September 1 -- Vote!

If special elections have a low turnout, it just makes sense that this is the time we can be heard.

September 1 -- next Tuesday -- is primary day for the special election for SC State Senator for District 45.  This is the seat that was vacated with the murder of Senator Clementa Pinckney.  There are eleven Democratic candidates and two republican candidates.  We need to 1) learn about who is running, 2) spread the word and 3) get out and vote.

But even before we do that, we need to find out if we live in Senate #45 and if we are registered to vote.  Not as hard as you might think.  Go to scvotes.org, plug in your name, county and date of birth, and voila! you will get all the info you need.  This site will tell you not only whether you are registered, but what legislative districts you are in, and your polling location.

That out of the way, good luck learning about all eleven Democratic candidates.  To that end, a couple of weeks ago I did some research and wrote a blog.  Not to blow my own horn, let me just say that this is the most minimal information you would want to use to make a decision.  But it is a start.

Go to Facebook and look up candidates, do a google search.  When you get a campaign call from an actual human, ask about the issues most important to you.  I have had a couple of callers talk to me about my most important issue, women's reproductive rights, and actually had a caller hang up on me when I asked my question.  This is THE time to let a candidate know what they need to do to represent you by telling THEM what they can do for you instead of listening to them roll out their talking points.

By the way, women's reproductive rights is my litmus test.  If in South Carolina a candidate can say outright that they support a woman's right to contraception and ABORTION (yes, say the word), I expect they will pretty much support voting rights, LGBT rights and workers rights.

After you have done a little research, I'm going to ask you all to spread the word.  Make people aware that this important election is going on.  Email, Facebook, text, telephone and bring it up when you see your friends, neighbors, co-workers.  It's our chance to talk about the issues.

This is why this election is so important:

In the upcoming legislative year, there will be bills promoting the freedom to carry guns everywhere.  On the program are bills allowing guns in colleges and universities, as well as public schools.  There are bills that would welcome those who carry guns in other states to come on in and bring your ammo.  There is an actual bill that would require schools to have a "2nd Amendment Week" celebrating our right to wave our guns around and ending in an essay competition on how carrying guns has guaranteed us our rights.

There will be about a zillion bills prohibiting women from exercising their right to contraceptive care and to decide to have an abortion, free of government interference.  The first effort will be to pass the ridiculous twenty week abortion ban.  That's the one that claims that at twenty weeks a fetus can feel pain, despite all medical and scientific evidence.  When that one gets through (and we do have some strong women's rights legislators that are fighting it, but only a few, and they need all the help and support they can get), it opens the door to bills that would ban abortions earlier, all the way to conception.  I guarantee there will be bills to defund Planned Parenthood, denying those of low income the gynecological care that they would otherwise be unable to afford.

On the other side are bills that would ensure voting rights, equality in employment and marriage rights, raise the gasoline tax to pay for improved roads and bridges, and improve our schools throughout the state.  We need voices to get expanded federal Medicaid dollars, and we need to make sure that no one in need is denied food and housing.

I will be writing again about a few of the candidates before I vote, but please mark your calendars, and spread the word about this critical special election primary.  With so few voting and so many candidates, we need to make the right choice.

I will end with the words that strike fear into the hearts of South Carolina Democrats:

Remember Alvin Greene

  

Kudos South Carolina

Well, it's over.  It's been an agonizing legislative year here in South Carolina.  Yes, there were great comic moments like the debate about the Columbian mammoth and the age of the earth.  And we all appreciate the great effort put into all the new laws reinforcing our gaming and fishing rights.  But we spent much of the past session trying to protect South Carolinians from the woman-hating power-mad religious right, while at the same time fighting to provide our citizens with health care and better than minimally adequate education.  Given all that, I feel the need to do something I rarely do:  brag about our success.

If you look at our neighbors, all those fellow "red states" and even purple and blue states, you'll see that we've all been bombarded with right wing-nuts with pockets full of money who fund all those "conservative" -- i.e. radical -- social issues that get their angry and ignorant constituents out to vote.  But we fought and I am proud to say we did NOT have any crazy personhood, pre-owned, pre-born baby bills pass in South Carolina.

We came so-o-o-o close to bringing our sex education curriculum into the 21st century, only to be stopped at the last second by one narcissistic and rather stupid state senator.

We attempted to pass meaningful marijuana legislation and equality legislation for the LGBT members of our community.  We fought for veterans, seniors, children and parents, the working poor, the unemployed and underemployed, and those who are not protected by unions.  We fended off drug testing legislation and warrantless searches of our electronic devices.  We went up against the bullies in the gun lobby, and while we weren't able to keep them from allowing guns in bars and restaurants, we continue to fight that battle, and we did succeed against crazy open carry legislation -- hey, we could be Georgia, but, I'm proud and relieved to say, we are not.

We, and by this I mean you, worked so hard to get some good bills passed, but we also kept some real stinkers from becoming law.  I was so impressed with the work that so many groups and individuals put into showing up and fighting, day after day and week after week.

Our Truthful Tuesday movement brought much needed civil disobedience back to Columbia, with brave individuals getting arrested for blocking traffic at the State House to protest the attempt to nullify the Affordable Care Act, and to bring attention to the need to accept federal money for Medicaid expansion.  A stupid bill that might have passed into law and would only have been overturned by the courts was kept from wasting our time and resources.  The protests got state and national attention.  Medicaid expansion hasn't happened yet, but it will.  This group is not giving up.

Here's a group whose existence I only recently became aware of:  Tell Them SC is a grassroots advocacy network that works tirelessly towards bringing appropriate and much needed sexual education to our teens as well as fighting for accessible birth control and making information and vaccine available to prevent cervical cancer.  I was amazed at the intensive effort that went into promoting legislation that would provide kids with better health care and better education.  They worked to let us know what was on the table, who to call or email, and when, so that our legislators wouldn't forget we were there.

And our amazing South Carolina ACLU has been there in Columbia, testifying and fighting for our constitutional rights.  Voting rights, reproductive rights, the rights of immigrants and members of our LGBT community.  If you regularly read our newspapers, you will see very frequently commentary by the director of the ACLU.  If you attend legislative hearings you will hear her speak to all those issues and many more.  The ACLU has been an integral part of our effort in beating back bad legislation and promoting bills that guarantee our individual rights.

And, you know, there are others, too many to mention.  We may not be a blue state, but you are all out there fighting to protect us from the uninformed and mean-spirited, who are funded by those with deep pockets and a hunger for more power.  We don't see our national Democratic party supporting us much.  And some of our Democratic elected officials here in South Carolina sometimes are too intimidated to stand up and fight for us.  But we have these amazing people who are here and are not afraid.  They won't compromise away our rights, and they won't let those rights be traded in the night.  They will fight, they will be loud, they will be heard, and they aren't going away.

Thank you all.

Seriously Pro-Life? How About Some Gun Control?

Checking the headlines today:

A shooting death, possibly a drive-by, in Mount Pleasant, just reported.

And if that kind of gun violence doesn't bother you anymore, how about the six people shot in what appears to be a murder-suicide in Greenwood County?

For those of us who are truly pro-life, gun violence is the problem, not abortion.  And I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found themselves avoiding the issue out of helplessness and horror.

But we are nearing the holiday season once again, that time of high stress and emotional lows.  We are nearing the anniversary of the tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that on December 14, 2012 resulted in the killing of 20 children and six adults.

Yet our legislators continue to spout nonsense about God and being pro-life, while they have refused to make any but absurd contributions -- like allowing more guns in public places -- to the gun control effort.  They have shook the hands of Newtown parents and promised to do whatever they can to help, and then the majority have gone on to vote against ANY meaningful legislation.

I am writing about this today because despite my desire to ignore the horrific situation of our state and federal legislators helping to put guns in the hands of potential killers, we have to keep the issue alive.

As of yesterday, two more children in South Carolina are dead because an apparently depressed and disturbed individual had a gun.  How many more?