Jerrold Dagen is our candidate for State Senate District Three. He will be holding a series of “Lunch with Jerrold” meetings at the Glynn Democratic HQ on the last Tuesday of the month. The next lunch is scheduled for Oct 30, 2018. Jerrold will be here to answer questions and listen to your concerns in District 3.
Please plan to join him from 11am-1pm at Democratic HQ at 1400 Gloucester Street in Brunswick.
Please bring your bag lunch and something to drink
This story originally appeared in Newsweek and was shared on Facebook and other social media sites. It is being reprinted here in its entirety because of the importance of this issue to all of us. As many of our speakers from the Democratic Banquet stated, this is a fundamental right that should not be abridged by those who would deny everyone their right to vote.
This original article is written by Ramsey Touchberry at Newsweek.
The board of elections for a rural, southwest county in Georgia that consists of mostly black voters wants to eliminate all but two of the county’s polling locations just months before the midterm elections because they’re not in compliance with disabilities laws.
During a “courtesy” meeting Thursday night, the Randolph County Board of Elections, a county located near the Georgia-Alabama border, informed residents of the possibility that seven of the nine voting locations would be eliminated since the county did not have time to make them wheelchair accessible before the midterms, according to local media reports.
The seven locations they want to close are not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires wheelchair accessibility to all public buildings. As a solution, one board member suggested voters could still apply for an absentee ballot by mail.
Randolph County has a small population, 7,000 people, with black people making up 61 percent. The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia said one of the proposed locations to be closed has a 96 percent black population of registered voters. The median household income is just a little over $30,000 per year with a poverty rate of 30 percent, according to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Leaving the county with just two polling locations in a county that does not have adequate public transportation, ACLU said, would make it considerably harder for rural residents to make it to the polls.
In a letter sent to the Randolph County Board of Elections threatening legal action against the county, ACLU Georgia claimed the timing of the proposal was suspicious because the exact same polling locations were used in recent elections earlier this year and because the first black female gubernatorial nominee, Stacey Abrams, will be on the ballot in November.
“We have expected high turnout this fall. You have to ask, why were these polling places enough for the primary and runoff earlier this year, but not good enough for this November’s election?” the letter said. “The timing is very suspicious.”
Abrams opponent, who happens to be Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp, whose office serves as the top election official in the state, said in a statement he was opposed to closing the voting stations.
“As soon as we learned about this proposal, we immediately contacted Randolph County to gather more information,” Kemp said through a spokeswoman. “Although state law gives localities broad authority in setting precinct boundaries and polling locations, we strongly urged local officials to abandon this effort and focus on preparing for a secure, accessible, and fair election for voters this November.”
“If you cut your hand, you don’t chop off your arm. You heal the cut that’s on your hand,” said Sean Young, legal director of ACLU Georgia. “People who don’t have a car, they’re going to have to walk 3 1/2 hours to get to the closest polling place if this proposal goes through.”
The county will vote on the proposed changes August 24, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
| Democratic Party of Georgia Chair, DuBose Porter, Will Emcee 2018 Annual Banquet. “We are excited to announce that our State Party Chair, DuBose Porter, will be on the dais and will EmCee this year’s Annual Banquet on Saturday night,” said Audrey Gibbons, Chair of the Glynn County Democrats. “DuBose is excited about the great work that Democrats are doing in Glynn County and wanted to be here to help us kick off our big push toward the general election. He will bring us news from around the state as we look forward to the campaigns shifting into high gear after Labor Day.” The 2018 Midterms are the most important elections in our lifetimes and, arguably, in the lifetime of our democracy. Now is the time for us to come together as Glynn County Democrats at the 2018 Annual Dinner to show our support for our fantastic Democratic candidates up and down the ticket. The Annual Dinner on Saturday, August 18th at 5:30 at Selden Park is our chance to meet in person the statewide and local Democratic candidates that we will be voting for in just over 80 days and to show them our support and commitment by our presence. All Democrats are encouraged to attend. Have fun as you meet and greet your fellow Democrats. Take a chance at winning the 50/50 raffle, enjoy the cash bar, the lively music, and a great dinner catered by A Moveable Feast! Tickets are still available at $50 each. Proceeds will go to support the Glynn County Democratic Committee in its efforts to get the voters out to elect our Democratic candidates. To order your tickets now, go to www.glynncountydemocrats.org. |
Volunteer UPDATE: TRAINING scheduled for Wednesday, July 25, 10 am and 6 pm.
vol·un·teer
[ˌvälənˈtir]
NOUN
- a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.
synonyms: subject · participant ·
VERB
- freely offer to do something.
“he volunteered for the job” ·
[more]
With all the antics currently going on with the way our government is being run, it is easy to just give up. It is easy to want to simply curl into a ball and retreat. The job of taking back our democracy seems too big and too impossible to accomplish.
I ‘give up’ daily. I am so horrified that we went from the best and brightest man of my generation, a man we could all look up to an aspire to be more like to…well, to what we have now. I am ready for the curl up in a ball and retreat.
However, I am continually inspired by the legacy President Obama has left us:
“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” – Barack Obama
I took on a big job this year by volunteering to work all summer at Democratic HQ here in Brunswick. I am a veteran of many prior major campaigns in other places, and the difference is startling. We had opposition, to be sure, but we did not face the blatant discrimination that has marked my experiences here. It’s hard and it’s discouraging and it’s crazy-making; I’ve made some friends and some enemies. I would change very little.
I volunteer because I cannot sit by and watch the death of my country as I know it. Hopefully, some of you feel the same way and will decide to give of your time and talents to begin the long process of bringing democracy back to our country.
We need volunteers of all types and kinds. We need office people, we need phone bankers, and we need canvassers. We need people to wave signs. We need people to lend us their talents and ideas. We need this every day.
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama
Never has this been more critical. This November, the political races that are decided can literally mean life or death for some of our weakest and most vulnerable citizens. Here. In this town. People we know and love.
We need you to stand up and volunteer to help us to defeat the forces that seek to destroy our way of life.
Some people might see this as over-the-top, but I promise you it isn’t. We stand a real chance of losing our democracy to a group of people who couldn’t care less about anything that does not personally enrich them.
Please consider volunteering with our office to help. You can let me know on Facebook, through the website or simply by coming down to the office at 1400 Gloucester.
I promise it will be worth it.
Even though I want to give up, I won’t. Ever.
“What I’m asking for is hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don’t matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.” Barack Obama
Written by: Dr. Markisha Butler
College seniors preparing to transition to the workplace were recently identified as having potential difficulties, according to Lane (2015). Society’s expectation of seniors to enter the workforce and settle down after college graduation is a prominent potential difficulty; therefore, this process contains a significant series of impending changes in students’ lives for many who may feel anxious and not ready (Lane, 2015). Graduating students within the Lane study were facing upcoming changes that required an alteration of priorities; these changes included the inability to continue a student lifestyle, loss of support and friendships, and the actual job search process and current unemployment (Lane, 2015).
While the graduates who were unable to find employment were expected to, and did have, decreased well-being, graduates who did obtain post college job offers were not immune from distress caused from the transition of college to work (Lane, 2015). Within the study conducted by Lane (2015), the world of work presented its own level of anxiety because graduating students were leaving a life in which they felt experienced and adequately prepared to handle and were coming into an environment in which they were the unexperienced professional. There was evidence that the former students involved in the Lane study had difficulty adjusting to professional work life and therefore had more than 50% leave their initial employment within two years of graduating college (Lane, 2015). Some of the difficulties included being unable to adjust to the work culture environment, but other stressors included substantial learning curves, employers not giving enough feedback, less structure than prepared for in a college environment, guilt about their level of initial production of work, and being challenged in creating social networks that could replace the old one from college (Lane, 2015). In order for new graduates to become successful employees, they had to be willing to adapt to the interactions, structure, and work style that constituted the organization’s culture (Wendlandt & Rochlen, 2008).
Lane (2015) reported that graduates involved in the study did not possess enough knowledge of expected work culture changes when graduating and entering the workforce. Lane conducted a survey study in which college seniors were asked about their workplace culture and were surveyed again at six months and then again at one year. It was determined that graduates who had obtained more accurate information about the employer’s workplace and culture were more likely to find satisfaction with work and adapt to the culture with more ease. In conclusion, Lane found that graduates who were secure in their social relationships had more information, felt supported, and were better able to face the challenges of adulthood with more confidence than those without secure relationships (Lane, 2015).
As a candidate for Glynn County School Board At-Large Post 1, I will take my position seriously and use my experience as a former Career Development and Placement Coordinator at a technical college to provide workshops and trainings to students as well as staff to ensure our students are prepared to transition from school to career.
Reference
Lane, J. A. (2015). Counseling emerging adults in transition: Practical applications of attachment and social support research. The Professional Counselor, 5, 15-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.15241/jal.5.1.15
