Vanjones.net

After last night, I will no longer follow, read or listen to a word that comes out of your mouth. I think you need to change the What you think portion - to you bring a voice to CNN. Progressive-no. Did you drink the koolaid or did someone from th admistration pay you to get up and praise the President. I thought some Trump supporters might think it was a great speech - lies and all. It was sad that our President felt like he needed to use an American hero's wife a prop. I support her and her husband as well as her family but no t the way it was exploited. Maybe you can take Sean Spicers jobs

I served in the Army and I have to say I never thought a President of the United States would stoop so low as to callously use the death of a solder in front of the whole country/world to get PR points from his death, which the President sent him to without any concern or interest. trump’s use of Mrs. Owens, and it was use, pure and simple, may be the most despicable thing I have ever seen a so-called president do.

I'm having difficulty understanding your problem with opiates as you mentioned last night after Trump's speech. You mentioned something about drugs coming from people's medicine cabinets. Are you suggesting completely getting rid of opiates? I'm 64 and have a severely debilitating disease (and very painful). I've been on opiates for many years and actually spent most of last year off of opiates due to Doctor's fears of DEA after the FDA changed rules. I finally found a doctor who will supply me with opiates and unlike last year spending virtually all day in bed, I'm able to get around the house and able to function much more. My concern is this rhetoric against opiates. I hear you scream "opioids", "opioids", "opioids", but you say nothing about protecting my access to those drugs I and MILLIONS of other Americans need for seriously debilitating medical issues. I'm a huge supporter of your ideas but I also need someone who will advocate for those of us who NEED ACCESS to those medications and not go out there doing the same thing Donald Trump is doing trying to scare people! I don't give my drugs away or allow anyone access to them. Again I've done this for years and not one pill has been given to anyone but myself. I should also mention that last year I was billed around $50,000 (on Medicare) searching for alternatives but surgery was not an option and other expensive treatments did nothing.  I don't like taking these every day but given the alternative that's where I am. I am very interested in hearing your outlook on this.

" Trump fails the leadership test of commander in chief" By Colbert I. King February 28 at 7:06 PM Washington Post

I was so disappointed with your opinion tonight of Trump becoming "Presidential" with his poignant and dramatic focus on the fallen Navy Seal and his grief stricken widow. But at least I realized throughout that I was being emotionally manipulated, that he was USING this distraught victim throughout, and masterfully manipulating the public as the paramount public relations/salesman that he is, and that he was using her to deflect from his premature damaging decision for which he refuses to take responsibility. I do not understand how you could have been so easily manipulated. He needed this woman to counter the newsworthy efforts of the father of the fallen Navy Seal who wants an investigation of the incident. I generally have enjoyed listening to you throughout the 2016 Presidential campaign and was impressed that you continually tried to alert the public that Trump was a dangerous contender. I hope that your statement about Trump becoming "Presidential" does not resonate.

Van, I am saddened by you views of Mr. Trump's speech tonight. I truly tried to give him a chance, but I just could not see or hear what you saw and heard. He was not presidential, what he was was manipulative, to use people to try to gain our sympathy. I was not impressed. He's still talking about the wall, still talking about law and order, still talking about getting rid of people. What is the new victims of crime organization for people who are victims of immigrants what is that? What was the dig at Nancy Pelosi, it was the same old same old nothing new, nothing uniting. I am deeply disappointed. I gave him a chance and he let me down again. I'm done he's not my President.

I was very disturb with your speech today that you gave at St. Sabina Church in Chicago. It is understandable to empathize with people who daily face tremendous struggle and hardship, physical and emotional. However, should we conveniently forget that the current occupant of the White House appealed to the lowest common denominator spewing venom and vitriol to garner votes. The hate filled tactics were suppressed by the slogan" Make America Great Again?" I think not! I hope some of those tears that you shed for the coal miners are also for gang violence in the city of Chicago. There were 7 people killed February 22, 2017. In addition, cry for domestic violence, xenophobia, lack of employment in the black community, inadequate schools, misogyny, homophobia, and not least terrorism and racism. These issues needed to be candidly discussed.

I am a mom of 2 biracial children in South Florida. The police stopped my son in HS for no reason (maybe because his friends in the car were dark skin?). They verbally threatened to beat him. Mind you he was dropping off his friends after school. Even though I know the answer can you do a survey in a prominent school? Find out how many Black vs White students get stopped by the police? One of my son's friends got stopped 5 times & in college & thereafter. So if our children happen to be in the minority should we prepare them early that they WILL be stopped by the police?

I'm 45, black and just saw the article about the "First Time I Realized I Was Black" but can't seem to understand why that's so important when what really is at the forefront is immigration vs slavery. My mother moved me out of the projects and into a predominately white county and I had to learn to talk properly in order to be taken seriously. I mean to the point that I would do great on paper and on phone but then got a double take action when I met anyone that I wrote or spoke with on the phone. I even had white friends of mine tell me I did not sound black and my black friends thinking I was a punk. That is when I realized I was black and it was not all that bad. It meant that others realized they were not black or that blacks acted/talked a certain way. Van, be real my man! Talk about the economic challenges blacks face going back to the 1980's and how the immigration act has somehow included blacks in it. Black people become submissive in today's economy because of the history we have in this country. Lift up black people to think and act on getting that 40 Acres And A Mule.....not reason with this immigration thing by pivoting to subjects like this current one. We did not have a choice like an immigrant does. My white friends feel like the minority today, my black friends are still pointing the finger and my immigrant friends just don't understand what it means to be black, but they try harder than my white friends do to rationalize with it. Maybe now my white friends will try harder because the last thing they want is to be labeled racist considering how our new regime has been assembled. Hope you read this and feel free to respond to me in the most candid fashion, it's between you and me my man. You are a smooth brutha on the grind making your way in society and I admire you for that. All The Best, Brian

I was so inspired by your series, and I'm really seeing the need for commuicaiton skills in my community. We want to know how to talk to people that have different views than us. We just don't know how. I loved seeing the outcome of your talks with people, you could create an online course or webinar series that civic and community groups on both sides of the issue could offer to their members.