Part One: The Florida Legislature is looking to deny the popular voter referendum to allow non-violent felons who've served their time to automatically regain their right as citizens to vote, by adding a rule requiring them to pay off any fines and fees they still owe before they can vote. Jesus.
Let's quote from that Miami Herald article by Lawrence Mower:
Voting along party lines, Republicans advanced the bill, which would require felons to pay back all court fees and costs before being eligible to vote, even if those costs are not handed down by a judge as part of the person’s sentence.
That standard goes beyond the restoration system before Amendment 4 passed in November, which only required someone pay back restitution to a victim before applying to have their civil rights restored...
Yet the House bill serves the same purpose as the voter suppression tactics of the past, said Neil Volz, political director for the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which advocated and helped draft Amendment 4.
“We’re opposed to restricting voting rights,” Volz said. “And this bill does that...”
Kara Gross, legislative director and senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which also helped draft Amendment 4, said Monday that the House bill is too restrictive.
“It will inevitably prevent individuals from voting based on the size of the person’s bank account,” Gross said. “Those who have the financial means will vote, and those who can’t, won’t...”
That is exactly it. Considering some fines and fees go into the thousands of dollars, how many ex-felons do you think have that amount of money to take care of these bills right away? How many of them are going to have to work off those debts for five, ten, maybe twenty years?
What the Lege wants to pass is a goddamn poll tax that punishes the poor. Fuck the GOP legislators.
Part Two: The Florida Legislature is looking to pass a bill that not only would allow the religiously offended to ban books they don't like from schools - by giving them the ability to go past the county school boards' advisory staffs and appeal to the more tone-deaf state agencies - but also make it a Third Degree felony for ANYONE buying a "pornographic" or "inappropriate" book. That sound you heard was a hundred thousand families spitting their coffee out while letting their kids read "The Sneetches" (yes, Dr. Seuss has been banned) for the nineteenth time. You will be amazed how quickly the wingnuts' list of banned books will go from 100 to 100-Thousand. JESUS.
I can quote from other sources but let's go with myself: I work as a librarian and I know how to handle Challenged/Banned Books. The rules should be A) a person can challenge a book's place in the collection, B) there is a defense and debate about the book's value towards education or learning reading skills, C) the book can either return to the collection with complaint noted, the book can be placed elsewhere in the collection - usually in the adult reading away from the children's section - or the book can be removed if it fails to meet "community standards" (i.e. if it's a book with clear offensive or obscene elements, also known as the "I know it when I see it" Rule).
Most libraries are aware and sensitive to the needs of their readers and usually do a good job of handling challenged works. However, you still get those (cough Bible-humping Evangelicals cough) who are offended by things that by modern standards are mild or inoffensive or by rational measures not offensive at all. (we're talking about a group of people who are offended by everything on a library shelf and insist on ONE BOOK ONLY for everyone to read)
What this bill is going to do is take away the local control of the county school boards - and libraries - and drag them up to the state level where the politicians are less attuned to community standards and more attuned to the Christian groups screaming loudest into their ears. As a result, the school libraries - and then the public libraries - are going to see half their shelves cleared out all because the Christianists disagree with Ray Bradbury, Judy Blume, and the entire 500 Dewey Decimals (yes, say goodbye to all pure sciences books covering evolution, climatology, astronomy and even MATH). For starters.
Part Three: The Florida Legislature is about to pass an anti-Sanctuary City bill that would compel cities, counties and their law enforcement agencies to assist federal authorities with the feds' pursuit of an aggressive - and inhumane - anti-immigration policy that can well violate a ton of residents (even legal ones) of their civil liberties. JESUS CHRIST.
Anyone remember how that Fugitive Slave Act worked back in the 1850s?! Say hello to Slave Act 2.0. where every local agency along with our Sheriff offices - like say Child and Family Services - will be compelled to hand every Latino family over to ICE. Don't think I'm exaggerating.
Never mind DeSantis' signing of allowing medical marijuana. He's about to sign at least three bills - if they pass the Lege - that will severely curtain our citizen's rights to vote, read, and live.
This is why I've been screaming for ten-plus years on this blog for my fellow Floridians to stop voting Republican. And now they've been in office long enough that they're emboldened to dig even deeper into our lives and ruin us all.
There are days I hate living in this state.
These are the days I need to stand up and fight.
Call your legislators. Be polite but tell them - especially the Republicans - to not fuck with us.
1 comment:
Book banners always want to "protect" someone else from the books they want to ban. You ever notice that? Nobody ever says "We have to ban this book because I might read it and be harmed by it."
What do you think of Andrew Gillum's voter registration project? Will that help any?
The goddamn Republicans are still trying to sue away the sanctuary here in California, data showing them to be lying about it be damned, and so far unsuccessfully, but I just hope that none of them get it up to get it on the ballot, because I don't trust us to vote against it. We already failed that test once, and that actually might be what is keeping them from trying again, because the backlash to prop 187 is seen by many as the beginning of the downfall of the Republican party in California.
-Doug in Oakland
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