Nobody woke me
Three things that make those on the “woke” left snarl at Kamala Harris’ candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination are three things that make me like her even more.
One issue that gets up the hackles of the extreme left is that Harris supported a law while district attorney of San Francisco that made truancy a crime for parents whose children consistently missed school for bad reasons. Some parents went to jail for a bit as a result of the law being implemented.
Good, I say.
Truancy is a huge problem in schools in California, particularly here in poverty-stricken Imperial County, with parents making countless pathetic excuses for their children missing school: “We were in Mexicali really late,” “One of my other kids has a doctor’s appointment today,” and “It was raining.”
The problem is so rampant that schools throughout the Imperial Valley have signs up imploring students to, “Be in school, on time, everyday.” (It actually should be “every day,” because it’s not functioning as an adjective in that case. Then again, I was referred to recently as a grammar Nazi.)
There have been studies that show chronic absenteeism leads kids to problems later in life, not only academic issues but run-ins with the criminal justice system.
As someone who ran a sizable business operation in the Valley, I can tell you employees just not coming to work is the biggest issue many local employers face. Attendance, or lack thereof, is the one thing that also keeps many locals from advancing in their workplaces.
Attendance is a huge issue even at the college/university level at which I teach. Many students just don’t show up enough, often citing the nebulous “family emergency.”
What I’ve noticed, though, is the students who don’t attend regularly are the same ones that have other crippling educational issues, probably because they’ve missed so much class over the years that they haven’t learned what they need to know. Each semester, absenteeism implores me to give my students a lecture about the virtues of just plain showing up.
Harris, who later was California’s attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator, has said her intent was not that parents be sent to jail for their children’s chronic truancy but that resources be availed to parents whose kids regularly miss school.
I, though, believe a couple days in the pokey might be what some parents need to be compelled to get their kids to school regularly. I don’t think Harris should be ashamed of taking a hard stance against parents with chronically truant children.
Another thing held against Harris by the “woke” is that, as a former prosecutor, she essentially is a “cop.” Really? Most cops I’ve known, including prosecutors, street cops, detectives and FBI agents, are fine people who do thankless work.
Are there cops and prosecutors who abuse their powers? Certainly, but those abusers are in the minority. Being labeled “a cop” should be considered a badge of honor for Kamala Harris to wear, not a scarlet letter.
Finally, some on the woke left have an issue with Harris, whose parents are from India and Jamaica, being married to a white guy, as if that lessens her authenticity as a person of color. As a white guy married for many years to a woman of color, I can tell you it has not affected my wife’s authenticity as a person of color, nor has it affected her devotion to helping people of color most in need. In fact, that’s exactly what my wife does, with an uncommon passion, for a living.
So I guess I’m not “woke” in the eyes of the “woke” on many issues.
That’s OK, though. At my age, I need my naps.