#Local Politics

[montmorillionite]

I went to give public comment at my county's library board meeting this week. The library board was considering requests to ban books presented by a local far right group. They included Flamer, Genderqueer, All Boys Aren't Blue, Zenobia July, Looking for Alaska, and a couple others I don't remember.

The collections manager for the library system gave an excellent presentation on the laws and policies that govern collection management and also brought a copy of a Holocaust history book (I think it was Why The Germans, Why The Jews) in to show that it had been defaced with swastikas and antisemitic phrases and talk about the quiet censorship problem in our libraries.

The actual meeting itself lasted 5 hours, and the board chair refused to eject members of the far right faction who were disrupting the meeting and trying to pick fights. One of them even said "let's take this outside" to someone asking them to be quiet and let the meeting continue.

I'm pretty used to seeing and receiving hateful rhetoric and messages online. Comes with the territory of being an out trans woman online. But it felt different spending 5 hours in a room with people who are openly calling you a groomer and saying you're sexualizing kids. Who are trying to claim that the exclusion of queer people from public life is just "common sense" and "having community standards".

They also claimed that the director of the American Library Association wanted to turn all libraries in the country into transgender Marxist recruiting centers and because of the the local library system should cut ties with the ALA.

I guess I'm probably mostly writing this down to process it. It was a lot, and also a powerful reminder that the fascists are here. They're in our communities, they're trying (and at least here, partially succeeding) to control local politics. For me at least it's one thing to see it online. That feels at least a little removed. Seeing it in person was scary, but it feels good to have been part of resisting it and successfully opposing book bans locally.

[reasonsforhope]

"Construction of a massive municipal park—over 20 years in the making, is finally underway in the city of Irvine.

They say if California became its own country, it would have one of the world’s largest economies. The new Great Park of Irvine is a reflection of the always lofty ambitions of the state, and is expected to dwarf Central Park by more than 500 acres.

It was on May 23rd this year that the “Great Park Project” broke ground on the long-derelict El Toro Marine Corps Base, 21 years after voters approved a ballot measure ordering the state to create a park on the site.

Expected to take another 10 years to complete, the park will span 1,300 acres and include several museums, an amphitheater, a veterans memorial garden, an aquatics center, a sports complex, and not one but two lakes.

“After many years of community input and after the last year of intensive planning and design, we are excited to be launching what is a $1 billion investment to establish the world’s next great metropolitan park,” said Irvine City Councilman Michael Carroll who serves as Chairman of the Great Park Board...

First item of work on the agenda is to demolish and clear away 77 old military buildings while leaving the El Toro air traffic control tower which will be leased by the FAA. However a portion of the Irvine Great Park, as it’s being called, is already open to visitors and includes a soccer pitch and some other amenities including tethered balloons to take visitors up into the sky."

-via Good News Network, July 12, 2023

--

More of this, please!!!

Also, I checked, and somehow the tethered balloon thing is not only real it's actually free. They go up 400 ft in the air

[flowerishness]

Aubrieta deltoidea (purple rock cress), Salvia nemorosa, (woodland sage) and Fragaria × ananassa (garden strawberry)

Escape artists

A few years ago, our local city council created a fancy boulevard sidewalk on the road leading down to the beach. The intention was to create a carefully-maintained, flower-laden, tourist route to endless fish and chips and ice cream cones.

Of course, one city council's 'pet project' is the next city council's 'waste of money' and that "carefully-maintained" part never happened. Unfortunately, the little flowerbeds soon went to wrack and ruin. On the other hand, it's interesting to see these successful garden escapees making a go of it in extremely poor soil. Now why doesn't my strawberry patch look this good?

[glass-soup]

To all Americans:

It may all seem hopeless right now but listen, focus on your LOCAL POLITICS! this is where you will see immediate change that YOU have the power to influence, one person in small town won't be able to change the outcome of a national bill, but YOU can change the outcome of a local one, this is where immediate and tangible change is made: LOCALLY!! THERE IS HOPE! GO LOCAL! FOCUS ON LOCAL POLITICS THAT IS WHERE TANGIBLE IMMEDIATE CHANGE IS MADE FOR YOU!

love from NZ 🫂

[turtlesandfrogs]

Saw this on bluesky, and I think it's a start towards political engagement for those who don't know where to start:

One tidbit of advice: prepare for boredom, and have strategies to keep yourself engaged. Governments move slow, even on the local scale, and when you start going to city council meetings, you're going to hear a lot of complaining about a lot of things that seem like a waste of energy to complain about, before they get to your thing.

This is not the only way, but it is a way.

[salamanderinspace]

Town meetings be like: should we use our resources to arrest homeless people or build better child prisons?

[flameraven]

[jean-meowreau]

Hey guys! US HoR is trying to reintroduce a bill that was already voted out a couple of days ago, HR9495. It is a bill to revoke tax-exempt status for non-profits that "support terrorists". Any charity that aids or goes against the US Government would suffer from this, including those who support Palestine, Congo, Sudan, and others.

This amazing creator, Lily Hi'ilani Okimura explains in detail above and has wonderfully created a document to help contact your rep about this issue.

There is a link to find out who your rep is(it's never too late to start getting involved!), how they voted previous, and messages to send them to stop this bill. My rep did not vote, so I sent the response for someone who voted for it to pass.

The first link sends you directly to your rep's website and you can easily find contact information from there.

[ivygorgon]

Seeing a lot of Harris Walz signs and demonstrations in my red state. Love to see it!

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

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A post shared by NowThis News (@nowthispolitics)

All seven members are women.

Six are women of color.

All are under 40.

All are Democrats.

Well done, St. Paul!

[1000-silverfish-in-a-hoodie]

So much fear mongering about communism and then you join a local communist group and it’s like “we hand out flyers and try too give food to homeless people”

[alwaysbewoke]

[petervintonjr]

Today we look at the pivotal role played by Evelyn Thomas Butts: activist, agitator, and (eventually) elected official. Born in 1924 Norfolk, Virginia, Evelyn Thomas was orphaned at a young age and raised mostly by her politically-conscious aunt. Evelyn eventually married a Charles Herbert Butts, who served in WWII but was injured. To offset his disability (no wartime benefits for Black veterans at this point, remember), the couple --and their eventual three daughters-- took in boarders, and Evelyn also worked as a seamstress. Inspired by her aunt's careful teaching about staying closely involved in local politics, Evelyn became a member of the Oakwood (Norfolk) neighborhood civic league and eventually was elevated to its president. She used this platform to speak out against segregated schools, segregated stadium seating at sporting events, and even organized a picketing of a local supermarket that refused to hire Black employees. She also co-founded the Rosemont Middle School during this period, and organized voting drives.

It was in the light of her voting drive efforts, that the largest elephant in the room at the time was clearly the Poll Tax --a significant (and insulting) barrier to voting rights; not just in Virginia, but in most of the South. Poll taxes, while technically having been in existence in varying forms since Colonial days, had in post-Reconstruction times, evolved into blatant discriminatory fees. While on paper these required payments made no mention of race or other category, in practice they were broadly designed to disenfranchise poor and working class voters, but most specifically the Black population. Added administrative "fine print" (such as vaguely-worded requirements to pay the fee on a different, specified date prior to an election and then being required to bring that receipt to the polling place), as well as weasel-worded grandfather clauses and impossibly difficult literacy exams, all conspired to ensure that few Blacks would be able to cast ballots.

In November of 1963, Butts filed suit in the Eastern Judicial District of Virginia in an attempt to have the poll tax declared unconstitutional. This attempt was dismissed, but, undeterred, Butts joined with Annie E. Harper and several other women from Fairfax County, Virginia, to consolidate their cases together, along a broader premise. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond heard arguments in 1964 but ultimately ruled the tax constitutional. Butts and Harper and their allies promptly took their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, represented by then-solicitor Thurgood Marshall.

On March 24, 1966, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that poll taxes were in fact unconstitutional, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (see Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections).

Evelyn's activism didn't stop there; in 1975 she was appointed as the first black woman commissioner to the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. She remained an active member of the NAACP well into the 1980's, and also organized Concerned Citizens of Norfolk, a local initiative designed to encourage more African-Americans to run for office. A street in Norfolk was renamed in her honor in 1995, and a historical marker was erected in 2020.

[artielu]

I feel so helpless right now. Is it even worth contacting local politicians? Should we form the anti John Birch Society or something?

Hi friend. Same, same. And the House is still in flux, but there's a possibility that Trump has all three branches (white house, both chambers of Congress, and the Supreme Court) for at least the next two years. It's really fucking bad. I am so disgusted with seventy one million voters.

But you're exactly right that getting involved in local politics and your local community is a fantastic way to do the next right thing, the next needed thing. So very much happens at the local level and most people don't pay any attention to it. Look around your community. What makes your heart sing or your blood boil? Chase that.

Is it ensuring schools teach all kids accurate information? School lunches for kids? Show up to your local school board meeting and listen to what they're up to. There's probably an advocacy org already fighting for the things you want - learn from them, share your ideas and energy, volunteer, talk to your community about that issue, then advocate to your local leaders.

Volunteer in your local schools - schools are all underfunded and need help. You will need to get fingerprinted and have a background check (the school will tell you how), and then you can help in the library or the lunch line, or correcting spelling tests for overworked teachers.

Local resources like housing or libraries or parks or playgrounds etc? Your community has some sort of governing body - mayor? Council? Board? and they have public meetings. Go figure out what entity runs your town and find the meeting agenda, which will be public. Go to a meeting on a topic you care about. It could be really small, like more lighting in the park at night so kids can play in the evenings and people can walk their dogs. Or getting the parks and rec to clean the bathrooms more often. Or spend more money on libraries. Or more crosswalks and curb cuts to increase pedestrian safety. Or oppose a new strip mall. What do you care about? Listen to the meeting, read the meeting presentation deck, connect with others who care about that thing, and raise awareness. Listen to folks who have been working on this issue, share your thoughts, and advocate for change.

Reproductive Justice? Volunteer for your local planned parenthood to walk patients from their cars to the clinic and cover them with love and strength. Support medically accurate health education in schools.

Lgbtqia? Again, planned parenthood, or Trevor project or human rights campaign will have links to orgs in your area. Be an active ally for the queer community.

Immigration and DACA? There are fantastic orgs in most communities. Can you help mentor a new refugee family? Work in a DACA clinic to help kids with paperwork? Help teach English literacy at your local library? Raise your voice to local leaders that you support your diverse community.

What's the next needed thing in your community? What privileges do you have and how can you leverage them? There are many good choices, creating small changes that will have a really big impact on perks in your community. Find out who is in charge of what in your community, and show up to a public meeting about a thing you care about. Talk to people in your community about that thing.

We are not powerless. Michelle Obama told us to Do Something. Let's Do Something in our communities, let's find the next right thing, the next needed thing, and get into it.

Hugs, friend.

[harriswalz4usabybr]

Speech Vice President Harris gave in Lincoln, NE!

~BR~

[lookninjas]

This is gonna be a one-woman crab rave over here, but: