Excerpts from the Boston Election Department's Election Office Training manual, which I'm glad to report is printed on both sides, thus conserving paper:
America is a nation of immigrants. The common bond we all share as Americans is that we all came from somewhere else. Our families may have come to this country five generations ago, or it may have been five years ago.When I was born in India, its citizens had already been exercising their right to vote for a few decades. So, it's interesting to discover that the Voting Rights Act in the US was passed only a little over four decades ago, and much later after India became independent and enshrined universal suffrage for the citizens in its Constitution.
The most precious freedom we hold, as Bostonians and as Americans, is our right to vote, free of interference, pressure, or obstacles. To ensure and protect this right, the United States has enacted several laws governing voters' rights.
The Voting Rights Act was passed by Congress in 1965, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the South. President Lyndon Johnson called for the passage of a strong federal voting rights law after police in Selma, Alabama used violence to disperse a peaceful march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The marchers were just beginning a 50-mile walk to the state capital to demand equal rights in voting. The brutality of the day's events shocked the country, and prompted the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
The Voting Rights Act protects all Americans against racial discrimination in voting. This law also protects the voting rights of persons with limited English skills. It stands for the principle that everyone's vote is equal, and that neither race nor language (emphasis mine) should shut any voter out of the political process.
Anyway, it's fascinating as well as somewhat sobering to read about the persevering struggles some US citizens went through to earn their - as well as others' - right to vote, a basic right that we take for granted today, to the extent that close to 45% of US citizens don't bother to exercise it. (Though that's not the only reason for low voter turnout.)
I can only imagine what it must have been like for those residents of Selma as they marched together hand-in-hand, and were met with billy clubs, tear gas and bull whips wielded by the state machinery. Before this act was passed, Southern states required a literacy test as a requirement for voter registration, but it was used to discriminate against, and disenfranchise African-American voters by not allowing literate blacks to vote, while not subjecting illiterate whites to the same criteria. It seems a bit surreal to me that this sordid and racist chapter in the US history happened 43 years ago and not much earlier. Many Indian freedom fighters who fought the British could easily relate to the experiences of those black residents in Selma, and the closest I can think of is the scene from Attenborough's film Gandhi where in an act of civil disobedience, freedom fighters marched up to a salt factory and were beaten by sticks. Each rank advanced and was felled, and as women volunteers took them away to administer first-aid, the next rank stepped forward to meet the same fate.
As the past two elections in the US have reminded us, every vote counts. Some people are putting an extra emphasis on the election this year (and I understand the historic nature of it), but in my opinion, all elections are important as we elect someone whose decisions have an impact on our lives for 4 years, and in some instances, long after she has left office.
I have signed up one more time to work at the polls on Tuesday. I can sense the excitement in the air, in passionate conversations among friends, in the blogsphere with increased number of published posts related to the US election, and a flurry of last-minute endorsements followed by inane analyses by so-called experts and "pundits." Let's see if Obama makes history on Tuesday, and if he does, it will be a tribute to the courage of those 600 men and women who dared to walk those 54 miles to Montgomery, 43 years ago.
If anyone thinks that the work is done, there are still challenges ahead, as the American democratic and electoral system has deteriorated (all that exporting of democracy and freedoms to other countries has resulted in some shortage back home), with the corrupt duopoly of Republicans & Democrats playing spoilers. But that's for another post another time. Meanwhile on a lighter note, here's a video from The Obama Girl and Ralph Nader Show. Enjoy!
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2 comments:
I can understand how unfathomable obvious and intentional racism may seem to someone who has only lived here maybe ten or twenty years.
But trust me... it still exists. I grew up in a climate thick with racism, and when I return home it is always a shock to me to see it in action... to hear people judge the intelligence of others based solely on outward appearances, to hear them say hateful things (under their breath nowadays), to watch the body language reflect what the mind is thinking....
And it is still harder for minorities to vote in America. Black men are 30% more likely to be incarcerated than white men, and once one has been convicted as a felon one completely loses the right to vote. The entire system is flawed.
Der, I agree. But that unfathomable feeling also implies that great strides have been made since the 60s. Obama's victory doesn't mean racism is over, and I am aware that racist attitudes still lurk under the surface, but for the most part, forward steps have been taken.
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