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Becky Jones, the vice president of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky, called me to see if I was going to attend their “Democracy Principle” rally on Friday. I told her I would try.
I really didn’t want to go cover it. I mean, what was the point? The League has been pointing out the disrespect of democracy by the Repub leadership of the General Assembly for years. From gerrymandered districts to sewer bills, the League has been persistent in speaking up for democracy – and the leadership has been persistent in ignoring them.
It wasn’t until Friday morning that I decided to go. After all, not many reporters get a personal invitation to cover an event, right? And, I might see some folks I knew.
When I got there, the Capitol Rotunda was filling up fast. I was a little surprised at the size of the crowd on a Friday at lunch time. It was gratifying to know that everyday citizens cared about how things were done in Frankfort.
As I walked through the crowd, I did, indeed, see some people I knew. I got to speak with Teri Carter, one of our contributors. I saw Pam Stevenson, whom I had just interviewed for one of our podcasts. And, it was great to speak with a number of ForwardKY members; I always like putting a face with a name I know from our membership roster.
Then it was time for the rally to start.
The rally program
- We were greeted by Dr. Jennifer Jackson, the president of the League. She explained why they were holding the rally: because of the continued abuse of the law-making process by the legislature. She thanked us for being there, and turned the floor over to Becky Jones, the first vice president.
- Jones proceeded to go into detail about the legislative procedures that caused the League to hold the rally. She pointed out the charts on display at the front, showing examples of bills that had been mishandled by leadership and fast-tracked to passage using undemocratic tactics such as:
- Holding floor readings before the bill had even come out of committee
- Shoving in a last-minute committee sub
- Holding committee hearings at odd (and non-announced) times
- Voting on a bill the same day it came out of committee
After Jones had pointed out these details, she introduced five guest speakers to go into more detail about why these legislative misdeeds were so egregious.
- First was Ridhi Penmecha, a senior at Western Hills High School in Frankfort and a member of the Kentucky Student Voice Team. She told of coming to Frankfort with members of the KSVT to testify about bills, only to not be allowed to speak in the committee hearings. She explained that these bills affected them directly, but the legislators were not interested in hearing their voices.
- Next was a pastor from northern Kentucky, Rev. James Todd Smith. He called out the bills themselves for the harm they would do the vulnerable among us. He quoted Jesus from John 19, where Jesus said “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Noting that some of these bills were, indeed, passed under cover of both figurative and literal darkness, he declared that the quote applied to both the process and the bills. He then reminded us of the parable of the persistent widow, who finally received justive from the unjust judge due to her persistence in calling for it. Smith declared that, like the widow, we were calling for justice – and, like the widow, we were going to keep coming back, and coming back, and coming back, until the leadership of the legislature gave us justice.
I have to note that Smith’s message was a stirring sermon on justice. He lit up the room, and got repeated ovations. (He also changed my mind about the value of the rally, which I discuss in my “Bruce’s Take” listed below.)
- Following Smith’s message was a true contrast in styles. Mark Ritter, the legislative chair of the Kentucky chapter of the Sierra Club, talked about the lack of transparency and the resulting damage some of the bills would do to our state. He especially noted SB 89, the bill that relaxes rules on water pollution and will have a devastating effect on the ground water and drinking water in some parts of the state. He commented drily that even as various experts tried to explain why this bill was a bad idea, the lawmakers ignored the experts and thought they knew better: “I don’t think they really understand how ground water works.”
- The fourth guest speaker was Artie Ann Bates of Concerned Letcher Countians. She talked about the proposed federal prison in Letcher County, and how her group was fighting to prevent it from being built. She also talked about the difficulty of getting lawmakers to listen to their concerns. (I have to admit, I had trouble hearing her at times, so I may have missed some of her points.)
- The final guest speaker was Professor Josh Douglas of the University of Kentucky. The author of numerous books on voting and democracy, he explained how ultimately dangerous these anti-democracy practices are. He challenged all of us to continue to stand against them, and to work to get the legislature to listen. He also noted that he actually agreed with something Senate President Robert Stivers said: “If voters don’t like how we are doing things, then they should change their representatives.” In other words, said Douglas, “Vote. Them. Out.”
Jennifer Jackson and Becky Jones then wrapped up the rally by encouraging people to share the images on the posters and to help people around them learn about these issues. After that, both Jackson and Jones did some Q-and-A with the media persons present.
My interview
I was able to interview both Jackson and Jones together. Here is the audio of that interview, along with a transcript.
I am here with Jennifer Jackson and Becky Jones of the League of Women Voters. Thank you all for your presentation today. I’m glad I came over and heard it. It was good, but I have to ask a couple of questions.
First off, why did you do this? Because I get the impression that the leadership of the legislature isn’t paying attention or doesn’t care about this, because you’ve done it now two or three times.
So why continue to do it? Well, we’ve been asked that question the last two times we put out a report. What do you expect the legislature to do? And have you contacted the legislature?
What we expect them to do is written in the report. That’s not a mystery. Have we asked to talk to them? Yes. Affirmative. Have they responded? No. Never. Not to phone calls, not to emails, not to any requests to join us at the table and sit down and talk about what we’re talking about.
So why did we do the Democracy Principle rally? It’s because they need to understand that the public understands what’s going on here.
Okay, and Ms. Jackson?
Yeah, this really was to raise awareness with the public.
It’s really important to continue to engage, you know. I think that sometimes people are not aware of what’s going on. They think that people who are making the laws are taking time and deliberating and considering and researching when they’re putting things, amendments on the ballot, that they’re well researched, that they’ve been thoroughly discussed and vetted. And what we’re seeing is that that is not what’s really happening.
And I’ve seen students come here, they got up very early in the morning to come to testify and they were not able to. And they’re making laws that directly impact these students, who don’t even have the opportunity to have their voice heard. If you’ve already made up your decision about what the law is going to be before you even hear from the people that it’s affecting, then I don’t think that democracy is working.
So let me ask you this: You’ve been doing this, and you’re trying to make the public aware. What kind of traction have you gotten from the public? Are you seeing membership growing? Are you seeing more people contacting you about this issue? Are you seeing other legislators, not necessarily the leadership, who are paying attention?
I think there are two fronts. I think there is an increase. We are seeing renewed interest in the league and membership. We’re also seeing renewed interest from the National League of Women Voters in what we’re doing here in Kentucky as being a model for what other leagues can do across the country to put a spotlight on how their legislatures are working.
So we have, in fact, a webinar coming up where two of our members of the transparency team are going to be explaining how we did our work so that other state leagues who might be interested in the issue could model.
How discouraged do you get?
I don’t get discouraged.
When there’s opposition, you have two choices. You can keep your head down and you can say nothing, or you can stand up and speak out. And that’s what I feel like we’re being driven to do. We’re standing up, we’re speaking out.
And I think the underlying current is of hope and real passion about what our country was founded on. It was founded on the principle that people get to participate in our government. And I hate to see that being eroded, and I think we need to stand up and fight for that. Public participation is crucial. We chose this type of participatory government when this country was founded. And we need to make sure that that is being defended.
So, you have a button, and this will be my last question. You have a button that says “No laws about us without us” – which, by the way, I think is a wonderful, pithy comment. Is that from the League of Women Voters of Kentucky, or is that national?
It’s actually an adaptation, I believe, from the Americans with Disabilities Act. They summarized their call to action decades ago with that statement, “No laws about us without us.”
I think it was “Nothing about us without us” – but very close, similar.
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Related Articles
— Rallying for the Democracy Principle – Why we showed up at the capitol on the legislature’s last day (link)
– Going to the LWV rally changed my mind (link)
