Thursday, February 27, 2020

Finding Fellowship: The Must-See Film of 2020



Bill and Jane Phillips

On February 25,  Bobbi and I had a welcome respite from the politics of the day when we joined our good friends Jane and Bill Phillips for a Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner at their church, Fairhaven United Methodist in Darnestown, Maryland, followed by a viewing at nearby Quince Orchard High School of the documentary film Finding Fellowship.

In 1968, Fairhaven was formed by the merger of three shrinking Methodist congregations in Darnestown -- two white, one African American.  The Phillipses joined a decade later when they moved to Maryland, and have been fixtures there ever since.  In 1998, the Fairhaven Choir, Pearl Green (one of the Fairhaven founders), and Bill provided the centerpiece of our annual Martin Luther King Shabbat Service at Temple Emanuel in Kensington.

The film, produced by two of Pearl's grandchildren, Jason Green and Kisha Davis, is the fascinating story of the Quince Orchard community, Pleasant View Church (founded soon after the Civil War, and which was part of the 1968 merger), and Fairhaven's half century as an embodiment of what a multi-racial community can be. It also explored the Green family's own exploration of their ancestral roots in Quince Orchard, dating back to the time of slavery.

Jason Green with Jane and Bill Phillips

Shown at Quince Orchard High as part of the school's Black History Month celebrations, the film was informative, warm, and inspiring.  I am unable to express in words the beauty of the film and the panel discussion with current QO students.

I hope Finding Fellowship finds a nation-wide viewing audience.  Now more than ever, we need to experience this story of belonging. 

(For more about the film, go to https://findingfellowship.film/about-the-film/)




Friday, February 21, 2020

Danger in the proposal before the Montgomery County Charter Review Commission to change the structure of the County Council

Sometimes seemingly benign proposals can be very dangerous if implemented.


To: <charterreview.commission@montgomerycountymd.gov>

February 21, 2020

To:               County Charter Review Commission
From:          David S. Fishback, Olney MD
Re:              Proposal to alter the structure of the County Council

I have lived nearly my entire adult life in Montgomery County, and have lived in Olney since 1986.

I believe it would be a big mistake to move to a nine District Council, eliminating the At-Large seats.

The advantage of the current five District/four At-Large system is that it is more likely to reflect majority sentiment in the County.  The four at-large members are responsible to the entire electorate; the five district members are responsible only to the people in their districts.  The more districts and the fewer at-large districts, the more likely we could get a Council that would not reflect majority views on significant policy matters.  I recognize that smaller districts might lead to more responsiveness with respect to constituent service and might yield a greater diversity of ideas in the course of Council deliberations.  But for the reason explained below, I think that that argument is far outweighed by the impact of the current requirement of the “Ficker Amendment."

Under the  "Ficker Amendment" to the Charter, property tax rates may not be increased beyond inflation unless the Council unanimously approves such an increase.  Several years ago, County Executive Leggett correctly concluded that such an increase was absolutely necessary for the County to continue to be the kind of place we want to live in. After considerable discussion, the Council unanimously voted to approve the necessary tax package.

But if the Council had been splintered into nine districts, it would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, to secure that unanimity.  With more, and smaller, districts, it would have been more likely that a single Council member could have vetoed the overwhelming majority of sentiment in the County. 

A better case could be made for more, smaller district seats if the "Ficker Amendment" had not been passed. Indeed, one could make an argument that the Amendment it might not have passed if the Council structure had then consisted of nine smaller districts.  But unless and until the "Ficker Amendment" is repealed, splintering the Council into smaller districts would be a ticking, fundamentally undemocratic time-bomb, which could result in tragic consequences for our community.

Thursday, February 6, 2020

"At Temple Emanuel, learning in order to do": Washington Jewish Week on the 2020 Temple Emanuel MLK Service


At Temple Emanuel, learning in order to do

By David S. Fishback
For more than three decades, Temple Emanuel in Kensington has held services celebrating the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the beginning of MLK Weekend. It is an opportunity to remind ourselves of what still needs to be done to effectuate Dr. King’s
vision of creating a Beloved Community, locally, nationally and globally, and to advance the Jewish value of tikkun olam, repairing the world. To quote our prayer book, “Let us learn in order to do.”
This year, we invited Toni Holness, public policy director for the ACLU of Maryland, to speak on important human rights and civil liberties issues in this Maryland legislative session, and provide opportunities for action.
Holness, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Temple Law School, has spent her entire career in public service. She said that her own immigrant experience and mixed roots drive her commitment to social justice.
A Jamaican immigrant who initially arrived in the United States to study, Holness told us that she became acutely aware that the immigration legal system was designed “about me and around me, but absolutely not for me or with my interests. These are laws that are designed to control the movement of immigrants in our country. They are not designed to
benefit immigrants.”
Any benefits that do come, she explained, often are dependent on “aggressive advocacy by allies, folks who have been born native to the U.S.” Holness said that chief among the ACLU’s 2020 statewide priorities is Trust Act legislation, which would disentangle local law enforcement activities from the misguided, draconian immigration policies that we are seeing coming from the federal government.
“Our local law enforcement resources and personnel who are sworn to serve our communities have no business enforcing federal immigration law or giving credibility to the Trump administration’s oppressive policies,” she said, calling it a matter of public safety and asking, rhetorically, if people living in immigrant communities will call local officers if they don’t know if the result will be to bring ICE authorities to their doorsteps.
She also discussed legislation to reverse a court decision allowing police departments to withhold information about officers’ misconduct. The ACLU is urging the General Assembly to change the law to let people know what happens to their complaints: As she explained, “Transparency is the threshold to accountability.”
She noted that many law enforcement officers support such legislation, and stressed that “we have really good officers, but there is often a culture discouraging accountability.”
Transparency will help improve the culture, she said, and will enable us all to better know the nature of the problems so that they can be remedied.
Holness described the ACLU’s efforts to provide meaningful access to the ballot to incarcerated persons who still have the right to vote — those who are held pretrial or whose most serious conviction is for a misdemeanor. Another ACLU initiative is to require that children undergoing questioning by law enforcement be provided an attorney, explaining that children are particularly vulnerable to influence by authority figures.
At the end of the talk, a 10-year-old member of the audience asked how to volunteer for the ACLU. Holness invited him to stay connected.
David Fishback, a longtime member of Temple Emanuel, has organized its MLK services since 1986.
https://washingtonjewishweek.com/63763/at-temple-emanuel-learning-in-order-to-do/editorial-opinion/?fbclid=IwAR2DfasD9rHQu1x-eh7LzpDMDnrtV3M3RBZNiopl0fa1djRIIE0LHphJkI8

"Conservatism sans compassion": Feb. 5, 2020 Letter to the Washington Post

(My letter in yesterday's Washington Post. The headline in the print edition (“Conservatism sans compassion”) is a more accurate description, I think, than the online headline.)
In his Jan. 31 op-ed, “The presidential contest the nation doesn’t need,” Michael Gerson argued that Trumpism is not “the culmination and embodiment of Republicanism and conservatism.” I feel bad for Mr. Gerson, whose career certainly suggests that he desperately wished to believe in “compassionate conservatism” as the linchpin of the Republican Party. I fear he is deluding himself.
�The past half-century of Republican policies and political positioning has been careening to this moment. When push has come to shove, Republican politicians increasingly, and now almost exclusively, have chosen conservatism without compassion — and, indeed, often conservatism with meanness. At best, Mr. Gerson could quote Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” The recent Republican congressional votes and arguments on impeachment confirm that the Republican Party has now unambiguously taken the Trump Road, and “that has made all the difference.”
David S. Fishback
Olney
WASHINGTONPOST.COM
President Trump speaks about the new North American trade agreement at Dana Incorporated in Warren, Mich., Thursday. (Evan Vucci/AP)By Letters to the Editor February 4, 2020 at 5:23 PM ESTIn his Jan. 31 op-ed, “The presidential contest the nation doesn’t need,” Michael Gerson argued that Trump...