Can't hold back any longer
I've been trying really hard over the past couple of weeks to limit my political posts but I have to get something off my chest. I've been reading about ACORN and voter fraud and every time I really start to think about the election, my eyes go glassy and I can't hold back the tears.
Call me Michelle, but I was really starting to feel proud of my country for the first time since I attained voting age. People from the left and right were starting to come together and realize that we're in trouble and that we need real change in our government and in our lives. Old school GOP standards were coming out of the woodwork to endorse Obama. They still are. But then things got uglier and uglier. Now some girl in Texas made up a story that she was beat up during a robbery because she's a McCain supporter, going so far as to carve a shallow B into her cheek, backwards. One of my friends reported that her truck was damaged because of her McCain sticker. People on YouTube have started setting up webcams on their Obama lawn signs because they keep getting stolen. First, a reporter was assaulted at a Palin rally held last Thursday at Elon College. Greenboro News & Record reporter Joe Killian was kicked to the ground by a Palin supporter as he was trying to interview protestors at the event who backed Barack Obama.
Guys, this isn't a sports rivalry. We're talking about deciding whose is going to be the leader of the free world.
Then there's voter fraud. The GOP is making lots of noise about ACORN and honestly, if you believe that they are committing voter fraud then you really don't understand the situation. Breaking it down in the simplest of terms, it goes like this:
Acorn hires people to register the poor to vote. People sometimes put phony names on the registration card. Acorn then sorts through the cards first and flags any card that is suspicious. So when they come across one that is for Mickey Mouse, they attach a piece of paper to it saying there might be an issue before it's submitted to the election card. Here's a very important part of the process--- THEY HAVE TO SUBMIT ALL THE CARDS. It is illegal for ACORN to throw away any registrations they deem suspicious. This still isn't election fraud. Until someone shows up on Election Day with an ID reading "Mickey Mouse" and tries to submit a vote, there is no fraud.
The real issue is that Republicans don't want everybody to exercise their Constitutional right to vote. It's how they got the Oval Office in 2000 and 2004. Throwing away ballots by declaring them invalid, purging voter rolls, limiting the number of polling places in poorer areas. All this is going on again. It's already started and it makes me cry because this kind of thing isn't supposed to happen in America. It just isn't.
Maybe it's naive but I want to believe the best of my country. I want to believe in the Constitution, in freedom, in the Statue of Liberty, the bald eagle and mom's apple pie. I want to believe that the United States is a place where Voting is the fundamental basis of our country-- by the people and for the people-- and stopping any American citizen from voting makes us no better than Cuba, Russia, North Korea or Iran.
We're so much better than that. I listened to some audio files yesterday of messages left on the answering machines at ACORN offices filled with racial slurs, threats and more forms of ugly speech than I care to write about. Who has time in their life to make these phone calls? What is wrong with these people? How do you reach a decision where you're on your drive home from work, have to stop at the grocery store to get frosting for the cupcakes you have to send to kindergarten and think, "Oh, I should call the ACORN office and threaten to kill them for ruining America!"
Folks, it's not ACORN and voter registration groups.
This is just rambling and I'm making myself all upset and the kids are running around like nuts, so I'm going to hit post and come back to edit later.
Call me Michelle, but I was really starting to feel proud of my country for the first time since I attained voting age. People from the left and right were starting to come together and realize that we're in trouble and that we need real change in our government and in our lives. Old school GOP standards were coming out of the woodwork to endorse Obama. They still are. But then things got uglier and uglier. Now some girl in Texas made up a story that she was beat up during a robbery because she's a McCain supporter, going so far as to carve a shallow B into her cheek, backwards. One of my friends reported that her truck was damaged because of her McCain sticker. People on YouTube have started setting up webcams on their Obama lawn signs because they keep getting stolen. First, a reporter was assaulted at a Palin rally held last Thursday at Elon College. Greenboro News & Record reporter Joe Killian was kicked to the ground by a Palin supporter as he was trying to interview protestors at the event who backed Barack Obama.
Guys, this isn't a sports rivalry. We're talking about deciding whose is going to be the leader of the free world.
Then there's voter fraud. The GOP is making lots of noise about ACORN and honestly, if you believe that they are committing voter fraud then you really don't understand the situation. Breaking it down in the simplest of terms, it goes like this:
Acorn hires people to register the poor to vote. People sometimes put phony names on the registration card. Acorn then sorts through the cards first and flags any card that is suspicious. So when they come across one that is for Mickey Mouse, they attach a piece of paper to it saying there might be an issue before it's submitted to the election card. Here's a very important part of the process--- THEY HAVE TO SUBMIT ALL THE CARDS. It is illegal for ACORN to throw away any registrations they deem suspicious. This still isn't election fraud. Until someone shows up on Election Day with an ID reading "Mickey Mouse" and tries to submit a vote, there is no fraud.
The real issue is that Republicans don't want everybody to exercise their Constitutional right to vote. It's how they got the Oval Office in 2000 and 2004. Throwing away ballots by declaring them invalid, purging voter rolls, limiting the number of polling places in poorer areas. All this is going on again. It's already started and it makes me cry because this kind of thing isn't supposed to happen in America. It just isn't.
Maybe it's naive but I want to believe the best of my country. I want to believe in the Constitution, in freedom, in the Statue of Liberty, the bald eagle and mom's apple pie. I want to believe that the United States is a place where Voting is the fundamental basis of our country-- by the people and for the people-- and stopping any American citizen from voting makes us no better than Cuba, Russia, North Korea or Iran.
We're so much better than that. I listened to some audio files yesterday of messages left on the answering machines at ACORN offices filled with racial slurs, threats and more forms of ugly speech than I care to write about. Who has time in their life to make these phone calls? What is wrong with these people? How do you reach a decision where you're on your drive home from work, have to stop at the grocery store to get frosting for the cupcakes you have to send to kindergarten and think, "Oh, I should call the ACORN office and threaten to kill them for ruining America!"
Folks, it's not ACORN and voter registration groups.
This is just rambling and I'm making myself all upset and the kids are running around like nuts, so I'm going to hit post and come back to edit later.