In the wake of the controversy over Mike Pence's signing of the Bigoted Religious Freedom and Restoration Act, here-forth known on twitter as #BoycottIndiana, I would like to introduce you all to some really good guy Hoosiers.
I've lurked here at dailykos since its inception. I think you can still check my user ID to find stuff like that out. I'm basically a Social Democrat so living in Indiana is really hard. I have recently retired and I'm considering locating to a warmer clime but the politics in those zones are just as bad or worse and, although I love their blueness, VT, MA and MN are just too damn cold to move to. It's bad enough up here by the big lake.
And now On to the good guys. Recently, as a matter of fact just 3 weeks after the friggin' disastrous 2014 elections http://www.southbendtribune.com/... the Republicans on the St. Joseph County Indiana Council decided to introduce a “Patient Safety Law” here in Northern Indiana. Dailykos predicted it would happen and, gosh by golly gee and goodness, there is was. Fortunately, two people in our local St. Joseph County Democratic Party http://www.stjoedemocrats.org/... under the shiny, brand new leadership of Party Chairman Jason Critchlow http://www.stjoedemocrats.org/... and “the only woman on the County Council” (proud to have her as my BFF) Councilwoman Diana Hess https://www.facebook.com/... stepped up and led the council caucus on this issue. It got pretty ugly. One of the sponsors---- who shall remain nameless cause' you can look it up if you want to----was a Democrat who had just moved from a seat on the council to another elected position in the county. The other sponsor guy http://danherbster.com/... is a member of a pretty conservative Baptist church. Our council is 6 Democrats to 3 Republicans and St. Joseph County is heavily Catholic. Suffice it to say that if Diana hadn't stepped up to help educate and inform the public and our elected officials as to exactly what the ordinance would have done and was intended to do, the women of our county could have been left without a decent clinic. This is Diana's article in the South Bend Tribune http://www.southbendtribune.com/... about how the “Right To Life” operated behind the scenes to influence and intimidate our council members. In the end we won the night for women's reproductive rights http://www.southbendtribune.com/... in a council session that lasted until one in the morning.
This is how the conservatives in the GOP work now.....they attempt to suppress Women's Reproductive Rights at the county level. It was very interesting to watch it happen and to help fight against it.
Coincidentally the Republican "gentleman" http://danherbster.com/... who was one of the bill's sponsors, resigned from the council the night the bill failed and is joining the U.S. Army. I wish him all the best.
More good things from good Hoosiers in the latest Republican driven fiasco in Indiana:
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, within 12 hours of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signing the #RFRA bill, http://www.abc57.com/... pulled together a group of over 40 business leaders to call out Governor Pence's poor judgment regarding this issue, and County Chairman Critchlow immediately called for a boycott http://www.fox28.com/... of any discriminatory businesses as soon as Pence signed the RFRA bill.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. â On Friday, Mayor Pete Buttigieg stood united with over 40 South Bend business owners to speak out against Indiana's new Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Mayor Buttigieg and those business owners want the public to know that no matter what the bill says, their doors are open to everyone.
Mayor Buttigieg says Friday's gathering wasn't political, it was just a way for him to get the word out that he will not tolerate this kind of prejudice.
âWe don't care where you're from, we don't care how you worship, we don't care what you look like and we don't care who you love. We care about you feeling welcome in this city and South Bend is open for business,â says Mayor Buttigieg.
Mayor Pete has been a great leader for progressive causes while maintaining a good relationship with the business community in South Bend and he, along with the rest of our Democratic Caucus, makes me proud to be a St. Joseph County Democrat.
Finally, I'd just like to say that there really are some good, progressive Hoosiers. All of our St. Joseph County Council members did their due diligence to keep the horrible so-called Patient Protection bill from becoming law. I was kind of wonderful to behold. We may havebeen gerrymandered into oblivion but we're fighting back. There's another Hoosier who deserves recognition and that's our State Superintendent of Education Glenda Ritz, who actually got more votes that Mike Pence. But that's another story for the âSometimes it's Hard to Be a Hoosierâ series.
If you would like to help support these progressive Democrats in Indiana here is the St.Joseph County Democratic Party's Act Blue Page https://secure.actblue.com/... They'd appreciate your support. I would too.
BTW, I'm Hoosierville on twitter. #UniteBlue
1:53 PM PT: UPDATE: Mayor Pete will be appearing on "Politics Nation" on MSNBC this evening.