Chuck Currie For Multnomah County Commissioner
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The new website for my campaign can be found at:
http://www.friendsofchuckcurrie.com
Please visit and learn more about our effort to make Multnomah County a better place.
The new website for my campaign can be found at:
http://www.friendsofchuckcurrie.com
Please visit and learn more about our effort to make Multnomah County a better place.
Tonight we have witnessed something truly remarkable: the resurrection of real and meaningful healthcare reform. Because the U.S. House of Representatives voted tonight to adopt the Senate version of reform it will mean that over 30 million Americans will finally get the health care they deserve. People with pre-existing conditions will no longer be denied care, insurances companies won’t be allowed to raise their rates at will, and over time the U.S. deficit will decrease.
Download my podcast reflection on tonight's historic vote:
Download Health Care Reform Passes 3-21-10
(some browsers - like Firefox or Google Chrome - will allow you to simply click on the link and listen...otherwise click with the RIGHT mouse button on the hyperlink and choose “Save Target As” and save to your desktop or other folder – once downloaded click on the file to listen).
Now On ITunes
You can now subscribe to my podcasts on ITunes by clicking here.
Read the full text below:
Continue reading "Health Care Reform Passes; America Moves Closer To Being The Beloved Community" »
C.O. “Rock” Bright, my grandfather, passed away a short time ago in Columbia, South Carolina. His death won’t make the papers but for our family he was everything. Nearly 92, he lived a full life that focused on his family more than anything. I learned a lot from him about character and about how to be a good husband and father. He was a Navy veteran who built boats and then worked as a welder and salesman. Rock boxed in his youth – which is how he got his nickname – and loved to golf. When Frances, his wife and my grandmother, was left incapacitated by a terrible stroke he stayed by her side in her nursing home every single day – every single day. His love for her was total. So was his love for my mother, Judith Bright, and my uncle, Dr. C.O. “Rocky” Bright, Jr. His grandchildren and great grandchildren felt that same love and we were all devoted to him. 92 years might seem like a lot but we would have loved another 100. In the midst of my first political campaign the timing couldn’t be worse but I will return to South Carolina next week for the funeral. Family comes before politics and anyone who thinks otherwise should vote for another candidate. I invite your prayers and good thoughts for Rock and our family.
From The State
Columbia - Funeral service for Chester Orvil “Rock” Bright Sr., 92, will be held 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 16, 2010, at Shandon Baptist Church with burial in Greenlawn Memorial Park. Visitation is 6:30-8:30 p.m. Monday at Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel.
Mr. Bright, husband of the late Frances Crout Bright, died March 12, 2010. Born April 18, 1917, in Turtle Lake, Wis., he was a son of the late Clifford D. and Nina Gravening Bright. He was a graduate of Columbia High School and attended Presbyterian College. He served in the Navy during WWII. He was a member of Shandon Baptist Church for more than 60 years, where he taught Sunday school. A welder and pipefitter, in his later years he worked in the wholesale grocery business. Rock enjoyed golf, painting, church and family.
Surviving are his son, Dr. Chester O. “Rocky” Bright Jr. (Ruth A.), Columbia; daughter, Judith Frances Bright (John C. Thomas), Cathlamet, Wash.; grandchildren, Tonya Gramann, Debra Huss, Rev. Charles Currie Jr., Jennifer Currie, Heather Medders; great-grandchildren, Hannah Gramann, Dylan and Devin Medders, Ian Rock Bertrand, Katherine and Frances Currie, Taylor and Sawyer Huss. He was predeceased by brothers, Bernard, George and Eugene Bright.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Harvest Hope, P.O. Box 451, Columbia, SC 29202 or Cooperative Ministries, 126 Blythewood Road, Blythewood, SC 29016.
Special thanks to the administration and staff of N.H.C. Parklane for their loving care.
Updated 3/16/10: We had a nice funeral service today for Rock here in Columbia. Below is a podcast of the eulogy that I delivered for my grandfather on behalf of our family.
Download Eulogy For Rock Bright 3-16-10
(some browsers - like Firefox or Google Chrome - will allow you to simply click on the link and listen...otherwise click with the RIGHT mouse button on the hyperlink and choose “Save Target As” and save to your desktop or other folder – once downloaded click on the file to listen).
Now On ITunes
You can now subscribe to my podcasts on ITunes by clicking here.
A New Campaign Web Site Will Be Live Soon!
This morning I filed as a candidate for Multnomah County Commissioner, Position 2.
County government is where many of the issues closest to my heart are discussed: health and human services, public education, and public safety.
As a Multnomah County Commissioner, I intend to be a full time representative of the people working for a better and more prosperous community.
Running for county commissioner was not what I had planned to do when I woke up this morning. But this rare opportunity has become available and my experience of over twenty years working with local government, non-profits and the religious community would benefit the work of Multnomah County.
I know the issues and know the people.
My assumption is that a number of candidates will file by the 5 pm deadline today and that they will all be good people who are qualified to serve in public office. Multnomah County has an abundance of talent and I look forward to having a conversation with voters that honors Multnomah County’s long history of thoughtful debate.
During a time of deep economic turmoil and a lack of solid leadership in some parts of the county this campaign should be about how we build a future worthy of our children.
I hope you will join me in this effort.
PS A new campaign website will be up soon and I'll begin collecting contributions after filing the paperwork with the Secretary of State's office. Early this morning Oregon State Treasurer Ben Westlund passed away after a battle with cancer, reports Blue Oregon. He was first elected to the Oregon House of Representatives as a republican and later served in the Oregon Senate. Westlund ran for Governor as an independent in 2006 and later became a democrat and ran for Treasurer.
He was an usual public figure who put principles before partisan politics. I first realized how unusual he was when I gave a speech in Bend (the city he represented in the House and Senate) in the fall of 2001 about homelessness in Oregon. Then-Rep. Westlund showed up. Republicans don't often show up to hear about homelessness, sad to say, but there he was. He was interested and engaged even if he didn't agree with everything I had to say.
I seriously considered voting for Westlund in his race for governor but he dropped out before the general election. Voters liked him, however, and elected him as the State Treasurer in 2008. Ben Westlund will be missed in Oregon.
My prayers are with him, his wife and children.
Photo credit: State of Oregon
Pro-choice and pro-life leaders, both political and religious, have been seeking in recent years to find common ground in the debate over abortion. If the debate is simply going to center around the legality of abortion common ground will be difficult or even impossible to find. However, most reasonable people believe abortion ought to be rare and that we should seek to limit the need for abortion through prevention (including better access to sex education and contraceptives), adoption and support for women who decide to raise a child.
Some abortion opponents, however, aren't interested in common ground. Albert Mohler is a good example. Dr. Mohler is the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He believes that women shouldn't be ordained into ministry, that women should be subservient to their husbands, and that women should have no role in making their own reproductive health care decisions. Dr. Mohler opposes sex education, of course.
Now this abortion opponent - a national leader in a church formed to support the segregation of blacks and whites and that still actively opposes civil rights - is claiming that abortion is in fact a genocide against African-Americans:
Catherine Davis is a woman with a message, and that message is getting harder to ignore. "Black children are an endangered species."The Director of Minority Outreach for Georgia Right to Life, Davis is taking that message to the public, along with a massive public awareness campaign that has captured national and international attention. Drivers in the metro Atlanta area are seeing billboards that demand attention - and are changing minds. Her argument is simple and the statistics are irrefutable. She accuses abortion providers in general, and Planned Parenthood in particular, of targeting blacks for abortion. She told The New York Times, "The impact of abortion has become so great that it has begun to impact our fertility rate."
Consider the chilling facts documented in the data. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 57.4% of the abortions performed in Georgia in 2006 were performed on African-American women, but blacks make up only 30% of Georgia's population. Nationwide, the pattern is similarly stacked against black babies - black women have approximately 37% of all abortions each year, while blacks make up only 13% of the national population.
You can see why Catherine Davis' message demands attention. She points also to the fact that, in Georgia, every single abortion clinic is located in areas of black concentration. She argues, quite pointedly, that this amounts to an intentional effort to reduce the black population in the United States.
What Dr. Mohler and Ms. Davis don't point out (it wouldn't help their argument) is that Planned Parenthood clinics are located often in low-income communities where no health care is available and that well over 90% of Planned Parenthood's services have nothing to do with abortion. The legacy of segregation is still felt. African-Americans live in poverty in greater numbers, fewer have health care, and fewer have the same educational opportunities as white Americans. Progress has been made, yes, but we are only a generation removed from the Jim Crow laws that Southern Baptists advocated for so strongly.
The Religious Right's attempt to divide Americans over race is a transparent ploy.
The Southern Baptist Convention doesn't even want to expand health care. They're opposed to reform. The SBC Ethics and Liberty Commission issued a statement this week that said:
Proponents of reform seem undeterred from giving the American people a dose of bad medicine. While the reconciliation tool could potentially placate enough elected officials to send a bill to the president’s desk for signature, the steps toward that end would also shut out opponents from the public policy process and create a new set of problems in health care—more governmental control, more taxes, higher premiums, and funding of abortion, to name a few. This is a deadly prescription.
Those are simply re-issued talking points from the GOP.
And while the Southern Baptist Convention - which only a decade ago thought to apologize for their support of slavery - wants African-Americans to believe that abortion is a genocide against blacks that opinion is not shared by the NAACP or other groups that actually represent African-Americans in the United States. The NAACP is a pro-choice organization.
The National Black Church Initiative of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice has additional information on how people of faith can support the rights of women.
The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, by the way, is one of the pro-choice organizations that has teamed up with pro-life leaders to support the Preventing Unintended Pregnancy, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act, an attempt to reduce the need for abortion. The Reverend Dr. Carlton W. Veazey, RCRC President, said last year:
This Act’s support for family planning services will allow an increased number of low-income and uninsured women to determine when and whether to have children according to their own conscience and religious beliefs. The Act’s provision for comprehensive sex education reflects the views of major faith traditions and their commitment to empowering young people with the knowledge to make responsible decisions. These faith communities take seriously their duty to instill a set of religious and moral values that will help guide young people to responsible life choices. They believe that it is the role of government to ensure that the nation’s youth receive the facts - unblemished by ideology - that will protect them from disease and unintended pregnancy.
Being of faith means being engaged in the world. And like it or not, the facts are clear: 95 percent of Americans have sex before marriage, 80 percent of teen pregnancies are unintended, and each year, 25 percent of American teens contract an STD. We want our young people to be safe. For that to happen, they must be informed by comprehensive sex education and have access to contraceptive services. Offering them anything less is irresponsible, dangerous and wrong.
Our hope is that these provisions will help eliminate the terrible disparity in access to reproductive health services that results in poor women being four times as likely to have an unintended pregnancy as their higher-income counterparts. Access to reproductive health information and services allows women to continue their education, thereby improving their economic status and the well-being of their families and their communities. U.S. religious denominations and an overwhelming majority of people of faith support the use of contraception and believe it is the moral and responsible path to follow.
The Act also provides much needed resources to help ensure a woman a healthy pregnancy and provides additional support that will make it possible for women who choose to continue their pregnancy to care for their children. RCRC and our members will continue to work hard to provide women the information and help they need to respond to unintended pregnancies in a manner consistent with their values and life goals.
If Dr. Mohler was serious about his commitment to reducing abortion he'd join the pro-choice and pro-life leaders supporting this legislation instead of trying to use his position as minister to further divide the American people along religious and racial lines.
But hysterics are what we have come to expect from Dr. Mohler. It was just a few years ago he called the legality of gay marriage the moral equivalent to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Spring is in full force here in Portland, Oregon. We went to the season opening of Saturday Market this morning and stayed for lunch along Waterfront Park. The rain will return soon but today it is just spectacular.
I'll post more pictures from today later on our family website. In the meantime, enjoy this photo of the apple blossoms from our front yard.
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
Anchor Management | ||||
|
In recent years, every major scientific body in the world has produced reports confirming the peril of climate change. All 15 of the warmest years on record have come in the last two decades. And Earth's major natural systems are all showing undeniable signs of rapid flux: melting Arctic and glacial ice, rapidly acidifying seawater and so on.
Yet because of a recent onslaught of attacks on the science of climate change, fewer Americans now believe humans are warming the planet than did just a few years ago.
The doubters of climate science have launched an enormously clever -- and effective -- campaign, and it's worth trying to understand how they've done it. The best analogy is perhaps the O.J. Simpson trial.
The "dream team" of lawyers assembled for Simpson's defense had a problem: The evidence against their client was formidable. Nicole Brown Simpson's blood was all over his socks, and that was just the beginning. So Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, Alan Dershowitz, F. Lee Bailey, Robert Kardashian et al. decided to attack the process, arguing that it put Simpson's guilt in doubt -- and doubt, of course, was all they needed. Hence, those days of cross-examination about exactly how Dennis Fung had transported blood samples and which racial slurs LAPD Det. Mark Fuhrman had used.......They made convincing mountains from the molehills they had to work with.
Similarly, the immense pile of evidence now proving the science of global warming beyond any reasonable doubt is in some ways a great boon for those who deny that the biggest problem we've ever faced is actually a problem at all. If you have a three-page report, it won't be overwhelming, but it's also unlikely to have many mistakes. Three thousand pages (the length of the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)? That pretty much guarantees you'll get some things wrong....The skeptics also have taken advantage of lucky breaks that have crossed their path, such as the recent record set of snowstorms that hit Washington. It doesn't matter that such a record is just the kind of thing scientists have been predicting, given the extra water vapor global warming is adding to the atmosphere. The doubters simply question how it can be suddenly super-snowy if the world is actually warming. ...
...These are the things that stick in people's heads. If the winter glove won't fit, you must acquit.
In the long run, the climate-deniers will be a footnote to history. But by delaying action, they will have helped prevent us from taking the steps we need to take while there's still time.
Click here to read the full story.
For people of faith the debate over how best to treat this planet comes down to a question over how we best act as stewards of God's creation. Only the far-right fringes of the Religious Right (political groups like the Institute on Religion and Democracy) argue against the reality of global climate change and fight against the common sense measures the world should take to protect the future of the Earth and all that inhabits her.
On the side of protecting creation: mainline Christians, many conservative evangelicals, the Vatican, and the World Council of Churches.
Our children - and God - are counting on us to do the right things in this moment of history and we cannot fail.
For more on Christianity and the environment visit the website of the National Council of Churches.
Highland Christian Center (United Church of Christ) will be hosting The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, during their worship service this Sunday, March 7th.
As a minister in the United Church of Christ, I have great respect for the ministries offered by Portland’s Highland Christian Center and The Rev. Dr. Wilbert G. Hardy, Jr., the congregation’s senior minister. Dr. Hardy’s church is one of our city’s most important communities of faith. When we talk about building up the Kingdom of God it is easy to point to Highland’s ministries as an example of how Christians can come together to better a community.
The same is true for Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. That congregation has been a leader in the fight for social justice and was built by Dr. Wright. Today the congregation is ably led by The Rev. Otis Moss III.
Though I have been invited along with other clergy to attend the Sunday worship service with Dr. Wright, I will not attend. Dr. Wright’s efforts to build up Trinity United Church of Christ as a force for social change cannot and should not be forgotten. But his rhetoric and divisive actions during the past two years also cannot be ignored. During a time that our nation needs healing and reconciliation he has offered neither and in fact inflicted harm.
Last summer, Dr. Wright made clearly anti-Semitic comments when he claimed “Jews” were keeping him from President Obama. Those comments led The Rev. John Thomas, the then-general minister and president of the United Church of Christ to say:
"The General Synod of the United Church of Christ has consistently called on its members to speak and act in ways that honor God's enduring covenant with the Jewish people, that nurture deep relationships with the Jewish community, and that recognize how careless readings of our sacred texts, our own use of language, and the perpetuation of negative stereotypes can lend support to persistent anti-Semitism in our culture.”
Other comments made by Dr. Wright in recent years have stirred controversy – and I have said clearly that some of those comments have been taken out of context for partisan political purposes – but some remarks, such as those about Jews keeping him from the president, cannot be swept under the rug. Neither can his 2008 claim that AIDS is a government plot (a message with damaging implications for the fight against HIV/AIDS).
You can assume in a denomination as diverse as ours that some in the United Church of Christ will disagree with my opinion of Dr. Wright. Debate and dissent has always been a hallmark of the United Church of Christ and I welcome and value different opinions. Yet there are some statements that so cross the line that they should not be tolerated and those that say them need to be held accountable regardless of any good deeds they might have done.
Obviously, I’m speaking in my own capacity as a UCC minister and not on behalf of the national offices of the UCC or the Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ.
What I think about New York politics matters to no one – particularly in New York – but I can’t help but cringe reading the stories about David Patterson’s interference in a domestic violence case. It is extraordinarily tragic because fighting domestic violence has been one of the governor’s signature issues. The New York chapter of the National Organization for Women is right: the governor should resign. Domestic violence cannot be excused and the attempt to cover it up shows a defect in Governor Patterson’s moral character that should make him ineligible to serve in public office. New York democrats would serve their state and the nation well by acknowledging that reality sooner rather than later.
For more information on the church and how religious communities can address domestic violence visit the website of the Faith Trust Institute.
In the spirit of "never forget the power of the resurrection" comes this news:
Five more Democratic senators have signed on to an effort to support the public option if it's included in the reconciliation bill, bringing the total to 30. Sens. Durbin, Murray, Bingaman, Cardin and Klobuchar are the new additions, according to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which is fueling the effort.
Every time someone declares health care reform to be dead it comes back to life. There's a reason for that:
Tens of millions of Americans have no health care, inadequate coverage, or could find their that their premiums have risen sky-high over night - like they did last month in California when Anthem Blue Cross announced plans to raise rates by 39%.
The insurances companies and the special interests on K Street have spent millions to kill off health care reform and to protect their record profits but we sent the politicians to Washington to do the difficult work of governing.
A clear majority in Congress favors health care reform. Elections have consequences and progressives won in 2006 and 2008. Now the minority party says a majority vote shouldn't count - they want a super majority.
In the Christian tradition, we are called to heal the sick and it is with that spirit that I haved joined my voice with religious leaders across the country in calling for real and meaningful reform.President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid should rally their troops and pass health care reform with an up or down vote and do it soon.