Pin the Tail

Margaret Cho blogs about the journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling in an entry on her blog called Let My People Go:

I am very concerned about Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the American journalists for Current TV who just got sentenced to 12 years in a North Korean labor camp. It’s alarming and terrible. I could easily see myself in their position. You are trying to do your job and then you get caught up in something huge and unstoppable.

But this is a serious situation. I am not sure if people see Euna Lee and Laura Ling as American, but they are just as American as the notion of freedom of speech. Let my people go!

She directs people to Feministing and Angry Asian Man for pointers on how to speak out against the imprisonment of Euna Lee and Laura Ling.

There seems to be very little in the news about this scary situation. This is really disturbing.

To add some sinister perspective to this awful matter of a targeted capture of the two Asian American women journalists, please read the LA Weekly piece about their colleague, Mitchell Koss, who was very briefly detained alongside Ling and Lee– but quickly released by the Chinese. Koss has been silent about the experience: Laura Ling and Euna Lee Face Silence

IU’s Director of Diversity Education and I visited WFHB’s African-American News & Public Affairs program, Bring It On!

We were interviewed by Beverly Callender-Anderson and Jim Sims about the Loving Day Celebration at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.

Enjoy listening: Bring It On! June 22, 2009

Two local residents reflect on the impact of a landmark civil rights case on their own lives. Sophia Travis and Eric Love are both children of interracial marriages, so for them the 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia is personal. This decision legalized interracial marriage and ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. Loving Day celebrations commemorate the anniversary of Loving v. Virginia. Bloomington’s celebration is examined along with the broader implications of the Loving v. Virginia decision. Also in this program: our featured musical artist is the legendary Booker T. Jones, who has just recorded his first solo album in twenty years. Hear an exclusive interview with Booker T. recorded on-location at last weekend’s Bonnaroo Festival by WFHB music director Jim Manion. As always Bring It On!

Incidentally, did you all know that Book T. Jones is an Indiana University School of Music alum? He talks about his days in Bloomington with Jim Manion!!

Here’s an article about redevelopment in Los Angeles, an interesting read about redevelopment and subsidizing of development: localities-aid-developers-but-critics-cry-bailouts-usatodaycom.pdf

The Monroe County Redevelopment Commission meets today in the Nat U. Hill Room, County Courthouse, 3:30pm: tuesauditorecopy-exchange-06182009-152036.pdf

Here is a memo about a project plan that members of the RDC received via e-mail: project-pan-rdc-memo.pdf

The previous entry on pin-the-tail has some valuable commentary from County Councilman Geoff McKim about the cash reserves that loom large while the Council tackles a quagmire of budgetary issues. McKim diligently outlines the nature of several pots of money that constitute the cash reserves.

What does this mean for the taxpayers of Monroe County?

What does this mean to the employees of Monroe County Government? Especially those whose salary lines are being looked at by the County Council towards a purported “effort” to make county government “smaller” or “more efficient?”

And is this what Democrats do? Sounds pretty weird, much more like the Indiana Outsourcer-in-Chief-Governor if you ask me.

The reported cash reserves have not been investigated substantively by the mainstream media. I learned about the cash reserve figure at the Parks Board meeting on Wednesday and have been getting my mind around it. The Auditor’s Chief Financial Officer provided that update, basic information, to a team of department heads who had met earlier in the day in order to discuss the volumious list of instructions in the Council budget letter.

An aside: traditionally the Auditors of county government have advertised the annual budget “high.” That’s in order to have some ability to maintain or increase line items (particularly in the event of raises for salary.)

It’s not procedurally difficult to cut lines– just politically very difficult. It takes a majority/supermajority (if I remember correctly) of the County Council to raise salary lines that have been cut or zeroed.

Departments/Department Heads have been diligently identifying where they would take cuts if need be. In my opinion, budgets should be submitted at last year’s levels, potential cuts notated— but the actual cutting conducted by the County Council. Again, the budget could be advertised high…

I hope very much to hear that the Council finds a way to keep people employed. Personally, I feel there is a moral obligation to maintain the jobs and benefits, that the Council should lobby state legislators, and come up with a grounded plan to spend down cash reserves. The reserves being taxes, monies, that have been collected from the citizens for services.

LOVING DAY Celebration, Time of Reflection on the Anniversary of Loving v. Virginia (1967)

Loving Day celebrations commemorate the anniversary of Loving v. Virginia (1967), the Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage in the United States. Loving Day fights racial prejudice through education and builds multicultural community.

Come to The Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, Bridgwaters Lounge on Friday, June 12th. 5:30-7:30pm, for a time of reflection and conversation about Loving Day and the significance of this date to the diverse people of Bloomington and Monroe County.

In tandem with the Indiana University Office of Diversity Education, an invitation to the public is extended for an opportunity to acknowledge Loving Day.

Sophia Travis, local musician and former local elected office holder, says this about Loving Day, “When my parents married in the 1960’s, anti-miscegenation laws still declared their marriage illegal in several states. The laws were overturned when I was two years old,” and, “the significance of this reality bears exploration and acknowledgment still today.”

Director of the Office of Diversity Education, Eric Love, shares a kindred story in which he describes, “Upon returning to the United States from a tour of duty in England, in the 1960’s, my parents were expressly not stationed at military bases where the laws still existed.” Love has frequently spoken about Loving Day and Loving v. Virginia with IU students and colleagues in the community. He will be on hand for a portion of the Loving Day time of reflection with some of his students.

Thanks to the Loving decision, laws against interracial marriage were declared unconstitutional and interracial marriage became a part of our civil rights in 1967.

Lemonade and light refreshments will be served. All are welcome. The event is free.

Birthday today!

Indiana Coalition for the Arts has this message alert— which was forwarded to me from the City of Bloomington’s Miah Michaelson, Arts Economic Development Director:

Governor’s New Budget AGAIN Slashes the Arts by 50%
Contact your Legislators Now!
As you may know, Governor Mitch Daniels rejected the budget the Indiana Legislature presented to him at the end of April. In both the House and Senate versions of the budget, the Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) was treated fairly, with an 8% cut like other state agencies. This was in response to Governor Daniels initial budget proposal which would have slashed the IAC’s budget by 50%!

All of us who understand the value of the arts were shocked that the Governor would ignore the message sent by both Houses, by legislators on either side of the aisle. That message is the arts in our state need to be treated fairly when it comes to governmental support as they are a vital piece of the solution to our economic downturn and highly valued by our citizens.

You can take action by clicking on this link and accessing the Coalition’s “take action” set up in order to send a message to the Governor, the Lt. Governor, and state representatives: Indiana Coalition for the Arts

I’ve been summoned for jury duty. I called to check in today and was greeted by a very pleasant and nice voice. I learned that my duty won’t likely require my presence until later in the month.

In filling out a questionnaire that came with my jury summons I had to checklist whether or not I’ve been involved in a lawsuit. And, why yes, I have!

Remember this? groups-opposed-to-i-69-extension-lose-lawsuit-aimed-at-blocking-road_-heraldtimesonlinecom.pdf

If you visit the Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads website you can read some more current news from, and about, opponents of I-69.

I KNEW it– and I have asked questions and wondered aloud about such a possibility many times…and thanks to a tip from an insider, I’ve got something very interesting for folks to think about: Affordable housing in a Tax Increment Finance District? Why not?

Here you go: tif-funding-affordable-housing.pdf

I just bumped into Chaim Julian, the champion of Democracy for Monroe County.

He was strolling to lunch and I was hanging about the street corner with Baby Finn– entertaining the baby boy in the midst of lunch at Falafels (a yummy place by the way.) We gabbed. He reports that the next DFMC meeting will be a forum of County Council people. How much you wanna speculate it will be Kelson, McKim and Thomas? Do inquiring minds want to know or care?

I complained that it’s hard to pin-the-tail and capture the nuances and shadows of what is going on in County Government as an outsider. It’s not particularly fun and it doesn’t even qualify as good gossip. And I’m not compelled to write any dish if it seems that Councilors are guarded about what they say. There is little to muse about. You can scan plain old-fashioned reporting in the local “real” newspaper. Why should I report precisely what is reported by the HT? Bleh.

And blogging about conversations held in passing with electeds is no fun– and it holds no utility for anyone seeking a little more insight because those conversations have the usual boilerplate answers: “We’re waiting until the next meeting, we’re waiting for projections, etc.”

So, for the time being, if you feel like checking in now and again, I’ll blog about Redevelopment Commission from time to time. As I write, a meeting is aiming to be scheduled for a “shovel ready” type of inventory application administered by the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation. I’ve asked a lot of questions via email. Some have been answered. Most of my questions are prompts for larger discussions to take place: Why is Monroe County in the business of developing greenspace? That is the crux of the question(s) I am asking as an appointee to the body.

Other pin-the-tail topics about which I can blog in the future— with firsthand knowledge and insight:

Karst Farm Park Playscape Steering Committee
County Parks & Recreation Board
Futures Family Planning Clinic Committee

Again, finding the rhythm with which to blog about those latter activities is taking me some time. It’s not the same as blogging with a Councilperson’s hat atop my head 24-7.

Now, something a bit unrelated, speaking as an insider– in the news the other day, beneath the HT article about county council reducing staffing (YUCK!), there was an article about the “swath of racist graffiti found south of the city…”

There is a swath near my home, within walking distance. It’s bad. It’s really bad stuff. These incidents, however isolated or strange, do not recommend Monroe County, or the State of Indiana, as a “nice place to live.”