SULLIVAN'S SALVOS

June 30, 2021

Sullivan’s Salvos 7/6/21

In this edition:

*Mazahir Salih and Shawn Harmsen

*Naming Johnson County

*LuLu Merle Johnson

*Dems Hall of Fame Event

*Did You Know?

*Mazahir Salih and Shawn Harmsen

We had a big announcement recently, as Iowa City Councilor Mazahir Salih announced that she would not be running for reelection. Instead, she threw her support to Shawn Harmsen, who served as her campaign manager and is running for the Council in District B.

Mazahir Salih is the first Sudanese-American elected anywhere in the US. She is IC’s first Muslim Councilor, first black female Councilor, and first Arabic-speaking Councilor. Mazahir is also a strong advocate for economic justice. Her voice will be missed on the Council, but as Executive Director of the Center for Worker Justice, she will undoubtedly still influence local political issues.

Meanwhile, Mazahir strongly endorses Shawn Harmsen, who announced in District B. So do I. Shawn is smart, kind, thoughtful, and committed to economic, racial, environmental, and social justice. Mazahir believes in Shawn, and you should as well!

This completes my ballot. Shawn Harmsen in District B, Bruce Teague and Megan Alter At Large. I am looking forward to voting that ballot!

*Naming Johnson County

(This ran in Salvos in July of 2020. It refers to the first time it ran, 9-12-17.)

This originally ran in Salvos on 9-12-17. I was interested to see a recent Opinion piece in the Press Citizen advocating the same thing. For what it is worth, I was pilloried in the local media for even speaking this 3 years ago. Needless to say, the trolls had a feast. I had a few people I respect oppose it as well; no one really stepped up and said they supported it. Most people seemed to be satisfied staying as far away from the issue as possible!

Have things changed? Who knows. As I told the person who wrote the letter to the Press Citizen, if it comes before the Board, I would vote for it. But he will have to convince others it is worth pursuing. Here is the piece:

I recently finished an interesting book on the Election of 1840 – William Henry Harrison versus Martin Van Buren. Harrison and running mate John Tyler (“Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!”) defeated the incumbent Martin Van Buren and his Vice President, Richard Mentor Johnson.

This election is generally viewed as the first modern Presidential campaign, and gave us several common words and phrases: OK, hell-bent, keep the ball rolling, The Buckeye State, booze, and many more!

There were two really interesting local angles to the book. First, it is remarkable how many of the counties in Iowa are named for the political players of that era. I had never really stopped and thought about it until this book. Secondly, it was interesting to learn more about Richard Mentor Johnson, the man for whom Johnson County is named.

Johnson was born and raised in Kentucky, and became a hero of the War of 1812. Johnson repeatedly led troops into battle despite being shot 5 times himself!

Johnson is known as the “Man who killed Tecumseh.” Tecumseh was a great Native American leader who organized many tribes together to fight the Americans and preserve a Native homeland. He was killed at the Battle of Thames in 1813, and unfortunately, this was the beginning of the end of meaningful Native claims on land in the US. It is said that Johnson personally killed Tecumseh, though historical records vary. Whatever the truth is, Johnson led the US Army in battles that killed tens of thousands of Native people.

This history as a General made Johnson, known as “Old Dick”, very popular. That popularity began to wane, however, when it was discovered that Johnson had a long-term relationship with a slave named Julia Chinn. Chinn and Johnson had two daughters, and he considered her his wife, though they were not allowed to be married.

Johnson had a confusing relationship with his daughters/slaves. He insisted that his daughters were his property, but also paid for their education and left them inheritances. After Chinn died, Johnson took up with another slave. When she left him for another man, he had her sold away. Johnson’s flouting of the laws against racial mixing made him a huge liability for the Democrats, and he was dropped from the ticket.

It is interesting to consider the naming of Johnson County in light of the recent movement toward eliminating Confederate monuments. Should we consider naming Johnson Country after someone else?

Obviously, changing the name of the County itself would cause millions of problems for thousands of people. But what about honoring a DIFFERENT Johnson?

There is precedence for such a move. King County, Washington – home to Seattle – was named for William Rufus King, Vice President when Washington was founded and later an Alabama Confederate. In 1986, the King County Board of Supervisors kept the name “King County”, but renamed it for MLK.

So – what other Johnsons do we have? I am a huge fan of the domestic policies of LBJ, but his Viet Nam legacy would likely be too upsetting for too many. What about Lady Bird? She was one of the original environmentalists.

Other possibilities include Bluesman Robert Johnson or Civil Rights Leader James Johnson. Maybe a more local Johnson. What do you think? Should we “rename” Johnson County?

Literally 90% of the respondents on social media did not understand the county would NOT be renamed; we would simply be changing the namesake. But clearly, I failed to get that message across.

Perhaps the namesake should remain. Perhaps we have a contest to choose a new namesake. Perhaps we all get voted out of office. Salvos readers, what do you think? The Board will be discussing this topic Wednesday, July 8 at 9AM if you want to weigh in before then.

*LuLu Merle Johnson

When I first wrote about the topic of changing Johnson County’s eponym, 1) I had no idea what an eponym was; 2) I had never heard of Lulu Merle Johnson. My how things have changed!

Now Johnson County is not only the first county in Iowa named for a person of African American descent, it is only the third (or fifth, because of disputes) Iowa county named for a woman. (Bremer and Pocahontas are named for women; Louisa and Ida may be.) We may be only the second County in the US named for an African American!

I am still amazed this happened. A huge thanks to David McCartney with the University of Iowa, who introduced us to Lulu Merle Johnson. She is a great fit!

*Dems Hall of Fame Event

The Johnson County Democratic Party is holding our Annual Hall of Fame Awards on Friday, July 9 at 7pm at Brown Deer in Coralville. 2021 marks the 11^th consecutive year that the Johnson County Democratic Party has held a separate Hall of Fame event.

Please join us for coffee, desserts, and plenty of old war stories! A cash bar will be available.

The Hall of Fame inductees for 2021 are: David and Marion Coleman, Dave Leshtz, and the late Mel Stahmer. We hope you can join us in recognizing this remarkable group!

Tickets are available for a $25 suggested donation. People who cannot afford that amount should still feel welcome, but please call 354-7199 so we can get a count. Sponsorships are available at the following levels:
$100            includes two tickets
$250            includes 4 tickets
$500            includes a whole table (8 tickets)

We hope that this will be an in-person event, and we are planning for there to be both in-person and Zoom options for attendance. Obviously, we will continue to monitor the COVID virus as we continue to plan the event.

*DID YOU KNOW? Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Missouri still have counties named for Richard Mentor Johnson.

Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-

www.johnsoncountyiowa.gov.

"Sullivan’s Salvos" is sent once per week to any interested party. It will give a brief update on issues of interest to Johnson County residents.

These messages come solely from Rod Sullivan, and neither represents the viewpoints of the whole Board of Supervisors nor those of groups or individuals otherwise mentioned.

If you do NOT want the weekly E-mail, simply reply to this message, and type "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

If you know anyone else who might be interested, just forward this message. They can E-mail me at rodsullivan29@gmail.com with "subscribe" in the subject line.

As always, feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan29@gmail.com. I look forward to serving you!

---Rod

June 24, 2021

Last year I wrote: “Our 244^th year is our most difficult in a long time. Still, happy birthday, America! We will get better!”

Now it is time to celebrate our 245^th year, and things are, in fact, MUCH better! There remains plenty of hard work ahead, but we can do it! Happy birthday, America!

I was incredibly happy to see that ICCSD Board Members Ruthina Malone and JP Claussen have both decided to run for reelection to the ICCSD Board!

As we all know, this has been an incredibly tough couple of years, especially in public education. Now more than ever we need our very best people running the ICCSD. I firmly believe we have that in Ruthina and JP. Both have my full support!

I have a very strong commitment to calling people what they want to be called. If the person is named Joseph but wants to go by Joey, fine by me. If they want to go by Joe? No problem. I believe they have a right to be called what they wish. It is a simple matter of respect.

This has never been a topic of conversation until recent years, as issues related to gender have risen to a prominent place in public discourse. Transgender issues, gender roles, gender definitions, gender fluidity, and so much more is now on the radar. This has led to a large group of people who lack the appropriate vocabulary. Some say things wrong to be cruel; others say things wrong out of ignorance. And many folks, like me, are still making mistakes as we try to do the right thing.

I want to get it right, but I still have some struggles. In trying to get at the root of my struggles, I have come up with two reasons why I think this is difficult for me:

First, I use “Yes, ma’am” and “Yes, sir” more than most Northerners. I always have. And until recently, it usually got me props. People generally viewed it as me making an effort at being respectful – which is exactly what I had been trying to do. Unfortunately, I know of two instances where I said, “Yes ma’am” or “Yes, sir” to someone who does not use those pronouns.

Secondly, I spent time as a kid and as a young adult learning proper English. I was pretty adept at code-switching. I could talk shit with the old boys at Sutliff, which is the way I was raised. I could also hold my own with my English professor. It was a useful skill.

In that proper English realm, it was strictly verboten to say, “Hand me their coat,” or “Their eyes are so blue.” Their would have referred to multiple people. And using it in those two instances would have amounted to improper English. So using “their” to describe a single person still sounds wrong to me. Heck, my computer underlined me using it here!

Please understand – I am not making excuses. Just explaining why this has been a bigger challenge than I had expected. I know I need to do better. And I am trying. I have been very lucky to receive so much grace from so many people as I try to get it right.

We are not in campaign season now, so perhaps this is a good opportunity to tackle a topic that seems to come up every election season – yard signs.

There is an old adage in campaign work: “Signs don’t vote.” I certainly understand why this gets pushed so hard by campaign staff. There are many things staff can be doing that result in more votes in the bank.

That said, I believe campaigns are wrong when it comes to signs. I have several reasons for feeling this way:

1. Campaigns have gotten huge. Rather than wasting all the money on TV ads that people generally hate, signs may not be a bad investment.

2. Because campaigns have gotten so big, the average voter does not feel as though there is much she can do. The simple act of putting up a sign can make a person’s mood change from helpless to hopeful.

3. Signs demonstrate true commitment. I can vote privately. I can donate money, and it is unlikely my neighbors will know. But putting up a sign is truly taking a stand. It is a bold (and perhaps defiant) act. You want that attitude on your team!

5. Really good campaign staffers do whatever is necessary. I have seen staffers babysit, attend church, drive people to doctor appointments, and much more. Good staffers are willing to do whatever it takes; don’t hamstring their efforts by taking this tool out of their toolbelts.

6. People do not feel campaigns listen to them. If you will not listen to people when it comes to signs, why should we believe you will listen to us about anything else?

Again, I understand why the “conventional wisdom” is that signs don’t vote. I just happen to believe campaign managers are wrong on this topic. Campaigns of all sizes should purchase signs with enthusiasm!

I am a fan of writer Ari Berman, a native Iowan who writes extensively on voting rights. Berman is always good, but he really nailed this point:

Some Democrats in the US Senate are afraid to kill the filibuster, and because there is no 60-vote majority, they are willing to take the right to vote away from many thousands of Americans.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the Statehouses gleefully take the right to vote from thousands of Americans, and do so with a simple majority. In a few cases, they strip voter rights with a one vote margin.

While Republicans attack voting rights, Democrats fight with one hand tied behind their backs.

I have to say, the past few months have been a bit of a challenge. In January, I twisted my knee shoveling snow. It just refused to get better, which led to a round of physical therapy in March. Just when I thought I was healed up, something happened that set me back once again.

Now the doctor says I have arthritis in my knee. It sucks. There is a certain amount of pain that is just there all the time. Pain killers work fairly well, but I don’t want to take very much very often.

So yeah, it is frustrating. It has not kept me from walking the dog a couple miles every day, but having regular pain is NOT fun! I know many regular readers can say, “Welcome to the club!” All I can say is, “I feel you!”

*DID YOU KNOW? Founding Father John Adams correctly predicted at the time that July 4^thwould be celebrated every year henceforth as Independence Day. But did you know that he also called for people to shoot off fireworks? He wrote that the holiday would be celebrated “with illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward, forevermore.” And even though Americans immediately began celebrating July 4, it did not become an official holiday until 1870.

Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-

"Sullivan’s Salvos" is sent once per week to any interested party. It will give a brief update on issues of interest to Johnson County residents.

These messages come solely from Rod Sullivan, and neither represents the viewpoints of the whole Board of Supervisors nor those of groups or individuals otherwise mentioned.

If you do NOT want the weekly E-mail, simply reply to this message, and type "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

If you know anyone else who might be interested, just forward this message. They can E-mail me at rodsullivan29@gmail.com with "subscribe" in the subject line.

As always, feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan29@gmail.com. I look forward to serving you!

June 17, 2021

After 24 years and 3 million words, Doug Lindner is leaving the North Liberty Leader and Solon Economist. I sincerely hope people in those two communities know how lucky they have been to have Doug working at their papers! The Leader and Economist are FANTASTIC papers! They are as good as any small-town papers I have ever seen, and much of the credit rests with Doug.

I have had several arguments with Press Citizen Editors over the years, each one telling me that it was impossible to cover the City Council, School Board, and Board of Supervisors. They would assure me that they understood the news business, and I did not. And what I wanted was impossible. Each time I would say, “Well, you had better take a look at Solon, Iowa, where Doug Lindner does all those things and does them well!”

While I consider Doug a friend, that never stopped him from asking a pointed question or taking issue with something the County was doing. And that is how it should be! Thanks, Doug, for making Johnson County a better place to live for all these years!

Johnson County Public Health was honored with the 2021 Bronze Innovative Practice Award by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). The award celebrates local health departments for developing innovative programs to meet the needs of their community during the COVID- 19 pandemic. Johnson County was one of 20 local health department programs to receive NACCHO’s Bronze Innovative Practice Award.

The innovative practice was the integration and implementation of the department’s use of an online survey tool to assist with COVID-19 disease investigations and contact tracing. The ability to securely complete portions of the disease investigation through this online interaction increased the speed at which case investigations could be completed and thus, providing time to address large volumes of cases and prioritize cases to investigate.

“We are proud to receive NACCHO’s Bronze Innovative Practice Award. The award is evidence of our commitment to developing responsive and innovative public health programs that improve the health of our community,” said Sam Jarvis, Community Health Manager.

I wrote the following in 2014, then repeated it last year after the murder of George Floyd. I believe it is still timely, so I am running it again today.

In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, I thought it might be worth resurrecting an idea I had back in 2014.

I was working with LaTasha DeLoach. You may know LaTasha as the Director of the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center. You may recall that she was a member of the ICCSD Board of Directors (elected 2015). You may know her as a founder of G World. Well, at the time, she worked for Johnson County Social Services. And one of her duties at Johnson County was serving as the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Coordinator for Johnson County. Several counties (Johnson being one) were under a federal consent decree to do something about the disproportionate numbers of people of color in the juvenile justice system. It was a long slog of building trust, creating data sets that did not exist previously, and slowly adopting policies. But over LaTasha’s time at Johnson County, we made measurable progress toward our DMC goals. We did not fix everything, mind you. But we made measurable progress.

I was impressed by her work, but the consent decree was limited. I wanted to do something about DMC in our adult systems. While LaTasha could not work on adult issues per her grant, she volunteered to help me dig into our DMC issues. This was magnificent, because she is possessed of knowledge and skills I simply do not have.

We knew DMC was bad in our adult system. It still is. So we began looking at where disparities come from. As it turned out, we found a common theme. Officers and command staff from every law enforcement agency in Johnson County had some variation of the same response: “We go where we are told.” The single biggest problem we had in dispatch was what we can now call the “Amy Cooper” problem.

You remember Amy Cooper? She is the white woman who threatened a black man that she would call the cops and falsely accuse him. In fairness, most of the calls in Johnson County were not as egregious as Amy Cooper. But the calls were things like, “A black man is loitering outside my house.” “Black kids appear to be up to no good.” “I don’t like the looks of this guy.”

It is not hard to see how this creates more DMC. If cops are always being called on you, you are going to have ramifications. Maybe you are just a bit intoxicated. Maybe you have a small amount of weed. Maybe you missed a court date. Maybe you owe the courts some money. Maybe you simply push back against what you rightfully view as harassment. There are a million things that can turn an otherwise-innocuous stop into charges and/or an arrest. An arrest that frankly, didn’t need to happen.

Once dispatch orders a car to check a situation out, the cops are on their way. It is already too late. So we began looking at dispatch.

In Johnson County, law enforcement is dispatched by the Joint Emergency Communications Center (JECC). JECC runs out of a building behind Chatham Oaks on ground that was part of the Historic County Poor Farm. JECC is overseen by a 7-person board that includes the Sheriff, the Emergency Management Director, a County Supervisor, two Iowa City representatives, a rep from Coralville, and a rep from North Liberty. That group hires a Director (Tom Jones), who then hires staff.

LaTasha and I met with Tom. He shared some of the challenges of doing dispatch. Yes, the dispatchers could start asking more questions, but every extra question takes valuable time. And dispatch is all about quick responses. It was also interesting to hear Tom say that JECC sometimes got racist complaints. Callers sometimes said things like, “There is a (N-word) in my neighborhood.” He estimated that there might be a dozen or more 911 calls every year that were explicitly racist. Granted, that is a very small percentage of the thousands of calls they receive. But I still found it shocking.

So, what to do? LaTasha and I presented to the JECC Board, and requested that they come up with some type of response. I was thinking along the lines of the way in which fire departments deal with false alarms. You get one free, and after that, you are charged a fee for wasting public resources. Perhaps we could have law enforcement officers follow back up with people who made sketchy complaints. Explain to them that they were wasting public resources, and warn them that if they did so again, they would be getting a ticket for interference with official acts, filing a false report, or some other charge.

Understand, JECC does not have the staff to do this kind of follow up. It would need to be law enforcement or whatever follows law enforcement as we know it. And I am certain this will be resisted; no one wants yet another task to do, especially one that will be unpleasant. But I really think this is critical.

I asked that the JECC Board, individual cities, and County consider this policy. It went nowhere. I think the time for an “Amy Cooper” law might be right now. I am going to send this to the various entities involved in JECC. What are your thoughts?