posted on August 15, 2001 06:35:28 AM new
Sometimes politicians won't shut up, even if their body is telling them to. This city council woman's filibuster efforts could only be described as 'beyond the call of duty' or eeeeeeew. She gave meaning to that ridiculous saying, "You go girl!"
posted on August 15, 2001 06:54:51 AM new
She sounds like a courageous and principled woman to me. A woman who would sacrifice a little dignity in order to help the blacks avoid a damaging redistricting plan.
posted on August 15, 2001 07:40:44 AM new
I don't know what they were debating, (yes, redistricting, but it doesn't elaborate)
according to the article, all that was said,
and it was the woman charged with the misdeamenor herself: Smith and three other board members were trying to hold up debate over a redistricting plan they said would hurt blacks.
And it was another woman that charged her with this misdeamenor.
I don't know, seems a lot more sacrificial? (what happened to civility. common decency, and at the least, sanitation-ewwww is right) than say, tying oneself to a tree or something like that, but who is to say this debate and this redistricting was really going to hurt anyone.... it doesn't go into any detail of what it was really all about.
posted on August 15, 2001 08:39:49 AM new
Personally I don't care if your trying to save a tree or open up a toxic landfill, a filibuster to me is a loop hole in the legislative process, there is no nobility in a filibuster to me. There is less chance of nobility in a filibuster if your relieving yourself at a public meeting. If there was ever any facade of nobility on her part it went out the window when she said she'd fight it in court because they don't have any evidence. On what little I saw in the article I viewed the woman as warped.
Yes, Jimmy Stewart was noble in Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" with his filibuster, but there is a rumor going around that was a Hollywood movie and not a documentary.
I think "Depends" should capitalize on the story to advertise their product.
posted on August 15, 2001 12:11:21 PM new
I heard this story somewhere before, on the radio, or from my sister, can't remember. I'd never heard what the fillibuster was about, but when I first heard the story I thought then, and still think now, I'd vote for that woman in a second.
Her story makes me think of my dentist. Our previous dentist was a pompous jerk, but I could stand that. The final straw was when my 11 year old came home from his appt. with a $250.00 crown on a baby tooth.
One of my co-workers, a hypochondriac who never liked any doctor or dentist and kept switching around, had related his story of when he tried the woman dentist in town. Unable to pull his tooth, this woman had climbed up on the chair with him, straddled the guy, put her all into it, and finally got his tooth out. He didn't approve, but I thought to myself - that's the dentist for us!
We immediately switched over. Without me telling her why I was unhappy with the previous dentist, the first thing she did was pull that crowned baby tooth (that had been in there all of 2 weeks.) Then she commenced to pulling a whole slew of my kids' other teeth (no straddling though). She said that if those teeth had been pulled earlier, my children probably wouldn't have needed braces, but it had gone on so long that she thought the elder child did need braces, though the younger child might have been caught in time. She referred them right away to the town orthodentist, who agreed with what the new dentist said. Unfortunately, it was too late, and they both needed braces. I had been asking the first dentist for several years prior to that if they needed to see the orthodentist, and he had kept on saying - Not yet, in a few years. Grrr.
Anyway, I've never been unhappy at all with our new dentist. My co-worker had disapproved of the woman dentist because straddling him in the chair was undignified, but I thought the woman being willing to sacrifice her dignity for something she saw as having to be done showed a lot of sense.
posted on August 16, 2001 10:45:25 AM new
I think I agree with everyone's sentiment in here so far. It does take a lot of nerve to do what this woman did in order to meet her prnciples; however, it would be hoped that since fillibustering is not illegal just yet, they'll make some provision to just let people use the restroom. Skip that thought - politicians would just use THAT as another way to achieve their ends as well!
Just when you think politics have hit bottom...