Jeb Bush: Give 11 million immigrants chance to stay
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declared Wednesday that 11 million immigrants in the country illegally should have an opportunity to stay, wading yet again into his party’s contentious immigrant debate. In tone and substance, Bush stands out among the many Republicans lining up for the GOP’s next presidential primary, where conservatives who oppose an immigration overhaul often hold outsized influence. As he moves toward a presidential campaign, the brother and son of former presidents has not backed away from his defense of immigrants in the country illegally and a policy that would allow them to attain legal status under certain conditions. “We’re a nation of immigrants,” Bush said at the National Christian Hispanic Leadership Conference that brought several hundred Hispanic evangelical leaders to Houston this week. “This is not the time to abandon something that makes us special and unique.” A successful immigration overhaul is more than simply strengthening the border, Bush said, referring to “11 million people that should come out from the shadows and receive earned legal status.” He said such immigrants should be required to pay taxes, work and not receive government benefits. Republicans have struggled to win over the nation’s surging Hispanic population in recent years. Not since the 2004 re-election campaign of President George W. Bush, Jeb Bush’s older brother, has a Republican presidential candidate earned as much as 40 percent of the Hispanic vote. Mitt Romney earned a dismal 27 percent in losing what was widely considered a winnable 2012 contest. Bush’s mother and father, former President George. H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush, were on hand for the speech. It was Jeb Bush’s second Hispanic outreach event this week. He spent Tuesday campaigning in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that will hold a presidential primary contest, yet is not included in the Electoral College that decides the general election. At both stops, Bush moved seamlessly from English to Spanish in remarks that highlighted his deep personal connections to Hispanic culture. He opened his Houston speech in Spanish, referring to the crowd of Hispanic Christians as “the hope of this country.” And as he often does in public appearances, Bush recounted the story of meeting his Mexican-born wife, Columba, while studying in Mexico. It was Columba’s influence, he said, that pushed him to obtain a degree in Latin American studies and later spend about two years living in Venezuela early in his business career. Bush converted to Catholicism after moving to Miami. The Democratic allied group, EMILY’s List, issued a statement shortly before Bush’s appearance charging that his platform “hinders the ability for Latinas to make personal health choices and their economic security.” Bush, his advisers said, say he supports efforts to strip federal financing from Planned Parenthood because of its connection to abortion services. To be sure, Bush is not completely in step with activists who want accommodations made for people illegally in the U.S. Like other Republican presidential prospects, he has said he would overturn President Barack Obama‘s executive order shielding millions of immigrants from deportation. Yet Bush was received warmly by the Hispanic crowd in Houston. He was introduced as someone who understands Hispanic culture and literally speaks its language. Of the large field of likely Republican White House prospects, only Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also speaks fluent Spanish. Bush said the nation’s economy depends on a restructured immigration system. “This country does not do well when people lurk in the shadows,” Bush said. “This country does spectacularly well when everybody can pursue their God-given abilities.” Organizers say Rubio was invited to address the conference, but declined because of a scheduling conflict. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was scheduled to appear Wednesday night. Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
House panel debates Birmingham Water Works legislation
A House panel on commerce heard concerns late Wednesday afternoon about Senate Bill 89 to impose membership, term, and compensation limits on the Birmingham Water Works Board (BWWB). The BWWB serves Jefferson, Walker, Sinclair, Shelby, and Blount counties. However, the Birmingham City Council makes all appointments and is under no legal obligation to appoint anyone from the suburban counties. If approved, SB 89 would expand the Birmingham Water Works Board to include representatives from Jefferson, Blount, and Shelby counties. Each member would be limited to two 4-year terms. Further, the bill enacts a $1,000 per month cap on member pay. The provisions in SB 89, according to sponsor Sen. Jabo Waggoner, have been the subject of a long fight with Birmingham council members. During his opening statement, Waggoner said it was his third attempt at legislation to add transparency and balance to the board makeup. “We’re going to open it up to some accountability,” he said. “For the life of me I don’t understand why they’ve fought this legislation.” Waggonner argued that his bill would ensure fair representation from the customers in those counties, while maintaining a super-majority of members from Birmingham. Blount County Commissioner Chris Green said that fair representation was the major reason he would support the bill. “Marshall County and Cullman County (water boards) also serve customers in Blount County, and because they do, we have representation on those boards. We know that diversity brings strength. Bringing accountability and transparency brings strength.” Waggonner also expressed concern over the average salary paid to board members, as well as the $285 paid to members to attend meetings. Right now, board member pay is uneven: An AL.com analysis showed that some members received as much as $22,000 in 2014, while others went unpaid. “It’s been a good, sweetheart deal to serve on the Birmingham Water Works Board,” Waggonner said. The proposal has gotten plenty of pushback from legislators and BWWB members, who cited figures showing sound management from the board and a commitment to serving its customers as well as smaller water authorities in surrounding counties. Concern about board compensation were unfounded, BWWB General Commissioner Mac Underwood said. He testified that the board had actually decreased salary by 32 percent in recent years and travel expenses were down by at least 40 percent. “This board has been frugal and doing what it should,” Underwood said. “We are driving down costs for customers.” Rep. Louise Alexander questioned the need for statewide legislation, rather than a local bill for the affected counties. That language, argued BWWB member and environmental attorney Kevin McKie, means the proposal could could have much wider impact: “Any attorney can tell you that with a statewide bill, yes it does apply to you, if you grow big enough.” Lawmakers plan to resume discussion on SB 89 and offer a final recommendation on Thursday morning. The discussion will likely include new amendments to address board diversity.
U.S. economy barely grew in first quarter
The U.S. economy skidded to a near halt in the first three months of the year, battered by a triple whammy of harsh weather, plunging exports and sharp cutbacks in oil and gas drilling. The overall economy grew at a barely discernible annual rate of 0.2 percent in the January-March quarter, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. That’s the poorest showing in a year and down from 2.2 percent growth in the fourth quarter. The government’s first look at economic growth for the first quarter, as measured by the gross domestic product, came as the Federal Reserve wrapped up two days of discussions on interest rate policies. While the economy can brush off the temporary factors behind the slowdown, it will have to contend with ongoing challenges like the strong dollar for some time. “A stalling of U.S. economic growth at the start of the year rules out any imminent hiking of interest rates by the Fed,” Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, wrote in a research report. Plummeting exports dragged grown by nearly a full percentage point. The category that includes investments in oil and gas exploration plunged 48.7 percent. Consumer spending slowed sharply as a severe winter kept shoppers home. The first quarter figure was much worse than economists had expected. But analysts are still looking for a solid rebound for the rest of the year, similar to what happened in 2014. The economy contracted in the first three months of 2014, also because of a harsh winter. It was then followed by a strong rebound to growth of 4.6 percent in the spring and a jump of 5 percent in the third quarter. Dan Greenhaus, chief strategist at BTIG, believes the first quarter will prove to be the year’s low point, though he acknowledges that the momentum so far isn’t as strong as last year. “Admittedly, the data does not yet support the type of snap back seen in 2014 but more growth is better than less and we expect that to occur this year,” he wrote in a note to clients. The economy is being hurt by the rising value of the dollar, which makes exports more expensive on overseas markets and imports more attractive to U.S. consumers. For the first quarter, a widening trade deficit subtracted 1.25 percentage points from growth, with nearly 1 percentage point of the damage coming from a big drop in exports. Business investment spending on equipment and structures fell at a 3.4 percent annual rate, in large part reflecting the nearly 49 percent drop in the category that includes oil and gas drilling. Energy companies have cut investments back sharply in response to the fall in oil prices during the past year. Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity, decelerated to a rate of just 1.9 percent in the first quarter, down from a 4.4 percent surge in the fourth quarter. It was the weakest gain in a year. The Fed is expected to acknowledge the first quarter economic slowdown in the statement it issues later Wednesday. At the Fed’s March meeting, the central bank opened the door to a rate increase this year by no longer saying it would be “patient” in moving to raise interest rates. While economists had thought the change could mean the Fed might raise rates for the first time at the June meeting, the view now is that the weaker economic activity has pushed off the first rate increase until at least September. Many economists forecast growth to rebound to around 3 percent in the current quarter and hold steady in the second half of the year. The International Monetary Fund this month projected that the U.S. economy would grow 3.1 percent this year. While that is a half-point lower than its January forecast, it would still give the United States the strongest annual growth since 2005. The Great Recession ended nearly six years ago in June 2009, but growth since the recovery began has been sub-par, averaging just 2.2 percent. Despite the weak start, analysts think 2015 will be the year when growth accelerates to a more respectable level. Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio bring Spanish fluency to 2016 campaign
Republicans are bringing something unique to the 2016 presidential campaign: an ability to speak to Americans in both of their main mother tongues, Spanish as well as English. Democrats can’t match it. Previous GOP candidates couldn’t. But now, paradoxically, the party that’s on the outs with many Hispanic voters over immigration is the party that has serious presidential candidates who are surefooted in their language. It remains to be seen how much Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio will use their fluent Spanish in the campaign. Rubio offered a few words of it in his presidential campaign announcement, quoting his Cuban grandfather, a small but notable addition in a speech meant for everyone to hear, not just a Hispanic crowd. Bush peppered his remarks with Spanish in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, making an obvious cultural connection with many in his audience. Even a modest amount of Spanish will be more than presidential campaigns have known. President George W. Bush rarely used his barely high school-level Spanish and, when he did, it was a token nod, not a real conversation. President Barack Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton have gamely tried a few lines now and then. Bilingualism is a tricky issue in politics and you can be sure that careful calculations are being made on how and when to display it in the Bush and Rubio campaigns. Bush the former governor and Rubio the senator have spoken Spanish liberally in Florida politics and other settings. But this is a national campaign for the highest office. Republicans, on the one hand, want to win over Hispanic voters. On the other, they want to avoid upsetting some traditional supporters who — whether because of immigration concerns, nativism or simple cultural tradition — want English only. A second Hispanic-American in the Republican race, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, has largely lost the language of his Cuban-born father and calls his Spanish “lousy.” (Another contender, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, also is not fluent.) Should Bush or Rubio go on to win the nomination, and should Clinton take the Democratic prize, history is sure to be made in 2016. After having elected the first black president, Americans would now be putting either the first fluent Spanish-speaker, or the first woman, in the presidency. How much does language matter? No one thinks speaking Spanish is an easy ticket to Hispanic votes. Especially for Republicans, who saw Obama take 71 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2012. But it’s a sign of respect, says Bob Quasius, founder of Cafe Con Leche Republicans, which presses for the Republican Party to become more inclusive of Hispanics. “Even if your Spanish isn’t very good, it’s welcome.” Hispanic turnout has increased in every election for nearly three decades, meaning it may top 10 percent of the electorate in 2016, according to Mark Hugo Lopez, director of Hispanic Research at the Pew Research Center. Even so, among registered Hispanic voters, 83 percent prefer English or are bilingual, Pew has found. Only 17 percent identify Spanish as their dominant language. Spanish is much more heavily preferred among Latinos who are not registered to vote. “If a candidate can speak Spanish, it could at least get Hispanics interested,” Lopez said. “But it’s not going to be the deciding factor.” • • • Rubio The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio hails from heavily Hispanic West Miami and grew up bilingual. He shifts comfortably between the two languages while running Senate meetings, appearing at news conferences and interacting with people. Rubio delivered two versions of the 2013 Republican response to Obama’s State of the Union, in English and Spanish. As a Senate candidate, he used both languages with South Florida crowds. Al Cardenas, former head of the Florida Republican Party, remembers Rubio firing up volunteers in the two languages while working for Bob Dole‘s unsuccessful 1996 White House run. “He was then, and he is now, just as comfortable doing that in one language as the other,” Cardenas said. It’s too early to know how much Rubio will do that outside of Hispanic-heavy events in the presidential campaign. When he spoke about his grandfather to Iowa social conservatives on the weekend, he did not use Spanish. • • • Bush Bush speaks Spanish at home with his Mexican-born wife, Columba, and whenever he encounters people who approach him in that language. Like Rubio, he clearly wants to draw more Latinos behind his effort, and he can be expected to address a variety of Hispanic functions, as he was doing Wednesday in Houston. He earned thunderous applause in Puerto Rico at events where he mixed English with effortless Spanish. “I love it,” said Maria Elena Cruz, a 59-year-old government worker from Toa Baja. “He speaks Spanish just like us.” “That makes us feel good,” said Paola Bazzano, 72, a doctor’s assistant. “It’s a way to establish good rapport.” How far he will go with his bilingualism, though, is not yet apparent. His speech announcing his candidacy, whenever it comes, will offer a clue as to what he will do when speaking to a national audience. Will he say a few words of Spanish, like Rubio? Make a bolder statement, with even more? • • • CRUZ Cruz is the first Hispanic senator from Texas, where many residents are native Spanish speakers. He struggles with the language, however, and nixed a proposal for a debate in Spanish in his 2012 Senate campaign. “Like many second-generation Hispanic immigrants, he is conversational, though not fluent in Spanish,” Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said. “But that will not hinder his efforts to build a robust Hispanic outreach operation.” Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
Legislators remain guinea pigs for “budget isolation”
I’ll admit it: Not only did I fall for Kyle Whitmire’s click bait headline “The column in which I describe myself naked to get you to read about budget isolation resolutions” I actually read through the entire post. I kept plugging through all 25 mentions of budget isolation and budget isolation resolutions (BIR). Take that John Archibald. Your young apprentice should make you proud. More than one article has been written in recent years about budget isolation so I won’t rehash what it is in detail. That’s not really the intriguing part anyway. What is intriguing, for those of us not around at the time, is how we ended up with the law and the great lengths that its opponents went through to kill it. Further, a look at the how it’s affecting operations these days. A hopeful remedy to years of legislative standstills, the isolation budget process was designed by Gov. Fob James in 1981. Its intention was merely to focus lawmakers’ attention on the budget and ensure that one be adopted early in a legislative session leaving ample time for other important bills. After years of political, legal and legislative wrangling however the issue was placed on the ballot. A September 1982 AP story notes that when James went to vote, the lever for the initiative was locked. Because of the ongoing legal fights and conflicting reports on the legality of the amendment, some counties wouldn’t even allow the measure to be voted upon. Three long years after its inception, in 1984, budget isolation passed and though the public loved it, political insiders and elected officials weren’t fans. Days before the amendment was supposed to go into effect, an AP headline on Feb. 2, 1985 read: “Alabama legislators guinea pigs for ‘budget isolation.’” It was clear Fob’s landmark legislation wasn’t for everyone. Opinions were strong throughout the article with several people quoted clearly displeased. When asked about his opinion on budget isolation then-Secretary of the Senate (1963-2011) and former state Rep. McDowell Lee called it “the worst piece of legislation passed in my lifetime. … It is the worst piece of legislation for the orderly process of the Legislature.” There were other skeptics as well. Then-Sen. Charles Bishop said, “I don’t think it will make much difference in the flow of legislation, but it could affect what flows.” Meanwhile, then-Rep. Jimmy Clark thought budget isolation was going to “be a roadblock.” The general consensus among the elected officials was that Alabama constituents didn’t really understand what they had agreed to in passing budget isolation. “I think what the general public was saying when they passed budget isolation is they would like to see the budgets passed without a lot of arm-twisting, and they would like to see a lot less trashy bills passed,” Bishop said. Sure enough, even in its very first year budget isolation was a failure . The education budget passed on May 1, the 25th legislative day, and the general fund budget passed on the 29th day, of the 30-day session. The goal of passing the general fund and education budgets early in session didn’t work, and then Gov. George Wallace found himself calling for a Special Session three times in 1985. Thus began the myriad problems stemming from budget isolation. Which brings us to where we are today. Here, 30 years after the very first session under budget isolation, the Alabama Legislature is still forced to make end-runs around an amendment that has never functioned as James intended. With only 12 session days remaining, after Thursday, it is once again looking as though it’s headed into Special Session later this year as the education budget has only passed the Senate and General Fund budget has yet to be debated. “But the joke is on the voters since with no mandated date to pass the budgets, it’s business as usual in the Legislature, albeit business conducted a bit more awkwardly than in the past,” Tommy Stevenson, then-associated editor of The Tuscaloosa News, wrote in the paper on Feb. 24, 1985. The quote still rings true these many years later. The question I pose is: Can and will the charade that is budget isolation continue indefinitely?
No vote on bill to bar abortion clinics near public schools
Lawmakers on Wednesday declined to vote on three controversial proposals on abortion, including a proposal introduced last week to bar abortion clinics within 2,000 feet of a public school. The bill is sponsored by state Rep. Ed Henry and was introduced last week, sparking a heated debate over whether children should be shielded from clashes between pro-life and pro-choice advocates. Bob Beecher, an assistant district attorney from Huntsville spoke to the panel of lawmakers as a concerned parent. “There’s antagonistic behavior between these two groups and it’s never going to end,” he said. “They can have their clinic someplace else, just not right across from children of that age.” Others pointed out the history of violent acts by both sides near abortion clinics. Community member Cindy Adams said, “It’s the government’s job to ensure children’s safety while they attend public schools. […] If abortion providers fear for their safety and the safety of their own children, shouldn’t we be concerned about the safety of children going to school?” Clinic advocates pointed to another potential solution: establishing a “bubble” around abortion clinics to separate the two groups and diminish the possibility of conflict. The House Health Committee had also been slated to vote on the Fetal Heartbeat Act and the Healthcare Rights of Conscience Act.
Hillary Clinton: Baltimore shows justice system “out of balance”
Pointing to a wave of violence in Baltimore, Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the nation’s criminal justice system has gotten “out of balance” and must be restored through steps such as the use of body cameras by every police department in the country. “It’s time to change our approach,” Clinton said in her first major policy address since launching her presidential campaign earlier this month. “It’s time to end the era of mass incarceration.” Clinton spoke in the days after violence and protests have swept through the streets of Baltimore since the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who received a spinal-cord injury while in police custody. Clinton condemned those instigating further violence, saying it disrespected the Gray family and only compounded the tragedy. “The violence has to stop,” she said. In a speech at Columbia University, Clinton spoke of protests over policing in Ferguson, Mo.; Charleston, S.C.; and in New York, and repudiated policies dating to her husband Bill‘s presidency that lengthened prison terms while putting more officers on the streets. “We need a true national debate about how to reduce our prison population,” she said. “We don’t want to create another incarceration generation.” She voiced support for alternative punishments for lower-level offenders. She said criminal justice reform had found some bipartisan consensus in Congress, noting the work of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican seeking his party’s presidential nomination, along with that of New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat. “It is rare to see Democrats and Republicans agree on anything today but we’re beginning to agree on this,” she said. “We need to restore balance to our criminal justice system. Of course it is not enough just to agree … we actually have to work together to get the job done. We have to deliver real reforms that can be felt on our streets.” In December, President Barack Obama asked Congress for $263 million for police body cameras and additional law enforcement training. The request came after Obama held a series of meetings with law enforcement officials, Cabinet members and civil rights leaders following the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson. The president’s proposal would have allocated $75 million over three years to help states purchase body cameras. The money would have paid for about 50,000 devices, though Congress never acted on the president’s request. In her remarks at Columbia, Clinton also cited the unfairness of black men being more likely to be stopped and searched by police officers, charged with crimes and sentenced to longer prison terms. Clinton spoke at the David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum, named after the former New York mayor. Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
Birmingham business group announces jobs, investment growth in 2014
The pro-business Birmingham Business Alliance – “the chamber for regional prosperity,” as it bills itself – announced an uptick in prosperity in 2014 indeed at their annual Regional Economic Growth Summit at the Harbert Center in downtown Birmingham on Wednesday. The upshot of that meeting – the BBA announced that more than 3,000 jobs and $370 million in private capital investment was added to the region in 2014. “There’s no question, Birmingham and our entire region are seeing real growth,” said Mark Crosswhite, 2015 BBA chairman and chairman, president and CEO of Alabama Power in a news release. “And we must focus on continuing that growth – developing, building and attracting businesses that create jobs and better our communities.” Among other top-line findings of the BBA announced today: 79 companies announced 3,011 jobs and $370 million in capital investment in 2014 in the region’s primary business sectors, including banking and insurance; advanced manufacturing; metals and steel manufacturing; transportation and logistics; health care services; information and biological technology; and arts, entertainment and tourism; Ground broken on the Northern Beltline, a controversial Alabama Department of Transportation plan along I-20/59m; The opening of AIDT’s Alabama Workforce Training Center, which focuses on training for the construction and manufacturing industries; A grant from the Lumina Foundation to increase post-secondary education attainment in our region; The launch of OnBoard Birmingham, a workforce retention initiative of the BBA that connects early-career professionals from various companies and industries to the Birmingham community; and The BBA-supported Historic Tax Credit, which has helped launch 16 redevelopment projects in Birmingham totaling $207 million in investment. This and more can be found in the BBA’s Growth Report 2015.
Law protects health workers refusing to perform care that runs against personal beliefs
Healthcare providers could refuse to perform services that run against their beliefs under legislation considered in the House Committee on Health on Wednesday. Rep. Arnold Mooney is sponsoring House Bill 491 also known as the Healthcare Rights of Conscience Act. The bill gives providers the right to refuse to perform or participate in health care services that violate their moral or religious beliefs. Further, providers would be immune from any civil, criminal, or administrative liability for refusing to participate in services that go against their conscience. During Wednesday’s public hearing, Rep. Mooney said that in emergency situations, health care providers would be required to provide medical care until another worker is able to step in. Workers would be required to given their employer written notice of their objections at least 24 hours before the procedure. “This bill allows people to get the services they choose to have from providers who choose to provide it,” said Rep. Mooney. Several advocates spoke in favor of the bill, including one man who said it would treat “health care workers as human beings, not automatons.” Concerns over the bill included its potential to block a patient’s ability to make an informed decision, since practitioners could refuse to offer certain options based on their personal beliefs rather than on medical evidence or potential for health risk. Rep. Laura Hall suggested an amendment that would require health offices to post information clearly stating that that medical staff could refuse certain services. She compared the requirement to the Alabama law concerning placing signs outside of businesses where guns are not allowed. Rep. Mooney signaled that he would be unwilling to consider amending the bill. The committee declined to vote on Wednesday.
Lawmakers consider plan to ban abortions where fetal heartbeat is detected
A panel of lawmakers heard public comment on a proposal that would make it illegal to perform an abortion without first determining fetal heartbeat, and ban abortions outright when a heartbeat has been detected. House Bill 405, sponsored by Rep. Terri Collins, says that any Alabama doctor who performs an abortion when a heartbeat has been determined would be guilty of a class C felony. Rep. Collins said she introduced the bill because of her experience as a volunteer in a women’s health clinic. “More education – realizing that there is a heartbeat – is critical when moms are making these decisions. Protecting life is important.” Alabama lawmakers attempted to impose similarly strict guidelines on abortions in the 2014 session; the Senate declined to vote on the bill, citing concerns over litigation. “I thought (Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin’s bill) was one of the most common sense bills I’d heard,” said Rep. Collins. “If end of heartbeat determines where life stops, why not use the start of heartbeat to determine when life begins?” Members of several pro-choice organizations spoke in favor of the legislation and its potential to establish a clear, objective test for establishing when abortions would be performed. “The viability test in Roe v. Wade was supported by very little evidence at that time — and less so today,” said attorney John Eidsmoe, board member of Lutherans for Life. “The heartbeat test is objective and clear. Either there is a heartbeat or there isn’t.” Others warned that the bill would effectively ban abortions outright, as many women are unaware they are pregnant until the second month of gestation. A fetal heartbeat can normally be determined as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Susan Watson executive director of the Alabama ACLU called the bill “one of the most extreme of its kind.” Watson warned that the bill would lead to expensive litigation and a possible Supreme Court case. Similar laws have passed in North Dakota and Arkansas; both were ruled unconstitutional in federal court. House lawmakers declined to vote on the proposal in Wednesday’s hearing.
Lecia J. Brooks: Y’all still don’t hear me though
I begin with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., hoping you’ll keep reading. Despite our tendency to sanitize the raw and radical truths Dr. King spoke, if I can pull out a quote, I can usually get folks to listen for a minute. After all, he was all about nonviolence. “… a riot is the language of the unheard.” Last night, I was rendered mute by the images and predictable “reporting” coming from my television. Hours passed and I couldn’t move. “It’s too much,” I tell myself. “Not again.” The internal conversation continues. “Yes, again, Lecia. Pay attention.” And, so it begins. This soul-piercing experience of acknowledging, again and again, what it means to be black in these United States. That’s me on the screen. That’s me you’re talking about. I can’t turn away. I can’t. I was living in Los Angeles during the rebellion that followed the verdicts in the Rodney King trial. That time, I got up from the television and went to the gathering place. The need to go, to be there was so strong. I had to be there. I couldn’t sit, immobilized, and watch it play out on the news. The fires began just as the program in the church ended. The flames were blinding and illuminating at the same time. The smoke was choking an already strangled voice. Yet it felt right to be there. It was as if the collective brutality visited upon us all these years was resting, like a weight, in the pit of my stomach. I could tell others felt it, too. It was so strong and became stronger still as we walked together toward the fire claiming our pain and demanding justice. We cried out together, “No Justice, No Peace,” and meant it. Some began to illustrate the point by destroying property and looting. Others did not. None of us “thugs,” “criminals” or “hoodlums” exploiting another injustice thrown at us to swallow. Each of us survivors of years of systemic oppression. Ask someone who has willingly placed themselves on the other side of riot police what they were feeling. Ask them why they were there. Ask them want they want. Even ask someone why he or she looted a store or destroyed a store in their own neighborhood. Ask, and listen. Back to what Dr. King, in 1968, said about why people riot: “And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last 12 or 15 years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.” Lecia Brooks is director of the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery, Ala., and outreach director of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Photo Credit: AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Senate Democrats call for Medicaid expansion
Democrats in the Alabama Senate are urging Gov. Robert Bentley to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The Alabama Senate on Tuesday approved a resolution saying that Democrats and the one independent member of the Alabama Senate support Medicaid expansion. Senators said Medicaid expansion would provide health care coverage to 300,000 Alabamians. Senators approved the resolution on an 8-2 vote. While Republicans hold a majority in the Alabama Senate, most Republicans didn’t vote on the resolution. The resolution soothed a partisan fight that threatened to derail legislative business for several days. Republicans approved a resolution last week saying that it was the intent of the Alabama Legislature to not expand Medicaid. Democrats argued that was incorrect since Democrats in the Legislature favor expansion. Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
