Kerry Letter: Keep the Vote Alive

[smartvoter]

(also posted in GD and 2004 forums)

Dear,

How far would you go to protect the right to vote and ensure all Americans can exercise their rights freely in our democracy?

How far would you walk to strengthen our democracy and raise awareness about the importance of voting and voting rights?

On March 9, 1965 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led hundreds of brave Americans across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to claim their rights as Americans. 2 days earlier, marchers had been viciously beaten trying to cross the same bridge in what became known as "Bloody Sunday."

Five months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in America's history.

I am inviting you to actively mark the 40th anniversary of that event on August 6th in Atlanta by attending the Keep the Vote Alive march with Congressman John Lewis, one of the marchers on "Bloody Sunday."

Get complete details about the march

Organized by Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition, America's civil rights leaders, religious leaders, labor leaders and hundreds of thousands of concerned Americans will gather in Atlanta, Georgia for an historic march to celebrate what was achieved with that historic act and how far we must still go to Keep the Vote Alive in America.

With a current opening on the Supreme Court and the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act up soon, you and I both know many of the rights and freedoms we have fought for are in jeopardy. So, the gathering in Atlanta will be more than an act of celebration. It will be an expression of our passionate determination to protect one of our most fundamental freedoms -- the right to vote and to have our votes counted.

The gathering in Atlanta is to help Keep the Vote Alive! Join if you can. But if you can't attend, please donate to help us fill buses for your friends and neighbors to travel to Atlanta.

Help fill a bus with marchers

The march in Atlanta will let people know that America remembers the Florida recount in 2000 and the people who waited in line for hours to vote in Ohio last November. And, we know we must continue to press forward to protect our right to vote.

You can be a part of the Keep the Vote Alive march in one of two ways. First, attend if you can. The march will begin at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building, 75 Spring Street, in downtown Atlanta at 10:00 a.m. and proceed down Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive to Herndon Stadium on the Morris Brown College campus where the all-day rally will kick off at 11:00 a.m.

Get complete details about the march

Second, if you can't attend, help a friend and neighbor travel to Atlanta by donating now to help us fill Keep the Vote Alive buses.

Help fill a bus with marchers

Your generous donation today will help sponsor buses across the South to bring folks to the march who may not have a way to get there otherwise.

Either way, help Keep the Vote Alive!

Just as it was 40 years ago, America's freedom is on the line.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

[acmavm]

1. He's have gone a long way towards ensuring fair elections if he had

shown some spine and protested the last one, one in which he was one of the candidates.

[longship]

2. Hear! Hear!

Instead of closing down and caving he might have initiated this discussion in Nov 2004 while everybody was paying attention.

I'm wondering, what event has triggered his latter day conversion to electoral responsibility now?

I'll support him but I have a foul taste in my mouth about this.

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

3. "How far would you go

to protect the right to vote and ensure all Americans can exercise their rights freely in our democracy?"


I get it. It's a joke, because everyone here will say "Way farther than you, MoFo. And give me back my $100 you just had to have that last weekend before the election so you could pad your multi-miilion dollar campaign surplus and not use a cent of it to protect anyone's right to vote and have that vote actually counted."

That guy puts the "F Kerry" in John F Kerry.