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For Theresa Greenfield, the Democratic candidate trying to unseat GOP Sen. Joni Ernst in a state President Trump won by nine points in 2016, the medias focus over the past few months on the countrys violent racial unrest and demands to defund the police is at best a distraction from her down-to-earth Midwest farm kid with farm kid values campaign messaging.

With just four months left before voters go to the polls, the soft-spoken middle-aged mom and former commercial real estate broker has been focused on wooing swing rural and suburban women and older voters, with an emphasis on a traditional Democratic platform of preserving Social Security and other social safety nets. And Greenfield has a powerful personal backstory.

Her husband, Rob, a lineman at the local power company, was killed in a workplace accident years ago, and she depended on Social Security to get by as a single parent before getting a degree and becoming the president of her Des Moines-based real estate firm.

Greenfields campaign has been slowly gaining traction in recent months as President Trumps poll numbers have sputtered in key battleground states, dragging down Ernst and other Republican candidates across the country. In mid-June, a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll showed Greenfield edging Ernst by three percentage points, within the margin of error but still ahead. In late June, Trump held just a one-point lead in the state over Joe Biden.

To maintain momentum, Greenfield is trying to avoid being defined by the Democratic Partys leftward lurch and its embrace of expansive programs like Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, as well as the Black Lives Matter campaign to defund the police. But carving out a more nuanced position hasnt been easy. Seeing a potential vulnerability, Ernst in early June called on Greenfield to denounce the growing calls to defund or abolish our police officers.

For the first few weeks, Greenfield remained quiet on the police-funding issue. Meanwhile Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, has taken GOP fire for changing his tune on the movement over the last few weeks. At first Biden said he didnt support protesters demands to defund the police but said reforms are needed and backed a plan to condition federal aid to local police departments adhering to certain standards of behavior.

This week, during an interview with the left-wing outlet Now This, Biden said the police are over-militarized and become the enemy when they go into neighborhoods in armored, military-style Humvees. He also clarified in the same interview that he would absolutely be willing to direct police funds elsewhere to mental health care, affordable housing and other Democratic priorities.

Greenfields campaign spokesman on Thursday told RealClearPolitics she doesnt view it as an either/or funding choice.

Instead of defunding the police, Theresa believes we need real reform with more transparency and body cameras, more civilian oversight and Department of Justice reviews, and better racial bias and de-escalation training and standards, along with other long-term investments to address racial disparities in policing, housing, health care and education, Sam Newton, her spokesman, told RealClearPolitics in a statement.

Meanwhile, Ernst has tried to highlight her law-and-order differences with Greenfield by sponsoring a bill to deny federal funds to local leaders who allow autonomous zones such as the one protesters dubbed the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ, in Seattle to operate. Ernsts Ending Taxpayer Funding of Anarchy Act would block federal funds from flowing to anarchist jurisdictions areas which city and local officials allow to operate independently without immediate access to police, fire, or emergency services.

The Seattle mayor said the CHAZ was like a block party, and then weve had shootings there people have been killed and an alleged rape, Ernst told RealClearPolitics in an interview. When local officials arent allowing law enforcement, EMS, and fire services into certain areas of the city, thats an abdication of their constitutional obligations to protect their citizens.

Im pretty fired up about it I think its absolutely ridiculous, she added.

President Trump at his Fourth of July culture war speech at Mount Rushmore and elsewhere has pledged to be a law-and-order president and uphold the nations heritage. The presidents Twitter profile features a photo of him posing with a group of policemen in front of Air Force One.

Vice President Mike Pence continued the theme Thursday by headlining a back the blue campaign rally at a lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police in Philadelphia. Pence argued that Biden would cut funding for police if elected in November. He slammed the Minneapolis City Council for defunding its police department and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for his cuts to law enforcement.

I want you to hear this directly from me, he said. Under this president, and this administration, were not going to defund the police. Not now, not ever.

The Trump campaign has been running an ad depicting Black Lives Matter protesters as dangerous anarchists, planning to unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities and chaos in our streets. It depicted Joe Biden as kneeling to the left, and predicted he would fail to stand up to the radical leftists fighting to defund and abolish the police.

Democrats and several media outlets have labeled Trumps ads purposefully misleading and say the presidents campaign is distorting Bidens position on cutting police funding. They are pushing back hard because they believe Trumps law-and-order messaging could be very powerful in the months leading up to November, especially among suburban women and independents.

Even though polls show Trump and several GOP Senate incumbents are running behind in key states and races, Democratic strategists are worried that the national defund-the-police movement and the national cancel culture push is an overreach that could hurt them in swing and red-leaning states this fall.

A new Pew Research Center national poll, conducted June 16-22 and released this week, found that 73 percent of respondents thought local police funding should stay about the same or be increased, while 42 percent of African Americans and 21 percent of whites favored cutting it.

Still, the poll uncovered some shifting feelings on police that opinions of law enforcement officials are less favorable today than they were in a similar poll Pew conducted four years ago. Some 58 percent said they believe the police do a good to excellent job of protecting the public from crime, slightly down from the 62 percent who answered that way in Pews 2016 survey. Additionally, two-thirds (66 percent) of those polled rejected the notion of qualified immunity, that individual officers should be shielded from lawsuits unless they commit clear violations of the law.

Greenfield is hardly alone in trying to side-step the defund-the-police movement while advocating more realistic responses to concerns about police brutality and racial inequality. The strong majority opposition to the defunding movement is forcing the two Senate Democrats in the toughest re-election contests to openly denounce it.

I do not support defunding the police, said Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat facing off against GOP combat veteran John James, when first asked about his position on the issue in early June. The police departments are out there protecting citizens, and the overwhelming majority of law enforcement and police are protecting citizens.

Sen. Doug Jones, an Alabama Democrat considered the most vulnerable Democrat this cycle, said, I dont think thats a good idea. Defunding and disbanding is not something I would ever, ever support.

With the issue hardly fading away in recent weeks, as Black Lives Matter protests continue coast-to-coast, in early July Peters hosted an online forum on racial justice and was joined by the Michigan NAACP and former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder.Peters said police reform is part of a long list of issues needed to address racial inequalities and incidents of police brutality.

While stopping short of cutting funds to law enforcement, he said more accountability is needed for officers and police departments, including a way to keep track of officers with bad records so they cant simply move and join another department.

Peters also blasted Senate Republicans for failing to get a police reform bill passed in late June, although Peters had joined Senate Democrats in blocking discussion of the measure, sponsored by Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in the Senate.

John James, a West Point graduate and African American business owner who is challenging Peters, labeled Peters stance a PR stunt.

Gary Peters doesnt speak for black people. We speak for ourselves, the Republican candidate told a Michigan news outlet.

James is attracting national GOP donors, outraising Peters for the fourth straight fundraising quarter while edging closer to him in the polls. A CNBC/Change Research survey, released July 1, found Peters ahead by 7 points, 49 percent to 42 percemt. Its James second attempt to topple a sitting Democratic senator. James fell six points short of defeating Sen. Debbie Stabenow in 2018.

Several other Democratic challengers in close swing-state Senate contests also have rejected the defund-the-police movement while supporting nuanced reforms.

This is not the approach we need, Mark Kelly, a former NASA astronaut challenging GOP Sen. Martha McSally in Arizona, said in mid-June.

We have some deep systemic issues here with racism in the country, and weve got to demand accountability, said Kelly, the son of two police officers. There needs to be a justice system that doesnt discriminate against anyone because of their race, but I do not agree that we should defund the police.

Kelly listed the adoption of body cameras for all police, along with the need for more transparency and independent oversight, as well as employing de-escalation techniques.

Theres a lot that can be done here. It should have been done decades ago, Kelly said.

Cal Cunningham, the Democratic challenger leading North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis by 10 points in a recent CNBC poll, in mid-June said, Twenty-first century policing reform will require increased investment in law enforcement, not defunding it.

Days earlier, Tillis tweeted that defunding law enforcement is irresponsible, would make our communities less safe and is void of common sense.

Anyone afraid of saying that is simply unfit to lead, he concluded.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics.

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' White House/national political correspondent.

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Rioters' 'Defund The Police' Push Puts Democrat Candidates On Defense - The Federalist

Putting a measure on the ballot means getting petition signatures, but in a time of pandemic, at least one group will be trying a direct mail campaign instead.

People Not Politicians is calling on thousands of Oregonian voters via mail to sign a petition for an independent commission to take over electoral redistricting in the state, and if enough people sign the measure would be on the November ballot.

The coalition is asking for signatures by mail because social distancing restrictions make traditional face-to-face petition work unrealistic.

What the Measure Would Do

Called Initiative Petition 57, this proposal seeks to transfer Oregons redrawing process for legislative and congressional lines from the hands of the state legislature, and move authority to a new 12-member commission. The idea is to put an end to partisan gerrymandering, which occurs because legislators can have conflicts of interest during the process and can essentially choose their voters, instead of voters choosing them.

The initiative letter contains a return envelope and is being sent to multiple voters within 500,000 addresses, meaning it is reaching about one million Oregonians. It needs 149,360 valid signatures by July 2 to qualify for the November ballot.

The 2011 update was the first time in a century that lawmakers did not defer the duty of redrawing to the partisan secretary of state, which also can create potential bias issues.

Both Support and Opposition are Bipartisan

Former President Barack Obama as well as former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder are national supporters of the initiative. Locally, supporters include NAACP branches of Oregon, the conservative Taxpayer Association of Oregon, public interest nonprofit OSPIRG, the American Association of University Women of Oregon, and Oregons Progressive Party. A chief petitioner of the initiative is Norman Turrill, a retired Portland software engineer and former president of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Oregon. Those in favor are hoping that the initiative will help end gerrymandering and subsequently give voters more power to hold elected representatives responsible, by, according to Turrill, potentially decreasing the number of districts where incumbents can easily win re-election.

The opposed include executive director for nonprofit Our Oregon, Becca Uherbelau and executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon, Emily McLain. The two have filed a lawsuit with hopes of stopping the redistricting commission initiative from going any further. Uherbelau and McLain are arguing that the initiative violates the Oregon Constitution, specifically a procedural requirement that requires initiatives to only amend one provision of the constitution at a time. They claim that the initiative would both switch redistricting from the state legislature to the commission as well as restrict Oregonians rights to free speech excluding elected officials, lobbyists, and other political insiders from serving on the commission.

Uherbelau and McLain are also concerned that the initiative could prevent young voters and newly naturalized citizens from serving, and since it requires applicants to have voted in at least two of the last three elections, could leave out many more Oregonians as well.

Heres Where the Campaign Money is Coming From

As of right now, People Not Politicians, spearheaded by civic and good government groups, has accrued $316,000 in funding: $61,000 from in-kind donations from nonpartisan democracy reform organization Common Cause, $40,000 from The Standard insurance company, $37,000 from the League of Women Voters, and $35,000 from Oregon Business and Industry.

By Cara Nixon

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Redistricting Campaign Hopes Signatures by Mail Will Put Their Measure on the Ballot - The Corvallis Advocate

Washington

Protesters are pushing to defund the police" over the death of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement. Their chant has become rallying cry and a stick for President Donald Trump to use on Democrats as he portrays them as soft on crime.

But what does defund the police mean? Its not necessarily about gutting police department budgets.

What is the 'Defund the Police' movement?

Supporters say it isnt about eliminating police departments or stripping agencies of all of their money. They say it is time for the country to address systemic problems in policing in America and spend more on what communities across the United States need, like housing and education.

State and local governments spent $115 billion on policing in 2017, according todata compiledby the Urban Institute.

Why cant we look at how it is that we reorganize our priorities, so people dont have to be in the streets during a national pandemic?" Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza asked during an interview on NBCs Meet the Press.

Activists acknowledge this is a gradual process.

The group MPD150, which says it is working towards a police-free Minneapolis, argues that such action would be more about strategically reallocating resources, funding, and responsibility away from police and toward community-based models of safety, support, and prevention.

The people who respond to crises in our community should be the people who are best-equipped to deal with those crises, the groupwroteon its website.

What are lawmakers saying?

Sen. Cory Booker said he understands the sentiment behind the "Defund the police" slogan, but it's not a slogan he will use.

The New Jersey Democrat told NBC's Meet the Press that he shares a feeling with many protesters that Americans are over-policed and that we are investing in police, which is not solving problems, but making them worse when we should be, in a more compassionate country, in a more loving country.

Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said part of the movement is really about how money is spent.

Now, I dont believe that you should disband police departments, she said in an interview with CNN. But I do think that, in cities, in states, we need to look at how we are spending the resources and invest more in our communities.

Maybe this is an opportunity to re-envision public safety, she said.

Mr. Trump and his campaign view the emergence of the Defund the Police slogan as a spark of opportunity during what has been a trying political moment. Mr. Trumps response to the protests has sparked widespread condemnation. But now his supporters say the new mantra may make voters, who may be otherwise sympathetic to the protesters, recoil from a radical idea.

Mr. Trump seized on the slogan last week as he spoke at an event in Maine.

Theyre saying 'defund the police,'" he said. Defund. Think of it. When I saw it, I said, What are you talking about? We dont want to have any police,' they say. You dont want police?

Mr. Trumps 2016 campaign was built on a promise of ensuring law and order often in contrast to protests against his rhetoric that followed him across the country. As he seeks reelection, Mr. Trump is preparing to deploy the same argument again and seems to believe the defund the police call has made the campaign applause line all the more real for his supporters.

Is there any push to actually defund police departments?

Yes, or at least to reduce their budgets in some major cities.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that the city would move funding from the NYPD to youth initiatives and social services, while keeping the city safe, but he didn't give details.

In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed to cut as much as $150 million that was part of a planned increase in the police departments budget.

A majority of the members of the Minneapolis City Council said Sunday they support disbanding the city's police department.Nine of the councils 12 members appeared with activists at a rally in a city park Sunday afternoon and vowed to end policing as the city currently knows it. Council member Jeremiah Ellison promised that the council would dismantle the department.

It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe, Lisa Bender, the council president, said. Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period.

Ms. Bender went on to say she and the eight other council members that joined the rally are committed to ending the citys relationship with the police force and to end policing as we know it and recreate systems that actually keep us safe.

How have police officials and unions responded?

Generally, police and union officials have long resisted cuts to police budgets, arguing that it would make cities less safe.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union for the city's rank-and-file officers, said budget cuts would be the quickest way to make our neighborhoods more dangerous.

Cutting the LAPD budget means longer responses to 911 emergency calls, officers calling for back-up wont get it, and rape, murder and assault investigations wont occur or will take forever to initiate, let alone complete, the unions board said in a statement last week.

At this time, with violent crime increasing, a global pandemic and nearly a weeks worth of violence, arson, and looting, defunding the LAPD is the most irresponsible thing anyone can propose.

Has defunding an entire police force ever happened?

In 2012, with crime rampant in Camden, New Jersey, the city disbanded its police department and replaced it with a new force that covered Camden County. Compton, California, took the same step in 2000, shifting its policing to Los Angeles County.

It was a step that then-Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department was considering for Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown. The city eventually reached an agreement short of that but one that required massive reforms overseen by a court-appointed mediator.

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This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writers Zeke Miller in Washington and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.

Editors note: As a public service, the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage. Its free.

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'Defund the police': What does that mean exactly? - The Christian Science Monitor

ByCharlene Crowell

(Trice Edney Wire) The nationwide protests against the heinous killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman, is reminiscent of the 1960s era of turmoil and voices that fervently called for social and economic justice. Todays turbulent times seem that history is repeating itself.

In addition to George Floyd, recent tragedies took the lives of a Black Louisville EMT in the middle of the night while she was asleep in her own bed. In another fatal incident, a young Black Georgia man jogging in daylight was shot dead. None of these three unarmed people deserved to die violently.

For Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a book begun in 1966 while he was living in a Chicago tenement reflected similar chaotic challenges against a backdrop of seething racial resentments. Published the following year and entitled, Where Do We Go from Here: Community or Chaos?, Dr. King drew upon his visits to cities across the nation to pen how substandard housing, failing schools, a dearth of job opportunities, and a myriad of other ills erupted into bloody riots.

Then and today, violence is broadly condemned, but there still seems to be little concern or justification for the resulting backlash of militarized communities, or a president who has yet to grasp that Black lives matter.

So once again, the question, Where do we go from here? is both timely and poignant.

For more than 386 organizations, a written appeal to congressional leaders noted that over the past year, more than 1,000 people were shot and killed by police. Facilitated by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and led by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the June 1 letter called on Congress to rectify these structural wrongs through legislation before another Black life is needlessly lost.

But police violence is not the only problem that needs to be eradicated. People who riot are usually those who have no hope. The most dangerous person is not the one who lost a job, but rather the one who has no hope that another can be found.

Since March, 40 million people have sought unemployment benefits. This monumental surge has exceeded states technological capacity to swiftly process these claims, resulting in multiple attempts to use online systems and lengthy waits, often 30 days or more. Although federal stimulus checks were intended to provide a much-needed cash infusion, many consumers were forced to endure another lengthy wait for this benefit.

Further, Americas legion of working poor often holds multiple jobs because stagnant low wages have failed to keep pace with the rising cost of living. Todays federal minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour. In many cases, these are the same workers who walk or rely upon public transit where available to reach their places of employment. It should also be noted that these workers comprise many of those who have not had the option of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Often, many who were forced to work during the pandemic have not been financially compensated with hazard pay while working during the public health crisis.

While these Americans jeopardize the health of themselves and their families, Congress continues to brush aside attempts to raise the minimum wage, or fund infrastructure that could create jobs while improving transit, roads and bridges.

By contrast, investment and corporate interests have seen swift governmental adjustments.

Several monied interests received significant funds through the Paycheck Protection Program, even as many small businesses particularly owned by Blacks and Latinos struggled to access the aid. After the public outcry, the Treasury Department publicly called for approved multi-million- dollar loans be returned. The Federal Reserve also took a previously unused action of buying corporate debt, ultimately saving the firms billions in borrowing costs.

Over the years, this column has reported on racial disparities in homeownership, family wealth, the lack of access to affordable credit, and the pattern of alternative financial services preying upon communities of color by charging triple-digit interest rates on small-dollar loans. Sadly, during the pandemic, this financial exploitation has persisted and falls on those hardest-hit with job losses, illnesses, and loss of life.

For example, as many low-income people and especially those of color realized that competitive jobs markets essentially required skills and training to access gainful employment, millions were snookered into enrolling in costly for-profit colleges that failed to deliver the training or credentials necessary to live financially independent lives. With low graduation rates, many of these former students incurred deep debt without the requisite skills nor a degree that enable them to secure employment with adequate wages to repay their loans. Just as after the Great Recession, emerging signs indicate that this industry will once again achieve explosive growth in the midst of widespread economic insecurity.

Despite recent and bipartisan support in Congress, the Trump Administration again chose to shield predatory for-profit institutions at the expense of students and taxpayers. Last week, the Administration vetoed a recent measure to overturn a 2019 rule that would weaken accountability for these institutions. This action also prevents defrauded students from access to financial relief. The 2019 rule overhauled a previous one adopted during the Obama Administration that ensured direct and corrective response to release former for-profit students from the educational debts incurred by false promises.

If Congress doesnt override the Presidents veto, noted Ashley Harrington, Federal Advocacy Director and Senior Counsel with the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), Secretary DeVos 2019 harmful Borrower Defense Rule will go into effect this summer making it nearly impossible for future defrauded students to access relief and taxpayers to recoup their wasted and misused dollars.

Similarly, the Department of Justice under the current administration, has not pursued cases of discrimination. Where former Attorney General Eric Holder went to Ferguson, Missouri to find out first-hand that communitys racial tensions in policing, current Attorney General William Barr has been conspicuously silent and invisible.

Under the current administration, regulations that held illegal businesses accountable for financial exploitation have been removed or weakened. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created to be the consumers financial watchdog in the marketplace, has consistently acted in the interest of businesses instead of people, holding that consumer information not protection or enforcement is their watchword.

Additionally, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently followed through with its plan to dramatically overhaul the Community Reinvestment Act, which will cause further financial harms to low-to-moderate income families and communities of color.

The onus for achieving financial fairness rightfully rests with government. Consumers who have been victimized by profiteers should not be asked to conduct their own investigations and have no standing to prosecute whatever they might discover.

All governments federal, state, and municipal need to do their jobs. At the same time, leaders in business and commerce have a role to play as well: advocating and ensuring that all consumers, regardless of race, have access to the credit they deserve. Just as the Federal Reserve took decisive action to support corporate and investor interests, working families are equally deserving of a governmental champion to unclog the blocks on benefits, loans and grants.

Right now, not sometime in the future, Black businesses need ready access to available grant aid and credit through mainstream lending. Fortunately, in this market, there seems to be a window of opportunity for real change.

Already a coalition of civil rights advocates that include the NAACP, Unidos, and CRL appealed to Congress to fix the Paycheck Protection Program by streamlining loan forgiveness for small loans and ensuring both reporting and data transparency. In addition, and to assist the very smallest businesses, the coalition supports instituting a minimum loan origination fee.

Now, while the nation awaits additional Congressional action, several major bank CEOs have begun speaking out about racism and their respective plans to ensure that institutionally, their operations can eliminate discrimination. But to date, there has been no large-scale or long-term banking program that offers the financial heft to effectively address the lack of credit even as the Black homeownership rate remains at 42 percent.

As Dr. King wrote, [W]e need the vision to see in this generations ordeals the opportunity to transfigure both ourselves and American societyLet us be those creative dissenters who will call our beloved nation to a higher destinyto a new plateau of compassion, to a more noble expression of humanness.

Amen, Dr. King.

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As MLK Asked In 1967, Where Do We Go From Here: Community Or Chaos? - Seattle Medium

UCLAs class of 2020 celebrated their graduation today while scattered across the globe. For the first time, the universitys largest graduation celebration took place remotely, honoring the roughly 8,800 students of the UCLA College.

Today we gather virtually to celebrate the conferral of your degrees in a uniquely 21st century high-tech way but, rest assured, your hard-earned degrees will be real. You guys are so futuristic! the graduates were told by actor, activist, alumnus and social media icon George Takei. The man who helped others imagine a brighter future through his role on Star Trek called on graduates to build a better world. With the experience of the pandemic, challenge yourselves to imagine the unimagined. You have technology that dazzles the mind. Soar with it. Aspire as no others have.

Though the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus means most students havent set foot at UCLA since March 13, classes continued remotely. While in-person ceremonies are planned once group gatherings are safe again, graduating students more than earned a celebration on what would have been their commencement day. Among the Centennial class, graduating at the close of UCLAs first 100 years, nearly a third are first-generation college students, andmore than 35 percent come from low-income households.

The ceremony opened with a moment of silence to recognize and honor victims of COVID-19 and also racial oppression. This was followed by a pledge by the six College deans to continue to fight social injustice.

While we have all been affected by recent events, we have not all been affected equally, said Darnell Hunt, dean of the division of social sciences. We will continue to shine a light on inequality.

Speakers borrowed from an array of real and fictional inspirational figures, quoting the words of activist author James Baldwin, historian Rebecca Solnit, wizard Albus Dumbledore, and Vulcan Starfleet officer Mr. Spock. The virtual celebration featured views of familiar buildings, fountains and hilltop vistas to soothe homesick Bruins, and senior Margaret Miller sang the Star-Spangled Banner. Students viewed the livestream or the later recording from couches with their parents, in apartments with roommates, or on laptops in empty rooms. Some added homemade pomp and circumstance by crafting their own mortarboards or using free graduation profile frames and yard signs from the Alumni Association they would soon join.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block praised the graduates resilience at completing their studies and acknowledged those who also found ways to get involved, whether by treating COVID-19 patients, making face masks to slow the spread of the virus, or joining the nationwide wave of protests against the murder of Black men and women by police.

A global pandemic has upended our lives and prevented us from being together, Block said. Were all reeling, once again, from the pain of racial injustice The horrible killings of unarmed African Americans have reminded us of our societys inequities, but strengthened our resolve to address them.

History shows that catastrophic events can expose the failings of the status quo and lead to reforms, Block added, referencing Solnit before calling on the graduates to build a more resilient, compassionate and just society. Though in almost any year, graduates are asked to make the world a better place, current events added extra resonance to that plea.

The imagination to envision better times, especially in hard times, is vital, Block said. James Baldwin wrote that not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. Now is your time to envision the role youll play in changing our world and creating a new one.

UCLA Broadcast Studio

Filmed in an empty Royce Hall, student speaker Kristie-Valerie Phung Hoang grieved the loss of the students final months on campus, but reminded her fellow graduates that they have already begun to improve the world.

It is at UCLA where weve felt compassion for each other, and drove our support toward undocumented students, first-generation students and immigrants working to make a better life of their own, she said. We poured our minds towards driving research in hopes of finding life-saving cures We created paths towards a greener, healthier planet We lived and breathed the spirit of equality.

Though the campus graduation season shrank from the usual 60 or so ceremonies and celebrations to a little more than 30 virtual events because of the pandemic, UCLA awarded degrees to nearly 14,000 students from its undergraduate and graduate programs. Other speakers include guitarist Carlos Santana for the Herb Alpert School of Music, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for the UCLA School of Law, and Californias first surgeon general, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris for the David Geffen School of Medicine.

In introducing Takei, Block praised his activism in speaking up for Muslims, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community, and tied Takeis activism to his days as an actor playing Mr. Sulu beginning in 1966.

George made history on a multi-ethnic new TV show called Star Trek, Block said. The show premiered at the same time that the Vietnam War was fueling decades of anti-Asian bigotry. As a Japanese-American child during World War II, George had endured that bigotry first hand in Americas shameful internment camps. Georges presence as one of the heroes of the show was a rebuke to the prejudice of the time. Star Trek imagined a future in which all of Earths races lived together in peace.

Sixty years after his own graduation from UCLA, Takei observed the highs and lows of the pandemic, from tireless medical and frontline workers, to unemployment and economic havoc.

We live in a time of heroes and menaces, Takei said. And where we expect leadership, we find shocking dysfunction. It is a virtual dystopian state.

But amidst this dark moment, he added, the air has cleared from the decreased use of fossil fuels for vehicles and factories, giving the world a glimpse of a cleaner planet. He urged the graduates to learn from it and find ways to improve the human condition.

We look to you, the high-tech generation, to seize this moment, Takei said. Revitalize our civilization. Discover new challenges. Stretch as far as you can. Boldly go where no one has gone before. May the UCLA Centennial 2020 class live long and prosper.

The virtual celebration closed with a bittersweet view of the Inverted Fountain, where graduating seniors traditionally take a dip to celebrate their years of hard work.

Our 2020 graduates will be the class that persevered, said Patricia Turner, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education. Let this moment of adversity forge in you a strength to overcome, to persevere, to know that the world is inherently beautiful, and that your future has only just begun.

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Graduates encouraged to envision and build a better future - UCLA Newsroom