JFK Assassination Anniversary

November 22 is a day that is burned into the memory of many Americans. Every year I remember exactly what happened that day and those that followed.

Rather than focus on what happened and whether there was a conspiracy (believed by many although there is no solid evidence even after more than fifty years), we should remember how JFK inspired so many people to have a better view of the good that government can do.

Kevin Walling

Kevin Walling joined the MCDCC (Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee) this summer and was almost immediately elected its Chair. I believe that is the first time this ever happened with MCDCC, and Kevin was also the youngest person ever elected to this position. He has now resigned.

There are some who have a negative view of Kevin but I am firmly on the other side. I have worked with him and found him to be intelligent, considerate, and willing to work hard. Yes, he made some mistakes just as all of us do, but he was willing to check into them and figure out ways to improve.

There's no point now in going further about my admiration for Kevin Walling. He has chosen to leave and MCDCC accepted his resignation and will choose a new Chair at its meeting in December. However, I hope he will be remembered for the good things he did, which are many.

Hopefully, MCDCC will come out of this stronger and more able to deal with the real problems the MoCo Democratic party faces.

Gettysburg Address

Today is the 151st anniversary of Abraham Lincoln delivering what has come to be known as "The Gettysburg Address." Today as then we should be "dedicated to the great task remaining before us" and help insure "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.

Vote Counting Still Going On

The election was held on November 4 and results were announced by news media and "unofficial" results are on the websites of the MoCo Board of Elections and the Maryland Board of Elections. However, the official count of ballots is still going on.

Today at the MoCo Board of Elections there will be a count of the remaining absentee ballots. And the official certification of the ballot count is scheduled to be completed December 9, 2014. Until then, all election statistics are unofficial.

Remembering a Veteran on Veterans Day

On this Veterans Day I remember my father, Martin Bessel, who served in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War 2 from 1942 to 1946. He was about 25 years old in the photo above. He was very proud of his Honorable Discharge card which I believe he always carried in his wallet. 

He passed away a little over 37 years ago. I'm always pleased when people tell me I have even a slight resemblance to him. He was a wonderful man who would have loved my wife Barbara and she him.

Abraham Lincoln Won Reelection on this Day 150 Years Ago

On this day 150 years ago, November 8, 1864, Abraham Lincoln was reelected President of the United States.

No president had been reelected for 32 years and many thought it could never happen again. And many more, including Lincoln himself, as recently as August thought he would not be reelected.

His opponent was the former leader of all U.S. armies in the Civil War, Major General George B. McClellan. McClellan was very popular with his troops but virtually every historian agrees that he was an awful general, afraid to fight, fearing his enemy always had more troops than he did and always wrong, and meddling in politics which military officers should avoid.

McClellan didn't even resign from his military office when he was nominated for president or when he was a candidate for many months. He only resigned on November 8, the day he lost the election, by telegram to Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln won all the Union states except three, and won resoundingly in the military vote. The soldiers who had loved McClellan voted instead for Abraham Lincoln, to complete the job they had begun.

Comparison of Some 2014 and 2010 Votes in Leisure World of Maryland and MoCo

All those who watch politics are looking for explanations of what happened in the surprise vote for Maryland Governor 2 days ago. Can it be explained by voter turnout?

Just to use one area as a test case, I compared the votes in Leisure World of Maryland in the gubernatorial elections of 2010 and 2014, for Maryland Governor, Comptroller, State Senator in District 19, and Montgomery County Executive.

The total votes were down from 2010 compared with 2014, by 6-8%. However the percent of votes received by the Democratic and Republican candidates for Maryland Comptroller, State Senator and County Executive were almost exactly the same in both years.

The voting for Governor was a completely different story. The percentages for the Democratic and Republican candidates in 2010 was 68% vs. 32%. The percentages in 2014 were 60% vs. 40%.

This made me wonder if the Leisure World results were unique or if the same pattern might show up in all of MoCo and District 19.

The total votes were down from 2010 compared with 2014, by 15-16% (Leisure World almost always has better voter turnout than MoCo). And the percent of votes received by the Democratic and Republican candidates for Maryland Comptroller, State Senator, and County Executive were exactly the same in both years in District 19 and MoCo, just as with the Leisure World pattern.

The voting for Governor was a different story. The percentages for the Democratic and Republican candidates in MoCo in 2010 was in  69% vs. 31%. The percentages in 2014 were 63% vs. 37%.

Conclusion: It appears that although the voter turnout in 2014 was lower than in 2010, the percentage of votes received by Democratic vs. Republican candidates in at least three races, statewide, countywide, and Leisure World, stayed the same. That is, all had fewer votes but in about the same proportion. The only race that was significantly different in terms of one party's candidate having a much lower percent of the votes, was the Governor's race, and that was true countywide and in Leisure World.

Should You Really Bother to Vote? What Does It Matter?

Many people ask themselves these questions and decide it's too much of a bother to vote and it doesn't matter anyway. It's worth thinking a little more.

November 15, 1917:Under orders from the superintendent of the Occoquan Workhouse, forty guards with clubs went on a rampage, brutalizing thirty-three jailed women. They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head, and left her there for the night. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed, and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate Alice Cosu, who believed Mrs. Lewis to be dead, suffered a heart attack. According to affidavits, other women were grabbed, dragged, beaten, choked, slammed, pinched, twisted, and kicked. 

What was the crime these women had committed? They participated in a demonstration to allow women to vote. No kidding.

May 7, 1955 · Belzoni, Mississippi

Rev. George Lee, one of the first black people registered to vote in Humphreys County, used his pulpit and his printing press to urge others to vote. White officials offered Lee protection on the condition he end his voter registration efforts, but Lee refused and was murdered.

August 13, 1955 · Brookhaven, Mississippi

Lamar Smith was shot dead on the courthouse lawn by a white man in broad daylight while dozens of people watched. The killer was never indicted because no one would admit they saw a white man shoot a black man. Smith had organized blacks to vote in a recent election.

June 21, 1964 · Philadelphia, Mississippi

James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Henry Schwerner, young civil rights workers who were trying to register Mississippi African Americans to vote, were arrested by a deputy sheriff and then released into the hands of Klansmen who had plotted their murders. They were shot, and their bodies were buried in an earthen dam.

Is there still any doubt whether voting is "worth it"?

Governor O'Malley's Great Performance at Leisure World for Brown-Ulman

Today (Nov. 3) Governor Martin O'Malley came to Leisure World in Silver Spring, MD, and sang and played the guitar and banjo. It was a great performance, focused on encouraging everyone to vote for the Brown-Ulman team in tomorrow's election.

Governor O'Malley was funny and entertaining, and he had the audience captivated. At one point he introduced Ken Ulman's (Lt. Gov. candidate) daughter (8 days from being 9 years old). She did a rap song "It's about about the vote" and had the audience clapping and singing along.

It was a wonderful event, followed by a phone bank to encourage everyone to vote for Anthony Brown and Ken Ulman for Maryland Governor and Lt. Governor tomorrow.

The Only Emancipation in the U.S. by Popular Vote - Maryland on November 1, 1864 - 150 Years Ago Today

It's not well known how emancipation came to the United States. 

At the time of the Revolutionary Was slavery was lawful in all 13 states. Between 1776 and 1861 just about all the northern states abolished slavery or were close to completing abolition.

Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the Confederacy but there were still 4 states in the Union that allowed slavery: Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. All four were reluctant to heed Lincoln's argument that if they didn't abolish slavery during the Civil War -- with compensation to the owners paid for by the federal government, the war would automatically abolish slavery with no payments to slavewners.

In Maryland those who opposed slavery, led by Thomas Swann, later a Maryland Governor, and John Pendleton Kennedy, another very interesting Maryland politician, author, and philanthropist, pushed for a new Maryland Constitution that would include a provision prohibiting slavery in our State. It said, "That hereafter, in this state (Maryland), there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment for crime ... and all persons held to service or labor as slaves, are hereby free."

The result was success, albeit by a very small vote margin. The voters of Maryland on November 1, 1864, exactly 150 years ago, adopted a new Constitution that abolished slavery in our State forever. 

The margin was extremely small, about 300 votes out of almost 60,000 cast, with the votes of Maryland soldiers serving in the Union Army overwhelmingly in favor of freedom. And historians have pointed out that there was a great deal of fraud and intimidation in the election.

Still, Maryland abolished slavery by vote of its people. I believe no other state can say that, and I doubt that any other state or nation in history can say that. Marylanders have the right to be very proud of this accomplishment today on its 150th anniversary.