Signs and Wonders 04.09

Money talks, and Coke walks. The American Legislative Exchange Council is a nationwide group that allows conservative lawmakers to share "best practices" from one state legislature with another. The group is best known for drafting model legislation that can be localized state by state. The ALEC has helped craft voter identification laws that are now in force in at least 31 states, laws that advocates say have reduced voter fraud, but that Democrats say reduce minority turnout (see WORLD's cover story in the current issue). When Democratic leaders threatened a boycott of the ALEC's corporate sponsors over the voter ID laws, Coca-Cola, Kraft, and Intuit withdrew their support of organization. Coke issued a statement that said, "The Coca-Cola Company has elected to discontinue its membership with the American Legislative Exchange Council. Our involvement with ALEC was focused on efforts to oppose discriminatory food and beverage taxes, not on issues that have no direct bearing on our business. We have a long-standing policy of only taking positions on issues that impact our company and industry." This is an odd claim from a company that earned a 100 percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign for supporting pro-homosexual causes and has a history of financial contributions to Planned Parenthood.

Pants on fire, or is that a skirt? One of my "dirty little secrets" is that I stay up way too late every night and watch Charlie Rose, which where I live comes on at midnight. Last week I was watching Rose interview House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who condemned the current House Republican leadership and said Congress had a 40 percent approval rating during her tenure as speaker. Well, that didn't sound right to me, and it apparently caught the attention of a lot of other people. The Washington Times was one of several organizations that fact-checked Pelosi. The Times' conclusion: "According to Gallup, congressional approval ranged from 13 to 39 percent and never reached 40 percent or higher during Pelosi's tenure as speaker of the House. The average over the course of her speakership was 24 percent approval."

Trayvon. I've so far refrained from writing anything about the Trayvon Martin case because, well, I'm no idiot. It's just about impossible to enter the conversation and not end up in a yelling match with someone on one side or the other. But it is for that very reason that I found a recent Rasmussen poll so interesting. Despite unrelenting, politicized, and polarized media coverage, most Americans have reserved judgment on whether Martin's shooting was murder or self-defense. About 33 percent of adults believe George Zimmerman should be found guilty of murder. About 15 percent think Zimmerman acted in self-defense. But 52 percent of Americans are not sure. We do not determine what is true or not true based on opinion polls, of course, but I think these numbers reflect a desire on the part of most Americans to let the legal process work. It's a lesson that media pundits and publicity seekers could stand to learn.

Gone but not forgotten. Dr. Leila Denmark, the world's oldest doctor, died April 1 in Athens, Ga., at age 114. She was the fourth oldest verified person in the world. I had the privilege of interviewing her several times early in my career as a journalist, when I edited a "lifestyle" magazine in the Atlanta area. That was nearly 25 years ago and she was 90 then-but sharp, quick-witted, and quotable. Every time I called she answered her own phone: no secretary, no assistant. She worked out of her home, and charged only $8 a visit for much of her career. As she neared retirement, at age 103, she raised her rate-to $10 a visit. Oh, and cash only. No insurance, no government co-pays, and no credit cards. She lived in Atlanta for much of her life and donated a day a week of her time to a downtown, faith-based health clinic run by a Presbyterian church. "Dr. Leila" herself, though, was a Methodist. And though she had outlived all of her peers, she still had plenty of admirers, many of whom discovered her as a result of her two popular books on parenting. Hundreds turned out for her funeral. In 2006, she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the secret to her long life: "You keep on doing what you do best as long as you can. I enjoyed every minute of it for more than 70 years. If I could live it over again, I'd do exactly the same thing and marry the same man." Her husband, John Denmark, died in 1990 at age 91.