Voting Rights

I just voted for the SAG awards. I know, I know. Hardly earth shattering stuff. But every time I made a selection my mind kept racing to Georgia. By the time I finished picking the best and brightest in the entertainment industry I was fuming.

Okay, so I didn't see every show out there. Movies, sure. But there's a ton of tv to watch and I did my best. Still, my selections deserve every accolade they receive. But, that's for another time.

Here's the real issue. Everyone who has the right to vote should be able to vote. What's happening in intellectually strangled republican led legislatures is a crime against humanity. How can the native American population in rural Arizona be so marginalized and the law be considered anything less than racist? That's the mentality of a suffocating society.

We threw out the leader of all things divisive in the last presidential election but his residue is clinging to their own privilege like a drowning man to a plank of sinking ship. Because, make no mistake, that's exactly what their assault on voting rights is - a sinking ship.

When a ship sinks (say the Titanic) most people overlook the vortex of water sucked down with it. It takes everything close enough imperiling lives, material, supplies, everything. But, after a moment, it's gone. What's left on the surface is safe from the sturm und drang of another assault. I think the choice is clear.

Whatever the cost legislatures must be purged of Strom Thurmond's ghost and represent the will of their electorates, not themselves. It's simple and corny and altruistic, but it's also true. Voting against voting rights should put legislators in jail. It's not hidden. It's not clandestine. We see it and we must act against it.

When the greater good votes republicans lose. They know it. That's why reasonable people must support the minority liberals in those vacuous legislatures and root out the evil of the majority. Every voter voting will ensure every voter can vote.

I hope you'll watch the SAG awards on Sunday but the important work happens in the actual ballot box.