been doing. And

Kira Kramer 12:16
no and those ramifications will be felt. They will be felt in the everyday prices that Americans are going to have to pay when tariffs settle in, when migrant workers are no longer able to build houses at the rate that were being built to harvest crops and put food on the tables of everyday Americans, when these consequences and their actions are felt. People may realize what they've signed up for, but we also need to realize how much power we actually do have. And I think what is extremely pertinent now is where we spend our money in the next four years is going to be very indicative of how you can use your own power as an individual to advocate for political causes. And I was listening to a woman talk about her own money spending habits, which I found was an interesting idea around citizenship and how to express yourself as a citizen. She said that in order to not to save money but during this time, but to also make a political statement, she was going to remove as much excess spending from her life as possible in order to send a message about not wanting to stimulate Trump's economy, and so that extra like latte or maybe this gift that you want to get, they're like they or they. She's arguing that these little choices that stimulate his economy are a message that we can send as a consumer, but not just that maybe shop at the local coffee shop and give back to the small, locally owned business owners. Shop at a farmers market, give back to your local economies in a way that strengthens them. Avoid the big box stores. Target recently rolled back their dei policies, but who stood up and dug their feet in the ground? Costco. Yes, that's right. So pay attention as a consumer to who is doubling down on civil rights, who is doubling down on protecting diversity, equity and inclusion, and I think you'll find that there are a lot of avenues for us as citizens to get closer to our neighbors, to give back to our community, and to really share in what it means to be a citizen and to be a community member. And fostering these relationships with our local community is ultimately what is going to bring us closer to like, to harmonizing during the next election. Yeah,

Charles Stanton 15:00
well, I think a lot of that is that we, we can motivate people to do those things, and we have to, as we've talked on the program, before we got to move beyond ourselves. We got to move beyond ourselves and what's and what's just in it for me, and this is, this is the major cultural challenge we're going to face, because we have a society in many ways, through the internet, social media, what have you? Of many, many people who only get their source of information from one maybe two sources, and they do not they're not interested in expanding their repertoire of knowledge, and that is one of the things that we have to address. How do we get people to question a lot of the things they've taken for granted? I think

Kira Kramer 15:50
the big thing is, you we meet them where they are. We need to be advocating that our local employers are sharing and spreading Resources Information wherever we go, we need to ask your ask your favorite local coffee shop owner. Hey, are you willing to in the window, put up some resources about this cause or that cause, and we need to be working together as a community. It is in your workplaces, at your local Pilates studio, if you do that. And this is where we connect. The dots. We connect to one another. Talk to your local cashier, and if you in whatever capacity you are working and living and playing, that is where we need to reach people. And the universities that we are at, like UNLV, are a hub for these types of connections. There are students and there are faculty who are here and wanting to make a change and wanting to feel connected. My generation is has been titled The loneliest generation, and it rings true. We are glued to our phones in a way that makes us feel extremely isolated many of my friends and and myself. There are so many moments in which we genuinely feel like we don't know where to turn. We feel so isolated and so scared. And at the end of the day, it's knowing that you have someone else that feels what you feel that keeps you going and keeps you fighting. And so, yeah,

Charles Stanton 17:19
no, I think that's, I think that's exactly right. I think supporting businesses who we know treat their workers decently. You know, it's very interesting about, you know, the lattes and all that stuff. And, you know, I had the, I had the audacity today, which is audacity to drink, to drink one of the chocolate, hot chocolate with with cream beverages of Starbucks. Okay, so I was very bold in doing that, but, but, but on a more serious note, it has to do with our involvement in the workers that work in these places. And you know, the big thing now is the attempt to unionize Starbucks, as is, there's an attempt to unionize Amazon. I had, I had a couple of interesting experiences. One experience was, you know, going into Starbucks and talking to people when I was, when I was back east about the benefits of unionization. And it was interesting how the younger people, by and large, before unionization, the people who were older, were against it. They saw unions as a threat to,

Kira Kramer 18:33
I don't know, maintaining power and control over a minority. I Yeah.

Charles Stanton 18:37
So, so, so, so that was, that was a very interesting experience. And then a few days ago, they had about the they had a huge ad in the back of the New York Times for Starbucks, and it had to do with, you know, we're going to take care of the customer and all the rest of that stuff, which is, okay, you know, I don't have any objection to that. But then in the Wall Street Journal, and you know, what's funny about the Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal gives more evidence of like corruption and business fraud than almost any other paper, even though it's supposed to be the paper of money and privilege. So they were talking about the guy who became the CEO of Starbucks. Okay, so the guy's only been on the job for four and a half months, and they were talking about what, you know, what his plans were, and everything. His salary for the four and a half months is $95 million he made $95 million in four and a half months. Now, the people that are working for for this place, they're trying to obstruct them getting a union. They don't, they don't get the benefits they should get, and he's making $95 million okay, so that was one instance. Then the second instance where I got really bold. I went beyond just drinking that latte coffee and that hot chocolate. I said, I'm. Gonna do something I never did before. I'm gonna, it was like Star Trek. I was gonna go where no man ever went before. I decided to order. I decided to order fresh produce now from Whole Foods. I decided to do that, and it was a very bold move in my part. So anyway, I placed the order. I ordered grapes, oranges, many, many delicious things, and I'm waiting for the delivery. And the guy comes in, very nice, very nice young man. He comes in, brings everything to the table, opens the bags up, showing me what he got. And it was all, it was all great. And I gave him a nice tip, and he said to me, he said, Thanks, that'll help, he said to me, and I didn't really understand what he meant by that. And so I read another article, I guess it was also in the Wall Street Journal, how the people who make the deliveries for Amazon are not employees of Amazon, they're employees of some other subcontractors, subcontractors a third removed from actual, from actual Amazon. And it just hit me like, well, we need to be more on the ball with that. We need to call attention to these things, because it's not right. Oh, and then, of course, the icing on the cake was, he said, Well, he said, I enjoyed talking with you, but I gotta go now. I got 32 more deliveries, and it was one o'clock in the afternoon. And this is not that particular thing that he said to me, is not, is not just, you know, relegated to Las Vegas, because when I was back east, when I was back east, it was also at Amazon, where this man it was like 930 10 o'clock at night, and he saw it all his deliveries. And that's not right. See, that's what we need to get back to in this country, that we need to get back to a standard of that's not right, that there's certain things that go over what's acceptable, and we need to stand up for that. And what we also, as you've been saying about, you know, talking with people who don't agree with us, we need to be ambassadors. We need to be missionaries. To leave our comfort zone and talk to people who don't agree with us, and go out there and talk to them, and not in a not in a way that's demeaning or anything, but to talk to them and say, Listen, you know, I want to discuss certain things with you. And when I was away and I was doing that, I was talking to people, I said, I'm just going to throw these things out here for you to think about. I said, I'm not promoting an agenda. I'm just going to tell you some facts, facts that are indisputable, and that's what we've gotten away from absolutely,

Kira Kramer 22:43
I think, as in general, we are not doing a good job of connecting the facts of the matter to political agendas and statements. I just I feel that we have not been loud enough, obnoxious enough and strong enough, and there, quite frankly, is no space or room for that anymore.

Charles Stanton 23:09
Yeah. Why do Why do you think? Why do you think that is, though? Why do you think the majority of people don't want to I

Kira Kramer 23:15
think it's complacency. I think it's easier to be complacent and ignorant than it is to challenge your own beliefs, because challenging beliefs is risky. It means that you are putting yourself in a vulnerable position in which you may be wrong and everything that you've designed your life around may be false. Yeah, and that's really difficult, yeah.

Charles Stanton 23:37
Well, I'll just, I'll just give, give you this thought before you, you inform our audience, Nietzsche said. Nietzsche said that, and he meant it, not just to the society itself, but individuals as well. He said, If a society doesn't constantly look at its values and question what it's doing and all the rest of that stuff, the society is doomed. And he was talking about Nazi Germany. So there's, there's the tip off right there that has great validity. Absolutely.

Kira Kramer 24:05
Moving into the end of our program, I would like to discuss each week, I'll probably discuss different issues or resources related to our community. And as we know, in Nevada, we have one, and nearly one in five Nevadans have been born in another country, and that means that we have a large immigrant population that diversifies and enriches our community, and we have to take certain actions to protect them. And so I would like to talk real quickly about, at least for UNLV, what higher education can do to protect our students and as students, what you can do. So in the case that and all of the information I am discussing can be found at the ACLU for Nevada, so that would be at ACLU and v.org so in the case. Case that ISIS comes to your workplace or to school, you can remain calm. You can ask them to leave private spaces. Remain private. Ice. Cannot walk into areas without permission or a judicial warrant, and you do not have to give them permission in terms of what worker what workplaces can do it is advisable to train employees not to talk to ice and to say for schools, specifically, you are not permitted to enter and you must speak to the school president. You can ask ice for to inspect their warrant or call an attorney at school. The William S Boyd School of Law has an immigration clinic, and those resources can be accessed there which I will give more information at the end of the program about Boyd's free immigration clinic. If ice enters without permission, do not interfere with them, but you can take notes and record them, because being in a public area does not give ice the authority to stop question or arrest anyone. Everyone has a right to remain silent and speak to an attorney. If ice shows you an administrative warrant with an employee's or student's name on it, you do not have to say if they are present on campus, and you do not have to take ICE agents to them. Some proactive steps that can be taken now is we need to inform our students and families of rights and distribute, know your rights materials. So if in your organizations, workplaces, classrooms, you are able to distribute or even local coffee shops, wherever you like to visit in your community, ask if they are willing to distribute such resources. It is important to find out our local immigration clinics and raid rapid response in our community, as well as maintaining a list of resources. And so if you're able to compile that in your own individual communities, the ACLU has a variety of resource packages available also, I would like to discuss the various places that you are able to access immigration resources. I would like to highlight the UNLV immigration clinic. The website for this clinic is law.unlv.edu/clinics/immigration and the immigration clinic is located at 1212, South casino Boulevard on the south on the second floor. There are also many other additional resources, including Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada, the immigration center for women and children, Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, Nevada legal resources, progressive leadership, Alliance of Nevada Citizenship and Immigration volunteer attorneys for rural Nevadans, Washoe legal services and the National Immigration Law Center. And all of that information is linked on the ACLU website, and I encourage you to explore it as they dive deep into individual rights, workplace rights, K through 12 education and higher education. Well,

Charles Stanton 28:08
that's that's very well said. And I think, I think it's absolutely crucial that we avail those resources, because in availing those resources, we not only protect ourselves and our families, we uphold the democratic principles that our country was founded on. So I want to say it's been, it's good to be back with you and back with Kira to do these broadcasts. And we will, we will continue to fight the fight. And we will, we will continue the fight until the fight is won. Absolutely.

Kira Kramer 28:38
Thank you for joining us today, and we encourage you to exercise your own power that you have every single day, and even if that means getting a little coffee to make sure, or tea or hot chocolate to keep little moments of joy in your life, it's really important. The next four years are going to be difficult, and whatever you need to do to maintain those pockets of joy throughout your day, please do and share them with others. Thank you.

Charles Stanton 29:08
Thank you for listening and good night, good night.

Kira Kramer 29:19
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 29:49
look forward to it. You.