Quiver Full of Good in the World

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An Alabama city council wasn't down with having a racist police department so they disbanded it

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A city council in Alabama has voted to dissolve its three-member police department after the assistant chief sent a racist text message to other officers, according to the mayor, James Latimer.

At an emergency meeting of the Vincent City Council on August 4, members moved to suspend with pay Chief of Police James Srygley and Assistant Chief of Police John L. Gross. The third officer, Lee Cardin, resigned later that evening after the council voted to pursue fully dissolving the department.

It left the city's nearly 2,000 residents with no active police officers.

The next day, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office said it was "currently handling" all law enforcement emergency calls for Vincent, which is located about 35 miles east of Birmingham.

Good.  Awaiting the Branch Trumpvidian wailing and gnashing of teeth over racists experiencing the consequences of their actions. 

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A GoFundMe fundraiser helped a teen saddled with a huge restitution bill

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A GoFundMe has raised more than $150,000 for the Iowa teen who admitted to killing her alleged rapist.

The money raised is more than enough to cover the restitution the teen was ordered to pay the family of the man she killed.

Pieper Lewis, 17, pleaded guilty to killing 37-year-old Zachary Brooks two years ago in Des Moines.

Lewis told the court she was 15 when she said she ran away from home three times to get away from an abusive home. She said a man brought her into her home if she would have sex with other people. That’s where she was introduced to Brooks. She said Brooks gave her drugs and alcohol and raped her.

Hopefully GoFundMe allows this all to go through. 

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A church in the ACNA (the anti-LGBTQ misogyntic Anglicans) decided to jump ship for the Episcopal Church.  The Bishop of Indianapolis announced it in a recent letter 

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With thanks for God’s abundance, I am writing to tell you about a sign of new life and growth in our diocese. Over the last year, The Table, an Indianapolis congregation planted in 2015 as part of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), has discerned a call to leave that denomination and become part of the Episcopal Church. Last week, The Table’s congregation voted 44-4 to disaffiliate formally with ACNA and to pursue affiliation with the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, and yesterday, that decision became final. The Table, which currently worships in the Broadway United Methodist Church on East 29thStreet in Indianapolis, will now begin the process of applying to become a missional community under Canon 20 of the Diocese of Indianapolis.

Over the past year, Canon Brendan O’Sullivan-Hale, Canon Kristin White, and I have talked, prayed and worshipped with the Rev. Spencer Ruark, the Rev. Ben Sternke, and the Rev. Matt Tebbe, co-rectors of The Table. In them, we encounter a strong and faithful call to the Episcopal Church, and a hunger for deep formation and enculturation in our traditions and practices. They have told us that our diocesan mission pillars, especially our call to stand with all the vulnerable and marginalized, have helped them discern their path forward to us. They are committed to being a safe place for LGBTQ people and to joining with us in our work to dismantle systemic racism and discrimination. I give thanks for their willingness to set out on this journey and for their care for The Table’s congregation in the midst of this change.

 

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A reporter in Iowa announced she is a transgender woman. 

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A Des Moines television reporter announced this week on a newscast that she will publicly identify as a transgender woman. 

Nora J.S. Reichardt of WOI-TV said that for a long time she didn’t think she would be able to reveal her identity on air. 

“I didn’t know if there was a place and a space for me to do this sort of work that I’ve really come to love and enjoy, while also getting to be myself while I do it,” she said on the same day that she officially filed for a name change with the Iowa courts.

She is not the first reporter to make that announcement. ESPN journalist M.A. Voepel announced in a tweet in August that he is transitioning and would use male pronouns.

 

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The DOD finally plans on confronting its confederate history. 

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The Confederate States of America, the short-lived rogue collection of states addicted to slavery and its profits, will finally be put in its place, if the U.S. Department of Defense has anything to say about it. And a commission that has identified 1,111 items under military control— bases, buildings, streets, signs, and even a floor mat — most certainly does.

Findings from the Naming Commission that first met in March 2021 revealed a wide-ranging inventory of locations, items, and even software in military use around the globe. The goal is to remove all official commemorations of the Confederacy, “an act of rebellion. It was an act of treason,” according to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley.

The commission is chaired by retired Adm. Michelle Howard, the first Black woman to command a U.S. combat ship, the first Black woman to hold two-star and three-star admiral ranks, and the first Black person and the first woman to serve as vice chief of naval operations, the second-highest-ranking officer in the Navy. Most of the items are spread across 26 states. This includes seven states on the Union side and three that were not yet states at the time of the Civil War.

There are also items in Washington, D.C. — the Union’s capital city then and our country’s capital now. Still others are at U.S. military installations in Germany and Japan, which were not established until after World War II. These, of course, are not all of the monuments and memorials around the United States that commemorate the Confederate cause.

 

 

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Yesterday in history 

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Some good news

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The House gave final approval Thursday to legislation protecting same-sex marriages, a monumental step in a decadeslong battle for nationwide recognition of such unions that reflects a stunning turnaround in societal attitudes.

President Joe Biden is expected to promptly sign the measure, which requires all states to recognize same-sex marriages, a relief for hundreds of thousands of couples who have married since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized those marriages nationwide.

The bipartisan legislation, which passed 258-169 with almost 40 Republican votes, would also protect interracial unions by requiring states to recognize legal marriages regardless of “sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.” After months of talks, the Senate passed the bill last week with 12 Republican votes.

In debate ahead of the vote, several gay members of Congress talked about what it would mean for them and their families. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., said he was set to marry “the love of my life” next year and that it is “unthinkable” that his marriage might not be recognized in some states.

 

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St. Paul is helping refugee families 

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A new language class is coming to St. Paul schools. It's an opportunity that's about more than just diversity and inclusion.

As David Schuman explains, parents and students in the district expect the classes to strengthen their family bonds.

Karen parents of students at St. Paul's Washington Technology Magnet School keep up with what's going on with their kids at a special meeting.

They're refugees from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. They speak their native language, also called Karen.

 

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A couple forts were renamed this week to drop their confederate names.

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Fort Benning, a massive US Army training base near Columbus, Georgia, was renamed Fort Moore on Thursday to honor the late Lt. Gen. Harold “Hal” Moore and his wife Julia, who both made “meaningful and lasting contributions” to the Army, officials said.

Moore served in the Army between 1945 and 1977, with assignments in Japan, Korea, Norway and Vietnam. He commanded the United States Army’s First Battalion of the Seventh Calvary during the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang Valley, considered the first major battle in the Vietnam War, and his efforts were portrayed in the 2002 film “We Were Soldiers.”

Earlier this week, Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, was also renamed.

On Tuesday, the base was re-designated as Fort Cavazos in honor of Gen. Richard Edward Cavazos, a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars who was born in Texas to Mexican-American parents. In 1982, he became the first Hispanic to wear four stars on his uniform.

Way past time for them to do so. 

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Awaiting the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Branch Trumpvididians;

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Fort Bragg shed its Confederate namesake Friday to become Fort Liberty in a ceremony some veterans said was a small but important step in making the U.S. Army more welcoming to current and prospective Black service members.

The change was the most prominent in a broad Department of Defense initiative, motivated by the 2020 George Floyd protests, to rename military installations that had been named after confederate soldiers.

The Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted nationwide after Floyd’s killing by a white police officer, coupled with ongoing efforts to remove Confederate monuments, turned the spotlight on the Army installations. A naming commission created by Congress visited the bases and met with members of the surrounding communities for input.

“We were given a mission, we accomplished that mission and we made ourselves better,” Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, the commanding general of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Liberty, told reporters after the ceremony that made the name change official.

Far as I'm concerned anyone who took up arms on behalf of the confederate traitors can go fornicate themselves and they totally deserve to have anything after them to be renamed.

Edited June 3, 2023 by 47of74

[Audrey2]

3 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Awaiting the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Branch Trumpvididians;

Far as I'm concerned anyone who took up arms on behalf of the confederate traitors can go fornicate themselves and they totally deserve to have anything after them to be renamed.

I am glad to hear you say this because it's still bothers me. Well the talking point is that they were all Americans they were still Americans to meet the bottom line is they chose to support and fight for the Confederates States of America and not the United States of America.

If we name forts after those who fought for the confederacy, why can't we name forts after General Howe, General Clinton, General Burgoyne, and General Cornwallis. Or take it one step further and have Fort Benedict Arnold.

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A Dubuque teacher got fired after he was caught on tape using a racial slur in front of a student.

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Dubuque Community School Board members early Wednesday morning terminated the contract of a Hempstead High School teacher who used a racial slur at school earlier this year.

The decision to accept the recommendation of Superintendent Amy Hawkins to terminate teacher Roger Poling's contract came after an eight-hour private hearing that began at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday night. The board began deliberations in the case shortly before midnight, returning to open session at about 1:30 a.m. Board members voted 6-0, with board member Tami Ryan absent, to terminate Poling's contract.

A district press release states that the board's action "bring(s) conclusion to" a May 31 incident at Hempstead in which a video began circulating on social media showing a teacher using a racial slur at school in the presence of a student.

The teacher involved was placed on leave immediately, but until this week, district officials had not released the name of the employee.

The board wanted to make sure everything was done right so this guy can't come back on them.

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An early African-American leader in Dubuque was honored recently.

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A prominent local Black community leader of the late 19th and early 20th centuries lay in an unmarked grave for more than 100 years in Dubuque.

On Sunday, Dr. Henry C. Rose received a headstone and public recognition for his Civil War service during a ceremony that drew more than 30 people to Dubuque’s Linwood Cemetery.

Born around 1847 in Missouri, Rose moved to Dubuque in the 1870s. He worked at the Julien Hotel — today’s Hotel Julien — for 40 years, while practicing as a podiatrist beginning in the mid-1890s.

He served as a mentor to numerous Black men in Dubuque, including Dr. Henry A. Martin, the father of Robert L. Martin, who became one of the Tuskegee Airmen and the namesake for the commercial terminal of the Dubuque Regional Airport.

I'm glad he finally got the recognition that was way past due for him.

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Pope Francis is about to name an 18th century woman to be the first female Saint from Argentina

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A Catholic laywoman who lived in 18th-century Argentina and joined the Jesuits in their evangelical mission throughout the South American country will become the first female saint from the home country of Pope Francis on Sunday.

María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, more commonly known by her Quechua name of “Mama Antula,” was born in 1730 into a wealthy family in Santiago del Estero, a province north of Buenos Aires. At the age of 15, she left the comfortable life of her home and the privileges of her family to join the Jesuits — at a time when women’s options were limited to marriage or joining a convent.

“She was a rebel, just like Jesus,” Cintia Suárez, co-author of the biography “Mama Antula, the first female saint of Argentina,” told The Associated Press. “She confronted her father saying ‘I’m not going to get married or become a nun.’ She just didn’t want to follow orders.”

Mama Antula collaborated in the performance of spiritual exercises based on the writings of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Company of Jesus in 1534, according to her biographer.