11:30 a.m. - Taxpayer’s Association Awards and Holiday Banquet at the Vero Beach Yacht Club. Reservations for lunch are required and can be made at tpairc.org.
6 p.m. - Democratic Club Holiday Potluck Dinner at the Irish-American Club at 1314 20th St, Vero Beach 32960. We will be honoring all of our volunteers. (Cash bar for all beverages.)
Democratic Women’s Club
SAVE THE DATE:
Saturday, January 14, 2023 - 11:30 a.m.
The next Democratic Women’s Club Luncheon will be on
at Bent Pine. The speaker will be RABBI MICHAEL BIRNHOLZ.
Details to follow.
The Book Group selection for January is “The Flag, The Cross & The Station Wagon:
A Graying American Looks Back At His Suburban Boyhood & Wonders What The
Hell Happened” by Author: Bill McKibbin.
Time & Location to be announced for the January 27th meeting.
Toys for Tots
The Democrats of Indian River are still collecting toys to donate at our office at
2345 14th Ave in Vero Beach
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Editorial: Mass killings aren't over; Keep pressing on gun safety
Another holiday season dawns, a time of cheer for many of us, as the pandemic that took so many lives has eased and reopened the door to our daily routines.
But for many there's little cheer this winter. The fever of gunfire, which eased as COVID cleared the streets in 2020, is back upon us, a routine of another kind. November brought mass murders at a bar in Colorado, a college student residence in Idaho and a Walmart Supercenter in Virginia. Instead of the season ushering in holiday cheer, many of us can only mourn.
Our gun culture is killing more and more of us.
By now the arguments have been laid out and so often laid to rest like bodies in coffins. Some argue for constitutional rights, some counter for common sense. What can’t be denied is that while we fail to reach consensus, sadness piles up, as we lose neighbors, school children, friends and family members.
Across the country, many don't just oppose gun restrictions but insist on in-your-face gun proliferation. They push for open-carry laws, ostensibly to create a citizen anti-crime presence but in equal measure to push back against those who would deny them their right to weapons. The New York Times this week reported on the increasing incidence, at peaceful political protests, of counter-protesters toting AK-47s and other weapons of war. They’re just asking for trouble.
The Everytown for Gun Safety website ranks Florida 19th nationwide in the strength of its gun laws, with an estimated 2,849 people dying by guns in an average year.
According to The Everytown for Gun Safety website: Florida legislators are actively working to weaken Florida’s gun laws
After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in 2018, the Florida Legislature stepped up to some extent, passing a law that allows police to remove guns from people who pose a danger. The state also tightened the purchase process, including raising the minimum age to buy guns to 21.
But the site notes that since then, "progress has stalled and Florida legislators are instead actively working to weaken Florida’s gun laws.”
For starters, the state does not require background checks for handgun purchases at point of sale; it does not prohibit assault-style weapons; it does not bar purchase of high-capacity gun magazines; it does not require new handgun models to have childproofing; and it does not bar people deemed a danger from carrying a concealed weapon.
So, there’s work to be done on that score, not to mention on school safety and the perpetual need to ease access to mental health care.
That the Florida Legislature’s Republican numbers grew in November’s election puts even more responsibility in the majority’s hands, to shape solutions to this undeniable crisis. Many, if not most, of our GOP lawmakers express longstanding loyalty to the National Rifle Association and opposition to gun restrictions. We can only hope that the ongoing plague of mass shootings will at some point persuade them that what action they have taken has fallen short. How much spilled blood will that take?
The good news is that, despite stalled progress at the state level, Congress this year passed significant legislation to address the problem. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, enacted in June, enhances background checks; supports state crisis intervention and ‘Red Flag’ laws; bans anyone convicted of domestic violence from owning a gun; provides funding for school safety measures; and provides $11 billion for mental health programs.
The bill passed 234-193 in the House and 64-34 in the Senate, with Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott opposing.
“We’ve surpassed 600 mass shootings this year, including two deadly attacks just last week at a Walmart in Virginia and a LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado,” U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel told us. “We cannot go numb to these tragedies. While we’ve made good progress...to enhance background checks, implement crisis intervention orders, and close some loopholes, there’s so much work left to do to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution but an immediate fix we must do now is banning these (assault) weapons from our streets.”
Now the Florida Legislature needs to do its part. Step one is to acknowledge the problem and not just wait for another Pulse or Parkland. Because, if November’s shootings made one thing clear, it’s that this fever hasn't broken.
Palm Beach Post Editorial Board
LOCAL
Conservative School Boards in Sarasota, Brevard and Broward have fired their Superintendents
All of the emotion, chaos and mud-slinging that has infiltrated Florida school board meetings over the last two years seemed to finally boil over on a Tuesday night in November.
The Sarasota County School Board, with its newly minted conservative majority, had begun the process of firing Superintendent Brennan Asplen - an abrupt move that none of the candidates had campaigned on. After hours of public comment, during which even some supporters of the conservative ticket expressed a kind of buyer’s remorse, it was Asplen’s turn to speak, and he’d seen enough.
“We’re always doing this nonsense, all the time,” Asplen said during a 30-minute impassioned monologue defending his two-year tenure. “It needs to end. And I know that I’m probably not going to be here, but you guys need to, as a community, if you all want to move forward.”
His plea signaled an uncertain future as the smoke cleared on one of the most divisive school board election cycles many in education circles had ever seen. With the ballots counted and new board members sworn in, communities across Florida are beginning to see the fallout from the deep divide that has taken over education politics, and some districts are in for a bumpy ride.
On the other side of the state, Brevard County’s new conservative majority took the same step as Sarasota with the help of members backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the conservative parents’ group Moms for Liberty. That superintendent, Mark Mullins, agreed to resign to save the district any more turmoil, noting that “this mission is bigger than any of us individually, including me.”
In Broward County, a board controlled by DeSantis appointees fired Superintendent Vickie Cartwright with no notice a week before four of five of the governor’s appointees were to be replaced with newly elected members.
And last month, Lee County voters approved a referendum to elect, rather than appoint, its superintendent, a move that critics worry makes permanent the injection of partisan politics in education. A lawmaker who backed the referendum last week filed a bill to make all school board elections in Florida partisan.
Critics of the sudden rash of firings noted the trend. The Florida dismissals came on the heels of a showdown in Berkeley County, S.C. in which six new school board members, endorsed by the local chapter of Moms for Liberty, voted to fire their superintendent just hours after they were sworn in, according to NBC News. At the same meeting, the board voted to ban critical race theory, a college-level academic concept that generally isn’t taught in grade school but has become a catch-all term for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
“We could pretend that this is happening in a vacuum,” one parent said at a Brevard County School Board meeting this month. “We could pretend this is the only superintendent who has suddenly been dismissed by an incoming Moms for Liberty-backed school board in the state. It’s not.”
A new era in education politics
Much of the tumult at School Board meetings can be traced back to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when district leaders were working through questions such as whether to close schools and, when they reopened, whether to mandate masks and vaccines.
Those not in favor of such mandates rooted their opposition in parental rights, and Republicans across the country, DeSantis chief among them, championed their frustrations to win over suburban women voters.
The parental rights movement soon moved beyond public health mandates to protesting social issues, including guides and books to help support LGBTQ students and classroom materials that acknowledge systemic racism.
“It’s just that some parents don’t want the same thing as other parents,” said Jeffrey Henig, a professor of political science and education at the Teachers College at Columbia University.
While the tension between parents and school districts isn’t novel, Henig said, the GOP’s coordinated involvement in local education politics has added a new layer. In Florida, DeSantis took the unprecedented step of endorsing 30 school board candidates — and most won their seats. Moms for Liberty gave money to campaigns across the state with the express intent of flipping boards from liberal to conservative majorities.
That’s exactly what happened in Brevard and Sarasota counties, both of which defied DeSantis and parental rights advocates by mandating masks during the pandemic.
What’s different, Henig said, are the issues underpinning that change. Instead of local issues specific to each district, it’s about the vague buzzwords and phrases that have taken over social political discourse: “critical race theory,” “gender ideology,” “indoctrination,” “woke.”
But there’s a lot more to running an operation with thousands of students and employees and a multi-million dollar budget, such as negotiating teacher contracts, making decisions about school facilities and crafting a strategic plan.
“One of the uncertainties about the broad critical race theory, gender issues, more conservative uprisings we’ve seen recently — they’re fueled by anger and a sense of resentment on the part of some families,” Henig said, “but they don’t have a clear governance message about what should happen after we get the bad guys out.”
Another uncertainty is who will fill the vacancies. Along with the districts that have fired their superintendents, several more have retired or quit because of today’s political environment, said Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators.
That’s causing a drain in leadership nationwide, he said, and the remaining qualified, experienced superintendents won’t be keen on going to a district clouded in political turmoil.
“It’s without a doubt,” Domenech said, “one of the most difficult times to run a school district — if not the most difficult time to run a school district — in our lifetimes.”
Steven Walker
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
and
Kathryn Varn
USA TODAY Network – Florida.
STATE
DeSantis calls for Grand Jury Probe into Covid vaccines
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday new actions designed to hold the federal government and pharmaceutical companies accountable for decisions related to COVID-19 vaccines.
DeSantis will establish the Public Health Integrity Committee, overseen by the state's surgeon general, to assess federal public health recommendations and guidance. The governor also petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to impanel a statewide grand jury to "investigate crimes and wrongdoing committed against Floridians related to the COVID-19 vaccine," according to the announcement. Further, the governor plans to look into sudden deaths of people who got a COVID-19 vaccine in Florida, based on autopsy results. The state will collaborate with the University of Florida to compare research with studies done in other countries.
"With these new actions, we will shed light on the forces that have obscured truthful communication about the COVID-19 vaccines," Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo said in a statement.
Ladapo will oversee the Public Health Integrity Committee, which will asess federal decisions, recommendations and guidance related to public health and health care.
Related video: Gov. Ron DeSantis takes aim at COVID-19 vaccine makers - requests state supreme court for help (WFTS Tampa, FL)
DeSantis filed a petition asking the state's Supreme Court to put together a statewide grand jury to investigate issues around COVID-19 vaccines. The petition said that federal agencies, medical experts and others "created an expectation that receiving a COVID-19 vaccine is an ethical or civic duty and that choosing not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is selfish and harmful to others."
"It is impossible to imagine that so many influential individuals came to this view on their own," according to the petition. "Rather, it is likely that individuals and companies with an incentive to do so created these perceptions for financial gain."
When Senator Kyrsten Sinema left the Democratic Party last week, she didn’t just momentarily drive up antacid sales on Capitol Hill. She also raised the pressure on three especially vulnerable Democratic senators who are up for re-election in 2024, and are defending seats in states that have turned a shade of deep crimson since they were first elected to Congress.
The 2024 map is daunting for Senate Democrats, and it will take all the political dexterity and luck they can muster to keep their 51-ish-seat majority — and then some. Twenty-three of the 33 seats up for grabs are held by Democrats or left-leaning independents. That list includes Montana, Ohio and West Virginia, where Donald Trump won in 2020 by 16, 8 and 29 percentage points.
At the moment, Democrats appear to have just two pickup opportunities, and neither looks especially promising: Florida and Texas.
Sinema’s defection undeniably makes Democrats’ path more complicated. She has not said she is running, though many political observers suspect her decision to switch parties had to do with worries she would lose a Democratic primary. Neither of the two most prominent Democrats weighing a run, Representatives Ruben Gallego and Greg Stanton, has officially entered the race, however.
Blake Hounshell
New York Times
VIDEO of the WEEK
Steve Martin and Marty Short
SNL monologue cold open.
