Oh Now I Understand!

Well, one of the anonymous commenters, to my post on my confusion as to why the Gertrude Stein Club would endorse of Linda Cropp for Mayor considering she doesn't support marriage equality, pointed me to a Washington Blade article. In the words of the anonymous commenter: "The truth is that Cropp DOES support gay marriage, and the evidence is in black and white in this week's Washington Blade."

Well I went to the Blade article and now I totally understand. Linda Cropp has lots of positions on marriage equality - it just depends on who you ask, when you ask, and where you ask.

According to the Blade:

Cropp did not raise the subject of gay marriage during her remarks before more than 200 people who turned out for the Stein Club endorsement meeting. But after the meeting, Cropp said Rosenstein misrepresented her views on gay marriage.

"People know that I support gay marriage personally, that I always have, that I have not had any problem with it personally at all," Cropp said.

She said the objections she has raised to backing gay marriage have been based solely on her concern that a vocal discussion and debate on the issue in D.C. would prompt the Republican-controlled Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the city from passing a gay marriage bill in the future. Cropp also expressed concern that Congress might overturn the city's domestic partnership law as a result of a public debate over gay marriage.

...

When Cropp ran for re-election to her Council chair seat in 2002, she told the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance in response the group's candidate questionnaire that she wasn't ready to support same-sex marriage.

"Although I am not at the point where I would support the legal recognition of marriage between partners of the same sex, I remain open to explore the issue further," she stated in her questionnaire response.

Cropp added that she opposes anti-gay marriage legislation in D.C. and other states and would oppose efforts to ban D.C. from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states.

Last November, Cropp told the Blade that her response to the 2002 GLAA questionnaire reflected her current position on gay marriage.

The following month, in December 2005, the Washington Post reported that Cropp told members of the city's Missionary Baptist Ministers Conference during a mayoral forum that she did not support same-sex marriage.

"I did not say that," Cropp said after the Stein Club meeting. "That is an absolute misrepresentation of it, and I did not say that at all."

Well that certainly clears everything up doesn't it? Linda Cropp another political profile in courage.

Huh?

I am completely and totally perplexed by this story from the DC Wire. The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, DC's LGBT Democratic organization, voted to endorse a candidate in the Mayoral primary. Two of the Democrats (Fenty and Johns) seeking the nomination have endorsed civil marriage equality for LGBT citizens in the District. Logically one would expect Gertrude Stein would have endorsed one of those two candidates, right? Wrong.

City Council Chair Linda Cropp, who does NOT support marriage equality, won the group's endorsement. What?!? I don't get it. Seriously, I don't. I was confused enough at all of the rainbow Cropp stickers at pride, the Stein endorsement only further confuses me.

Why would an organization dedicated to equality for LGBT folks endorse a candidate who did NOT support full equality over 2 legitimate candidates who do? I would love for someone to tell me why this makes any damn sense.

Marie Johns - Different, Real, Better? Yawn....

Marie Johns, one of the Democrats running for DC Mayor, has the campaign slogan "Different. Real. Better." The question is, how the heck is she any different? So far, the best I can tell, the only thing that makes her any different is that she doesn't have any elected experience (and certainly given our disastrous government, not being a part of the problem is a positive). However, beyond that, there doesn't seem to be much difference between her and the rest of the tax and spend Democrats running for Mayor.

The Post has an extensive piece on Johns and her "underdog" campaign. This extensive piece offers little in the way of giving us any clue how Johns would be any different or better than any of the other Democrats running for Mayor. In fact, the article gives us few clues as to what Johns believes about anything. We do, however, get some insight into her thoughts on our pathetic education system. Here is her ground breaking approach to education:

Johns's platform is focused heavily on fixing the city's troubled school system, which she says is to blame for a host of social problems. She wants to extend preschool to 3-year-olds, take over the day-to-day operations of the school system so Superintendent Clifford B. Janey can focus on education, and expand technical and vocational programs by opening a new campus of the University of the District of Columbia in Southeast Washington.

Am I supposed to be impressed? Yawn. If we want to fix our troubled school system we need a DRAMATIC overhaul. We need to dramatically expand our voucher program and our charter school program. We need to immediately reign in the power of the teachers unions and cut the educational bureaucracy. That would be different, real, better.

Mayor Williams Fires Head of DC Disability Agency

In an attempt to avoid a court takeover of the troubled agency, Mayor Williams has fired Marsha Thompson (per The Washington Post):

Mayor Williams says,

"I am certain we'll see noticeable improvements at the agency in a very short time so that we can treat our most vulnerable citizens with the decency and respect that they deserve."

With all due respect Mayor Williams, I am not holding my breath. I don't know exactly when it happened, but at some point you just gave up trying to fix the broken system here in DC, and now you are simply a part of it.

Theater of the Absurd - The Marion Barry Education Center

According to the Washington City Paper,

Posthumous dedications, though, do nothing for the egos of the living. That's where the Marion S. Barry Jr. Professional Learning Community comes in. Last week, officials at Ballou Senior High School slapped that title on what was formerly known as the Ward 8 Learning Community, an education facility housed in the school.

Yes, when I think Marion Barry the FIRST thing that pops into my mind is education! Look at everything Marion Barry did for District schools, and particularly schools in Ward 8. I mean they are a shining example to the rest of the nation, right?

No. They are an embarrassment.

Though I guess in some bizarre way its fitting:

But a plaque in the hallway of a crumbling and troubled high school may well end up as the only tribute to the man who dominated the city for more than half of the 31 years of D.C.'s limited self-rule. After all, what up-and-coming politico is going to sponsor legislation to name future public-works projects after a drug user and tax scofflaw?