Today at the Editor’s glance: Weather: Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. A slight chance of thunderstorms in the morning, then a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the mid 80s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent. Wednesday Night: A slight chance of thunderstorms in the evening. Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Lows in the upper 60s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
In Court: Circuit Judge Chris France holds juvenile disposition hearings starting at 9 a.m. Circuit Judge Terence Perkins holds civil docket hearings.
The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board meets at 10 a.m. at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For details about the city’s code enforcement regulations, go here.
Judges Election Forum: The Flagler County Republican Club is hosting a forum for incumbent or prospective judges running in the 2022 election to fill seats in the Seventh Judicial Circuit, which includes county and circuit judges in Flagler, Putnam, Volusia and St. Johns counties. Flagler County Judge Andrea Totten, who was appointed to the seat by Gov. Ron DeSantis in October 2019–the second county judge seat in Flagler had just been created by the Legislature at the Supreme Court’s recommendation. She has so far drawn no opposition. No other Flagler-based judges are running. The forum is at the Hilton garden Inn starting with a social hour at 6, which the candidates are unlikely to attend, followed by the forum itself. It is open to the public.
Flagler County Fair’s 4H and FFA Youth Livestock Show and Sale: The 4H and Future Farmers of America Youth Livestock Shows and Auction begin at 6 p.m. at the county fairgrounds, 150 Sawgrass Road, Bunnell. 4H and FFA Exhibits inside cattleman’s hall. These events showcase the present and future of Florida agriculture. They bring out the best in tomorrow’s farmers with 4-H and FFA livestock competitions as well as a variety of other exhibits and displays.
The Annual George Washington Carver Foundation Auction begins Monday. The purpose of the auction is to raise money to go back into the development of the Carver Center in Bunnell. In order to participate in this auction you must register for a bidder account on this 32auctions website. To register click login in the top right corner and then click “Create an account now” if you have not yet made one. The system will then send you an email with a link to confirm the registration. Your bidder ID will be the first part of your email address. If you would like to change the bidder ID you may go in to account settings and pick a new ID. Please pick a username you don’t mind being displayed publicly. The username of the current bidder will be displayed with the item.
Jill Woolbright Special: Book Banning Efforts Surged in 2021. These Titles Were the Most Targeted. From The Times: “Attempts to ban books in the United States surged in 2021 to the highest level since the American Library Association began tracking book challenges 20 years ago, the organization said Monday. Most of the targeted books were by or about Black and L.G.B.T.Q. people, the association said. Book challenges are a perennial issue at school board meetings and libraries. But more recently, efforts fueled by the country’s intensely polarized political environment have been amplified by social media, where lists of books some consider to be inappropriate for children circulate quickly and widely. […] The library association said it counted 729 challenges last year to library, school and university materials, as well as research databases and e-book platforms. Each challenge can contain multiple titles, and the association tracked 1,597 individual books that were either challenged or removed. The count is based on voluntary reporting by educators and librarians and on media reports, the association said, and is not comprehensive.” Most banned: ‘Gender Queer,’ by Maia Kobabe, ‘Lawn Boy,’ by Jonathan Evison, ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue,’ by George M. Johnson (Woolbright’s favorite), ‘Out of Darkness,’ by Ashley Hope Pérez, ‘The Hate U Give,’ by Angie Thomas, ‘The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,’ by Sherman Alexie, ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,’ by Jesse Andrews, . ‘The Bluest Eye,’ by Toni Morrison, ‘This Book is Gay,’ by Juno Dawson, ‘Beyond Magenta,’ by Susan Kuklin. (See: “Jill Woolbright Wants 4 Books Banned Over Anti-Racism, LGBTQ, Police Violence and Rape Themes; District Removes Them Pending Review.” Three of the four books were returned. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” is still banned.)
Notably: Today is, ironically, Library Outreach Day, recognizing the professionals who extend the benefits of libraries well beyond their walls. It is also the anniversary of the Scottsboro trial in 1931, when nine Black men accused of raping two white women went on trial in Scottsboro, Alabama. Of course they were found guilty and on April 9 sentenced to death: barbarism moved swiftly in Alabama. Of course the charges were by 1950 all dropped. Today is the anniversary both of America’s entry in World War I and of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, which the world, including France and the United States, sat by and watched unfold, proving then as ever the limits of Black lives mattering. On America’s entry in World War I, and the misplaced jingoism and stupidity of applauding congressmen, historian Richard Hofstadter wrote in The American Political Tradition, to Wilson’s honor (he could use every bit of it, considering that he had even less respect for Black lives than many of his predecessors and successors): “Woodrow Wilson had changed his means before, but in accepting war he was forced for the first time to turn his back upon his deepest values. The man who had said that peace is the healing and elevating influence of the world was now pledged to use “Force, Force to the utmost, Force without stint or limit.” Having given the nation into the hands of a power in which he did not believe, he was now driven more desperately than ever in his life to justify himself, and the rest of his public career became a quest for self-vindication. Nothing less than the final victory of the forces of democracy and peace could wash away his sense of defeat—and Wilson was conscious of defeat in the very hour in which he delivered his ringing war message in tones of such confident righteousness. Returning from the Capitol with the applause of Congress and the people still echoing in his ears, he turned to Tumulty and said: ‘My message today was a message of death for our young men. How strange it seems to applaud that.'”
Now this:
The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
May 2025
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
Al-Anon Family Groups
RockabillieWillie At City Repertory Theatre
Flagler County Library Board of Trustees
Nar-Anon Family Group
Bunnell City Commission Meeting
For the full calendar, go here.
“As the US ignited a bonfire of international laws and norms during its global war on terror, Russia, China and India freely indulged in legal and moral arson at home. But 21st-century autocrats need more than regimes of assassination, torture and arbitrary detention to legitimise their close collaboration with plutocrats. Their model is, yet again, the global hegemon. Foreigners have long envied the way the American system, built by and for slave-owners and programmed to boost oligarchies and dynasties, secures mass consent: while an infotainment media works up citizens into a state of paranoid patriotism, a service class of intellectuals talks up the American Revolution and the international liberal order.”
–Pankaj Mishra in “Day 5, Day 9, Day 16: Responses to the Invasion of Ukraine,” London Review of Books, March 24, 2022.
Richard Smith says
Another anti gun cartoon 😆 🤣