Over 20 Democratic presidential hopefuls are attempting to remove President Donald Trump from the White House in 2020.
Getting to Know Author Marianne Williamson
If a businessperson can effectively run the country as President of the United States, why can’t an author do the same?
Though author Marianne Williamson grew up in the conservative state of Texas, the Democratic presidential candidate’s policies obviously lean left, which can be attributed to her parents, world travels as a child and the diversity of her hometown, Houston.
Williamson said that travelling the world as a youngster made her realize that all people are the same deep down.
Those global experiences made her who she is today, as well as her parents’ insistence that she give back to those less fortunate than her.
Her father grew up in poverty before becoming a successful immigration attorney in Houston and all four of her grandparents immigrated to America from oppressive countries in Eastern Europe.
Therefore, Williamson understands the pain of people struggling to achieve a better way of life for themselves and their families.
Williamson’s family taught her that if she saw a wrong in society, the responsibility rested with her and her late sister Jane to correct that wrong.
Williamson went to public schools in Houston during the turbulent 1960s and participated in anti-war protests and the cultural and spiritual revolutions erupting throughout the 50 states.
After graduating from Houston’s Bellaire High School, the future presidential candidate attended Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. for two years.
While in her early twenties, Williamson developed a passion for philosophy and comparative religion, becoming a spiritual advisor for 35 years after reading books such as “A Course in Miracles.”
As a spiritual advisor, Williamson lectured and wrote books on the importance of forgiveness without subscribing to any particular religious dogma.
While speaking to small groups in California during the early 1980s, Williamson developed a passion for helping those suffering from the devastating AIDS epidemic that rocked the nation during that time period.
Williamson helped to create Project Angel Food, which provides meals-on-wheels services to homebound AIDS patients.
Project Angel Food has now served over 11 million meals to people in the Greater Los Angeles area.
The author, who rose to fame on the bestseller list after multimedia mogul Oprah Winfrey featured her book on her talk show, has spent most of her adult life giving back to those without a voice in mainstream society.
That book published in 1992, and entitled “A RETURN TO LOVE: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles,” was Williamson’s first book.
She has since published 12 books, with four reaching the top spot on the New York Times bestseller list.
She named her fourth book “Healing the Soul of America” and that is her goal if elected as the 46th President of the United States of America.
“Our task is to generate a massive wave of energy, fueled and navigated by we the people, so powerful as to override all threats to our democracy,” Williamson said on her official campaign website. “Where fear has been harnessed for political purposes, our task is to harness love.”
One way to harness that love that Williamson talks about is through racial reconciliation and healing.
Much media attention has gone to the alleged racial divide during President Donald Trump’s administration, and Williamson wants to bring the races together and mend those broken fences.
Like former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Williamson believes that the U.S. president has a moral obligation to bring people together and not divide them.
President Roosevelt once stated, “The presidency is not merely an administrative office. That’s the least of it. It’s more than an engineering job, efficient or inefficient. It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership.”
Williamson said that after centuries of slavery and discrimination, which helped build America, someone owes someone in the form of reparations.
She said that although a few freed slaves received their reparations via 40 acres and mule, most did not and those that did often eventually saw their land taken back from them.
“In many ways, America has continued the process of racial reconciliation begun in the 1960s,” Williamson said via her campaign website. “Yet in other ways, we have actually slipped backward. Yes, there are no more colored bathrooms and separate drinking fountains. But we now have mass incarceration; racial disparity in criminal sentencing; lost voting rights; outright voter suppression; and police brutality often focused on Black populations.”
As a result, Williamson has proposed a reparations bill that will pay $200-$500 billion over 20 years to educational and economic projects deemed necessary and worthy by respected Black civic leaders.
Being the granddaughter of four European immigrants, Williamson knows the significance of why people come to America from other countries with less freedom and less safety.
Therefore, Williamson believes that America has to become welcoming to immigrants if the country truly wants to become great again.
Williamson does not want open borders though.
She wants open hearts instead.
“Scapegoating immigrants, particularly Mexicans and Central Americans, is a deliberate dehumanization technique,” Williamson explained. “Dehumanizing others has always been the required first step leading toward history’s collective atrocities.”
She realizes that America’s policies at the border are not perfect but Williamson believes that it is far from a crisis.
Williams emphasizes correctly that crimes committed by immigrants, documented and undocumented, are less than American citizens.
Documented and undocumented immigrants are 46 percent less likely to commit a crime than native-born Americans.
Williamson fully supports DACA, which allows children brought to America at a young by their guardians to stay in America.
She wants to speed up the process that allows asylum seekers the opportunity to enter the United States.
The author and businessperson wants to end the three-to-10 year re-entry bars which forces those in a relationship with an American citizen to wait years to re-enter America if they return to their native country to get a green card.
If elected to the Oval Office, Williamson wants to also address gun safety, among other things.
She wants to eliminate the sale of assault rifles and semi-automatic guns.
The native Houstonian wants to ban bump stocks and high capacity magazines.
Furthermore, she wants universal background checks even at gun shows.
Magazine Topics:
- Introducing Mayor Bill de Blasio
- Introducing Secretary Julian Castro
- 2020 Democratic Presidential Hopefuls
- Introducing Sen. Cory Booker
- Introducing Sen. Kamala Harris
- Introducing Vice President Joe Biden
- Introducing Sen. Amy Klobuchar
- Introducing Businessperson Andrew Yang
- Introducing Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
- Introducing Rep. Beto O’Rourke
- Introducing Gov. Steve Bullock
- Introducing Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
- Introducing Rep. Tim Ryan
- Introducing Rep. John Sestak
- Introducing Mayor Wayne Messam