Category Archives: Freedom

Specifically, it means that we should think of freedom in at least two ways: a freedom from domination and a freedom to dominate. In White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea, Stovall shows how both are tied up in the history of race and racial thinking. In societies like those of the United States and republican France, he writes, belief in freedom, specifically ones entitlement to freedom, was a key component of white supremacy. The more white one was, he continues, the more free one was.

This white freedom is not named as such because it is somehow intrinsic to people of European descent, but because it took its shape under conditions of explicit racial hierarchy, where colonialism and chattel slavery made clear who was free and who was not. For the men who dominated, this informed their view of what freedom was. Or, as the historian Edmund Morgan famously observed nearly 50 years ago in American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia, The presence of men and women who were, in law at least, almost totally subject to the will of other men gave to those in control of them an immediate experience of what it could mean to be at the mercy of a tyrant.

As an ideology, Stovall writes, white freedom meant both control of ones destiny and the freedom to dominate and exclude. And the two moved hand in hand through the modern era, he argues, both here and abroad. In the United States during the early 19th century, for example, the right to vote became even more entangled with race than it had been. Not only was suffrage extended to virtually all white men by the eve of the Civil War, thus breaking down traditional restrictions based on property and class, it was also and at the same time increasingly denied to those who were not white men, Stovall writes. The early years of America as a free and independent nation were thus a period when voting was more and more defined in racial terms.

After the Civil War, as liberalism began its march through the global order, racial distinctions within polities became more, not less, salient. That was especially true after the forced end of Reconstruction. The rise of white manhood suffrage along with Black disenfranchisement in the United States exemplified this theme, as did the coterminous expansion of liberal democracy and authoritarian colonial rule in Britain and France, Stovall contends. As freedom became increasingly central to white masculine identity in Europe and America, as it increasingly belonged not to elites but to the masses of white people, it seemingly had to be denied to those who were not white.

Of course, there have always been competing visions of freedom: freedom separate from race hierarchy and freedoms that do not rest on domination. In the 20th century, especially, anticolonial movements within European empires and the struggle for civil rights in America posed what Stovall calls a frontal challenge to the racialization of liberty.

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Opinion | What Does White Freedom Really Mean? - The New York Times

Perspectives from those who work and live in the criminal justice system. Sign up to receive "Life Inside" emailed to you every week.

Back in August, six of my essays, four of my short stories and a bunch of half-written poems that were perhaps worthy of francine j. harris disappeared from the JPay electronic tablet I use to write and stay in touch with my loved ones.

For the most part, the JPay system is a relief. Along with sending and receiving messages, the tablets allow us to get music, games and books from a catalogue on the kiosks that we use to download materials.

There are just two kiosks for over 80 people in my unit. When its your turn, you pick up where your conversations and jokes left off. You pore over the hard-to-decipher letters your young children write to you. When JPay is working properly, it makes connection with the outside world more possible. But there are downsides, like losing features.

I lost my works-in-progress because the prison and JPay reduced the tools available to men in the so-called security threat group (STG). Those changes also impacted prisoners like me, who arent in the STG.

Suddenly, my box for drafts was gone, and the sentences I typed appeared in one long line across the screen. Without line breaks, I couldnt create paragraphs in my essays or stanzas in the poems I wrote to my 11-year-old daughter. Essentially, my tablet ceased to be a vehicle for my creative writing. It may sound minor, but try reading and writing messages on your tablet, laptop or phone without line breaks and drafts. Suddenly, your writing makes no sense.

I was devastated, because writing is one of very few freedoms I have at Baraga Correctional Facility in Michigan. Writing is how I make sense of the muddiness within myself and this environment, and I love the ritual of honing my work on the tablet and sharing it with other writers. Its like a second chance at life.

The change in mailbox features came on top of the usual cost of the electronic stamps we have to buy to communicate with our loved ones. Each page requires a stamp, which gets expensive, especially during COVID-19, when families are struggling and people are dying. Even worse, the power to accept or reject the non-legal material that we read and write falls on whoever the Michigan Department of Corrections appoints. Often its just a corrections officer filling in for another in the mailroom. JPay is considered a privilege rather than a right. And privileges can be taken away.

According to Protecting Your Health and Safety: A Litigation Guide For Inmates, a book published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the outgoing messages the prison rejects need to be reasonably related to legitimate penological interests. That means we cant send or receive messages that contain escape plans, threats of blackmail or other criminal activity. According to the guide, officials may not censor incoming or outgoing mail simply because it criticizes the courts, jail or prison policies, or the officials themselves.

And yet, Ive had my messages about the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor rejected. The same goes for my journalistic work about prisoners like me on security Level 4, who had been waiting to transfer out of Level 5 housing for two years. To add insult to injury, we dont get our stamps back when a message is deemed unsafe or inappropriate.

Ultimately, it fell on our loved ones and writing communities to get the features restored for non-STG prisoners. They repeatedly called the facility and JPay representatives to complain. About three weeks into the service changes, JPay sent a message to everyone at Baraga claiming that they had technical problems that they were trying to solve. A week after that letter, prisoners who werent in the security threat group had their features restored.

While Im glad that JPay is back to normal, Im still upset at the arbitrary nature of the changes. I'll never know what my lost essays, poems and letters my main creative outlet and my second chance at life could have become.

A spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Corrections stated that transfers from Level 5 to Level 4 have been slowed due to COVID protocol.

A spokesperson for JPay said that a software release deployed mid-August inadvertently reverted some facilities to default settings impacting drafting and ease of editing We acknowledge this technology error and commit to better serving our customers. On the subject of censored messages, they stated, If customers feel their content was wrongfully denied, we encourage them to contact customer support, refute the decision and request a stamp refund.

Demetrius A. Buckley is a poet and fiction writer. His work has been published in The Michigan Quarterly Review, RHINO, The Periphery and Storyteller. He's currently working on a novel, HalfBreed. He is serving a 20-year sentence for second degree murder at Baraga Correctional Facility in Michigan.

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Writing Is My Main Freedom. One Day My Work Disappeared. - The Marshall Project

I'm USA TODAYeditor-in-chief Nicole Carroll, and this is The Backstory, insights into our biggest stories of the week. If you'd like to get The Backstoryin your inbox every week,sign up here.

Youknow about the Freedom Riders,the civil rights activists who rode busesinto the Deep South in the 1960s to challenge Jim Crow practices that illegally forced Black people intosegregated seats and station waiting rooms.

But did you know that on May 14, 1961, a white mob surrounded one of the buses and set it on fire, nearly killing sevenRidersinside? When the bus arrived in Aniston, Alabama, about 50 white men crowdedit, smashing windows with crowbars, chains and brass knuckles, the glass raining down on those inside.

A man flashed a gun at Rider Genevieve Hughes, who tried to keep her eyes focused on the book in her lap.Someone took a knife and slashed the left front tire.

After about 20 minutes, local police (who had allowed the attack) cleared a path to let the bus continue. But after six miles, that front tire began to hiss. The bus pulled over. The chasing mob surrounded it again, demanding the riders get out or get gassed. A man lit a bundle of cloth, a firebomb, and threw it through a busted window. The bus was on fire.

Two men blocked the exit, yelling:Lets burn them alive.Lets burn them alive.

As a former seventh grade U.S. history teacher, Henderson knows the value of kids experiencing an event, not just reading about it.

"So me teaching students about World War II history is different than if I take my students to the Holocaust museum andthey get to experience what it was like to be back in those spaces. And that's what AR does very well. It puts you in the spaces so that you can experience these things for yourself."

In our AR experience, "A dangerous ride on the road to freedom," Henderson narrates the storywith the help offirst-person memories from Hank Thomas, who was on that bus 60 years ago. He was 19 and not planning on going, but his roommate got sick and Thomas took his place.

"By accident, I became a Freedom Rider," Thomas remembers in a story by Melissa Brown.

Experience it in augmented reality: A dangerous journey with Freedom Riders on the road to equal rights

He explains what it was like when the bus pulled over for the tire, and the mob surrounded it again: "Many of them had just come from church, good Christian people who brought their children with them to watch the Freedom Riders get killed."

Then the flaming rag came through the window. The seats caught fire.

As the flamesspread, Thomas talks about making a choice: Does he die from the smoke filling the bus or at the hands of the Klan?

Experiencingthe 1961 scenein AR today, Henderson started asking himself the same questions, "What would I do? Would I want to just succumb to the smoke or would I want to get the heck off the bus?

"You hear the gunshots and see the bullet holes in the glass window," he said. "You hear that aburning rag is being thrown on the bus and then turnaround and findthat there's this ever-growing fire."

And that's what made this so moving.

"Just understanding that there will be a whole generation of people who this might be their first entry into civil rights or into who the Freedom Riderswere. And they'll be able to share that experience along with Hank. Thatwas super emotional to me, that was like the epitome of building empathy and masterful storytelling."

I hope you'll try out this AR experience as well, part of our series called "Seven Daysof 1961," which looks at seven pivotal protests thatset in motion a new era of civil rights.It's painfulbut so important to our understanding of the hatred and struggle and sacrificethat hasbrought us to this moment in our history.

All you need is your smartphone.Here is what to do:

We look back at Jan. 11, when rioters gathered outside the dorm room of Charlayne Hunter-Gault, one ofthe first Black students at the University of Georgia, which stillresisted integration seven years after the Supreme Courts Brown v. Board of Education decision.

We take you to the scene of Black students arrested while trying to eat at a whites-only lunch counter on Jan. 31, Black students arrested for using the public library on March 27, and the Freedom Ride of May 14, that ended in a fire on the side of the road.

Next, you'll join more than 100 students who, on Oct.4,walked out of Burglund High in Mississippi to protest racial injustice. Their work helped rally young people across the South. You'll learn why hundreds ofBlack and white college studentsfrom across the Northeast flocked to Baltimore and Annapolis on Nov. 11 to conduct sit-ins at segregated restaurants.

And you'll understand theimpact of Dec. 15,when 1,500 Black college students protestedthe arrests of 23 peers for picketing outside segregated stores the day before. Four years later, their Supreme Court case secured First Amendment rights for future protesters.

At our news meeting Wednesday, as shetalkedabout the responsefrom those who shared their stories.

"Theyappreciate the fact that USA TODAYis even doing this,that we are respecting the work that they've done, respecting the fact that theydidn't always get the credit and the props that they deserve. Some of them don't think they even deserve it now."

Her voice caught when she shared an email from a friend and former journalist Wiley Hall that said,"Journalism is the first draft of history. You and your colleagues at USA TODAYare showing that good journalism can do the rewrites too,when the first couple of draftsget it wrong."

We hope you'll take some time with this very special project, whether it's the stories, the videos, the podcasts, the graphic novel, the AR experience or watching one of the three online events where veterans told their stories in real time.

"Wecan play a role in correcting history or enhancing history or offering readers a better, a clearer view of history," Berry said. "And not just from our perspective of telling it, but from their perspectives."

Backstory: USA TODAY investigation reveals a stunning shift in the way rain falls in America

Backstory: How Reviewed experts pick products and deals for shoppers (sometimes they set things on fire)

Nicole Carrollis the editor-in-chief of USA TODAY. Reach her at EIC@usatoday.com orfollow her onTwitterhere.Support journalism like this subscribe to USA TODAYhere.

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Inside, the bus filled with smoke. Outside, a mob waited to attack. What do you do? Go inside a Freedom Ride. - USA TODAY

To the editor: Thank you for your editorial on self-determination and mental illness in the context of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, the 1967 law on treating mentally ill people in California. I practice as a nurse caring for adults and children who are hospitalized on involuntary holds.

I strongly agree with your conclusion that the problem with the LPS Act is not that it goes too far in protecting self-determination but, rather, the nonexistence of a system for community-based care or permanent supportive housing.

Last month, UCLA researchers published a study of LPS conservatorship among homeless adults with severe, disabling mental illness. We found there is a serious bottleneck effect in psychiatric hospitals, where individuals who are stabilized have very lengthy stays because there is nowhere else for them to go. The only options are to keep people in locked, restrictive settings, or to turn them out to the streets. There is almost nothing in between.

This leads to two serious problems. First, individuals with severe, disabling mental illness who are under conservatorship are unable to transition to community-based living, even when they are stabilized and ready for a lower level of care.

Second, psychiatric hospitals filled with individuals on LPS holds or conservatorships cannot function as intended stabilizing acute psychiatric emergencies. This, then, has backlog effects on hospital emergency rooms, where individuals experiencing psychiatric emergencies end up stuck for days or even weeks.

I see an immediate need for expanding community-based mental health services, less restrictive residential treatment centers and permanent supportive housing. I dont believe that further undermining the self-determination of people with mental illness is the solution.

Kristen Choi, Los Angeles

The writer is an assistant professor at the UCLA School of Nursing and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

..

To the editor: You are correct that the failure of the LPS Act is largely due to the unwillingness of the government to provide the facilities and staff necessary to accommodate housing and care for these needy people.

But you dont state that this funding has been available in many communities and has been diverted to the law enforcement empire. The idea that jails should be the destination for people in a mental health crisis is counterintuitive but politically sellable.

In addition, the public health departments are not without fault. Too often they agree to such plans (and even staff them to a small degree) because they do not want the burden of caring for difficult clients. They fill up their available treatment beds with the most amenable patients and then turn away the hard cases, who end up in jail.

We need not only more funds for this critical humanitarian chore, but also the political will to accept that involuntary detention in a non-criminal facility may be appropriate.

Glen Mowrer, Santa Barbara

The writer served as the Santa Barbara County public defender for 24 years.

..

To the editor: As an LPS conservator for 10 years, I applaud The Times for bringing attention to our failure to provide support for seriously mentally ill people.

There are many erroneous beliefs about the rehabilitative efficacy of medications, acute hospitalizations and brief psychological and social therapies. Most mental health workers are underpaid, and long-term residential facilities and programs are severely rationed.

Changing this requires not only more funds, but also the recognition that psychosis is a disease like cancer, and its victims deserve the appropriate care.

Charles Healy, Los Angeles

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Why freedom for mentally ill people isn't the problem - Los Angeles Times

In places where governments are smaller, taxes are lower, regulations are lighter and property rights are more secure, people tend to be more generous, trustful and tolerant. Although progressives may find this proposition hard to accept, theres an ever-increasing stack of empirical evidence to support it.

John Hood

Consider a recent study published inThe Independent Review. Comparing the scores of 145 countries on the Fraser Institutes Economic Freedom of the World Index to an index of private giving and volunteering, authors Lawrence McQuillan and Hayeon Carol Park found a strongly positive relationship. By itself, the freedom index explained 20 percent of the variance in charitable giving. Other studies by Swedish economists Niclas Berggren and Therese Nilsson show powerful connections between economic freedom and measures of social trust, mutual respect and tolerance.

To discover a correlation, however, is not necessarily to determine which way the causal arrows point. For example, there is already an extensive literature showing that freer economies tend to grow faster. Perhaps as free-market policies help places grow wealthier, their residents become more charitable. Or perhaps as places grow wealthier for other reasons, such as achieving high levels of education and innovation, they both become more charitable and more likely to adopt freedom-enhancing policies.

Still another possibility is that places where civil society is already thick, where healthy families and other private institutions help their residents build character and find meaning, citizens tend to be both more economically productiveandmore resistant to expansive government.

Its an interesting social-science puzzle. But for my colleagues and I at the John William Pope Foundation, it requires no ultimate solution. For us, its enough to know that freedom, human development, compassion and other important values are associated with each other. They form a virtuous circle. And over the past 35 years, the Pope Foundation has donated more than $200 million to nonprofits found at every point on that circle, from humanitarian relief and civic vitality to think tanks and educational institutions.

Our giving reflects the philosophy of our co-founder, retail pioneer John Pope. Self-reliance, self-confidence, and integrity are the keys to success, he said. Endurance is also critical, and the responsibility for success lies on the shoulders of the individual. Our virtuous-circle approach to philanthropy also reflects the wisdom of Americas Founders, whose fierce defense of freedom came not just from classical learning and Enlightenment principles but also from practical experience.

As George Washington put it, the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. But neither Washington nor his colleagues believed liberty was an all-encompassing good. They recognized as have prudent conservators of Americas classical-liberal revolution ever since that it will always prove fleeting unless its bundled with the complementary good of virtue.

Of course, the two values can also be in tension. When government respects our freedom to seek virtue, we may instead practice vice. Human beings are inherently flawed creatures vulnerable to temptations. Yielding to them can create the very adverse consequences for ourselves and others addiction, corruption, violence, child abuse and neglect that so often lead to demands for more government.

Thats why building and maintaining strong social institutions are so important. When we exercise our personal freedom within dense networks of families and other associations, we make better choices. Were nudged in the right direction by words loving or stern, by glances approving or reproachful, by examples inspiring or cautionary.

When the Pope Foundation invests in life-changing programs to combat poverty, illiteracy, addiction and homelessness, we help to create the conditions most likely to preserve freedom. And when we invest in thinkers, communicators, and institutions that strengthen the intellectual and moral case for freedom, we make it possible for more individuals to pursue their passions, live their best lives, and build virtue including, as it happens, the virtue of charity itself.

John Hood is president of the John William Pope Foundation and an author.

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JOHN HOOD COLUMN: Generosity and freedom go together - The Stanly News & Press | The Stanly News & Press - Stanly News & Press

In this Aug. 24, 2021, photo, security officer James White wears a mask as protesters hold signs during a Board of Education meeting in Castle Rock, Colo., to discuss the use of masks and other protective measures in Douglas County Schools. A federal judge issued a restraining order Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021, against the suburban Denver countys policy allowing parents to opt their children out of a mask mandate at schools, finding that the rule violates the rights of students with disabilities who are vulnerable to COVID-19. (AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via AP)

A milestone this week probably became the story of our lifetime, probably all of our lifetimes.

On Monday, Colorado health officials tallied 10,018 deaths across the state attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. The gruesome factoid came on the same day one year ago the United States administered its first non-trial vaccine against the pandemic. Also this week, the national death toll rolled past 800,000.

That was just the news. The story? Many of those deaths and millions more sickened by the virus, many for the rest of their lives, didnt have to happen.

My childhood pal Artie Gonzales, who died just days after being sickened by the virus, almost certainly would not have died had he been able to move up in line to get a vaccine last March.

My journalism school alum Laurence Washington would most likely still be here if hed been able to get the vaccine before he was exposed to the virus and fell mortally ill at the first of the year.

But as tragic as all our earlier losses were to the pandemic, its the losses that have come after that are so obscene.

They didnt have to happen. They dont have to happen. Theyre going to keep happening because of endless lies and disinformation that leaves millions of scientists, health professionals and the generally cognizant absolutely baffled.

In what was probably close to a real, live, get-the-Vatican-on-the-phone kind of miracle, just months after the pandemic virus was identified, America had a safe, working vaccine for it.

This really happened. I was there.

Just a few months later after it was proven safe, after it was proven effective we were able to give out the first dose a year ago. Then, the nation steamrolled enough for everybody just a few months after that.

Proven is the key word here. Its the same kind of proof that gets space ships loaded with humans into the void of space and back again, safely. Its the same kind of proof that almost everyone in the country runs toward when they get cancer, diabetes, a hernia, or even strep throat.

But because the nation has also been infected with Trump, failed science classes, Fox News, social media and myriad other maladies, a big enough swath of the state, and the nation, refuse to vaccinate and wear masks. And so our friends, neighbors and loved ones will just keep right on dying from COVID-19.

If ignorance, stupidity and stubbornness were a crime, the prisons would be even more overloaded than Colorados hospitals and ICU units. Sadly, we continue to allow the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers to impose the death penalty on the innocent and the naive.

This week, The Sentinel Editorial Board took Gov. Jared Polis to task for comments he made publicly about the pandemic emergency having ended (it has not ended) and for his continued dodging responsibility for a statewide mask mandate.

The editorial generated a mountain of comments, many of which signal what humanity is up against as misinformation, disinformation, lies and the ludicrous virally infect the minds too many.

Here are a few choice comments illustrating why the pandemic remains a deadly pandemic.

Misinformation: @JustAMom0610 You cannot be serious with this: Masks are not attire. They are medical devices proven to slow the spread of a pandemic So we can buy proven medical devices at Old Navy now? Got it.

Reality: The CDC and WHO have repeatedly proven that those infected, knowingly or not, wearing cloth or paper masks reduce the spread of their infection by about 50%, possibly more.

Misinformation: @HalllEvie Ive known at least a handful of people who got covid while masked and vaccinated, (masks) should be optional at this point.

Reality: Masks primarily protect others from infection, not the wearer. Had your handful of people been around others infected but masked, they would have been far less likely to become infected themselves.

Misinformation: @markmueller0 (The pandemic) has been over for awhile. As The governor said, its not their job to mandate what people wear. This is the last effort of those who have always wanted this to be the norm for years before covid.

Reality: It is the job of the state to protect the publics health. Local health officials have pleaded with the governor to impose a needed mask mandate. The local politics of this make compliance nearly impossible. The lack of a state mandate is primarily what has destroyed the Tri-County Health Department and will now cost taxpayers millions.

Disinformation: @BradyHaynes7 Good! Folks starting to act like adults again. If people are so terrified that they think they need a mask, they should go ahead and wear one. Its up to YOU to protect yourself. No one has the right to strip away someones autonomy because theyre scared. Thats ridiculous.

Reality: Masks protect others when infected people go into public places. While anti-maskers make it seem that it is they who should choose to not wear a mask while possibly infectious, they are actually choosing to infect, sicken and even kill innocent people whose only choice it is to quit their jobs and hide at home, or risk infection, illness and death.

Disinformation: @Bubba3310 Cloth and paper masks do not stop respiratory viruses. Its called science.

Reality: They actually do. Credible science has proven that for decades. Theres a reason physicians and nurses wear paper masks in hospitals and operating rooms. They work to protect others.

Misinformation: @KoshkaRoo (Polis is) one of the few democratic governors speaking common sense. People who need to wear masks can continue to do so, majority of people are safe we have vaccines and treatments thats our new normal.

Reality: Masks protect others from people who are in public and infected. The majority of people are not safe around infected people, especially, it appears, from the omicron variant. The vaccines and treatments so far have not kept Colorado hospitals from becoming overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients and may fail if the infections become even worse.

Misinformation @TraciAndreas Wear one if you want. Nobody is stopping you. You act like you need Daddy Governor to give you permission.

Reality: We need Daddy Governor to force people to wear masks in public so they do not infect others, knowingly or not.

Disinformation: @Dopebeatsdotnet None of us are doing that anymore. Didnt you get the memo?

Reality: Every county except Douglas County in the metro area currently has an indoor mask mandate, despite Polis refusal to impose one statewide. But without tougher compliance regulations, it may not work to reduce infections and the flood of patients into area hospitals.

Lie: @CatahoulaLD Masks are ignorant. Like the people who think they work against a virus.

Reality: Masks are proven over and over, using credible scientific methods of study, to reduce the rate of infection during an airborne virus pandemic, and subsequently, reduce sickness and deaths. Scientists and researchers not only have no reason to press false information into the world, but it would be anathema to their training and constitutions. Every credible doctor in the nation presses people to get the vaccine and follow proven anti-disease protocols because they work.

Disinformation: @007Guyver Many have lost all perception of risk but thats their problem. When rules are worthless and unjust, we are not only right to disobey them, we are obligated to do so.

Reality: This is not a war. No ones rights are impinged. This is not a political problem. Its a pandemic. Its a microorganism that is incredibly efficient at invading the human body and using it to reproduce and spread to other human hosts, primarily by breathing. In doing so, it has killed 10,018 Colorado residents so far, more than 800,000 people across the country, and millions more have been sickened, many of them disable for the rest of their lives. No one has the right to purposely or thoughtlessly sicken and kill others.

Disinformation: @sburke85 Masks dont do anything except maybe make you feel good. There is very little we can do about COVID.

Reality: The data, collected and reviewed scientifically, is unequivocal. Vaccination, masks and social distancing greatly reduce the risk of spreading infection. Vaccination greatly reduces the risk of hospitalization and death. Because of attitudes and viral commentary like this, much of it prompted by irresponsible political leaders and right-wing propaganda news sources, we have watched an opportunity to harness or outright end the pandemic slip through our fingers. It is however, not too late to vaccinate, mask up and end the worst part of the pandemic, rather than listen to people like this and perpetuate the pandemic for many more months, and even, possibly, years.

Follow @EditorDavePerry on Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or [emailprotected]

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PERRY: Lies and damned lies about masks, vaccines, the pandemic and 'freedom' are killing us in Colorado - Sentinel Colorado

APOLLO BEACH, Fla. Its been a deadly year for Floridas manatees between starvation on the East Coast, boat strikes and red tide.

Yet, wildlife experts are working hard to nurse several animals back to health including a young female manatee just released back into the wild Thursday at the Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach.

Two-year-old Baylo traded in her rehabilitation pool at ZooTampa where she spent two months, for the warm waters around the Teco Power Plant.

ZooTampa at Lowry Park

ZooTampa at Lowry Park

Baylo is one of the hundreds of manatees to be impacted by Tampa Bays large red tide bloom this past year.

Baylo was rescued on October 9 after suffering from neurological signs from red tide exposure in Long Bayou in St. Petersburg.

Statewide, FWC says red tide toxins have killed 49 manatees since January.

Thats what made the moment of releasing her so special.

FWC blames toxic red tide for killing at least 150 sea turtles and millions of tons of fish, which dolphins rely on for food.

Wildlife experts say manatees are impacted by red tide twofold because they not only eat the seagrass impacted by the toxins but they also breathe in the air as well.

Just over a week ago, Seaworld released another manatee named Ozzy at the same location in Apollo Beach. He also got sick from red tide toxins.

its definitely been tough but I think that makes our job and all of our volunteers' jobs more important. We need to be able to educate and do outreach and talk to our visitors, explained Lauren Goldsworthy Gomez of the Manatee Viewing Center.

Goldsworthy Gomez, her coworkers and partners at ZooTampa are spreading the message that it takes all of us to make a difference. Although red tide occurs naturally, fertilizer and runoff can make the blooms last longer and spread faster.

Dont get too caught up in the idea of Im not going to make a difference because you will. The little steps do make a difference. Just thinking about the fertilizer in your yard and how often you have to do that, and is it necessary. Its important to really think about the effects you make on the environment on a daily basis, explained Molly Lippincott of ZooTampa.

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Baylo the manatee regains freedom after sickness from red tide toxins - ABC Action News

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Talking about COVID-19 is a very touchy subject these days and it should be, given the tremendous physical and mental health risks it presents and the huge economic toll its taken.

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Our health-care system is stretched beyond means and I cant imagine the amount of stress doctors, nurses and support staff must be under so be sure to send them some love this Christmas season. Economically, you have to feel for those who lost their jobs, then were brave enough to start a business and now face losing it due to protective government policies.

The rise of variants may mean the virus is here to stay and so the tactics of the past may no longer work in the future. From what Ive personally witnessed, most of us are adapting our own ways to manage the risks and, for the most part, have had enough of the lockdowns and are seeking some form of normality with caution. This is something to keep in mind if worried about the potential economic impact of Omicron.

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But if people and companies have been able to adapt as safely as they can while getting back to business, there is no reason our government cant as well. That, however, means relinquishing some control, which can be a difficult thing to do, especially when it currently allows governments to undertake an agenda that completely ignores some deep-rooted flaws within our economy.

Specifically, many might not realize the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development forecasts Canada is, at best, expected to achieve real per capita GDP growth of only 0.7 per cent per year during 2020-2030, placing us dead last among advanced countries.

The reason behind Canadas showing is that our labour productivity and utilization are so poor that they are predicted to rank near the bottom versus our peers over the next 10 years and, even worse, finish in last place in the three decades beyond that. Think about that and then ask yourself if any of this was addressed this week in Finance Minister Chrystia Freelandss fiscal update?

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If the federal government is truly trying to build back better, why is this shockingly poor ranking in productivity and utilization not being explored and addressed? How is the climate-change-dominated agenda going to fix this? What about households who have gone all in on leveraged real estate speculation? Were now the fourth-highest indebted in the world at 108 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), according to BIS data. How susceptible are we to higher interest rates and how will this impact our currency as other central banks such as the United States Federal Reserve undertake their own policy changes?

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Essentially, we have turned into a culture of complacency with little to no incentives in place for the next generation to transform our economy into one that can compete and dominate globally. Our major urban centres are no longer affordable for young people and the jobs being offered are either working for the government or in sectors protected by oligopolies such as banking and telecommunication, which have a track record of putting dividends ahead of employees.

Investors should remember they have significantly more freedom, meaning you can allocate your capital to those regions offering more innovative growth. For example, we much prefer the U.S. banks to Canadian, since their registered investment adviser wealth management model is significantly better than our archaic one, which is dominated by banks and a commission-based Gordon Gekko stock brokerage model.

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We hope young Canadians dont catch on to this reality and start leaving to work in those jurisdictions offering a better standard of living, a more affordable one and allows them to build something of their own. Second chances dont come around often, just ask those of us in Alberta about oil and gas prices.

Perhaps there is a way for our government to use COVID-19 as a means to build back better, but it seems were facing more lockdowns, record spending on areas that have nothing to do with transforming our economy or helping our young people, and the potential for significant tax hikes.

Financial Post

Martin Pelletier, CFA, is a senior portfolio manager at Wellington-Altus Private Counsel Inc, operating as TriVest Wealth Counsel, a private client and institutional investment firm specializing in discretionary risk-managed portfolios, investment audit/oversight and advanced tax, estate and wealth planning.

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Investors should take advantage of the freedom they have to go where they want - Financial Post

The Tory rebels spout about slippery slopes, kneejerk emergency measures and a permanent change to the understanding of what liberty is (MPs back Covid passes in England amid large Tory rebellion, 14 December). They should read that great libertarian John Stuart Mill: The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

Its pretty clear that being complicit in the spread of Covid-19 to your fellow citizens is likely to do some of them harm, so restrictions on the behaviour of those who wilfully refuse to minimise the risk are not only justified, but are an essential act by any responsible government.Doug Maughan Dunblane, Stirling

I do think it is wrong to characterise rightwing Conservatives as freedom loving (Rebellious mood on Tory backbenches puts Boris Johnson on notice, 14 December). True, they like to promote certain limited sorts of freedom the freedom for people rather like themselves to do what they want without interference from pesky regulations, the freedom to spend their money and manage the economy as they would like, and so on.

But there are a lot of freedoms they have little interest in freedom from want, from squalor, from hunger, from disease, of assembly, of the courts, of movement and to settle in this country. These are instead to be dealt with through firm and strict regulation.Richard Williams Hove, East Sussex

Martha Spurrier (Who will stop human rights abuses if the government puts itself above the law?, 14 December) is absolutely right about this governments systematic dismantling of our freedoms. That is why the freedom and liberty claims by Tory MPs as the reason for voting against the new Omicron restrictions ring so hollow and mendacious.

If they were honest and sincere in their beliefs, they would not be sitting on their hands as this government trashes the Human Rights Act; disenfranchises citizens without a photo ID; criminalises protests; intends to abolish or at least dilute judicial review; removes protection from whistleblowers; and threatens to castrate the Electoral Commission. I wonder, too, how many of them consulted their constituents before making their decision? Michael Newman Shefford, Bedfordshire

I am relieved Labour supported Covid vaccine passes, and other plan B measures, in parliament, though a plan C is clearly also needed imminently. The bill passed but, as you report, nearly 100 Tories voted against: thats a large proportion of the partys backbenchers. The government now has to rely on Labour to get totally necessary health legislation through the Commons. Thats a damning indictment of the Tory party, and on Boris Johnsons leadership. Johnson is not leading anyone not his country, not even his party. Sebastian Monblat Sutton, London

I get why further restrictions might be needed, and why parliament should get to vote on them. But given that the restrictions are going to be about reducing mixing between people, how on earth can it make sense to drag 650 MPs from all over the country to vote in person? Or is our system so archaic that theyd have to vote in person on a decision to allow remote voting? Mark WalfordLondon

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The hypocrisy of those freedom-loving Tory rebels - The Guardian

As the Senate considers the Freedom to Vote Act, a new Texas law demonstrates the urgency of congressional action to protect voting rights. During anunprecedented yearfor restrictive voting legislation, TexasSenate Bill 1stands out as one of the cruelest and most aggressive restrictive voting bills to become law.

The sweeping voter suppression law makes it harder for voters with language barriers or disabilities to get help casting their ballots, restricts election workers ability to stop harassment by partisan poll watchers, and bans measures election officials adopted to protect voting access during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as drive-thru voting.

TheBrennan Center,Department of Justice, and other organizations have already sued over this targeted attack on Texas voters. In addition to S.B. 1, Texas has also enacted one of the most aggressively gerrymandered congressional maps in recent memory, which is also the subject of aDepartment of Justice lawsuit.

Ultimately, we cannot rely on the courts alone to protect Texas voters. Congress must step in to check state-level abuses, as theConstitution itself envisions. By instituting national standards for voter access and election administration in federal elections, theFreedom to Vote Actwould counteract the worst effects of S.B. 1 and ensure equal access to the vote for all Texas voters. And by strengthening protections against racial discrimination in voting and requiring states like Texas withdocumented histories of racial discrimination in votingto preclear all changes to their voting practices with the Department of Justice, theJohn Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Actcan help stop bills like S.B. 1 and other discriminatory conduct.

After a year in which amore diverse population than everrelied on voting by mail, S.B. 1 restricts mail voting in significant ways. The Freedom to Vote Act contains comprehensive provisions for mail voting that will preempt many of the laws restrictions and ensure all Texas voters have the option to cast their ballot by mail.

The first way S.B. 1 restricts mail voting is by making it more difficult to request a mail ballot. It requires all mail ballot applications to be signed with ink on paper, essentially banning online applications and the use of photocopied signatures. The law also bars election officials from sending mail ballot applications to eligible voters who do not request them and makes it a criminal offense for election officials to even encourage voters to request an application in most situations.

These onerous restrictions seem to be a response to efforts by local officials to make voting easier in Harris County, home to Houston, during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The Freedom to Vote Act would preempt these restrictions by requiring states to offer online mail ballot applications and barring states from prohibiting anyone from distributing mail ballot applications to eligible voters.

S.B. 1 also makes it harder for voters to return their mail ballots, requiring that they be delivered in person and physically received by an election official. This effectively bans the use of mail ballot drop boxes, which many voters relied on in 2020. The FTVA responds to this type of restriction by requiring states to offer voters multiple options for returning mail ballots, including drop boxes, at least one of which must be available 24 hours a day.

Finally, S.B. 1 makes it more difficult to have your mail ballot counted. The law requires voters to provide additional information on their mail ballots and ballot applications, such as the number on their drivers license or the last four digits of their social security number.

While S.B. 1 will allow many voters to correct errors in their mail ballots to ensure their vote is not thrown out, the process relies on election official discretion and relies on weak safeguards for voters. The Freedom to Vote Act requires much stronger protections. It bars states from rejecting mail ballots or applications due to minor errors that are not material to the voters eligibility and mandates a notice-and-cure process that achieves the same accuracy goals but with much stronger safeguards for voters, including requirements that election officials notify voters of errors with their ballots within one business day and allow voters to cure errors for up to three days after the mail ballot deadline.

In 2020, early voting was a rare area where Texas was better than many other states. To protect voter access during the Covid-19 pandemic, election officials in places like Harris County offered additional days of early voting and offered early voting at night. S.B. 1 rolls back many of those efforts to expand access to early voting. It prohibits early voting on state holidays some of whichmay fall close to primaries and limits the maximum hours of early voting election officials can offer on most days.

By contrast, the Freedom to Vote Act sets clear, strong national standards for early voting that would preempt S.B. 1: states must offer at least 10 hours of early voting each day for a period of at least 14 consecutive days before an election.

S.B. 1 empowers partisan poll watchers and restricts poll workers ability to remove them for causing disruptions. In a state with along historyof racially targeted voter intimidation, these provisions are particularly concerning. The law makes it a crime for election workers to refuse to accept credentialed watchers, expands watchers movement and observation rights at polling places, broadens the definition of obstructing a poll watcher, and grants watchers the right to observe the ballot transfer and tabulation processes, and restricts the ability of election workers to remove watchers for violations of certain election laws unless the election workers personally witness the conduct. S.B. 1 also expands poll watchers abilities to observe curbside voting, a process in Texas where voters with disabilities may vote from their cars.

Texas has acentury-long recordof voter intimidation by poll watchers, including several concerning incidents at polling places in 2020. And intimidation of election workers during the vote tabulation process was a major issueacross the countryin the days after the 2020 election. The Freedom to Vote Act blunts the effects of these provisions by curbing the opportunity for poll watchers to harass or intimidate voters and by granting voters, election officials, and election workers specific legal protections against intimidation, including a new, enforceable civil remedy.

In addition to S.B. 1, Texas has enacted one of theworst partisan gerrymandersso far this decade, seeking tolock in a partisan advantageanddisempower communities of colorin the face of rapid demographic change in the state. The Freedom to Vote Act willchange the landscape for redistrictingas well by establishing for the first time clear criteria for the drawing of congressional districts. It also bans partisan gerrymandering and adds new protections for communities of color.

The Freedom to Vote Act will not reach every restrictive provision in every state law due to theingenious natureofrestrictive voting laws, no federal statute could. This is why Congress must alsopass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This bill would restore the 1965 Voting Rights Acts preclearance requirement with a new coverage formula targeting states withdocumented historiesof racial discrimination in voting, including Texas. In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the old preclearance formula, which was one of our countrysmost effective civil rights protections.

The new law wouldstop discriminatory voting changesin states like Texas in their tracks. It would alsostrengthen Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a nationwide ban on voting policies with discriminatory effects that the Supreme Court weakened in 2021.

The ongoing assault on voting rights in Texas demonstrates the urgency of passing federal democracy reforms immediately. Texass primary elections, which are set to be conducted under the restrictive provisions of S.B. 1 and an extremely gerrymandered map, are only four months away.

By setting strong national standards for voter access, election integrity, and redistricting, the Freedom to Vote Act will go a long way towards minimizing partisan malfeasance in the election process. And perhaps more importantly, the provisions of the law that simply make it easier for all Americans to vote such as same-day registration, accessible drop boxes, and early voting remove the incentives for states to come up with ever more creative ways to suppress voters.

Originally posted here:

How the Freedom to Vote Act Can Blunt the Worst of Texas's Voter Suppression Law - brennancenter.org