Uprisings: Primary Colors

I’ve been wrestling with this for weeks, and these emotional bruises are something to contend with. Here at Watermark, we’ve discussed doing a primary voters’ guide downticket, upticket and with a ticket to get away. As it turns out, however, we – meaning me – cannot support any party that goes against the rights of the LGBT community, meaning we – or me – would look a bit foolish dancing along the left side of the plate and ignoring the potatoes on the right. If it sounds like a cop-out, in some ways it is. I’ve been engaged in the political community for too long not to know the names of children or the friends or family who have been there for me. It presents a conundrum within a locket within a cookie. I don’t want to influence your vote. I want to you to research it and find out for yourself.

But there are friends I certainly support, even apart from the fray of the recent mudslinging (you know who you are). I study these things. I pay attention. I care. So don’t get me wrong: I’m in it to win it for the people who will make life better.

There have been some accusations flying from several camps that I have found disturbing this cycle. And while it’s easy for me to say, “Hey, I’m for Hillz, because I have been forever!” the repercussions of riding down the list of local – even federal – offices being fought for by people with whom I am close friends makes for a sticky wicket. And you don’t really care who I’m voting for, I would imagine. I just hope – as you do – that we all vote. (For Hillary in November, OK?)

So, we’ll aim high here. I believe in Congressman Alan Grayson’s bombast as it speaks to my own progressivism. I also could see myself in the Patrick Murphy camp once Aug. 30 blows by. I’ll be voting blue, regardless, because this is my right. In fact, once November rolls around, I’ll vote blue all the way down the ballot. We cannot risk losing our rights; we cannot risk a Trump presidency; we cannot sit idly by and watch our country blow up like the automotive industry did, high on its horse but low on its integrity.

What really bothers me right now – should you care to know – is the actual shaming of people based on health conditions that don’t even exist on record. What else bothers me are accusations of impropriety that I personally know to be false. If you so much as respond in defense, then you’ve played your last card. So, effectively, you’re stuck in silence, and that’s, as far as I know, the opposite of politicking.

So many issues need to be addressed in this political season, so much history needs to be made. Our environment is key, as are our human rights, our chronic clinging to guns, our health care, our schools, our families. So you do me a favor (if I can be so bold as to ask) and study up on your own choices for Aug. 30. I promise that I’ll be back around – Watermark in tow – with concrete endorsements (Hillary!), but for right now, here in the seediest part of the political process, it’s best I don’t speak of my picks.

I’m sorry and you’re welcome.

The Brown Note

As confusing as the redistricting fracas has been over the past few years – OK, kind of boring unless you run for office – there has been one political figure so intriguing, so terribly choreographed, that we haven’t been able to take our eyes off of her. Corrine Brown is a many splendored thing, after all, and we like to rubberneck at messes.

You’ll recall that Brown took some heat for having a serpentine congressional district running from Jacksonville to Orlando. In short, it’s getting ugly, and Brown is on a fundraising rampage to make it look like it isn’t. (It is.)

“I’ve never liked asking for campaign contributions, but to keep my campaign moving forward, I’m respectfully asking you to make a donation,” she wrote on her website on Aug. 22.

Brown has less than $25,000 on hand, according to floridapolitics.com. She’s also running against a middle-of-the-road opponent called Al Lawson, who is being funded by everyone. Oh, Brown is also facing down 24 charges of fraud for an alleged charity. She’s not a keeper.

Order in the court

Sometimes good things come from incredibly terrible circumstances. In the wake of the June 12 Pulse massacre, Florida Supreme Court Justice Jorge Debarga is upping the ante on courthouse security statewide. The Palm Beach Post reports that Pulse shooter Omar Mateen was previously employed by G4S, which dealt with security globally.

“We want to move ahead quickly on this issue – and stay ahead,” Debarga told the Post. “There can be no question of its urgency. It is underscored by the shock, fear and grief we all have witnessed and experienced this long summer.”

The workgroup is expected to spend two years figuring out how to better protect citizens in the state’s courthouses.

Texas hospitality

Nobody really enjoys going to the bathroom, but when you aren’t allowed to use the facilities that match your gender, things get even more terrible. Twelve states have now joined in a lawsuit in direct reaction to President Barack Obama’s order to allow transgender students to use their appropriate restrooms in public schools. With some people with necks that are a bit too red calling it a “federal overreach” (gross), U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor reached around and said that the Obama ruling violated all the laws in tarnation.

“This president is attempting to rewrite the laws enacted by the elected representatives of the people, and is threatening to take away federal funding from schools to force them to conform. That cannot be allowed to continue,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a statement according to the Miami Herald.

That’s, appropriately, a pile of shit.