Early voting starts Oct. 20, and because so many people are voting early, next week we are going to break with tradition and run our first round of endorsements, and then in the final week before the election we’ll run the rest.
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The Rhino Times Election 2016 Schmoozefest will be held on Thursday Oct. 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Suite 300 at 212 South Elm St., better known as the Kress Building. This new 10,000-square-foot special events center features a waterfall wall in the entry and a salt water aquarium. Since this is the last Schmoozefest before election, we expect a number of candidates to attend.
As always, hors d’ouevres, beer and wine are provided to those who sign in and wear a name tag.
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Last week I reported that City Councilmember Jamal Fox urged the people at the President Barack Obama rally for Hillary Clinton at the White Oak Amphitheatre “to vote early and often.” It was a funny line and people laughed and clapped. Since then, people have accused Fox of encouraging voter fraud.
Has it really gotten so bad that an elected official can’t make a joke in public?
People say things all the time for no other reason than to get other people to laugh. It’s a big part of human existence. I know that we are all supposed to be super politically correct these days, but if we don’t allow elected officials to make jokes, we’re all in trouble.
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I was asked by a couple of people about the security at the speech by President Obama in Greensboro, since I had written about the different ways the Clinton campaign and the Trump campaign treat reporters.
When you’re talking about the president of the United States, you reach a whole different level of security, but the media was handled by Clinton campaign staff, who kept strictly to their protocol. The Clinton campaign does not allow the media to mingle with the crowd. You are escorted to the media pen and not allowed to leave.
The Trump campaign has a much more lax attitude about the media. You are not escorted to the media pen and locked in. Reporters are free to wander around before the event and there is no one stopping you from hanging out with the crowd if you so desire. I did get sent back to the media pen at the Trump rally on Friday, but it was only because I was hanging out on the front row, which was a little too conspicuous.
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Speaking of security, I’ve been through security to see the president and a presidential candidate in the last couple of weeks, but it is only in going through security for a Greensboro City Council meeting that anyone looked through my wallet, and it’s a very small wallet just big enough to hold credit cards. I have no idea what the security guard at city hall was looking for in my wallet, but I’m thankful they didn’t strip search me.
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One other note about the Trump rally. After it was over, I was watching people stream out, and first I noticed a woman with her hands full of empty water bottles, and then I noticed more people carrying trash out of the White Oak Amphitheatre. Republicans, according to the mainstream media, hate the environment, but a whole bunch of them clearly don’t believe in littering. When most people had left and I made my way into the amphitheatre, I was impressed with how little trash the crowd had left behind.
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There have been some strange meetings this week. At the Greensboro Zoning Commission meeting on Monday, Oct. 17, Zoning Commissioner Janet Mazzurco voted against a request from the City of Greensboro to rezone City of Greensboro property. The motion passed 7 to 1, but usually, when the city requests that its own property be rezoned, it passes unanimously.
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If you didn’t get to walk in the JDRF Greensboro One Walk to fight type 1 diabetes on Oct. 8 – after all there was a hurricane that day – you can participate in the Winston-Salem walk on Saturday, Oct. 22 starting at 9 a.m. at the Wake Forest University’s BB&T Field at 499 Deacon Blvd. An extra perk is that Austin Basis, the star of CW’s Beauty and The Beast and the newly appointed JDRF celebrity ambassador will be joining the walk. For more information, visit jdrf.org.
