#Oklahoma house of representatives

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

$250M could be diverted from Oklahoma's public funding to private education

House Bill 1935 could relocate nearly 250 million dollars from public funding to private education.

The bill is seeing major opposition.

House Bill 1935 would establish the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act which, Cyndi Munson, House Democratic Leader, said “essentially diverts public taxpayer dollars to pay for private education tuition.”

The bill would take taxpayer dollars and give parents of eligible private school students a $5,000 annual tax credit and a $2,500 tax credit for homeschooled students.

“Anytime that we take money away from our public schools and give it to private schools does a disservice to the 700,000 students that are sitting at desks today at our public schools," Katherine Bishop, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, said.

The OKEA says the bill does not address the state’s education crisis.

“We are in a crisis," Bishop said. "We are in a teacher crisis, a support professional crisis. This bill and that tax credit don’t address bring teachers into the classrooms, retain teachers in the classrooms.”

She said the funds should go to our public schools.

“246 million dollars going into our schools would allow districts to provide resources that our students need, textbooks that our students need, more hands-on activities, but mainly be able to put more personnel into our buildings," Bishop said.

Accountability and financial oversight of this tax credit have been major concerns.

“Letter j, lines 1-3," Munson read. "‘The tax commission shall keep all records relating to the Oklahoma parental choice tax credit act confidential, including but not limited to the social security numbers of eligible students.’”

“I get wanting to protect private information social security numbers, birthdays, all of those things, but if all the information pertaining to the tax credit act is held confidential," Munson said. "How do we know that those taxpayer dollars are being used as the law is written?”

We reached out to the author of the bill, Representative Charles McCall, but he was not available for comment.

The bill passed through the house committee Thursday and is now headed to the House floor for a vote.

[retropopcult]

President Jimmy Carter signing the House of Representative resolution for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) before it was sent to the states for ratification in October 1978. The Equal Rights Amendment was supported by those who believed that women should have equal status to men in the United States; unfortunately, it failed to gain ratification by the required number of states and therefore was not made into law. The states that failed to ratify: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

[mckitterick]

Christofascist Republican calls LGBTQ people "filth" during public forum

The culture of hate among Christofascists recently led to the violent beating and subsequent death of Choctaw two-spirit teenager Nex Benedict in Oklahoma.

When questioned about how 50+ anti-LGBTQ bills might have affected this case, State Senator Tom Woods said,

“We are a Republican state - supermajority - in the House and Senate. I represent a constituency that doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma.”

Several audience members clapped at his statement, while others appeared shocked.

“We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state - we are a moral state,” Woods said. “We want to ... let people be able to go to the faith they choose. We are a Republican state and I’m going to vote my district, and I’m going to vote my values, and we don’t want that in the state of Oklahoma.”

State Representative David Hardin added, “How you live your life personally, that’s between you and God... but what goes through our public schools - I will fall back on my faith. I want to make sure that at least the children in our public schools have that faith... what I want to make sure of is that our young children have the right to grow up with that faith."

After the forum, Woods reiterated his stance on the matter: "I support my constituency, and like I said, we’re a Christian state, and we are tired of having that shoved down our throat at every turn... I stand behind my statement, and I stand behind the Republican Party values."

When asked what he thought of Woods’ characterization of LGBTQ people as “filth,” State Senator Dewayne Pemberton said, “No comment.”

Again and again, today's christofascist Republicans (any other sort doesn't get elected these days) reveal that they want to indoctrinate public school kids into their own bigoted hatred, forcing children to hate anyone who doesn't subscribe to their narrow interpretation of their religious texts. Christofascists seek to impose their personal, misguided religious biases on the general public, including creating laws codifying hate and authoritarian control over the lives and bodies of everyone, not just others in their own religion.

Make no mistake, Nex Benedict's death was caused by christofascist indoctrination of the three girls who brutally beat Nex in that school bathroom. Nex Benedict's death was caused by the school failing to take their injuries seriously, by hate codified in Oklahoma state laws designed to harass LGBTQ folks and normalize bigotry against them, by Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters appointing hate-speech villain Chaya Raichik (responsible for "Libs of TikTok") to the Oklahoma Department of Education's Library Media Advisory Committee even though she doesn't live in the state (but he likes that she used Benedict's school and teacher for targeted hate). And on and on - it's a systematic attack on personal freedom and human rights - and the lives of queer folks.

Nex Benedict's death is exactly what christofascists seek through indoctrinating children into their hate that perpetuates bigotry into the future and forcing their religious fanaticism into the public sphere through unconstitutional laws built on hate and control.

Do you want to live in a theocracy dictated by those who narrowly interpret their personal religious texts to promote hate? Because as long as citizens fail to speak out against these harbingers of civilizational collapse, they'll only feel more and more emboldened to turn hate crimes into victories.

We must not let another of our people become victim of systemic bigotry. To protect children and end generational indoctrination, we must fire all public officials who subscribe to christofascist hatred and, when appropriate, prosecute them for the violence they incite.

If we fail to end the careers of hateful christofascists, we fail our children.

[supremacyproject]

On this day 103 years ago “a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Okla., perished at the hands of a violent white mob.

The mob indiscriminately shot black people in the streets. Members of the mob ransacked homes and stole money and jewelry. They set fires, ‘house by house, block by block,’ according to the commission report.

Terror came from the sky, too. White pilots flew airplanes that dropped dynamite over the neighborhood, the report stated, making the Tulsa aerial attack what historians call among the first of an American city.

The numbers presented a staggering portrait of loss: 35 blocks burned to the ground; as many as 300 dead; hundreds injured; 8,000 to 10,000 left homeless; more than 1,70 homes burned or looted; and eventually, 6,000 detained in internment camps.” Via The New York Times circa 2021.

The losses recounted represent black victims. Over time the event, initially called the Tulsa Race Riot has been accurately renamed the Tulsa Race Massacre. A riot, by definition, is a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons, as by a crowd protesting against another group, a government policy, etc., in the streets. A massacre is the unnecessary, indiscriminate killing of a large number of human beings or animals, as in barbarous warfare or persecution or for revenge or plunder.

More than one hundred years after this act of terrorism, the last three survivors continue fighting to have their case for reparations heard by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. In October of 2023, one of them, Hughes Van “Uncle Redd” Ellis, Sr., passed away.

[wilwheaton]

“This is actually the first time that tropical storm watches have been issued on the West Coast of the United States,” said Elizabeth Adams, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in San Diego. Typically, when a tropical storm makes its way to the southwestern U.S., it has severely dissipated, weakening to a depression or storm remnants, she said. The only tropical cyclone to actually make landfall in Southern California was in 1939.

Hurricane Hilary: SoCal on its first tropical storm warning

But I heard that climate change wasn’t real because one time it was moderately warm in Virginia. And that guy from Oklahoma threw a snowball in the House of Representatives.

Someone needs to tell this storm to turn around because obviously it’s all made up.

[otherkinnews]

Republicans introduce a 7th anti-furry bill and work to undermine student freedoms on a wider scale

(This blog post was written by Orion Scribner and N. Noel Sol, originally posted on February 18, 2024 to the Otherkin News Dreamwidth, at this link.)

Content warnings: Rated G. An urban legend that describes an unsanitary situation. Sexism against transgender people, including attempts to prevent them from participating in sports and using facilities like everyone else, and attempts to stop them from transitioning.

Summary: In 2023, Republicans began to propose laws (bills) in the US that would be against people who identify as animals. They base these on an urban legend that says schools provide litter boxes for students who identify as animals. Republicans made up that legend in parody of transgender students asking to use school restrooms (Scribner and Sol, 2024). The newest of these bills is Missouri House Bill 3678 (MO HB 2678). It’s the third such bill in 2024, bringing the historic total of these bills up to seven. This bill was written as part of a Republican effort to undermine public schools (which can’t ban transgender students from using the right restrooms, and students have First Amendment rights) in favor of religious charter schools (where students aren’t protected in those ways). The following blog post is a seven minute read.

What the Missouri bill says

Missouri House Bill 3678 (MO HB 2678) has the title “Prohibits students from engaging in ‘furry’ behavior while at school.” You can read this bill and see the latest actions on its official site, the Missouri House of Representatives, or on a third-party legislation tracking site, LegiScan. This bill was introduced this week, on February 13th, and read a second time on the 14th. It would add a law into the Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo). It would go in the part of the state laws about education, in Chapter 167, titled “Pupils and Special Services.” It would say:

“A student who purports to be an imaginary animal or animal species or who engages in anthropomorphic behavior consistent with the common designation of a ‘furry’ while at school shall not be allowed to participate in school curriculum or activities. The parent or guardian of a student in violation of this section shall remove the student from the school for the remainder of the school day.”

The same as the other bills like it, this bill is based on an urban legend, not on anything that was done in real life by students, furries, and/or people who identify as animals (McKinney, 2022a). This bill's wording looks like it was based on a bill from another state, Oklahoma House Bill 3084 (OK HB 3084), or its predecessor last year, Oklahoma Senate Bill 943 (OK SB 943). It shares their inaccuracies: though there are real people who identify as animals, surveys show that most furries don’t, and the dictionary definition of the word “anthropomorphic” means resembling a human, not resembling an animal (Scribner and Sol, 2024).

Who wrote the bill, and what is its context with that author’s other motivations?

The Missouri bill’s only sponsor (writer) is Cheri Toalson Reisch (she/her). She is a Missouri Republican who has supported anti-transgender bills in the past. One of those is MO SB 39, which would ban transgender students from participating in their gender’s sports division (both in private and public schools, up to and including in colleges and universities). Another one is MO SB 49. It would bar minors from accessing gender transition related surgeries or medications, removes adult coverage of hormone replacement therapy and any gender-affirming or transitioning surgeries from the Missouri Medicaid program, and denies prisoners and inmates access to any surgeries related to gender transitioning. She described both these bills as a “great move in the right direction,” and has been vocally critical that they were not harsher (Central MO Info, 2023).

Reisch is familiar with the urban legend started by conservatives of students using litter boxes in school bathrooms. She has posted about it on Facebook, telling her constituents that it is actively happening in Missouri and accusing the Columbia school district of taking part in it, stating “This is happening in Columbia Public Schools also. Yes, the janitor has to clean the litter box” (McKinney, 2022a). That's never happened. Schools say they have not been providing litter boxes to students in this way, and even deny that they have had any students identifying or behaving as animals, according to reliable fact checking resources (Reuters, 2022; Palma, Snopes, 2023).

Reisch has a history of being especially critical of the Columbia school district, which is one of the largest and most successful school districts in the state (McKinney, 2022b). She’s used this urban legend to attack the district’s legitimacy. This may be because Reisch prioritizes independently-run charter schools over standard public schools. Earlier this year, she sponsored MO HB 1941, which would allow for charter schools to operate within the Columbia school district without the district’s sponsorship.

Why are Republicans criticizing public schools and favoring charter schools?

In the US, the normal types of schools for children up to about age 18 are called public schools. Families don’t have to pay for their children to attend them. They represent the ideal that everyone growing up in the country should have equal access to school, regardless of income, class, race, religion, or ability. Because public schools are government establishments, the US Constitution protects the students’ rights there. The First Amendment of the Constitution protects the freedom of speech and religion of everyone, and that’s for students in public schools, too. In the landmark 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, students sued because they had gotten suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court decided that it would be as tyrannical to prevent students from expressing political opinions within public schools as it would be in any other government establishments. The Court said students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” In 1948, McCollum v. Board of Education had decided that public schools can’t give religious instruction during the school day. In 1962, Engel v. Vitale decided they can’t make students pray (Pew Research Center, 2019). Public school dress codes often aren’t as fair as they should be, but for the most part, their students can wear what they want and what their parents allow.

In contrast, what are known as charter schools in the US are privately owned, so they’re allowed to have requirements or education goals which would be considered a violation of the First Amendment. Some of them have religious affiliations and may be owned or operated by religious organizations. This can affect the way the school is run. For example, Oklahoma charter St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School has planned Catholic religious instruction classes, and the school’s active and intentional participation in what it refers to as “the evangelizing mission of the Church” (Fitzpatrick, 2023). Charter school dress codes can be much more strict. They are often segregated by gender stereotypes, forcing girls to wear skirts and boys trousers, no exceptions. This has been challenged in some places against specific schools, such as in North Carolina earlier this year in a lawsuit against the Charter Day School Inc (Chung, 2023). These challenges are the outlier and not the norm, however; gender-segregated dress codes are still a very common practice for charter schools overall. Charter schools also require applications and choose students based on random lottery systems. However, studies find that charter schools are more likely to ignore parents inquiring about the enrollment process if the student has a disability or other special needs (Darville, 2018). Unlike public schools, they don’t welcome everyone.

The freedom of expression in public schools is important for transgender students. In 2020, the case ​​G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board decided in favor of transgender-friendly restroom policies in high schools. This precedent helps protect transgender students’ rights in public schools, but doesn’t apply to charter schools. During the course of the case, the Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund told the Court why to decide against transgender rights. In an effort to invalidate transgender people, the Fund compared transgender people to otherkin. The Fund used the word “otherkin,” and described them at length, mostly accurately but derisively (Brief Amicus Curiae, 2017, G.G. v. Gloucester Cty Sch Bd). This case was part of what inspired the Republicans to later make up the litter box urban legend. We don’t know if that particular brief inspired the legend too.

Republicans may be promoting charter schools because this would give them greater control over impressing their views about gender, religion, and politics on young generations. They may be undermining public schools because the separation of church and state limits their power to do so there. The urban legend and these bills are part of that.

Background about all of the furry bills and the urban legend that inspired them

To learn about this year’s first two anti-furry bills, read our post about them from last week (Scribner and Sol, 2024). That post also summarizes the four anti-furry bills last year, and the litter box urban legend. For further information about those aspects, you can watch our lecture about last year’s bills and what you do about bad bills (Chimeras, Scribner, and Shepard, 2023), and watch Chimeras’s lecture about the litter box urban legend (Chimeras, 2022).

What happens next with Reisch’s anti-furry bill?

The bill is at 25% progression toward becoming a law. The House heard the bill twice, but it hasn’t been voted on. At the time that we write this blog post, they haven’t scheduled the bill’s next hearing.

About the writers of this blog post

We are Orion Scribner (they/them) and N. Noel Sol (she/they), a couple of dragons. We never write articles with the assistance of procedural generation or so-called artificial intelligence (AI), and that type of content isn’t allowed on Otherkin News.

References

“Brief Amicus Curiae of Public Advocate of the United States, U.S. Justice Foundation, and Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund in Support of Petitioner.” Gloucester County School Bd. v. G. G. ex rel. Grimm, No. 16-273, 2017 WL 192454 (Jan. 10, 2017). http://files.eqcf.org/cases/16-273-amicus-brief-public-advocate-et-al/

Central MO Info (May 19, 2023). “Representative Toalson Reisch Disappointed in Senate’s Version of Trans Bills.” Central MO Info. https://www.centralmoinfo.com/representative-toalson-reisch-disappointed-in-senates-version-of-trans-bills/

Chung, Andrew (June 26, 2024). “US Supreme Court turns away case on charter school's mandatory skirts for girls.” Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-turns-away-case-charter-schools-mandatory-skirts-girls-2023-06-26

Darville, Sarah (Dec. 21, 2018). “Want a charter school application? If your child has a disability, your questions more likely to be ignored, study finds.” Chalkbeat. https://www.chalkbeat.org/2018/12/21/21106398/want-a-charter-school-application-if-your-child-has-a-disability-your-questions-more-likely-to-be-ig/

Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962). https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court/370/421.html

Fitzpatrick, Cara (Sept. 9, 2023). “The Charter-School Movement’s New Divide.” The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/charter-schools-religion-public-secular/675293/

G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board. 972 F.3d 586 (4th Cir. 2020). https://casetext.com/case/grimm-v-gloucester-cnty-sch-bd-8

House of Chimeras (Aug. 12, 2022). "Litter Boxes in School Bathrooms: Dissecting the Alt-Right’s Current Moral Panic." OtherCon. https://youtu.be/WVjXOmN2IlU

House of Chimeras, Orion Scribner, and Page Shepard (2023). “Litter Box Hoax 2: Legislature Boogaloo.” OtherCon 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsXy_ctC4Jc&t=1425s

Legiscan. MO HB 2678. https://legiscan.com/MO/bill/HB2678/2024

Legiscan. MO HB 1941. https://legiscan.com/MO/bill/HB1941/2024

Mccollum v. Board Of Education, 333 U.S. 203 (1948). https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court/333/203.html

McKinney, Rodger (Aug. 25, 2022). “State Rep. Cheri Reisch criticized for 'unwarranted' claim that CPS students use litterboxes.” Columbia Daily Tribune. https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/politics/elections/local/2022/08/25/state-rep-cheri-reisch-criticized-for-unwarranted-claim-that-cps-columbia-students-use-litterboxes/7895082001/

McKinney, Rodger (Feb. 6, 2022). “State Rep. Cheri Reisch states 'Columbia sucks' when referring to public schools in education hearing” Columbia Daily Tribune. https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/education/2022/02/06/cheri-reisch-states-columbia-sucks-when-referring-to-cps-in-education-hearing-mo-leg-basye/6662719001/

Missouri House of Representatives. MO HB 2678. https://house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?bill=HB2678&year=2024&code=R

Missouri Senate. MO SB 49. https://www.senate.mo.gov/23info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=44407

Missouri Senate. MO SB 39. https://senate.mo.gov/23info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=44496

Palma, Bethania. (January 30, 2023). “How Furries Got Swept Up in Anti-Trans 'Litter Box' Rumors.” Snopes. https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/01/30/how-furries-got-swept-up-in-anti-trans-litter-box-rumors/ Archived on March 30, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230330232007/https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/01/30/how-furries-got-swept-up-in-anti-trans-litter-box-rumors/

Pew Research Center (Oct. 3, 2019). “Religion in the Public Schools.” https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/10/03/religion-in-the-public-schools-2019-update/

Reuters Fact Check (October 18, 2022). “Fact Check-No evidence of schools accommodating ‘furries’ with litter boxes.” https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-furries-rogan-litterbox-idUSL1N31J1KT Archived February 13, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230213110524/https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-furries-rogan-litterbox-idUSL1N31J1KT

Scribner, Orion, and N. Noel Sol (Feb. 9, 2024). “Will Oklahoma Call Animal Control on Students?” Otherkin News. https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/92680.html Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969). https://openjurist.org/393/us/503

[snapghoul]

Moon, tell me if I could send my heart up to you?

Bradley and Jake parted ways with Tyler and Bradley meets Mama and Pa Seresin.

Note: I love using titles that represent characters’ feelings towards each other as subtext.

Warnings: none

Song: My Love Mine All Mine - Mitski

Texas seemed much like Oklahoma to Bradley—just as scorching and flat. He unloaded the duffel bags from their rental car while Jake dashed up the steps of the ranch house and was quickly enveloped in a warm embrace by his parents.

Watching the scene unfold tugged at Bradley’s heart, starkly reminding him of his own lack of family. He longed for moments like these and resented the void left by their absence.

As Bradley approached the porch, Jake’s mother greeted him with a warm smile. “You must be Bradley, come here, darlin’!” she said, pulling him into a gentle hug and cupping his face. Her affectionate term of endearment made him feel unexpectedly cherished.

“You’re quite the looker,” she continued. “I’m Rose, but you can call me Mama Seresin. Jake, what a fine boy you’ve brought home!” Rose beamed at Jake, who turned bright red as his mother showered Bradley with praise. Bradley, equally flushed, found himself overwhelmed by the genuine warmth.

“Ma.” Jake sighed and his father chuckled, reaching out to shake Bradley’s hand.

“Cole, welcome to the ranch, son,” Mr. Seresin greeted warmly. Bradley barely had time to process the introduction before he was swept into the house, his duffle bags being handed off to Jake.

“Lucky for you, I just finished some barbecue,” Rose said as she guided Bradley inside. “Soph and the kids won’t be here for a while, so I suggest you dig in now.”

“Ma, slow down—” Jake began, but his mother waved him off.

“Hush! You’ve never brought anyone home before; let me have my moment,” she retorted. Bradley chuckled softly as the mother and son playfully swatted at each other.

“You’re the first he’s ever brought home, so she’s just excited,” Mr. Seresin explained, gently prying his wife’s hands away from Bradley while she continued to bicker with Jake. “If she gets overwhelming, just let me know. Would you like a Coke or a beer?”

“Coke, please,” Bradley said with a smile.

Mr. Seresin’s calm demeanor was a stark contrast to the lively energy of his family. It was clear that Jake and Tyler inherited their boisterous attitude from their mother. The shorter blonde woman was animatedly chastising her son with a towel, loudly lamenting that Jake hadn’t shared much about Bradley. It was evident that his presence was a significant moment.

Bradley followed Mr. Seresin into the kitchen, where he was handed a freshly opened can of soda.

“Now, darling, let me get a better look at you,” Rose said, her excitement palpable as she made another advance toward Bradley.

Jake quickly stepped in, placing himself between Bradley and his mother, wrapping his arms around the taller man. He glanced back at Rose and said, “Ma, give him some space, or you’ll scare him off.”

“Jake,” Bradley said, taking a sip of his soda around Jake’s head, his hand resting comfortably on Jake’s lower back. “It’s fine. If I can handle you every day, I’m sure I can manage your mom. Sorry, Mrs. Seresin.”

Rose laughed heartily, joined by her husband. “Oh, darlin’ don’t be sorry, you’re probably right. And I told you just call me Mama Seresin.”

“I’d say so,” Mr. Seresin added with a grin. “And if he’s survived a week with Tyler, he’s ready for anything.”

Rose looked to her husband for confirmation, and he nodded in agreement. It was clear that Bradley had already been warmly accepted into the family.

They also noticed how utterly captivated Jake was, his green eyes twinkling as he looked up at Bradley with an unprecedented softness, as if Bradley were the full moon on a clear night. In turn, Bradley gazed at Jake with the same warmth one might reserve for the sun, his arm wrapped protectively around Jake’s waist, drawing him close.

Yeah, Bradley was staying, Mama would make sure of that.

[jurakan]

I got a weird prompting to ask for a fun fact about someone who came up with a whole system of writing and then just disappeared. Odd, I know.

Well, you came to the right place, friendo! Today You Learned about Sequoyah.

[I had hoped to do this around Thanksgiving, or for Indigenous Peoples Month, but no one asked for it then so better late than never!]

Okay, maybe you have heard of the man. But if not, here ya go: Sequoyah was a Cherokee man born in Tennessee around the year 1770. When he grew up, his day job was actually being a silversmith, trading with trappers and merchants that came through Cherokee territory. He was pretty darn good at it too, and signed off on all of his work.

Something he noticed, though, was that the Europeans who went through had a written language, and that it was helpful for recording information and talking to people far away. That’s handy, Sequoyah thought. We should have our own written language. Because at that point, Cherokee didn’t have a written language. So, apparently, this man decided to just… make one up.

I say “make one up” as if he came up with it on the spot without thought. No, that’s not what happened. In 1809, Sequoyah began to study English, Greek, and Hebrew, and developed a written system for the Cherokee language. Each symbol represents a syllable, rather than a letter like in the English writing system, leading to a total of over 80 symbols for the alphabet.

Everyone thought he was crazy, but I want to be clear: he did it. This man, a silversmith by trade, created a written language system that within twenty years of its creation became the official written language of the Cherokee Nation. 

That’s insane, guys! Where is this guy’s biopic? If you lived in a place with heavy Cherokee history, like the Carolinas, chances are you’ve heard of him–the NC Museum has a small exhibit on him in their section on Cherokee history, and we covered him in school in an article/essay/non-fiction story (I don’t know what we call those things) called “Sequoyah and the Riddle of the Talking Leaves”, but it’s nuts to me that he’s not a more famous figure in American history, considering this.

Sequoyah actually taught the language to his daughter Ayokeh first, so that he could prove that it worked and made sense. Then he spent a ton of time traveling through Cherokee territory to get people to see its usefulness and learn it. Apparently, it worked.

So the US government thought this was awesome and gave Sequoyah a mansion to live in, right? [/sarcasm] No, you can probably guess from the timeline what happened. He went to Washington D.C. to protest and argue with other Native American leaders against the Indian Removal laws the government was enacting, but wasn’t successful, leading to the Trail of Tears. His interactions with other nations led him to decide to try to create another system of writing for all indigenous Americans to use. I don’t think it ever got completed, but someone with more knowledge on the subject can probably tell you more.

He died in Mexico, on an expedition based on the rumor that some Cherokee had gone there–the reunification of the Cherokee people was a big deal to him, after all.

We think he died there, anyway.

See, we don’t actually know where his body is. Officially, he died in 1845 of a lung infection; we don’t know where his body is. The Cherokee funded an expedition to find his grave in the 20th century, but while they found a grave in Coahuila, Mexico, they aren’t sure if it’s his. In 2011, a newspaper argued that actually he wasn’t buried, his skeleton was found in 1903 in a cave in Oklahoma. 

I found this out by seeing that he’s listed on Wikipedia’s “List of People Who Disappeared” (which I do not recommend reading if you are sitting alone in a house at night).

Well, he’s still an important national figure. He’s got some recognition–his statue is in the US Capitol, he’s got a sculpture in front of the Cherokee Museum in North Carolina, and! Along with several figures from world cultures credited with inventing/teaching writing, he’s on the doors of the John Adams Building of the Library of Congress.

YMMV may vary on whether or not it’s good that he’s on there with a bunch of mythological figures.

[easyearl]

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton led a group of fellow GOP senators Wednesday in denouncing pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses.

WHY IT MATTERS: Republican congressional campaign arms are already cutting footage and are ready to launch ads slamming vulnerable Democrats for not condemning the campus protests that have erupted over Israel's war in Gaza.

The escalating tension in recent days has put a spotlight on one of the most sensitive and divisive issues within the Democratic Party.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: "These little Gazas are disgusting cesspools of antisemitic hate full of pro-Hamas sympathizers, fanatics and freaks," Cotton said in a press conference Wednesday.

"Every university and every student has the right to be able to speak their mind to be able to test out new ideas," said Oklahoma U.S. Sen. James Lankford, also a Republican.

• "But when you're talking about screaming at Jewish students, and rabbis [are] saying no longer is this university a safe place for you to be, it violates the very principles that all these universities supposedly stand for."

REALITY CHECK: No encampments or sit-ins have been reported at Arkansas or Oklahoma college campuses.

FLASHBACK: Cotton took to X last week, encouraging "people who get stuck behind the pro-Hamas mobs blocking traffic: take matters into your own hands."

• The post was later edited, adding "to get them out of the way" to the sentence.

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING: The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act. The bill, which now goes to the Senate, would require the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism in its enforcement of anti-discrimination laws.

• "That's a bill we should promptly bring to the floor and pass over here, as well," Cotton said.

[kp777]

By Jessica Corbett

Common Dreams

April 3, 2024

"This Republican budget is an attack on seniors, veterans, and the middle class," said the House Budget Committee's top Democrat.

U.S. House Budget Committee Democrats on Wednesday released a tool to help Americans understand how a newly unveiled Republican plan to cut Social Security "would hurt families across America."

The panel's Democrats targeted the Republican Study Committee (RSC), which includes around 80% of the chamber's GOP members and last month released a budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 that, according to Social Security Works president Nancy Altman, shows "the Republican Party is the party of cutting Social Security and Medicare, while giving tax handouts to billionaires."

Congressman Brendan Boyle, (D-Pa.), the House Budget Committee's ranking member, said at the time that Republicans had "now gone further than ever with their attacks" on the key programs, noting that their "extreme budget explicitly calls for cutting Social Security benefits for millions of Americans, ending Medicare as we know it, and making trillions in devastating cuts that would raise the cost of living for working families."

"Instead of saving Social Security and Medicare by making billionaires pay their fair share, House Republicans would rather break the sacred promise that every American should be able to retire with dignity. This Republican budget is an attack on seniors, veterans, and the middle class," he added.

Boyle also pledged that President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats "will fight to ensure it never becomes reality."

Nationally, the committee's Democrats warn on the webpage that hosts their new tool, the RSC plan would force "Americans to work longer for less" and "cut Social Security benefits for 257 million people, or 3 in 4 Americans."

The tool enables Americans to see how Republicans' proposal would impact each congressional district. For example, raising the retirement age for Americans 59 and younger would cut Social Security benefits for 620,000, or 80% of people in Pennsylvania's 2nd Congressional District, which Boyle represents. Statewide, it would affect 9.6 million—or 74% of residents.

RSC Chair Kevin Hern represents Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District. The plan would impact 630,000, or 79% of people there, according to the tool. Across the state, 3.1 million—77%—would face cuts.

The tool says that in Louisiana's 4th Congressional District, represented by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, 590,000, or 76% of people, would see cuts. The state total would be 3.6 million—also 77%.

The RSC plan for the next fiscal year—which begins in October—followed the release of budget proposals from Biden and House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), who is leading the fight for a fiscal commission that critics call a "death panel" designed to force through Social Security and Medicare cuts.

Biden, who is seeking reelection this year and expected to face former Republican President Donald Trump, has vowed to "protect and strengthen" the programs. Social Security Works' Altman has praised the president's proposal and warned that "Social Security is on the ballot this November."

[omgcatboi]

‼️🚨 TRANS PEOPLE IN MISSISSIPPI NEED YOUR HELP! CALL THESE REPRESENTATIVES AND VOTE ** NO ** ON THESE BILLS DISGUISED AS PROTECTION FOR WOMEN BUT REALLY ONLY OPEN THE GATE TO BEGIN TRANS BANS JUST LIKE FLORIDA AND OKLAHOMA. THIS CAN MEAN LOSING MY HRT AS MY CLINIC IS IN MISSISSIPPI!! ‼️🚨

MAKE MISSISSIPPI SAFE, VOTE NO!

CALL AND LEAVE YOUR VOTE!

Incase you dont know how to do it : Both bills are disguised as protecting women but they're really repealing our protections so they can make laws discriminating against trans people. All u have to do to vote no is state your name and both bills and say you vote no. I just did it

Bill 1 :

*HB 1607 is the “Mississippi Women’s Bill of Rights”

Bill 2:

*SB 2753 is the “Securing Areas for Females Effectively and Responsibly Act”

-Call House Speaker Jason White: 601-359-3304

-Call Representative Joey Hood: 601-359-2428

-Call Lt Gov Delbert Hoseman: 601-359-3200

-Call Representative Joey Hood: 601-359-2428

-Call Senator Brice Wiggins: 601-359-3237

Read about the bills here:

Bill 1

Bill 2

I know this isn't my usual posting but I have 3k followers who are mostly trans let's make this happen ! Let's show Mississippi we will NOT fold like other states !! CALL AND VOTE NO !!