Greene County Democrat

Tag: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  • Newswire : John Lewis to be honored on US postage stamp next year

    Postage stamp honoring John Lewis

    By Shawna Mizelle, CNN


    The late civil rights trailblazer and congressman John Lewis will be honored on a new postage stamp in 2023, the US Postal Service announced Tuesday.
    The Georgia Democrat, who dedicated his life to activism and spent more than three decades in Congress fighting for civil rights, will be featured on a stamp using a photograph taken for a 2013 issue of Time magazine, USPS said in a statement. The photograph was taken by Marco Grob.
    A follower and colleague of Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis participated in lunch counter sit-ins, joined the Freedom Riders in challenging segregated buses and, at 23, was a keynote speaker at the historic 1963 March on Washington.
    “Even in the face of hatred and violence, as well as some 45 arrests, Lewis remained resolute in his commitment to what he liked to call ‘good trouble,’” the USPS announcement said.
    Lewis was widely seen as a moral conscience of Congress because of his nonviolent fight for civil rights. His death in 2020 after a battle with pancreatic cancer prompted an outpouring of tributes from politicians, world leaders and former presidents.
    Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, a Democrat who introduced and passed a resolution honoring the life of Lewis, has voiced support for commemorating him with a stamp. “Congressman Lewis was an American hero, civil rights icon, and revered citizen of Georgia, fully deserving of this honor,” Ossoff said in a statement last year.
    CNN previously reported in October that the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who also died in 2020, will be honored in 2023 as well. The USPS has yet to announce when the stamps will be released next year. 

  • Newswire : Trump selects ‘climate crisis skeptic’ Sam Clovis to be chief scientist at USDA

    By: Center for Food Safety

    Sam Clovis

    Sam Clovis

    In yet another attack on science, President Trump has nominated Sam Clovis — an Iowa radio talk show host with no scientific or agricultural background and a history of making racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks — to be the chief scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
    Clovis is an admitted climate change “skeptic”, saying that climate science is “junk science” and “not proven.” The Center says that farmers need USDA to help them address and adapt to a changing climate, not stick its head in the sand. We all know agriculture has a big role to play in being a solution to climate change, but that won’t happen with Clovis at the helm of scientific research.
    The position Clovis has been nominated for oversees a budget of nearly $3 billion and is responsible for agriculture and natural resource issues. The Farm Bill requires that the person in this position be a scientist, stating that the nominee “shall be appointed by the President . . . from among distinguished scientists with specialized training or significant experience in agricultural research, education, and economics.” The Center and other Washington ‘think-tank groups’ say, “He’s not an agricultural scientist, nor is he an agricultural economist. In short, he is simply not qualified for this position.”
    To make matters worse, Clovis has a history of making racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks. Clovis has made racist remarks about former President Obama, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, and Van Jones, among others; sexist remarks about House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and all Democratic women; and compared protecting marriage equality and LGBTQ rights to protecting pedophilia.
    The USDA proclaims that is serves farmers of all races, genders, and sexual orientations but this appointment goes against that spirit says the Center for Food Safety. They are urging all farmers to contact their members of the U. S. Senate to vote against the appointment of Sam Clovis to this critical position.