I Am So Angry

 I am so angry, I could spit.

Why?

This

 

25,000 National Guard troops deployed to Washington, D.C.

to protect the Inauguration of the 46th President of the United States 

and this

National Guard troops and fencing on the Mall

This is Washington, D.C. in January, 2021. This is the capital city of my country. The area around the Capitol complex is normally a beautiful park. The Mall is lined with museums reminding us of our national history -- yes, the dark and shameful parts, but also the great and good. Monuments and memorials celebrate our heroes, the people who faced and fought wars to secure our Republic. And  those who led the fight to extend liberty to all. 

It is a walking city, meaning that it is best seen on foot at human speed. I have always felt safe in its subway system and on its streets at dusk as the lights come on at the Lincoln Memorial or at dawn as I first saw the rising sun streaming across the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Razor wire! Razor wire around the Capitol. Subway stations closed and fences across the Mall to keep us out. This is so wrong.

How did this city that I was so proud of come to look like this?

It was because of

This

and chants of "Get Pence" and "Get Pelosi"

And because of these

  

inspired and incited by

his lies

and the politics of hate

His GOP enablers and apologists are also complicit.

Shame on all of them.

Assault on the Capitol

 

This is not Broadway's les Mis.
This is the assault on the Capitol of the United States of America,
my home.

It was yet another "where were you when" moment in my life. I am old. I am from Oklahoma. I am not unique. The only differences between you and me is our ages and where we live. We've seen too many of these moments. Disasters, natural and human-made. As I'm sure they did you, each of these moments frightened me. The human-made ones made me angry. The damage all of them did made me just so sad.

Watching TV. That's where it seems I've been when these moments happened. Of course I wasn't watching TV at the moment most of them happened. I was hunkered down in storm shelters or school basements for too many tornadoes to remember. I was in high school gym class when President Kennedy was shot. In college and working during Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement. And when Senator Kennedy was shot. When Dr. King was shot. The 1989 San Francisco earthquake. (That one I saw live. I was on maternity leave watching baseball's World Series televised from Candlestick Park.) When the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed, I was working. I was in school again when 911 happened. The Iraqi War, Hurricane Katrina. The wild fires. All that and more.

Then 2020, aptly named "The Dumpster Fire Year" by a local TV newscaster. I have been "Safe at Home" since the middle of March. I've always read. A lot. During this nearly a year, I've read more. And I've watched more TV than ever before. Mostly binge-watching cop shows -- Icelandic cop shows, Swedish cop shows, French cop shows, Italian cop shows, British cop shows. Thank goodness for MHz Networks and Acorn. And subtitles. (I can't stand Blue Bloods' constant shouting and Danny's foot chases any longer! Haven't been able to for a while.) 

Oh, yes. There is a jigsaw puzzle in progress on my dining table.

For self-preservation, I cut my TV news to less than half. Thirty minutes of local news. Thirty minutes of international news from the BBC. Thirty minutes of national news from ABC. And PBS's News Hour. I count most of the TV journalists among my friends. After all, they come into my home every day and with the pandemic, I've been to their homes. I know what books and treasures are on their bookshelves. I know their cat. They give me a lot of bad news. More bad news than most of my real-life friends give me. Pandemic death numbers. Economic numbers. Election campaign rhetoric and bombast. Really, political news has been awful these past five years. But this year, the worst.

It's been a question of survival. The first goal was to survive the pandemic, but it's still going on. No more travel for us. No out-of-state visitors. No visitors of any stripe. Except the TV people.

Things I normally looked forward to -- a day trip into the mountains, a games party now and then, exercise classes, walking and coffee with my friends, going to the movies, eating out -- not gonna happen. My friends and I still walk. Our town has many parks designed and maintained to encourage walking. And our weather is usually comfortable enough year round. We wear masks and maintain the recommended six-feet social distance from one another. We carry folding chairs in our cars so we can visit in parking lots or in driveways. Not to tempt Fate, but so far we've avoided contracting Covid-19 or any of its variants. In fact we've had many fewer colds and no seasonal flu.

In years past, I would have looked forward to the Fourth of July with watermelon and barbeque. Then Labor Day Weekend, the final opportunity to drive to the top of Mount Evans before the road is closed for the winter and October before Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park also closes for the winter. But not this year.

So there was the election to look forward to and the very real possibility that Joe Biden would win. He may not have been my first choice, or for that matter my second, but by election time he was my only choice. The GOP's politics-of-hate campaign and their blatant disregard for the safety measures we were practicing would finally end. Trump would step aside and we could get back to the business of living our lives in an America for all. 

The election came and went. Thanksgiving came and went with no relief from the Trump lies and accusations, even though the election was over and he lost. Trump's rallies and rants escalated through December as the Electoral College cast their votes and those votes were certified by the States. 

The mood in the United States has been ugly for a long time, but it got uglier as Christmas neared. Too many people either followed the Trump/GOP line that the pandemic was not that serious or they had had  enough of it and they decided what-the-hell. They travelled. They rallied in Georgia for the Senate election there. They partied, including at the White house. Ignoring the CDC and Dr. Fauci's warnings.

Of course, I believed those dire warnings. I knew that the world and life do not blindly follow our calendars, do not observe our humanly fanciful time limits, do not adhere to our traditional dates of endings and beginnings. But didn't 2021's possibilities shine and sparkle in our imaginations. Vaccines to vanquish the pandemic. Children back face-to-face in school. Long term care facilities no longer locked down. A new administration in the White House. Jobs coming back. Couldn't we put 2020 behind us?

A metaphor for 2020/2021:   

     "Have you ever driven west through Kansas to get to Denver? You hit the Colorado border 

     and think YES, MOUNTAINS! But then you realize the first half of Colorado is pretty much just             more of Kansas. Slowly, you see the blue peaks [or white depending on the time of year] and            
     the joy of the mountains slowly becomes a reality." -- Charlie Worroll.

Interstate 70 through Kansas is the metaphor for 2020. The country is High Plains Desert. Not many trees and those not very tall. It is just flat land and high sky. You can see from here until tomorrow. 

From Salina, Kansas, to Limon, Colorado, is 343 miles. That's more than five hours of your life at
75 miles per hour, slowing to go through the very few small cities and smaller towns.Their church spires and grain elevators rise from the vast land into the infinite sky. 

At Limon you see this.

   

There,                                                
that faint white on the horizon.
Mountains!                    
Mountains?                    
Or is it just a cloud?                          

From there it's still an hour and a half to Denver where you can see this by looking west from the third floor terrace of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. You're still on the prairie and the mountains are another half-hour west. That's if there's no ski traffic.

After New Year's, I looked forward to January 6, 2021. The United States Congress would formally count the Electoral Votes that were certified and forwarded to them by the States. Joe Biden would be the 46th President of the United States. Kamala Harris would be the first woman and first person of color elected Vice President of the United States.

I was ready. At 12:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (10:30 a.m. Mountain Standard Time) I turned on my TV to watch PBS's live coverage of the confirmation of the Biden-Harris victory.

PBS did not air Trump's rally prior to the mob's surge down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol. Watching PBS's coverage of the joint session, I had no idea what had gone on less than an hour earlier and just blocks down the street.

It begins.

Announcing the votes is done by State alphabetically. Alabama and Arkansas the votes went to Trump. Arizona the votes went to Biden. The first objection came from Ted Cruz, Republican Senator from Texas. The Joint Session was suspended. The Senators went to debate the objection and vote yea or nay to uphold the objection. The House of Representatives met for the same purpose. Two and a half hours or so later the Joint Session was reconvened to announce that the objection was rejected and the count went forward.

    

                          Lisa Desjardin, PBS journalist                Amna Nawaz, PBS journalist
                             Inside the Capitol                                          Outside the Capitol

These two women are my friends. They've been in my house. I've been in theirs. At least electronically. Lisa has a black and white cat who lounges or cavorts on the couch in the background while she reports for PBS News Hour.

Amna was among journalists, on air, covering the activities outside the Capitol. We could see Trump supporters milling around, hurling obscenities at the reporters. As time went on, we could see the mob clambering over the Capitol, unimpeded.

  

                                  I was truly afraid for the safety of the reporters outside

Inside, Lisa was on air when the mob started bashing at the front doors of the Capitol. She was on an inside balcony, the next floor up and could see the doors. We could hear the glass in the doors shatter.

The mob had breached the doors and was pouring into the building. Lisa could see no Capitol Police. She started looking for a safe place. I think she must have been videoing from her cell phone and she kept it on. I was terrified for her.

At one point she was crouched down behind a counter. When she raised up to try to see what was going on a police officer in full protective gear carrying what looked like an assault rifle appeared. He told her to get down and stay down.

She was soon escorted to safety along with members of Congress transmitting video the whole time. At one point, she blocked our view saying "We're not supposed to photograph this area." (I almost laughed at the irony.) She continued to do her job despite the fact that her life and the lives of those around her, was at risk,  And yet she followed the rules designed to protect the Capitol. 

The Capitol was locked down. National Guard were brought in, much too late. The building was cleared and secured.

Documents and papers of all kinds were scattered. I wondered where the boxes containing the certified electoral votes were. What would happen if they were stolen or destroyed?

 

When the Joint Session was reconvened the boxes were carried in ahead of Vice President Pence. The votes were safe. Pence gaveled the Joint Session into being, pronounced the Trump Mob a failure and the count continued.

The count went forward. To be considered, objections had to be in writing, signed by a Member of the House of Representatives and a Senator. Following the violent mob assault on the Capitol, Senators who had signed onto the objections for Georgia, Michigan, and Nevada withdrew their support. No interrupting the session for debate was necessary for those states. Thank Goodness.

That left the objection to Pennsylvania's certified votes. And yes, the Joint Session was suspended while the House and Senate separately debated the merits of the objection and voted to uphold the objection or dismiss it. 

I have a long-standing interest in United States Constitutional Law. These past few weeks I have read and researched, researched and read, afraid that this whole affair could go awry or be delayed. The night of January 6 bled into January 7 before we had a resolution. At 3:41 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, 1:41 a.m. Mountain Standard Time, Vice President Pence in his role as President of the Senate announced that the electoral votes had been deemed correct and counted. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. of Delaware was elected President of the United States and Kamala D. Harris of California was elected Vice President of the United States.

I could go to bed. And I did.

The vote may have been confirmed, but the storming of the Capitol by a delusional, hate-filled mob will take longer to deal with. Five people died -- a member of the mob was shot by a Capitol policeman, three people died of medical emergencies, and one Capitol Police Officer was bludgeoned to death. Rioters will be identified and prosecuted. Whether Trump will be held accountable for inciting the violence and destruction is yet to be determined.

It's like the I-70 metaphor for 2020 and 2021:
"The first half of Colorado is going to be more Kansas. We won’t hit Denver until the summer at the earliest. But not even western Kansas lasts forever, no matter what it feels like on the drive."

2020 The Year of the Toilet Paper Wars

I know. I know. 2020 was the year that an American president faced an impeachment trial; a pandemic ravaged the world; economies across the globe tanked, struggled, and tanked again; civil unrest spread across the United States following the deaths of unarmed Black Americans at the hands of police; wild fires raged across the world including the worst fires in history in California and Colorado; the divided United States voted to replace a reality-deprived Trump.

Many of my fellow senior citizens worked jigsaw puzzles, binge-watched streaming services, wore masks (or did not), avoided group gatherings (or did not), stayed at home for the holidays (or did not), and generally divided along political lines of the dids and the did-nots. And many of us oldsters now swear like teenagers.

You'll recall that one of the earliest manifestations of Covid-19's many deprivations were toilet paper and cleaning products shortages. Luckily, just before the shortages hit, I made my last pilgrimage to a major warehouse store and bought a 24-roll package of toilet paper which kept us until it was again available, albeit in limited quantities.

Little did I know that "toilet paper wars" would have a different meaning in my little world.

Those of you who know me, know I have a cat. A beautiful cat named Kočka which is Czech for "cat." He's the smartest cat I've ever had. Too smart for my own good. 

Most of the doors in our home have handle-style doorknobs and he can open them. My husband has replaced the knobs on those opening outdoors and into the garage with round doorknobs. We can lock our bedroom door from the inside which is good, because he doesn't like to let me sleep. I can be reading in bed, that's fine, but when I turn out the light and settle in to sleep, he scratches at the mattress just below my face or he rattles the pictures on the walls and knocks over the lamp on my bedside table. Anything to make me get up.                                                               

                                                                                                                                                  
Kočka indulges in a number of other bad behaviors. The one I've been spending the most time this year trying to stop is his playing with the toilet paper. 

At first I took the time-honored approach of loading the roll of toilet paper on the dispenser so that it unrolls to the back. Then I tipped the dispenser rod so that the roll was lodged against the toilet. After that I fashioned a kind of boot from a plastic jug to sort of fit over the roll. It was a bit inconvenient and in the end didn't thwart him.

The most effective for the longest while was to simply leave the roll on the back of the toilet instead of using the dispenser at all.

That ceased to be effective so I hung a plastic jug from the dispenser hoping the noise it made when he batted at it would have the same result as it does to this day hanging from the doorknob of the guest bedroom door.

It did not.

Different friends and relatives made excellent suggestions. (Nobody suggested making him walk the plank or letting him sleep with the fishes.)

One involved citrus scent, which is supposed to repel cats. So I cut a length of cloth -- quite a pretty bit of cloth, too. I've made several masks with it -- and rubbed it with a wedge of orange. I ate the rest of the orange, vitamin C in the age of Covid, dontcha know. And indeed, when presented with the orange infused cloth he displayed appropriate disgust. So I hung it between the roll of toilet paper and where he would be standing on the bathroom floor to do his dirty work. 

                    As you can see ....            

The only thing left to do was bar him from the bathroom. And he does so love to sleep on the bathmat. It is, after all, the warmest room in the house. Of course, the bathroom door does not lock from the outside, and just closing it won't keep him out. 

So I blocked the door with a heavy box of kitty litter stacked on a shower seat. It did work to keep the cat out. It also made it inconvenient for me to get in, especially if I was in a hurry. And at my age ....

I gave up. All the loose, shall I say tenderized, toilet paper I stuffed in the medicine chest along with the rest of the roll. My arm is long enough to reach it from the toilet. However, if your arm is not, it's best to select your paper before sitting down.                                           

Here's to the New Year. May 2021 find us on the other side of the genuinely horrific world problems and safely face-to-face, in person, with those we love.

Where Do You Get Your News?

  

Remember the good old days when the local daily showed up on your front porch in time to have it with your first cup of coffee? My Grandpa would glance at the front page then read the funny papers. My Daddy would look at the front page then turn to the want ads. My Momma just drank her coffee.

Then we got the evening news in black and white on television. The TV stations went to color in 1966, but the televisions we had didn't.

Known as "the most trusted man in America," Walter Cronkite gave us the news. He didn't comment on the stories. He just reported them. He covered much of the Cold War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R with its Cuban Missile Crisis. He covered President Kennedy's assassination with its follow-on murder of a suspect in custody. The assassin was killed not by police, but by a nightclub owner on live TV amid the chaos of reporters and police and justice officials. 

Cronkite covered the Civil Rights Movement with film of its peaceful protesters being brutalized by their local and state law enforcement officers. We watched film of the Vietnam War and its world-wide anti-war demonstrations. We got the official daily body count -- ours and theirs. Theirs were always many times higher than ours. I began to wonder how there could be any North Vietnamese left, but we didn't question it. There was no way for the average person to research those figures. No internet. No Google.

    

Now the news is available anytime, anywhere on our smart TVs or our smart phones, from Siri and Alexa or the Amazon Echo Dot. Sometimes I have nightmares about getting it on my dental implants!

Twitter and TikTok and Facebook. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. PBS News Hour, BBC America, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle. The Onion, Saturday Night Live, Facebook.

Okay, the technology is here. And it is available to most of us whether we know how to use it or not. But there are some very old rules about how we should use all this information, be it true or be it false. And those old rules rightly should continue to inform our use of all this information. Just because something we read, hear, or see seems believable doesn't make it true. Like, for instance -- I don't have dental implants.

One of those old rules is as old as the Ten Commandments, the Ninth one, to be precise. Thou shalt not bear false witness. This includes repeating, retweeting, and/or sharing something that is not true. How can you tell if something is true or not? Do your own research. 

I like Snopes.com. Just type in your question. In fact you can just Google your question. Google will give you several options to check out. Got a question about an organization that is saying something you agree with or don't agree with, but you don't know anything about that organization. Google it. 

The Washington Post is a reputable newspaper. The New York Post is a tabloid. The Philidelphia Inquirer is a reputable newspaper. The National Enquirer is a tabloid. What's the difference between a reputable newspaper and a tabloid? Google it.

Want to know if a particular newspaper is generally considered "conservative" or "liberal"? Google it.

Want to know how many species of rabbit and hares are native to North America? This is what Google said, "North America is home to 15 species of rabbits and hares. All of these are rather abundant within their range."

Google's source:  https://science.jrank.org/pages/3785/Lagomorphs-Rabbits-hares-North-America.html
 

Voting in Colorado -- Chapter 27

2020 Ballot

This is Chapter 27. I haven't written the first 26 yet. And don't intend to. 

Yep, they started mailing our ballots out October 9.  Got mine on the 10th. In Colorado ballots are mailed to all registered voters. We don't have to request them. We are responsible for registering to vote which we can do up to and including Election Day. To receive a ballot in the mail, people must register  to vote or update their voter registration (including change of address) through the 8th day before Election Day, October 26. We can vote in person early beginning October 19 or on election day, November 3, at our local polling places. We can mail our ballot back using the U.S. Postal Service, but we have to put a 55 cent stamp on it and get it into the mail before October 26. 

Or we can put it into a Ballot Drop Box which is free. State-wide, Colorado has 368 such boxes, including the ones at each County's Courthouse. Mine of choice is the one outside the Rec Center where I attended exercise classes prior to the Covid-19 Pandemic. 

There is an app we can use to track our ballot from the moment the state mails it to us, to when our Voter Registrar receives it back no matter how we send it. If there is some kind of problem with our ballot, they contact us and give us a chance to correct it.

Voting should be simple, pick a President. Pick a U. S. Senator, and a Congressman. Not really. We have 21 choices for President plus we can write in someone's name. (I personally don't expect to get any votes. Not even my husband would vote for me. We are on opposite ends of the political spectrum.) There are four choices plus a place for a write-in for U.S. Senator and the same number for Congressman. That takes care of the National part of our voting responsibility. Yes, it does.

However, there are all those State Offices. The District Attorney for our District. The County Offices. 

And the Judge Retentions for the State Supreme Court Justices, the Court of Appeals Judges, the District Court Judges, and right on down to County Court Judges. On the one hand I'm lucky not to have personal experience with any of these judges (knock wood) so I depend on the State Ballot Information Booklet. When I lived in Oklahoma we had no easy access to any information about the judges so I just skipped that part of the ballot. My husband voted to throw them all out.

A couple or three weeks before they mail our ballots they mail the Blue Book -- The  State Ballot Information Booklet. It is especially helpful with the judges and questions.

On the back of the ballot. What? Any sane person would feel successful to have completed one side, right? Right. But there's the backside yet to go and it's the complex ones. That's where we've got Amendments to the State Constitution, State-wide Statutory Propositions, and a City of Lakewood Ballot Question. Each identified by number or letter, the rhyme and/or reason for those numbers and/or letters are not as obvious as the names for tropical storms/hurricanes.

                  State Representative for our District                               Me
                             Chris Kennedy

                

Chris Kennedy, the State Representative for our District sent out the following missal. The text in brackets following each of his opinions is mine.

There are 11 statewide ballot measures and various local measures. For nonpartisan analysis of pros and cons, make sure to read your Blue Book (English Version | Spanish Version). There are also some great ballot guides out there from the Bell Policy Center and Progress Now Colorado, but I’m sure you’re unsurprised to learn that I have some strong opinions of my own:

Amdt B – Repeal Gallagher Amendment

I’m voting yes. This outdated property tax formula has led to a serious decline in local funding for our K-12 schools, which the state has tried but failed to adequately backfill. If we don’t pass Amdt B, our schools are going to take another big hit next year.

[I, too am voting yes. The Gallagher Amendment is an excellent example of not thinking far enough down the road. It is no longer useful and is, in fact detrimental.]

Amdt C – Bingo/Raffle Rules

While it’s silly that these rules are in the Constitution in the first place, Amdt C makes modest changes to help nonprofits fundraise using bingo and raffles. I’m voting yes.

[I'm voting no on this one. The current law requires charities using bingo and raffles as fund-raisers to use volunteers (usually members of the organization) to run the bingo or raffle. The change would allow the organization to pay people to run the bingo or raffle, making them (in my opinion) commercial projects.]

Amdt 76 – Requirements to Vote

I’m voting no. There are no jurisdictions in Colorado considering allowing non-citizens to vote, so this is largely symbolic. However, we do currently grant 17-year-olds the right to vote in caucuses and primaries as long as they’ll be 18 by the November election, and Amdt 76 would take that right away.

[I agree on this one. The wording change would not alter the meaning other than to bar soon-to-be eligible voters from participating in the primaries. It is unnecessary.]

Amdt 77 – Casino Bet Limits

Honestly, I’m a little torn on this one. Our community colleges certainly need more funding, and Amdt 77 could help. But I do worry the potential for higher betting limits to hurt people prone to gambling addiction.

[The way Chris explains his feelings on this one is a bit odd I think. It only applies to the three cities where there are casinos and would allow the people in those cities to approve additional games and set the maximum single bet allowed. It would allow the gaming tax revenue to be used for community colleges. Admittedly, I'm not much of a gambler and I don't live in any of these towns. So I don't have a dog in this fight. I will vote yes and let those who do, make their own decisions.]

Prop EE – Nicotine Tax

I’m voting yes. Increasing the price of nicotine products is the number one way to reduce teen use, which is very high in Colorado. While it’s true that nicotine taxes are regressive, I’d argue that the negative health impacts of nicotine use are even more regressive.

[I, too, will vote yes, not so much because of the morality involved, but just because vaping as a method of delivering a tobacco product came along after the tobacco tax happened doesn't mean it should be taxed differently than other tobacco products.]

Prop 113 – National Popular Vote

I’m voting yes. Once enough states join Colorado in this interstate compact, all will simultaneously switch from giving their electoral college votes to the winner of their own state’s popular vote and instead give them to the winner of the national popular vote. It’s unfortunate that Presidential candidates really only campaign in a dozen or so states. With a national popular vote system, these candidates will be incentivized to campaign in every state. It’s simple. One person, one vote.

[I will vote no on this one. It will not give us the result of "One person, one vote." In fact it could discount a State's majority of voters, if they did not agree with the popular vote in the so-called interstate compact. If we are going to have a direct one person, one vote method of electing our President, we need to amend the Constitution of the United States and do away with the Electoral College altogether.]

Prop 114 – Gray Wolf Reintroduction

While I’m hardly an expert on wildlife issues, I’m voting yes because I believe it’s important to protect endangered species. I believe we’ll be able to adequately address the concerns from ranchers.

[I will vote no. Decisions regarding wild life conservation and management should be left up to the scientists just as should dealing with pandemics.]

Prop 115 – Prohibit Abortions After 22 Weeks

I’m voting no. This is just another attempt to restrict access to women’s reproductive health, and I maintain that this is none of the government’s business.

[No. 'nough said.]

Prop 116 – Income Tax Rate Cut

I’m voting no. This cut disproportionately benefits the wealthy while only giving back $37 a year to the average Coloradan. The lost revenue could mean slashing more than 2000 teacher jobs. I think the average Colorado family needs good teachers more than they need $37.

[I agree. The reduction would not be enough to make a difference for most of us, but would cause a significant loss of needed state revenue.]

Prop 117 – Voter Approval of Enterprises

I’m voting no. TABOR already makes Colorado’s budget process the most convoluted in the country. Prop 117 would do even more to tie legislators’ hands behind our backs at a time when we need creative thinking to keep our state afloat.

[I agree with Chris for exactly the same reasons.]

Prop 118 – Paid Family Leave

I’m voting yes. Too many Colorado workers have to face the terrible choice between caring for a loved one and keeping their job. By establishing a social insurance program for family leave in Colorado, we can ensure everyone can take the time they need to take care of a new baby or an aging parent while also helping small businesses get by while their employee is on leave.

[Again I agree with Chris. It's an insurance policy just like Unemployment Insurance and equally useful.]

Lakewood Ballot Question 2B – Recreational Marijuana

I’m voting yes to allow Lakewood’s existing medical marijuana retailers to begin selling recreational marijuana. I continue to believe a regulated marijuana market does a better job preventing access for kids than the black market, and Lakewood will put the increased sales tax revenue to good use on parks, police, and transportation.

[And, finally, I agree with Chris, but for the simple reason that medical only is just weird.]

Whew! We got through all 11 statewide measures plus one local measure! If you’ve read this far, thanks for sticking with me! Just a couple more quick things before I let you go on with your day!

[And when it comes to the rest of Chris's letter, I agree.] 

Remember to vote all the way down the ticket! Yes, there will be names you don’t recognize, but you know how to use Google. The people we elect to offices like county commissioner and district attorney have huge impacts on our communities, too.

Take a simple step to triple your vote. We all have friends and family who could use a reminder to vote. If everyone reading this commits to contact three people in their own network, it will go a really long way.

Thank you for participating in our democracy! As always, you can email me at chris@kennedy4co.com with your thoughts and questions.

Chris

    

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 

March 15, 1933 -- September 18, 2020

Honor

Integrity

Courage

Strength

Dignity

Endurance

                               She was one of us.

                               She stood with us,

                               First among equals.

                               She was our North Star.

                               She protected us, ALL of us, as long as she could.

We've got work to do.

The Bridge

 

                                                       This is the bridge.

There is rising sentiment to take the Edmund Pettus name off of the bridge that crosses the Alabama River on the way out of Selma, Alabama, the county seat of Dallas County.

The bridge was built in 1940 and named for a Confederate General. In 1877, during the final year of Reconstruction, that man became the Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. In 1896, at the age of 75, he was elected to the United States Senate. [In those days the state legislatures, rather than voters, elected U. S. Senators.] His campaign relied on his organizing and promoting the Alabama Klan and his adamant opposition to recognizing and allowing implementation of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution.

The 13th Amendment (ratified in 1865) eliminated slavery in the U.S. and its territories. The 14th (ratified in 1868) granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” And the 15th Amendment (ratified in 1869) declared that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

[Women citizens were not guaranteed the right to vote until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. The right to citizenship and constitutional protections, including the right to vote, did not apply to Native Americans until 1924.]

Dallas County's Voter Registrar's Office was open only two days a month and the staff  habitually came to work late, took long lunch breaks, and left early. Even when African Americans were able to get into the office to register, they were often refused registration.

Any American denied the right to vote has no say at all about who governs them -- who makes the laws and what laws they make, who enforces the laws, and who delivers "equal protection of the laws."

By the beginning of 1965 only 1% of voting aged African American residents in Dallas County were registered to vote.

There were demonstrations. Nonviolent demonstrations. 

By 1965, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) led by Dr. Martin Luther King and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) led by John Lewis were working with local people in nonviolent direct action throughout the south focusing on voter registration and Black participation in elections. 

In January, 1965, more than 100 Black school teachers marched from Selma's Brown Chapel to the Dallas County Courthouse to protest the arrest of Amelia Boynton a local Civil Rights activist. She was arrested by the elected County Sheriff Jim Clark. The teachers were aggressively turned away from the courthouse. They returned to Brown Chapel and held a rally. Those teachers risked losing their jobs. Schools were segregated. African Americans went to Black schools and were taught by Black teachers. White students went to White schools and were taught by White teachers. But hiring and firing of school staff for both school systems were in the hands of a single elected School Board.

Keep in mind who got to vote all those elected officials into their offices. And who did not.

In February Jimmie Lee Jackson, unarmed and participating in a peaceful voting rights march in his hometown, Marion, about 30 miles from Selma, was beaten and shot point blank by an Alabama State Trooper. He died February 26. He was trying to protect his mother. 

Provoked by Jackson's murder, members of the African American community declared their plan for a symbolic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama's state capital, to lay a coffin on then Governor George Wallace's capital steps.

On March 7, 600 people met at Brown Chapel and marched two-by-two, staying on the sidewalks, not blocking the roadway.

          Hosea Williams from SCLC and John Lewis from SNCC led the march that day.

The Alabama State Troopers were under orders from Governor George Wallace to stop the march. Sheriff Clark's posse was on the sidelines, many on horseback.

JOANNE BLAND: "We left Brown Chapel AME Church, going to the bridge, coming to the bridge, thinking that we were doing a symbolic march. It was supposed to be a symbolic thing, that we’d go and then we’d turn around and come back. But it didn’t happen that way.

"When we got to the bridge, I was in the middle of the bridge when all of a sudden they started to kneel and pray. But the men in the group came and crowded — put all the women in the middle. That was my first inkling that something was wrong, that something bad was going to happen, because that had never happened before, and I had been on hundreds of marches. And by the time we all kneeled down, I heard what I thought were gunshots and screams. So I thought they were killing the people up front, they were just shooting them. And by the time we got up enough to see what was happening, it was like the domino effect. The people from the front were running back, and people on horses were riding and beating people. Horses were stepping on people. Even coming back, the troopers had on a gas mask. But at that time I didn’t know what a gas mask was. So there were these monsters in uniform running toward us, running toward us, beating people unmercifully.

"The last thing I remember on the bridge was a horse. This man had come over the hill, and he was just beating people, just hitting anybody, and the horse bumped this lady, and she fell down. And the horse reared up, and when it came down, its hoof came down on her arm, and it broke it. And the bone came through here, and blood just went up like a fountain. It’s the last thing I remember until I woke up on this side of the bridge in the back of a car."

Amelia Boynton was beaten unconscious.

                         John Lewis on his knees being beaten in the foreground.

All three major television networks broke into their Sunday evening programming with film from what would be forever after known as Bloody Sunday.

A call went out for people of good will to come to Alabama for a march to follow two days later. And they came. People from all over the United States including 450 white clergymen. 2,000 people met at Brown Chapel and started the second march to Montgomery.

But George Wallace had gotten a Federal Judge to issue an injunction against the march.

Left to right: John Lewis in the light colored vest, Rev. and Mrs. Ralph Abernathy, 1950 Nobel Peace Laureate Ralph Bunche, Unidentified man, Dr. and Mrs. King, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Hosea Williams holding a child.

Because of the Federal injunction, when confronted by Alabama State Troops, Dr. King turned the people around and went back across the bridge to Selma. He believed the injunction would legitimize whatever action the troopers might take.

Those who had come for the second march were asked to stay a little longer. Talks were ongoing with President Johnson to get federal protection for the marchers and legal action was being taken to get the injunction lifted for a third attempt to make the march.

That night, a group of White men beat and murdered civil rights activist James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston, who had come to Selma to march with the second group.

Federal Judge Frank Johnson, Jr., ruled that the activists had the Constitutional right to march from Selma to Montgomery as a means to petition the government for the right to vote. President Johnson called up the Alabama National Guard to protect the marchers from Selma to Montgomery.

Thousands went to Alabama to join the march. 3,200 people crossed the bridge March 21, 1965.

Left to right: John Lewis, unidentified nun, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Dr. King, Ralph Bunche, Rabbi Abraham Heschel, and Fred Shuttlesworth. (The leis were brought from Hawaii by a delegation of supporters who came to join the march.)

By the time they traveled the 54 miles to Montgomery on March 25, they were 25,000 strong.

Yes, do take the Pettus name off of the bridge, but please do not name it the John Lewis Bridge as some have suggested.

Yes, Congressman Lewis did devote his life to working for all Americans to have the rights and liberties the Constitution provides for. But he was not the only one who crossed that bridge.

There were so many people who marched. Who crossed that bridge. Some of them nationally and even internationally famous -- Dr. Martin Luther King,  Reverend Dr. Ralph Abernathy, Coretta Scott King, Ralph Bunche, John Lewis. James Baldwin was there. Joan Baez, and James Forman were there. Harry Belafonte and Tony Bennett were there. And some were famous in Alabama like Amelia Boynton. But most of them were like Joanne Bland, well known to their friends and families and neighbors. 

Those thousands who were finally able to cross that bridge and march from Selma to Montgomery to petition their government. They were from all over America, and their one unifying principle was that all Americans should have the unfettered right to vote. They should have a say in who represents them in making decisions for their schools and town and county and country.

I cannot think that John Lewis, the man, would want his name on that bridge. That was a bridge to Freedom. Put his name on H.R. 4, the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019, currently awaiting passage in Congress.

                                      And name the bridge FREEDOM.