October 2019 Newsletter

Presidential Ponderings

Greetings and Welcome to what your Board feels will be another great season of informative speakers, and now, the addition of member to member discussions.  By way of introduction, your co-presidents are Tom Hamilton (a retired engineer) and Bob Marcotullio (a retired oral surgeon).
Your Board of Directors has been working over the summer on a number of items, but one we  want to draw your attention to is our totally revamped website.  If you have 5 minutes, please go to www.skidawayhamiltons.org and take a quick look at the pages (near the top).  We’ve added significant content on where to go to find important progressive topics, both locally and nationally.  Plus we’re adding new content all of the time trying to keep our member up to date, especially on items that may be below the usual news cycle.

This Fall will be a challenging one for our country and for the core beliefs that we hold dear as progressives.  We will be judged individually and as a group as to how we act, but also how we react to others that feel threatened by “the system”.  It’s difficult to remain calm and objective but let’s do the best we can and try to listen, and yet be persuasive in the “heat of the moment”.

One last note:  While you’re at our website, please take a minute to fill out the on-line member survey on the opening page.  Or, click here to go directly to it: https://skidawayhamiltons.org/2019-survey/.

We’re looking forward to seeing our progressive family at the next membership meeting October 15, 3:15pm .
Please bring a friend.

Upcoming Presentation on Affordable Housing

Date       Tuesday, October 15th at 3:15 pm
Place      Messiah Lutheran Church of Skidaway Island

The Skidaway Hamiltons’ speaker for the October 15, 2019 meeting (3:15 pm. Messiah Lutheran Church) will be Dr. Kenneth Zapp.  Dr. Zapp is Professor Emeritus, Metropolitan State University.  He will talk about affordable housing.

How is affordable housing defined?  How effective has Savannah been in providing affordable housing?  What are the problems?  What new initiatives are being discussed?  What are other cities doing?  How did the federal government contribute to the problem?  Can there be a solution without meaningful federal government involvement?

Recap of September Speaker Presentation

Bruce Mallard, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs at Savannah State University, spoke about the timely subject of gerrymandering.

He explained how gerrymandering significantly impacts the conduct of American Government.
Reviewed its history and how it has evolved.
Talked about the recent Supreme Court ruling on gerrymandering and how the 2020 census will impact the reapportionment of state legislatures and the U.S. House .

Dues

Our annual dues are $20 and will now cover September 2019 thru August 2020.
You can charge dues to your favorite credit card by clicking Here .
Bring a check or cash to our next meeting.
Make a check out to Skidaway Hamiltons and mail to 30 Delegal Rd, Savannah, Georgia, 31411.
Dues are not tax deductible.
$10 for guests.

The Abigails WAG group would like to invite the Hamiltons
to attend their 
October meeting:

On October 22nd at 7 p.m at the Messiah Lutheran Church, 1 West Ridge Rd, WAG* will welcome Chris Bruce, the Legislative Director of the ACLU of Georgia.
Chris will highlight the ACLU’s work on Voting, Reproductive and Immigrant Rights and tell us how we can most effectively advocate for progress on these issues.
Outside of Atlanta, Savannah is the area of Georgia where the ACLU is the most active and we look forward to hearing about opportunities for partnership.
This meeting is open to all Abigails and Hamiltons and their guests ($10 guest fee).  We hope you can join us to learn about the important work of the ACLU in preserving our fundamental freedoms and rights.

RSVP at skidawayabilgails.org

Hamiltons Board

Tom Hamilton – Co-President
Bob Marcotullio – Co-President
Marty Grossman – Treasurer
Rick Cunningham – Website Chair
Bruce Wallace – Secretary and Brews and Views Chair
Zeddie Bowen – Volunteer Opportunities Chair
Ron Krannich – Communication Chair
Jim Waterman – Program Chair
Ted Yachik  – Membership Chair
Robert Pawlicki – Past President