No one puts a scarf on my head but me. It’s my choice—one protected by the first amendment. And this is not the last ban I’m going to work to lift.  Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar,

Cognitive dissonance is Republican commentators stalking, doctoring, + editing my casual livestreams out of context in order to sow doubt in my intelligence, all while blindly supporting a man who thinks our greatest defense against forest fires is: A Rake. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

What I really like about both Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, is that they are not afraid to be unabashedly themselves. For somebody my age, 78, being myself is still a struggle but it seems to come naturally to these young women. They both come from the bottom rung of the Middle Class; they didn’t starve growing up but there was no money for the luxuries most of us – but not most people – consider necessities and these are the people they want to represent.  In my opinion, these are the people who have to be represented if we are going to survive as a functional democracy.  

Ocasio-Cortez has a hyperactive Twitter presence where she “shares moments of excitement and pride at the incredible privilege of being new to Congress” (to quote from an article by a young, but older, Latina who has spent her life trying to fit into – she doesn’t identify it this way but I will – the white patriarchy of Washington). Much of what Ocasio-Cortez shares is logistics – because that’s what most of life is, after all – and that has given the right-wing media lots to go after. When she tweeted about how expensive rent is in DC and that she couldn’t afford to get an apartment until she started getting her Congressional paycheck which wouldn’t happen until January. Some right-wing pundit retweeted with a snarky comment along the line of You should have thought about saving some money before you came to Washinton. Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t phased, she tweeted back: There is no reason to be ashamed or embarrassed. Mocking lower incomes is exactly how those who benefit from + promote wealth inequality the most keep everyday people silent about 1 of the worst threats to American society: that the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. What the snarker didn’t get is that most people can’t live in Washington DC and they relate to that tweet.

More importantly is that even with that background – or, perhaps, because of it – both Omar and Ocasio-Cortez think that Global Warming is our biggest threat and they don’t want it buried in the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (which over the last several administrations has done nothing). When Ocasio-Cortez tweets People are going to die if we don’t start addressing climate change ASAP. It’s not enough to think it’s “important.” We must make it urgent. That’s why we need a Select Committee on a Green New Deal, & why fossil fuel-funded officials shouldn’t be writing climate change policy. she is challenging the traditions that keep the powerful in power, she is challenging the Democratic-house hierarchy and that takes guts. And she challenging it in the area that it most needs challenging, in my view. Like Bernie, Ocasio-Cortez is defined by the establishment media as an unrealistic spender who wants programs we can’t afford, but, like Bernie, her first priority is climate change and its devastating impacts (to quote the just-released Fourth National Climate Assessment which is clear that we are in real trouble).  

As an aside, climate change and its devastating impacts is my core issue, that’ what drew me to Bernie Sanders in the first place. There are lots of things that Bernie has suggested and pushed such as free college, Single Payer Health Insurance, and a living wage that match my personal values, but these are only my values and, while I think they would make this a better place to live, that is only what I think. Climate Change is different, climate change is real, it is a fact, and it is starting to destroy this planet as our home. This is not theoretical, this is real, it is already starting. End aside. 

I want to end, however, on the happy note, for me at least, that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, are already changing the world (or, maybe, they are just tuned into the change that is already happening). A lot of that is that, like Trump, they are bypassing the usual channels – the progress is slow, follow the rules, our rules, filter – by using social media. One tweet exchange that I especially got a kick out of was with Lindsey Graham. When Ocasio-Cortez tweeted about the immigrant families trying to find safe harbor into the US by saying  Asking to be considered a refuge & applying for status isn’t a crime. It wasn’t for Jewish families fleeing Germany. It wasn’t for targeted families fleeing Rawanda. It wasn’t for communities fleeing war-torn Syria. And it isn’t for those fleeing violence in Central America.

The net, Twittersphere went into a frenzy of anger, one of the angry people, Lindsey Graham, tried to put her in her place, saying I recommend she take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC. Might help her better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana.

I’m not sure of the order of these next two tweets so I’m just arbitrarily putting Ocasio-Cortez first: @LindseyGrahamSC, the point of such a treasured museum is to bring its lessons to present day. This administration has jailed children and violated human rights. Perhaps we should stop pretending that authoritarianism + violence is a historical event instead of a growing force. 

About three hours after Graham’s tweet, the Auschwitz Museum tweeted: When we look at  Auschwitz we see the end of the process. It’s important to remember that the Holocaust actually did not start from gas chambers. This hatred gradually developed from words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanisation & escalating violence.

I want to say that I didn’t imagine a future of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezes and her ilk. I thought, I hoped, that change would come from the Gavin Newsom generation. It never occurred to me that it would take an entirely new generation of activists to be brave enough to really fight for change and not just talk about it. 

We write unlimited blank checks for war, we JUST wrote a 2 trillion dollar check for the GOP tax cut and NOBODY asks those folks how are they gonna pay for it. So my question is why are our pockets only empty when it comes to education and healthcare for our kids? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez