Month: February 2015

Categories
Today

Scharansky freed

On Feb. 12, 1986, Soviet human rights activist Anatoly Scharansky was released after spending eight years in Soviet prisons and labor camps. The amnesty deal was arranged at a summit meeting between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan. Scharansky had been imprisoned for his campaign to win the right for Russian Jews, forbidden to practice Judaism in the USSR, to emigrate.

On Feb. 12, 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.

On Feb. 12, 1593, approximately 3,000 Korean defenders led by General Kwon Yul successfully repelled more than 30,000 invading Japanese forces in the Siege of Haengju.

Categories
ballot access initiative, referendum, and recall

Black Mark for Brown

“The outrage over the Brown Bill, and it is outrage,” wrote The Argus Leader’s Jonathan Ellis, “is being voiced across the political spectrum.”

The Brown Bill, Senate Bill 166, is legislation introduced by South Dakota State Sen. Corey Brown (R‑Gettysburg) to nearly double the number of signatures citizens must gather on petitions to place issues on the ballot.

Sen Corey Brown NOEr, I mean, it was legislation.

“I’m quite surprised that a lot of folks are willing to not engage in an intellectual conversation,” Sen. Brown said in scuttling a hearing where such a conversation might take place. He asked that his own bill be tabled and fellow legislators obliged, of course, meaning an inglorious demise for what had been “emergency” legislation.

Perhaps what surprised the good senator were so many folks lighting up the state capitol switchboard — fervently opposed to his move to make it more difficult for voters to have a say. An online Argus Leader poll showed 87 percent of South Dakotans against making it “harder for citizens to initiative measures.”

Then again, maybe public opposition to his bill didn’t surprise Sen. Brown one little bit. Legislators routinely slap emergency clauses onto legislation because that prevents voters from petitioning to refer that legislation onto the general election ballot.

South Dakota became the first state to enact statewide initiative and referendum back in 1898. The people cherish this process.

Not surprisingly, their politicians despise it.

Eternal vigilance.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Thought

Nelson Mandela

I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.

Categories
Thought

Nelson Mandela

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in away that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Categories
Today

Mandela released

On Feb. 11, 1990, after 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was released by South African authorities. 

Mandela had joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944, becoming deputy national president of the group in 1952. Arrested for treason in 1961, he was acquitted — but then arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in 1964 on charges of sabotage. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison along with several other ANC leaders.

In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South African president and began dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and in February 1990 ordered the release of Nelson Mandela.

Mandela subsequently led the ANC in negotiating an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One year later, the ANC won the country’s first free elections, and Mandela was elected South Africa’s president.

Categories
Thought

Thomas Paine

An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.