An Open Letter to CMR

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

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Local Voters’ Resources and Notes on Voters’ Guides

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.

Primary Election Notes

The Democrats organize for all the Democratic candidates. Get to know them. 

Interesting fact: On account of State/Federal campaign finance laws “volunteers” paid out of a federal candidate’s campaign coffers aren’t allowed to push local candidates. (That would be a transfer of money, i.e. the “volunteer’s” wages, to the state candidate.) BUT, unpaid volunteers like us are free to talk all we want (First Amendment, you know ;-). The federal candidate’s campaign just can’t advocate or provide literature for state candidates, but as long as we’re unpaid volunteers we can talk by just “putting on our citizen hat” at the doorstep. We’re citizens free to say what we like and our efforts are not considered a contribution in a monetary sense. Phew!

Primary Election Facts to spread around:

1) In every county in Washington State (thank you, Karen Hardy, “Horse Sense-No Bull” Legislative District 7 Senate candidate for pushing Ferry County to join in} the postage for mailing in ballots is pre-paid.

2) You are not required to vote for a candidate in every race to have the votes you do cast counted

3) The sooner you mail in your ballot the sooner the campaigns will know not to pester you. The fact that you voted already is made available within 24-48 hours.

4) Don’t wait until the last day! In rural counties especially you might not get a postmark until the next day and if that happens you won’t be counted!

The Importance of Smiling

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

Volunteers? Grassroots? Let’s pin that down

Mobile phone screenshot of a job posting on the “Indeed” job search app, captured the evening of July 11th, 2018.

Dear Group,

Looking back at my electronic calendar (a more reliable resource than my memory) I see I have been canvassing, knocking on doors, talking with prospective voters since March of this year. I have volunteered as an unpaid local individual for FUSE, for the Democrats, and for Lisa Brown and her campaign. I know many others similarly offering their efforts and time as local folks knocking on doors, listening to our neighbors and conversing about how we feel and what is important to us. We do so because we’re fed up with the people who say they represent us. We do so because we’re worried and frightened about what we see happening in our country. Two years ago, many of us, myself included, could not have imagined we would be knocking on doors, but here we are. Many of us, including myself, previously self-idenfied as independents, or “fiscal conservatives and social liberals.” Every one of us has other things we’d like to be doing, but we’re knocking on doors because we are personally motivated. It does not get more “grassroots” than this.

Last Thursday one of my readers posted the screen shot I’ve reproduced above. It popped up for her in the “recommended jobs” section in a job search app she uses on her mobile phone. The app is “Indeed.” The job was posted by the Lincoln Strategy Group. Lincoln Strategy Group has an international presence. The Lincoln Strategy Group’s welcome page announces: “We Are Influence.” Take a tour of their site. It will make you cringe. They boast “11 million doors knocked on.” The word “grassroots” is broadly sprinkled. 

Tracking down the job posting finally yielded this “Indeed” webpage. Laughably, the job post is by “Lincoln Personnel – Spokane, WA.” At the bottom of the page they acknowledge Lincoln Personnel LLC is part of Lincoln Strategy Group LLC. The contact phone number, 480-799-7699. That is an Arizona area code. 

Republicans representing Spokane are paying people in a firm in Arizona to answer the phone and screen applicants from anywhere to come to Spokane and pose as “grassroots” for $15/hour to G.O.T.V. (get of the vote) ahead of the August 7 Primary deadline. These hires may be fresh-faced youths, but they are not “grassroots,” they are mercenaries, folks paid to sway votes and public opinion. 

Most of my readers won’t meet one of these hired guns (assuming the Republicans can attract any in the current job market). These paid canvassers will use a mobile phone app that sends them mostly to doors of folks thought to be sympathetic Republicans. What you can do, however, is to suggest to anyone who will listen that the first question to ask a canvasser is, “Are you paid to knock on doors?” The response might be an interesting story…

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. The  “Indeed” webpage offers other details. Folks hired as mercenary canvassers get “$15/hr w/ gas stipend.” In exchange for the $15/hour the employee is required to provide their own “reliable transportation” (no mileage allowance, just the “gas stipend”) and their own smartphone on which they are willing to download a GPS enabled app. I suppose these extra requirements (and the fact this employment offers no benefit package) are sufficient in the Republican universe to justify the princely wage of $15/hr.

P.P.S. A friend notes there is a call out among sympathetic folks to provide housing for this paid cadre of out of area canvassers while they are here posing as our local grassroots. Any money they manage to save will likely not be spent in eastern Washington, nor will the Lincoln Personnel’s hiring fee be spent here. 

P.P.P.S. Remember Fox News and various Republicans around the time of Trump’s inauguration accusing protesters of being paid for by George Soros, of being bused in by paid organizers for the purpose of making trouble? How does that lie stack up against using an influence peddling business to hire mercenaries? 

 

Ferry County Electoral Hijinks

Dear Group,

Republican hijinks in Ferry County, right here in Washington State’s U.S. Congressional District 5.

Here is the source: http://chewelahindependent.com/hardy-criticizes-ferry-county-auditor-for-not-providing-pre-paid-postage-on-ballots/

Click that link. It’s worth the time to read it. Karen Hardy, the whistle-blower in this tale is a force to be reckoned with. Her campaign motto is “Horse Sense–No Bull.” She is running for the State Legislative District 7 Senate seat. LD7 is contained entirely within Washington State’s U.S. Congressional District 5, site of the Lisa Brown/McMorris Rodgers race, so this act of voter suppression could affect the outcome for all of eastern Washington.

Ferry County is the northwestern-most of the counties in Congressional District 5, just west of Stevens County, McMorris Rodgers’ political place of origin. Government there has been in Republican hands for a long time. Probably thanks to some earlier gerrymandering, the Colville Reservation is split between Congressional District 5 (in Ferry County) and Congressional District 4’s Okanogan County to the west. There is no ballot dropbox on the Colville Reservation. What follows is, in my mind, a blatant effort at voter suppression very, very thinly veiled in a County Auditor’s claim to be “a good steward of the tax payers money.” If this isn’t recall-level incompetence then it is surely Republican ballot box bullshit.

This year Washington state is paying for return ballot postage for our Aug. 7 Primary Election, which means that voters will no longer have to put their own stamps on their ballots, making it easier for more people to vote. However, the Ferry County auditor has announced that she’s declining state funds to pay for postage, which means that every county in Washington will provide pre-paid ballot return postage *except* Ferry County.

The auditor’s decision particularly hurts Colville Tribal members, since half of the Colville reservation is in Ferry County and there is no ballot deposit box on tribal land.

Voters in Ferry County should have the same access as everyone else. Contact Ferry County Auditor Dianna Galvan and tell her that Ferry County should accept state funds for pre-paid postage like every other county -> 509-775-5225 ext. 2500.

Keep to the high ground…and this is some pretty high ground,

Jerry

P.S. We used to trust the checks and balances of government to take care of this sort of thing. I’m done with that. Part of Indivisible’s mission as I see it is to activate citizens to pay attention and, by raising their voices to call out this kind of behavior, and nip it in the bud.

Follow up 7/18/18 on the Ferry County ballot postage controversy from yesterday. From one of my readers:

I got through to Ferry County Auditor Dianna Galvin about Ferry County’s initial refusal to put a pre-paid envelope to return our ballots for the primary elections in August.  Ms Galvin was so flooded with phone calls this morning from Ferry County constituents (as a result of the Spokesman Review article) that she and Commissioner Nathan Davis were able to solve the problem. So now, Ferry County voters – all of them, even those on the Res, will be able to mail in their ballots without having to purchase a stamp. They have also put 4 more ballot boxes out in Ferry County (2 on the Res) to make it easier for voters. We called, they listened. That is how DEMOCRACY is supposed to work! Woohoo!

I think the kudos here go to Karen Hardy, the Democratic candidate for the LD7 Senate seat “Horse Sense–No Bull.” Ms. Galvin’s ill-considered action might have significantly affected the Primary vote count. Karen Hardy put out a press release, the Independent picked it up and social media and citizen networks amplified it. The Spokesman review picked it up from there, but it was Karen Hardy who started it.

 

New Phase. G.O.T.V.! Huh?

Dear Group,

The Trump minority election was a wake-up call. We have shown up at marches and protests, the Women’s March, the March for Science, the protests over family separation. Many of us have taken a new interest in the people who represent (or pretend to represent) us in Washington, D.C., Olympia, and our local city and county offices. We spent a little time to orient ourselves in the political landscape. We understand the folks who claim to represent us in public office need to earn our deference, not assume it. Election alone does not justify an official as possessing special knowledge or even as being especially qualified for the role assumed. They are people more or less like the rest of us, people with backgrounds, education, values, and beliefs that bear on who they are and how they function. We understand physical stature and team labelling are not a substitute for in-depth understanding and ability to listen and to integrate what is heard.

Many of you have signed up as volunteers for one or several causes and political campaigns. Many of you have volunteered with Lisa Brown’s campaign to unseat McMorris Rodgers. Many of you have engaged in post card writing and phone banking. Some of you have swallowed hard, gone canvassing, and learned you can knock on doors. You have learned it is fun, rewarding, and educational to have a conversation with the people who answer those doors. 

Now we are entering that season when the rubber meet the road. Ballots for the Primary election in Washington State will appear in mailboxes late this week. The deadline for turning them in is Tuesday, August 7th. The number of ballots turned in for the Primaries are going to send a powerful message. Are the voters paying new attention to the local scene? Engagement in the political process, paying attention to the candidates on the ballot, orienting oneself in the political landscape, and keeping up the buzz have never been more important. 

The effort moves into a new phase: “G.O.T.V.” Huh? I had to ask… It means “Get Out the Vote.” Not only are those letters confusing alphabet soup, but in Washington State, with our mail-in or drop-off ballots, they don’t even accurately describe the process. 

This Wednesday evening, July 18th, from 6-8PM at Lisa Brown’s field office (1507 E Sprague Ave, Spokane, WA 99202) join us for “Spokane G.O.T.V. canvassing training.” Sign up here: https://secure.ngpvan.com/J9ZkdtwFqEmCwE4lJ9R4Kg2. Come on down. Join the effort. Meet nice people. See what you can do to help. 

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. A joke on me: Anyone who has lived in Spokane for decades like I have has a slightly seedy image pop up in response to the words “east Sprague.” It is time for a mind frame reset. The street and traffic have been pleasantly re-arranged and store fronts re-vamped. It’s a welcoming place to visit. In fact, for me, one of the great things about this whole political experience I’ve had is that I have gotten out in my home town and reset a lot of old mental images. The mental image associated with east Sprague is one of them.