PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Susan Dollar
The shock and profound sadness of the recent events – the murder of George Floyd, the police response, the president parading around a house of worship, the peaceful protests and the violent riots – it’s almost too much to take in. We cannot wrap our heads around these painful, shameful events – how did we get here? And more importantly, how are we going to come out of this?
As Scott and I continue to live mostly in quarantine, the security of our daily life is easy to take for granted. Our daily routine has changed a little; now we make do instead of going to the stores. We re-use, repair, recycle a lot more. We are white, privileged, and safe. We pretty much do the same things days after day – get up, drink coffee, read the newspaper and watch the morning news. After this depressing start, we busy ourselves with tasks – some mundane and some inspiring. We have a lot of opportunity for reflection in these sobering times.
Reflection on the state of our democracy and the events currently happening in our country gives me pause. Representative John Lewis. the civil-rights leader and icon, eloquently summarized the emotional feelings that I think we as Democrats are all experiencing. “To the rioters here in Atlanta and across the country,” Lewis said, “I see you, and I hear you. I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness. Justice has, indeed, been denied for far too long. Rioting, looting, and burning is not the way. Organize. Demonstrate. Sit in. Stand up. Vote. Be constructive, not destructive.”
He is right. We cannot stand by idly. We
all
have to organize. We
all
need to demonstrate, sit in, stand up for what is right and just. And
we all have to vote
. This fall, we will participate in the election of our lifetime. We can make change happen. This is our one chance to set America on a better path. In the next few months, BAD will work in partnership with KCDP to reach and register voters. We need all hands-on-deck and in July, we will have a training session at our regularly scheduled meeting so that everyone can find their niche and participate in a voter outreach activity that is safe and comfortable for each individual.
In the meantime, till we can begin meeting in person, I encourage everyone to stay informed and stay inspired. Last week, President Obama said this to the protestors: “In short: You’re not alone, and what you do has meaning and value, as
you
do, and it is part of a larger picture of American progress, as
you
are. Don’t panic, and don’t despair.” Then he repeated a line from Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
We are not alone - we are in this together. We just need to keep the faith, work towards healing and have hope - don’t despair, don’t panic – let’s work together to make a difference and build a more just and equitable world for all.
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Watch this and be proud to be a Democrat!
https://youtu.be/gr69AHFS7yo
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Read this:
A Moment of National Shame and Peril—and Hope
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Thursday, July 9
in-person, 11:45 a.m.
Longhorn Cafe
Thursday, August 13
11:45 a.m.
Thursday, September 10
6:00 p.m.
Longhorn Cafe
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JUNE MEETING
Thursday,
June 11
6:00 p.m.
via Zoom
Our June meeting will feature the screening of the documentary,
Suppressed: T
he Fight to Vote
. This excellent 30 minute film tells personal stories from voters across the state of Georgia to paint an undeniable picture of voter suppression in the 2018 midterm election.
A link to join the meeting will be sent to all paid BAD members on Tuesday;
if others would like to join the meeting, please email bad@boerne-area-democrats.com and we'll send you a link to join in.
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Download the free version of Zoom! Just go to this web site and follow the directions:
https://zoom.us/
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Judy Dewey,
Secretary & Newsletter Chair
We hope you can attend the upcoming ZOOM meeting. You don't have to talk, just sign in, say hi and listen. It's really not that hard. Call or write an officer if you are unsure as to what to do!
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BROOKE ORR
Membership
Currently, we are 160 members strong! It is time to renew your dues for June. You can join as a new member or renew your current membership on our website via PayPal or by mailing a check to P.O. Box 2132, Boerne, 78006. Dues are $40 for individuals or $25 for individuals 60 years of age and older. Remember that as a paid member, you can vote on club issues, receive the monthly meeting minutes, and run for club offices. Join us! Thank you all for your participation!
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SHARON NOACK
Treasurer
In addition to managing the BAD bank accounts and filing state reports, our treasurer has been busy making homemade pasta!
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BRENDA SCHMIDT
Activities
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BLUE MOON MONDAY
June 29
We are celebrating our first Blue Monday, fifth Monday in the month, with a Party on the Patio on Monday, June 29 at 7:00 pm at the KCDP/BAD Headquarters. BYO Drink! Its also the first day of early voting so VOTE, put on your best blue t-shirt, wear your mask (except when you want to drink, of course) and bring your favorite drink to our patio behind Mary's Tacos for a few minutes with your fellow Democrats. We look forward to seeing you!
Two more Blue Mondays in 2020: August 31 and November 30. We will keep you posted!
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BAD BOOK CLUB
Stacey Gilfillan Book Club Leader
We are going to have a Zoom book club meeting on June 10 at 5:30.
No particular book to discuss this month - just a chance to get together via Zoom and catch up on what everyone has been reading!
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If you are a current book club attendee, you should have received an Zoom invite from Stacey.
Give it a try folks, it will be nice to see everyone but without masks! If you have not attended before, but wish to do so, email Stacey: stazzinaro@gmail.com
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Texas Democratic Convention
Closes with a Bang!
This past week, the Texas Democratic Party held its biennial Convention—and it was 100% online! Over 60 panels, speakers, and training sessions were presented to over 14,000 delegates across the state. Friday’s and Saturday’s General Sessions featured some top-notch speakers, including Nancy Pelosi, Beto O’Rourke, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden. Kendall County was represented at the event by twenty delegates, who voted on Party leadership, National Electors, the Party Platform, and Resolutions.
On to November!
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If you’re a Facebook user, you can access the videos for each day’s events in the “Videos” section of the Texas Democratic Party Facebook page.
By the end of the month, these sessions will all be archived individually at some location; we’ll let you know where in next month’s newsletter.
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KRISTA BERMEJILLO-VASQUEZ
Social Media
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Remember to take a look at - and like! - our BAD web pages and our Facebook page! Lots of good information, news, and links to important organizations and events.
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KEVIN HENNING
County Chair, KCDP
As Democrats it is not enough to be not-racist. We must all be actively antiracist.
How do we become an antiracist, someone who supports antiracist policy through their actions? First we could read Ibram X Kendi’s book “How to be an Antiracist. His message is simple. We will never change the hearts and minds of all racists. “We must focus on power instead of people, if we focus on changing policy instead of groups of people” we can make an antiracist society possible. As an old white guy, I am asking myself what can I do? What should I do? What can we all do? I just reviewed these three websites and ordered Roy Ellison’s “Invisible Man”, a book I read in college 50+ years ago, to reread.
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Is Texas racist? Is Kendall County racist? To quote Molly Ivins ; “Texas is just Mississippi with good roads.” I wish I could say that has changed but it hasn’t. Listening to TPR Friday, I heard this in an interview:
“There is nothing more dangerous than a scared white-person” To change fact, we must become antiracist. There can be no turning back. Our young people are leading the charge. Hooray for them.
To make change from Kendall County to the Statehouse, to the Whitehouse we have got to motivate our voters to cast a ballot next November. Getting Democratic votes out will continue to be my main focus for the next five months. Donald Trump cannot win without Texas. So up and down the ballot we must elect Democrats. Vote Blue no matter who. Please join KCDP and BAD to help in the fight.
Legal Action Continues
Legal wrangling continues as the TDP seeks to expand who can vote by mail. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that lack of immunity to the coronavirus would not qualify voters to claim a disability which has been upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The case will land in front of the U.S. Supreme Court and while important for the lower turnout runoff on July 14, it will have a significant implication for the November election. Stay tuned.
Remember, anyone over 65, if you will be out of town, if you are sick
or have a disability you can vote by mail in Texas.
Vote By Mail Ballots are being mailed out. Have you gotten yours?
There are a number of ways to request a mail-in ballot. Here’s an easy link that lets you prepare a letter requesting a ballot:
txdem.co/VBMApp
or you can call the Kendall Co. Elections office and request an application for Ballot by Mail at 830-331-8701. The Election office will be happy to help you with any questions that you may have.
I want to end my remarks with a big thank you to Laura Bray who was our TDP State Convention Coordinator. The event was really something and Laura helped us navigate a complex virtual event from start to finish. She made it much more understandable and meaningful. I think we all feel that without her help it would have been a chore to weave our way though all the outstanding events. Thank you Laura!
Please stay safe and stay engaged.
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The Democratic Party Runoff Election is now scheduled for July 14, 2020.
Here are some important dates to note:
- Monday, June 15, 2020 - Last day to Register to Vote
- Friday, July 3, 2020 - Last day to apply for ballot by mail (Received, not postmarked)
- Monday, July 6, 2020 - First day of Early Voting
- Friday, July 10, 2020 - Last day of Early Voting
- Tuesday, July 14, 2020 - Election Day
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LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS UPDATE
Julie Rosenberger
A lot has happened in just six months! On January 9, 2020, Bunny Bond spoke to the Boerne Area Democrats about the work of the nonpartisan
League of Women Voters of the Texas Hill Country
(LWV-HCTX) to support the League’s mission of empowering voters and defending democracy.
Bunny explained that the League members work toward their vision of a democracy where every person has the desire, the right, the knowledge and the confidence to participate. The League’s belief in the power of women to create a more perfect democracy shows through in their solid reputation in our community for candidate and issue forums, voter registration, and public programs on major issues.
As a result of the meeting, interest grew around forming a Kendall County Unit of the Hill Country League. We held our organizational meeting on February 15, and the Kendall County Unit was born. We now have 17 members in Kendall County, accounting for about 1/5 of the membership of LWV-HCTX.
Our Kendall County Unit held three voter registration events in early 2020, before COVID-19 paused in-person outreach. We distributed hundreds of LWV Nonpartisan Voter Guides to Kendall County libraries and businesses before the March primary. In April, Kendall County members were among the delegates to the League of Women Voters Texas convention, held online for the first time this year.
In addition to voter registration and education and civics education, another 2020 goal for the League is celebration and commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, including having 100 women in suffragette dress marching in upcoming Hill Country parades. The League is also bringing attention to the upcoming redistricting process.
We plan to have our next meeting of the Kendall County Unit of LWV-HCTX online, Saturday, June 20. We will discuss how we can be supporting the League’s work here in Kendall County and discussing how volunteers can get involved in specific initiatives such as candidate forums, gathering information for voter guides, and their Fair Maps redistricting initiative.
We hope you’ll join us for the meeting and/or as a member of our Kendall County Unit of LWV-HCTX. For more information, contact Julie Rosenberger at
juls.rosenberger@gmail.com
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You Tube Candidate Forum
Be informed so you can make your choice.
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Join us for an Online Music Festival to Celebrating Voting!
The Plant Your Flag Fest launches on Flag Day, Sunday, June 14 at 8pm. The event features three Texas indie bands, as well as messages from event sponsors. The Boerne Area Democrats is a sponsor of the event. By joining in on Sunday at 8, you’ll be able to chat with other concert goers and with the bands themselves. We hope you’ll join us for a triple bill of rising indie Texas artists, making their voices heard to encourage everyone to register, vote, and spread the importance of making change happen.
18-to-25s are sitting on a treasure. That treasure is millions and millions of votes. The value of that treasure can be seen in how badly our politicians want -- or fear -- those votes. Those votes are tools we can use to shape our world and create a more just society -- but like any tool, they only have impact if we put them to work. We claim that power by
registering to vote
(and verifying that our info is up-to-date),
making a plan to vote
in the next election (and
every
election), and
making sure everybody we know
is committed to join us.
We increase that power by holding candidates and elected officials accountable for the change and justice we need, by calling their offices, investing time or money, getting visible and making noise. We celebrate that power by doing it together, doing it with music, and doing it loud. You can RSVP here:
https://www.mobilize.us/kendalltxdems/event/278680/
or just
show up on Sunday night!
Thanks to Leah Rosenberger, daughter of Julie and Luke,
for creating and implementing this event!
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Sisters United Alliance
(SUA) is a unique data driven women’s voter turnout campaign in Texas, led by women campaign professionals since 2016. SUA identifies Democratic-leaning low propensity women voters; women who are registered to vote but have either never voted or have voted once – a universe of voters not usually contacted by the Democratic Party or by candidate campaigns. In 2018, their efforts in the Houston area resulted in an increase of almost 40% voter turnout of their targeted population.
SUA has offered to target the 253 Democratic-leaning women who have never voted in Kendall County. To do this, they have requested a donation of $500 to cover the cost of their voter outreach program which will begin this summer. You can learn more about their work on their website:
https://www.sistersunitedalliance.com/
BAD members will receive a survey via Survey Monkey on Thursday night asking for a vote on this donation.
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POTENTIAL PUBLICITY!
BAD has been invited to share the cost of a billboard on I-10 near the Welfare exit 532. The billboard would be a giant VOTE BLUE sign. It would be illuminated at night and would be up for three months. The requested donation is for $1,000 from BAD.
BAD members will receive a survey via Survey Monkey on Thursday night asking for a vote on this donation.
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VOLUNTEER HELP NEEDED
The next San Antonio Food Bank MEGA Food Distribution will be hosted in COMFORT, TX on Saturday, June 20
th
. The volunteer call time is 7:45AM.
- The Comfort Table will be overseeing the specific details of this distribution and in the process of creating a flyer. This is NOT a “food for all” event. This is for people who are in need of food due to COVID-19. People may sign up in advance with their local partner agencies in Kendall County OR provide their information of how they were financially affected by COVID-19 the day of the event. Also, it’s a “first come first serve” distribution.
- We’re in need of volunteers. The location is still TBD but it will either be at the Comfort High School OR next door at the Methodist Church. We’ll keep you posted!
- You can sign up to be a volunteer either by emailing Staci Almager at staci.almager@hcfstx.org OR contact Susan Die at the Comfort Table seadie50@gmail.com
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COMFORT INDEPENDENCE DAY PARADE
Stay tuned - the Comfort City Commissioners will meet on Monday to decide if the annual 4th of July parade is a go or not. If the parade is on, BAD and KCDP will enter a float and will be looking for vlunteers to participate!
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and then send a letter to your various state representatives encouraging demanding that they not cut public school funding going forward; also contact your national representatives to ensure any and all federal funding goes to public schools where it's most needed.
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I'm making it my mission to advocate for free and fair elections. Join our fight to ensure access to democracy
for all.
— STACEY ABRAMS
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BAD and KCDP will particip
ate in the July 11-12 Market Days at the Main Plaza. We need your help to staff our booth. We'll distribute materials, answer questions, sell shirts, and let people know about fellow Democrats in Boerne Area and Kendall County. We need (at least) two volunteers for each of the specified shifts. Sign up here:
https://www.mobilize.us/kendalltxdems/event/278689/
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Peaceful March in Memory of George Floyd
Sunday, June 7th at 7:00 p.m.
Boerne Square
This is a peaceful march and no violence will be tolerated. Please respect each other's space and keep social distancing in mind.
Participants are encouraged to wear a black shirt; masks are also recommended. The march will begin at the Main Plaza and continue down Main Street to River Road and back.
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Boerne Vigil for George Floyd
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Members of the Boerne/Kendall County community came together at River Road on May 31 to remember George Floyd. About 100 people were in attendance.
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Congratulations
again
to
Alexandra Purchatzke,
our 2020 BAD scholarship winner!
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Alexandra recently won 3rd place in the Texas Citizen Bee competition!
Competing against 19 other students who had won regional competitions around the state, Purchatzke was asked a total of four oral questions and was one of the few students who correctly answered all the questions about the constitution, current events, people, documents and cases. Judges combined those answers with responses on a 35-question multiple-choice test taken the day before. Purchatzke’s performance secured a third-place win and a $1,000 prize.
Alexandra was already involved in a mock trial progam in high school, where Kim Grosenbacher was her teacher and Amy Lambiase was her coach. Grosenbacher noticed that when the high school’s team would practice together, Purchatzke was the most prepared.
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She began studying for the competition in March, taking a day or two each week to flip through the study guide. Purchatzke felt she was building off what she already learned in AP U.S. History and AP Government. “I like how it is very relatable, and you can tie everything to what is happening today,” Purchatzke said. “I feel like I can connect with anyone I meet by talking about current events and the Constitution and the legality of certain government actions.” Last Wednesday, judges rewarded the high school senior’s work – she’s the new record holder for the best outcome at the state competition in her school district.
Congratulations, Alexandra!
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Be ready - it's coming! As you know, the annual gala has been cancelled. However, the committee is hard at work planning a virtual fundraiser. Stay tuned for the kick-off in August. Pictured above, left to right, are committee members Marilyn Harrington, Dora Blatchford, Stacey Gilfillan, Marilyn Tremper, Brooke Orr, Cay Yaonwski, and Amy Lambiase.
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WHAT TO READ & WATCH DURING THIS UNSETTLING TIME
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KENDALL COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC HEADQUARTERS
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518 East Blanco Road (behind Mary's Tacos)
Phone: 830-331-0672
Ugh!! Our office is closed until further notice!
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Click on any of these icons to be taken to their web pages.
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GET INVOLVED IN YOUR COMMUNITY!
Let your voices be heard by attending these community meetings.
Click on any of the icons for more information.
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Boerne City Council meets at 6:00 p.m. on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m. at 9 Topperwein Road, Boerne.
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The Kendall County Commissioner's Court meets on the 2nd and 4th Monday at 9:00 a.m. in the County Courthouse, 201 E. San Antonio Street, 3rd floor.
The Planning and Zoning meetings are held on the 1st Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m. at the Boerne Police/Municiap Court, 124 Old San Antonio Road.
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The Fair Oaks City Council meets on the 1st Thursday at 9:30 a.m. and the 3rd Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the FOR City Hall, 7286 Dietz Elkhorn Road, FOR.
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The Comfort ISD Board of Trustees meets on the 2nd Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m. at the CISD Central Office, 327 High Street, Comfort.
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The Boerne ISD Board of Trustees meets on the 3rd Monday of each month at 5:00 p.m. in the Administrative Offices,
235 Johns Road.
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The Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District meets on the 2nd Monday of the month at 6:00 p.m. at 9 Topperwein Road, Boerne.
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BOERNE AREA DEMOCRATS BOARD
President: Susan Dollar
Vice President: Amy Lambiase
Secretary/Newsletter: Judy Dewey
Treasurer: Sharon Noack
Membership: Brooke Orr
Activities: Brenda Schmidt
Publicity: Laura Bray
Social Media: Krista Bermejillo-Vasquez
Ex Officio member: Kevin Henning, KCDP
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Connect with us!
JOIN THE BOERNE AREA DEMOCRATS
Email: BAD@ boerne-area-democrats.com
Web: boerne-area-democrats.com
Facebook: facebook.com/boerne.area.democrats
Notice Regarding Photography and/or Audio/Video Recording
The Boerne Area Democrats captures photographs and/or audio/video recordings during our events. Such photographs and recordings may be used in BAD's advertising and social media relations to klet others know of our events. In addition, local news organizations may hear of our evengts, and BAD may allow them to record events for news reporting. If youdo not wish to bein photos/videos, please let the photographer/videographer know in advance.
This newsletter is intended for people interested in the work of the Boerne Area Democrats and the Democratic Party in general. To be removed from this mailing list, please click on
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