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Volume 7 Issue 43…Dedicated
to the Dialogue on Race…October 29, 2004
Intuit's Vibe
By Frederick Douglass (1857)
The whole history of progress of human
liberty
Shows that all concessions
Yet made to her august claims
Have been born of earnest struggle.
If there is no struggle, there is no
progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom,
And yet deprecate agitation,
Are men [and women] who want crops
Without plowing up the ground,
They want rain
Without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean
Without the awful roar of its waters.
This struggle may be a moral one;
Or it may be a physical one;
Or it may be both moral and physical;
But it must be a struggle.
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did, and it never will.
Find out just what any people
Will quietly submit to
And you have found the exact measure
Of injustice and wrong
Which will be imposed upon them,
And these will continue till they are
resisted.
The limits. . . are prescribed
By the endurance of those whom. . [are]
oppress[ed].
Men [and Women] may not get all they pay
for
in this world, but they pay for all they
get.
If we ever get free
from the oppressions and wrong heaped on
us,
we must pay for their removal.
We must do this by labor, by suffering, by
sacrifice,
and if needs be by our lives and the lives
of others.
Tips for Voters
For many US citizens, Election 2004 is more than a referendum on
the performance of the George W. Bush administration; it has become a
referendum on democracy. After the
Florida debacle and the Supreme Court decision in Bush v Gore (2000), many
questioned the legitimacy of a process that did not count their votes in
determining the outcome of the presidential election.
Thanks in large part to the Florida mess, voters are energized
this election. States are reporting large
early voter turnouts. As of Monday,
October 26, 2004, Tennessee had reported more than 793,000 early votes. All across the South, long lines of voters
to cast early ballots indicate an energized electorate that is sending a
message for change or more of the same.
Several organizations have published websites offering sound
voting advice. Since election laws vary
by state, there are links to state sites.
Be familiar with your state laws and know the location of your voting
precinct. Familiarize yourself with the
voting method to be used this election, whether manual or electronic.
If you recently registered, call your local election office to
make sure your name appears on the voter rolls. If it does not, prepare to cast a provisional ballot. Before you go to vote, be informed about the
candidates and issues. Vote early!
Avoid unnecessary hassles by taking appropriate identification to the polls
with you, although you can vote without it.
Remember to take along a voter buddy!
And, be prepared to wait!
In the event you are unable to vote early, ask your employer about
the company's Election Day leave policy.
Your state's election laws may require employers to provide amply time
to vote. Do not succumb to
intimidation. Exercise your
constitutional right to vote. If you
encounter any problems, call (866) OUR-VOTE, the Election Protection hotline.
Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson
One of the unsung heroines of the civil rights movement, Amelia
Platts Boynton Robinson was born in Georgia in 1911. From the1930s, she and her
late husband, S.W. Boynton, fought for voting rights and property ownership for
blacks living in rural Alabama. She
worked as a Home Demonstration Agent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and
he as County Agent. According to her
biography, Bridge Across Jordan (1991), her husband died young of a
heart attack induced by years of hard labor, harassment and discrimination.
In the 1960's, Mrs. Robinson's home and office became the planning
center of the Selma, Alabama civil rights struggles. Fed up with the injustice and inequality, many blacks joined the movement
to change a system as restrictive as South African apartheid. Typical of the southern United States, it
was unlawful for blacks in Selma to congregate in groups of more than four in public
places. Even though blacks were roughly
half of Selma's population, discrimination and intimidation prevented blacks
from registering to vote.
In the forefront of efforts to change this unjust situation, Mrs.
Robinson and other members of Selma planned a series of non-violent
demonstrations, which included a march from Selma to Montgomery, the capital of
Alabama. Weeks prior to the first
scheduled march, which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was supposed to have led,
but did not, state troopers shot and killed Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young man,
who tried to protect his mother during a civil rights demonstration. Galvanized by this senseless death, hundreds
of blacks joined the march from
Selma to
Montgomery.
On Sunday,
March 7, 1965, some 525 marchers left Browns Chapel Methodist Church and headed
east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. The
group made it as far as the Edmund Pettys Bridge before being stopped by state
troopers, vigilantes and local law enforcement officials. On orders of Alabama Gov. George Wallace and
to the cheers of white spectators, the marchers were gassed and beaten with
clubs and bullwhips.
When the smoke cleared, more than a dozen blacks were admitted to
the hospital for serious injuries, dozens of others received emergency care and
were released. News of "Bloody
Sunday" made the front pages of newspapers and magazines worldwide; many
included the photograph of a brutally beaten Amelia Boynton Robinson. She survived "Bloody Sunday" and
helped organize the subsequent successful marches. When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights
Act, Amelia Boynton Robinson attended the ceremony. Cognizant of the fact that the struggle for justice and equality
in the USA was far from over, Mrs. Robinson remained in the forefront of the
battle.
On July 21, 1990, she received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom
Medal in honor of her lifelong commitment to human and civil rights. Though age has curtailed some activities,
she continues to speak on the issues that have shaped her life. Today, she is a member of the board of the
Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change and Schiller Institute.
(Sources: www.schillerinstitute.org
and www.voterights.org)
Disgruntled says: During Election 2000, the Voter News Service (VNS), the exit
polling service created by the major news networks, first called Al Gore the
winner in Florida before giving the state's Electoral College votes to George
W. Bush. Now that VNS, the canary in
the mine during the last election, is dead, we may be unaware of some of the
shenanigans that will shape the outcome of this election. However, one thing is certain. For nearly four years, the Bush administration
has used an amalgam of cheap tricks to sell its policies and played on our
fears to make them palatable. Given the
closeness of this election and what we know about the master dirty trickster,
Karl Rove, some dirty tricks in the final days of the campaign are a given.
Disgruntled wants to know: According to press reports, televangelist Pat Robertson warned George
W. Bush about the casualties in any prospective war against Iraq. Robertson, who believes Bush will succeed
despite even colossal mistakes, is quoted as saying Bush told him "there
would be no casualties." Now, of
course, Bush spokespersons are calling Robertson a liar; the conversation never
transpired. Whether or not Bush made
this preposterous declaration is irrelevant.
What is important is the fact that he chose to go to war, while claiming
to be a devout Christian. People of
faith need to seriously examine the dichotomy between the love, peace and concern
for the old, young and infirm displayed by Jesus Christ and the pro-death
penalty and pro-war views espoused by George W. Bush. Would Jesus have expedited the executions of more than 150 people
and taken this nation to war on a dossier of lies?
Disgruntled feels:
Inspired! For the first three days of
early voting in DeKalb County, Georgia, the lines have been so long that I
turned around and went back home with definite plans to return another
day. Surprisingly, on Wednesday morning
at 7 AM, the line was wrapped around the building. Despite crass and cruel attempts to suppress the black voter
turnout, my people are "coming out of the woodwork" to exercise their
hard won constitutional right to vote.
Seeing all those black faces has been truly inspirational. I am so inspired that I am ready to join the
long lines.
By John Burl Smith
Watching the results of Election 2000, Dot and I felt pretty good
when a news commentator said Voter News Service (VNS) had declared Al Gore the
winner in Florida. Then, like a glitch
in a science fiction movie, the television screen flickered as the announcer
stopped in mid-sentence. Suddenly,
everything changed, only those watching saw this dramatic reversal of
fortune. It was as if some evil force
intervened and took control of the media.
Now, like life in an alternate universe, George W. Bush is president and
that VNS' projection is just a shattered dream.
Thinking back over that night, I am reminded of Jim Henson's
magnum opus "The Dark Crystal."
A fantasy about events that change the nature of life, "The Dark
Crystal" explores the impact on a society when the duality of one species
is separated into two distinct characters. The movie is set in a fantastic world a thousand years after the
Pure Crystal, which embodied good in the peaceful contemplative Mystics and
evil in the decadent villainous Skeksis, was shattered. Reassembled, the crystal is flawed because
it is missing a shard. Missing this
piece, the crystal turns dark and becomes the power behind the tyrannical
Skeksis' rule.
The approaching conjunction of the three suns is the fulfillment
of an ancient prophecy for the Gelfling, who are the only ones that "can replace the missing shard and
restore the Pure Crystal's power."
Hidden away and raised secretly by Mystics, after the Gelflings are
nearly wiped out by the Garthims, Skeksis' shock troops, Jen, one of the only
Gelflings left, sets out to fulfill his destiny.
Seen in today's terms, the missing shard from the shattered
crystal can be interpreted as the absence of freedom, justice and equality in
human society. The division and
distrust that emerged in the USA following Election 2000 is comparable to the
shattering of the Pure Crystal. The
patchwork political consensus that resulted shows the scars of the divisive 5-4
decision in Bush v Gore and cast serious doubt about democracy and freedom in
the USA. Stopping the counting of legal
votes to end the fight over Florida's Electoral College votes shattered the
claim that US leaders are democratically elected. Disenfranchising voters fractured the illusion that "the
people elect the president of the United States" and robbed the political
process of any sense of justice and equality.
Election 2000 split the nation like shattering a Pure
Crystal. Foreboding following 9-11
turned dark when supporting the president was made to embody good and
opposition the embodiment of evil. Election 2004 is like "the great
conjunction of the three suns" that brings us back to the glitch of
election night 2000. Votes are the
missing shard that gives us a chance to heal the nation's shattered electoral
process. Like Gelflings, this is our
time to heal this country. The dark
reality is, if we do not turn out big time on November 2 and vote for John
Kerry, the division George W. Bush caused in America and the world may continue
decades.
Viewing The Dark Crystal and taking one's children to the polls
when you vote are great family activities, because both afford great lessons
for young minds. If your children do
not understand the importance of Election 2004 and you want to share with them
the need for democratic principles like freedom, justice and equality, view "The
Dark Crystal" with them. With the movie
as a backdrop, parents can put Election 2004 in a context children can
comprehend.
The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is looking forward to
Election Day, even though he is not eligible to vote and we plan to vote
early. Like the thousands of young
people that participated in the Nickelodeon poll, he has remained abreast of
the issues and knows who he wants to win the November 2 election. Since Georgia has an electronic system that
we used in the last two elections, we have an established routine. Together, we examine and select our candidates,
and he pushes the buttons to make our selections. Without prompting, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro declared, "I
will do the voting!"
Soul Journey in October
Traditionally, the end of October is devoted to Halloween or
All-Hallow's Eve, a night for ghosts, vampires, goblins and other sinister
things. The eve of All Saints Day,
Halloween has become all about decadent adult costume parties and tricks and
treats for little kids pretending to be scary characters and/or super heroes
based on the latest cartoon or movie.
Even the most devout Christians carve spooky Jack-o-lanterns and
purchase candy treats for neighborhood children.
This year, rather than celebrate Halloween, do something
different. A treat for the entire family, Soul Journey: Where Will Your Soul
End Up? is a non-traditional expression of faith and praise to the Most
High. It is part of an ongoing effort
to expose the Christian community to spoken word. With its powerful message of faith and redemption, Soul Journey
connects and relates people of all ages one to another.
On October 29, 2004, Soul Journey will be performed at the Cole
Street Baptist Church, 159 Cole Street in Marietta, Georgia. The performance begins at 8:00 PM. For more information, email SoulJourney2004@aol.com or call
404-626-8139.
The Struggle Continues
By Dot
Imagine efforts to suppress voter turnout in this election cycle
and there is a state or two where it has been rumored to have happened or
reported in the news. In Las Vegas,
workers reported the intentional destruction of voter registration forms. The forms destroyed were primarily those of prospective
Democratic voters. College students in
Pennsylvania and Oregon had their voting registrations switched by Republican
operatives. Also, in Pennsylvania, a
hotly contested battleground state, workers on a voter registration drive were
given specific instructions to avoid adding anyone to the voter rolls who might
support the Democratic presidential nominee.
While the above are all reported efforts by Republican operatives
to suppress the vote, the GOP is not alone when it comes to voter registration
and voter turnout shenanigans. For
example, in Ohio, a crack addict hired to register voters sought to support his
habit by completing the voter registration forms using fictitious information,
such as pop singer Michael Jackson and the Disney character Mary Poppins. According to the press, he was paid in crack
for his erroneous registrations. New
Mexico's attorney general launched a voter fraud investigation in September when
county officials complained about thousands of questionable voter registration
forms. Other states have reported
similar efforts, presumably by Democrats, to increase the voter rolls and the
turnout in November.
BBC reporter Greg Palast, whose investigative journalism uncovered
the truth about Florida's pre-election purge of registered voters based on a
Texas felons' list, recently wrote that Florida has plans afoot to once again
intimidate black voters. Unlike Florida
and some fiercely contested battleground states with large black populations,
most areas do not anticipate problems beyond long lines, which means an
extended wait.
For the first time, international election monitors will observe
the US voting process. Voters are urged
to be on the lookout for and to report any unusual activities at their polling
locations. The right to vote is a right
that must be exercised and protected.
Black people in this country have shed so much blood and sacrificed too
many lives for this privilege to be deterred when so much is at stake. Be aware everywhere, especially in the
critical battleground states, that the struggle continues.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone
Calls
Email www.sojo.net As the
debate over the war on terrorism continues, 200 Christian theologians and
ethicists issued a new "Confession."
Because of a deep and growing concern about an emerging national
"theology of war," the increasingly frequent language of
"righteous empire," and official claims of "divine
appointment" for a nation in a "war" on terrorism, more than 200
seminary and college professors have signed
"Confessing Christ in a World of Violence."
Email www.orlandosentinel.com
Four years ago, the Orlando Sentinel
endorsed Republican George W. Bush for president based on our trust in him to
unite America. We expected him to forge
bipartisan solutions to problems while keeping this nation secure and fiscally
sound. This president has utterly
failed to fulfill our expectations. We
turn now to his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, with the belief that he
is more likely to meet the hopes we once held for Mr. Bush. Our choice was not dictated by partisanship.
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