I wanted to share some thoughts on why I feel I MUST vote, and why all of America really needs to get with the program on why we ALL should vote, regardless of the obvious robbery in the past, and suspect news in the coming election.
Believe me, I have great distrust of these electronic voting machines. My first time voting was the year 2000...in California, but what happened in Florida left me feeling robbed of my first vote. All of us were robbed, by the Supreme Court. I understand state's rights, Florida's votes were what was not counted, but the election that year was national, and this is where the UNITED part of the United States of America comes in. Florida was robbed, and being united, we were ALL robbed, and how! Our treasure, our moral standing, our men and women in uniform...robbed in spirit, robbed in our treasury, robbed of our future and our future health with the environment. The levels of robbery know no bounds. Every election since has been a twist of the knife in my heart, astounded every time at the clear discrepancies, yet the evidences, being in a black box, like a ghost, are untraceable.
But regardless, I MUST vote, though I fear again it may not be counted properly, if at all.
Do you recognize this photo? It's the first picket line by women in front of the White House for the right of women to vote - IN A TIME OF WAR. These women (and I am a woman) seriously fought for my voice and my vote in this country. I don't know them, I have not met them, but they sweated, they suffered, they bled, they were spat on and they starved themselves for every woman to have a voice in this country. I've never been in jail, but these women took that risk and were tossed in the slammer like criminals for seeking to live the Constitution and the idea that all men (i.e. MANKIND - HUMANITY) are created equal, and that our voice counted.
Do you recognize this photo?
Of course you do...after beatings and arrests and marches and getting hosed on the streets and dogs snarling down on black American citizens, Martin Luther King Jr., a great leader in the rights of blacks to vote finally broke through to represent black America in this photo, and I am not black, but I am Latina, and I cannot - CANNOT fathom what it is to go through what my black brothers and sisters have gone through..and they are still going through it on a less violent scale today(although if they took to the streets again, God only knows..). Now snubbed, put on felons list that no one knows how to get off of for having similar names to others who truly are felons, intimidated, lied to, given fewer machines to stand in the rain for hours and wait to vote on, and now those rights to vote are on a shelf, waiting to expire and this Congress can't seem to do anything about it.
We know this photo don't we? It's the beginning, the American Revolution, the man dying in the arms of another, the fight for rights in this country to have freedom, a voice, a government for the people, by the people..something higher and nobler than being KING or EMPEROR, something of a higher calling and purpose that was almost divine.
I HAVE to vote. I MUST vote. I don't care if it's stolen. I don't care if it's stolen obviously before my face. People purer and braver than I seriously faced dangers few of us in this day and age have ever had to face. We fear things, habeas corpus gone, rendition a now common term in this country, torture and terror all a part of the daily dialogue in a way I simply never dreamed I would see in my lifetime. History must repeat itself, I guess. But let those who steal my vote - your vote- face their karma, let them reap what they sow. It's a law of nature. Justice WILL come, MUST come..and it always does, even if it takes far longer than any of us desire.
Steal the vote before my face, I WILL VOTE NO MATTER WHAT.
And if more people would get up out of their chair, away from their tv and computer for a few hours, to do what these people have done in the face of DEATH, in the face of ARREST, in the face of TORTURE, in the face of pure unadulterated INJUSTICE..so that WE could vote - this country would be revolutionized overnight. If only all America would do so, if only more than 50% would even get up to do what they have so long neglected, to the shame of the noble ones who suffered for YOU and ME, their future, their grandchildren and greatgrandchildren's future, maybe we could then make a difference and make this country again what it was intended to be.
I MUST vote to honor these Americans in times past, who suffered and died for ME and for YOU and I hope you all will sense that duty more than ever, regardless of what anyone believes about Diebold and ES&S, etc. Their due will come. But WE MUST VOTE.
Thanks for the time, and Godspeed, fellow Americans, on what is our duty to do.