A few seconds into 2019 — I am worried.
The other day I decided I would quit worrying. As a New Year’s resolution — give it up.
Then the clock struck 12. I wondered what Edison was doing. He’s my 20-year-old. He lives in downtown Los Angeles.
A few seconds into 2019 — I am worried.
Confession: I didn’t wonder. I worried. Then I recalled my resolution — a decision, a choice, an act of the will — to not worry
Many believe we have free will over our thoughts. As if we could choose our beliefs in the same way we choose to raise our right hands.
I worry that we can’t.
When My Teenager Said “No” To Media (And Junk Food)
Elliot is my youngest son. He is 17. He is a senior in high school. He doesn’t use Instagram and Snapchat and Facebook. He doesn’t watch television or movies or stuff on Netflix and YouTube.
Last year I had to take his phone away. He went without it for months. When I gave it back at the start of the school term, he said okay, but only if I restrict it for only calls and texting.
Elliot has told me a few times that he looks at “all these students” during school. “They are always on their phones. That’s all they do. They are not experiencing the world around them.”
“Dad, I think giving electronics to children, even teens, is bad for them.”
Elliot is an earlier riser; he’s up every morning, often at 4 or 5. He usually goes to bed at 8 or 9 at the latest. He often says, with a grin, “Dad, there’s nothing better than a really good night’s sleep.”
He never takes his phone into his bedroom. He leaves it in the kitchen. He says that texting is a distraction from studying or reading or spending time talking to friends and family, face-to-face.
Elliot doesn’t want a car. He rides his bike 3 miles to school every morning, often in the dark. After school, he rides his bike to the boathouse for rowing practice. At 6:30, it’s dark again, and he rides home.
He works at the boathouse on the weekends. He gets to work and back home on his bike.
Elliot says he prefers riding his bike because he doesn’t want to pollute the planet. He says riding a bike is better exercise. He says the experience of riding a bike is better than driving a car because you’re “so much closer to nature.”
Oh, and he doesn’t eat sugar. No soda. No candy. No junk food. He eats a very balanced diet. He works out 6 days a week. He is very committed to his health.
My other children are normal. They all use Instagram and Snapchat and Facebook on their iPhones. They all watch television and movies and stuff on Netflix and YouTube. They drive cars and stay up late and eat junk food.
Gina and I are normal. We use Instagram and Snapchat and Facebook on our iPhones. We watch television and movies and stuff on Netflix and YouTube. We drive cars and go to bed late and eat junk food.
Part of me thinks Elliot’s devotion is admirable. Staying away from screens, getting plenty of sleep, staying away from junk food, good exercise — aren’t those good things?
Sometimes, a part of me thinks his devotion is extreme.
But I never think my devotion to my social media is admirable. I never think my watching television and movies and stuff on Netflix and YouTube is worthy of praise. I never get feelings of pride that I went to bed too late or gouged on junk food.
Sometimes I wish I was more “extreme” like Elliot.
I wonder if you do, too.
My Daughter’s Classmate Alaina Housley: shot dead.
Imagine. After every terrorist attack, the president offering “thoughts and prayers” to the families. Same with the Senators. Same with those in Congress. Then their constituents,“There’s nothing we can really do about it, terrorism is going to happen anyway.”
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This is the Trump-GOP. These are his supporters. After carnage at schools, concerts, nightclubs, churches, they offer gutless sanctimonious platitudes to the grieving families — mere words. No action in Congress.
Then we all wait, hoping the next one doesn’t hit home.
The next one always hits home.
It hit home for the parents of my step-daughter’s classmate at Pepperdine University, Alaina Housley.
I think about Alaina’s mother every single day. I don’t know why I think about her mother and not really her father, but I’m telling you I think about her mother every single day.
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You might not pay attention to congressional efforts to increase gun safety. I do. The pathetic fact is that GOP leaders block nearly every national initiative to pass legislation — measures that would aim to at least try to increase measures to protect our children.
At least try to protect the innocent from terrorist attacks: check.
At least try to protect the innocent from drunk drivers: check.
At least try to protect the innocent from internet scams: check.
At least try to protect the innocent from mass shootings which increase at exponential rates: thoughts and prayers. Or bile about how the left is trying to take everyone’s guns away.
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Why would Republicans fight against basic gun safety? It’s simple. Their campaigns are funded by the NRA. And those precious dollars help keep them in power. Congressional leaders block common-sense gun legislation, the NRA gives back millions to their campaigns. Twenty-five million to get Trump elected so Trump could protect the NRA.
Quid pro quo.
When I ran in the primary for United States Congress I was one of the few Republicans to receive the Gun Sense Candidate Distinction from an amazing organization, Moms Demand Action. Not because I want to take always guns — not because they do — but because leadership requires protection of the innocent. Whether the danger is from outside or inside the US, leaders stop at nothing to save innocent lives.
Moms Demand, like Mother’s Against Drunk Driving, is a grassroots movement. It was started by a mom named Shannon Watts. After the Sandy Hook massacre, she quit her day job. Started speaking truth to power. Millions of mothers today are part of Mom’s Demand in all 50 states. Not to take away guns, but to ensure they get into the hands of responsible citizens.
I want to reform my party — because Democrats shouldn’t be the only ones to fight for human rights, civil rights, social justice, the environment, and basic gun safety.
What does the GOP champion today that protects the innocent?
Millions of mothers shouldn’t have to choose between smaller government/lower taxes and a party what works to protect its children from senseless gun violence. Why not a national database (point system) to determine who can buy a new gun? We do this with the DMV; cars are also killing machines.
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Some things are more important than party loyalty. Like the lives of innocent children. For their sake, it’s time for GOP leaders to shut up and act.
I Have Never Put Political Party Before My Faith. I Never Will.
America first? Not for this Christian. For me, it’s Jesus first.
And what was Jesus about? The children. The poor. The outcast. The traitors and “losers” of society.
Foster children.
I have never put my political party before my faith. I never will.
I have never put loyalty to the GOP above the teachings of Jesus. I never will.
If I’m going to err, I will err on the side of the poor, the outcast, the persecuted.
That’s what Jesus did.
To be Christian means to be Christ-like — imitate what Jesus said and did.
I ran as a candidate for US Congress. I ran as a Republican in California’s 48th congressional district primary. I was tired of the Democrats being the only ones who spoke out boldly and consistently for human rights, for civil rights, for social justice.
I didn’t advance to the midterm election, which is held today, November 6, 2018.
I didn’t win, but I’m certain I did and I wrote about it here.
Err on the side of the poor. That’s what Jesus did.
Character matters in leadership. Integrity matters in leadership.
Our children and grandchildren watch what leaders do.
Leaders are role models. All of them.
Our children are watching. Our children and grandchildren will remember us by what we stoof for, and stood against.
Republicans and Democrats rarely agree on anything. But in 2012, 92 United States Senators and 89% of House Members voted for a bill called The Magnitsky Act. The bill sanctioned a bunch of rich Russian thugs for torturing and murdering a Russian tax attorney named Sergei Magnitsky. A husband and father with two young children, Magnitsky uncovered a $230 million tax scheme. He tried to expose it to Russian authorities. The thieves didn’t like it. Neither did Vladimir Putin. So they kidnapped, tortured, and murdered Magnitsky.
But so incorrigible was the evidence, that the bill was passed with overwhelming support of both parties.
The next day, as “retaliation,” Putin suspended the adoption of Russian orphans. Many of these orphans suffered for HIV, fetal alcohol syndrome, spina bifida, and other illnesses.
In effect, Putin murdered countless children to “penalize” the U.S. Tens of thousands of Russian citizens took to the streets of Moscow in protest.
Then Dana Rohrabacher, the 30-year congressman who I ran against, went to work. He did everything in his power to lobby for Putin, a man who murders orphaned children, a man who executes his political opponents, even when they live on foreign land. Dana went to Moscow, was given a propaganda video made by The Kremlin that sought to deny the death of Magnitsky. He brought the video back. Tried to show it to members of Congress. They told him — his own Republican colleagues — that the video would not be showed.
So he promoted a public event in DC, the “premiere” of the “documentary.” He worked in tandem with Natalya Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who, by her own admission, is a Russian informant.
Dana has failed. The Magnitsky Act is still the law in the U.S. And the pioneer of the bill — the man who hired Sergei Magnitsky — financier and human rights crusader, Bill Browder, has worked to get the act passed in other countries.
In the early stages of my campaign last year, I learned of The Magnitsky Act. I learned of Browder. I learned of those innocent sick orphans and how Putin had effectively sentenced them to death. Then I learned how Browder had, through his work to sanction these murderers, had become known globally as “Putin’s #1 Enemy” — how Putin wanted him dead.
I marveled with bouts of rage about how a sitting U.S. Congressman would endorse and advocate for the agenda of a murderous dictator. I didn’t purchase any polls to determine what to make my campaign about. I knew what my campaign would be about because I know who I am.
If I’m going to err, I will err on the side of the poor, the outcast, the persecuted.
I made my campaign mainly about Putin’s human rights abuses — the abuse of Russian orphans — and about how our Congressman, my opponent, enabled the thug who sentenced them to death.
Bill Browder formally endorsed me on March 28th of this year:
“Putin has found a backdoor way into American politics through Dana Rohrabacher. Orange County is now one the key flash points in the global proxy war between Putin and the West. Paul Martin sees this and I wish him Godspeed in his quest to stop Putin and Dana Rohrabacher from compromising the integrity of American democracy.”
This was one of the greatest honors of my life. If you don’t know anything about Bill Browder, just google his name. You will be amazed. Because it’s one thing to talk a big game about human rights, it’s another to lay down life for a friend.
I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC a few weeks ago. And I cried. But not when I was on the third and second floors — where you learn of and see photos and video of Hitler’s gruesome mass murder of Jews, dark-skinned people, and homosexuals. I cried on the floor the tour starts — the fourth floor, where you read about the years of Hitler’s attacks on institutions of power, his hate speech, his bigotry, his charismatic promises to restore Germany to economic prosperity. To “Make Germany Great Again.”
One of my mentors is a retired Jewish man. A conservative Jew who teaches Hebrew at his synagogue. I see him often at the local coffee house. I told David about my visit to DC. He had tears in his eyes.
Two days later, I saw him at the local CVS Pharmacy. Our cars were ironically parked right next to each other and when I got out I almost bumped right into him. It was the day after the Pittsburg massacre in the synagogue.
He could not hold back tears.
“Paul, this is not supposed to be happening. My people are scared. Neo-Nazis want to destroy us. There are not ‘very fine people on both sides.'”
I hugged him.
I have never put my political party before my faith. I never will.
I have never put loyalty to the GOP above the teachings of Jesus. I never will.
If I’m going to err, I would err on the side of the poor, the outcast, the persecuted.
“Paul, you give me hope.”
My mentor told me in a CVS parking lot that I give him hope and it humbled me so much.
Sometimes people tell me I need to switch parties, become a Democrat or an Independent. No. Issues of human rights and civil rights and social justice should be championed equally by all political parties.
A friend named Michael Wear worked for President Obama. He headed up his faith-based initiatives program, working closely with many leaders of all faiths. Michael is a devout Christian. And even though he’s a Democrat, he believes people should stay in their parties in order to help reform those parties. He recently wrote a piece in Time Magazine titled Don’t Quit The Republican Party. Stay And Fight. An excerpt:
“When you register to join a political party, there is no fine print that reads, ‘I hereby sign over my conscience to every jot and tittle of my party’s platform.’ There is no loyalty pledge involved.”
I hereby sign over my conscience to every jot and tittle of Jesus‘ platform. Because there is a loyalty pledge required.
(I saw David this morning at the coffee house. Then I quickly wrote this. I asked if he’d let me take a photo with him. “Paul, I like to stay out of the spotlight but I commend you for using your voice.”)