You may know Senator Sessions as the race-baiting, bigoted failed Judicial nominee who now, in a show of the Republican sense of irony, is the top GOP leader in the Senate Judiciary Committee. During the Sotomayor hearings, he repeatedly made ridiculous, racially-charged comments (not to mention to the rather hilarious "quote of the hearing" line- saying he "wanted to do that crack cocaine thing" with the nominee).Well now Sesssions is trying to add poison pills to the Matthew Shepard Act to ensure it goes down in flames. According to HRC Backstory:
The first Sessions Amendment would allow the death penalty to be applied in hate crimes cases under some circumstances. This Amendment is unnecessary and is a poison pill designed to kill the bill. The Amendment is being offered by and supported by Senators who oppose the Matthew Shepard Act. It's ironic that the very Senators who have falsely argued that this bill would put clergy in jail because of their beliefs think that those same clergy should be subject to the death penalty.Much more after the jump...
The other amendments Sessions is looking to add:
The second Sessions Amendment would place an additional burden on the Justice Department to revise its long established guidelines for hate crimes cases. This Amendment is unnecessary. The Department already contains well-established, clear and precise guidelines to govern cases involving bias-motivated violence that work well.These are obvious Republican attempts to kill the legislation.
Finally, the third Sessions Amendment would provide additional penalties for crimes involving servicemembers or their families. This Amendment is unnecessary. Existing statutes already provide special penalti es on attacks against members of the Armed Services and veterans. In addition, the vague language of the Amendment is problematic. The Amendment provides for additional penalties for injuring the property of a serviceman or immediate family member. The scope of "family member" or what constitutes an "injury" to their property is unclear.
The Matthew Shepard Act is already on very shaky ground, having been attached to the Defense Appropriations Bill, which is being threatened with a Presidential veto over controversial funding for F-22 fighter planes.
It looks like Sessions is becoming one of the new "leading voices" in the GOP, spearheading their efforts when they need to attack minorities (something he is very very good at and has years of practice doing).ing).
We have to make sure these poison pills don't get added on to cripple an already tenuous chance of the legislation passing.
(h/t Joe My God)
Attorney David Boies has published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on behalf of himself and his co-counsel Ted Olson to explain to the American people why what they are pursuing is the right thing to do. In crisp and clear terms, he outlines their constitutional argument for same-sex marriage.
What I especially like is that they take the baseless arguments of the opponents of marriage equality and challenge them directly:
... there is no legitimate state policy underlying Proposition 8. The occasional suggestion that marriages between people of different sexes may somehow be threatened by marriages of people of the same sex does not withstand discussion. It is difficult to the point of impossibility to envision two love-struck heterosexuals contemplating marriage to decide against it because gays and lesbians also have the right to marry; it is equally hard to envision a couple whose marriage is troubled basing the decision of whether to divorce on whether their gay neighbors are married or living in a domestic partnership.
There's more in the op-ed that I am sure you'll enjoy reading, but I liked seeing this gem.
But basic constitutional rights cannot depend on the willingness of the electorate in any given state to end discrimination. If we were prepared to consign minority rights to a majority vote, there would be no need for a constitution.
The author of Angela's Ashes, 'Tis, and Teacher Man, Frank McCourt, passed away yesterday at the age of 78. Long-time Blenders know that Frank McCourt was one of my teachers my teachers at Stuyvesant High School in NYC (class of 1981). These photos were taken at my 10th high school reunion.
There is a fitting piece in the NYT about Frank.
His former students will tell you that Frank McCourt, who died Sunday, was too attuned to the false note to ever declare, once he had become a huge success as an author, that he missed teaching high school. Even so, he spent three decades as a teacher of English and creative writing in New York City’s public schools. And he was the first to say that those years, while depriving him of the time to actually write, were what made a writer out of him. He had long been retired by 1996, when his first book, “Angela’s Ashes,” was published.
...Mr. McCourt began teaching in 1958, when he was 28, at Ralph R. McKee Vocational High School in Staten Island and from 1972 to 1987 taught at Stuyvesant High School, a highly selective school then on East 15th Street in Manhattan. His students learned from him that literature was nothing more — and nothing less — than the telling of stories. Of course, he made his students dip into the canon; they learned to write from reading Swift, Joyce, Hawthorne, Hemingway and Flannery O’Connor. But, as many of them have said, the most inspired and inspiring hours spent in his classroom were devoted to listening to him share experiences from his own life.
“A lot of the class was him telling tales and telling them over and over,” said Alissa Quart, an author and a 2009 Neiman Fellow at Harvard who had Mr. McCourt during her freshman year at Stuyvesant, in 1985-86. “He used to sort of recite from memory the stories that became ‘Angela’s Ashes.’ ”
And that was all true. From time to time Frank's brother Malachy McCourt (a character actor who appeared on many NY-based soaps) would come to class and we would learn and be entertained by their stories (photos from my yearbook follow). After hours, he and Frank would appear at local clubs in a show they wrote, A Couple of Blaguards. It was wonderful to listen to him talk about "the glories" of Catholicism (and sin in particular). Here's a video of him discussing his teaching years.
I last saw Frank McCourt in January 2000. He was in Durham, NC for a local fundraiser while on his 'Tis tour. I was asked by a local bookstore to introduce him before a crowd of 2,500 people at the School of the Arts for his reading and talk. Here is the introduction I gave that evening:
Good evening. Frank McCourt was one of the most popular teachers at Stuyvesant. Everyone I knew hoped that they would see his name on their program card at some point during our four years there. By the luck of the draw, in the fall of 1980 I had the pleasure of being in his Creative Writing class. Why was he popular? Aside from his charm, ability to spin a good yarn (and sing), he engaged us in feisty discussion. He encouraged us to read (oh, Hamlet!), to write and to share those written experiences, dreams and flights of fancy.
We had to keep a journal, and on each Friday, a few of us would be called to read journal entries aloud. What I most remember, as I look back now, was the loving, constructive criticiiticism he gave our work, and the open, unstructured environment he created for us to excel in. By the way, I received a 93 in his class, so I guess I was actually paying attention.
When Angela's Ashes came out to much acclaim, some of my classmates and I discussed Frank's amazing journey into the limelight and we all thought how success must embarrass and dismay this humble man, and how he must think he doesn't deserve any of it. But of course he's bonkers. We're glad you decided not to stick that manuscript in a drawer, because you saved your most truly amazing yarns for publication to share with the world. And now Frank McCourt...
It was great to see him; I went backstage before he went on, and of course he didn't recognize me from the last reunion, but I brought my trusty '81 Indicator yearbook (he recognized me in that context), and my copies of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis for him to sign. He was mobbed like a true celebrity after the event, but he was mobbed as a popular teacher back in the day. Everyone wanted to be in Frank's class.
Goodbye, Frank.
***
He discusses his teaching years, religion, politics, and life in Ireland in this video. It captures his storytelling style.
McCourt records the trials, triumphs, and surprises he faced during his thirty-year teaching career in public high schools in New York City. "Doggedness," he says, is "not as glamorous as ambition or talent or intellect or charm, but still the one thing that got me through the days and nights." Frank McCourt describes his struggle to find his way in the classroom and create a lasting impression on his students. Frank McCourt was born in 1930 in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrant parents, grew up in Limerick, Ireland, and returned to America in 1949. His first book, Angela's Ashes, won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the LA Times Book Award. An introduction to the forum is provided by Kathleen McCartney, Dean and Gerald S. Lesser Professor in Ear in Early Childhood Development.
'Tis the season for PRIDE Festivities everyone! Listed below are this summer's upcoming PRIDE festivals around the state. Click on the image or link for more information about each festival, and make sure you show up and are PROUD!
Oregon PRIDES Calender & Information
When: August 8th from 12 p.m.-7 p.m. Where: Alton Baker Park in Eugene
BRO Staff in Attendence: Aubrey & Alejandro
When: August 15th from 12 p.m.-7 p.m. Where: Cascades Gateway Park in Salem
BRO Staff in Attendence: Juan
When: September 18th- 20th. Where: Various locations in Lincoln
BRO Staff in Attendence: Andrew
When: August 8th. Where: McKenzie Park in Hermiston
BRO Staff in Attendance: Jessica & Dan
If you are interested in volunteering with Basic Rights Oregon at any of these PRIDES, please contact Kyle at kyle@basicrights.org.
Don't see your city's pride here? E-mail Andrew at andrew@basicrights.org to have it added to BRO's Pride calender.