THE THIRD GATHERING TO SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY
SUNDAY, 01/02/05, 2:00-5:00 PM
BENTON CHAPEL, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
(northeast corner of the Vanderbilt campus, off 21st near the main Vanderbilt library, uphill from Starbuck's)
BE THERE!!!
OUR THIRD GATHERING
This Sunday, January 2, 2005, will mark the third Gathering To Save Our Democracy in Nashville. Our two previous gatherings, held on the steps of the Tennessee State Capital, have been well attended by people from throughout Tennessee and other states, and have generated some much-needed media coverage for the 2004 election fraud/theft issue. We want to continue to build momentum and support for free and fair elections here in Tennessee by scheduling this third Gathering To Save Our Democracy this coming Sunday (01/02/05). This third Gathering will help us garner more media attention and help us move forward to pursue remedies to the threats which our election process now faces.
We are honored and very appreciative that Vanderbilt University is allowing us to use Benton Chapel free of charge for this third Gathering. At the Gathering, we will have several speakers, including honored veterans of the 1960s Nashville civil rights movement including, among others: Rev. Sonnye Dixon, President of the Davidson County Chapter of NAACP, Amos Jones, former President of the Davidson County Chapter of NAACP, Michael Grant, a local Democratic activist who has had experience with voting machines and Jerry Maynard, Attorney, who is the former state minority outreach chair of the Kerry/Edwards campaign in Tennessee. These speakers can remind us what was necessaary to secure voting rights in the past, social scientists who can review the latest evidence for election fraud in Ohio and other states, and local and national elected officials and their representatives who will discuss the steps we must take to reverse this situation.
We will also have discussion groups which will focus on short-term and long-term strategies to overcome this 2004 election theft and to prevent it from happening again in the future. Finally, the Gathering will end when we send Tennesseans to Columbus, Ohio to participate in another large rally being held on Monday, January 3rd, organized by the Reverend Jesse Jackson to protest the Ohio election sham.
At the Gathering, we will distribute new summaries of election fraud information and, if possible, we will allow opportunities for anyone (and everyone) who wishes to speak to do so.
WHAT WE KNOW
By now, all of you are aware of the overwhelming evidence that the 2004 election was tampered with. As I write this message, plans are underway to recount the votes in at least a dozen states, most notably in Ohio. In December, the House Judiciary Committee, under the leadership of Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) has taken testimony on the evidence of the Ohio election theft and the multiple actions now underway in that state and other states to overcome the election fraud and theft. The testimony has been riveting and clearly indicates that our election process is no longer sacred, or safe. Attorneys for Senator John Kerry have filed petitions with the Ohio courts (see link below).
The evidence for this election theft is everywhere and is undeniable. Since 11/2, the Government Accountability Office has logged over 57,000 (and counting) reports of election irregularities and voting machine "glitches", 99.99% of which favored Bush. Numerous voters have reported that the electronic votes they cast for Kerry registered instead for Bush or another candidate. The total votes reported cast for President in many U.S. counties exceeded the total number of people who voted. (In Wyoming, with no important state races at stake, the total reported vote for President was 106% of the total registered voters there.)
The disconnect between the exit polls and the "reported" vote – a prime source of speculation that the Ukrainian vote had been tampered with (as well as the internationally recognized method used by former President Carter and others to determine whether an election is fair)– was so bad in our own country that statisticians have placed the odds that this disconnect occurred by chance in the millions (or even trillions) to one. Against those odds, a PowerBall ticket would be a safe investment.
In the face of this overwhelming evidence of U.S. election fraud, our "mainstream media" has been virtually silent and our (unelected) President's concerned comments about the Ukrainian election seem hollow, misdirected and distractingly self-serving. We sincerely hope that the American people will become aware and resolute enough to re-import a love of democracy -- and an understanding of the necessity of free and fair elections as democracy's foundation -- from the Ukrainian people, whose brave actions have placed a spotlight on our own inattention to the obvious election theft in our country. And while we're at it, we hope that we can also re-import from the Ukrainians the wisdom and the courage to change the things that now threaten democracy in the United States, while we still can.
The Ukrainians are not our only brave role models. In the past month, a Nashville soldier in Kuwait (Spc. Thomas Jerry Wilson) stood face-to-face with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and demanded to know why he and his fellow soldiers were being sent into battle in Iraq unequipped and unprotected from the dangers they faced there. That bravery should be honored by our own presence at the Third Gathering To Save Our Democracy on Sunday, January 2, 2005 from 2:00-5:00 p.m. at Benton Chapel on the campus of Vanderbilt University. We will gather to hear veterans of the Nashville civil rights movement, to review the most damning evidence for election fraud and theft and to discuss short-term and long-term strategies to insure that free and fair elections -- the foundation of any democracy -- be protected in this country. If a single Nashville soldier can speak truth to (illegitimate) power and be heard around the world, so can we. We can do this -- together.
SEE YOU ON SUNDAY, 01/02/05, 2:00-5:00 P.M.
BENTON CHAPEL, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
BE THERE
WHAT ELSE WE CAN DO NOW
1) If you have any questions about our third Gathering this Sunday (01/02/05), please email me (Bernie Ellis) back right away
( tracevu@bellsouth.net ) so that I can answer your questions. (If you can't be there but want to be put on our Gathering email list, please write me also.)
2) If you may be interested in going to Columbus, OH to participate in the rally there on Monday afternoon, 01/03/05, please call Alma Sanford at the Davidson County Democratic Party headquarters (615/251-8823) or email her ( almasanford@comcast.net ) right away. We did not get enough participants to justify renting a bus; however, several people will drive up and there is room in some of the cars if you can go. Here's a link with more information on the Ohio rally:
http://www.caseohio.org/CalendarEvents.htm3) Please continue to educate your friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers about election fraud/theft issues. To help, we will distribute two short documents (each of which will fit on the front and back of one page) at the Gathering for you to distribute. The first is entitled "20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the U.S." and the second is entitled "Things You Must Also Believe If You Believe That Bush Won The Election". These two sheets of paper will help educate many more people to the evidence for election fraud. If you can't make the Gathering but would like these handouts, please email Bernie Ellis at (tracevu@bellsouth.net) and he'll send them to you.
4) Please keep writing our U.S. Representatives and Senators to ask that they set aside the electoral votes when they meet on January 6, 2005, until a full inquiry is undertaken on the evidence for election fraud in Ohio and literally dozens of other states. We must have at least one Senator stand with the 14 Representatives (and counting) who have already committed to rejecting the electoral votes. I believe we need to write all our Representatives and Senators, and you can find their email addresses and phone numbers at the following link:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm 5) Finally, please keep reading and distributing the wealth of information that is now appearing (some of it – finally – in the mainstream media) about the election fraud/theft. The following articles have just appeared in the past few days – they are well worth reading.
-----
A comprehensive county-by-county review of Ohio election fraud/theft is published
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/12/20/215458/51Reverend Jesse Jackson wrote an inspiring letter:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x199115Kerry did file "two important motions to preserve and augment evidence of alleged election fraud"
http://rawstory.rawprint.com/1204/kerry_motion_ohio_recount_1227.phpGreen Party Presidential candidate David Cobb is considering a Federal Appeal in the New Mexico Recount
http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$30133
Znet Magazine thinks that we should "Do the right thing" and fight fraud
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=90&ItemID=6924 
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