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The Contents of this page are not part of the Democrats of Cumberland County page. The views expressed here are the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of anyone involved with the Democratic Party

If there is anything you have to say to the world this is the place. E-mail any comments to me (Steve Gordon). I'll get them up on the site as soon as possible.

Contents

Comprehensive Plan
Promises kept Death with Dignity
John Nichols  on Strom Thurmond
Ed Democracy on Party Building
Wal-Mart   Labor Rights Campaign

Dear visitor to this site. I posted material to this soap box page. I did not imply that Ed Kearny's opinion was representative of the Democratic Party or myself. All I hoped to do was to stimulate some lively debate. Chair, Dottie Melanson asked me to remove the material which I have just accomplished. I apologize if  I offended anyone. It was definitely not my attempt. I still welcome material for this Page.

                 Steve 

From the Democratic National Committee

With Pay Equity, Working Women In Maine Would Earn Thousands More Per Year. If the wage

ranking its gender wage gap 21 st in the country. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, one of the members of Bush’s

simply false that in an ideal world men and women would have equal incomes." [AFL-CIO and IWPR, "Equal

Mothers. Eliminating the gender wage gap in Maine would also reduce the number of single

mother households living in poverty from 23.3 percent to 16.0 percent. [AFL-CIO and IWPR, "Equal

in Maine. Bush’s budget could cut up to 46.4 percent from the Small Business Administration to help

according to the latest available data (1992), 32.2 percent of businesses were owned by women. [IWPR,

Caucus, Black Caucus and DPC, 3/15/01; Small Business Administration fact sheet, www.sba.gov]

Disproportionately Affect Women Workers. In November 2000, OSHA issued regulations on

Bush signed. [WP, 3/21/01; NYT, 11/18/00, 3/7/01; LAT, 3/7/01; OSHA, "Preventing Work-Related Musculoskeletal

 
FYI.  My recommendation to the Campaign for a Comprehensive Plan (a.k.a. The Munjoy Hill 10).


Subject: DECLARE VICTORY AND GO HOME!
Date:    Fri, 16 Mar 2001 23:16:40 "GMT"

I have carefully read the proposed:

NEIGHBORHOOD BASED PLANNING SYSTEM

drafted by Nathan Smith and announced at a press conference at City Hall yesterday.

It is better than what the people of Portland will be voting on May 1st!  Bill Dobrowlsky said he was going to get Neighborhood Planning Units and he did ... BIG TIME!

The vote on May 1st is now about restrictions (PERIOD).  They have out
strateegerized you! (...strateegery...)

You need whatever scarce political capital you have now for the waterfront and mobilizing people to actively participate in this new Neighborhood Based Planning System (and in making sure it gets adopted).

I want what is the best possible live option for the people of Portland and their future.  You are not prepared to lead that fight.  To try to do so would be counterproductive at present.

Be magnanimous in victory!  Give credit where credit is due!  Fix the problem, not the blame!

DECLARE VICTORY AND GO HOME!  Then prepare to follow through on what you have started.

I enjoyed meeting all of you and look forward to working with you in putting people and housing 1st in planning Portland's future.

Thank you.

Ed Democracy

Peace!  Out!


 

PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT: MAINE 2000

Darlene looks forward with great hope to the time when her promise to her father will be fulfilled. This will happen one of two ways. First, the legislature will enact the Maine Death with Dignity Act, or Second, and more likely, it will be sent to Maine voters in November 2000. Darlene looks forward with great hope to the time when her promise to her father will be fulfilled. "I take my promises very seriously," she says, "and I can’t move on until this is done. I feel like it will close a chapter in my life."

For more information on Mainers for Death with Dignity, contact Darlene Grover at 773-5322.

Clinton can't hold a candle to Thurmond

Organized crime families have an ironic habit of talking about "duty'' and "honor'' and
then ordering the execution-style slayings of people they don't get along with.

But when it comes to irony, they can't beat the U.S. Senate.

Senators have been stumbling over themselves for weeks to indicate that, although they
are not sure about whether they want to actually overturn the results of the 1996
presidential election, they definitely think that Bill Clinton is a very bad role model for
America's children.

By all accounts, the senators are agreed that the president's relationship with Monica
Lewinsky and his inability to discuss it frankly was indeed -- to quote Clinton ally Dale
Bumpers -- "indefensible, outrageous, unforgivable and shameless.''
Fair enough.
But, if we're talking "indefensible, outrageous, unforgivable and shameless,'' Clinton
really is a disappointing role model.
If the senators are looking for a target for their disgust, they'll have to put aside this
whole impeachment thing, forget about Bill Clinton and focus their attention squarely on
a real champion in the indefensible department: Strom Thurmond.
The oldest person ever to have served in the U.S. Senate, Thurmond has spent 96 years
building a case for his removal from public service. And, frankly, he's got Clinton beat by
a mile.
The issue isn't Thurmond's age. There's something almost charming about a man who
dyes his hair transplant plugs orange and carries a 4-by-6 inch card that reminds him
what day it is.
No, the issue is what Thurmond did with all those years. As the senator's biographers,
Jack Bass and Marilyn Thompson, note, "Until George Wallace of Alabama came along,
no one symbolized resistance to civil rights for African-Americans more than
Thurmond.''
But don't trust Bass and Thompson. Consider Thurmond's own words from his 1948
States Rights Party campaign for the presidency. "On the question of social
intermingling of the races, our people draw the line,'' he declared. "And all the laws of
Washington and all the bayonets of the army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our
schools, our churches, and our places of recreation and amusement.''

In 1956, Thurmond wrote the first draft of the racist "Southern Manifesto'' that former
U.S. Sen. Albert Gore, D-Tenn. -- who refused to sign the document -- described as "a
dangerous, deceptive propaganda move which encouraged Southerners to defy the
government and to disobey its laws.''
When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law, Thurmond declared, "This is a tragic day
for America.''
In 1974, when the Senate debated renewal of the Voting Rights Act, Thurmond described
that law, which cleared hurdles to participation in the electoral process by
African-Americans, as "unfortunate'' and "an unconstitutional piece of legislation.''
Much is made these days of the fact that Thurmond no longer actively campaigns for a
return to the rigid system of racial segregation that he spent the majority of this century
defending. But, when asked recently if he agreed with George Wallace's assessment that
the Southern crusade against civil rights was "wrong,'' Thurmond responded: "I don't
have anything to apologize for. I don't have any regrets.''
This week, senators will talk a great deal about their "responsibility'' to hold Bill Clinton
accountable for his actions and statements. Yet, if the pattern holds, they will evidence
no willingness to hold accountable for his actions and statements one Strom Thurmond --
a man who, after the death of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., declared that
African-Americans were "altogether unfit to associate with the white race.''

Now that's irony.

John Nichols is the editorial page editor of The Capital Times.

In-Box
From: "Edward J. Democracy" <edemoc71@mail.caps.maine.edu> Save Address Block Sender
To: dorothy@maine.rr.com,
stevogordo@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 03:24:22 -0500
Subject: Feedback CCDC Goals

Hi!

Would appreciate your thoughts on these goals. Looking forward to
talking with you about partybuilding.
Thank you.
Ed Democracy

TO: Members of the Cumberland County Democratic Committee
(CCDC)
FROM: Edward J. Johnson, Democratic State Committee (DSC)
member, Cumberland County
RE: CCDC Goals
DATE: 26 September 1990

The CCDC DSC delegation has been meeting fairly regularly since we
were elected in June at the Convention in Presque Isle. We have
been meeting to develop an active, working relationship among
ourselves, and, to focus our enthusiasm and ideas. There is a
consensus among us to provide a strong, active link between the DSC
and the CCDC. At our last meeting we decided that we could begin by
acting as catalysts for discussions on goals for the CCDC. We each
agreed to come back with some proposed goals. The goals I propose
are as follows and, at this point, they have not been differentiated
by priority, i.e. short-term, medium-term, long-term, etc.:

1.) DEMOCRATIC COUNTY HEADQUARTERS:
We should have an office in which to meet and work. An office
would also, ideally, provide high visibility for the Democratic
Party. There should be some excellent bargains on office space in
this area at least for the next year or two while the economy and the
real estate market cool down.

2.) INFORMATION MANAGEMENT:
-We should develop and maintain a VOTER LIST for all of
Cumberland County.

3.) VOTER REGISTRATION: (annual voter registration drive)

4.) MEMBERSHIP/RECRUITMENT:
-outreach to schools -scholarship program -What's in it for me?!?
-Define and enumerate the actual tangible benefits of participation
in the Democratic Party (e.g.social and political contacts,
educational experience)

5.) FUNDRAISING:
-$25,000 per year (MINIMUM!) -four or five fundraisers per year -
food booths at major events
-one major county-wide mailing per year (this would also come under
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT as it would be essential for list
maintenance)
-work with other organizations to create our OWN major annual
event (rivalling Deering Oaks Festival!) If Republicans can do it
so can we!

6.) CANDIDATE/ELECTIONS COORDINATION:
-maintain structure for coordination of campaign functions to
minimize duplication of efforts, maximize resources and
facilitate party unity

7.) INVOLVEMENT IN COMMUNITY AND ISSUES:
-get involved in municipal government
-get involved in community issues (e.g. environmental
protection/conservation, solid waste management, affordable
housing, advocacy for the disadvantaged, help people "fight city
hall", etc..)

8.) DSC AND LOCAL PARTICIPATION:
-Make use of County Chair's designee to represent Chair at DSC and
Caucus of County Chairs (CCC) meetings.
-Elect active, committed, talented people to DSC
-We must build Town & City Committees if we are to achieve these
goals and rebuild the Democratic Party at the grassroots.

9.) PLANNING, PLANNING, PLANNING!!!:
-coordinate with DSC's newly created planning process
-make use of people, such as Don Nicoll, right here in Cumberland
County with expertise in planning and willingness to lend that
expertise to building the Democratic Party (NOTE: Don Nicoll is a
former Executive Director of the Maine Democratic State Committee,
has worked for Senator Muskie, now has firm which does planning
consulting, and just this summer conduct a weekend planning
retreat at Bowdoin College for the incoming Democratic State
Committee)-this process is essential if we are to develop
consensus on goals and direction for the CCDC

10.) ANNUAL COUNTY-WIDE CANVASS: (voter contact -voter
registration -voter list update -fundraising)


Labor Rights Campaign Focuses on Wal-Mart

Inside walls topped by barbed wire, young girls in thousands of factories
around the world work 15-hour shifts seven days a week for 10 to 12 cents an
hour. The National Labor Committee has kicked off a two-year People’s Right
to Know Campaign — A Call for Corporate Disclosure focused on Walmart.
The Committee wants Wal-Mart to provide the American people with a list of
the factories it uses so customers can know the conditions under which
Wal-Mart’s products are made.

Last year Wal-Mart’s operating profit was $7.6 billion. The wealth of the
Walton family of Wal-Mart is now greater than that of almost half the
American people — $50 billion.

In 1996, Disney CEO Michael Eisner made $189,700,000. Two days of his
salary would have sufficed to more than double the yearly salary of all Disney
workers in Haiti, who now live in abject poverty. The Haitian women who make
Disney’s Pocahontas pajamas make seven cents for each pair, or one-half of
one percent of the $11.97 Wal-Mart sells them for.

December 10th is the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. On that day there will be vigils in front of Wal-Marts demanding that
Wal-Mart recognize fundamental labor rights.

Concerned consumers are urged to call, fax or write to Wal-Mart on
December 18 and January 29: David Glass, CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 702
S.W. 8th St., Bentonville, Arkansas, 72716, Tel 800 WAL-MART, Fax 501
273-4894.

FMI: National Labor Committee, 212 242-3002, Web site:
http://www.nlcnet.org.