49 Comments
User's avatar
oraxx's avatar

Evidently, Republicans, and their natural allies the evangelicals, are the only people in America entitled to an opinion, and everything they disagree with is Communism. The Bill of Rights wouldn't last fifteen minutes left up to these people.

Religion *is* Politics's avatar

The bill of rights didn’t apply to slaves or indigenous people

These people were about the only ones it applied to

oraxx's avatar

The Constitution in its original form and interpretation respresented what was possible at the time.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Caiharr wants to keep "obscene" material out of children's hands, does she? She going to go to war against adults reading the bible to children? That book is filled with obscenity.

Boreal's avatar

Yet she voted for child rapist and pedophile trump.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Isn't it always the way with "Won't somebody think of the children?" Rethuglikkkans?

Troublesh00ter's avatar

At this point, I think we need to ask, "Exactly HOW and WHAT are they thinking about the children???"

NOGODZ20's avatar

They’re quite fervent to practice “the laying on of hands.”

Troublesh00ter's avatar

And I would be just as fervent to smack their paddywhackers! 🤬

Sinanju06's avatar

Ezekial 23: 20. Look it up.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Isaiah 45:7 is pretty choice, too. 😝

NOGODZ20's avatar

And while they're at it, they can also look up the doings of Lot and his daughters.

Joe King's avatar

Sent to Ms Caiharr with the subject line Shame on you:

Ms Caiharr:

Back in March, a staffer at Edwardsville Elementary school was fired for exercising her Free Speech rights. She spoke directly to you while you were visiting the school and stated that trans rights are human rights and that taxpayer money should not be diverted away from public schools and into private schools. According to her, you did not respond directly. An hour later, she was dismissed from her position. I cannot help but to assume that you pressured the principal to fire her for what she said. Shame on you for that.

If you had any integrity at all, you would contact the school district and urge them to settle the 42 USC 1983 Civil Rights lawsuit for more than Ms Williams (the staffer in question) is demanding. A public statement would be a good thing as well, one that acknowledges the right of anyone the freedom to publicly disagree with their government officials to their faces.

As a Republican in Kansas with a voting record as evidence, I know that you would prefer to strip the rights of trans people and would like to eliminate public education in favor of religiously based private schools. The fact that one of your constituents expressed an opinion opposite of yours should not be seen as a threat to be eliminated, as you have done, but as the proper functioning of our democratic republic.

Shame on you.

Joseph King

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Hear-freaking-HEAR!!! 👍👍👍

Joe King's avatar

Will she even see it? Doubtful. But at the very least she will be made aware that the disapproving eyes of the world are on her.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

If she ever holds a town hall meeting, that would be a great time for a proper confrontation!

Joe King's avatar

Republicans don't do town halls anymore. That would mean hearing opposing views, and they can't have that. Case in point: the last town hall in TN-01 was where Kristi Burke got thrown out for asking Harshbarger if intersex people exist. Kristi Burke is now the Democratic nominee to take down Harshbarger, who is refusing to debate.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Wouldn't it be lovely if we could turn a Tennessee district blue!

Joe King's avatar

𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑢𝑝 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 “𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠” 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 “𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑎𝑥𝑝𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 [𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦] 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡.”

My guess is that the principal likely votes Republican and that Caiharr definitely pressured him to fire Williams. It is hard to say which statement pissed off Caiharr more: acknowledging the existence of trans people as people, or suggesting that private schools should stop taking funding from the very school she was visiting.

The lawsuit will be difficult to win without a lawyer. Does Ms Williams have a GoFundMe? I would donate to get her one.

Religion *is* Politics's avatar

If you’re not free to express your gender how you want to then you’re not free

Troublesh00ter's avatar

This whole incident has more problems than I could hope to count. First of all, Williams statement to Ms Caiharr was an expression of free speech, and if Caiharr had any integrity at all, she would have taken it for that value. Apparently, her choice was to get all butthurt about it, and her response was as juvenile as it was improper.

Here's hoping Williams' lawsuit is successful, and maybe just maybe Ms Caiharr can be bothered to learn a lesson from it, though personally, I wouldn't bet on it.

Joe King's avatar

Unfortunately, Caiharr can't be part of the lawsuit, even though the firing was almost certainly her doing.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

I would still call her as a material witness. She's a part of this whole magilla, and I think her input would be extremely enlightening, if not exactly complimentary to her!

Joe King's avatar

I would really like to see her squirm while being deposed.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Another situation where I would love to see her reaction to the words, "Ms Caiharr? 60 Minutes is here to see you!"

[I just hope 60 Minutes can keep their reputation up!]

Joe King's avatar

The lapdog running CBS needs to go first.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

True enough. Still, I doubt that Stahl, Whitaker and Wertheim will be willing to drop their standards in the slightest measure. They may school the newcomers a bit, too.

Old Man Shadow's avatar

Funny how it's never the "appropriate time" to call out the powerful for their abuse of the innocent.

OwossoHarpist's avatar

O/T: 25 years ago, I woke up in the morning right after 10am, turned on a local contemporary Christian radio station where Steven Curtis Chapman, the son of a popular Christian artists duo, Steve and Annie Chapman, was talking about adopting a young girl who was tragically killed in a SUV accident 5 years later, when suddenly the announcer was praying "God, please be with the people inside the second WTC tower building that was rammed through by a second air plane several minutes after the first plane crashed into the first tower." I instantly turned on the TV in my bedroom and there it was, the World Trade Center towers were on fire. I raced downstairs, told my late older brother about it. He said go and turn on the big TV set and I did. Me, my brothers, and my late mother all saw the towers fall on TV. One tower fell, the other did the same minutes afterwords. Just like everyone else, we thought the first crash was an accident. Then we saw the 2nd plane crashed into the second building and realized that we were under attacked by a mad terrorist by the name of Osama bin Laden who was killed 10 years later to avenge the deaths of nearly 3,000 victims of the 9/11 attack which he, himself, orchestrated.

That's where I was when the Twin Towers got hit.

I also remembered where I was when Michael Jackson died in 2009 years later, afterwords, which is at the now defunct Anthony's Dairy Delight ice cream shop enjoying lunch when one of the workers came from the kitchen and told everyone that Michael Jackson died. I left the shop and went to a now-defunct hamburger bar and saw on TV the news about Michael Jackson's sudden death from a major drug overdose administered to him by his personal doctor who killed him to steal his wealth. That overshadowed the death of another celebrity, Farret Fawcet, on that same day.

NOGODZ20's avatar

I was homeless the day the Towers got hit so I missed everything initially.

I cannot begin to imagine the horror of 9/11 for the people of NYC that day.

OwossoHarpist's avatar

Why were you homeless? Did your family kicked you out because of your atheism?

NOGODZ20's avatar

Nope. Fell on hard times when I lost my job (thanks, Bush).

Linda's avatar

The “Michael Jackson drug” (forget the name) he used to sleep each night is the same drug they use for endoscopies and I believe colonoscopies as well. Best damn rest I’ve ever had! Magical ✨

Tinker's avatar

I walked into the garage at school on 9/11 and they had a tv in the middle of the garage. I also watched the towers fall as we all sat in shock, realizing the world had just changed for all Americans.

Joe King's avatar

I was at my side job doing IT work for a small boutique travel booking company. The bar downstairs told us, and we went down to watch for a bit before I went home to jump on IRC (remember Internet relay chat?) to get as much info as quickly as possible before I had to go to my regular job.

Boreal's avatar

She needs a GoFundMe or similar to hire a good attorney and sue the district for a lot more money. Make it hurt.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Agreed. I'd gladly toss in a Jackson to support her cause.

Linda's avatar

I think cis-women who get off on hurting trans people (specifically trans women) might be the biggest morons alive. Internalized misogyny is one HELL of a drug. It must be miserable inside there.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

And an utter lack of empathy on the part of too many Republicans was tiresome 10 squares back.

Joe King's avatar

𝐴 𝑓𝑒𝑤 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑟, 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑀𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑒 “𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔” 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑡 “𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔” 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛.

I think we all know what the "correct" timing would have been to these MAGA sycophants.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

No such thing as "correct timing" to people like Caiharr. They don't deal well with opposing opinions or uncensored speech. I wish someone would sit them down and get them to understand that they don't get to pick and choose who they're represent.

I'm still not holding my breath.

Linda's avatar
2hEdited

Here’s my story for today: I moved to NYC in 2002 and the after effects of 9/11 were still everywhere and very present. The boards with missing loved ones still hanging on street corners. An unspoken sadness loomed in the air. Every time a plane flew above the city, massive crowds on busy streets just paused and looked up.

My very first job/project after graduating college was down by the WTC. I attended weekly meetings at Brookfield Properties which overlooked the massive hole and pile of debris. I just stared at it from the window for months which eventually became years. It slowly got smaller and smaller, but never really seemed to disappear.

I hope that in addition to mourning all the lives lost today, that people will also stop and reflect upon the death and destruction the USA has caused abroad. The imperial boomerang if you will. Be well ✨

OwossoHarpist's avatar

Best story of national hypocrisy right here: The nation mourn the the loss of nearly 3,000 lives to terrorist attacks while spending years engaging in terrorist attacks of its own. Case in point: The Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which killed over 100,000 people in 1945 and the Cambodian Genocide.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Is it just me, or does Caiharr look like she's doing an impression of Martin Short's Jackie Rogers Jr.?

Lewis Dalven's avatar

The article never rebuts the district’s accusations that Williams was warned repeatedly about her ‘disruptions’. If their allegations are completely baseless…no warnings were given and no disruption occurred…only words spoken with no threatening action…then district in responding to the suit must be submitting a perjurous affidavit. That’s a crime.

Joe King's avatar

Ms Williams described her actions that day. She was not disruptive. Regardless of any warnings given by the principal, she was well within her First Amendment rights to say what she said when and how she said it.