so can we really make a difference? Are we just all waking up to the reality of our government? Maybe the MSM has been aware all along and to burst our collective bubble would cause a national calamity as voters realize they've been wasting their time with their vote. I was looking up things from the 2000 election and came across this article about 2000 election probs in TN.
http://www.alternet.org/story/10589Does the following sound familiar?
"They will be sending representatives to Nashville soon in order to hold hearings about voter disenfranchisement there. So Tennessee may well end up being added to the national suit, and that would probably be the best shot at investigation. Certainly, the state attorney general has showed little interest to date. Yet nobody else has either -- not the press, not the legislature, not the governor, not the senators. I couldn't quite put my finger on why that bothered me so much. I tried to put it into words when I talked to Gloria Jean Sweetlove.
"Why is it," I asked, fumbling towards words to express the inexpressible, "that I don't see anything about this in the papers, or on TV? Why will nobody will touch this?"
She gave a long, long sigh. "I don't think you're old enough to remember. But in the fifties and early sixties," she said slowly, "nobody would touch it either."
It's obvious that the MSM selects our president by deliberately reporting only what favors their candidate of choice.
Maybe we as citizens are slowly waking up to the facts. We may not be able to put the real winner in WH this time either. That doesn't mean our efforts are fruitless. Maybe the larger goal is to get more and more people to wake up and insist on elections that are transparent and verifiable, with safeguards against fraud, vote manipulation, and voter suppression. Obviously severe penalties should be in place for all violaters. In the 2000 election alone, the number of discarded votes was equivalent to the population of Florida. We are expected to accept this loss to machine glitches, and supposed voter error. We in fact HAVE accepted it without a murmer.
It seems to me that we treat our voting rights and democracy much like friends, spouses, and families that are always there, that we take for granted. But like friends, spouses, and family can betray us, so can our system of government.
We, the American people, need to be reminded that "consent of the governed" is the cornerstone of our society. Of course I had to look it up:
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
consent of the governed
A condition urged by many as a requirement for legitimate government: that the authority of a government should depend on the consent of the people, as expressed by votes in elections. (See Declaration of Independence, democracy, and John Locke.)
"As expressed by votes in elections." Votes that are routinely suppressed through equipment allocation and voter intimidation, votes discarded due to "glitches," and votes that are assigned, reassigned, or eliminated through election fraud in tabulation. Deliberately confusing ballot designs and improperly maintained felons lists.last minute precinct changes, faulty instructions to voters, etc. etc. Violations are limited only by the imagination of those seeking to suppress votes.
The truth is that the average American doesn't care enough to change it. I can't tell you how many I've talked to who give me an impatient look saying the election is over. Are there enough like us who care? I'm really discouraged. How do you make people care about democracy?
I'm a German immigrant who still carries the scars from WWII. The German nationalism that permeated my home and the associated shame transformed into American patriotism in my heart. I wrote these words when I was young, and they still bring tears to my eyes:
Born in the midst of human suffering
With death more a friend than a foe
Born in the belly of maniacal concept
That rocked the world back on its Christian heels
To glare with anguished shock at its skeletal soul.
Born to be part of super race
While the dust of murdered millions
Hung heavily in the air
Waiting ...
To be part of my first breath.
So began I, in anomie
And my justification to be.
I want a better world for my children and grandchildren. How do you make people care?