Most Americans think of voter suppression as something that happens in Third World countries or dictatorships, but now we are facing this issue here in America. Under the guise of voter fraud, which rarely, if ever happens, across the country state legislators to protect themselves from being ousted are passing all kinds of laws to restrict voting.
The new Georgia law, for example, will make it a crime to give a voter standing in line to vote a bottle of water. What kind of nonsense is that? The only way to beat this system of voter suppression is to organize voters to beat candidates on a local level.
But that may be a problem if gerrymandering is allowed to stand. This should not be an issue of partisanship, of Republican vs. Democrat. It should be one of equity because we are supposed to be a nation of freedom not one of fear like Belarus.
Prayer for the Day
Wanderers in the wilderness of our own making, we search for direction,
Bound to a past of our imagination, we seek a future we cannot see;
Aimless in a world that is always changing, we want a fixed point of certainty,
But You, O Unbinder of our preconceptions, push us into new worlds,
Where the quest finds more truth than the answers of other times,
And our actions are more important than our words,
As shown by the One who lived for others,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.
Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President (1908-1973)
Voting rights are the most basic tenet of our democracy, and the bare minimum one should expect from the government.
Stacy Abrams, voting rights activist
Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son.
May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice.
Psalm 72: 1-2