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On Barbara Kornfeld
The US presidential elections are in their final stages, the most aggressive ones, when Kamala Harris has already declared that she sent her vote by mail. Trump and his team have no shortage of strategies, making use of the preferred instrument of this electoral campaign, or artificial intelligence: a dangerous "toy" if used without ethics because it confuses the ideas of the electorate, managing to make the darlings of the masses say virtually anything, like when Taylor Swift's endorsement for the Republican party was insinuated, denied by the glittery star who took the field in favor of the Democrats with a Tweet that will remain in history because it portrays her with one of her extremely valuable cats and marked her controversial entry into the field (as we had hypothesized some time ago on these pages).
But Taylor isn't the only celebrity supporting Harris: Jennifer Lopez, Hilary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Leonardo di Caprio. Even Barbara Bush, daughter and granddaughter of two Republican presidents, does not share Trump's current orientation. Everyone has their own motivation: Leonardo DiCaprio chose it for environmental policies, JLo for supporting racial integration policies.
Many Americans are scared at the prospect of Trump's election: last time a protest march was called in NY with the massive participation of many residents, I remember it perfectly, attended – among others – by my late cousin Heather Simone Kornfeld (New York psychologist and writer, passed away due to cancer, a few years ago).
But Kamala Harris' victory is by no means a given: the polls indicate a rather tight head-to-head, in Italy we will know who will be sworn in at the White House at midday on 20 January 2025, only at dawn on Wednesday 6 November 2024.
Among Harris' most active supporters is Donna Lupardo: born in the USA, with origins that intertwine between the Campania and Basilicata regions. He is a public figure, representative of the one hundred twenty-third district of New York which includes the towns of Binghamton, di Vestal and Union. She is President of the Assembly Woman assembly commission.
The activities promoted by Donna Lupardo are tangible in agriculture, in the context of combating climate change, in favor of employment, of gender equality, of respect for human dignity, therefore, she is much loved in the communities she belongs to.
I met her in person more than ten years ago, when with husband Scott Peters, former co-rector of Cornell University, they undertook a fact-finding trip to the province of Salerno, to rediscover its origins. Unfortunately, local administrations were unable to seize the opportunity offered by such an eventuality: appearing unprepared to welcome not only these "special" observers but also any US tourists (they tried to change their habits and showed little tourist vocation).
Today is an important day for the United States of America, and for the rest of the world, because the repercussions of the election of the new president affect world politics: Donna Lupardo is a candidate for re-election in her district – 123rd Assembly District – early in the morning she thanked the organizations and voters who supported her during the electoral campaign. The indiscretion - which we have exclusively - is that she and Scott will soon be in Italy: we hope that this time we will be ready for a "person-friendly" welcome, without excesses, with contents worthy of tourist-economic interest.
