I wrote the following for you my fellow citizens who are attending college, and are supporters of Senator Barack Obama. I want to you to think about it while you are waking up on Election Day and while you are standing in line to vote.
A Minute Of Your Time
By Terry Cardwell
On November 4th., 2008, Cpl. Leroy C. Howe is asking you for a minute of your time.
I first became aware of him as a 13 year old girl, the day my mother took me to visit his mother. When we walked in to the house, her sobbing was the first thing I heard, it still echoes in my soul. She was sitting at a table with a picture of her youngest son, propped in front of her. Leroy was such a handsome figure in his military uniform, his face is forever seared on my heart. She was blaming herself for signing the papers that let him join the service. He was only 17 when he begged her to let him go to fight for freedom, in a place called Vietnam, there was no stopping him. Reluctantly she let him go.
She was now facing the nightmare she had feared that day she had signed the permission slip, she was going to have to bury her baby. He had been killed while trying to save the life of a fellow soldier. His heroic action had earned him the Silver Star. And there was a write up in the local paper, in which the headline on the front page screamed, the total number of soldiers killed to that date was 10,000. Their names are etched on a black stone wall.
Leroy instilled in me something I have carried with me through the rest of my life. He had the courage to fight for us all, so we wouldn’t have to use a gun to change things. It was so ironic that he died before he could even vote at the age of 21. Therefore, when the 18 year olds won the right to vote, I honored his sacrifice by exercising it.
Over the course of my life, the amount of time I have spent voting will never add up to the loss of his. He should have turned 60 this year. This year the Leroys of all of our generations are asking you for a minute of your time. Please vote.
Now please take a second to pass this on to every college student you know.
Dear Barak & Joe,
Please take this pledge to stand for the voters and their votes you care about so much. Thanks for being leaders we can believe in and respect.
About StandingForVoters.orgStanding for Voters is a project of Velvet Revolution and the Velvet Revolution Election Protection Strike Force. VelvetRevolution.us ("VR") is a nonpartisan network of more than 120 organizations reaching millions of people demanding progressive change through our VR Electoral Reform, Media, and other campaigns. VR launched The Velvet Revolution Election Protection Strike Force in 2006 to address our deep concerns about the condition of the U.S. election system. Individual membership and organizational affiliation are free. Members and affiliates receive occasional emails from us about our action campaigns. Yourdonations are welcome and sustain our work. VR is a 501(c)(4) organization.Velvet Revolution is a term coined to describe the peaceful road to change in countries where governments ignored the inalienable rights of the people. A few inspiring Velvet Revolutions occurred in the former Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, and of course, most recently in the Ukraine. The citizens of those countries, tired of corruption and arrogant power, joined together by the millions in sustained campaigns of opposition - they demonstrated, boycotted, petitioned, and engaged in strikes until the pillars of power were replaced by the halls of the people. EndorsementsAfterDowningStreet.org Backbone Campaign Casa De Cultura, New Mexico Democrats.Com Election Defense Alliance Green Party of the United States Las Vegas Peace & Justice CenterNew Mexico Highlands University Students for PeaceNorthern New Mexico Hispano CoalitionProgressive Democrats of AmericaProtect California BallotsRe-Media Election Transparency Coalition
About PledgingWho Can Sign?Any candidate for public office, regardless of political party or nonpartisan status, in any jurisdiction in the United States. Incumbent candidates are welcome to sign the pledge.Why Sign the Pledge or Super Pledge?Recent events and changes to our election system have resulted in plummeting voter confidence. Around the nation, formerly enthusiastic supporters of local, state and national candidates have become disillusioned. As voters, we have reason to doubt that our candidates will take a stand to protect our votes and our democracy. Signing the Standing For Voters Pledge or Super Pledge is a clear way to tell voters that you care that all votes are counted, and counted accurately, and that you will do everything in your power to ensure that the elections are held to the highest standards. Show voters that you will champion the cause of democracy! Sign today!Candidates who sign the basic Pledge will:
Basic Pledge
I, _________________, pledge to use my candidacy, whenever feasible, to advance the preservation of democracy. I will officially challenge the results of the election as provided by law if the combination of election conditions, incident reports, and announced election results calls into question the reliability of the official vote count. Should another candidate be declared the winner in my race, I will wait until all valid votes are counted and all serious challenges resolved before conceding defeat.
Super Pledge
I, _________________, pledge to use my candidacy, whenever feasible, to advance the preservation of democracy. I will officially challenge the results of the election as provided by law if the combination of election conditions, incident reports and announced election results calls into question the reliability of the official vote count. I will wait until all valid votes are counted and all serious challenges resolved before declaring victory or conceding defeat. I will involve my campaign volunteers in actions to enhance the accuracy and verifiability of the election in which I am a candidate. I will speak out publicly during the pre-election period about the importance of fair, accurate and transparent elections and about this pledge. I will designate a liaison between my campaign and "Standing For Voters" so that "Standing For Voters" can alert me to any red flags they are aware of regarding my election.Fill in, print and sign the form you choose.Fax the form to Standing For Voters 888-812-5735.Alternately, you may scan your signed pledge form [go to their website] and email it. info@standingforvoters.org
With the exception of the note to Barak & Joe, all the above is from their website:
Copyright 2008 StandingForVoters.org. All Rights Reserved.
[reposting from an email I received]
HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET.....IF ....WE EVER KNEW......WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTEThis is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.
Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.
Lucy Burns)And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.Thus unfolded the'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
(Alice Paul)When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeksuntil word was smuggled out to the press.http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdfSo, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said.'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again..'HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.History is being made.
This Tuesday, dubbed "Super Tuesday" by political junkies and the media, is the biggest day of the 2008 presidential primary races for both parties.
Voters in your state and 23 others are expected to turn out in record numbers. We're doing our part to make sure voting rights are protected and the election is administered fairly. Please join us.
If you experience, see or hear about voting problems in your state, please call the toll-free, nonpartisan Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
That's the number. Easy to say, easy to remember. Please tell your friends and acquaintances about it. If you can, print out our flyer and post or distribute it. Fair elections depend on the vigilance of citizens like you.
http://media.pfaw.org/PDF/voteflyer.pdf
Every American citizen has the right to register, vote, and have that vote count. People For the American Way Foundation's nonpartisan Election Protection program is designed to help safeguard that right.
Help us ensure that everyone's right to vote is protected -- be our eyes and ears on the ground. If you feel your rights have been violated, or see something that you feel might be a violation of someone else's rights, please call Election Protection toll-free: 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683).
The Election Protection Hotline will be staffed by attorneys at several regional call centers around the country. We are working arduously to prevent problems in 2008 before they happen, meeting with county election officials around the country to assess how things are working in their jurisdictions, and to identify and try to correct the weak spots. Finding out about problems on Tuesday will be critical in determining what work needs to done to protect voters' rights in November.
Thank you for your help in spreading the word about 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
-- People For the American Way Foundation & The Democracy Campaign
