Happy July everyone!

I hope many, many of you will be joining us at our General Membership meeting on Saturday, July 16^th at Suntree Library.  More details on the flyer below. For those of you who are new (or relatively new) members, please try to join us earlier.  We will be meeting with newer members at 1 pm, same place, prior to the general meeting, so that you can meet one another and the Board as well as learn more about the League.

Speaking of our website calendar, I hope you are checking it at least weekly.  We are constantly updating it and adding events, and of course want and need all your help to be successful in all of our endeavors.  With the July 25 deadline to register to vote, the August 23 primary (and early voting August 13-20), member meetings, committee meetings, fundraisers, candidate forums…I think I made my point:  There’s a lot going on and we need all hands-on deck!

If you don’t know how best to help or what you want to do, or have ideas you want to express, I’m happy to meet with you privately.  I just had a new member reach out to me, so we set a Zoom meeting the same day and had a great conversation.  I enjoy doing that, but hope to meet many of you in person on July 16^th.

Thanks for being League members and doing all you do.  See you soon!

Suzanne Taylor

Education Committee

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense In America

Permitless Carry and Gun Safety Issues

The Social Justice and Education Committees co-hosted Connie Rooke, Communications Director for the local chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America on June 20. Connie, a retired 23-year military veteran of the Coast Guard, and her husband Scott, a retired Marine, provided background information and current data related to gun safety issues in Florida and America. Moms Demand Action, whose mission is to end gun violence in America, is a grassroots nonpartisan organization made up citizens of varied backgrounds who are pro-second amendment, supporting responsible gun ownership and legislation that keeps guns out of the hands of people who would do harm to themselves or others. 

Gun violence is the #1 cause of death for children and teens in America today. Every day, 22 children and teens, aged 1 - 17, are shot in the United States. Among those, 5 die from gun violence, 3 are murdered, 17 survive gunshot injuries, 8 are intentionally shot by someone else and survive. 2 children/teens either die from gun suicide or survive an attempted gun suicide. 8 children/teens are unintentionally shot in instances of family gun fire - a shooting involving an improperly stored or misused gun found in the home resulting in injury or death. Each day an average of 110 Americans of all ages die by gun violence while over 210 are shot and survive. Americans are 26 times more likely to die by gun homicide than people living in any other high-income countries. 

Permitless carry is a policy some elected officials and lawmakers have threatened to pass in our state, and others, that would allow anyone meeting age requirements to carry a gun without a permit or a license, without a criminal background check, and without safety training. Permitless carry would not reduce gun violence. States that have weakened their handgun permitting systems have seen an increase in firearms crimes of 13-15%. Governor Ron DeSantis has been promoting "constitutional carry" for Florida. Connie was clear, there is no such thing as "constitutional carry", other than as a marketing term the gun lobby and politicians use to make permitless carry sound less dangerous. The Tallahassee Democrat reported on May 1, 2022 that Gov. DeSantis announced at a press conference in rural Levy County that before he is done as governor, Florida will have a signature on what supporters call a constitutional carry law to carry concealed weapons without needing a license. The newspaper stated that so-called "constitutional carry" legislation would allow people to carry firearms without a government permit. 

In response to our country's gun violence epidemic, Connie encourages hope and a willingness to have tough constructive conversations about guns and legislation. Citizens are overwhelmingly against permitless carry, 90% believe a permit should be required before carrying a concealed weapon in public. 97% of gun owners support a measure requiring a background check for all gun sales. 80% agree that high safety standards are critical in issuing concealed carry permits. Progress is being made state by state on issues such as secure gun storage, extreme high risk protection laws (also known as red flag laws) and disarming domestic abusers through background checks for gun permits. Community violence intervention programs that make children safer are making headway. On June 25, 5 days after our meeting, President Joe Biden signed into law a bipartisan gun bill intended to prevent dangerous people from accessing firearms and increasing investments in the nation's mental health system, ending a three-decade gridlock on gun legislation. It is a beginning to bringing gun sense laws to America. 

International Relations

Group

Membership

Natural Resources

Please Don’t Feed the Algae

All residences and businesses are not allowed to use fertilizer containing nitrogen and phosphorus between June 1 and Sept. 30. The dates match Florida's wet season, where the rain is more likely to wash fertilizer into ditches leading to the lagoon and river, which feeds algae during that time period.  Algae blooms can kill marine animals that depend on seagrass beds and block sunlight from reaching the seagrass which depend on the light to grow.

To find a ban-compliant fertilizer, look for the three numbers on the fertilizer bag and pick one with zeroes for the first two numbers, such as “0-0-16." The first number shows the percentage of nitrogen, the second the percentage of phosphorus, and the third is potassium, which is not banned.  

The Lagoon Report Card and the panel of Straight Talk have made it clear that the actual water quality of the Lagoon is improving.  However, we, the residents of Brevard, need to keep more harmful nutrients from reaching the lagoon waters by honoring the Fertilizer Ban from June 1 until Sept. 30.  We are making progress--let’s just keep it going.

Observer Corps

Observer Corps Needs You!

Do you wish you could do something to help promote democracy?

Join the League of Women Voters of the Space Coast Observer Corps. An observer is an individual who attends a governmental meeting, notes what happens at the meeting, and reports back to the League by filling out a simple questionnaire. It takes a few hours a month, at the most.

Social Justice

The LWVSC Social Justice Committee had a busy June. We hosted a panel discussion on Gender Affirming Care of Children, and, along with the Education Committee, a conversation on Permitless Carry and Other Gun Safety Issues. A recording of the Permitless Carry conversation is available in the LWVSC Recording Library on our website under the Get To Know Us tab.

Friday, June 24th’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade, was heartbreaking. Regulation of reproductive rights is now in the hands of state legislators. Gov. DeSantis has announced that he will attempt to expand pro-life protections as a result of Dobbs.

A new law taking effect on July 1 will make it illegal to have an abortion in Florida after 15 weeks, with no exception for rape, incest or human trafficking. This law is being challenged in two state court cases.

On Thursday, June 30, 2022, a Leon County judge announced that the 15-week abortion ban violates the explicit right to privacy set forth in the Florida Constitution. He also announced that he will issue an injunction barring enforcement of the new law but that it would not be issued for a few days. This means that the new law will take effect on July 1, 2022, but will be suspended pending any appeals when the injunction is formally issued. Gov. DeSantis has announced he will appeal.

The Florida Constitution clearly contains a right to privacy and the Florida Supreme Court has held that it protects the right to an abortion. However, the composition of the Florida Supreme Court has changed since that ruling. There are now three DeSantis appointees on the 7-member Court. A justice is retiring on August 1, which will give DeSantis a majority. All of the other justices were appointed by Republican governors.

A more conservative court may well interpret the right to privacy differently. The Governor is arguing that the decision providing that the state right to privacy covers abortions is wrong.

The LWVSC Social Justice Committee is committed to protecting reproductive rights in Florida. We will have much to do in the coming months.

Our next meeting is July 18, 2022, at 6 pm via Zoom. We will discuss reproductive rights and how to protect them. We welcome all support.

Sustainability 

Sustainability Book Club Discussion

 Dark Money by Jane Mayer

The Sustainability Committee reviewed and discussed the book, Dark Money by New York Times reporter Jane Mayer, on Saturday, June 25th via zoom. The book is a detailed revelation of how wealthy billionaires, fearing that capitalism was under attack by reformers like Ralph Nader and others, committed their foundations to funding think tanks, academia, and other organizations that promoted libertarian and free market capitalism. These billionaires were anti-tax, anti-government regulations, anti-environmentalism, anti- science-behind-global-warming and "anti" any other policies like universal health care that they labeled as socialism.

The impetus for the billionaires’ concern is attributed to a memo written to the US Chamber of Commerce in 1971 by Lewis Powell who later became a Supreme Court Justice. The memo was entitled “American Attack on Free Enterprise”.  It acted as a call-to-arms for wealthy billionaires to defend libertarian, free market ideology. Some who took up arms were the Koch brothers, Richard Mellon Scaife, John Olin, Harry Bradley, and Joseph Coors. They agreed to finance like-minded think tanks amongst which were the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, Manhattan Institute, and the Hoover and Clermont Institutes.  

The Koch brothers funded “free market” economic chairs at universities such as the James Madison chair at Florida State University and the influential Mercatus Center at George Mason College in Northern Virginia. The Mercatus Center, close to DC, has influenced congressional legislation and Republican administrations. The wealthy sought to influence politics at the state and local levels through the American Legislative Council, known as ALEC, that confers with officials to help draft legislation. Koch money, derived from fossil fuel, helps support ALEC and numerous bills promoting the interests of fossil fuel.  

The Heritage Foundation financially supports rightwing radio talk shows on Premier networks that carried the Rush Limbaugh Show by donating $2 million annually. Heritage continues to support Premier networks and the rightwing talkers, Travis and Sexton, who replaced Limbaugh. Over the years, rightwing talk has stridently attacked the Clinton and Obama healthcare plans as well as the science of global warming.

The Olin Foundation is credited with providing the start- up funds for the conservative Federalist Society organization of lawyers. This organization has grown to some 42,000 lawyers, six of whom are Supreme Court Justices.  

Governor DeSantis has appointed three members to the Florida Supreme Court.  All those applying for the opening on the Florida Supreme Court are members of the Federalist Society.  

Bottom line, Dark Money explains how libertarian, conservative billionaires have influenced national policy over the past 50 years. That influence has contributed to why we do not have a healthcare system covering all Americans and why we have done too little and so late addressing global warming. The wealthy billionaires have been very successful getting the less well-off to vote against their own interests.  

The discussion participants concluded that Campaign Finance is an important issue to be addressed further by the league.

Upcoming On Our Calendar