Civil rights activist Desmond Meade — the face and driving force behind efforts to force Florida to restore voting rights to felons — has been named a 2021 MacArthur Fellow.
The honor from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago is awarded to “extraordinarily talented and creative individuals” throughout the country who show “promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments,” and who show the “potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.”
Each fellowship comes with a no-strings-attached $625,000 “genius grant.”
Meade, of Orlando, led a grassroots effort for many years that culminated in 2018 with the statewide passage of Amendment 4 to the Florida Constitution, restoring voting rights for as many as 1.4 million Florida felons such as himself, though his rights are still withheld.
Meade said the fellowships demonstrate the potential in anyone who might have been struggling at some time.
“I think this is an amazing opportunity for two types of folks, for folks to see people who may be going through things in life — whether it’s homelessness or addictions or incarceration — how, even though they may not see a light at the end of the tunnel, they know that they cannot only overcome these obstacles, but they can have an impact on their community,” Meade said.
He said he will use some of the prize money to pay off his law school loans but will be looking for ways to use it for his work helping other returning citizens.
Last year Meade won the Puffin Foundation’s Puffin Prize for Creative Citizenship, which comes with a $100,000 grant. He put most of that up as matching grants for the coalition’s “fines and fees” fund to pay court-ordered costs necessary for Florida’s felons to win back their voting rights. With that contribution, he said the coalition raised more than $200,000.
— SITUATIONAL AWARENESS —
—@SenRickScott: Gen. (Mark) Milley has the audacity to undermine the previous President to reporters & even adversaries, but now scrambles to cover for (Joe) Biden’s Afghanistan failure that stranded Americans & took the lives of 13 U.S. troops. I’ve been clear: Biden isn’t fit to lead as commander in chief.
—@DanCGoldberg: 70,000 Americans died from COVID during August/September after 18,000 died in June/July
—@SenSanders: Let’s be crystal clear. If the bipartisan infrastructure bill is passed on its own on Thursday, this will be in violation of an agreement that was reached within the Democratic Caucus in Congress.
—@MichaelPaulson: Paragraph I did not expect to read this morning: “Mr. (Donald) Trump’s handlers designated an unnamed White House official known as the ‘Music Man’ to play him his favorite show tunes, including ‘Memory’ from ‘Cats,’ to pull him from the brink of rage.”
—@ryangrim: On the Congressional Progressive Caucus conference call today, every member who spoke — roughly 2 dozen — said they were committed to opposing the bipartisan bill until reconciliation is ready, per a source. Not one member said they’d vote yes on Thursday.
—@JimRosicaFL: First, @JeffreyBrandes filed to rescind the designation of the mockingbird as the state bird. Now, @TinaPolsky has filed to go further and replace the mockingbird with the Florida scrub-jay.
—@fineout: “Is Australia freer than communist China right now? I don’t know” — @GovRonDeSantis
—@schindy: “It’s not often you sentence a killer cop and catch a cop killer on the same day,” one law enforcement official noted after the sentencing of former JSO Detective Billy Baer and the arrest of Patrick McDowell @FCN2go
Tweet, tweet:
A few reasons Rs won’t gain as many seats from redistricting as initial “sky is falling” predictions on left:
– Many states they control are existing GOP gerrymanders (TX, OH, etc.)
– Blue-trending suburbs constrain their ability to add more seats
– Dems can newly gerrymander NY— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) September 28, 2021
—@daithaigilbert: The Arizona Audit has become so corrupted by disinformation that Cyber Ninjas has had to come out with a statement claiming a “false report” being shared by prominent Trump supporters … is fake.
—@JeffWeinerOS: New: NPA candidate Jestine Iannotti was a mystery to voters in Senate District 9, even as an apparent vote-siphoning scheme promoted her. Turns out one local politician knows her: Ben Paris, Seminole’s GOP chair — who works for SD9 winner Jason Brodeur.
—@desmondmeade: This is one of those moments when all you can say is “But God!”
Republished with permission [/vc_message]
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