What does the Democratic Party Stand For?

I just joined a democratic meet-up group not too long ago.  The first email I read that was sent out talked about the rise of property taxes and wanted to discuss why this was happening and how the cost of housing was rising beyond most of our means. 

As I re-read it several times to make sure it wasn't a republican group I joined I thought I would show up at the meeting with property tax information like where every cent of your property taxes go, and how property taxes are levied according to the value of property and how those property values are rising.  The county is transparent on this issue and with one call anyone can find out this information.

I decided not to waste my time going to the meeting. 

Then I started getting the emails that seemed to try to guilt trip me into going to a meeting and then yelling emails assuming that I was complacent and not interested in be active.

This how I spend my week, I go to a Muslim Civil rights organization and talk to Muslims who are under attack now more than ever.  I write a blog on political issues, go to Black Live Matters demonstrations, and other grass roots actions.

Today I am going to Olympia to protest the electoral college.  On January 21st I will go to the women's march here in Seattle.

My friends  say t that marching in the streets will  do nothing to change.  But what I say to them is that we need to change the narrative and let's face it the press is not reporting on our issues in a positive light because they get their sound bits from the republican types like right to lifers, white supremacist, and other FOX news types.  One action that inspired me was when the Democrats orchestrated a sit-in in congress  for gun control and the press actual reported on something other than the NRA point of view.

So when trying to organize and no one is showing up  consider your what your doing is not working and not blame the very people you hope to inspire to stand up and take action with you.

TO ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS

The true security risk today in protecting the United States is our inability to make reasonable decisions on policy issues without the mask of fear. We need to reason with a level mind and not give in to fear and gut responses. We need to stand up for our Muslim brothers and sisters who are in more grave turmoil than we are, not only in their home land but all over the world. In their home land Muslims face religious fanatics imposing strict laws and discriminating against other forms of Islam that are different. They are being forced from their homes; have no access to health care because more than half the hospitals have been destroyed; they are subjected to unthinkable atrocities by who ever the ruler of the week is.

They face discrimination and fear in the rest of the world as they are lumped in with these religious fanatics. Muslim student’s in this country are subject to bullying; Muslims are victims to hate crimes, and many attack innocent Muslims who have no connection to terrorist to avenge and take out their anger. We are seeing this on a grand scale in the presidential campaign with several presidential candidates fueling the average citizen and this os some subliminal level gives people permission to carry out hate crimes in the name of America.

Despite the lack of any concrete evidence, Japanese Americans were suspected of remaining loyal to their ancestral land because of the large Japanese presence on the west coast. In the event of the Japaneses invasion America Japanese were feared as a security risk. It is my hope that the Justice Department today in 2015 no matter who is Attorney General will maintain their commitment made October 19, 2011 to use criminal and civil rights laws to protect Muslim Americans and to continue their top priority in a return to robust civil rights enforcement and outreach in defending religious freedoms and other fundamental rights of all US citizens in the workplace, in the housing market, in our schools and in the voting booth.

At this time we are headed to a situation similar to that of the Japanese Americans interment camps. Did we not learn anything from this and what followed WWII. Were we not educated on the degradation Japanese internment camps did to respectable American citizens and their families. What are you going to do to stop fueling a similar movement against Muslims? I hope my fellow Americans and elected officials like you stand up against this.

I am asking you to look away from the bad advice and overcome popular opinion through education and information. In this time in the history of our nation we can not stand by and watch history repeat it’s self. I ask you not to succumb to fear and go against our values as a nation. Use your voice as an elected official, presidential candidate to stand up for the rights and safety of Muslim people living in the United States.

VOTE VOTE VOTE

I have voted in every election since Senator McGovern ran for President in 1972 because I believe voting is the foundation of our democracy. In 2008 I sat in an Africa bus station waiting for my ballot after a long struggle figuring out how to vote no matter what the obstacles were. I am still not sure my vote was counted but I got the outcome I wanted and witnessed Africa’s response to the historical event.

When I returned home from Africa in 2010 the voting landscape was changing, I read story after story on voting ID laws passing, followed by law suites going all the way to the US Supreme Court. In 2013 in the Shelby County vs Holder case the US Supreme Court struck down a key provision in the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Under this provision jurisdictions with a history of discrimination would have to get pre-approval from the Justice Department before changing any voting rules.

 Before this landmark decision 15 states were required to seek federal approval for any new voting rules. Mother Jones Magazine reported that 8 out of the 15 states passed or implemented new voting rules after this decision, Texas within two hours of the decision announced that the state’s voter identification law would immediately be implemented this law was previously blocked by a federal court under the provision that was struck down and soon after North Carolina pushed through a package of extreme voting restrictions.

The Brennan Center for Justice believes that the provision struck down prevented more than 700 voting changes between 1982 and 2006 because they were discriminatory. The Brennan Center for Justice says the biggest impact following the Shelby decision has been at the local level and sited two examples. One was in Jacksonville Florida where a voting poll was moved from a well-attended African American neighborhood to a new location across town that had no access to public transportation. In Galveston County Texas all black and Latino constable and justice positions were eliminated a move that was previously blocked under the key provision of the 1965 Voter Rights Act that was struck down.

The other side of the voter restriction advocates are those trying to find ways to bust voter turnout. An independent agency, The Government Accountability Office that prepares reports for members of Congress conducted a study to see the correlation between voter ID requirements and voter turnout. The study found that ID requirement laws impacted both young people and African-American voter turnout in Kansas and Tennessee after the voter ID laws took effect in 2012.

Voter Turnout is alarming even without voter ID laws as an obstacle. According to a Seattle Times article only 39% of registered voters voted in the 2015 General Election. When you consider a candidate can win with 51% of the votes cast that means 20% of registered voters elect a candidate. For me this raises the stakes in voting and voting becomes a responsibility. Washington State is not alone in low voter turnout.

Debates over election regulations and voter turnout are not new. They have been a staple of discussions about elections and the state of our democracy since the birth of the United States. This debate has been heated up since the US Supreme Court’s land mark case and is being played out in the current election. Presidential candidate Donald Trump accused voters in Pennsylvania of potential cheating in the coming election and called for law enforcement to be present at the polls. Hillary Clinton’s campaign implemented a voter registration program with the goal of registering 3 million new voters. In the court system the federal appeals courts have overthrown or modified voter ID laws in North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio, and South Dakota in the last couple of months.

This tug-a-war of regulating voting and encourage voter turnout will continue in this fashion just as the people in this country are polarized into conflicting philosophies on most of the major issues, and congress cannot build consensus and show strong leadership to unite us in common goals.

I believe Voting is a right and have learned that voting is a responsibility which gives individual’s a way of participating in our democracy. I ask you please vote no matter what your political leanings are and please encourage everyone you know to vote.