Break the Cycle and VOTE this Mid-term Election!

 

Your Vote is Your Voice

 By: Mildred Robertson

September 9th marked the official beginning of the 2022 mid-term elections in the state of North Carolina. That was the date the state began to distribute absentee ballots to voters who requested them. While most mid-term elections have fewer voters than presidential elections, this year may break the mold as voters ponder issues such as voting rights, a woman’s right to choose, and an unbalanced Supreme Court. Many voters are aware that their vote this November may well have a lasting effect on both them and future generations.

Voters will have to balance tabletop issues such as the soaring cost of gas and food, as well as burdensome student debt that has blocked the upward mobility of many young Americans. Add to that the seemingly burgeoning border crisis and a radical right-wing political organization that threatens the violent overthrow of the government and you have a smorgasbord of issues that voters must wade through.  

All of these issues have energized voters on both sides of the political spectrum. Voter turnout in midterm elections has a tendency to fall in the range of 40% compared to the estimated 60% who vote during presidential elections. But it appears the 2022 midterm election is poised to break that trend due to a motivated electorate on both the left and the right who are anxious to cast their ballots in 2022, and possibly change the course of history. You must make sure that your voice is among those who make these critical decisions.

While it may be a daunting task for some voters to sort through all of these issues, and the various candidates who promote them now is the time to get informed. There are several steps you can take to make sure you are a knowledgeable voter who can cast your ballot based on your best interests and beliefs. 

You should first check to ensure that you are currently registered in the district and precinct in which you live. If you have moved, or have not voted recently, contact your board of elections to verify your status. In North Carolina simply go to https://vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup/. In other states, check with your local Board of Elections. Here in North Carolina, you can also learn everything you need to know about races on the ballot, voting dates, and deadlines, You can also learn steps you must take to vote by mail, early vote, or vote on Election Day. (Go to: https://www.ncsbe.gov/voting/upcoming-election). You will also be able to download a sample ballot to research the candidates and other issues on which you will be voting.

In North Carolina voters will decide on one U.S. Senate seat and 14 U.S. House seats, as well as several state offices such as the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. You also will be making a decision on local judges and prosecutors, sheriffs, and county commissioners.

Again, if you do not live in North Carolina, you can get this information from your local Board of Elections.

Our national discourse on all the ballot issues we face is both broad and heated. Many of us have taken the battle to social media. While debating on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram may be gratifying, it will change nothing. If you want to have an impact on the direction this country takes, YOU MUST VOTE in the November election. Your vote is your voice. Make sure it is heard!

Imperiled Freedom on the November Ballot

By Mildred Robertson

As we approach the midterm election on November 8, 2022, many Americans are not sure they will vote, some question whether their vote will count, and others are oblivious to the need to participate in the democratic process. But Americans need to mobilize to the polls because this election marks the possible demise of a nation governed for and by the people. Literally, democracy is at stake.

The battle for America to be a truly representative republic has encompassed this nation’s entire existence. We have always purported that we are a nation governed by the people for their collective benefit. However, America has taken two steps forward and one step back as it relates to universal voting rights. At this nation’s founding, white, landed men were the only ones granted the right to vote. The Founders left the decision about who among us would have the right to vote to the states, some of which even limited voting to landed Christian men. It was during the early part of the 19^th century when the right to vote was extended to all male American citizens.  

It was 1869 when African American men, most of whom were freedmen residing in the South, gained the right to vote. The 15^th Amendment prohibited the government from denying a citizen the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".  But following the Civil War, the South instituted draconian voting restrictions to discourage minorities from exercising their right to vote. Efforts to deny minorities access to the polls have persisted in various iterations since that time. While black and white women along with other minorities subsequently gained the right to vote over time, many states have worked diligently to limit voting access to communities of color.  The challenge to voting rights served as an impetus to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.

In response to that Movement, the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. The Act restored crucial protections against racial voter discrimination that included tactics such as intimidation, violence, poll taxes, and literacy, and other outlandish tests designed to discourage minority voting. While the Voting Rights Act was a critical bulwark against voter discrimination, over the years states across the nation have chipped away at the safeguards enshrined in that legislation. Many states continue to legislate voting rights practices similar to the post-Civil War era.

The late John Lewis took up the fight in his life-long battle to enfranchise all Americans; a fight which he championed until his death. His legacy legislation, The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Bill of 2021 (H.R. 4) is proposed legislation that would restore and strengthen parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, certain portions of which were struck down by two Supreme Court decisions; Shelby County v. Holder in 2013 and Abbott v. Perez in 2018.

According to congressional Democrats, Shelby County v. Holder gave states more leeway to pass even more restrictive voting laws, and the 2018 Abbott v. Perez decision opined that state legislators were entitled to a presumption of good faith when they drew maps that were clearly gerrymandered. Further in 2019 in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee Justice Samuel Alito laid out five “guideposts” to assess whether election laws were discriminatory under Section 2.  Voting rights advocates and election attorneys believe these “guideposts” would undercut future challenges to discriminatory voting laws.

Today, attacks on voting rights by states like Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and North Carolina have resulted in significant state and federal court challenges against alleged inadequate voting access for minority voters. In fall 2022 the U.S. Supreme Court will decide two crucial voting rights cases that have the potential to upend our country’s current election landscape, one out of Alabama and the other out of North Carolina. Both could drastically limit the ability to attack suppressive voting laws, overturn discriminatory maps and advocate for voters in court.  A packed right-leaning Supreme Court may be inclined to enter decisions that further erode voting rights. Therefore, the only safeguard against restrictions on our freedom to vote is to elect legislators who will support legislation like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

So it is a conundrum. Roadblocks to fair and free access to the ballot box exist throughout the nation. To safeguard the voting rights of Blacks and other minorities, it is necessary for those communities to vote en masse.  If minorities do not show up at the polls on November 8, 2022, we may well lose the opportunity to elect individuals who will support Voting Rights legislation.

Polls indicate that turnout for nonwhite voters is substantially lower than that of white voters. Even with a record voter turnout in 2020, only 58 percent of nonwhite voters participated compared to 71 percent of white voters. The failure of Blacks and other minorities to show up at the Polls on November 8, will have serious ramifications for us all. We must elect legislators who will represent our best interest rather than their own partisan self-interests. We must elect legislators who will enact fair voting rights laws like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

 Make plans to vote in the mid-term elections.  Literally, democracy is at stake. Your freedom is on the ballot.

 Vote November 8, 2022. (For information about early and absentee voting, contact your local Board of Elections.)

Republicans Oppose Funding of Low-Income Schools

By Mildred Robertson

America struggles to maintain its preeminence on the world stage.  Fueled by an educational system that purports to provide universal education to all of its citizens, it is stymied by the fact that many Americans are not ready for the challenge. This is due in part to the countless number of minority and low-income individuals who do not receive the same quality of education as their white and high-income counterparts. North Carolina is among the states that have struggled with this issue and has recently taken front and center stage as the N.C. Supreme Court faces off with the state legislature about its failure to budget court-ordered funding to bring equity to North Carolina classrooms.

In the 1994 landmark Leandro v. State of North Carolina case, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled both in 1997 and 2004 to affirm the fundamental right of every child to have access to a sound, basic education. It is the court’s position that the state has a constitutional obligation to ensure all children have access to well-trained teachers and principals and equitable access to sufficient resources. North Carolina, the court said, has not met its constitutional requirement to ensure that the state does not fall short of this obligation. 

The case has been heard on all three levels of North Carolina’s judicial system and is before the Supreme Court for the fourth time.  The issue is whether statewide violations of a student’s right to access a sound basic education exist and whether the courts can compel the state to transfer $785 million to state agencies to remedy any violation they may find. 

The Republican General Assembly has refused to legislate the necessary funding to implement the plan. Now the issue is whether the trial court judge has the right to order the Leandro Plan to be funded. If the Supreme Court finds the trial court judge didn’t have the authority to order the funding and implementation of the Leandro Plan, then the case is dead. 

While there are many nuances to this lawsuit, the basic issue is that many North Carolina students continue to suffer under an underfunded educational system that provides disparate education to citizens of the state based on race and income. The political machinations by the Republican legislature to continue to underfund low-wealth school boards and deny a sound basic education to minorities is the issue. 

It is not due to a lack of revenue that the legislature has failed to finance the implementation of the Leandro Plan. According to the U.S. News & World Report, the state has a $6.2 billion budget surplus. Revenue projections for the current fiscal year exceed previous projections by 15%. That’s an increase of $4.2 billion dollars.  So for what reason could the legislature balk at implementing the necessary funding? Surely it would have to be more than the mechanics of how the judiciary compelled them to meet their constitutional obligation to provide all North Carolinians with adequate funding for a sound basic education. If that were the case, they would fix the process and fund the plan. Instead, the Republican General Assembly argues that this decision represents a power grab by a Democratic court.  More honestly, however, they just don’t want to implement the plan.  It is a plan they have fought for close to thirty years. 

North Carolina citizens get the short end of the stick while the courts and the legislature go round-and-round regarding whether the courts can mandate necessary funding. Meanwhile, another class of North Carolina public school children return to school this fall to a substandard education system that is under-resourced and anything but sound.

 

DOJ Targets Trump: Without Fear or Favor

 By Mildred Robertson

The rule of law. That is the foundation of the American experiment. And today U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland reinforced that concept when he acknowledged that the Department of Justice had executed a search warrant on the property of the President of the United States at his Mar-A-Lago home in Florida.

Garland’s announcement should quiet the pundits and politicians who lamented the speed with which the DOJ has addressed this ex-president’s numerous misdeeds. It appears that the wheels of justice were quietly grinding behind the scene as the DOJ planned the search and seizure of classified documents Trump allegedly spirited off to Mar-A-Lago when he departed the White House.  This action comes after months of negotiations with Trump’s legal staff to retrieve the documents.

The DOJ questioned Trump staffers who were involved with the removal of documents to Mar-a-Lago or who were familiar with how documents were stored at his West Palm Beach residence in the spring of 2022. On June 8, 2022, DOJ and FBI officials arrived at the estate with a grand jury subpoena, where they found White House documents marked “top secret,” according to CNN. The Wall Street Journal reported that later that month the Trump Organization received and complied with a subpoena for surveillance footage from Mar-a-Logo. On August 5, 2022, a sealed search warrant for the former president’s home was issued by US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, and on August 8, 2022, plain-clothed FBI agents descended upon the residence where they executed a nine-hour search of the property that resulted in the confiscation of 15 boxes of White House documents.

Politicians and Trump supporters immediately raised an outcry, demanding that the DOJ comment on their search and seizure of boxes stored at Mar-a-Lago after Donald Trump announced the search and referred to it as a witch hunt. His protestations stirred his followers into a frenzy that included death threats toward various entities involved in the execution of the search. In fact, an armed suspect attempted to breach the FBI building in Cincinnati and was later killed in a stand-off with police. It is believed the individual was present at the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol.

In response to the outcry from Trump supporters, today the DOJ filed a motion to unseal the Trump Mar-a-Lago warrant and property receipt. Garland noted that he personally approved the decision to seek the search warrant and that, while the department did not comment on the search the day it occurred, Trump, himself confirmed the execution of the warrant. His decision to disclose details of the warrant was based upon the ex-president’s confirmation, and public interest in the search. Trump and his team have until Friday at 3 p.m. eastern time to oppose the release of the warrant and property receipt.

Trump is not new to judicial peril. The twice impeached ex-president is subject to a litany of state and federal offenses that would have landed the majority of American citizens in court, if not in jail. The outcry from his supporters is that the DOJ and other law enforcement are on a witch-hunt to destroy Trump, though evidence of his numerous misdeeds has been captured on newsreels and tweets as they occurred in real-time.

Trump’s penchant to break norms, a trait that endeared him to his followers, stretched the limits of presidential power to the breaking point. This erstwhile ex-president regularly skirted the edge of legality, and many times burst right through to fly in the face of the Constitution itself. He declared that he could “shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue” and get away with it. He then went on to govern as if that were a fact. And for the most part, he was given wide berth to do so. 

The citizens of this nation have agreed upon societal rules that govern how we interact with one another and determine the penalty for those who break them.  Our aspiration is that we all will be judged against that standard without regard to our status or wealth, color, or creed.  In the words of Merrick Garland, the DOJ is pursuing justice in this case “without fear or favor.” While we many times fall far short of this aspiration, it appears that Garland and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are striving to meet that goal as they pursue possible wrong-doing by the former U.S. President, Donald J. Trump.

ODE TO INSANITY

By: Mildred Robertson
 
Crazy, this world is so crazy
Crazy, this world is so crazy
 
Buffalo and Uvalde got the best of me
Shots fired, blood streaming, death is all I see
Shooting babies, stopping ages, slain indiscriminately
I can’t believe it but it looks like no one cares but me.
 
When they told me, bodies slaughtered and I turned around
Grandma dead, babies gone, then I hit the ground.
Seems the good guys with the guns were not that good at all,
They took their weapons and they held them safely in the hall.
 
Legislators, bad debaters sent up thoughts and prayers
They just talking, but not walking, they don’t even care
Their words say life, but seem the epitome of death
Now I see If this gets fixed, I fixed it for myself
 
Crazy, this world is so crazy
Crazy, this world is so crazy
 
Babies ten, life upended, right-wing’s choice to be offended.
Not her choice to procreate, But they don’t care, they legislate
Protect heartbeats is what they say, But not when snuffed in school hallways.
 
Family waits for mom at home, but this beloved just won’t come
She’s bleeding out on the doctor’s table, He’s got the tools, but he’s disabled
See politicians sent thoughts and prayers, they just talking…they don’t care
 
Crazy, this world is so crazy
Crazy, this world is so crazy
 
Created July 2022

Flawed Leaders Turn American Dream into a Nightmare

 By: Mildred Robertson

The streets of America run blood-red from the senseless slaughters occurring daily in the U.S. due to rampant, unchecked gun violence. Yet Congress continues to avoid its responsibility to institute sensible gun laws to ensure that citizens enjoy the promise of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness our constitution espouses.

What exactly do those words mean? The Founders seemed to believe that by a matter of birth, each of us is endowed with certain rights from the Creator; rights that the government is called to protect. We each are entitled to freedom under the law, as long as OUR freedom does not deny that same freedom to someone else. As the current U.S. Supreme Court looks backward to legislate on pressing issues of the day, they seem to have overlooked that simple fact.

 A religious scholar back in 1853 defined liberty as follows:

“True liberty consists in the security of persons and property, so that every man, while he respects the persons of others, and suffers them to enjoy in quietness the fruits of their industry, is certain that he himself will be permitted to enjoy the same blessings at the hands of his fellow-citizens… [T]o live in a state, where the laws are equal for all, where they are sure to be executed with moderation and fairness, is to be free. But that is a wretched servitude, call it by what name you will, — democracy or aristocracy, a republic or despotism – where the laws are partial, uncertain, fluctuating, and feebly and irregularly administered.” 

 

--Commentaries on the Laws of the Ancient Hebrews; E.C. Wines, 1853 edition, p. 364; published by George Putnam and Company.

Using that Rubicon, America is sorely off track regarding the protection of freedom for all its citizens. Today America suffers from “wretched servitude” to guns, racism, partisanship, religious intolerance, the thirst for power, and frankly, ignorance that denies many of us the liberty promised by our founding document. We are plagued by the rule of the few over the desires of the many. Our laws have become so convoluted as to somehow allow minority rule to overtake the entire system. This upside-down world has resulted in an erosion of individual freedom for people of color, women, and the average citizen. Today, we are not free to worship, shop, go to school, attend a concert or a club, or simply celebrate the 4^th of July without fear of being gun down by a Second Amendment advocate who is unhinged, hate-filled, or just wants to go down in infamy.   

Today our Democracy is a mirage…a dream. Whereas the Founders attempted to fashion a nation where each of us could expect to be treated with “moderation and fairness,” we find that Americans currently enjoy neither. Our laws are in fact, “partial, uncertain, fluctuating and feebly and irregularly administered.” From our local government to the highest court in the land, our freedoms are under attack. Whereas these entities were designed to ensure our freedom, they are slowly, methodically taking them away. We have not yet lost the idyllic promise of America, but we must awaken from the nightmare in order to stop the demise of freedom.

We have never fully realized the promise of equality, justice, and freedom the Constitution exemplified though we made some meaningful strides toward that dream.   Yet, in just one administration we almost lost it all. We must rise up and reclaim our promise. We must strive again to reach the potential the Founders held out for us. We must lay aside partisan bickering, and racial and class strife and seek a path where we all can prosper.

The majority of Americans want reasonable gun laws. Most of us support a woman’s right to choose. Collectively we want a police force that protects and serves, not one that kills and terrorizes. We want freedom of religion, but we do not want religion to rule our government. Most folks believe in the right to live alternative lifestyles, even if we don’t personally want to live that way. Your average American doesn’t believe that a civilian should have access to weapons of war. If we all stand together and say that, we could have the dream rather than the nightmare. However, in order for that to happen “most folks” are going to have to vote. We know that, historically, most folks don’t.

I implore each of you who have had sleepless nights over the senseless murders that plague our nation; who agonize over the 10-year-old rape victim forced to carry her rapist’s child; who is fuming over Supreme Court decisions or state gerrymandering, who is outraged by police brutality, JUST VOTE!

You personally cannot address these issues. But together, we can shout loud enough to wake America from its nightmare.

Your vote is your voice.

 Use It!