JXIndivisible

Dear Group,

Much has happened since the Open Letter to Rep. McMorris Rodgers hit Facebook, Twitter, and email inboxes yesterday morning. If you haven’t seen McMorris Rodgers’ vile ad you can see snippets of it in the news coverage on KXLY from last evening. Susan Hammond was interviewed for the piece. Neither McMorris Rodgers nor her campaign would comment. 

The vile ad is “approved by Cathy McMorris Rodgers,” which, in my view, only serves to point out the dark McMorris Rodgers living behind her “Christian” mom exterior. She knows these are lies, but she personally authorizes them. She makes no attempt to distance herself. 

The only defense against lies is to forcefully call them out. You can help

I encourage you to like/share on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/susan.hammond.50/posts/10215103076324414

and like/retweet on Twitter

https://twitter.com/susanswim55/status/1021557936596824064

If you know a local healthcare professional who might be willing to sign on share this link with them:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1c0s181USrwCmI_5d_tttBdsnqp9fiFDghWiRZttlrfk/edit

If you want to forward the letter to other media outlets please do. The professional community’s outrage is the driver. (The signatures go on for two and a half pages currently.)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oXTkzmZNiqSg6gNmnzbaIkFL60V6e9OR8V3pEeui0Xg/edit?usp=sharing

I have copied the original letter and original signatures below in case you missed it.

In other news:

McMorris Rodgers is doubling down on her devotion to Donald Trump. She is bringing Devin Nunes right to little old Spokane as a special guest for a fundraising luncheon next Monday at the Spokane Club at noon. I’ll be covering that tomorrow. There will be a protest. Mark your calendars.

Finally, some fun. This Saturday, July 28, at 5PM join us at Hamilton Studios for the Spokane County Democrats 2018 Salmon Feed & BBQ. Sign up today Check out the ads posted above and below.

Sign up for “get out the vote canvassing.” Check out the Canvassing Links in the Calendar Section. 

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

Dear Group, A letter in response to recent scurrilous ads by CMR. Share widely.  An Open Letter to Rep. McMorris Rodgers from Spokane Child Abuse and Prevention Experts and Community Leaders: Together, we, the undersigned, represent decades of experience providing prevention and treatment services to eastern Washington families. We have provided extensive community service on the frontlines of child abuse prevention, post traumatic trauma treatment for all forms of family violence, including physical and sexual assault and abuse of children, pediatric healthcare, and related community and family services.  We are dismayed and deeply disappointed to see television ads and printed campaign materials approved by Rep. McMorris Rodgers that falsely accuse Lisa Brown of endangering vulnerable children during her term as a State Senator in the 1990’s. Lisa has a long record of advocacy and legislative leadership on the prevention of child abuse and sexual assault, including helping to organize the first “Take Back the Night” March in Spokane in the 1980’s to bring awareness to domestic violence and sexual assault.  Lisa worked in the legislature on many measures to safeguard women and families, and currently serves on the board of the YWCA in Spokane, which serves victims of sexual assault and domestic violence in our community. “For over 20 years as a Spokane pediatrician, I was one of the only pediatricians to provide exams and testify in court for child abuse cases. Lisa Brown was always a consistent advocate for child safety throughout her time in the Washington State legislature, including sponsoring SB 5570 which made it a crime to communicate with a minor for ‘immoral purposes,’ and in 2005 supported ‘community protection zones’ which prohibit sex offenders from living within 880 feet ‘of the facilities or grounds of a public or private school.’ Lisa has worked hard to fund child abuse prevention work that helped nurture families so they could keep their own children safe.” -Deb Harper, MD, FAAP Rep. McMorris Rodgers decision to distribute a provocative fearful image, mailed to tens of thousands of homes in eastern Washington, reinforces harmful stereotypes that do not correspond with the data on sexual assault perpetrators. Further, this image references racial stereotypes that reinforce explicit racism and implicit racial biases that have devastating consequences for people of color in our country. For these reasons, we strongly condemn Rep. McMorris Rodgers campaign materials, and call on her first to publicly apologize to Lisa Brown, and second to cease using this dishonest and harmful campaign tactic immediately. We expect the truth and civility from our elected representatives and we call on Rep. McMorris Rodgers to serve the best interests of the community and the people she represents. Sincerely, Deb Harper, MD, FAAP Susan Hammond, MSN, Former Director, Psychiatric Services, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center Mary Ann Murphy, MS, Founding Director, Partners with Families & Children Edward J. Averett, MS, (Clinical Psychology) George Girvin, MD Marilee Roloff, Former Director, Crosswalk Spokane/Volunteers of America Pam Silverstein MD FACOG Spokane Obstetrician-Gynecologist Dr. Kent Hoffman, Psychotherapist and Developmental Researcher Lynne H. Williams, MD, Developmental Pediatrician, Child, Adolescent, Family Psychiatrist David W. Moershel, MD, Pediatrician Chris Crutcher, BA, Family Therapist & Author Sally Winkle Ph.D., Former Director, Women and Gender Studies, EWU Sandra Altshuler, Ph.D., L.I.C.S.W. J. John Charyk, MD Kim Connolley MSN, RN, Formert Nurse Manager, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, Psychiatric Center For Children and Adolescents Miriam Berkman, Ph.D. Dan Weidert RN, BSN – 25 years in Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry Mary Noble M.D. FACP, Internal Medicine Physician Hershel Zellman M.D. AAFP, Family Practice Physician Keep to the high ground, Jerry [

Dear Group,

Washington State Midterm Primary Election ballots are in registered voters’ mailboxes by now. Vote! But don’t let your sense of obligation end there. Talk up the need to vote with anyone you suspect may cast a favorable ballot. Wear your Lisa Brown T-shirt to the grocery store, the library, out to concerts in the parks. Study your local races, make choices. Talk up your choices and your reasons for those choices with your neighbors and anyone you know who might have that race on their ballot too. Keep up the buzz.

There are a lot of overlapping territories that determine who appears on your particular ballot. The territories of this year’s elections (Primary and General) include statewide (U.S. Senator), U.S Congressional (#5, or “CD5” for us), state legislative district races, a slew of countywide offices, and a number of judgeships. (For an interactive Washington State map of legislative districts, click here.)

To most of my readers a vote for Lisa Brown for U.S. CD5 Representative and for Maria Cantwell for U.S. Senator are pretty obvious, but what about “down ballot?” The candidate bios and statements in the online voters’ guide (at MyVote.wa.gov) or the paper voters’ guide are useful…but not comprehensive.

I recommend the ProgressiveVotersGuide.com as a must-view resource. Candidates are evaluated based on endorsements of a range of progressive organizations. Importantly, the reason for the choice is stated in a short narrative that goes well beyond buzz words. I encourage you to check it out and recommend it to others.

There is another website worth visiting–mostly to observe the close linkage of certain segments of Christianity with the Republican Party. WeBelieveWeVote.com (seen advertised on local billboards) is an instructive…and, for me, a disturbing…tool. Have a look. Only Spokane and Stevens County candidates are presented. Candidates are evaluated entirely on their stands on certain hot button issues I do not recognize from my United Methodist upbringing: gender fluidity, civil unions, same-sex marriage, abortion, recreational marijuana, and, oddly, support of “electoral college reform” and “weak borders.” (You might wonder what “weak borders” has to do with the office of Spokane County Clerk…) This is not my parents’ Christianity (any more than, I suppose, the current Republican Party is anything like my parents’ Republican Party.)

As a confirmed United Methodist, the WeBelieve criteria for Christian faith and “alignment” are jarring. I went digging on the WeBelieve website and found this page, the “Pastor to Pastor” letter. Scrolling to the bottom one finds a listing of 97 local pastors who endorse this political website. Have a look. On my browser, if I hit COMMAND F (for “find”) I can type in a word to see how many times that word appears on the page. Here is a selection of findings from the pastor and church listings of WeBelieve: Methodist (0), Congregationalist (0), Episcopal (0), Catholic (0), Unitarian (0), Presbyterian (1-Lidgerwood), Baptist (12), “Life” (9), Assembly of God (5), Nazarene (3), Lutheran (3). Search for yours. (Note McMorris Rodgers was brought up in the Fundamentalist Baptist tradition, arguably to right of most of the denominations and pastors listed. She is “Highly Aligned” with this website’s political agenda.) That adds up to 33 Spokane area churches at least loosely identified with a denomination. The other 64 are apparently unaffiliated, that is, not officially connected to a denomination. 

WeBelieve knows it is skating on the edge of violating the IRS rules governing 501(c)(3)s and political involvement. They present a “Legal Do’s and Don’ts” page. I know there are many pastors who don’t believe, for instance, that the Second Amendment and “strong borders” are articles of Christian faith. I urge those pastors to read the “Do’s and Don’ts” and speak out against this political propaganda dressed up as Christian values. WeBelieve is a thinly veiled co-option of parts of Christianity by the Republican Party. It is a shame the donors to 501(c)(3) non-profits are not publicly identified. Is financial support offered contingent on political alignment? There is no way to know, but one cannot help but wonder.

WeBelieve has some use for me. It tells me for whom not to vote. WeBelieve represents few if any of the Christian values with which I was brought up. The values I carry from that upbringing include forgiveness, grace, tolerance, and understanding, not armed isolation and fear of the other.

I am heartened by the many Christians, both parishioners and pastors, I have met who still share the values with which I was brought up, people who are open, tolerant, helpful, people who work for justice, not restriction, people who don’t think “strong borders” and shoddy treatment of asylum-seekers is a Christian value, people who have not been co-opted for a political agenda by a Party that has lost its soul.

So do your research, engage, come out for the GOTV (get out the vote) canvassing, discuss, listen, cajole.

Dear Group, We live in what is nominally a representative democracy. Ideally, we elect people who will best represent our values and convictions. Having met and talked with most of the Democratic candidates in eastern Washington I am convinced every one of them better represents my values than the current crop of Republicans they are challenging. I’ve studied issues to come to this conclusion…but is that the basis upon which I always make my decision for whom to vote, to decide it is time for a change? Elections are not won on issues alone. For most of us there is not time in a life to study every issue. Elections are won on hope and buzz. Elections are won on engagement. Most of all, elections are won by personal contact.  Allow me a personal anecdote: Last Sunday Emily and I were remarking on the forest of political yard signs on Spokane’s South Hill. We saw a sign for Dennis Cronin for Judge. I smiled. Then I blinked, shook my head, and asked myself, “Why did I smile?” I don’t know Mr. Cronin. He’s not even on the upcoming August 7 Washington State Primary ballot. (I learned later he is contending for Spokane Superior Court Judge Postion 10 in the November election.) A quick search on the internet reveals nothing splashy. So why did I smile when I saw his sign??? Then I remembered. On Bloomsday I stood with a host of other volunteers near the Courthouse waving a Lisa Brown for Congress sign (something I could not have imagined doing for ANY political candidate two years ago). A block up the race course there was a gaggle of folks waving another candidate’s signs. A smiley woman from the gaggle drifted down toward us and gave us a thumbs up. She was carrying a Cronin sign. I don’t think we exchanged more than a couple of words. I could not identify her in a lineup if my life depended on it, but the smile and the association with Mr. Cronin’s sign stuck somewhere in the depths of my aging memory. I realized that is why I smiled at sign last Sunday—and it is part of the reason I will pay attention and may cast a vote for him in November. Moral(s)? Even those of us who pride ourselves in researching the issues can be profoundly influenced at times by a face-to-face encounter with a real human being. A friend who equipped her car with a rooftop-mounted Lisa Brown for Congress sign remarked, “I’m a pretty courteous driver anyway, but with this sign I drive with the utmost courtesy and a smile for everyone.” Sometimes when I go off on a harangue about how McMorris Rodgers doesn’t understand the difference between a hospital’s charge for a service and what it costs the hospital to provide that service, I notice a glaze forming over my listener’s eyes. I mentally back off a step and realize the very fact we’re having a conversation at all is probably more important than the details.  Canvassing, talking with everyone you know and a lot of people you don’t yet know about the candidates, the elections, and what is important to both of you is the most effective means of winning elections and actually getting to the issues. Even the little things like wearing a Lisa Brown T-shirt to the grocery or to a concert in the park (call Eileen–see the boxed text above) and smiling at everyone whose eye you catch has a ripple effect. Tack on some extra buttons and offer one to anyone who engages you.  Humanists, liberals, scientists, educators, mainstream Christians, Muslims, Jews, and ivory town intellectuals have been quiet long enough. We’ve sat in our armchairs with our books, read the polls, and shaken our heads in despair. It is time to buzz. It’s time for us to throw off that old dictum that one should not talk politics in “polite company.” Damn it. We ARE polite company and it is well past time to talk! Keep to the high ground, Jerry