Red Meat Chronicles:
Republicans Rally To Demolish Former HCDP HeadquartersSeveral of you have written me expressing alarm, concern, and disgust because the Republican Party has invited its members to take sledge hammers (to be provided by the Republicans) to the building which served as our headquarters before we moved to our new location last month and help tear it down. Personally, I'm kind of pleased with this.
The statement in the Republican announcement that we were "evicted" from our headquarters is, of course, a lie, but what else do you expect from Republicans: our lease term was up and we moved to better quarters. There was no "eviction" any more than Ronald Reagan was "evicted" from the White House when his term was up and he moved to California. But truth is not one of the virtues (family values) this bunch believes in or embraces.
Anyway, in my mind the "demolition derby" shows exactly what and all Republicans are all about -- tearing things down, destroying them, demolishing. That's exactly what Republicans do -- use brute force to demolish and destroy things. This is precisely the highest and best use of their members, and exactly what they stand for - destruction. They did it to our economy, to our jobs market, to our voting rights, to our democracy, to civility in government (bi-partisanship), to civil rights, to health care for children, to fair pay for teachers -- they took out their sledgehammers and smashed them to smithereens. What harm can it do for these folks to show off their main talent (demolition skills) by tearing down an old deserted building?
(Isn't it curious that the Republican Party of Harris County has sledge hammers they're ready to provide to their members? Sledge hammers are not part of the paraphernalia of the Democratic Party. Come to think of it, I wonder what other WMD the Republicans are stockpiling over there at their headquarters. The WMD must be somewhere; has anybody checked the Republican headquarters?)
At any rate, apparently the new corporate owner of the building needs some financial help. The Republican Party can't give the corporation any more tax cuts right now, so they'll just help out with free labor. Anything for a corporate friend in need.
I do regret that the Republicans will be taking paying jobs away from folks who need them by doing demolition work for the owner of the building for free, but that just shows what little concern Republicans have for working men and women in this community. I sure hope they'll at least provide hard hats for their unpaid workers (to go with their hard heads), but Republican disdain for worker safety concerns may foreclose their doing that. And if anyone gets seriously injured demolishing the old place, they sure don't have to worry about compensating for those injuries, given what the Republicans have done to access to the courts to obtain fair treatment. (Of course, if its one of their legislators who gets injured, they'll probably be able to get some insurance company to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars on that claim, regardless of whether their insurance policy provides coverage or not.)
All in all, I think this is a pretty good insight into what Republicans are all about -- destruction and demolition, helping corporate landlords, all at the expense of folks in need.
Carry on, Republicans. But you better be careful: your true colors are showing!
Gerry Birnberg
Chair, Harris County Democratic Party
August 20, 2003
Hey, Rats! Maybe next time you could be civil enough to tuck in your brown shirts.
This is a right to work state; labor can be free if the workers can be found who want to do the work.
You Can Learn a Lot from MovingWhen I received the letter from the landlord informing us that the building in which our headquarters had been sold and we had to move within one month, my first reaction was, "Tom DeLay must be behind this!" After all, the notice came just one week after our successful Welcome Home To Houston Rally for our state legislators at which we had shown that Democrats are poised and energized locally to resisting the Republican juggernaut and emerge victorious from our recent travails. This (sudden termination of our lease) must be a devious plot by the vast right wing conspiracy to distract and destabilize us just when Democrats were getting their momentum going and our grassroots enthused and mobilized!
Someone once observed that two moves is the equivalent of one fire in disruptive power. Personally, I regard relocating much like root canal: you're undoubtedly better off once its completed, but it sure is painful and stressful while its happening.
But you learn a lot from a move, too. Like, where you put that file folder you've been looking for for six months and find ("eureka") when boxing up the contents of the bottom drawer of the forgotten file cabinet. And how much junk you accumulate over time that can, and should, be thrown away. And how many vendors, government agencies and officials, suppliers, financial institutions, and others (not to mentions friends and supporters) need to be notified of where they can find you. And how expensive this all is (movers, security deposits, printing new stationary, business cards, etc., renovations, pizzas for helpers).
But mainly, you learn who you can really count on. And we had a lot of great friends who jumped in and did yeoman's work to carry this off in the incredibly short amount of time we had to complete the task.
For starters, there was Ken Jones, who served as our move coordinator. Democrats, without Ken's Herculean efforts, we'd probably still be on La Branch street trying to operate from the rubble of a demolished building! I can't tell you all that Ken did, but he was outstanding and we owe him a huge debt of thanks.
And, of course, I can't thank Ann Porter enough for her efforts in finding a new location. As soon as she learned we had to move, Ann called to volunteer to head up the search team and she and her committee scowered the town looking for (a) immediately available space, (b) we could afford, (c) in a location reasonably accessible to the largest number of people, (d) with plenty of parking, and (e) a configuration that works for our needs (among other requirements and constraints) - all within about 10 days. By spending many, many hours on the task, and driving many miles throughout the city, she/they found one (actually two). Without those efforts, we'd probably be homeless today.
Leighton Couvillon, who coordinated the move of the computer system deserves a special thank you. Thanks to his planning and work, our web site was down for less than four hours on the day of the move, and we were back up and running with the entire computer network the very day we moved. That's impressive. Way to go, Leighton! And once again, Andrew C. Burks, Jr. showed he's somebody who can be counted on when the party needs assistance. Andrew moved the telephone system. And he did so so seamlessly and efficiently , you would never have known we were moving or had moved (as far as maintaining telephone communications with the office and its staff are concerned). Now, this isn't an endorsement in an electoral race (Dwight Boykins has been helpful to the HCDP, too, such as in facilitating our grassroots workshop at TSU), but I do want to express my personal gratitude to Andew for proving once again his dedication to the party and his availability to help when the party needs him.
Finally, volunteer coordinator Virginia Iloff and a wonderful group of volunteers (including Willie Belle Boone, Ruth Davis, Pat Day, Phil Donovan, Skip Engelhart, Julie Harris, Judith Hume, Karen Kaufman, Ron McPherson, Diane Mosier, Howard Peek, Muriel Stubbs, Sue Trapp, Terrence Vinson, and Beth Zeffert) did a terrific job of taking care of all the little details that go into a move - everything from helping with the site selection to notifying vendors of our new address to unpacking boxes to a zillion other tasks that have to be taken care of to set up shop in a new location. ("Zillion" is one of those terms usually used to describe Republican tax cuts or budget deficits.) To each and every one of you - and especially Virginia, who has given so much of herself these past six months to make the Democratic Party of Harris County run as smoothly and effectively as it has - I say, on behalf of myself and the entire HCDP, thank you, thank you, thank you.
I can't truthfully say I enjoyed The Move, but I can honestly say I am proud of our people, who carried it off. Now we must bring those same skills of organization, dedication, hard work, multi-disciplinary talent, special expertise, and mission accomplishment to bear to WIN ELECTIONS. We have just proven once again (as we did with the June 7 rally and the redistricting hearings) that we possess those resources in abundance. Now we need to put them to work in the electoral sphere.
I'm proud to be a Democrat in Harris County. (But I already knew that.)
Gerry Birnberg
They call the Republicans racist for black voter disenfranchisement in Florida when NONE occurred. In fact, it was DEMOCRATS that disenfranchised members of the military (including minorities). Ever try to argue the U.S. Supreme Court decided that effectively ended all the non-sense? All they mention is 5-4, 5-4, 5-4, 5-4. They don't even acknowledge the 7-2 portion of the ruling that was the justification for stopping the rigged recount.
When confronted with these liberals, they usually resort to the word "Nazi" within one minute. Being Jewish, that insult particularly offends me. That is the only argument they have.
I don't care what they say. They can keep whining but it falls on deaf ears with me. I hope President Bush wins re-election in '04, because they will do ANYTHING to defeat him, and I want to see all their efforts wasted and have them cry and whine for four more years. President Bush is not perfect, but he is far better than any democrat alternative. I intend to do all I can to see democrats defeated.