Category Archives: Heroes
The Island of Two Tales — Part Two
TWO: Twists & Gimmicks, but No Nude Beaches
When I landed on Nantucket in the fall of 1976, I had a head full of the [American] Revolution, enough cash for a cramped bedroom in an unfashionable boardinghouse, but no nanny. So my two daughters, Annika (self-nicknamed “Kiki,”) age 7 and Molly, a precocious 4, were back in San Francisco with their mother, from whom I was quietly getting divorced.
To Be Sure We Remember Dr. King’s Murder, DeSantis Secretly Signs New No Permit Guns-For-All Bill
April 4 is the 55th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1968 assassination in Memphis.
To mark this melancholy occasion, Florida governor Ron DeSantis reportedly wanted to do something very special. So . . . .
DeSantis signs Florida gun bill in secret as activists demand more guns for all
(Only NRA invited to secret ceremony. News of the signing was released to the Fox [Firearms & Shooter Protection News] Network)
(Politico) The new legislation will allow residents to carry guns without a state permit. Gun-rights supporters had sought even looser restrictions permitting open carry.
Florida becomes the 26th state to allow residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit. The new legislation gives DeSantis another victory to tout as he gears up for an expected presidential campaign.
“Here in the free state of Florida, government will not get in the way of law-abiding Americans who want to defend themselves and their families,” said state Sen. Jay Collins, a Tampa Republican and sponsor of the legislation.
While DeSantis and other Republican backers have described the legislation as “constitutional carry,” supporters of gun rights have repeatedly called on GOP legislators to go further by allowing people to carry guns openly.
DeSantis has said he supports open carry, but top Republicans in the state Senate — including Senate President Kathleen Passidomo — oppose such a policy. Passidomo has cited the opposition of many of Florida’s sheriffs as a prime reason for her stance.
“The governor is weak if he cannot even get his own super majority legislature to add part of his agenda, which is open carry, to the permitless carry bill,” said Matt Collins, a gun rights supporter and former lobbyist for gun-rights groups. “It’s embarrassing for him. It’s failed leadership and it hurts his chances in the upcoming presidential primary.”
Democrats, meanwhile, sharply criticized the approval of the gun measure.
“Hiding behind closed doors and standing shoulder to shoulder with the NRA, Ron DeSantis just signed legislation that could make it easier for criminals to carry guns,” Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement. “DeSantis knows this legislation could be dangerous for Florida families and that’s why he signed this bill with none of his usual produced fanfare.”
The White House called the governor “shameful” for signing the bill following the Nashville school shooting.
“This is the opposite of commonsense gun safety,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “The people of Florida — who have paid a steep price for state and Congressional inaction on guns from Parkland to Pulse Nightclub to Pine Hills — deserve better.”
Florida law currently makes it a felony if someone carries a concealed weapon without a permit. There are more than 2.6 million people with concealed weapon licenses who must go through training and a background check first.
The new law, which takes effect on July 1, does not end the permitting program but instead makes it optional. Bill supporters contend many Floridians will go through the permitting process because other states recognize the licenses.
State Sen. Lauren Book, the Senate Democratic leader, also faulted Republicans for pushing ahead with what she called a “nonsensical, reckless policy” due to the “governor’s political ambition.”
A Gay Quaker’s Unexpected Encounter With A Catholic Mystic Saint
[NOTE: For those, like this blogger, who is taking a spring break from indictment chatter until indictments really happen (if they do), this passage from a talk given in 1998 by the late Friend Bill Kreidler, is meant to help us cope with our withdrawal symptoms via distraction.]
Bill Kreidler: It was about eight years ago (late 1980s, in Boston) that I started to learn the value of spiritual storytelling. I was in a very low period in my life. Part of this low period involved a serious alcohol and drug problem; and finally in desperation I called up a Quaker lesbian I knew was in recovery and asked her to take me to an AA meeting.
I didn’t know what would happen at an AA meeting, so on the subway ride there she explained that people tell their stories. They tell about their drinking, what led them to it, and they tell about hitting bottom and about finding their way out in recovery. Continue reading A Gay Quaker’s Unexpected Encounter With A Catholic Mystic Saint
Nicholas Kristof: how a “Barefoot College” is Empowering Some of the Least Powerful in India
[NOTE: Nick Kristof was one of the New York Times’s most intrepid foreign correspondents, reporting from one far distant, demanding locale after another for 37 years, as often writing from obscure, out-of-the-spotlight places as from front-page hotspots. He was also notoriously upbeat and public-spirited, always digging for signs of hope and even tiny green shoots of progress in some of the most troubled places. Along the way, he collected not one but two Pulitzer prizes.
Continue reading Nicholas Kristof: how a “Barefoot College” is Empowering Some of the Least Powerful in India