I tried to post this commentary on another blog that promotes itself as a pro-Democratic operation.
The response was that this commentary violated their rules because I used the term "MAGA" -- which I did not. So, I'm cancelling my donations to that blog and increasing my small donation to DU by that amount.
Here is my commentary that they would not allow.
This is a long comment – I’m not a writer and tend to ramble.
Short version.
In at least two rural Virginia counties, the Good Guys are winning. But we cannot and will not relax.
Long version.
Virginia’s “Northern Neck” is a group of six counties bounded on the north and south respectively by the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, on the east by the Chesapeake Bay, and attached to the mainland on the west end. The Neck is solidly Republican with counties voting 65-75% for Trump. The Neck is part of Virginia’s First Congressional District that has been “represented” by a Republican for at least three decades; the current “representative” is Rob Wittman – elected in 2007 – a Trump disciple who may be in trouble in 2016.
Starting in the first Trump Reign of Error, the county Democratic Committees in Northumberland and Lancaster counties -- the two eastern-most counties, on the tip of the Neck – decided to resist as best we could. We got no support from the Democratic Party of Virginia and were pretty much ignored by the other Democratic committees on the Neck.
Letters to Editors
Our first move was to establish a letter writing committee to produce letters to the editor in our local weekly newspapers. The main paper on the Neck is the Rappahannock Record, published weekly in Kilmarnock, the Rapp Record does a superb job of covering local and regional news, schools, clubs, and groups with a smattering of state news and all but zero national news.
Our group meets monthly to discuss events and their impact on local folks and to decide on topics and content for our upcoming letters. We focused mainly on letter to the Rapp Record but also sent letters to the other much smaller weeklies throughout the Neck. In short order we essentially took over the letters columns of every paper. An unexpected result was that letters began to appear, all pro-Democratic, signed by local people who we had never heard from or seen at a Democratic Party function but who were encouraged by our letters to speak out.
Three months ago, the editor of the Rapp Record published a Note from the Editor in which he stated he had received “many complaints about the diatribes” that had come to dominate the letters pages. In response, he pledged to carefully review letters to prevent redundancy and to ensure compliance with his 300-word limit. The Chairman and two reps from our letter-writing group met with the editor to seek a definition of “diatribe.” As a result, he seems to be enforcing his one-letter-per-author-per-month rule – which does not matter because we have plenty authors.
We are still writing along – five of the seven letters last week were ours, the other two concerned local events.
Public Demonstrations
The only public demonstrations on the Neck are the usual parades – high school Homecoming, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Christmas, and impromptu celebrations for local high school teams who do well in state tournaments. Things changed this year with No Kings demonstrations in several counties, all of them quiet, respectful, and legal and all well-attended – and all with only minor, back-page coverage in the local papers.
That is, until last week when the Town Council of Kilmarnock (Lancaster County) announced proposed amendments to the current ordinance placing requirements on parades and special events.
Changes to the existing ordinance included “parade” being defined as any organized procession of six or more individuals using a public street, lane or sidewalk for the purpose of calling attention of the public. The amendments called for all parades and special events only being authorized via approved permit. Applications for any event or parade must be submitted no less than 60 days prior to the event. All applicants would have to show proof of $1 million of insurance and bond for the event. Other parts of the new ordinance were equally destructive of our First Amendment rights. (NOTE: Some of us wondered if the proposed changes were being done at the behest of the same people who complained to the Rapp Record editor about “diatribes.” Now why would we think that?)
On September 15, the Kilmarnock Town Council met for the first reading of their proposed ordinance. It did not go well for the ordinance. Here is how the Lancaster County Democratic Committee Facebook page described the meeting.
It was standing room only with about 70 people in attendance at the Kilmarnock Town Council Meeting tonight. Over 20 people spoke about the proposed ordinance regarding permitting public gatherings and protests. The comments were varied and all on point. A number of folks said they were surprised to see this proposal come out of this town council because they had sworn an oath to defend the Constitution. All remarks were on point and respectfully spoken.
Ironically, just before the hearing on the ordinance they signed a proclamation the recognize National Constitution Week (this week) and for the National Society of Daughters of 1812 Recognition of Star Spangled Banner Day, Sept 14.
At the end of the comments the Council moved to send the ordinance back to committee for further evaluation. They are tabling the ordinance for now.
We successfully fought town hall! And ACLU came through with a letter. Council was very receptive and a bit surprised! We will continue to monitor any other proposals!
Thank you to all who spoke and came to support Free Speech.
And there you have it folks. In two small rural Virginia counties, a small group of dedicated Americans won . . . for now. We all understand they will keep coming at us, we all understand this is but the beginning, and we all understand that the full force of the federal government is now against us. But or motto is:
"Illegitimi non carborundum"
Don’t let the bastards grind you down.
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