Today is Monday, August 20, 2012. A beautiful day. Paul and I played golf this morning-it was best shot with a score of 41. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of lifting weights and 48 minutes of walking = 2.6 miles for an August total of 36.6 miles. Weight was 162.2 pounds.
I've been working on a letter to the editors of the Anamosa and Monticello papers. I'm going to type it here.
To the editor.
The 15th Amendment to the constitution reads as follows:
\Section 1. THE RIGHT OF CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES TO VOTE SHALL NOT BE DENIED OR ABRIDGED BY THE U.S. OR BY ANY STATE ON ACCOUNT OF RACE, COLOR, OR PREVIOUS CONDITION OF SERVITUDE. ("abridge" means "to make less or deprive")
It was the Republican Party that secured the adoption of this amendment in 1870. The purpose of this amendment was to insure that the freed slaves would be able to vote.
They did get to vote but only for six years. WHY? The election of 1876 changed everything. This election is the most ugly and controversial in our history. The Democrat, Samuel J. Tilden, got 250,000 more popular votes and 37 more electoral votes than the Republican, Rutherford B. Hayes, but did NOT become president. WHY? There was some hanky-panky done with the electoral vote to make it a tie at 184 each. A 15 member commission was appointed to select the winner and they chose Hayes 8-7. The Democrats felt they were robbed of the presidency but saw an opportunity to get something they wanted. The wanted the end of Reconstruction. The told the Republicans they wouldn't fight the commission's decision if the Union would withdraw its troops. So Hayes became President, the troops were removed and Reconstruction ended.
The result was that the South came under the control of the white-controlled Democratic Party. For the next 90 years the Democratic Party denied blacks the right to vote. They finally got the right to vote again when the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
What is the GOP doing in 2012? Around 30 states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures are passing "voter suppression laws." These laws are "abridging" the voting rights of nearly 20 million Americans. There 3 strategies are:
1. Passing voter ID laws. Around 20 million Americans do not have one. The majority of these citizens are black, seniors, disabled, and young.
2. Setting up barriers to register to vote A 91-year-old Floridian was notified by Floriday election officials he may not be legally registered even though he was born in Brooklyn, N.Y and had won the Silver Star in the Battle of the Bulge. He had to go to the Florida election officials and show them his Army Discharge papers to prove he was a U.S. citizen and legally registered.
3. Reducing early or absentee voting periods.
What is the goal of the GOP in 2012? It is simply to make it as difficult as possibe for many of the citizens who voted for Obama in 2008 to NOT BE ABLE TO VOTE FOR HIM in 2012.
In Pennsylvania a Republican member of the state legislature bragged that Pennsylvania's new ID law should enable Romney to win PA. What a great American he is!!!!! Republicans like Lincoln, Teddy
Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan would be appalled at the GOP of today.
Our democracy is about getting more people to vote-not less, I guess the GOP doesn't feel that way.It appears they will do anything to defeat Barack Obama. That includes ignoring the 15th Amendment to our constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I find it mind-boggling that the Party that gave blacks the right to vote in 1870, is trying to do the opposite in 2012. If I were a Republican I would be ashamed. What is our democracy coming to?????
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