Catherine LaFond and Me

A few nights ago I sat next to Catherine LaFond at dinner.  She introduced herself and we began to talk a little about ourselves.  I knew she was running for Water Commissioner, whatever that is, in the City of Charleston. She had just come in first in stage one of what seems to be South Carolina's attempt to draw elections out forever:  the run-off.  That means that there will be yet another election with the person who came in #2, so voters will have to get out yet again to show their determination to participate in the democratic process of voting.

But I digress.

Catherine is the kind of woman that you can't help but pay attention to.  She is energetic, and smart, and involved in whatever she is doing at the moment, which on Thursday night was talking to me.  I learned she is an attorney, working in real estate, and currently in elder law (I think that's what it's called).  She works with the elderly and with veterans, two underserved groups here in the Lowcountry.

I actually learned a little about what a Water Commissioner does, and why it is important to elect the most knowledgeable and committed candidate.

And then, as we talked, I realized that, not only did I know Catherine, but she had been one of my first contacts here in Charleston fifteen years ago.  She had been my real estate attorney.  At the time I remember that she had been amazing:  caring and professional, willing to answer any dumb question and walk me through all that legal stuff that had to be agreed to in order to buy a house.

Some four years ago, when all things financial were hitting the fan, and interests rates were low, I decided to refinance.  I couldn't remember Catherine's name, just knew that she was no longer in the building on Johns Island that she had been in back in '99.  So I went with another attorney.  What happened in not too many words was that the bank proceeded to give me the runaround for several months, claiming that my residential area was zoned agricultural, that my credit report didn't have my address on it, that I needed to list some person as being responsible for maintaining the dirt road I lived on.

My lawyer did his best, but when we got down to dirt roads, he didn't know what to do.  So I looked up my old records and found Catherine's name and called.  She quickly found my records and explained what I needed to do to satisfy this ridiculous demand.  Not only was she knowledgeable, she was reassuring at a time when I was pulling my hair out in frustration.

Sadly, I can't vote for Catherine on the 19th, because I am not a resident of the City of Charleston.  But I now know what a Water Commissioner does, and that Catherine should be that person.

Here in Charleston it is critical that the water we drink is good, and what we send back out is properly treated.  That is common sense.  We can't be cutting corners with drinking water and pollution.  So it just makes sense to have someone who is smart and dedicated, committed to environmentally sound practices.  That person is Catherine LaFond.

I know it seems silly to have to go out to vote again, but it's this one last effort that will count.  If you've made the effort to do it once, it is well worth the effort to do it again.  And find a friend, neighbor, family member, coworker who didn't get out last week and take them with you.  Send this around to as many people as you know that may live in the City of Charleston.

Visit Catherine's website.  If you know her, you know she's the best.  If you don't know her, her website will convince you.  And pledge to vote while you're there.

The election is Tuesday, November 19.  For a list of polling places go to the county website (they are the same locations as for the election on November 5th).  If you're not sure you're eligible to vote, go to SC Votes to find out.

Vote for

CATHERINE LAFOND

City of Charleston

Water Commissioner

Tuesday, November 19

What's the Matter with Nikki?

Nikki Haley has it all:  she's smart, poised and really manipulative.  She had just as much fun flirting with Stephen Colbert as she does doing, well, just about anything she does.  And did I mention that she is manipulative?

When it comes to appearing to be warm, friendly, happy to see you and in love with life, Nikki is the best.  And she knows how to flip a tough question to her advantage, and make it sound like asking that tough question was all her idea, and at the same time, she is really glad you had the brilliant idea to ask it.

Nikki is on all the time.

She knows how to appeal to moms, businessmen, military, children, friends and enemies, the latter which she treats as warmly as her friends.

In an article in USA Today, Nikki pulls out all the stops.  She is not only a powerhouse of a governor, she is a woman that yearns for the support of her husband (who, by the way is serving in Afghanistan), eats ice cream with her kids and takes them trick or treating even though they would rather go with their dad (who, by the way is serving in Afghanistan), and because of course she is fallible just like us she locked herself out of the house -- which happens to be the Governor's Mansion.  Unlike us, she locked herself out of the house when she ran outside in her bathrobe to get a state trooper to help her figure out how to put a clip-on tie on her son.  And then she added that her husband's response was, "Really, Nikki?" (by the way, he responded via Facebook from Afghanistan where he is deployed).

I agree.  I am a single parent who had to get instructions from the internet the first time my son had to tie a tie (the trooper wasn't around), but you want me to believe you couldn't do a clip-on?

This superhuman yet feminine and fallible mom-wife-and-governor has one piece missing.  And that is what makes her the exception to the rule, you know, about women being able to run things better than men?

Nikki lacks empathy.  She has the psychopath's ability to be charming and appear caring, but if you look to her actions as governor, it is obvious that she is as shallow as, let's say, her good friend Tim Scott.

You don't have to be a mother to understand that it is wrong for children to go hungry.  Nikki's solution to the problem of hunger in South Carolina has been to try to ban sweets for food stamp recipients.  And she had no problem sending out those notices a couple of weeks ago cutting the dollar amount of food stamps because President Obama's stimulus money for the program had run out.

You don't have to have children to not want children to be needlessly sick, or die because of inadequate -- or no -- health care.  Yet Nikki Haley is proud of that fact that she is among those governors who refused three years of federally funded expanded Medicaid.  You might think she herself was making the sacrifice, and not thousands of poor women and children.  For goodness sake, Nikki, even Arizona's Jan Brewer, no fan of President Obama,

wasn't hardass enough to say no to providing federally funded Medicaid to low income uninsured residents of her state.

But, you see, Nikki has thrown in her fortunes with the powerful men who she truly admires.  She believes as purely as any old rich republican man that wealth begets wealth, and therefore it is the wealthy that require the strong protective arms of the government.

Mothers and children who don't live in the Governor's Mansion can certainly fend for themselves.  After all, they aren't the "job creators."  And by that I mean those rich folk who have created Nikki Haley and her job.  And a very nice future as well.

I feel for Vince Sheheen.  He is so totally clueless about what he is up against.  She will put him down with irresistible giggles, slay him with that sexy smile, make him look like a fool for trying to show her for her corruption.

What do we take away from all this?

A woman can do anything better than a man, including psychopathy.

It's a sad thing for all us good women, who work hard and try to do the right thing, raise our children without the taxpayer funded chefs and troopers -- oh, and health care -- that Nikki has at her disposal.  We worry when our children are sick, but we also worry when another woman's child needs food, shelter, medical care.

The only hope we have, really, is for one of those good women to step up to take Nikki on and hold her accountable.  Maybe not as her political opponent, not this time around, but in marches, on Youtube, in letters and articles.  We may not be able to fight her dollar-for-dollar, but we have values on our side.

    

It Takes a Woman

Something amazing is going on.  In the election of 2012 more women were elected to office than ever before.  Voters knew that pretty faces like Scott Brown of Massachusetts masked more of the same white-men-in-power style politics.

In 2012, the voters replaced Brown in the Senate with Elizabeth Warren, who will clean up the financial mess those rich white guys have made, and Tammy Duckworth handily beat Tea Party candidate Joe Walsh, the first Asian-American woman, and first female disabled veteran to serve in Illinois and then in the US House.  Then there is Tammy Baldwin, first openly gay person to serve in the Senate.

Women like these are not just crashing a lot of glass ceilings, they are fighting for those of us who have been out-numbered and out-spent.  They have looked at the horrific quality of life that greed and ignorance have brought to bear in our country and said, "Uh-uh, no more."  They are fighting for pay equity, a living wage, and food stamps and health care.  They are fighting to regain losses in women's reproductive freedom and privacy and protections from violence.

We have another election cycle coming up, and those republican men are still trying to take away our health care, food stamps, birth control, public radio and public schools.  Despite the crazy-quilt of gerrymandering, we have some great women running for office, and we are not going to be defeated.

And I'm hoping to write about as much of it as I can.

Some of you may not remember her name, but Wendy Davis recently became a hero when she stood her ground on the floor of the Texas State Legislature filibustering the medieval abortion regulations being proposed.  In true Texas fashion, men first created tough filibuster rules and then tried to break the filibuster anyway, followed by creating new rules so that they could pass the bill at a later date.

So Wendy Davis is running for governor.

We'll move this country forward and take the old white men with us.  We're on our feet and we're not going anywhere but up.