National News

A speech by Fredrick Douglas on the 4th of July and the slave:

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

State News:

Note: I have known this young lady below, for 5 years now, she is one of the brightest and hardest working person I know in politics. She would be the perfect 4th to go with the Tennessee Three. If you can support her in any way, please do.

Hi Bill,

I wanted to contact you today because I've decided to run for an open Tennessee State House seat. My former state House Representative passed away suddenly, forcing a Special Election on August 3rd. That's right... less than seven weeks.

Today, we discovered that Vanderbilt Hospital sent records of its trans patients to Tennessee's Attorney General after the office, pressured by Governor Lee, sent subpoenas inquiring about their gender-affirming care patients. The TN Attorney General’s activity is a chilling example of state overreach and surveillance: the office is joining the growing roster of states determined to endanger the lives and health of our transgender community members. If you want to fight authoritarianism, it starts in states like Tennessee and by electing leaders like myself who are not afraid to say, "You come for trans kids; I come for you."

As goes the South, as goes the Nation.

After organizing across the State of Tennessee and building progressive power to being on the ground during the #TennesseeThree protests, I've decided it's time to run to join Rep. Jones, Rep. Johnson, and Rep. Pearson as another progressive voice in the Caucus. You know my track record for challenging the far right and leveraging my organizing skills to build coalitions and elect Democrats.

We have less than seven weeks, so please donate as much as you can today and forward this e-mail to your networks to ask for support.

With so much gratitude,

Aftyn

DONATE BY CLICKING HERE

Aftyn Behn (she/her)

Candidate for TN State House District 51

Early voting begins July 14th | General election August 3rd

Website | Twitter | Instagram

P.S. I may be slow to respond to emails while running for office. Thanks so much for your patience!

Local News:

Concerning the City Council Meeting last night in Athens, TN

(This meeting was over the removal of a Gay Pride display at our local library)

I attended the Council Meeting tonight, just got back. I was fascinated by people having a problem with the display in the library. Some people read straight from the Bible, one lady kept repeating over and over, "protect the children" I read what I wrote and about 10 others got up and spoke in support of the display as well. I don't know all that was said on social media, but it did not sound respectful, full of name calling from what some people said in their speeches.

There was a complaint filed about the interference of both the Mayor and Vice Mayor. Overall, the meeting was civil with everyone having their say and respect was shown by all. What impressed me the most was the devout religious feelings that people had about being gay. I was glad that they could see there are a lot of people that think differently than them and are not all that different from them, in so many other ways.

I think what I came away with from the meeting last night was the adults against the display don't know that much about the gay culture and don't want to know about it. They don't have the information to explain it to their kids. They just want for the information about Gay Pride to just magically go away so they don't have to explain it. Their way of protecting their kids from the the outside world is to make all the information they disagree with go away instead of trying to explain it to their kids. It’s as if either they don’t understand the world around them so they can’t explain it to their kids, or they don’t want to take or make the time to understand the world around them to explain it to their kids. It’s OK to disagree with the gay culture, but at least take the time to explain your values to your kids so they can understand the world around them that much better.

The Arts: