30.4.1975

 

Harvard Law grad running for mayor of Houston after unsuccessful bid for U.S.Senate

HER STATEMENT:  

"My background as a public finance attorney, my experience as a non-profit leader, and my ability to pursue and execute a bold, innovative vision makes me uniquely positioned to address our city's challenges. Our campaign is poised to make history; it is no coincidence that our launch occurs during Women’s History Month as I work hard to become Houston’s first African American female mayor.

Together, we will improve public safety, upgrade Houston's aging infrastructure to combat flooding, enhance our transportation system, grow our economy, bolster our housing stock, support our schools, repair the city’s finances, and improve the quality of life for all Houstonians!"

non-fiction on Vietnam War, a topic that is never saturated

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-many-flaws-and-failures-of-the-united-states-in-the-vietnam-war/2018/11/08/b0a4e4c8-cb29-11e8-920f-dd52e1ae4570_story.html

GOING BACK TO THE 1980s: LIFE AND FICTION

I came of age in America in the 1980s, graduating from law school in 1984.  After a federal clerkship, got right into federal securities law at Wilmer Cutler Washington, D.C. (now Wilmer Hale, the law firm of Special Counsel Robert Mueller), and then the SEC. 
I believe that in February of this year, President Trump pardoned junk bond king Michael Milken.  This reminds me of Pulitzer-winner non-fiction, Den of Thieves,
 by James Stewart (1992) (four  names mentioned in the book were my bosses/employers). 
What is happening right now around the country also brings me back to Tom Wolf's The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987).
I was a young lawyer based in Washington, D.C. and travelling NYC-D.C. for my law as well as artistic exploration during those years.

FINALLY...WOMAN OF COLOR RUNNING FOR THE HIGHEST OFFICE OF THE LAND

I first met Kamala Harris in San Jose, at a bar conference.

I watched her during the Senate's U.S. Supreme Court controversial nomination hearing this past year, 2018. 

Based on my 34 years of experience as a American lawyer (1984-to date:  starting as perhaps the first Vietnamese  judicial clerk in the federal trial court, to my latest post as full-time law professor in an ABA-accredited institution,  I will say this: she is a highly talented litigator, a dynamic speaker, tough as  nails.  Hats off to her. 

For me, she represented the road NOT taken.  For  many American women, especially female lawyers, political activists, pioneer politicians, and especially women of color, she represented the ROAD TAKEN.  

 https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/sen-kamala-harris-run-president-134617364.html

JFK's speech

JFK might have been an imperfect man (to Jackie, who loved him and protected his legacy), but he was the one who uttered these words, to the American Press, in the era of Cold War, before he lost his life in such a gruesome, tragic way.  There was a time when national leadership meant elegance and wit, with messages that have held and rung true, in rhetoric as well as in time.