By John Burl Smith

Turnout 75 %: Voters in America are like the blind with obstacles blocking their path. Every time they get around one barrier, they are knocked off their feet by a low hanging sign, which says "WATCH YOUR STEP!" As if butterfly ballots and chads were not enough, an ominous sign of southern heritage thought buried long ago with pointed hoods and white sheets embossed with crosses rose from the grave in South Florida on November 22, 2000. Yesterday's forgotten horror of night riders and lawless white men terrorizing backwater towns descended on the Miami-Dade County Canvassing Board and blocked a Court ordered recount of ballots. Brazenly, they intimidated county officials and left citizens' hearts in their throats wondering what happened to security and local law enforcement. Witnessing the takeover of the Florida political process, CNN showed a disbelieving world the mob of Promise Keepers/NRA born again Christian white men terrorizing and intimidating government employees with impunity. Pounding on walls and shouting demands that halted the recounting of ballots, blacks voters saw fairness and equity trampled under foot by a partisan mob.

The scene is reminiscent of 1900 through the1930s, when Ida B. Wells documented thousands of lynchings. Then, their fathers lead lynch-mobs that surrounded jails and hanged black men without trial. Dragging them out, they burned them on pyres. White men collected body parts and took photographs as mementos. Lynchings were family affairs and the tradition was passed down like heirlooms. Public officials including sheriffs, mayors and governors lead lynch mobs to intimidate and prevent helpless blacks from participating in elections.

The American media is guilty of complicity and are downplaying the mob mentality George W. Bush, Jr. unleashed upon this nation. Portraying the threat to free elections represented by thousands of disenfranchised Florida voters, talking heads and pundits claim "Republicans are more passionate than Democrats." From their perspective, most whites prefer to live under a white tyrant than be free in a democracy with blacks.

Let us get real, if blacks had surrounded a government building, stormed through the hallways, pounded on doors and wall, shouted demands and threatened people, some would have died on the spot. Gov. Jeb Bush would have called out the National Guard. Jails and morgues would be overflowing with black bodies. Attacking Florida's judiciary, George W. Bush, Jr. showed unequivocally his disdain for black voters in Palm Beach County. Leading the attack, then turning the dogs loose to cow judicial authority brings back the old George C. Wallace states rights strategy of "nullification and interposition." Considering Bush's tactic, this is a situation one cannot let stand. Emblematic of impeachment, these people absolutely will not stop. They run everything. They do what they please. Who is going to stop them?

Seeing Premise Keepers/ NRA lay siege to Miami-Dade County showed the dawning of truly a dark day for democracy in America. George W. Bush, Jr.'s supporters have put America's judicial system on the scaffold. The mob in Florida should remind Americans of Germany's fateful moment in 1933 when Nazis attacked and burned the Reichstag to begin Adolf Hitler's reign of terror. Typifying Americans today, Hindenburg felt powerless to stop what he saw. He stood watching, as the fire of hatred and the thirst for power consumed a nation in love with a mad man!

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