Praise to the leaders of the Stone Center event
Published 14:19 Thursday, August 15, 2024
By Harold Brummett
Danish Star Route
I happened to come across several references to an event at the Stone Center and the topic interested me.
Project 2025, written by the Heritage Foundation, was in the news. Although we had not sought out the document, the plan was to have an open explanation and debate about what Project 2025 was all about.
The Lafayette County Democrats and the local NAACP hosted a Q&A panel on August 6th, and I decided to attend the program that was open to the public.
Ms. Reed moderated the event and kept the panelists and audience under strict but friendly control, keeping participants mostly on topic and on schedule. The panelists were Carol Livingston, JM Thomas, Heather Toney, and Andre DeBerry.
Carol Livingston, in my opinion, gave the most balanced overview of Project 2025. She knew her subject well, having read and analyzed the 900+ pages of the report. Ms. Livingston then distilled the 900-page tome into an abbreviated summary. It was a lot of work to wade through the information, and her effort was greatly appreciated.
JM Thomas wasn’t always on point, as he quoted a section of the 2025 report and then launched into a tirade about what the audience should think about the quote. Little balance and a bit of blood and bile were on display, at the end he punctuated the whole thing with a fist pump for emphasis.
Heather Toney was impressive as a former EPA official. She went over what the 2025 report said about the environment, and while I disagreed with most of her conclusions, it was refreshing to hear a well-thought-out, professional argument. Andre DeBerry gave the impression that he had not read the assignment. Mr. DeBerry spoke from what he knew, and that was the old, tried-and-true political talking points. He quoted several people from the past, from Thomas Jefferson to Frederick Douglas, and ended the last part of his talk with a raised fist.
I plan to read Ms. Livingston’s summary because a political read that is over 900 pages is simply not fun.
Separating fact from conjecture takes time. I suspect that one panelist’s statement that Highway 6 and all bridges would become privatized toll roads or that Veterans Affairs services would become even more difficult to access was an exaggeration. Overall, the meeting was interesting and educational and kudos to the organizers for pulling it off.
