Category Archives: Abolition Of Work

MINOT, N.D. In District 3, in Minot, a Republican House candidate has floated, as a part of his campaign, an idea to use a surge of state revenues resulting from high oil taxes to bring down everybody's property taxes by 50%.

It's a detailed, serious-minded plan from Roscoe Streyle that is worthy of debate and scrutiny.

But in the primary race, Streyle is up against unserious candidates from the Bastiat Caucus wing of the NDGOP's schism. In response to his proposal, the Grand High Poo-Bah of the Bastiats has countered with an unserious idea North Dakota's voters have already rejected overwhelmingly.

State Rep. Rick Becker, who isn't running for re-election, argues, in a letter to the editor submitted to various publications around the state , that Streyle's plan is a nonstarter because what we really ought to do is eliminate property taxes entirely.

Which is the sort of pie-in-the-sky thinking politicians offer when they know they'll never really be called on to follow through. Not just because Becker isn't running for another term, but because his Bastiat Caucus disciples make up a tiny fraction of the Legislature, and thus have the luxury of throwing about brash, simplistic proposals while the grownups go about the more nuanced and difficult work of actually governing.

I recently noted that Rep. Jeff Magrum, another Bastiat who is seeking the NDGOP Senate nomination in the District 8 battleground, voted against 40 of 49 appropriations bills during the 2020 session of the Legislature. He said "no" to funding most of our state government, all while offering little in the way of improvements to the spending bills he tried to vote down.

That sort of grandstanding might titillate the Facebook constituencies these ninnies hold dear, but it's hardly relevant to the sound governance of the state of North Dakota.

But let's get back to the property tax question.

We had a debate about abolishing them. I was even on the abolition side of the argument, at the time. But when it was put to voters in 2012, 76.54% of voters said "no" to the idea.

Less than a quarter of the electorate, at the time, endorsed the proposal.

At that time, property taxes were routinely at the top of voter gripes, and not much has changed today, which is why Streyle is campaigning on a plan to cut them in half while the Bastiats are trying to upstage him by recycling old arguments from a decade ago.

To be sure, property taxes in our state are a morass. What you pay is driven by decisions made by your local governments city, county, parks, etc. yet blame for property taxes is heaped on the back of state lawmakers.

Streyle's plan is a response to that, and while it may not be perfect, it's at least possible, unlike what Becker and his clown car of Bastiats are proposing.

See more here:

Port: We had the debate about abolishing property taxes, and voters rejected it - INFORUM

The Cookout is a free event to be held at the mini-pitch in Petersburg Park

Louisville Parks and Recreation, Black Players for Change (BPC), Black Womens Player Collective (BWPC) and the U.S. Soccer Foundation will host their first-ever joint event, The Cookout, on June 19, 2022 in celebration of Juneteenth.

Taking place at the recently completed mini-pitch in Petersburg Park, 5008 E. Indian Trail, the family-friendly event will offer free food to those in attendance, provided by Boss Hog's BBQ Food Truck, while supplies last. Additionally, professional athletes will be in attendance to participate in soccer scrimmages with the public. The event runs from noon to 4 p.m.

Juneteenth is the oldest known holiday commemorating the final communication of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Observed every year on June 19, the holiday originated in Galveston, Texas, in 1865, when soldiers gave residents notice of the end of slavery, nearly two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.In June 2020, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer signed an executive order recognizing the day as an official holiday for Louisville Metro Government (LMG) workers, and early the next year, he established a16-memberJuneteenth Jubilee Celebration Commission to design an annual celebration here. More information about the citys 2022 celebration is atjuneteenthlou.com

We are pleased to partner with organizations like the U.S. Soccer Foundation, BPC and BWPC, all of which work tirelessly to eliminate racial inequity in sports and in community, Mayor Fischer said. We are looking forward to celebrating Juneteenth and Black excellence on and off the pitch with the entire city.

And, he added, as we get ready to host the inaugural USL Summer Showcase next month, the June 19thevent is also another opportunity to show Louisvilles love of soccer the fastest-growing sport in the nation.

Petersburg Parks mini-pitch was officially unveiled in October 2021 and honors members of BPC and BWPC with women of the BWPC featured in imagery surrounding the pitch. It was built as part of an initiative by the U.S. Soccer Foundation aimed at removing systemic barriers to the sport for youth of color and is a partnership between BPC, BWPC, U.S. Soccer Foundation, Musco Lighting and adidas.

From our origin, Black Players for Change has been dedicated to using soccer as our vehicle to generate sustainable change, said Earl Edwards Jr, President of Black Players for Change. Collaborating with these like-minded organizations, providing access to the beautiful game, and celebrating such a historic occasion is the perfect culmination, and example, of why we established the BPC. We look forward to everyone coming out to celebrate!

We are thrilled to celebrate Juneteenth with BPC and BWPC and our partners at Louisville Parks and Recreation, said Ed Foster-Simeon, President & CEO of the U.S. Soccer Foundation. Activating these mini-pitches and ensuring that children and families have safe places to play the game ensures that our sport is more inclusive and accessible to all.

Together, BPC and BWPC have brought 18+ mini-pitches to underfunded Black communities. With 70% of Black communities lacking recreational facilities and only 35% of Black children ages 6-12 playing sports on a regular basis, bringing mini-pitches and other resources is a goal that both organizations have seen as a great generational turn toward the growth of Black professional athletes in soccer.

Petersburg Park is located in Metro Council District 2, represented by Councilwoman Barbara Shanklin.

It is important that everyone, regardless of race, gender, income, or background, gets the opportunity to experience a variety of recreational activities within their own community. The vast cultural diversity represented by the people in my district lends itself to a great assortment of potential sporting interests and one that is more popular than ever is soccer, Shanklin said. I would like to thank the U.S. Soccer Foundation, BPC and BWPC for their work and generosity in providing my constituents with a beautiful mini-pitch to play and practice on, as well as this celebratory Cookout event this Juneteenth. As we continue to strive for equity and inclusion for all in our neighborhoods, it is invaluable to have partners such as these to help facilitate our goals and reach those who are often left out.

Those interested in participating in scrimmages at the June 19thevent who are under the age of 18 will need to be accompanied by a parent/guardian to complete a waiver.

###

ABOUT LOUISVILLE PARKS AND RECREATIONLouisville Parks and Recreation, a nationally accredited parks and recreation agency, manages 120 parks and six parkways on more than 13,000 acres of land and operates recreation programs for area residents of all ages and abilities. Since taking office in 2011, Mayor Greg Fischer has been committed to ensuring equity in parks and recreation, including the start of the West Louisville Outdoor Recreation Initiative, the Louisvilles Engaging Children Outdoors (ECHO) programming and most recently, becoming the third city in the country to launch an equity review of all Metro-owned parks and facilities.bestparksever.com

ABOUT BLACK PLAYERS FOR CHANGEBlack Players for Change (BPC) is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization consisting of over 170+ Black players, coaches and staff from MLS, working to bridge the racial equality gap that exists in society. BPC is committed to tackling the racial injustices that have limited Black people from having an equitable stake in the game of soccer and society. Among the many goals, the organization strives to advance the attention on human rights inequalities from protest to programs, partnerships, and policies that address systemic discrimination. For more information visitwww.BlackPlayersForChange.org

ABOUT BLACK WOMENS PLAYER COLLECTIVEThe Black Womens Player Collective (BWPC) is a nonprofit organization that elevates the image, value, and representation of Black women as athletes and leaders in business, industry, and public and private institutions. The BWPC currently consists of the 43 Black women competing in the NWSL as of 2020 and aims to provide a collective voice to the Black perspective and experience of a professional female athlete amidst the incessant and pervasive racial inequality and social injustice plaguing our country. Follow us onTwitterand Instagram.

ABOUT U.S. SOCCER FOUNDATIONThe U.S. Soccer Foundations programs are the national model for sports-based youth development in underserved communities. Since its founding in 1994, the Foundation has established programs proven to help children embrace an active and healthy lifestyle while nurturing their personal growth beyond sports. Its cost-effective, high-impact initiatives offer safe environments where kids and communities thrive. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Soccer Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization. For more information visitwww.ussoccerfoundation.orgor follow us onTwitterandFacebook.

Link:

Louisville Parks and Recreation to partner with BPC, BWPC and U.S. Soccer Foundation for Juneteenth Celebration - LouisvilleKy.gov

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the beginning of the decline of the countrys economy was when the government lost Rs. 6.6 billion in revenue with the abolition of the tax system implemented in 2019.

We must immediately return to the 2019 tax system. We must begin our resurrection from where we fell, he added.

He said that many government agencies do not have proper financial management, and therefore, new methods need to be introduced.

The Road Development Authority is an example. Although they had the funds, they failed to manage those funds in accordance with Treasury regulations, he added.

In the current situation in our country, the government is unable to provide funds to cover the losses of any state-owned enterprises. That debt burden can no longer be borne by the state or state-owned banks, said the Prime Minister.

Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka needs to achieve economic stability by the end of this year.

Then by 2024 we will have the opportunity to create economic stimulus through financial stimulus. By 2025, our goal is to balance our budgets or create a primary surplus. This economic program must continue to move towards this long-term goal. Even if the individuals, groups and parties in power change, it is imperative that we achieve our national goals and maintain the highest level of efficiency in the country, he added.

Full Speech by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe:

I hope you all understand the situation we and our country face. We need to find new ways as an alternative to the traditional ways if we are to elevate the country from this position. We must set aside our traditional political ideologies for a short period of time and make a concerted effort to rebuild the country. The people of the whole country should play a role in this effort. We all have a part to play for the country.

Our primary focus here is on economic stability. But we cannot recover from this alone by creating economic stability.

We need to revive the economy of our country.

This is not something that can be done in two or three days. This challenge cannot be done by miracles, not from slogans, not by magic, nor emotions. Implementing intelligently thought-out projects requires hard work and dedication.

The country spends $500 million per month on fuel. It should be kept in mind that the current global crisis risks raising oil prices. Some estimate that global oil prices will rise by as much as 40% by the end of this year. In this context the idea of introducing a coupon system for fuel cannot be ruled out. Somehow we have to find $3,300 million worth of fuel for the next six months.

It costs $40 million a month to import gas. We are currently using multilateral assistance, local currency and Indian loans to import gas. We will require $250 million over the next six months for gas.

The next three weeks will be a tough time for us in regards fuel. It is time we all must use fuel and gas as carefully as possible. Unessential travel should be limited as much as possible. Therefore, I urge all citizens to refrain from thinking about hoarding fuel and gas during this period. After those difficult three weeks, we will try to provide fuel and food without further disruptions. Negotiations are underway with various parties to ensure this happens. After these difficult three weeks, we are trying to ensure the shortage of fuel and gas will have ended. Lets face these difficult three weeks united and patiently.

We produce some of the food we require locally. The rest are imported. Our harvest has declined in the past several months. We have to face this situation at and we have to work hard from this point onwards to ensure the next harvest is a success. That harvest, however, will be available by the end of February 2023. In terms of rice, our countrys annual rice requirement is 2.5 million metric tons. But we have only 1.6 million metric tons of rice in stock. This condition is not only restricted to paddy but many other crops. So, in a few months we will have to face serious difficulties and shortages in terms of our diets. We need to import food items to meet our daily requirements. It costs about $150 million a month.

The task of rebuilding our declining agriculture must begin immediately. We are losing the international market for our export crops. Action must be taken to prevent this. Chemical fertilizers are needed to boost local agriculture. It costs $600 million a year to import fertilizer for paddy, vegetables, fruits, other major crops as well as our tea, rubber, coconut and export crops. Since manure has to be applied from time to time from the beginning to the end of a harvest. It is essential that fertilizer is exported without any shortages. We must ensure that no money or effort will be wasted.

We are currently involved in various international assistance programs to import medicines and health equipment required for the country. It has also been planned to seek assistance from various countries. We do not need large amounts of foreign exchange for health for the next six months as those groups and countries have provided substantial support for our health system. We thank them on behalf of the health department.

In this context, we need $5 billion to ensure our daily lives are not disrupted for the next six months.We need to strengthen the rupee in line with the daily requirements of the citizens. Another $1 billion is needed to strengthen the rupee.

That means we need to find $6 billion to keep the country afloat for the next six months.In the midst of all this we need to develop plans to raise the average national product. We need to implement those plans. According to the central bank, the average GDP growth in 2022 will be -3.5 According to the International Monetary Fund, the situation is even worse. According to them, its growth will be -6.5 percent.

The average national output of the global economy will decline next year due to the impact of the war in Ukraine. Recovery is forecast for 2024.

We also have to face that global environment.

The government has lost Rs. 6.6 billion in revenue with the abolition of the tax system we implemented in 2019. That was the beginning of the decline of our economy. Therefore, we must immediately return to the 2019 tax system. We must begin our resurrection from where we fell.It is a fact that we all know that money has been printed indefinitely in recent times. Rs. 2.5 billion has been released from 2020 to May 20, 2022.

Many government agencies do not have proper financial management. Therefore, new methods need to be introduced. The Road Development Authority is an example. Although they had the funds, they failed to manage those funds in accordance with Treasury regulations. In the current situation in our country, the government is unable to provide funds to cover the losses of any state-owned enterprises. That debt burden can no longer be borne by the state or state-owned banks.

We are currently in talks with the International Monetary Fund. Our discussions are based on our future economic plan. Accordingly, the year 2023 will see us face all the challenges. We need to achieve economic stability by the end of this year. Then by 2024 we will have the opportunity to create economic stimulus through financial stimulus. By 2025, our goal is to balance our budgets or create a primary surplus. This economic program must continue to move towards this long-term goal. Even if the individuals, groups and parties in power change, it is imperative that we achieve our national goals and maintain the highest level of efficiency in the country.

In our efforts we must pay close attention to our foreign relations. To increase international our support. We are becoming a marginalized country in the world due to poor foreign polices. Changing that position will not be easy. But we have to do it somehow.

I am currently in constant consultation with foreign ambassadors. I had telephone conversations with the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, the President of the United Arab Emirates, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Discussions were held with representatives of international organizations such as the United Nations, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program, the United Nations Development Program and the World Health Organization.

Many representatives of these countries and international organizations have agreed to support our country during this difficult time.

The United Nations has arranged for a worldwide public appeal on the 9th of June. They are seeking support to provide humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka. Through this project, they plan to provide $48 million over a four-month period to the food, agriculture and health sectors.

India, China and Japan are leading the list of countries that provide us with loans and assistance. Relations with these countries, which have always been strong, are now broken. Those relationships need to be rebuilt.

Some time ago we borrowed under the SWAP facility from the Peoples Republic of China. There was a condition regarding that loan. We can use that money only if our country has enough foreign reserves for three months. We have not had foreign exchange reserves for three months since the loan was taken. Our former officials took loans to deceive the country. We will not be debt free under that condition. We have requested the Chinese government to consider removing that condition from the agreement that has been signed with them.

We urge the Chinese government to look into the matter favourably.

Japan is our long time friend. A nation that has helped our country greatly. But they are now unhappy with us due to the unfortunate events of the past. Our country had failed to formally notify Japan of the suspension of certain projects. Sometimes the reasons for these suspensions were not even stated. According to reports submitted by an individual, some projects undertaken by Japan in our country have been halted midway through.

Japan and India had agreed to supply us with two LNG power plants. The CEB stopped those two projects without any justifiable reason.

Japan had agreed to provide about $ 3 billion worth of projects to our country by 2019. All of these projects were put on hold for no reason.

I urge the Parliamentary Committee on Public Finance to conduct an inquiry into the suspension of such valuable projects granted to us by our longtime allies for unstated reasons.Despite alienating these friendly nations, India offered to help us in the face of the growing crisis. We express our respect and gratitude to them during this difficult time. We are also working to re-establish old friendships with Japan.

We call on the International Monetary Fund to hold a conference to help unite our lending partners. Holding such a conference under the leadership of India, China and Japan will be a great strength to our country. China and Japan have different credit approaches. It is our hope that some consensus on lending approaches can be reached through such a conference.

We have an obligation to repay the loans taken so far. Many loan installments received from multilateral institutions have to be repaid this month. We did not pay the loan installments. In the future we will have to take new loans and we have the responsibility to repay the debt of the country.Once we come up with a loan repayment plan for those that we have obtained from other countries, we need to focus on the personal loans our country has taken. We sough expert advice from Lezard, an international financial advisory firm, and Clifford Chance, an international legal consulting firm.We absolutely must have foreign exchange to repay the loans that have been taken. The export economy needs to be strengthened quickly to bolster our foreign exchange. Our country is located in a strategically important position. That is a positive factor in terms of regaining a competitive advantage in the global market. Alongside the economic hubs of Singapore and Dubai, we too have the potential to grow into another economic hub. Vietnam is a great example of having undertaken such a task successfully. Different product values must be exported by integration. At the same time, we want to keep the trade surplus as low as possible in our transactions with different countries.Our ultimate goal is to create a new economy for Sri Lanka. The goal is to transform Sri Lanka into a developed country by 2048, the centenary of Independence.

Our country is not working like a well-oiled machine, we are not sure what we should we do first. This system needs to be overhauled. That is what we are doing now. Resetting the system. The interim budget is the first step in rebuilding the system. Once we have taken that step, we will implement a modern system and install safeguards that will protect us from future calamities. But to do all this, we need to restart the system.

That is why we are presenting an interim budget to Parliament on the basis of our future economic plan and road map. As I mentioned earlier, our hope is that this budget will lay the foundation for our economy, allowing it to stabilize and recover.

The interim budget will reduce unnecessary government spending, while controlling other costs. We will also focus on revitalizing many areas affected by the crisis. There is an urgent need to focus on many sectors such as the export economy, tourism and construction.

We have also pointed out to the International Monetary Fund that this time the focus should be on the economically weaker sections of our country. They agreed. We prepared the interim budget based on those facts.

I would like to draw your attention to some of the key areas we are focussing on.

1) Take maximum action to ensure food safety.A recent study by the World Food Program (WFP) found that 73% of participating households reduced their diet and food intake. We will change that situation and strive to provide food without shortage as per this food security plan. We are working towards ensuring a three meal situation in the country.

2) Increase in grant limit.While the economy is in turmoil, people are facing various hardships. We will take action to alleviate their suffering as much as possible. The current annual expenditure on providing various reliefs to the economically backward is $350 million. This amount is expected to increase to US $550 million.

3) Farmers loans should be written off one hundred percent.We know that farming families who cultivate paddy on small lands are in a very precarious position. Farmers loans obtained by farmers with less than two hectares of land will be stopped immediately.

4) Free ownership of their lands by residents.Earlier we had launched a program to provide free government lands to the people through guarantees like Swarnabhoomi and Mahawali. Some provincial councils opposed the move. So this did not succeed. At present, steps are being taken to give the people the right to ownership so that such protests do not arise.

5) Granting the ownership of urban flats to the occupants on concessional basis.Families live for rent in many of the suburban apartments. There are also long-term interest payments for home ownership. We will take steps to transfer the ownership of all these houses to the residents on concessional basis.

6) Opening of flats built by China for the public.At the request of the Peoples Republic of China when I was previously the Prime Minister, they donated 1,888 apartments to our country. One hundred and eight of these houses are reserved for artists. We will take steps to provide all these houses to the deserving without any political influence. My hope is to set up a program to provide those 1,888 homes for free.

At a time when the country is in decline, we are trying to rebuild the economy and the country without putting too much pressure on the people. Our expectation is to preserve every aspect of our lives and move forward.

We can save the country if we make gradual progress. There is a dangerous situation that goes beyond being a personal issue or a party issue. Let us understand the dangers and seriousness of this. In such a situation, there is no point in looking at the past. For a while let us forget the past. In trying to renew the country, we must think only of the future.

Economic reforms alone are not enough to rebuild a country. At the same time, socio-political and public service reforms are needed. I would like to bring to your attention to an issue that was raised at a recent press conference held from the protests.

Commenting on this, artist Tamitha Abeyratne made this request to me. He appealed to the people to find a solution to this problem in the parliament and to unite the people who love the country. But the Prime Minister himself should not try to deceive the people by giving sweets.

I would like to draw the attention of all of you to this idea. The responsibility for resolving the current situation in the country rests on the shoulders of the peoples representatives in this House. We must accept that responsibility. We must fulfill that responsibility. Instead of plastering over the issues, long-term and effective solutions should be sought.

So, lets set aside all differences and think anew for the country. Lets start the new journey. We will initiate the necessary constitutional reforms. Lets think differently. We can all start to change the system by thinking differently and acting differently.

Public service must be viewed from a different angle. Efficiency and productivity have fallen to a very low level due to the provision of unlimited employment in the public service. Some government employees have no obligation to their duties. Therefore, the public sector needs to be completely restructured and reformed. Our mission is to create a public service that will enable a citizen to receive immediate and efficient services throughout their lives without any hassle.Another important aspect to consider in this transition is to build a country free of corruption and fraud. It is mandatory. A society without theft. A country where there is no room for thieves. A regime with strong rules that can punish wrongdoers.

To this end, we expect to implement a national policy on the prevention of bribery and corruption. In 2019, a national policy to combat bribery and corruption was developed. We will take steps to hand over the draft policy to all party leaders in Parliament. Get their feedback too. Countries such as Sweden, which have successfully implemented the anti-corruption and anti-corruption mechanism, are following the example of the Hong Kong government and making the necessary structural changes. If any amendments are to be made to the present draft, necessary amendments will be made in consultation with all parties lawyers and experts and this National Policy will be implemented.I therefore invite all of you in this House to support our economic, socio-political and public service reforms in rebuilding the country.

Let us build the country first. Let us protect our country from this crisis. Give your support to these efforts. After returning to normalcy in the country within the specified time frame, you may return to your traditional political activities. Implement traditional party political agendas.I would like to conclude my statement by quoting Winston Churchill.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every situation; the optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.We take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way. We will use these opportunities to build the country with confidence.

We will all take full responsibility to bring the country back to normalcy.

The rest is here:

'Economy started to decline when 2019 Tax system was abolished' - PMs Full Speech - Newsfirst.lk

(RNS) Ed Litton, the outgoing president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has a few words of advice for his successor.

Buckle up.

The thing about the Southern Baptist Convention and Ive been doing this a long time you never know whats going to come up, he said.

Starting on Tuesday (June 14), Litton, a longtime Alabama pastor, will preside over the annual two-day meeting of the nations largest Protestant denomination. More than 8,200 local church delegates, known as messengers, will gather at Californias Anaheim Convention Center about 10 minutes from Disneyland to pray, worship and deliberate.

Likely there will be a few fights along the way.

The 13.7 million-member denomination has been rocked in recent weeks over a report that found SBC leaders had worked for decades to downplay the problem of sexual abuse and protect the denomination while demonizing abuse survivors, treating them as enemies of the church. Southern Baptists have also been divided by the polarization affecting the broader culture, with a group of self-styled conservative pirates hoping to change the direction of the SBC, claiming it has been invaded by liberals, critical race theory and female preachers who are steering the denomination away from the Bible.

In Anaheim, messengers will elect a new president and decide whether to enact a series of reforms aimed at addressing sexual abuse. A task force has recommended spending $3 million to set up a website to track abusive pastors and church workers, provide more training and hire staff to help survivors find help, along with other potential reforms. Messengers may decide to cut ties with one of the largest churches in the denomination, which recently announced plans to hire a female teaching pastor.

Those two days in Anaheim will likely have a profound effect on the future direction of the SBC.

A look at some of the key issues at stake:

RELATED: Can anyone lead the Southern Baptist Convention forward?

Pastor Ed Litton, of Saraland, Alabama, answers questions after being elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention on June 15, 2021, in Nashville, Tennessee. On March 1, 2022, Litton announced he would break with tradition and not seek a second term in the top office. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

Last summer, angered at reports that SBC leaders had long mistreated abuse survivors, the messengers approved a task force to oversee an investigation into how leaders at the SBCs Nashville-based Executive Committee had responded to the issue of abuse. Along with releasing a report from Guidepost Solutions, the investigating firm, the abuse task force has made a series of recommendations, including setting up a Ministry Check website to track abusers.

If approved, initial funding for the abuse reforms is already in place. On Wednesday, Send Relief, a partnership between the SBCs International Mission Board and North American Mission Board that does compassion ministry, announced plans to provide $4 million in initial funding for abuse reforms. An earlier plan had called for reforms to be paid for out of SBCs Cooperative Program, which pools money from local churches for national and international missions.

But complicating matters, Guidepost Solutions, the investigating firm, posted a note on social media in support of Pride Month, prompting claims that Guidepost is a liberal group that should not be trusted. This week, Baptist leaders in Tennessee and Alabama called for Southern Baptists to cut ties with Guidepost, while an abuse task force in Kentucky ceased working with the firm. Along with its work with the task force, Guidepost is overseeing a hotline where SBC abuse survivors can report allegations.

Some Baptist leaders object to the reforms, saying they are unbiblical or warning that they will destroy the SBC by opening the denomination to lawsuits.

RELATED: How the apocalyptic Southern Baptist report almost didnt happen

During the 2021 annual meeting, where attendance topped 21,000, messengers took an active role in shaping the agenda, twice overturning rulings from then-SBC President J.D. Greear, forcing floor votes on a resolution on abolishing abortion and on a motion authorizing the abuse investigation. Both moves caught leaders by surprise.

An active messenger body could cause chaos at the annual meeting, which typically has a tightly packed agenda and little wiggle room. Thats happened before, most notably at the 1985 annual meeting, whichdrew 45,000 messengers at the height of the so-called Conservative Resurgence, in which conservatives took control of the denomination from moderate leaders. That led to a controversial ruling from then-SBC president Charles Stanleywho ruled a motion from moderates out of order, despite attempts to overrule him from the floor. The fallout from the controversy led to a federal lawsuit and led the SBC to begin using a professional parliamentarian.

Litton said he and other leaders will work to make this years meeting as fair as possible.

Were going to do our best to make sure that that its fair and that, that this largest deliberative body in the world for two days can do its business in a way that reflects the character of who Southern Baptists really are, he said. Southern Baptists think its best when the people are heard and when people have an opportunity to speak.

This years presidential race includes Florida pastor Tom Ascol, head of Founders Ministries, a Calvinist group with ties to the Conservative Baptist Network, and Bart Barber, a Texas pastor and chair of the resolutions committee for this years annual meeting. Ascol is perhaps best known for his opposition to critical race theory and female preachers and for his past claims that many of the people who are members of SBC churches are not really Christian and many SBC congregations are no longer churches.

Pastor Bart Barber in the video announcement of his candidacy for president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Video screen grab

Barber is known for his tweets about SBC governance, his folksy social mediavideos and his role in the firing of Southern Baptist legend Paige Patterson in 2018 after Patterson was accused of mistreating a rape victim in a previous job.

The new SBC president will likely be charged with appointing an ongoing task force to deal with abuse and can nominate candidates to serve on key denominational committees.

One thing to watch: On Monday, attendees at the annual SBC Pastors Conference will elect a president for next years event. The election for the conference held before the annual meeting is usually low-key. This year, however, the election could spark fireworks, as one of the leading candidates is missionary Voddie Baucham, an Ascol ally and author of a bestselling book warning of the dangers of CRT and social justice. A Baucham win could foreshadow what happens in the SBC presidential race.

Bauchams candidacy could be an issue, as currently he is neither a pastor nor, by his own admission, a Southern Baptist. According to Matt Henslee, current Pastors Conference president, all previous conference presidents have been SBC pastors. But the conference has no official rules for the election, leaving the decision in his hands.

As president, I think it is best left up to Southern Baptist pastors to decide who will lead them next year, he said.

In May, Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of one of the largest churches in the SBC, announced plans to retire this fall. Andy Wood, a San Francisco pastor, has been named his successor. Woods wife, Stacie, would also become a teaching pastor at Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, joining three other female pastors who were ordained last year. That puts the church at odds with the SBCs statement of faith, which states that only men can be pastors.

At the 2021 SBC annual meeting, a Louisiana pastor made a motion for the SBC to break fellowship with Saddleback Baptist Church, as they have ordained three ladies as pastors, and all other churches that would choose to follow this path. The motion is being considered by the SBC Credentials Committee, which can recommend expelling churches that are not in friendly cooperation with the denomination. The committee plans to meet just prior to the annual meeting.

The committee will report specifically on Saddleback as the motion requires however the committee has not finalized its recommendation and has no comment at this time, the committee chair told Religion News Service in an emailed statement.

Christa Brown talks about her abuse at a rally outside the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex on June 11, 2019, in Birmingham, Alabama. RNS photo by Butch Dill

For years, a group of abuse survivors has had a vocal presence at SBC meetings, calling attention to the issue of abuse and pressing for reforms. In 2007, advocates such as Christa Brown pushed for the SBC to set up a database to track abusive pastors an idea convention leaders rejected, despite being told by their lawyers that the idea was possible. After the Guidepost report was released, survivors called for a series of reforms. Among them:

While not binding, resolutions at the SBC meeting often produce fireworks. In 2021, the convention passed a resolution on abortion abolition calling for an end to abortion with no exceptions. Proposed by an Oklahoma pastor, the motion foreshadowed recently proposed legislation in conservative states to tightly restrict abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. In past years, there have been fiery debates over the Confederate flag, CRT and the alt-right that dominated headlines.

During this years meeting, Litton plans to submit a grassroots plan to advance racial reconciliation in the SBC and in the communities where SBC churches worship. Its based on work he has done in Mobile, Alabama, where he is a pastor.

Litton said he is grateful for the Southern Baptists he has met in the past year, often while they were volunteering at disasters, and gave parting words to the next president.

These people are serious and they deserve good leaders. They dont deserve people who have some ax to grind or point to prove. They just need people who are trusting the Lord like they do, Litton said.

RELATED: How the apocalyptic Southern Baptist report almost didnt happen

Read the original here:

When Southern Baptists meet next week, anything could happen - Religion News Service

Museum exhibitions are traditionally about objects. But in a provocatively commentated show of Black portraits from the 18th and 19th centuries, the Met confronts itself.

Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast centers on Why Born Enslaved!, the bust Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux modelled in 1868 and produced in popular editions thereafter. Life-size, she is bound at the chest with rope, glowering upwards in knowledge and pain a captive with no doubts of the crime shes been dealt.

The Met already owned Carpeauxs terracotta version of the famous work. Then a rare marble (one of two from his studio) went on sale in 2018. When the opportunity to acquire this bust came up, Elyse Nelson, the conceiver and co-curator of the show, told me, we acquired it with the idea that this could be the linchpin for an exhibition.

Sculpture requires patronage, requires wealthy patrons, so is often associated with the state, Nelson explained. That state, the court of Napoleon III, was very proud of the emancipation decree from back in 1846, a generation before Americas. Carpeauxs work offered belated congratulations to France. The emperor was among its first buyers.

But when art is tied to regimes especially regimes as grabby as the Second Empire it has trouble gaining our trust. There was something unclean about the Mets acquisition: by purchasing an enslaved woman, the shows catalog asks, can we be other than complicit in the aestheticization of slavery?

In this spirit, the show interrogates Carpeaux across his early sketches of the bust, his marble, his earlier versions and his renderings of a larger public work related to her. It must be the fullest examination ever staged of his iconic sculpture.

For the catalog Wendy S Walters, a professor of non-fiction at Columbia and Nelsons co-curator, explores the work as a record of subjection, even fetishization. We have historically understood enslavement, Walters explained to me, to think that the sexual component of enslavement was separate from the work component. They were not.

Walters argues that Carpeaux revisits that sexual component a little too readily: the hyperrealism where rope meets breast, the artists alleged aggression toward women, his commodification of a slaves likeness for financial gain and political favor.

Viewers will leave either outraged by such politicization of art or equipped with a more nuanced understanding of the touchy era following abolition, a time when European heads of state made grand gestures toward equality while they plotted the Scramble for Africa.

Carpeauxs contemporaries appear and give him context. Familiar works by Charles Cordier field unsparing questions about the white gaze. Once a gem of the collection, the Black man of Jean-Leon Gromes Bashi Bazouk (1868-69) still adorns the cover of the Mets official guidebook, but now it is scrutinized through the prism of European imperialism.

One of the shows virtues is to reach back before Carpeaux, to the golden era of protest when his abolitionist vocabulary was first being forged. One display is devoted to Josiah Wedgwood, the English potter whose medallion from 1787 took off like wildfire among activists of the time. No bigger than a thumbprint, it shows a Black man chained and begging for our sympathy. Here he is reproduced on a glass cologne bottle, on a pearlware jug, and on a gilded seal fob modified to show a female slave.

Though Wedgwoods intentions were good and his timing ingenious, such finery smacks of the black Instagram square, the corporate pledge to do better, the pint of Juneteenth ice cream.

The most illuminating guest is Jean-Antoine Houdon, Carpeauxs forebear in marble. Locals have long admired Houdons Bather (1782) in the Mets sun-drenched court of European sculpture. Braced for a splash, the bather is lovely the arch of her outstretched foot fixed nimbly on a stone, a detail both structural and emotive.

It turns out she didnt wash alone. The bather was commissioned for a fountain in the 45-acre pleasure garden (now the Parc Monceau) of the kings cousin, the duc dOrleans. Above her originally stood a Black woman carved in lead, a servant who pumped water through a ewer on to the pure white back of her stone mistress.

Though the servile half of the fountain disappeared during the Revolution, a plaster of her head appears on loan from Soissons. Far from Houdons famous realism (see his exquisite Ben Franklin in the American wing), this head depicts a simplified, obsequious, very unfortunate, smiling mammy.

Worse, when France freed her slaves the first time, in 1794, Houdon converted his slaves likeness into terracotta, scrawled an abolitionist caption into her base, and mass-produced her as a souvenir of emancipation. The Met have brought out their copy of this miniature for the show.

Here is expert curation: the plaster slave, the clay freedwoman, the implied connection to the marble mistress across the wing. I think this project changed me as an art historian, Nelson said of such timebombs. I think that this is just the beginning of a conversation, and that a larger conversation could follow.

If the parable of Houdon teaches anything, its how greasily the feudal values of the ancien rgime could masquerade as liberalism. These masqueraded in artist and patron alike: having installed Houdons happy slave fountain in his wonderland, the duc dOrleans, one of the richest men in France, renounced his title when revolution arrived and rebranded himself Philippe Egalit. (The guillotine got him anyway.)

The curators believe Houdons cheap intentions with his smiling slave served as precedents for Carpeaux 90 years later. But Why Born Enslaved! is not so easily reduced not quite.

Yes, Carpeauxs patrons, like Houdons opportunist duke, were the worst kinds of virtue signalers. While Napoleon III sent troops to seize Mexico, his empress used her bronze of Why Born Enslaved! to broadcast republican sentiment back home.

And yes, Carpeaux borrowed from his own racialized fountain, his globe allegory in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris (1874). Now anonymous, the sitter for Why Born Enslaved! was visibly the same woman who modelled his Africa in that monumental public work. The chain around Africas ankle might well be construed as a degrading and irrelevant icon. That was very common,: an emancipated figure, even decades after abolition, would still be carrying the vestiges of their captivity, Walters explained.

For context, Walters and Nelson include earlier four continents allegories in porcelain and on paper. For all its realism, Carpeauxs fountain and by extension his bust derived from a time-worn menu of ethnic tropes that put Europa first.

But these facts cannot dim the absolute electricity of the womans gaze. Against her ropes she spins sharply to the left, and as you spin with her, encircling a back-to-back display of the terracotta and the later marble, youll detect from that early draft to the final one a faint sharpening of her brow as if a wound that began in entreaty has hardened into reproach. Against the glib Wedgwood and the shameless Houdon, Carpeaux creates nothing less than a human.

Janet Jackson owned a reproduction, Beyonc posed with one, and Kehinde Wiley depends on the sincerity of Carpeauxs original for the strength of his own homage, which is wisely on display: a small bust critiquing exploitation in modern sports.

Carpeauxs endurance, as this searching and feisty exhibition makes clear, can and should exist alongside the paternalizing traditions and the dirty money in spite of which his work took such vivid life.

The figures themselves carry multiple valences, Walters offered, and if we allow them to carry multiple valences, then were really starting to think critically about what representation is, which to me seems to be the purview of a museum.

See original here:

The beginning of a conversation: the Met examines a complex history of emancipation art - The Guardian

Employment

Business leaders have been accused by the workplace relations minister of bringing a vexatious case against Fair Pay Agreements to the International Labour Organisation, which has given the green light to the flagship reform, writes Rebecca Macfie

Business New Zealands attempt to derail the Governments controversial Fair Pay Agreements legislation at the International Labour Organisation has flopped.

Instead of issuing the grave condemnation sought by the business lobby, the ILO has waved the Governments flagship industrial relations reform through, and doesnt want to hear any more about it for two years.

Business New Zealands complaint against the regime was discussed by the Committee on the Application of Standards at the ILOs annual conference in Geneva on June 8 and the committee reached its conclusion on Friday night. In stark contrast to the strong diplomatic language used in its reports on other countries facing complaints including allegations of child trafficking, harassment and murder of unionists, and repression of minorities the committee issued a bland four-sentence conclusion on New Zealand.

It urged the Government to continue to examine the draft Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) legislation, in consultation with unions and employer groups, to consider the impact of the proposed legislation and ensure compliance with [ILO Convention 98].

Business New Zealand alleged the FPA regime was in breach of convention 98, which protects the right to organise and collectively bargain. It claimed the proposed reform intended to reverse the collapse of collective bargaining following the 1991 Employment Contracts Act is inconsistent with the principle of free and voluntary bargaining because employers wont be able to opt out, unresolved disputes can go to compulsory arbitration, and in certain circumstances an FPA can go straight to the Employment Relations Authority to fix the minimum terms.

Business New Zealands manager of employment relations policy, Paul Mackay, alleged at the committee that the Government was thumbing its nose at the ILO supervisory system, and sought strong condemnation. For the sake of workers and employers throughout New Zealand, and for the sake of the continued integrity of the ILO supervisory system, we urge this house to condemn the actions of the New Zealand Government in the strongest possible terms.

However the committee kept its condemnation for the likes of Chinas repression of Uyghurs (which it deplored), the disregard for human fights and the rule of law in Myanmar (also deplored), and the violence, intimidation and imprisonment of union leaders and employer representatives in Nicaragua (deplored). The committee demanded a report back from such countries in September this year.

In response to the committees benign conclusion about New Zealands planned reforms, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood accused Business New Zealand of bringing a vexatious complaint to the ILO, and of engaging in active misinformation against FPAs.

After the ILO conclusion its time for Business NZ to come back to the table and work with us to introduce a system that allows industries to set minimum pay and working conditions to stop a race to the bottom, he said in a statement.

Business New Zealand quit any involvement in the fair pay process late last year, announcing it would not act as a bargaining agent for employer groups in FPA negotiations and would refuse Government funding tagged to help unions and employer bodies fulfil their expanded roles under the regime.

It is running an advertising and social media campaign against the proposed legislation currently before the workplace and education select committee alleging FPAs will at the stroke of a pentake away control from Kiwi workers and give it to faceless officials in Wellington who will decide how you work, when you work and how much you will get paid. It claims that once a FPA is in place it will be virtually impossible for workers and employers to negotiate flexible conditions.

In fact, where FPAs are established, they will set minimum terms and conditions for the industry or occupation within its scope, and workers and employers will be free to continue to negotiate collective or individual agreements directly, provided they dont fall below the FPA minimums.

The proposed FPA system was laid out by a tripartite working group in 2018, chaired by former National prime minister Jim Bolger. Michael Hobby, international labour policy advisor at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, told the ILO committee last week the reform was designed to address the increasing evidence of a race to the bottom in some sectors, following the dramatic fall in unionisation after the labour market deregulation of the 1990s and a lack of sector-wide bargaining, which enable[s] businesses to undercut their competitors through low wages, or by shifting risks onto employees without corresponding compensation.

Without multi-employer or nationwide bargaining, wages come under pressure, and employers have fewer incentives to innovate or raise productivity. This is because they can increase profits simply by reducing wages, rather than adopting other strategies.

Hobby told the committee there had been a consequent rise in low-paying jobs and poor working conditions, as well as increased casualisation and growth of labour hire practices. This has disproportionately affected groups such as Mori and Pasifika workers, young people and those with disabilities, who are over-represented in jobs where low pay, poor health and safety practices, low job security and limited upskilling are significant issues.

New Zealand has one of the lowest rates of collective bargaining in the OECD, with only about 10 percent of private sector workers covered by a union-negotiated deal.

The new Australian government swung in behind the FPA regime at the ILO, its representative telling the committee that sector-wide minimum standards, in combination with collective bargaining, provided a safety net while also driving wage growth and productivity. Australias own industrial relations system operates at three levels, with statutory minimum rights and a minimum wage, occupational awards that set industry-wide conditions for over 100 sectors and occupations, and collective bargaining at enterprise level.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) gave evidence to the committee of a catastrophic impact on bus drivers' wages following the abolition of New Zealands award system in 1991 and the move to competitive tendering of bus services. The lowest wage payable under the 1990 bus industry award was 66 percent higher than the minimum wage, the ITF told the committee. Todays lowest rates are scarcely 10-15 percent above the minimum wage. If wages had kept up with productivity growth during the period, the average transport worker would have been $36,000 better off in 2021, according to the ITF statement.

A Samoan worker representative also backed FPAs as a way to protect vulnerable Pasifika RSE workers who cant possibly engage in effective and fair individual bargaining or collective bargaining under the Employment Relations Act. Without industry minimums, our people do not receive fair wages and enjoy decent terms of employment under the RSE scheme.

Business New Zealand has acknowledged there is market failure under the current industrial relations regime for some groups of workers, but says this should be fixed through the development of voluntary codes setting out a reasonable approach to terms and conditions in sectors with clearly demonstrated undesirable labour market outcomes.

Under the proposed regime, an FPA can be initiated by a union representing 1000 workers, or 10 percent, of a sector or occupation group. The resulting agreement will apply to all workers and employers within its scope. Strikes in support of FPAs will be banned.

Its expectedbus drivers, supermarket workers, cleaners and security guards will be among the first in the queue to initiate FPAs once the legislation is passed.

More:

Fair pay complaint to ILO crashes and burns - Newsroom

Its June againthat time of year when Americans wake up each morning and wait for the Supreme Court to resolve our deepest political disagreements. To decide what the Constitution says about our bodily autonomy, our power to avert climate change, and our ability to protect children from guns, the nation turns not to members of Congresselected by usbut to five oracles in robes.

This annual observance of judicial supremacythe idea that the Supreme Court has the final say about what our Constitution allowsis an odd affliction for a nation that will close the month ready to celebrate our independence from an unelected monarch. From one perspective, our acceptance of this supremacy reflects a sense that our political system is simply too broken to address the most urgent questions that we confront. But it would be a mistake to see judicial supremacy as a mere symptom of our politics and not a cause.

Contrary to what many people have come to believe, judicial supremacy is not in the Constitution, and does not date from the founding era. It took hold of American politics only after the Civil War, when the Court overruled Congresss judgment that the Constitution demanded civil-rights and voting laws. The Court has spent the 150 years since sapping our national representatives of the power to issue national rules. These judicial decisions have destroyed guardrails that national majorities deemed vital to a functional, multiracial democracyincluding protecting the right to vote and curbing the influence of money in politics. Even worse, the Courts assertion of the power to invalidate federal laws has stripped Americans of the expectation, once widely shared, that the most important interpretations of the Constitution are expressed not by judicial decree but by the participation of We, the People, in enacting national legislation.

In the decades before the Civil War, when national parties violently contested the constitutionality of slavery west of the Mississippi, the center of gravity was Congress. As the historian James Oakes recounts, when a border-state senator proposed asking the Supreme Court to decide the issue in 1848, other senators ridiculed his idea as implausible. The Constitution was interpreted as variously as the Bible, Senator John P. Hale of New Hampshire responded. White southerners believed the Constitution carries slavery with it, while northerners construed the Constitution to secure freedom. As Hale and his contemporaries appreciated, resolving such a fundamental national disagreement could never turn on a courts answer to which interpretation was more correct. Rather, the winning interpretation would depend on whether adherents could build sufficient political majorities to control the national government.

Ryan D. Doerfler and Samuel Moyn: Reform the Court but dont pack it

The Supreme Court did attempt to decide the question in its infamous 1857 Dred Scott decisioninterpreting the Constitution to hold that the federal government lacked the power to abolish slavery anywhere in the United States. But rather than accept this novel assertion of judicial supremacy over Congress, the Republican Party responded with defiance. Indeed, Abraham Lincoln successfully ran for president on a platform of repudiating the Court with national legislation. In his inaugural address, he remarked that the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, then the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.

Through the Civil War and the Reconstruction era that followed, the politically dominant Republicans in Congress enacted legislation to build a multiracial democracy in the United States for the first time. Some of these laws boldly overruled the Court, including statutes in 1862 and 1866 that began the abolition of slavery and recognized the citizenship of Black people. Others prevented the Court from retaliating against Congresss interpretation of the Constitution, such as legislation stripping the Court of jurisdiction over certain matters. Still others enlisted the Court in the project of enforcing Congresss constitutional judgments. Acts in 1870 and 1871 instructed federal courts to enforce the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments against recalcitrant state officials, while acts in 1870 and 1875 tasked judges with banning voting restrictions, lynch mobs, and racial discrimination.

Only after Republicans lost control of Congress in 1875 was the Court able to enforce its contrary interpretations of the Constitutionto devastating effect. In the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 and related cases, the Court refused to enforce federal civil-rights laws on the theory that the newly enacted Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments gave Congress no power against private racial violence or discrimination in public accommodations. For the next half centuryas part of what the historian W. E. B. Du Bois called the counter-revolution of propertythe Court condemned the Reconstruction Congress as a group of unprincipled fanatics. And it invented new doctrines that authorized the Court to invalidate federal legislation that it thought went too far toward interfering with white business interests. It was during this period that judicial supremacy took hold as a dominant ideology in the United States.

This bears repeating: Judicial supremacy is an institutional arrangement brought to cultural ascendancy by white people who wanted to undo Reconstruction and the rise of organized labor that had followed. And that makes sense, as judicial supremacy can harness the power of an entrenched minority and use that power to undermine the more democratic legislative branch. Decades after the Court in Marbury v. Madison first anticipated that it might disagree with Congress about a federal laws constitutionality, the justices finally convinced skeptics of the need for this authority by disempowering Congress and unraveling its legislative efforts to establish political equality.

Paul Finkelman: Americas Great Chief Justice was an unrepentant slaveholder

In the nearly 150 years since Reconstruction, the thrust of judicial supremacy has continued to be revanchist. Through the 21st century, the justices overwhelmingly have exercised their claim of supremacy over Congress to insulate the wealthy and powerful from federal labor laws, federal voting laws, federal civil-rights laws, federal campaign-finance laws, and federal health-care laws. Decisions such as Citizens United and Shelby County are typical examples of how the Court has overruled Congress to make it harder for ordinary people to participate in American democracy on equal terms. But their damage goes beyond even that: Because the limits of our constitutional imagination can extend no further than the opinions of those who happen to sit on the Court, judicial supremacy has also impoverished what we think is possible through democratic politicsand through organizing for political change at the national level.

Rather than look to the Court to glimpse some fundamental truth from scant constitutional text, Americans ought to demand that their elected representatives engage in the hard work of national lawmaking. Congress must act, even if it means overriding the interpretations of the Court and reshaping its jurisdiction.

Encouragingly, members of the House have recently passed bills to enforce their understanding of what federal laws our nation demands and our Constitution permitsincluding reproductive freedom and voting rights. But the bills have all stalled in the Senate for two reasons that remain within its control. One, the filibuster, will be abolished as soon as 50 senators recognize that a permanently incapacitated Senate is far more destructive than an active Senate that might one day be controlled by an opposing party.

But the other obstacle may be more pernicious: a fear among legislators that there is no point to legislating if the Court will simply invalidate anything Congress achieves.

Yet as the Reconstruction Congress recognized, everything the Court has the power to do comes from federal statutes passed by Congressstatutes that a majority of Congress always has the power to amend. Conflicts over constitutional interpretation are not really over who has the best understanding of words inscribed in an old document. They are about whoor which actors in our system of national governmentcan deliver on a particular, and inherently contested, meaning in the context of our current times. It is a question of political leadership, not legalism.

There is nothing unconstitutional about Congress reasserting its authority to define the nations highest law. The experience of Reconstruction brings into view this firmly grounded practice. In fact, a surviving remnant of the Reconstruction Congresss worktoday codified in 42 U.S.C. 1983has underwritten some of the most famous cases in modern constitutional law. In Section 1983, Congress instructed federal courts to stop state or local officials from depriving anyone of their rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution. Section 1983 is what Oliver Brown invoked when he challenged Kansass segregation laws in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, what Jane Roe invoked to challenge Texass abortion law in Roe v. Wade, and what James Obergefell invoked when he challenged Ohios same-sex-marriage ban in Obergefell v. Hodges. While these landmark cases invalidated state laws, the justices were following, not undermining, Congresss orders. The decisions overruling state interpretations of the Constitution dont represent judicial supremacy, but rather Congresss ability to make and enforce national constitutional commitments.

Congressional checks on the Supreme Court are also very different from the calls for nullification by slaveholders before the Civil War, their descendants during the civil-rights movement, and Texas legislators today. The Civil War itself resolved that the representatives of states must enforce their constitutional interpretations not by defying the government created by the Constitution but by participating in it. For the past two centuries, Congress has been the branch of the federal government where our democracys pursuit of equal justice under law has most often been realized. The question is not whether some commitmentsabolition, reproductive freedom, racial equalityare worth making supreme and constitutive of a national American identity. Rather, the question is who gets to decide the content of those commitments for all Americans: the 50 states, a five-justice majority, or our national legislature.

If the Court is today eviscerating those very constitutional commitments through its case law, Congress should enact or amend federal statutes to advance a different understanding of a nation built on democratic justice. It should reshape the Courts ability to intervene in these disputes, including by restricting the Courts authority to set aside federal legislation. And it should conscript the Court in enforcing federal commitments when resistant state officials brazenly declare that the national government has no jurisdiction to protect Americans from their parochial rule.

The thing stopping Congress from reversing each wrongheaded decision the Court issues this month therefore isnt the Constitution. Its our failure to demand more from our elected representatives.

The promise of a genuinely multiracial democracy will fade if Americans are unwilling to embrace structural reforms that can make our policies and our politics more responsive to majority rule. How Congress allocates the power to interpret the Constitution should be at the heart of those reforms. We simply cannot build a better politics if we dont reclaim the authority of Congress to resolve our most fundamental disagreements. Rather than allow a handful of us to define the Constitutions meaning in a mystical ritual each June, the rest of us should define it with the hard, messy work of American politics year-round.

Continued here:

The Supreme Court Is Not Supposed to Have This Much Power - The Atlantic

At some universities, students are expressing increased interest in LGBTQ Studies programs.The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of college students nationwide. Some LGBTQ students have faced mental and physical health challenges due to quarantine and isolation, after students returned to campus.

LGBTQ+ Studies courses have existed for decades, but minors or certificates in such studies have been offered at many institutions for fewer than 20 years. Research, scholarly discourse, and interest continue to grow, with the pandemic bringing new areas to investigate.

Since the pandemic struck, I have seen an upswing in LGBTQ+ Studies student interest in mutual aid, says Dr. Cary Gabriel Costello, associate professor of sociology and director of LGBTQ+ Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which offers an undergraduate certificate. While before the pandemic, student attention might have focused more on queer crafting, grassroots political organizing, or reforming family structures, the topic of communities finding ways to provide for themselves the social services they need has really piqued students interest.

Measuring impact

Mutual aid is when people bond together to meet each others needs understanding that existing systems do not meet their needs. They also work to see established systems improve their responses. Costello says the last two years have been stressful, and he has noticed students in general dealing with mental health issues that have been more pronounced for LGBTQ+ students.

Each semester, Costello surveys students in his classes to get information about their lives, interests, and challenges. In fall 2020, 40 % of students in his online introductory level sociology class reported mental health issues. In his LGBTQ+ Studies-affiliated course, 65 % of students reported somewhat or very poor mental health since the start of quarantine. Graduate student instructors, working together with Costello, provided informal social work services for the undergraduates.

Things have yet to return to the pre-COVID normal, such as it was, says Costello. It has been exhausting for lots of folks, but it has been a privilege to see my graduate student instructors go above and beyond the call of duty to help struggling undergrads and to witness students in LGBTQ+ Studies courses supporting one another.

While Costello says there was a drop in the retention of trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming students, student evaluations show that the staff of the LGBTQ+ Studies program made a real difference in retaining at-risk students and helping them succeed. Thats something to feel good about, he says.

Dr. Kristie Soares is assistant professor of Women & Gender Studies and co-chair of LGBTQ Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Soares says she is seeing an increased need, including housing and food insecurity, among queer and trans students -- particularly individuals of color -- since the onset of the pandemic.

Our work has shifted somewhat from our academic mission to getting students what they need in order to even be able to focus on their academics, says Soares, who also sees students focused on mutual aid.

Gleaning insights from student reporting

Given current circumstances, there has been an increased interest in examining how LGBTQ students, who may already feel marginalized, navigate an unexpected crisis such as the pandemic. Students are doing really great work in thinking about frameworks like disability studies and the way that disability studies intersect with queer and trans studies to talk about how the pandemic is illuminating forms of systemic inequity, says Soares.

The University of Colorado Boulder offers a certificate in LGBTQ Studies. The interest in coursework is there, says Soares, but in some cases, the economic realities preclude participation. Every LGBTQ Studies program has to be thinking about the ways that programs like ours in some ways have always been on tenuous ground, Soares says. We [at Colorado] have not had serious threats to our funding. We have university support. Actually, weve had increasing amounts of donor support during the pandemic.

After more than a decade of students expressing interest in a minor in LGBTQ Studies, Queens College (part of City University of New York) approved the minor in 2019. Additional courses were developed, including queer theories. Dr. JV Fuqua, associate professor in the department of Media Studies and director of the women and gender studies program, was teaching the queer theories course in the spring 2020 semester when there was the sudden pivot to remote learning.

The cohort of students in that class was a particularly strong collection of souls, says Fuqua, who has continued to teach remotely but expects to return to the classroom for the fall 2022 semester. They were vibrant, curious, dedicated, excited, grateful, and energized to be in that classroom.

The courses are full, and we continue to add students to the LGBTQ minor and also to the women and gender studies program, they add. The challenges that have been faced by the students interested in the minor at Queens College have been the challenges faced by students in general at Queens College since the start of COVID.

Dr. Sean G. Massey is an associate professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Binghamton University, a State University of New York institution that co-facilitates the Binghamton Human Sexualities Research Lab. Massey, a social psychologist, runs the lab with three colleagues. Each semester, the lab includes approximately 20 undergraduates interested in research about human sexuality broadly defined. Among their research topics is sexual identity and gender identity. There are four or five on-going projects in groups called analytic communities.

Weve been looking at archival materials related to Gay Mens Health Crisis (GMHC, a community-based AIDS service organization), says Massey, who volunteered at GMHC from 1988 through the late 1990s and conducted evaluation research. In addition to a special collection at the New York Public Library, Massey has a personal collection of GMHC materials. The undergraduates knew little about GMHC, or the AIDS epidemic, and they decided to conduct some oral history interviews.

Theyre incredibly moved by these stories, Massey says. Its important were having these cross-generational conversations.

Massey also teaches a course on LGBTQ history. The students read various histories and watch several documentaries, including United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, which was the propellor of AIDS activism. Students say this is the first time theyve learned about how the community came together and responded to the AIDS crisis, and they see the parallels to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The fact that we have [COVID] vaccines being developed so quickly now is a direct result of ACT UP, where they got drug trials to be expedited, says Massey. There is a connection between the work ACT UP did to get drugs released faster during the AIDS epidemic and the fact that we were able to get the vaccines released quickly.

Advancing research

Students are interested in a version of LGBTQ Studies that is in conversation with intellectual approaches like abolition, disability studies, Black Studies, Latinx Studies, says Soares. They are taking a very intersectional approach to LGBTQ Studies that understands that gender and sexuality were already intersecting with other categories of marginalization.

Something Massey has seen, which he thinks may evolve into research in the years ahead, is the impact the pandemic has had on LGBTQ+ students. For traditional college students, ages 1822, college is a time to explore their sexuality, develop their identities and find community, all of which have been impeded by quarantine and then social distancing.

Theyre not able to access the same kinds of social connections that they may have expected and that cohorts before them were able to, says Massey. Basic psychological needs, like intimacy, affiliation, and sex dont simply disappear during a global pandemic. Public health campaigns need to give them a bit more attention.

The students are very interested in how COVID affected sexual behavior and intimate relationships among college students, he continues. They want to look at how college students are handling COVID and reacting to it in terms of their intimate lives and sexual lives.

Fuqua mentions recent Queens College graduate Sara Claytons senior thesis, The Queering of Compulsory Monogamy as Community Care. One topic Clayton explored was the impact of COVID-19 on polyamorous family structures and how care is reconfigured in a non-normative family context.

While Fuquas research has been on hold during the pandemic, they did write an article about Pose, a television series about the LGBTQ ballroom scene and subculture in the 1980s. The series dramatizes the culture celebrating LGBTQ individuals with a cast of LGBTQ actors.

I felt compelled to write it because of my experience in that class in spring 2020, says Fuqua. We had been talking about Pose and thinking about the series. Then, the Black Trans Lives Matter and the BLM protests of that summer re-energized me to finish that piece.

Watching this LGBTQ minor thrive and be in a space where students of various backgrounds and interests create community is meaningful to Fuqua, who sees growing interest. I want to grow the program, they say. I would love to see it be a major. I would love to get scholarships going for students who are minoring in LGBTQ Studies.

Read the original here:

Pride in the Classroom - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

Prince Shakur| Columbus Monthly

The first nightsof protest in Columbus in the spring and summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd were jarring but exciting. Short North traffic was slowed by men pointing rifles into the air. The broken glass; the ripped flags; the wet graffiti; the tear gas canisters; the crowd scattering as rubber bullets came showering down. The police jumping out from alleyways to snatch people from the frontlines.

I remember my feet pounding asphalt. My heart jack-hammering against my chest as my friend and comrade, Calvin, and I flew deeper down some side street and screams floated up from the distance. We stopped at a dead end and looked at each other. I could feel my pulse throbbing in my face. A wave of fear moved through us.

Left or right? Calvin asked, but in actuality, I heard the other question, the real question: Do you run into the hog pen to save others, or burst out of it?

On another night, my friend and I were kettled into the Columbus Bicentennial Pavilion by police, then forced to run from the clouds of gas. Over the next days and nights, police fired at protesters from close range with rubber bullets, knocked a protester out of a wheelchair, and unleashed their rage, like a mob of their own.

As a child, I realized the brutality that the world could lavish on queer people for being themselves. Then I learned the violence that Black people could face. Both are conundrums that can make the world a very volatile place. You learn to try and realize your fullest self each time you leave the house, because there is always the chance you may not make it home. You learn to play along with the system for your survival or to barrel against it with other people who cannot accept harm.

Columbus Monthly's May 20221: Black Life in Columbus

In the riot, at some point, an adjacent lesson is learned. You forget about making it home. The goal becomes surviving a once-familiar terrain now littered with dumpster fires and National Guardsmen in tanks ready to aim and fire rubber bullets upon command. Instead of a citizen, you become part of a larger oppositional force combating the very thing killing your people. In my Black humanity, I become worthy of destruction to the police. And when fighting for your life in the path of destruction, it is your community that you need to trust.

But what happens to our alliances when the harm is all around us and we are under attack?

By the summer of 2020, I had roughly half a decade of experience as a social justice organizer, ranging from student organizing in Athens at the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement to labor organizing in Seattle to organizing in solidarity with movements abroad. Starting college at 17, and trying to find my chosen family as an adult, made deep and loving community necessary. Without good people, the world could be violent, but with people are my religion, as AJJ, a folk punk band, once sang, another world becomes possible.

Before the summer of 2020, Id seen my fair share of conflict play out in my Columbus community, sometimes with disastrous effects, but my local organizing world was mostly unscathed. At the height of the 2020 protests, I went to roughly two to four organizing meetings a week. I fielded emails, helped manage emergency funds, organized book clubs and so much more. The work and the strain around it became more necessary than ever.

During any political upheaval, people, old and new to social justice spaces, flock to the frontlineswhich can be good or bad. During one July rally, I followed a large crowd led by a haphazard group of new organizers to a blocked-off side street filled with police officers and news cameras ready to record what I could see were intended to becivilizedinterviews between curious residents and the Columbus Division of Police.

Its a photo opp, I grumbled later to my friend after leaving the march in disgust. These people are basically counterinsurgents.

At another protest, a miscommunication between the event organizers, the family of a slain Columbus resident and some of the invited speakers led to a split in my organizing circle. Letters with demands for accountability were traded from one group to the other. In the fallout, I found myself in hushed conversations with people that I once assumed saw each other as friends or allies, only to realize the thread holding them together was far thinner than I imagined.

Every other week, some new segment of my organizing network seemed to be imploding. People didnt trust each other. The water under the bridge had turned to blood, and with all the trauma heaping down on us, there wasnt enough time to work through the rage and the conflict. Frustrated, I began to realize that my faith in the people around me could only go so far. By the fall of 2020, I remember speaking to a friend in another city and saying, How can I organize with people that dont seem to really trust each other?

My friend thought, then replied, Maybe you trust yourself more than you trust the people around you and thats fine.

In my friends response, I found another pathway. Needing a break from the bedlam within the social justice community did not mean that I wasnt dedicated to liberation, but rather that I needed a different context for resolving conflict to fully commit myself. Knowing this and doing something about it was also a form of self-care.

It was the nightsof rushing home shortly after curfew that saved me, the wrangled packs of beer and porch hangouts as the trains barreled by on the tracks near my house. On hot summer nights, my roommates and I set up an amp, speakers and laptop in our living room and belted out countless songs into a microphone.

With the world on its way to pandemonium, all I wanted to do was sing about redemption with Bob Marley. I found my voice by traipsing around my living room with my whole heart on my sleeve and by the fall, I had decided to take a formal break from organizing for the first time in my life.

More: Greater Columbus Arts Council Preserving Plywood Murals After 2020 Racial Justice Protests

The organizing spaces Id been a part of dissolved or changed after my departure, but much of the conflict remained not far beneath the surface. Everyone, in their own way, needed a break. After some time and distance, I hoped people could come to the same table to reckon with the harm and hurt of the past. Sometimes loving your community is holding out hope, from a distance, that the broken parts of it will find each other again. Its knowing that there is always more work and worry in the intimacy of getting to know people, whether the state is attacking your community or not.

Though I had immersed myself in the possibility of revolution versus reform in my city, I always knew that deep, political change, like abolition, takes time. And to be the best revolutionary I could be, I needed the energy, love and trust of my community to be able to commit myself to the act of self-carebecause the struggle toward freedom is for both myself and my community.

This story is from the June 2022 issue of Columbus Monthly.

See the rest here:

Taking Care During Times of Protest and Progress - Columbus Monthly

The month of June is always a favorite time for celebrations. Its the heart of the graduation season and a time to spend with loved ones on Fathers Day. For our family and many others, this is also a cherished month to celebrate Juneteenth, which will be observed on June 19.

Juneteenth is one of the nations oldest celebrations of the abolition of slavery. Its a time to recognize how our nation rose above a painful chapter in our history, while further reminding us how much work remains in the name of social justice and equity.

Juneteenth has been celebrated since 1866 more than a 150 years. Though the Emancipation Proclamation became official in 1863, many enslaved Africans lived in states where slavery continued or where they didnt know they were free.

On June 19, 1865, more than a quarter-million slaves in Texas learned from Union Col. Gordon Granger that they were free. The first celebration of Juneteenth followed a year later, and it endures to this day. In 2021, Juneteenth was established as a federal holiday.

In these difficult, modern times, Juneteenth encourages us to join together in the name of freedom, justice and the power of community. It inspires us to reflect on the contributions and achievements of African-Americans, past and present.

We think of courageous leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X and others who dedicated their lives toward civil rights and social justice. We think of trailblazers like Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman astronaut, and Lewis Howard Latimer, who became a draftsman and helped patent the light bulb and the telephone.

Juneteenth reminds us that we have the power to persevere. We can do that by coming together as a community, by taking the opportunity to learn about and learn from one another. We can make progress by embracing the full spectrum of diversity and working to find common ground among our vast experiences and heritages.

At UC Davis were guided by our Principles of Community, which reinforce our commitment to diversity and inclusion. It means we recognize that UC Davis is made stronger by its variety of ethnicities, faiths and perspectives. It means we strive every day to create a culture of mutual respect and caring.

We will observe Monday, June 20, as a university holiday in recognition of Juneteenth.

Here in Davis, were starting the celebrations early. On Sunday, June 5,UC Davis will host the Yolo Juneteenth Festival, which is back in person after going virtual last year. This festival is held ahead of June 19, to avoid competing with other regional events scheduled that day.

On Sunday youll find a variety of activities and entertainment at the UC Davis Conference Center and our Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. These are geared for the entire family, and includes musical performances, dance, art works and inspirational speakers.

I hope you and your families can join us. No matter how you choose to observe, LeShelle and I wish you a happy, healthful and joyful Juneteenth.

Read more here:

CHANCELL-ING: Joining Together for Joy and Reflection - University of California, Davis