(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . There Is An Existing Model For Things The Biden Administration Might Now Do. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-07-01 OK people. For everyone wondering what Biden might do, or will or won’t do, with today’s Supreme Court decision, There is a “good twin”. Not perfect, but good enough that he is still regarded as a national hero in his country even though he died in 1938. His name changed several times. Most of the world knows, or knew, him as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Among his actions while President of the Republic of Turkey [1923 — 1938], he made primary education free and compulsory [even Romanizing the Turkish alphabet. Under his watch, Turkey eventually achieved a literacy rate close to 100%] gave Turkish women equal rights, something we have YET to accomplish, including the vote and the right to serve as elected representatives worked to maintain peace, particularly in the Balkans* effectively separated church and state: public education was non religious, science focused; religious education was the responsibility of the mosques. beyond this, he abolished the caliphate in Turkey, and replaced Islamic law with Westernized legal systems based on European models. Yes, he managed to accomplish, all the way back then, things we are learning to value more highly ourselves, today. In the centennial year of his birth, 1981, he was celebrated as an historical reformer and peacemaker by the UN and UNESCO. He was a human being. He was not perfect. His history is complicated, very, and there is material for our usual mud-slingers and despoilers, but the point — my point — is that a man with sweeping powers once used them to do great good. There are, in other words, real and positive possibilities, if we but have the wit, imagination, and will to pursue them. [Cavillers will insist that only CRIMINAL actions have been formally sanctioned** by the Court. Balderdash. Look at the law, see what it permits, and go far enough beyond that to do some hopefully lasting good. And then start rewriting the laws; Atatürk did.] A rapid study of Turkish history might be of some benefit. For swotting up, here are some basic links en.wikipedia.org/... www.britannica.com/... *yes, he was a military leader, and as such was involved in military action against Greece and Armenia prior to becoming president. However, he denounced the Armenian genocide, and as I note above, was honored by the UN and UNESCO a century after his birth. **Sanctioned. A word with two meanings. To grant official permission for; to officially prohibit and penalize. Delightful. I won’t be tending this diary today, because I spent a great deal of time tending yesterday’s and have things I must do. But after I dropped a comment about Ataturk in two places, I realized what was needed was a diary. Yes I know Joseph Robinette Biden is not Mustafa Kemal. But if you read even the articles I’ve linked, or even skim them, you get a sense of the man that is not totally foreign to our own ideals. And that is the purpose of my mentioning him. To give hope. Also, this was written in great haste, so I apologize for any typos or infelicitous phrasing. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/1/2250361/-There-Is-An-Existing-Model?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/