25 January 2008

Local Dems Organizing For Obama: January 31st New Britain Rally Planned

Local Democrats in support of Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) will hold a rally on Thursday, January 31 st , at the McCullough Temple CME Church, 55 Chapman Street, at 7:30 p.m. as part of efforts to get out the vote for Obama in the February 5 th Primary.

Obama supporters are working to get out the vote in the week leading up to the Connecticut primary and are seeking volunteers to help contact voters. "All Democrats are enthusiastic about re-taking the White House this year because of a strong and historic field of candidates who will match up well against any of the Republican candidates,"said DTC Chairman John McNamara. "The policy differences between the Democrats are minimal. We believe Senator Obama gives us the best chance to build a broader and more inclusive Democratic coalition that will bring victory in November." Forming the New Britain Area Obama Committee is Janice Choice Edwards, the volunteer chairperson. She has been joined by McNamara, State Central Committeewoman Emma Pierce, Cora Bradley, State Rep. Tim O'Brien, State Senator Don DeFronzo, Ward 2 Alderwoman Tonilynn Collins, Ward 3 Alderwoman Shirley Black, Ward 4 Alderman Phil Sherwood, Alton Brooks, former House Majority Leader David Pudlin and Attorney William Weber. Democrats interested in volunteering for the Obama campaign and joining the local committee may contact Janice Choice Edwards at 225-8288 or e-mail mcnamara.john@sbcglobal.net

For information on all Democratic Presidential campaigns, delegate selection and the feb. 5th Primary visit the Connecticut Democratic Party site at http://www.ctdems.org/

Voter Registration Deadlines Near For the Presidential Primary

The mail-in voter registration deadline for the February 5th Presidential Primary is Thursday, January 31st. New and unaffiliated voters may register to vote in the Primary by declaring party affiliation on a voter registration card (available at http://www.newbritaindemocrat.net/ ).

Walk-in registration is permissible by noon on Monday, February 4th. The Registrar of Voters office is located on the 5th floor of New Britain City Hall, 27 West Main Street.

Democrat Lucretia Holley Fills Board of Education Seat

Lucretia Holley, as associate director of admissions at Tunxis Community College, won approval of the Common Council January 23rd to fill a Democratic vacancy on the Board of Education. Holley replaces the Rev. Charles Tillett who resigned last October. The term filled by Ms. Holley will expire in 2009.

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"On his return to the limelight, Rowland took up right where he'd left off, that is, fibbing to reporters. According to him, his new job has "nothing to do with state funding and no responsibilities that connect me to the state in any way, shape or form." The truth's just the opposite. Urban development lives and dies on state funding. The city will pay half Rowland's roughly $100,000 salary, but his job is with the regional chamber of commerce. The chamber's next public event? A legislative breakfast scheduled for Friday. Maybe Rowland's not going, but why hire someone who can't?"

from The Hartford Courant, Jan. 27th. Columnist Bill Curry's commentary on the appointment of former Gov. Rowland to a $100,000+ job as the city's economic development coordinator to be underwritten by the City of Waterbury and that community's Chamber of Commerce.

New Britain Democrat e-letter 21 January 2008

MLK Holiday To Be Observed At Spottswood Church, Monday, January 21, 2 p.m.

New Britain's Mary Bethune McLeod Club will hold observances on the Rev. Martin Luther King's holiday at 2 p.m., Monday, January 21st. The event will be held at the Spottswood AME Zion Church, 25 Crestwood Lane.

Remembering King's Legacy 40 Years Later

I remember exactly where I was on April 4, 1968. Forty years ago this coming April the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis.

That week day, like many others in my senior year in high school, I drove to Bradlee’s Department store on the Lynnway in Lynn, MA to punch in for the evening shift earning some money before entering Boston University in the fall. The news spread quickly that Thursday evening that King was dead. It didn’t take long to realize that my shift as a retail clerk would be different from all the others. The store quickly emptied out. Not a customer in sight all night. No need for Mr. Silverman, the shaken and somber store manager, to send me out on outside carriage control.

The bullets in Memphis were enough to bring a normal business day to a halt in Lynn and most of the nation. Just five short years before I had come home from junior high on a late summer day to watch King deliver his “I Have A Dream” speech – an event that would inspire many to become active in politics and protest.

There are always many good remembrances of Rev. King on his national holiday. But too few of those who pay tribute now ever mention why Rev. King was in Memphis on that April day 40 years ago.

By 1968, Rev. King was widening the concerns of his movement. In Where Do We Go From Here? King opposed a Vietnam policy that had begun to break the nation further apart. The lunchroom sit-ins and battles over accommodations and voting rights were giving way to a broader agenda. He was planning a new march on Washington – “the Poor People’s Campaign” -- when he decided to take up the cause of 1,300 sanitation workers in Memphis, a city of southern segregation, where the white power structure opposed the right to unionize and the Mayor vowed never to bargain in good faith in a way that would give the sanitation workers their dignity.

The strike and a citywide economic boycott were a cause King knew he could not ignore despite plenty of advice that he should not go. King’s prophetic “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” speech on the eve of the assassination is his best known from Memphis. But two weeks earlier, on March 18th, King galvanized support for strikers by saying: “So often we overlook the worth and significance of those who are not in professional jobs, or those who are not in the so-called big jobs…..One day our society will come to respect the sanitation worker if it is to survive.”

Following King’s assassination, the Memphis power structure gave up its intransigence – recognizing the union, awarding pay raises and instituting merit promotions.

King’s campaign for striking sanitation workers reaffirmed his greatness at the hour of his death. That's worth remembering and passing on to a new generation 40 years after he died.