This is a plea to get out and vote in your local elections and here's why. First my confession - I haven't always participated in local politics, only occasionally voting in a town council or school board election.
But the case of Intelligent Design in Dover, PA has taught me a valuable lesson. What happens in local politics can affect all of us.
One of the key points mentioned in the Dover case lists Alan Bonsell as the driving force behind a plan to insert his religious creationist views into science class. Bonsell began the plan, Rothschild said, soon after being elected to the school board in 2001.
That's right it started with someone elected to a school board. Or a town council in my case. I was researching my local candidates and then I came across information about someone on my town council that insisted on a prayer decrying abortion instead of the suggested moment of silence for an opening prayer before the town council meeting. Thankfully, a bid to reinstate a prayer failed 4-3. I am not against religion but I think it is really not needed at a town council meeting.
"All politics is local," proclaimed Tip O'Neill when he was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He knew that national issues could be seen as abstract unless they were rooted in realities at the local level.
More importantly these local candidates could someday end up in Congress and that's the scariest thought. So Please check your local newspaper or your county democratic organization for information on the candidates you want to support and Vote on Tuesday because it can affect all of us.