Mic drop moments from state lawmakers, transcribed — a Picayune Sentinel Extra
Correspondence, the best of visual tweets and thoughts on "This is Us"
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Perhaps you prefer reading transcripts of instantly famous speeches rather than just watching the videos. If so, here are two for your enjoyment.
The first is the text of Michigan Democratic state Sen. Mallory McMorrow’s April 19 broadside at Republican state Sen. Lana Theis, after Theis accused McMorrow of wanting to “groom and sexualize kindergarteners.”
I didn't expect to wake up yesterday to the news that the senator from the 22nd District had, overnight, accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an email fundraising for herself. So I sat on it for a while wondering, why me?
And then I realized — because I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme, because you can't claim that you are targeting marginalized kids in the name of, quote, "parental rights" if another parent is standing up to say, no. So then what? Then you dehumanize and marginalize me.
You say that I'm one of them. You say, she's a groomer. She supports pedophilia. She wants children to believe that they were responsible for slavery and to feel bad about themselves because they're white. Well, here's a little bit of background about who I really am.
Growing up, my family was very active in our church. I sang in the choir. My mom taught CCD. One day, our priest called a meeting with my mom and told her that she was not living up to the church's expectations and that she was disappointing. My mom asked why. Among other reasons, she was told it was because she was divorced and because the priest didn't see her at mass every Sunday.
So where was my mom on Sundays? She was at the soup kitchen with me. My mom taught me at a very young age that Christianity and faith was about being part of a community, about recognizing our privilege and blessings and doing what we can to be of service to others, especially people who are marginalized, targeted, and who had less, often unfairly.
I learned that service was far more important than performative nonsense like being seen in the same pew every Sunday or writing Christian in your Twitter bio and using that as a shield to target and marginalize already marginalized people.
I also stand on the shoulders of people like Father Ted Hesburgh, the longtime president of the University of Notre Dame who was active in the Civil Rights Movement, who recognized his power and privilege as a white man, a faith leader, and the head of an influential and well-respected institution, and who saw Black people in this country being targeted, and discriminated against, and beaten, and reached out to lock arms with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he was alive, when it was unpopular and risky, and marching alongside them to say, we've got you, to offer protection, and service, and allyship to try to right the wrongs and fix injustice in the world.
So who am I? I am a straight white Christian married suburban mom who knows that the very notion that learning about slavery, or redlining, or systemic racism somehow means that children are being taught to feel bad or hate themselves because they are white is absolute nonsense. No child alive today is responsible for slavery. No one in this room is responsible for slavery.
But each and every single one of us bears responsibility for writing the next chapter of history. Each and every single one of us decides what happens next and how we respond to history and the world around us. We are not responsible for the past. We also cannot change the past. We can't pretend that it didn't happen or deny people their very right to exist.
I am a straight white Christian married suburban mom. I want my daughter to know that she is loved, supported, and seen for whoever she becomes. I want her to be curious, empathetic, and kind. People who are different are not the reason that our roads are in bad shape after decades of disinvestment, or that health care costs are too high, or that teachers are leaving the profession.
I want every child in this state to feel seen, heard, and supported, not marginalized and targeted because they are not straight, white, and Christian. We cannot let hateful people tell you otherwise to scapegoat and deflect from the fact that they are not doing anything to fix the real issues that impact people's lives. And I know that hate will only win if people like me stand by and let it happen.
So I want to be very clear right now — call me whatever you want. I hope you brought in a few dollars. I hope it made you sleep good last night. I know who I am. I know what faith and service means and what it calls for in this moment. We will not let hate win.
The second is a transcript of a viral video featuring remarks of Alabama state Rep. Neil Rafferty, calling out his Republican colleagues on April 7 for passing a bill that require students to use the restroom that is associated with the sex on their birth certificate instead of their gender identity and criminalizing the provision of gender-affirming care to transgender youth. Rafferty, of Birmingham, is the only out member of the Alabama legislature:
You say small government. I don’t know where this became a platform issue for y’all. I don’t know where this became a central core issue to pick on these kids, to pick on these families.
I don’t know where it is or why y’all think that this is something that we need to vote on. Not just vote on but put on the top of the calendar, like it’s a priority —it’s a priority for us to be getting involved in private family medical decisions that are made with a team of healthcare providers, that are made with the parents centering around the child who are surrounded by a team of healthcare providers, mental health professionals who are guiding them through this process.
You want to think you’re just going to a doc-in-a-box or willy-nilly, just getting prescribed this stuff because somebody just said, ‘Hey, this is it.’
That’s not how being gay — that’s not how being transgender — works. Trust me, if I didn’t have to be gay, I wouldn’t be. You know how much easier my freaking life would be?
This is personal y’all. And y’all gonna do what you’re going to do. I understand that y’all are going to do what you’re going to do .
But I am trying to appeal to you, that this is not small government. This is invasive.
It’s hard enough growing up. It’s hard enough growing up being different. It’s even harder growing up being different and then having the state legislature — your elected officials, the leaders of this state — put a target on children’s backs. Put a target on the parents’ backs. And once again get in the middle of their decisions and say, “You don’t know what’s best. You don’t know what’s good for your kid. You don’t know what’s best for your family.”
Where’s freedom in that? Where’s small government in that? Please, I’m begging y’all. All right, I’m not begging. You’re right I’m not begging. You’re right, I’m not begging. What’s going to happen’s going to happen.
Just don’t you dare call me a friend after this.
Boom.
Notes and comments from readers —lightly edited —- along with my responses
Some of these messages are in reference to items in last Thursday’s Picayune Sentinel.
Curt F. — I missed an opportunity to submit this about three decades ago for a "How frugal are you?" feature in one of the two large Seattle newspapers. You have injudiciously given me a second chance: I microwave the last inaccessible bit of a deodorant stick and pour the now-liquid deodorant onto the top of the new stick. After it cools, it is ready to use. It probably gets three extra applications from each stick.
I should give out an award for most unusual money-saving tip — call it “The Humberto,” after former Tribune Media Services penny-pincher columnist Humberto Cruz — and hand the first statuette to you!
Jean S. —CTA Infrastructure improvements are great, but what I want more are real-time monitoring of the surveillance cameras by people authorized and willing to dispatch live human beings to the scene of rule violations and crimes. I want the rules and laws to be enforced to the point of ejecting offenders physically from the system to outside the fare turnstiles, or buses.
Here is one of two photos I took on a recent morning of men sleeping on the train, lying across several seats:
Why aren't these surveillance cameras monitored at all times by people who can dispatch police to the scene to stop the violations?
I find pictures like this much more sad than outrageous. People should not have to sleep on trains — decency demands that we provide safe, climate-controlled places to sleep as well as sanitation facilities for those who have fallen to this state. I’d hate to see them arrested or simply turned out into the elements.
On the other hand, of course, CTA passengers should not have to confront situations like this. They literally should not have to stand for it. My view is that safe spaces should be created for such people and an intervention team should be tasked with moving such people to those spaces.
Jerry B. — I hate to be the wet blanket guy – but “Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” your featured tune last week, and “Kumbaya” are irredeemably insipid. Perhaps I can be shown to be wrong. On the other hand we have John Coltrane’s“My Favorite Things,” considered by many the greatest solo instrumental in the history of jazz, and Chet Baker’s “My Funny Valentine.” I will leave it to someone else to explain the difference.
I don't know that "insipid" is anything more than an expression of taste, which is, of course, beyond dispute. The two songs you reference have more complicated chord structures than “Michael” but if chordal complexity is your standard then, say "America the Beautiful" and "Amazing Grace" are more "insipid" than “Michael,” which has a nice iii / ii chord progression.
If lyrical content or poetry is your standard, well, the same sorts of arguments would apply and, here, would suggest a bias against religious themes in music. My guess is that your judgment -- which I can't dispute because it is purely a matter of taste — is based on associations and over-familiarity. Coltrane and Baker are geniuses. My tastes run toward simpler melodies and interpretations. And as it happens I wrote a defense of "Kumbaya" back in 2006.
Here's part of that:
The song had cross-cultural bonafides that lifted it out of the ordinary when it appeared on the scene during the folk boom of the 1950s and 1960s. It's gentle call for divine presence struck a spiritual but non-sectarian tone.
The Weavers, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and many others covered "Kumbaya," and it turned out to be perfect for campfires, hootenannies and guitar masses (giving rise to the expression, "Kumbaya Catholics"). Perhaps too perfect.
Chicago folklorist Paul Tyler says that the song "became banal at the hands of non-African-American camp counselors and church youth workers--include me in that number--who stripped it of any rhythmic integrity."
The stately melody turned into vanilla dirge. And, in the backlash, "Kumbaya" came to represent shallow goodwill based on nothing more profound than the humdrum participles that differentiate the verses ("someone's sleeping, Lord..." "someone's praying, Lord..." and so on).
Plug the word into a news database and dozens of knowing references a month to "Kumbaya," many using it as an adjective (a "kumbaya speech," "the kumbaya approach," "those kumbaya" moments) as well as repeated imaginary descriptions of disputing parties joining hands to sing, well, you know.
RightWingStuff.com sells T-shirts and other products featuring a cartoon of a drill sergeant grabbing a long-haired peace protester around the neck and shouting, "Kiss my kumbaya, hippie!"
This makes it difficult to sing the song without irony and to find its authentic and deeply satisfying groove. "Kumbaya" so easily becomes a parody of itself that, in real life, folkies and camp counselors now avoid it, too.
If you sing it, you must be clear that it's only to make fun of those who sing it -- a deep hole for a little song to find itself in.
Perhaps it’s my folkie roots, but I’m not of the mind that says complexity = beauty in music, just as I’m not of the mind that the ability to play lots of notes really fast = musicality.
Marc M. — I read the article headlined “Chicago Reader employees rally to save alternative newspaper as ownership squabble delays transition to nonprofit,” in the Tribune on Thursday, and I understand the principle the editors are standing up for and their desire to move forward to the non-profit model. But I question their pragmatism and judgement.
What made them think it was a good idea to pick a fight with one of the two people that controlled their future just four weeks before the paper would be re-established as a non-profit with a new board? And how do they think a protest in front of his house will improve his disposition?
I can imagine his perception of their position — "We know you put several million dollars into saving the paper, and preparing a sustainable future, but now you need to shut up and go away. But you can donate more money to the non-profit on your way out because we need it."
I agree with your assessment of the situation, but practical businesspeople deal with decision makers as they are not as one wishes them to be. They would have been better served by holding their noses for a month. (I also agree with Eric that protests in front of people's homes are wrong. They are more about intimidation than communication.)
In hindsight it’s obvious that Reader management should have handled this better, particularly once an editor signed off on the column (enthusiastically!) and it was posted. Publishing a rebuttal/response column would have been the better path, whether Goodman was a major benefactor or just a contributor with a column.
Pulling a column down or rewriting it after publication is a clumsy response and if that had ever happened to me, I’d have been royally pissed. Those in charge at the Reader going forward should put in place guardrails and policies to follow if (or when) a column or article triggers outrage and dismay, no matter who wrote it.
I’d suggest a blanket prohibition on columns written by management or ownership — that skews the power balance between writer and editor in a way that can lead to trouble. I’d suggest a ban on removing columns or articles from the website unless they are later determined to be plagiarized or to contain fabrications, and to respond to factual errors with editor’s notes and to strong differences of opinion with counterpoint essays.
All that said, publisher Tracy Baim did more or less wave the white flag at Goodman over the column issue back in mid-December, and it’s been the perseveration of Goodman and his allies about trying to vindicate him, have him seen as a victim of censorship and maintain some semblance of control of the publication as it moves into nonprofit status that has prolonged this dispute and put the Reader on the brink.
I will probably have more on this topic in Thursday’s issue. Meanwhile, some more background reading:
A fight over a vaccine column could kill one of the oldest alt-weeklies (Washington Post)
Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg weighs in: “As an actual newspaper columnist, as opposed to a wealthy lawyer pretending to be one, I have to point out how the system works.”
“Why I’m standing on principle regarding the Chicago Reader” by Reader board member and Goodman ally Dorothy R. Leavell, editor and publisher of The Crusader Newspaper Group: “I believe Goodman got subjected to plain old censorship.”
“Beware of the Fact-Checkers” by Leonard Goodman: “Since the age of Socrates, truth has been discovered through reasoned debate and discourse. As the places in media to host that debate keep disappearing, some brave board members at the Chicago Reader are fighting to rescue the paper from the dark forces of censorship and to preserve its fifty-year tradition of embracing dissenting views.”
The “Open letter to Len Goodman from Chicago journalists” posted Wednesday afternoon at Medium.com now has about 400 signatures, including mine.
“Why the Chicago Reader is at a crisis point,” a conversation between me and host John Williams on WGN-AM 720
Ya gotta see these tweets!
I often run across tweets that are too visual in nature to include in the Tweet of the Week contest (the template for the poll does not allow the use of images). Here are a few good ones I’ve come across recently:
I can’t identify the source of the above, but I found it in the furious comment thread beneath the tweet below from former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who is currently running for Congress in Montana:
Those piling on Zinke here noted that he put nearly 31 gallons of “Supreme +” premium into what must be a monster gas guzzling vehicle, and he can certainly afford the cost since his net worth is estimated at $32.5 million. Also this:
There’s still time to vote in the conventional Tweet of the Week poll!
‘I did not cry for 6 years to have Kevin end up with the wedding singer! That would just be awful’ — ‘This is Us’ fans have one big question as the series heads toward its conclusion
Yes, Johanna and I have watched all 102 episodes of NBC’s multi-generational family drama “This is Us” so far, and we will be glued to theTV for the 106th episode, the series finale, on May 24. The show’s a little soapy, sure, but also quite wise and brilliantly acted.
If you, too, have been watching, you know that the biggest outstanding question as “TIU” wraps up its 50-plus year story line is who, if anyone, Kevin Pearson (Justin Hartley) will end up with, romantically. Will it be the wedding singer, Arielle (Katie Lowes)? His married ex-wife, Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge)? Or his pal and former fling Cassidy (Jennifer Morrison)? The “Whodunnim?” mystery last week centered on the question of which of the three he slept with on the night before Kate’s wedding.
I’m still holding out hope that somehow he’ll marry the delightful mother of his twins, Madison (Caitlin Thompson), whom he almost married. But that possibility now seems remote since she’s happily married to the drab Elijah (Adam Korson), the father of her third child.
Fans are reportedly agitated at the notion that Kevin might end up with Arielle, a brand new character, and smart money is probably on Sophie because of the way the show so deftly entwines the past and the present. (Web slang for them as a couple is “Kophie.”)
But it won’t surprise me if the three possibilities — presented in the promo for Tuesday night’s episode below — end up being a school of red herrings; that he didn’t sleep with any of them and will end up hitched to someone else.
Leave your thoughts in comments either before or after watching Tuesday night’s episode. You can also follow the intense fan chat on Reddit.
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Really great visual tweets this week. Really made me laugh.
Len Goodman and 3 board members have stepped down from the Chicago Reader.
Reader Union members have prevailed!