SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
March 18, 2025
Sullivan’s Salvos 3/20/25
In this edition:
*New Location for Board of Supervisors Offices
*Agape Café Fundraiser
*Skip the Bottled Water, Please!
*What Should Democrats Do?
*Hypocritical Much?
*Did You Know?
*New Location for Board of Supervisors Offices
The Board of Supervisors has relocated our offices to the 3rd floor of the Health and Human Services Building, 855 South Dubuque Street in Iowa City. The Boardroom will be moving as well, but that will be about another month.
As you may recall, the County Administration Building at 913 Soth Dubuque Street recently underwent some renovations. In order to create additional space for those offices, the Board moved to a new spot on the 3rd floor of HHS. So please stop by and check out our new digs!
*Agape Café Fundraiser
The Agape Café is celebrating their 32nd birthday with a breakfast fundraiser! Iowa City’s only free breakfast diner serves a hot, made-to-order breakfast to whoever wants it once per week. Last year, they served a record 5,315 meals!
To support their efforts, join them for breakfast on Saturday, Match 29 between 8-11 am at Old Brick. For more info, email: agapebreakfast@gmail.com.
*Skip the Bottled Water, Please!
It takes 47 million barrels of oil to produce the 4 billion pounds of plastic water bottles used each year. 47 million barrels of oil is enough to fuel 1 million cars for a year. (Source: Physicians for Social Responsibility.)
It is easy to default to bottled water. I am sometimes guilty of it, too. But please try to avoid wasting all that plastic. We all need to do our part.
*What Should Democrats Do?
There are a lot of people with opinions as to what we ought to be doing right now. I get asked that a lot by people; I wrote about eleven things individuals could consider doing back in the February 20th edition of Salvos.
So we know there are things we can do as individuals. But what should the national Democratic Party be doing right now? This is also a hot topic. Let’s discuss it.
Let’s start with the State of the Union. Some Democrats considered not going at all. I think that would have been a mistake; Democrats hold damn near half the seats. I think it is important that they showed up.
Democrats did all kinds of things; some worked better than others. There were reports that “all” the Democrats were going to wear a certain color. But near as I can tell, that did not happen. Saying it was going to happen, and then failing to make it happen? Not a great look. Better to have lined everyone up first, then announced it.
Democrats declined to join the escort into the chamber. In terms of impact, I’d say that had next to zero. But if they were doing it not for impact but simply to say, “I refuse to walk in with that guy?” I can see it. I don’t think it is a problem – I just hope they didn’t think it “got people talking,” because it did not.
Some Democrats brought small signs and held them aloft at certain times. Was that effective? I don’t know. It was different, that is for sure. And I do believe that Trump has created a different era where many of the old “norms” no longer apply. So yeah, try something different, right?
Then you have Congressman Al Green, who stood, shouted, waved his cane, and was finally removed by the Sergeant at Arms. Was this effective? Well, in my humble opinion, it might have been the most effective stunt of the night. But would it have worked for all Democrats to get thrown out? No, I have no doubt that would have been too much.
But then you have ten Democrats joining the GOP in censuring Green! WTF? This is *by far* the worst thing I have seen out of any Democrats yet. Those ten people should be ashamed! They chose antiquated rules of decorum – which the other side does not follow – over what is happening to Medicaid. Shame!
Senator Elissa Slotkin gave the Democratic response. While it was absolutely fine in terms of substance, I think Dems could have considered doing something different. She noted that she was giving the speech from a small town in Michigan. Why not show that town? Why not involve locals in the response? Why just stand in front of a US flag in Michigan? She could have been anywhere.
Should Dems in the US Senate have offered votes to keep the government open? If there was a “clean” continuing resolution – in other words, simply kicking the can down the road – then sure, keep the government open. But what Speaker Mike Johnson has called a “clean” continuing resolution is *NOT* that! Democrats should never have voted to support this agenda. Never. Chuck Schumer blew this one big time! Not necessarily because of his vote – he explains it quite compellingly in a NY Times op-ed – but because Democrats were not united. The House feels as though they were sold out. Not good!
Town halls in Congressional Districts represented by Republicans? You’d better believe it! Great idea! Keep that happening!
But here is the bottom line: We are in uncharted territory. Do the work locally. Help your federal elected officials out. Show them some grace. Tell them what matters to you. Support the things they do well, and tell them if you disagree with others. We can and will turn this around. And you need to help!
*Hypocritical Much?
The Republicans in the Iowa Legislature never seem to care about the hypocrisy in their words and actions. Here are just a few examples:
*After going on and on about “merit,” they have ignored the experts and suggested that the UI College of Medicine should be 80% Iowans. That will cost the UI millions of dollars and lots of great students. Meanwhile, they tell us that the UI must do away with all things DEI; the UI believes in “merit” alone. Huh?
*The party of “local control” says 96 counties get to choose how they are represented by County Supervisors. Three do not. Even if you made the argument that students do not count (the US Supreme Court has already ruled that they do), there are 140,000 non-students in Johnson County. That is the population of Iowa’s smallest 20 counties combined. So 140,000 people in those 20 counties have a right that is denied to the people of Johnson County. How does that make sense?
*The party of “parental rights” does not extend those rights to the parents of LGBTQ+ kids. It is *critical* that parents make all the decisions for their kids. Except those parents? Say what?
*The GOP is very worried about what kids might read. They do not want the exposed to stories about slavery, gory murders, adultery, and other topics. Yet they approved teaching of the Bible – full of those topics! Makes no sense.
*Public schools have to be very careful as to how they spend their money. And they should be! A bill that passed the funnel would require budget lines, expenditures and goods and services totaling $50,000 at all State Universities to be required to be posted online, as well as written contracts, salary reports, and more. Yet private k-12 schools can take millions in public money and do anything they want. And the GOP has specifically blocked everyone from looking at these records. And they talk about transparency?
*GOP Legislators are awash in cash from lobbyists and big businesses. But they want to stop libraries and local governments from lobbying. I guess lobbying is only good sometimes?
*GOP lawmakers want to create a “Civil Government” course at Iowa universities. Yet this group will end up having more laws challenged as unconstitutional than any previous Legislature. Who should take that class again?
*Finally, and perhaps most hypocritical of all, the GOP wants to raise the Governor’s salary by $100,000, noting it has not been raised in 18 years. You know what else has not been raised in 18 years? The minimum wage. No hypocrisy there!
We simply have to beat these folks. They are destroying our state, and upending all ideas of what is fair and decent. Who’s with me?
*DID YOU KNOW? The last time the Board of Supervisors Office permanently moved was 1986, when it went from the Courthouse to the newly opened Admin Building.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 1:52 PM
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