Portside

A Protest that Congress Can’t Ignore

MARCH 12 IS THE 35TH ANNIVERSARY of the “Capitol Crawl,” an attention-getting demonstration by people with physical disabilities on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in support of the proposed Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

The proposal that was to become the ADA had been pending in Congress for more than a year. It had already passed the Senate by a large majority, but it was stalled in the House by the well-organized opposition of some employers, businesses engaged in public accommodations and transportation companies – which expressed concern about the cost of compliance – and by some conservative evangelicals, who opposed the bill’s protection of the rights of people with HIV, who, some evangelicals argued, were associated with homosexuality.

When the Capitol Crawl took place, 60 people with physical disabilities assembled at the base of the 83 granite stairs on the Capitol’s West Front, where they abandoned their wheelchairs and other assistive devices and began to ascend the steps as best they could, while chanting “ADA now!” and “The people, united, will never be defeated.”

One of the demonstrators was Jennifer Keelan, a second-grader with cerebral palsy, who used her upper body to pull herself up the steps, telling the crowd of reporters and photographers “I’ll take all night if I have to.”

Ten days later, the bill passed the House.

https://boundarystones.weta.org/2021/09/16/capitol-crawl

¡Breonna Taylor, Presente!

MARCH 13 IS THE 5TH ANNIVERSARY of the pre-dawn shooting death of Breonna Taylor by Louisville, Kentucky, police. Taylor was asleep in her apartment when three officers executing a fraudulently obtained no-knock search warrant used a battering ram to break down her door. Taylor’s boyfriend, who was a licensed gun owner, said that the officers failed to identify themselves as police, so he thought they were criminals and fired one shot in an effort to protect Taylor and himself.  In response, the officers fired 32 shots, six of which struck Taylor, killing her. 

In the aftermath of the fatal raid, which led to militant protests, one of the officers was convicted of violating Taylor’s civil rights, one of the officers was dismissed from the police force, and an officer who was not present during the raid but helped to obtain the no-knock warrant pled guilty to making false statements in the warrant application. Taylor’s family sued the city, and won a $12 million settlement. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10083137/

Vindication at Last for a McCarthy Victim

MARCH 15 IS THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY of one of the high (or, more accurately, low) points of the reign of political terror inflicted on the body politic by Senator Joseph McCarthy and supporters. On this day is 1950, the U.S. Department of State bowed to McCarthy’s demand and recalled high-ranking Foreign Service Officer John Service from his post in India in order to subject him to a so-called investigation of what McCarthy alleged to be a subversive past.

By 1950 Service had already easily passed three annual “loyalty and security” investigations, but McCarthy’s insistence that Service was pro-communist was enough to compel the State Department to investigate him again.  The hearing board found no reason to question Service’s loyalty or his continued access to government secrets but in 1951 yet another loyalty investigation found “reasonable doubt” as to Service’s loyalty; not enough doubt to revoke his security clearance, but doubt, nevertheless.  

That finding of “reasonable doubt” was not sufficient to revoke Service’s security clearance but it gave Secretary of State Dean Acheson grounds to placate MacCarthy by terminating Service’s State Department employment. 

Service sued the State Department for wrongful termination. It took six years, but in 1957 the Supreme Court unanimously determined that Service had been the victim of a witch hunt and not a sincere effort to protect government secrets. He returned to work for the State Department until he retired in 1962. 

For a fascinating discussion in 1973 of the reasons for the State Department’s persecution of Service, visit https://afsa.org/foreign-service-journal-march-1973#page=20, and use the down arrow to navigate Barbara Tuchman’s 4-page introduction to John Service’s 3-page speech about his travail.

Happy Sunshine Week!

MARCH 16 IS THE FIRST DAY OF SUNSHINE WEEK, an annual event that is the brainchild of the American Society of Newspaper Editors to publicize and encourage the use of federal and state Freedom-of-Information laws. 

Freedom of information is the principle that the work of government is public work, paid for by tax dollars, and should be done in public to the fullest extent possible. Official meetings should be held in public and official records should be accessible to the public, including news organizations, unless there is specific reason for the meeting to be held behind closed doors or for the information to be confidential.

The first federal Freedom of Information Act, which was enacted in 1966, establishes the principle that executive branch agencies have a legal obligation to disclose information that is not specifically exempt from disclosure, and also requires agencies to establish regulations concerning how a member of the public can request government information. 

Thanks to the public’s support of freedom-of-information laws, every state now has its own, related, law, governing the public’s access to meetings and to information under the control of state and local government.  Sadly, the principle of freedom of information at the federal level (and in several states) is under heavy attack now, but reporters and members of the public should not be deterred from making the best possible use of the legal right to know what public officials are doing. Follow this link – https://foia.wiki/wiki/Main_Page – to a page maintained by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to learn more about using and supporting Freedom of Information laws.

Herbie Hancock’s Early Hit

MARCH 17 IS THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY of the recording session that produced all five Herbie Hancock compositions that make up the album “Maiden Voyage.” At least three of the tracks, “Maiden Voyage,” “The Eye of the Hurricane,” and “Dolphin Dance” are considered jazz standards. The personnel on the Blue Note recording are Herbie Hancock (piano), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), George Coleman (tenor saxophone), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums). Hancock, who was 24 when the recording was made, considers “Maiden Voyage” the favorite of all his musical compositions. You can listen to the complete album, starting with Maiden Voyage, here: https://youtu.be/l4WWKnGBWIc?si=6t0di-lV95wWWUKP

When a Postal Strike Was a National Emergency

MARCH 18 IS THE 55TH ANNIVERSARY of the beginning of an 8-day wildcat strike by federal postal workers, which began in New York City and was joined almost immediately by postal workers throughout greater New York. It quickly spread to more than 30 major cities including Boston, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, St. Paul, Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Before the strike was settled, more than two hundred thousand postal workers joined it. 

The strike was memorable for many reasons.  It was the largest-ever strike by federal workers and the first-ever national postal stoppage. It was illegal, and every striker knew that striking might cost them their jobs and their pensions. Almost every officer of the several unions involved was strongly opposed to it. The strike quickly created a financial crisis in the U.S., because in 1970, many if not most Wall Street trades were finally settled by the exchange of documentation by mail.  Trading on the stock exchanges was sharply curtailed and there was a real possibility the New York Stock Exchange would be forced to suspend operations. The situation was so dire that President Nixon ordered more than twenty thousand military personnel to become mail handlers in New York post offices. The arrival of the troops had almost no impact on the enormous backlog of mail. 

None of the strikers ever went to jail and they won an 8 percent wage increase and substantial improvements to their working conditions. Follow this link to read more and to watch an 18-minute video about the strike. https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/post-strike/

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