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Carol H Tucker
Passionate about knowledge management and organizational development, expert in loan servicing, virtual world denizen and community facilitator, and a DISNEY fan
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beladona Memorial
Be warned:in this very rich environment where you can immerse yourself so completely, your emotions will become engaged -- and not everyone is cognizant of that. Among the many excellent features of SL, there is no auto-return on hearts, so be wary of where your's wanders...
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officially apologizing
Today is the 5th day of the 48th week, the 1st day of the 12th month, the 336th day of 2016, and:
- Antarctica Day
- Basketball Day
- Bifocals at the Monitor Liberation Day
- Christmas Lights Day
- Civil Air Patrol Day
- Day Without Art
- Eat a Red Apple Day
- National Christmas Tree Lighting (DC)
- National Pie Day
- Rosa Parks Day
- Wear a Dress Day
- World AIDS Day
ON THIS DAY: In 800 Charlemagne judged the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican. In 1824, since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the US House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the US Constitution (John Quincy Adams was eventually chosen the winner over Andrew Jackson and William Crawford.). In 1913 the Buenos Aires Metro, the first underground railway system in the Southern Hemisphere and in Latin America, began operation, and the Ford Motor Company introduced the first moving assembly line. In 1952 the New York Daily News reported the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sex reassignment surgery. In 1959, representatives of 12 countries, including the US, signed a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity. In 1960 Paul McCartney and Pete Best were arrested (and later deported) from Hamburg, Germany, after accusations of attempted arson. In 1963 the Beatles' first single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," was released in the United States.
I owe Republicans an apology.
I have lived and voted in Maryland all my life – and most of it in Baltimore County -- but I have never really paid much attention to the legislative, congressional and election districts. In fact, I probably hadn’t looked at them since high school, back when I had a great-uncle in the MD State Legislature [Dave Williams from Frostburg]. My voting district changed when I moved from east Baltimore county to the west, then again when I moved to Montgomery County, which made sense to me, so I guess I had the mistaken impression that the districts were tied to population and county lines.
Wrong!
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Tell me, in what world does this map make any sense at all?
I get it. MD voters in Cumberland and Frostburg [where I have family], as well as the Eastern Shore, have totally different concerns than those voters in Baltimore City, Annapolis and DC suburbs. Just because more people live in the latter three areas I mentioned, why should the entire state policy be determined by them? How do the folks in Western MD and the rural areas know that they are being heard and adequately represented? I would like to think that these ridiculous maps were drawn to try and be inclusive, but I admit that is politically very naïve. So here, in one of the smaller states which is sometimes knows as “America in miniature” due to the differing landscapes it contains, is the issue of the Electoral College – which is more important to represent, acreage or population? If you go with acreage, then an individual’s vote in Wyoming has 3X the weight/impact of mine here in MD – and you have outcomes where a candidate can lose the popular vote and still win the election [John Quincy Adams anyone?]. If you go with population, then the population centers sweep everything and all of the folks in the remote and more rural areas feel like their government can’t understand their issues and doesn’t truly represent them.
IMNSHO: The answer would seem to me that we need fewer candidates who take advantage of our differences, fewer campaigns based on polarizing folks by using emotional hot buttons, and somehow elevate politics into statesmanship – speeches that put the welfare of all, the needs of the many, the infrastructure that we all rely on, first. Personally I think that the income inequity that is the result of the policies followed since the Reagan era is part and parcel of the problem, so we need candidates that can convince the Rich Uncle Moneybags they will get richer when all prosper. And we need it done without creating a “them” to blame.
But I’m not smart enough to figure out how to do that. I wish I was….
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