This past Sunday, I attended the Annual Grayson County Democratic Barbeque in Independence which featured Virginia State Senator Roscoe Reynolds and Congressman Rich Boucher. Senator Reynolds gave a very fiery and motivating speech in which he emphasized why education is perhaps the top issue in this election. During his speech, he pointed out that without state-of-the-art public educational facilities and outstanding teachers, our cities and towns virtually have nothing. Nobody, including potential companies and businesses, wants to relocate to a place with rundown schools, underfunded educational programs, and under-qualified teachers.A prime example of this exists in Grayson County, where teachers receive the lowest pay out of any county in the state. Every year, 20% of Grayson County educators skip town for neighboring counties or even states like North Carolina. With pay this low, who can blame them? Especially since the Virginia State Board of Education requires those wishing to become licensed teachers to pass Praxis tests by scores higher than any other state in the country! In other words, the Republicans who run our state government claim they want the best teachers in the 50 states, but believe those teachers deserve less than average pay. Unbelievable!
Tim Kaine recognizes this problem, and as Governor he will make education his top priority. Kaine has vowed to raise Virginia teacher salaries to the national average, and will make available pre-K programs to all children. In contrast, Jerry Kilgore has proposed no reasonable ideas for improving our schools, except to force a battle between education and transportation funding, a battle that education would almost certainly lose.
That's why, if you value the public education system in Virginia and are in favor of seeing improvements made to our schools and to teacher salaries, the choice is clear this coming Tuesday. I for one am going to following the advice of the Virginia Education Association, which gave Tim Kaine straight A's and Jerry Kilgore all F's, because the last thing we need as Virginians is a governor who cant make the grade.
Shawn Becker
Grayson County
Put Doug Wilder on TV and radio now with some gotv type ads, everyday, this weekend, till the election. Richmond is giving me heartburn. Yesterday's WPost said Kaine was doing not too good in Richmond, and the black leadership there thought he's not done enough or campaigned poorly among the black community.
This is the time when we need Doug Wilder and other black leaders the most. Richmond or bust.
Are there any headquarters that don't have lines filled?
I''ll be doing lit drops and phone calls.
In a letter printed in the Richmond Times Dispatch on November 2, 2005, veteran Civil Rights lawyer, Oliver W. Hill, Sr., endorsed Tim Kaine for Governor in Virginia. His endorsement letter reads as follows:
"The truth matters. Facts matter. Campaign strategies matter.
Adherence to what is true matters in a profound way. Yet Jerry Kilgore's campaign, when confronted by reporters about a number of inaccuracies in an attack ad against Tim Kaine, claimed adherence to the facts was not "relevant." That is a remarkable statement from the campaign of a former prosecutor who recently served as Virginia's top lawyer.
Now, I'm no political Pollyanna. Like everyone else, I've become virtually inured to the relentlessly negative campaigning that passes for modern political discourse.
Still, the two candidates for governor hold profound philosophical differences about how best to govern, and yet Kilgore seems to believe that the path to victory lies not in explaining those differences but in connecting to our fears. It is a strategy that seeks to obscure the problems we confront every day until, at least, the day after the election. It is a strategy reminiscent of the fear tactics used with the infamous "Willie Horton" ads of the 1988 presidential campaign.
The Kilgore ad campaign seems to imply that people charged with heinous crimes should not be afforded rigorous defense by an attorney an implication that undermines one of the fundamental principles of our democracy.
These are the types of mean-spirited attacks that remind me of the tactics that I confronted while helping lead the fight to desegregate the schools. Diehard segregationists shouted: "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 -- I would rather be ignorant than integrate!" Some of these individuals got their wish, but our Commonwealth suffered tremendously because of a less-enlightened populace.
We are seeking to create a more civilized society. To achieve this goal, we must require loyalty to the truth from candidates. At a time when we need healing as a Commonwealth and as a nation we cannot afford leaders who use distortions to foment division.
Oliver W. Hill, Esq.
Some additional information about Mr. Hill.
On May 23, 2005, Oliver W. Hill Sr.,extraordinary civil rights advocate and litigator, received the National Association for the Advancment of Colored People (NAACP's) highest award -- the Spingarn Medal.
Julian Bond, Chairman, NAACP Board of Directors, said: ?Oliver Hill is a giant in civil rights law ? for years, he was the Virginia civil rights lawyer, risking life and limb to defend civil rights in hostile circumstances. As the lawyer for the Virginia cases that became Brown v. Board of Education, his legal skills and dogged persistence won the landmark civil rights case of the 20th Century.?
Oliver W. Hill?s attack on the doctrine of ?separate but equal? is a recurring theme in his legal career. After graduating from Howard Law School in 1933, he later became a cooperating lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Hill?s team of lawyers filed more civil rights suits in Virginia than the total filed in all other Southern states during the segregation era. He won his first civil rights case in 1940, securing equal pay for black teachers in Norfolk, Va. It is estimated that Hill?s legal team was responsible for winning more than $50 million dollars in higher pay, new buses and better schools for black teachers and students.
Hill played a pivotal role in Brown v. Board of Education, the revolutionary Supreme Court case outlawing segregation in schools. He became involved when he and law partner Spottswood W. Robinson III learned that students at an all-black high school in Farmville, Va. had walked out of the school?s leaky and dilapidated buildings. Hill was a trial lawyer in the subsequent lawsuit, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, one of five cases decided under Brown v. Board.
Even outside the courtroom, Hill?s dedication to advancing civil rights is evident. In 1948, he won a seat on the Richmond City Council, becoming the first African American to do so since Reconstruction. Hill worked as Assistant to the Federal Housing Commissioner and later as Federal Housing Commissioner in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He also served on several local, state, and national organizations, including the NAACP National Legal Committee, the Virginia State Bar Bench Bar Relations Committee, the National Bar Association, the Southern Conference for Human Welfare and the Old Dominion Bar Association, which he co-founded.
Hill retired from his law practice in 1998, at the age of 91. He currently resides in Richmond, Va. and continues to speak to students and others about his legal career and history of activism.
The Spingarn Award, first presented in 1915 by NAACP Chairman Joel E. Spingarn, is designed to highlight distinguished merit and achievement among African Americans. Previous Spingarn winners include: Oprah Winfrey, Vernon Jordan, Earl G. Graves, Sr., former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., William H. Cosby, Jr., Rosa Parks, Leontyne Price, Maya Angelou, General Colin Powell, Edward ?Duke? Ellington, Carl T. Rowan, Alex Haley, Jacob Lawrence, Henry ?Hank? Aaron, and Myrlie Evers-Williams, Chairman Emeritus, the NAACP Board of Directors.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its half-million adult and youth members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities and monitor equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
I love this:
Tim Kaine stepped up to the podium. Now the question is will Jerry Kilgore and Russ Potts be no-shows or are they going to help us make an informed decision come November 8th?
"Jerry the Duck" strikes again! This theme of Jerry Kilgore as the absentee, no-show, non-existent candidate is pervasive. It even shows up subliminally when people talk about all the things he doesn't bother to do.
Tim, as always, steps up to the podium.
Jerry is, again, a no-show.
QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!!
How can Jerry ask people to vote for him?
Tim Kaine is the only choice for Governor. He is the only leader running! I cannot believe the polls are even close.
Wake up Virginia!
Offer still stands, any time you want to go out and learn some more about guns, just drop me a line. Shotguns, rifles, handguns, your choice. Its on me.
I was also delighted to hear Tim talking about good management and how it relates to Katrina and potential natural disasters. And the new ads attacking Kilgore on education and his misleading "gas tax" ads are excellent.
We can win this thing folks! Keep at it.
It's a little too fancy for me though.
Those who say the race is over already are just throwing in the towel for no good reason. They are foolish to do so. This race is very competitive.
Right now conservatives are demoralized because of all that is surrounding Bush and the National GOP. Their turnout is going to be lower as a consequence. We cannot let our own fall short at such a critical juncture. Get out there and loudly defend Kaine, and tell the Kaine campaign to be bringing the attack on, but at the same time, continuing to talk about their positive agenda for Virginia.
I can envision an ad from Kaine in which he talks about all the reasons he wants to be Governor (his service to Virginia and all). And then he talks about how Kilgore ust wants to be Governor to be Governor, not to serve but to have power. It's a bit heady, but it appeals to me at least.
Kilgore's got nothing, and the fact that he's such a little pissant coward that he'd bring Hitler in to this race is going to backfire on him. There's no doubt in my mind.
Kaine needs to capitalize on it and cram Kilgore's lack of character past hiw decayed teeth and down his "soprano singin'" throat.
Kilgore's miserable loss needs to be a lesson to the nation that the age of Karl Rove politics is dead.
From what I've been reading on the blogs these days, I'm not sure we have this race in the basket for Kaine. The urgency is not there, and that's troubling.
And any Republicans we have a chance of converting would have similar thoughts as we do on several of those statements (especially 6, 8, 11, 13, and 15.)
However, I would say that the actions of the LEADERS of the Republican Party would lead one to believe that this is what THEY believe.
Unfortunately, we all suffer for it.
You're right. I missed that.
Peace be with you.
The "Darth Vader" comment did not meet that standard.
I guess my report was a bit confusing. To clarify: The 'Darth Vader' I refer to is Jerry Kilgore, not the girls. The contrast is between Kilgore's refusal to talk to Mary at the Halloween Parade (see Mary's posting) and Tim's willingness to chat with the teengers at Poe Middle School. Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader. I am sorry if the post was not clear.