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Thank God for living in a small enough town where we can actually carry out a discussion of sorts in the letters to the editors section of the local paper. This is my response to a blast, in response to my last letter. The blast was entitled, "Rants from bitter liberal minority". (And letters can be long, I guess because there isn't that much else to do....)
Dear Editor:
First of all, thank you to xxxxxxx xxxx for writing in to express his opinion of my letter and others with views differing from his own. Because Mr. xxxx's own son is in the armed forces, his comments, although perhaps somewhat misinformed, at least are not hypocritical.
Unfortunately, I cannot say the same, with few exceptions, for the Republican leaders and party that Mr. xxxx faithfully supports. A few days ago after the official declaration that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, Mr. Bush remarked in an interview that he need make no apology to the American people for leading us to war in Iraq with false premises, because voters had shown overwhelming approval of his actions by reinstating him to office in this last election.
What I want to address here is not the brutality for oil and lucrative government contracts in Iraq, dignified with the title of "war," but the more fundamental questions of whether or not Bush even has a majority of support, and if he does, why aren't he and his cronies a bit more gracious about it? If their victory is truly the solid mandate they claim, why on earth are they so reluctant to address the merest of criticisms of the election? Why are Republicans refusing to honor or attend hearings such as those held by ranking House Judiciary Committee Minority Leader, Representative John Conyers? Why are legitimate claims of real voter disenfranchisement and suppression, such as those presented once again, as in 2000, by the Congressional Black Caucus, falling on deaf ears and being mocked and derided, indeed threatened into silence, by House and Senate Republicans?
Unfortunately, the issue is not whether or not Bush had a majority electing him to another blunderous term of office, but that at this point we simply do not know the true will of the American people because our election system is anything but transparent. Legitimate questions have arisen in this election as they did in 2000. Once again, the Congressional Black Caucus has been left to present the main challenge to the electoral votes because their constituents have suffered the brunt of tactics designed to keep their--reliably Democratic--votes from being cast and counted.
I grew up with a basic guideline of judging behavior and the character that motivates it, called "good sportsmanship." In this understanding, there are both sore losers and ungracious winners, what could be called "sore winners." I think we could all agree that bitterness is what is at the heart of both kinds of soreness. And what is bitterness except futile insistence, often not openly expressed, that somehow one does not deserve one's lot, whether it is a win or a loss? Where there is hope, there is not bitterness, and I think anyone who watches footage of the Congressional debates on the floors of the House and Senate on January 6, 2005, will see who is bitter and who has hope.
I offer to Mr. xxxx or anyone else in the community who would like to see for themselves this debate about the sanctity of our voting process, to point them to online videos or to a free, hardcopy DVD or video tape of the proceedings. I invite anyone to come to my home to see this memorable footage if you do not have access to a video or DVD player or computer. I was so astounded by what took place with this historic challenge against certifying the electoral votes, the likes of which have not been seen since the late 1800's, that I have sought out these recordings and I will make them available to anyone who is interested. Please email me at xxxxxx or call at xxx-xxxx and leave your information.
In these dramatic proceedings you will see the eloquent black Congresswoman from Texas, Sheila Jackson-Lee, wrap up her argument for investigation into the wide scale disenfranchisement of people of color in Ohio, as Republican House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert furiously pounds his gavel as her seconds run out. Her last remark, clearly discernable above Hastert's shocking rudeness, is "I came here as a slave and my vote will be counted!"
You may be moved to tears as you are reminded in passionate, dignified speeches of the long struggle for voting rights that many citizens in this country have endured, only to be betrayed in the 21st Century by one of their own race, Ohio campaign chairman of Bush/Cheney2004, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. Blackwell is hiding something and refuses to testify in Conyers' investigation. The 2004 election's Katherine Harris is Kenneth Blackwell, who sanctioned the withholding of 137 voting machines in a basement while people in black, Democratic precincts waited in the rain until 3:15 am to cast their votes; who at the last minute reordered precincts, confusing people as to where to go, and then threw out their provisional ballots when they couldn't cast a normal ballot in their own precinct; who broke the election laws in his state to obstruct an honest recount; who is running for governor of Ohio in 2006, and who like Florida's partisan Secretary of State and Bush/Cheney2000 campaign leader Katherine Harris, expects to be rewarded for his service to the campaign, rather than to the people of his state.
You may not be bitter, but outraged, astounded, and embarrassed as you watch Republican thug Tom DeLay, himself under threat of Grand Jury indictment, spew forth racist vitriol, calling those who legitimately challenge the vote, as the constitution requires when there is any doubt as to its legitimacy, "the X-Files Wing of the Democrat party", and then threatening the Democrats to shut up and not listen to their own who claim they have not been able to vote and have it counted.
As a Californian, you will be alternately disgusted and proud, the first as you watch Rep. Dreier from San Bernardino make the ridiculous, bitter assertion that anyone who questions the vote's legitimacy is on the side of terrorists; and then you can't help but feel pride, no matter what your political beliefs, as you witness the courage and integrity of the lone Senator who stood up against immense criticism and derision to let the challenges of the Congressional Black Caucus be heard, our very own Senator Barbara Boxer. Hers is the kind of character we need more of, from both parties.
Democracy should not be a partisan effort. As a case in point, I applaud the efforts of Washington state Secretary of State Sam Reed, who, despite tremendous pressure from his Republican colleagues around the country, was convinced that the election, after three hand recounts, was valid, and declared Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Christine Gregoire, the winner. Now the Republican challenger, Dino Rossi, fully supported by the party, is bitterly insisting the matter be taken to the courts, where he is demanding a statewide revote, at the cost of millions to taxpayers.
Democracy should not be a partisan effort, and fraud should be exposed at all levels, by both parties, even if aided and abetted by Democrats. In this regard, New Mexico's Secretary of State and Governor, both Democrats, are more interested, like Kenneth Blackwell, in hiding something than in finding the truth about the vote. Just as a proper, legal, statewide recount of the 2004 election was to begin, they suddenly slapped on an impossible fee of $2 per vote, over one million dollars total, due immediately, as a requirement to continue the recount, despite a previously agreed upon cost. They recently ordered the voting machines cleared of all evidence, even though the case for the recount is pending in court.
Like the Iraq war, as Mr. xxxx correctly stated, this matter crosses party lines. Both our Democratic and Republican leaders are responsible for the bloody quagmire in Iraq, as they are for the current state of an election which is suspected to be off by as much as three to five million votes, if the exit polls are to be believed. And despite inauguration eve posturing by exit poll conductor Mitofsky in defending the unprecedented discrepancy as "anything but fraud," such results are enough in the Ukraine and in other, more honest Democracies around the world to overthrow an election. Now there is talk of doing away with exit polls altogether in this country.
We the People don't have a lot of time to bicker and accuse each other of being bitter, and I sincerely apologize if I have offended any of (my town's) Republican community. I know that we all want what is best for our country. I am not yet bitter, nor am I about to renounce my citizenship, as Mr. xxxx would have me do, but I do have a desperate hope. In a country where everyone's money is accounted for down to the penny on a daily basis, it stands to reason that we should be able to just as accurately count votes to the satisfaction of all concerned. The sad and scary truth is, if we don't all wake up and get a reliable, utterly auditable and transparent, uniform, truly nonpartisan-overseen system of voting in place before the next elections, we are in deep trouble, and the reality of separate parties will come closer to being an artifact of history, like racial discrimination used to be.
XXXXXXXXX
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