Bacon's Rebellion

In the long, hard slog in the march to freedom — Bacon’s Rebellion (the original one), the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the struggle against Jim Crow and massive resistance — there has never been a monument erected to honor Virginia’s leaders of the Civil Rights movement. That’s about to change. Renderings were unveiled Monday for a granite monument commemorating the struggle to integrate public schools in the 1950s and ’ 60s. (See the Virginian-Pilot article.)

The privately funded, $2.8 million memorial will depict students in the 1951 walk out at Robert Russa Moton High School, in Farmville; the Rev. L. Francis Griffin, a Farmville civil rights activist; and civil rights lawyers Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill, who led the legal fight.

Many observers are hyper-critical of the early Virginians who failed to live up to the sensibilities of the 21st century, as if democracy and equal rights should have emerged, like the virgin birth, pure and unsullied from the monarchical, superstition-drenched and tribal mentality of early 17th century Europe. It is vital to remember that democratic institutions, the rule of law, human rights and property rights emerged only after centuries of conflict, and cannot be taken forgranted. Virginians need to honor all the heroes who helped create our modern-day institutions, which, however imperfect, are the least imperfect yet devised by mankind.

Now that we’ve given the Civil Rights heroes their due, maybe it’s time to set up a statue for Nathaniel Bacon who in 1676 championed the rights of free-born Englishman against an overweening monarchy!

Today’s Daily Press reports (“Shutdown of Williams campaign requested”, May 15, 2007) that the 1st Senatorial Legislative District Committee de-certified Sen. Marty Williams as a candidate yesterday. They made one small error. The paper says I voted to de-certify Marty Williams. In fact, I didn’t have a vote – I was the secretary.

Full Disclosure: I was sitting in the room as an interested Party official whose District election is in question. I am Vice-Chair of the Poquoson City Committee, 1st Vice-Chair of the 1st Cong. Dist Committee and State Central Representative from the 1st District. In addition I am supporting the candidacy of Tricia Stall to be my State Senator and I am in favor of Motherhood, apple pie and the Americn Flag.

There are three processes at play here. First, the Commonwealth’s Attorneys of Newport News and York/Poquoson are investigating allegations of voter fraud. Likewise, the FBI has been contacted since the Commonwealth is still under the Voting Rights adult supervision of the Feds (thanks, George Allen).

The other two processes are Party rules and State law. Much needs to be cleaned up with new, tighter legislation to keep our elections clean, fair, and open.

Since the 1st SD Legislative Committee de-certified Marty Williams, when that notification gets the State Board of Elections (SBE) – they can take him off the ballot, ask the AG for an opinion, or do nothing – using administrative discretion.

Meanwhile, Sen. Williams can appeal the Legislative Committee decision, but he appeals to the 1st Cong. District Committee, RPV.

At the same time, the State Central Commitee, RPV could chose, or not, to instruct the Chairman to request to the SBE to remove Williams and/or the RPV can ‘disavow’ him as a candidate, or not.

The fundamental problem which needs to be addressed by legislation is the certification of the voters – to follow the letter and spirit of the Virginia Code. It probably should be done by Voter Registrars, not by the legislative committee chairperson. I’ve been a legislative district chairman.

Here are the minutes of the meeting – which was open to the public.

CALLED MEETING OF THE FIRST SENATORIAL DISTRICT REPUBLICAN DISTRICT COMMITTEE OF VIRGINIA

May 14, 2007

Poquoson Public Library
500 City Hall Avenue
Poquoson, VA 23662

Present: Bill Kennedy (Acting Chair) Hampton City; John Anderson Poquoson City, Joe Broyles York County, James Bowden 1^st Cong. Dist Vice-Chairman and State Central Representative, Mike Wade 3^rd Cong. Dist Chairman and Hampton City Chairman. Visitors from the public were present.

GENERAL OPENING: Acting Chairman Kennedy called the meeting to order. He read the Call. John Anderson lead the invocation. Joe Broyles lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Mike Wade read the Republican Creed of Virginia. Bill Kennedy appointed James Bowden as the secretary. Bill. Kennedy appointed Mike Wade as the parliamentarian.

Mr. Kennedy asked for the roll call. The Newport News representative and Chairman Dr. Henry Rothfuss was absent. John Anderson produced a Unites States Postal Service envelope indicated the mailed call to Dr. Henry Rothfuss was refused as unsolicited mail and returned to John Anderson. Bill Kennedy said that Henry Rothfuss had not answered his phone calls or emails.

DISCUSSION OF ERRORS ON CANDIDATE FORMS FOR MARTY WILLIAMS: John Anderson related step by step how first known discrepancies were reported to members of the 1^st Senate District Legislative Committee and members, including John Anderson immediately tried to get a meeting with the Dr. Rothfuss. Dr. Rothfuss sent the petitions in question to the State Board of Elections (SBE). When the SBE returned the petitions to Dr. Rothfuss, John Anderson requested again to Dr. Rothfuss for a meeting. There was no answer from Dr. Rothfuss.

John Anderson got 16 petitions for Marty Williams from the Poquoson Registrar.

John Anderson showed the committee how the petitions’ purpose section was not filled out. It was completely blank. The city, county, event or type of election, and date of election were all left blank. Persons signing the petition knew they were signing for Marty Williams but there was no indications for what election or when.

It was reported that in the 8^th Senate District this sort of errors had petitions thrown out by the Legislative District Chairman by both candidates when only part of the purpose block wasn’t filled out.

DISCUSSION OF ILLEGAL GATHERING AND CERTIFICATION OF CANDIDATE CERTIFICATION FORMS FOR MARTY WILLIAMS: John Andrson said persons who signed some petitions, certifying that they had collected the signatures personally, in fact did not collect some signatures. This a felony violation of the Virginia Code – voter fraud.

Specifically, on petition 10B (numbered by the registrar) Marilyn Schempf’s signature is present. Her husband, Bryan Schempf was present outside the Poquoson Post Office when she signed and said a young woman in her late 20s or early 30s accompanied by a young man got Mrs. Schempf’s signature. The person signing the form, Ruth A. Gerenger is an elderly woman in her 80s who usually is confined to a wheelchair.

John Anderson said one person who had the petitions signed wasn’t a resident of the 1^st Senate District.

Several petitions signed by Mrs. Gerrenger have signatures from different localities on the same day. In other words, instead of one form being filled out from one location and then another, several petitions may have several signatures from one location and then another on the same day. This is highly irregular for one person to have voters sign multiple, different petitions in the same location on the same day.

Bill Kennedy said Dr. Rothfuss wouldn’t return his call.s He produced a copy of an email where Sen. Marty Williams said he wouldn’t tell Dr. Rothfuss to have a meeting of the 1^st Senate Legislative Committee. Based on Bill Kennedy’s experience as a secretary to an electoral board, he said Dr. Rothfuss was derelict in his duties. Furthermore, Anna C. Moore showed the same irregularities of several petitions being out and signed in the same and different locations on the same day. It suggests that persons other than Anna C. Moore circulated some of the petitions.

John Anderson said he tried to reach Dr. Rothfuss electronically and by mail. Sen. Marty Williams responded to John Anderson’s email. He didn’t desire to meet with the 1^st Senate District Committee. In another email, Sen. Marty Williams said, “I’m not going to instruct a grown man to do anything”, in reference to having a meeting on the certification.

Mike Wade said he contacted Dr. Rothfuss in his capacity as the 3^rd District Chairman, but got no response. He noted that Jane Pendergrast, who works at the retirement home where Mrs. Ruth A. Gerenger resides, said she signed a petition for Marty Williams being circulated by Sarah Gerenger, the granddaughter of Mrs. Ruth Gerenger. Sarah Gerenger is Sen. Marty Williams’ legislative assistant and does not live in the 1^st District, which is a felony violation of the Virginia Code – Voter Fraud.

NEW BUSINESS: The following motions were moved, seconded and passed by unanimous vote: 3-0.

Motion 1:
That petitions 1-16 be declared invalid/decertified because the entire purpose section containing locality, election type, and date of the event, was left totally blank on each petition.

Motion 2:
To declare as invalid/decertify those petitions signed by Ruth A. Gerringer and A. Harper Gerringer where it is proven that signatures were fraudulently gathered and signed by either individual.

Motion 3:
Move to decertify and remove State Senator Marty Williams from the June 12, 2007 ballot because disqualifying the petitions invalid or collected fraudulently, leaves him with less that the 250 signatures required for certification as a candidate..

Motion 4:
That the findings associated with Motions 1-3 should be immediately sent to the Virginia State Board of Elections, Attorney General, Chairman, Republican Party of Virginia, 1^st District Chairman, Commonwealths’ Attorney (Newport News and Poquoson),and 1^st Senatorial District Chairman.

ADJOURNMENT: The motion to adjourn was moved, seconded and voice voted into adjournment.

Respectfully Submitted,

James Atticus Bowden

Secretary

The history in this bit is the Party taking responsibility to hold incumbents to the Rule of Law in their own elections. See when this has happened before – since 1619.

The May 14, 2007, edition of the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine has been published. Click here to view the e-zine. Don’t miss a single edition — get the e-zine mailed to you directly. Click here for a free subscription.

New Kent Ferment
Pete Johns has found a way to make growth to pay for itself: Pay $7,500 per house in proffers, issue $86 million in CDA bonds, and sell houses to affluent retirees with no children in school.
by James A. Bacon

Leadership in the New Economy
Technology is still propelling the American economy forward. Virginia is doing well in this sector — but not as well as it could.
by Doug Koelemay

What Is Wrong with this Picture?
Yes, the United States does need to invest more money on infrastructure. But without Fundamental Change in human settlement patterns, most of the spending would be squandered.
by EM Risse

Putting the Family back in the “College Family”
One way to make colleges safer is to keep parents informed when their children pose a danger to themselves or others.
by Chris Braunlich

Ten Reasons to Read Rosetta 6.2
Jim Bowden plugs his newly published novel, a spiritual/political thriller set in the near future.
James A. Bowden

Well, it had to happen sooner or later: State revenues are coming in behind budget. Reports the Associated Press: “With just two months left in the state fiscal year that ends June 30, overall growth came to 3.6 percent compared with the budgeted estimate of 6.5 percent growth.”

Revenues have been trailing projections since the beginning of the fiscal year, but there was no way to know whether the shortfall was just a momentary blip. But with only two months left, the chances of making up the gap is not promising. Fortunately, everyone has seen the shortfall coming, so no one seems too alarmed.

Cuts to nonessential spending wouldn’t harm key services such as education and health care and could balance the state budget in the short term, said Del. M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights, a senior budget negotiator. But he said the shortfall could have an effect on planned programs, such as the governor’s campaign promise to create universal pre-kindergarten programs.

With a fat rainy-day fund, and multi-hundred-million-dollar-a-year commitments to one-time capital projects in the current biennial budget, there should plenty of padding for ongoing programs in the next biennial budget. There may not be as much money available for one-shot spending like mental health facilities and Chesapeake Bay clean-up, but core programs should not suffer. Plus, there’s always the chance that the economy, which slowed noticeably in the first quarter of 2007, will regain momentum.

Newspaper circulations may be declining but viewership of newspaper websites are soaring — growing at nearly twice the rate of the general online audience, according to data released today by the Newspaper Association of America. Reports the association:

An average of more than 59 million people (37.6 percent of all active Internet users) visited newspaper Web sites each month during the first quarter, a record number that represents a 5.3 percent increase over the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen/NetRatings NetView custom analysis. During the same time period, the overall Internet audience grew just 2.7 percent.

Said Shawn Riegsecker, CEO of Centro, a Chicago based company that works with interactive media agencies to facilitate online ad buys:

It’s no surprise newspapers are attracting online readers at this incredible rate. As consumers become more sophisticated in navigating the Web, they are turning to trusted sources of news and information, like newspapers, instead of content aggregators or portals. This couldn’t be better for the industry, as newspapers control more of this information than any other medium. As newspapers continue to invest in their digital properties and produce world-class content, I predict they will capture a much larger percentage of the overall online pie.

I suspect that Riegsecker is right. But there’s just one problem. Print newspapers generate considerably more revenue per reader than does online news. Internet-based news operations cannot support the same level of editorial overhead. So, I return to my usual tag-line:

Who will gather the news?

Do you regard Seung Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech killer, as an aberration? Think again, argues Jonathan Scott, a writer for Black Agenda Report in an essay reproduced in Oread Daily. The deranged loner Cho stands in a long tradition of mass murder and genocide that began with Jamestown. (To read Scott’s brief essay, scroll down a couple of screens past the introduction.)

According to Scott, the capitalist planters of early Virginia rank right up there with the Nazis as the great mass murderers of history. (There’s a special place in my heart for leftist screeds such as this: They regard the original Bacon’s Rebellion, otherwise relegated to obscurity, as one of the pivotal moment in American history. Indentured servants and slaves revolted against their capitalist overlords. After suppressing the rebellion, the planter class instituted race-based slavery to divide the white and black underclasses.)

Yes, friends, the history of Virginia is ugly, ugly, ugly. Celebrating the founding of Jamestown is like celebrating Auschwitz. Our ancestors contributed nothing of worth to the world. The state panel studying the Virginia Tech massacre should absolve Cho and the rest of us should slit our own wrists in self-loathing.

Don has a handy little quiz on the Richmond School Board v. Mayor Wilder follies.

You know, before folks get too wonkily agitated about imposing a new tax on city residents to handle water run-off, crab grass, the heartbreak of psoriasis, or whatever fresh crisis confronts River City, they ought to consider what our betters do with the money they already have.

In this case, the funds sure aren’t going into the classrooms. And given this prominent, ongoing, outrageous waste (which is saying something for Richmond) the mind boggles over the hijinks the city could indulge in with yet another new source of funds.

It should come as not surprise to anyone that, as Jim Bacon’s 26 April post is titled: there is
“Lots of Room for Growth Left in Fairfax County.”

The surprise is that the Greater Merrifield re construction effort has stayed on track for so many years.

It was decades ago that graduate planning students outlined parameters for how the area along Gallows Road between I-66 on the north and US Route 50 on the south to Gallows Road on the south could to evolve to become the METRO-station-anchored Zentrum of an Alpha Community.

This Alpha Community would be bordered by Greater Tysons Corner on the north, Greater Fairfax Center on the west, Greater Springfield / Annandale on the south and Greater Bailies Crossroads / Falls Church on the east.

That there is “Lots of Room for Growth Left in Fairfax County” has a theme at SYNERGY/ Planning for 35 years. We demonstrated this point during the 1972 to 1975 Pause For Planning (PLUS) process in Fairfax County.

Over the next few years in our work with the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, the Fairfax Committee of 100, the League of Women Voters, the Gang of 10, the Sierra Club and the Fairfax Audubon Society the plenty of room reality evolved into the mantra:

“If all of Fairfax County were redeveloped at Reston Density, 2/3 of the county would be vacant.”

As years went by the percentage of openspace become somewhat smaller and the data was refined to became the basis for “Five Critical Realities the Shape the Future” which is a Backgrounder at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com . The data and analysis of this work became the framework for Regional Metrics.

No one ever challenged the assumptions and data in the Backgrounder. Many doubted that such “radical” transformation would ever take place “because that is not what the market demands.”

Later we demonstrated that these more functional and transportable settlement patterns are exactly what the market supports.

Those who profit from, or hope to profit from, settlement pattern dysfunction are counting on the fact that regulation changes and education processes are never put in place to implement the transformation.

The jury is still out on whether citizens will come to understand that there is “Lots of Room for Growth Left in Fairfax County” while there are still resources to make Fundamental Changes possible. The Greater Merrifield example provides cause for hope.

EMR