jensenlewis2-blog

[jensenlewis2-blog]

Who am I?

Who am I? A question many of us seem to ask ourselves at some point in life. For many years I’ve been discovering who I am through family and life experiences such as being raised in a Christian home with Christian beliefs as well as politics which is what the main focus of what this story is about. I’ve been seeing my life through the lens of politicians and leaders who’s aims are to make the best difference they can wherever they may be.

Growing up I have seen many sides of people that others may not have. For the past 10 years my dad has held a couple different positions in the political world in New Mexico. When I was 10 years old he brought our family together to give us the news that he was going to be running for City Council in District 5 of Albuquerque. It was kind of a shock to us at first because my dad had been a pastor ever since I could remember and the thought of him doing something new especially in the political world was definitely new for my family and I. But while he still was pastoring at our church he made the bold move to run for public office. Which is something that only 3% of Americans will ever attempt. I sat down and asked my dad a question about his early career in politics. Q: What made you decide to run for office?

A: “I wanted to make a difference and help my community. I wanted to affectively make changes that I thought needed to be made. I became active in neighborhood associations, visited many different little leagues, as well as spoke at elementary schools to encourage young children that they can go make a difference wherever they are at in life too.”

This is one of the first mailers that was handed out in the early months of the city council race.

Running for public office is not an easy task. It involves many different qualities such as tough decision making while trying to please everyone by doing what’s best for who you are representing as a whole. As a public official you do your best to make everyone happy but this is a task that very few people have ever achieved. In the days where my dad first began campaigning to be a City Councilor, it was all still very new to him and our family as well. Luckily he hired a great campaign manager who had a great amount of experience and knew exactly how to run a campaign as well as who the best people to contact were. As a kid growing up in the political world I didn't appreciate what my dad was trying to do, and would say that I didn't want to be a part of any of it but I will support him still, just not be a part of it. As the campaign went on I gained a better view on the whole politics thing. I became more involved in volunteer work such as knocking on doors or sending mailers to voters and I started to appreciate it more and more as it got closer to election day. On the night of the election with all the supporters of the campaign there to celebrate what we all hoped was the victory of the election, came true. My dad beat an eight-year incumbent who was said to be unbeatable. From that point on he has fulfilled the role as a well-known political leader in Albuquerque serving as a City Councilor for two terms over the span of eight years.

Earlier this week I was able to ask my father a few simple questions about his life in politics just to gain a better understanding of how it has affected his life in a different way than mine.

Q: How has politics shaped your life in discovering who you are? A: “Politics hasn’t shaped my life in any way of who I am, but instead I already know who I am and I’ve been able to use who I am to be an effective leader in a political environment. It’s not about politics shaping me, it’s about me shaping politics and making a difference in the lives of those around me.”

Q: What have you learned since first becoming a politician? A: “I’ve learned that effective political leaders are those who are motivated by serving people rather than themselves. Many elected officials are motivated by fear and greed and self-preservation and selfishness which can all lead to bad decision making. When we elect people that are motivated to serve they can do great things and can really help others. I would say that the downfall of elected officials is when they begin to think they are a little more important than they really are, when it’s about answering the phone and helping people.”

The impact that politics has had on my life and my family’s lives has mostly been from the current mayoral race in Albuquerque. This race is by far the hardest to have to watch my dad go through because we constantly see lies and negative information about my him from other candidates. It’s tough to see a man like my dad go through something like that and its especially hard to see that from a kids’ perspective.

One of my most clear memories of this mayoral campaign comes from a debate in late September of 2017. It was a live debate featured on channel 7 news between the then eight candidates who were still in the race before the run-off election began between my dad and the New Mexico state auditor Tim Keller. In this debate there was great back and forth action between some of the candidates. One candidate known as Wayne Johnson was widely known for his short temper. The entire debate he made up lies about my father saying he voted for bills that he didn’t while on city council and other non-important issues as well. The whole time this occurred, my father didn’t catch onto the bait that Johnson was trying to set and just continued to do his own thing throughout the debate and ended up being a crowd favorite. I soon came to realize that there was no reason for me or my family to get caught up in the lies of other people or groups because the only person that should really affect is my father and he never even seems fazed by it because he knows the truth about who he is and what he believes so I’m going to always believe that too.

I understand that you can’t please everyone in life and no matter how hard you try someone is going to disagree with you. The way to handle this is by doing your absolute best to serve everyone you can in a way that brings the best out in people. My father has given me knowledge and understanding on how to go about this in order to fulfill your best interests as well as the peoples around you to make the best difference you can in every person’s life. Politics can bring out the worst in people but the best politicians are the ones who don't have to attack others but run on their own morals and records and my dad has done a remarkable job at that for the past 10 years.

[jensenlewis2-blog]

Land and Water Issues in America

Americans face many battles everyday involving issues of land and water, such as the Flint water crisis that contaminated countless families main water source with lead. Another issue being water getting cut off to certain groups and privatized in Detroit, or drilling oil holes and wells in areas of land that are sacred to many Native American groups and where people are vulnerable to the pollution being put into the air. Many view these issues as systematically racist and unnecessary leading to the great debate of how these issues are handled in our country and how environmental racism plays a role.

In 2014, in Flint Michigan, public officials made a decision for the city that they thought would save millions of dollars over time. The decision was to change their water supply from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), to building their own pipeline to connect the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) to Flint. During the time that this new pipeline was to be built, Flint needed a substitute water supply so they switched to the Flint river. In recent history, the flint river actually was the main water source until the 1960s. Just four months after this switch, the city received countless complaints about the quality of the water, such as the smell and color of the new water. Complaints in which were denied by state officials for months.

This is an actual representation of what the water in Flint, Michigan looked like after the decision to switch to the Flint river was made Compared to normal water found anywhere else…

Many officials actually fought that the water was pure and not harmful. The Mayor of Flint was quoted saying, “It's regular, good, pure drinking water, and it's right in our backyard. This is the first step in the right direction for Flint, and we take this monumental step forward in controlling the future of our community’s most precious resource.” This is such an important quote because it shows how much research and time was put into this new transition for the city by public and state officials at the time. Just four months after the switch, the flint river was tested for E. coli and Coliform Bacteria. The only thing the city did to fix this was raising the chlorine levels throughout the river. Which made the situation worse because chlorine makes water more acidic causing corrosion to pipes.

A representation of the effects lead and chlorine have on household pipelines.

The main thing found in the Flint water was the high levels of lead. Many studies found high levels of lead in children which led to a city advisory. Saying that every person or household should be aware that any type of level of lead should be considered unsafe. About 6 months after the switch the city decided to change back to the Detroit water supply but at that point it was already too late because the pipes throughout the city had already been corroded by lead. After the news and facts about this major water issue came out, two state regulation officials resigned. As well as two state officials at the MDEQ (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality), and Flint’s water quality supervisor Micheal Glaskow, all facing criminal charges. Michigan’s attorney general stated that the three, “face felony charges including misconduct, neglect of duty and conspiracy to tamper with evidence. They’ve also been charged with violating Michigan’s Safe Drinking Water Act.”

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality

Flint, Michigan is a 40% black city. Since this issue first erupted, many speculations and protests have occurred saying that something like this would never happen in a mainly white neighborhood or town such as Birmingham or Ann Arbor. Many reported that Flint was a unique target because of the known black community it is. Flint, Michigan did not get equal protection of environmental or public health laws and didn’t have a say in any of it either. In the past couple decades, racial discrimination in housing, education, and employment have been present in Flint, Michigan. At one-point Flint had the most prosperous auto industry in all of Michigan before this discrimination occurred. In this event of the water issue, whites mostly populated the suburbs leaving the mostly black population to struggle to maintain a water system that was built for a much larger city.

In the end, major issues and concerns were ignored. At the time of need, state officials didn’t express any concerns for this major crisis, but when they did decide to take action, it was already way too late.

Another water issue that occurred in America is the issue of water being cut off and privatized to certain groups in Detroit. This issue didn’t have to do with availability of water, but more so from local governments going broke and being unable to finance their own control over the water. In Detroit, joblessness, poverty and homelessness remain major problems. The reason this story is interesting is because it shows how certain classes and races of hard working people are discriminated against other institutions and other corporations. In this situation in Detroit, the water shut offs are mostly related to the poor households and the working class, but not businesses that don’t stay caught up in their bills who get to keep their water turned on. In 2015, 23,300 homes got their water turned off, but thousands of businesses that owed millions of dollars were left with their water. Studies show that businesses and government-owned properties owe almost twice as much as homeowners do.

Many citizens in the Detroit Area fought the battle against water privatization with protest and signs like these saying, “Water is a human right!”

The reason that so many households were shut off from their water is because they weren’t able to pay anymore. These people couldn’t pay their bills because of the last decade water rates have raised by almost 120% when the Detroit city council voted to increase the rates by 19% back in 2009. It’s no wonder they couldn’t keep up with their bills especially in a city where almost 40% of the residents live below poverty.

We can easily come to the conclusion that this was served to forcefully remove thousands of people from Detroit. These water shut offs were a majority to African American households. The largest race population in Detroit happens to be African American and after these shut offs the U.S. lost nearly 25 percent of its overall residents in the African American community. The impact of these water shut offs and policies is that when there is no water in a home, it becomes almost impossible to live. Even residents with children were subject to laws under the Child Protection Services (CPS) because of the households not being fit to live in anymore without water. Water is an essential resource that should be available to every person as it is a human right to have. The way that this was handled by the DWSD should’ve never happened and it should’ve been looked at in a fair way that looked out for all people not just businesses and government properties. 

Lastly it brings us to Chaco Cultural National Park. Home to some of the most sacred land to many Native American pueblos. This historical park has the possibility of being overtaken by fracking drills on land that had been leased by the BLM for close to $3 million. Chaco canyon is protected by development but there is a 10-mile buffer around the park that is not protected. About 90% of the Greater Chaco Canyon has already been leased for oil and gas development. Countless Native American groups as well as both of New Mexico’s State Senators are doing all they can to take action. These fracking drills are known for being made very close to vulnerable people such as, infants, school children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems. What fracking does to these people is it creates a range of threats to public health and safety such as things like, fires, explosions, well failures, spills, or even contaminated drinking water. Many groups are fighting to bring an overall end to fracking in order to protect public health and the environment. It’s crazy how in all the places across the whole nation, this ancient landmark is the chosen place for consideration of these oil and gas drills.

This is a fracking sire positioned less than 200 yards from this home and neighborhood greatly increasing the risk of health issues for people who live nearby.

The history of Chaco Canyon goes all the way back to between 900-1150 AD. The ruins of a once flourishing Pueblo still stands today after many centuries. This land is known for its world heritage and is in great danger of becoming just another oil site. This is very disheartening to many indigenous groups because of the ties they have to this land and how it will not only affect the land but their lives as well.

The sacred land known as Chaco Canyon which is in danger of fracking oil drills.

These issues all tie together because they show how modern political leaders are still in a very racial and unnecessary mindset. These leaders are making decisions that are affecting our nation as a whole and driving people apart. Race doesn’t only involve profiling in America. It also plays the role of environmental racism regarding land, water, and regulations. The communities affected by this are fighting every day to fight these bad decisions by state and public officials.