recogitare.com

The eight new members of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners had run for office promising to “thwart tyranny” in their lakeside Michigan community of 300,000 people.

In this case the oppressive force they aimed to thwart was the county government they now ran. It was early January, their first day in charge. An American flag held down a spot at the front of the board’s windowless meeting room. Sea-foam green carpet covered the floor.

The new commissioners, all Republicans, swore their oaths of office on family Bibles. And then the firings began. Gone was the lawyer who had represented Ottawa County for 40 years. Gone was the county administrator who oversaw a staff of 1,800. To run the health department, they voted to install a service manager from a local HVAC company who had gained prominence as a critic of mask mandates.

As the session entered its fourth hour, Sylvia Rhodea, the board’s new vice chair, put forward a motion to change the motto that sat atop the county’s website and graced its official stationery. “Whereas the vision statement of ‘Where You Belong’ has been used to promote the divisive Marxist ideology of the race, equity movement,” Rhodea said.

And so began a new era for Ottawa County. Across America, county governments provided services so essential that they were often an afterthought. Their employees paved roads, built parks, collected taxes and maintained property records. In an era when Americans had never seemed more divided and distrustful, county governments, at their best, helped define what remains of the common good.

Ottawa County stood out for a different reason. It was becoming a case study in what happens when one of the building blocks of American democracy is consumed by ideological battles over race, religion and American history.

Rhodea’s resolution continued on for 20 “whereases,” connecting the current motto to a broader effort that she said aimed to “divide people by race,” reduce their “personal agency,” and teach them to “hate America and doubt the goodness of her people.”

Her proposed alternative, she said, sought to unite county residents around America’s “true history” as a “land of systemic opportunity built on the Constitution, Christianity and capitalism.’”

She flipped to her resolution’s final page and leaned closer to the mic. “Now, therefore, let it be resolved that the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners establishes a new county vision statement and motto of ‘Where Freedom Rings.’”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... ommission/

arthwollipot wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 12:56 am Do you know what teaches people to hate America and doubt the goodness of people?

grayman wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 4:26 pm The most difficult part of traveling abroad for me, is returning.

Mrs. Gray has noticed the difference in my attitude and facial expression crossing the Canadian border in both directions. Same with boarding flights to and from other countries.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/trav ... index.html

grayman wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 4:26 pm The most difficult part of traveling abroad for me, is returning.

Mrs. Gray has noticed the difference in my attitude and facial expression crossing the Canadian border in both directions. Same with boarding flights to and from other countries.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/trav ... index.html