South Carolina Green Party Convention

At left: Dr. Morgan Bruce Reeves, South Carolina Green Party candidate for Governor! GO DOCTOR GO!


The South Carolina Green Party Convention was Saturday, May 1, at the Happy China restaurant in West Columbia. Yes, we all fit in one restaurant, with room to spare. (Hey, this is a certifiably RED STATE, so even that much is doing pretty good!) This was my first Green Party convention, and I was excited! I had a terrific time, but have been working at near-breakneck pace since, so I apologize for my obvious delay in coverage.

Indeed, it is something to consider: two of our candidates were working and could not be at the convention, and I ask you, when is the last time that happened at one of the MAJOR party conventions? (ha) We are a party of folks who work for a living, and I submit to you, it would be a far better government if politicians were genuine working people.

~*~

In a decidedly conservative state like this one, it was wonderful to meet so many progressives, working hard in their local areas and sharing their wisdom and experience. There was a lot of discussion about the oil spill off the Gulf, which is so upsetting to me that I can barely talk about it. Much discussion also, about the Green Party platform. (Not every candidate is in full agreement with the platform, which is also true for the major parties.)

In addition, I was thrilled to learn that South Carolina has TWO Green Party folks currently holding office: Eugene Platt (at left, holding sign) of the James Island Public Service Commission, currently running for SC District 115, and Lee Jane Kaufman of Columbia's Tree and Beautification Commission. I find it fascinating that Green Party candidates are routinely trusted (all over the USA) in these kinds of "small" political offices, reflecting the fact that local people really do care about conserving their local green spaces and protecting the environment they actually live in every day.

If this oil spill was in everyone's backyard? The Green Party would be running the joint.

Fact is, it IS in our backyard, but for some reason, the majority of people don't seem to view it that way. It is our task to make them see it the way we do.

As for me, I need to study some more, and have decided not to run for office myself until I am far more versed in the issues. (But yes, at some later date, this will happen.)

And I now present our other candidates:

Nammu Muhammad (who I could listen to all day) is running for US House District 6, in Columbia, where he already ran for mayor. Muhammad has been instrumental in saving the beleaguered Waverly neighborhood in Columbia, where the money-men and other evil gentrifiers have recently come calling.

And his son, Christopher Jones, a student at Midlands Tech, is running for SC District 74. Yes, Green Party political dynasties! If the Kennedys can do it, we can too.

Attorney General: Leslie Minerd, lifelong political activist and Columbia businesswoman... I have been to her store, Hip Wa Zee, and didn't even know it was hers.

Superintendent of Education: Doretha Bull

US Senate: Tom Clements, who will never get elected unless he gets over his hostility to FACEBOOK! :P

US House District 1: Robert Dobbs

US House District 24: D. C. Swinton

At left: fabulous Faye accepts her party's nomination.



Last, but certainly not least, fabulous Faye Walters, running against Bob Inglis for the District 4 congressional seat, where I live. FAYE FAYE ALL THE WAY!!!! FAYE FAYE ALL THE WAY!!!!

I can't remember how many times Faye has run for congress, but it's a bunch. (She is my role-model regarding how I should behave when I finally muster up the nerve to put my name on a ballot!) Faye has that enviable Southern-Lady-ability to get all indignant and angry and yet remain gracious and polite; she never cusses! I must study her closely.

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Also speaking at the convention was Elke Kennedy, whom I have written about here at DEAD AIR. I have also written several times about her son, Sean Kennedy, the victim of local gay-bashers. His murderer, Stephen Moller, served a grand total of 359 days. This is because we have no second-degree murder charge in SC, as well as no hate-crimes law. Stephen Moller was therefore charged with manslaughter. Moller left an incriminating, nasty, bragging phone call on Elke's answering machine (right before the hospital contacted her, telling her that her son was in critical condition), which was inexplicably ruled inadmissible in court. The blood just boils.

A woman of quiet dignity and overflowing with genuine affection, Elke was simply a joy to meet, at long last. She has made the fight for a hate-crimes law in South Carolina, her own personal crusade. (Please visit Sean's Last Wish for information on what you can do!) She speaks of how she has met warm, caring, sympathetic folks from all over the USA, who have reached out to her. I was so honored to be one of them!

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Don't forget: VOTE GREEN!!!! And if you are in SC, vote for our DOCTOR, who will HEAL OUR STATE! (Okay, you knew that was coming...)

All photos by me, from my Flickr page (yes...legally, I have to say that now)... And BTW, any Greens who didn't attend the convention are welcome to friend me on Facebook!

Odds and Sods - soaked hallway and closet edition

Left: Our Lady of Mercy (stained glass) from St Mary's, Greenville, SC. I have begun fervent petitions to the Blessed Mother, and let's hope the rest of our apartment escapes the deluge.

~*~

There is water coming from somewhere into my hallway and bedroom closet. A huge box of books placed against the closet wall tricked me into thinking the closet might escape the creeping-water, but this morning I realized the bottom of the box was soaked. This enormous box was filled to the brim with Mr Daisy's geeky paperbacks, and I haven't told him yet. I just know for sure that Robert Silverberg's The Feast of St. Dionysius has been trashed. Now that we are older, we realize how difficult it is to replace such books, which are usually out of print (like that one). I am afraid to look at the rest of them.

I haven't told him yet.

It doesn't look like a good day. I am home from work, awaiting the maintenance crew, or somebody, O Jesus, Mary and Joseph, to help me. I have used up all my towels in the wet hallway.

(((prays Hail Marys)))


~*~

Please check out A MOTHER'S STORY: Elke Kennedy, Out in Asheville's profile of the mother of Sean Kennedy, victim of a gay-bashing murder here in Greenville.

As covered here previously, his murderer, Stephen Andrew Moller, will only serve 10 months:

While many of us in the LGBTQ community were hoping for justice, the judge in this case proved that justice for Sean Kennedy's murder would never be had. Moller received a three year sentence. But, it is very clear that Moller is likely to spend only 10 months in prison, after which he is entitled to parole. If granted parole, he will be on probation for three years. He was also sentenced to 30 days community service and ordered to take anger management classes and enter alcohol and drug counseling. In a sad message to the LGBTQ community, and parents of LGBTQ youth, South Carolina has once again made it clear that even those born in its bosom are not afforded justice or protection.

Where do such mothers find the strength to go on, without being eaten up with fury? I can't imagine such a thing. Kennedy had duly prepared herself for the trial's probable outcome, and knew there would not be justice for Sean, she says, "because I knew what the laws were and I knew that [Moller] had not been charged correctly in the grand jury hearing. The laws are not good laws. When you can charge a violent murderer and you can make it involuntary manslaughter and the maximum the judge can give him is five years, there is a serious problem."

Yes, there certainly is.

Left: Sean Kennedy, age 20, murdered May 2007 here in Greenville County, SC.


On a somewhat happier note, Elke Kennedy has received condolences from wonderful people all over the state and the nation, some of whom just pick up the phone to call her and check on her:

Elke will continue to grieve and work towards equality as a mother who lost a gay son because he was gay. Calling herself a mother on a mission, Elke said, “I am determined to help all the other Seans out there. Not just murder victims, but victims of beatings, people who commit suicide – the people no one talks about. It’s for all those people who have a mother who can’t do what I do, or won’t do what I do. It’s for those unspoken deaths, beatings, assaults and suicides that never get told.”

Elke chooses to focus on South Carolina, not only because it was the site of Sean’s murder, but because it is somewhere she moved because she thought she could safely and happily raise a child there. She wants to change South Carolina because “South Carolina has a long way to go before they can say that they are embracing people.”

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I first saw Dr. Michael J. Rosner on ABC's 20/20 TV show back in March 2000. Even so, I remember the show well (can't locate a transcript; my apologies). I was extremely skeptical concerning various medical claims to be able to "help" Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and fibromyalgia by shaving off some skeletal bones near the skull. You say what!?!?

My first question: How can you "help" something we don't even know the causes of? (Are the two conditions possibly the same thing, simply assigned different diagnoses, as I often suspect?)

No way I would let this guy near my spine or my brain, I thought. But what if I was desperate and had not left my house for years? I'd probably do anything.

Rosner had already performed about 50 of the procedures at the time of the 20/20 show, and with the free half-hour prime-time commercial, went on to do a parcel more. However, in 2002, his license was suspended. His frequent diagnosis in such cases, Chiari Malformation, has allegedly been overused/abused. Mountain Xpress reports:

Rosner wasn’t allowed to reapply for his license for six months, and when he did, his application was denied. Rosner appealed. Following a June 2004 hearing, the medical board did reinstate his license—but with certain conditions.

As for Rosner’s patients, some have reported improvement that’s little short of miraculous; others say the treatment made only a minor difference, and still others report worsening conditions. But Rosner has also been sued at least 48 times in the past six years by people alleging unnecessary surgery. Fifteen of those suits have been dismissed, he says, and eight more have been withdrawn. According to Henderson County [NC] court records, however, 32 lawsuits against Rosner remain unresolved.

Rosner maintains that over his entire career, only one malpractice claim has been paid on his behalf: a $50,000 settlement in 1987 for operating on the wrong level of a patient’s back. Rosner also contends that the medical board’s actions may actually have encouraged some suits. Four months after the suspension of his license, he notes, a single law firm filed eight cases.

A confident man with a salt-and-pepper goatee, Rosner seems unbowed by the controversy that continues to dog him. He’s still seeing patients, most of whom are referred to him either by other doctors who believe in his work, or by passionate supporters who network via the Internet.

In Rosner’s eyes, the real question is how long it will take to change what he believes is faulty science.

Faulty science? Well, okay, but why not come out and make some concrete medical claims for your surgery, in that case?

Left: Dr. Michael Rosner, photo from Mountain Xpress.


See, I am profoundly uncomfortable with the way the good doctor hedges his bets, claiming as a legal dodge (which I immediately noticed when I saw the 20/20 show in 2000), that his surgery doesn't claim to "cure" CFS or fibromyalgia, but merely "treats the malformation"--which may or may not cure these conditions. Hmmm.

Indignant herbalist note: When the alternative medicine companies try something like this, say, about supplements such as Coenzyme-Q10 ("may lower cholesterol and blood pressure")--they are literally nailed to the wall by the powers-that-be. I could name a dozen companies off the top of my head that have been forced to change their labeling for HEDGING... so why are mainstream doctors allowed to hedge their bets and tell patients something MIGHT work, but we aren't? Harumph.

Rosner, as the article claims, isn't worried:

Rosner and other proponents of the surgery believe that many of the patients they see suffer from one of two conditions: a skull that’s too small for the brain, or a compressed spinal column. Sometimes they have both.

In medical terminology, “hypoplastic posterior fossa,” also known as a “Chiari I malformation,” essentially means that the back of the skull and upper spinal column are too small to contain the lower part of the brain and the upper spinal cord. This condition has long been known to cause some neurological difficulties—such as tremors, sleep apnea, headaches and poor coordination—in some sufferers.

Rosner wants to be clear: He’s not operating to treat fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue. Rather, he’s using surgery to correct what he calls a “neurological deficit” in his patients. He also emphasizes some fundamental differences in the way he examines patients and determines a course of treatment.

In his small office next to Park Ridge Hospital in Fletcher [North Carolina], Rosner says he sees two to four new patients a week and generally performs surgery at the hospital one day a week. Patients come to him from across the country, often after wrestling with their medical problems for years.

Uh-huh. Italics mine. Read the whole thing, courtesy of Mountain Xpress. The comments, in particular, are illuminating. Many are diehard supporters of Dr Rosner and claim that he helped them.

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Left: attempting to salvage Mr Daisy's paperbacks, and in so doing, saved a first edition! I feel like I'm doing something important for Western Civ, saving all of this antique paper verbiage. The wife of an obsessive book-collector: a difficult gig.

The fix-it guys are currently working on the problem, as I survey the damage and debate whether this deserves a claim with State Farm.

~*~

New to my blogroll:

A Choice of Weapons, featuring the fun Mista Jaycee.

Quaker Pagan Reflections, in particular, the series titled CAT'S SPIRITUAL JOURNEY, which I stayed up all night reading last weekend.

Faking It, by Jennifer and Womanist Musings, by Renee. Both great reading!

Check em out!

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Listening to: Howlin' Wolf - Smokestack Lightnin'
via FoxyTunes

Gay-bashing trial: Sean Kennedy's life is only worth three years

If he had been straight, maybe it would be worth more.

I apologize for not posting this sooner, but the news was practically buried. I just got an email about it. Not a lot of ruckus locally over this, which isn't surprising.

Just very, very sad.

Stephen Moller gets three years in Sean Kennedy's death at club
By Eric Connor • STAFF WRITER • June 12, 2008 • GREENVILLE NEWS

The Taylors teenager who threw a single, fatal punch at Sean Kennedy outside an Eastside bar was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison after an impassioned argument about the role Kennedy’s sexual orientation may have played.

Stephen Andrew Moller pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, admitting he punched 20-year-old Kennedy in the face in the parking lot of the former Brew’s Pub on Pelham Road in May 2007 after a night of drinking.

Kennedy’s head hit the pavement, causing fatal brain damage.

Moller, who turns 20 on Friday, originally was charged with murder and faced the possibility of life in prison until Greenville County’s chief prosecutor offered the alternate involuntary manslaughter charge after a grand jury found "no malicious intent." The lesser charges carry a maximum sentence of five years.

In the year since Kennedy’s death, his mother, Elke Kennedy, has decried her son’s killing as a hate crime. Shortly after the death, a warrant alleged that the assault was motivated by the fact that Kennedy was gay.

However, in court Wednesday, prosecutor Mark Moyer read a statement Moller gave to an investigator in which he said he didn’t know Kennedy was gay until after he punched him and that he hit him because he was angry that Kennedy had inadvertently brushed his face with his hand.

Aside: Why is it so bad to inadvertently brush someone's face with your hand?

Unless, you know, HE'S GAY!!!!

And you believe he has just infected you with AIDS? Read on:

No evidence was presented during the hearing that Moller acknowledged Kennedy’s homosexuality before the attack.

Shortly after Moller hit Kennedy, Moller called a girl that Kennedy was with outside the bar and left a voice message mixed with laughter, profanity and anti-homosexual epithets bragging about the assault, Moyer said.

The prosecutor read a transcript of the message in court, which Kennedy’s mother pleaded unsuccessfully with the judge to listen to the actual recording before sentencing Moller.

Left: Stephen Moller at his sentencing, Greenville News photo by George Gardner.

In his statement to the investigator, Moller said that he was sitting in the back seat of a car reaching to turn the radio station as Kennedy reached in with a cigarette and inadvertently brushed his face with his hand. Moyer said the car with Moller had driven over to some girls and that Kennedy came up and hugged one of the girls.

Moller’s attorney, Ryan Beasley, told Circuit Judge Ned Miller that Moller didn’t realize that Kennedy was gay until the driver of the car saw a bleeding cut on Moller’s hand and told him.

"You know that dude is gay," the driver said, according to Moller’s statement. "What are you going to do if you have AIDS now?"

"Everybody thought that this was maybe a hate crime, but it was not," Beasley told the judge. "Stephen had no idea that he was gay until afterwards."

Beasley called the killing a "tragic and freak incident with devastating results" and offered another possible explanation for the brain damage Kennedy suffered, telling the judge that a friend of Kennedy’s, who was drunk, dropped him after trying to lift him up.

"Oh, please!" a member of the crowd of Kennedy’s family and friends present in the courtroom said in response.

Before sentencing, Moller turned to apologize to Kennedy’s family.

"I live with it every day," Moller told the family. "I wish it had never happened. I never thought this would happen. I’m sorry."

In October, Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor Bob Ariail said that his office prepared the alternate charge of involuntary manslaughter after "realizing the possibility of no indictment on the murder charge ... would result in Moller’s release." Ariail said that while the charge would result in an inadequate punishment, it was the only charge that applied to the case.

Moller was later released on bond.

Judge Miller said that "the easy thing to do would be to give him five years and move on," but that he wanted to try to rehabilitate Moller with three years of probation after the sentence is served. Miller also ordered Moller to undergo anger management and substance abuse counseling, submit to random drug tests and perform 30 days of public service.

Miller gave Moller credit for the seven months he served in jail before he was released on bond in November.

Beasley told the judge that during his release Moller has been working and supporting a 9-month-old daughter.

Beasley told the judge that a prison sentence would "only hurt him" and that "there are some bad people in that place, and he’s going to be exposed to things he’s never seen."

Moller’s uncle, Steve Moller, spoke on his nephew’s behalf and said that "we wouldn’t be here today" if alcohol wasn’t involved, and he asked Kennedy’s family to work together with him to help curb underage drinking.

If you can stomach it, go to the GREENVILLE NEWS page that I linked, and read the comments.

Maybe then you'll see what we are up against around here. It ain't no joke.