Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, on Tuesday, February 5, 2019.

'The Truths We Hold: An American Journey'

By Kamala Harris

Penguin Press, Jan. 8, 2019

336 pages, $30

Unlike past female Presidential candidates, Kamala Devi Harris is an accomplished attorney not merely a woman with a law degree. She did not have a superstar political husband to pave her path to become a District Attorney, Attorney General or U.S. Senator. Rather, she was the child of diverse immigrant parents without the benefit of a foundation or super PAC to make her way.

In her autobiography, Senator Harris recounts her road to the Capitol. Her similarities to President Obama’s upbringing are striking. She is the daughter of two immigrants. Her father, Donald Harris, was born in Jamaica, her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, in South India. Both parents were gifted Ph.Ds. Harris and her sister were raised by a single mother after her divorce. Her father remained a distant though involved parent. Despite this, Kamala was reared squarely within the folds of the African-American community of Oakland, including its churches, daycare centers and community organizations. Her mentors were strong African-American teachers and “aunts” who imbued in her the need to struggle for civil rights and social justice.

After attending Howard University, Harris went on to U.C. Hastings College of Law. The choice to become a prosecutor baffled some. She reasoned she wanted to be the activist from within to change the system.

After a stint in the Alameda County District Attorney’s office, Harris was recruited across the bay to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office and eventually ran for District Attorney. She likens the experience of running for office to jury selection. The key in both is to engage people quickly and ask for their support.

As San Francisco’s District Attorney, she developed a program “Back on Track,” a re-entry boot camp program that included job training, GED courses, community service, drug testing and therapy. Non-violent first-time offenders pled guilty and joined the program, and if they completed the program successfully their records would be expunged. Only 10 percent of this program’s graduates reoffended. The prosecutors’ job, she felt, was not only to put people in prison but to focus on what happens to them when they get out.

Harris attacks the injustices of the bail system. As a senator, she co-sponsored with Rand Paul, a Republican, a bill to replace cash bail with a system that actually evaluates flight risk of the detainee. 95 percent of the jail population are people awaiting trial. Black men pay 35 percent higher bail than white men for identical charges. She also notes the inequity of marijuana arrests. In the first three months of 2018, 93 percent of NYPD arrests for marijuana possession were of people of color.

As Attorney General of California, Harris is especially proud of the $20 billion deal in relief for California homeowners fleeced by predatory commercial lenders. When Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, told her she was stealing from his shareholders, she retorted: “My shareholders are the homeowners of California … Talk to them about who got robbed.”

As a daughter of immigrants, she is especially sensitive to their inhumane treatment at the hands of the Trump administration. Senator Harris was elected the same night as President Trump. In the first 100 days of his administration, immigration arrests increased 37 percent. Immigrants make up 10 percent of California’s workforce and contributed $130 billion to its gross domestic product. Harris has co-sponsored the DREAM Act, an attempt to give young people a permanent path to citizenship.

Her greatest outrage is reserved for the inhumane separation of families at the border legitimately exercising their right to seek asylum. The heartbreaking facts she uncovered on her visit to the border are that federal records linking parents and children have disappeared, and in some cases have been destroyed.

As Senator, she proposes Medicare for all. She points out a little known fact that few mental health professionals choose to contract with Medicare and as a result, mental health care is not available to a large percentage of Americans. She advocates an overhaul of mental health care reimbursement by the federal government. She tackles the issue of child care, noting that one year of child care for a baby is more expensive than a year of in-state public college tuition.

On the topic of education, she notes that the cost of higher education has gone up more than three times faster than wages since she attended college in the ‘80s. Young people, she notes, cannot dream if they are drowning in student loan debt.

As an attorney, she reminds us that we are a nation of laws and that we stand for the rule of law. We as a nation have worked, and given our lives for the creation of international order that promotes peace, co-existence and loyalty to democracy. Despots, tyrants and dictators who rule based on self-interest must be rejected, not idealized. She reminds us in closing that we cannot lose sight of who we are and who we can be. This book demonstrates that she clearly has not lost sight of who she is and who she can be.

Andrea M. Alonso is partner in The Law Firm of Morris Duffy Alonso & Faley.