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Tag Archives: Voting Rights Act

Nationhood: Watching the United States

11 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

1964 Civil Rights Act, Great Society, Lyndon Baines Johnson, New Deal, President Obama, Republican, United States, Voting Rights Act

The White House

As you know, I watch the US.  Canadians share a long border with the United States and our economies are too closely linked for me not to put in a word or two regarding the forthcoming presidential election. 

What I have been hearing from members of the Republican party is alarming as it could further divide the country into two groups: the rich and the poor.  Allow me, therefore to take you back to the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), in office from 1963 to 1969.

The “Great Society”

President Johnson (LBJ) escalated the war in Vietnam, which was a huge mistake.  However, according to Wikipedia’s entry on Lyndon Baines Johnson, “he was responsible for designing the “Great Society” legislation that included laws that upheld civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental protection, aid to education, and his “War on Poverty.”  The “Great Society” was an expression of nationhood.

Top left: The Tennessee Valley Authority, part of the New Deal, being signed into law in 1933.
Top right: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was responsible for initiatives and programs collectively known as the New Deal.
Bottom: A public mural from one of the artists employed by the New Deal.

Civil Rights

Matters have improved.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed segregation and the Voting Rights Act 1965 made it clear that African-Americans could vote.  However, legislation does not necessarily reach the subconscious.  Discrimination has survived, particularly among members of the Republican Party.

For instance, voter suppression was/is discrimination against people of colour.  It is a recent event, carried out by members of the Republican party.  I hope it is over, but  given so objectionable a breach of both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, one has reason to suspect that, come November 4th, we could be witnesses to vigorous efforts to keep people of colour away from the voting polls.  Moreover, two attendees at the Republican Convention in Tampa, a recent event, threw nuts at a colored CNN camerawoman saying “This is how we feed the animals.” (The Huffington Post)

This, dear friends, is blatant racism.

Medicare

During the October 3rd Denver debate, Mr Romney said he would abolish so-called “Obamacare.”

Where health care is concerned, as you already know, the privatization scenario unfolds as follows. Individuals pay an enormous amount of money to a private company whose goal is profit, big profit, not to mention the huge bonus the CEO takes home at Christmas.

Now, as the narrative continues, having paid his or her premiums, an insured  individual is suddenly diagnosed with cancer and told that he or she is suffering from a pre-existing condition.  Cancer is not a pre-existing condition.  He or she is therefore denied benefits.  That individual will either lose everything in order to pay astronomical medical bills or he or she will simply die in pain.

Medicaid

The same applies to pharmaceutical companies.  They are businesses and therefore want to make a profit, a big profit.  Although one is told that the company has to pay for the research that led to the development of the medication one has to take, such as insulin for the diabetics, just how long does it take to pay for such research: thirty years?

It is altogether objectionable to deny a person the medication he or she needs.  For example, people suffering from diabetes need their insulin.  In fact, even if a person suffers from mere migraines, these can be the source of excruciating and ultimately debilitating pain.  Patients should therefore be provided with the necessary medication at a reasonable cost.

Privatization works for the rich only. They need not fear they will be denied benefits because their illness is considered  a pre-existing condition.  In fact, they do not even need health insurance as they can afford the appropriate treatment and medication.

Taxes

Everyone should pay their fair share of taxes, including and especially the rich.  Taxes provide the money the government requires to provide social programs, defend the nation, etc.  Allow me to quote jurist Oliver Wendel Holmes, Jr. (8 March 1841 – 6 March, 1935) whom I have quoted elsewhere: “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society” in Compañia General de Tabacos de Flipinas vs. Collector of Internal Revenue, 275 U.S. 87, 100 (1927). (Wikipedia)

Conclusion

Lyndon Baines Johnson’s “Great Society” may not be my best example of nationhood, but it is nationhood.  It may have been better for me to look further back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” enacted between 1933 and 1936.  But the New Deal was a beginning.  “Historians argue that Johnson’s presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism in the United States after the New Deal era.” (LBJ, Wikipedia).

However, there can be no doubt that electing into the office of President of the United States a person who does not think in terms of such a concept as the “Great Society” is extremely dangerous.  Seeking the presidency so the rich get tax cuts does not translate into a sense of nationhood.

This is where I stop.  Americans are the voters.  But I have written the few words I wanted to write and have expressed what I believe to be the truth.

© Micheline Walker
10 October 2012
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The Right to Vote: “It is wrong – deadly wrong… “

06 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

1964 Civil Rights Act, Abraham Lincoln, Florida, George W Bush, Jeb Bush, Republicans, United States, Voting Rights Act

The Creation of Adam, The Sistine Chapel, by Michelangelo
Michelangelo Buonarotti (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564)  Photo credit: Wikipedia

It is wrong – deadly wrong – to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.  (Lyndon Baines Johnson on the 1965 Voting Rights Act.) 

In a speech related to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, President (1963-1969) Lyndon Baines Johnson, LBJ, (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973) stated that:

“Rarely are we met with a challenge…. to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved Nation.  The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such as an issue…. the command of the Constitution is plain.  It is wrong – deadly wrong – to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.” LBJ on the 1965 Voting Rights Act

1)  Yet, after the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which followed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Democrats ceased to be elected into office in the southern states where there is a greater concentration of African Americans than in the northern states.  Since 1965, in these southern states, Republicans have been elected into office.

2)  Mr George Zimmerman, who stands accused of the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, has received donations that will give him a better chance of being found not guilty of the afore-mentioned crime.  Why was Troy Davis executed when all pointed to his innocence?

Related blog: Troy Davis: the Lex Talionis

3)  In 2000, Al Gore won the Presidential elections.

Let’s go back in time: “Shortly before 8 p.m. EST, all of the major television networks estimate that Gore has beaten Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the key state of Florida — but as the night goes on and results come in from the state’s Panhandle region, networks are forced to retract the estimate.” (CNN, December 13, 2000)

What happened is as follows.  When the time came to close the doors on voters, Jed Bush, then Governor of Florida, “worked to rule” and closed the doors to voting facilities even if many among one’s “fellow Americans,” in this case persons of colour, had yet to vote.  There was queue of persons still waiting to vote.  It appears that the Florida recount was not altogether the Florida recount.

There is the letter of the law, but then there is its spirit.  In a just society, the spirit overrides the letter.

4) And now I hear that a voter purge is presently taking place in the State of Florida, under the direction of Republican Governor Rick Scott which could eliminate persons of colour from the list of voters.  Consequently, I am inclined to take seriously the comments contained in the following video.  This is perturbing.

 
Ignudo, The Sistine Chapel (detail), Michelangelo
 
 
 
Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo 
This video cannot be embedded.  Please click on Sistine Chapel to view it.  It is beautiful.
 
© Micheline Walker
6 July 2012
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