Episode 66: Davidson Hang Reflections and Lessons on a Life Worth Living: Kamala Harris’ Book

These were my top ten quotes that resonated the most with me from her biography.

1. "For as long as ours has been a nation of immigrants, we have been a nation that fears immigrants. In the mid-1850s, the first significant third-party movement in the United States, the so-called Know-Nothing Party, rose to popularity on an anti-immigrant platform. In 1882, an act of Congress banned Chinese immigrants to the country. In 1917, Congress established a host of new restrictions on immigrants, including a requirement that immigrants would have to know how to read. In 1924, the number of newcomers allowed into the country from Southern and Eastern Europe was cut dramatically. In 1939, nearly 1,000 German Jews fleeing the Nazis in a ship called the St. Louis were turned away from the United States." 
2. "Children of immigrants also faced a new kind of torment: bullying. Kids are being taunted by other kids, told they will be deported, told their parents will be deported, told they should go back where they came from. The cruel words and actions of one prominent, powerful bully in the White House have been mimicked and adopted as the rallying cry of bullies everywhere. But how do you handle a bully? You stand up to him." 
3. "Whenever I travel to a country for the first time, I try to visit the highest court in the land. They are monuments of a certain kind, built not just to house a courtroom but to send a message. In New Delhi, for example, the Supreme Court of India is designed to symbolize the balancing scales of justice. In Jerusalem, Israel’s iconic Supreme Court building combines straight lines—which represent the rigid nature of the law—with curved walls and glass that represent the fluid nature of justice. These are buildings that speak. The same can be said of the United States Supreme Court Building, which, to my mind, is the most beautiful of them all. Its architecture recalls ancient Greece and the earliest days of democracy, as though you are standing in front of a modern-day Parthenon." 
4. "For most families, buying a home is the biggest purchase they will ever make. It’s a really special moment in your life, proof of all your hard work. You trust the people involved in the process. When the banker tells you that you qualify for a loan, you trust that she’s reviewed the numbers and won’t let you take on more than you can handle. When it comes time to finish the paperwork, it’s basically a signing ceremony that feels like a celebration. When the bankers put a stack of paper in front of you, you trust them, and you sign. And sign. And sign. And sign." 
5. "But the real reasons lie deeper in our complex financial system, of which mortgage lenders are just one piece. Lots of powerful people bent the rules and built elaborate schemes to make money off these bad loans. Even though most Americans didn’t realize it, our entire economy had grown dependent on these scams. But it was like building a tower of blocks on top of a balloon, and when the balloon popped, the entire economy came crashing down, and we ended up with the Great Recession." 
6. "But in the 1970s and ’80s, corporate America—the owners of big companies—decided to go its own way. Instead of spending the money the company earned on workers, the corporations decided that their only real obligation was to their shareholders, those who bought company stock and therefore owned a piece of the company. From big business’s perspective, it was those owners who deserved the lion’s share of the riches, not the people who made the company run. So while productivity kept improving—a whopping 74 percent between 1973 and 2013—workers’ pay rose just 9 percent. In the 1980s, President Reagan made that idea core to the Republican Party’s view of economics. Cut taxes for corporations. Cut taxes for shareholders. Oppose minimum wage increases for workers. Oppose the very idea of a minimum wage. Crush organized labor—unions—the most powerful force fighting for workers’ rights to fair wages and decent working conditions. Roll back government regulation of corporations. Ignore the human cost." 
7. "Second, I choose to speak truth. Even when it’s uncomfortable. Even when it leaves people feeling uneasy. When you speak truth, people won’t always walk away feeling good—and sometimes you won’t feel so great about the reaction you receive. But at least all parties will walk away knowing it was an honest conversation." 
8. "In the spring of 1966, Cesar Chavez led a 340-mile march of Latinx and Filipino farmworkers from California’s Central Valley to its state capital in an effort to draw attention to the mistreatment and terrible working conditions of his fellow farmworkers. That summer, the United Farm Workers was formed, and under Chavez’s leadership, it would become one of the most important civil rights and labor rights organizations in the country." 
9. "When I travel the country, I see that optimism in the eyes of five- and seven- and ten-year-olds who feel a sense of purpose in being part of the fight. I see it, and feel it, in the energy of the people I meet. Yes, people are marching. Yes, people are shouting. But they are doing it from a place of optimism. That’s why they’ve got their babies with them. That’s why my parents took me in a stroller to civil rights marches. Because as overwhelming as the circumstances may be, they believe, as I do, that a better future is possible for us all."
10. "In fact, in 2016, researchers found that more than half of Silicon Valley’s billion-dollar start-ups were founded by one or more immigrants."