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Friday, August 27, 2004 |
FEATURED ARTICLES
- Don't Let This Election Be A Nailbiter, 1000Flowers.org
- Report from a Swing State, by Roslyn and Bruce Moore
- The Long Shadow of Jim Crow: Voter Intimidation and Suppression in America Today,
A Report by PFAW Foundation and NAACP
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"We have defeated Jim Crow, but now we have to deal with his son, James Crow Jr., esquire."
- - Al Sharpton
KNOW YOUR HISTORY - August 27th
1992 -- Guatemala: Catholic church apologizes to Indians for the Spanish conquest. Rush to judgment.
1998 -- Pacifist David Dellinger, aged 83, arrested while demonstrating at a nuclear reactor.
1999 -- Brazil: Dom Helder Camara, 90, dies, Rio de Janeiro. Archbishop whose campaigns against human-rights abuses won him four nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, but he could never match up to the likes of that other nominee, Henry Kissinger.
RHINO HERE:
Today I offer info on 3 important efforts that any "ordinary" US citizen can join to effect the upcoming U.S. election. The 1st is called, "1000 Flowers," taking place in beauty salons across the nation; ordinary citizens encouraging unregistered women to register, vote & to make their voices heard in November's elections and beyond. Watch out for a 1000 Flowers story on CBS TV News this weekend including an interview with the Rhino's Mom, Sherlee Rhine, of 77 Maiden Lane Salon in San Francisco. http://www.77maidenlane.com
Don't Let This Election Be A Nailbiter
1000 Flowers is a group of ordinary citizens who have come together to get more from our democracy. We're launching a non-partisan "Nail the Election" campaign to encourage unregistered women to register to vote and to make their voices heard in November's elections and beyond. http://www.1000flowers.org
We're producing "Beauty Kits" -- with counter displays, voter registration materials, and nail files with fun, encouraging slogans -- for distribution to nail and beauty salons across the country through our Adopt-a-Salon program. http://www.1000flowers.org/adoptasalon.html
On this site you can learn more about the women's voting registration issue and how you can help. And if you're not currently registered, or if you need to change your registration, we can take care of that right here. http://www.1000flowers.org/register.html
Help us spread the word and register women to vote. For a modest donation, we'll send you nail files, postcards and/or beauty kits. http://www.1000flowers.org/donate.html
The second effort you & your fellow citizens can join to effect the election is what Rhino calls a "Democratic Call To Arms" put out by some long time friends of mine who live along the Northern Coast of California. Bruce & Roslyn Moore have been traveling to their nearest "swing state," Nevada, & by setting up a table at strategic locations, they've been able to register nearly 100 new voters a day. To understand how effective, spending a few afternoons behind a table, registering voters in a swing state is, read their report.
How 'bout California adopts Nevada (with Nor Cal taking Reno & SoCal taking on Vegas). Say you don't like the desert? there's always Oregon & Nevada. For those living in swing states, you don't have to travel as far to make the effort. Now is the time. A few hundred votes have made the difference. They can again.
Report from a Swing State
by Roslyn and Bruce Moore, Mendocino, California, 8/24/04
About Nevada:
Nevada has 5 electoral votes, the same number of votes as the 2000 election was lost by. Traditionally Republican, it went for Bush in 2000 by 21,000 votes. In 2002 Harry Reid, a Democrat, was elected to the Senate by a margin of 350 votes. Last week, for the first time in its history, there were more registered Democrats than Republicans in Nevada. Bush, Cheney, and Kerry have all been to the state recently, with Kerry currently planning a trip to Reno. Voter registration ends on Oct. 2nd. Reno is the shortest distance from the Mendocino coast to a metropolitan area in a swing state. Historically it has a low voter turn-out with a large untapped working poor population.
Our experience:
We'd been on a vacation in Lake Tahoe when we showed up at the Reno Democratic office to see if there was anything we could do to help. We found the office to be a dynamic hub with lots of real things to do, both in the field and at the office. The staff was upbeat and flexible and definitely needed help. We chose to spend most of our time talking to hundreds of people at the downtown municipal bus plaza where we registered 86 people, mostly Democrats. Nothing is more refreshing than registering a Democrat who emphatically tells you that he hasn't voted for over thirty years but "Bush has got to go!" We had such a good time and felt our time was so well spent that we returned to Reno for three more days the following week. This time we registered about a hundred voters working at the bus station and at a a gay pride event. We plan to go again and we encourage anyone who has the opportunity to go to a swing state to go. In Reno there are specific door-to-door canvassing days scheduled and they can use registrars everywhere from the housing projects (being arranged) to the State Fair. Please call David, the volunteer coordinator, if you plan to show up. He can also suggest free and inexpensive housing.
And, if you want to contribute money to a place where it will make an immediate and significant difference in this presidential campaign, you can send it to the northern field office of the Nevada State Democratic Party. These people are working very hard for us and your support would help a lot. Contact them at:
Reno volunteer coordinator, David Reckess, 775-829-1699
Northern Nevada Field Director, Shannon Raborn, 775-829-1699
Or feel free to call us. Roslyn and Bruce Moore, 707-964-2630
See The Swing State Project's Map of The Swing States
AT: http://www.swingstateproject.com/2003/10/methodology_map.html
Finally, the following is an excerpt form a recent MoveOn email urging our attention & just a bit of time to speak out against the suppression of black & minority voters in the U.S. Rhino urges you to sign MoveOn's letter & then read today's Rhino's Bottom Line, an illuminating report by the People for the American Way Foundation and the NAACP entitled, "The Long Shadow of Jim Crow."
President Bush and RNC: Disavow Voter Suppression
Last month John Pappageorge, a Republican state representative in Michigan, told a journalist that the Republicans would do poorly if they failed to "suppress the Detroit vote." Detroit, of course, is 83% black. Democratic officials expressed their outrage, and Pappageorge eventually apologized for his words, but his statement spoke to a bigger truth: Republicans continue to actively suppress black and minority votes in order to win elections through intimidation, misinformation, and tampering with voter rolls and records. In 2000, the black voters who were not allowed to vote would have almost certainly swung the election in Al Gore's favor. And the practice continues: a recent report from the NAACP and the People for the American Way Foundation documents suppression tactics in use right now. The Republican Party's continued silence is shameful. We're joining with Julian Bond, Chairman of the NAACP, Reverend Jesse Jackson, President of the Rainbow/Push Coalition, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. and others to demand that the Republican Party abandon these racist, unfair, and undemocratic tactics and condemn anyone in their ranks who uses them. Please join us by signing the petition.
AT: http://www.moveonpac.org/suppression/?id?15-1552367-gRpFEfSD2DJqhPbtpXb0jg
9:37:53 AM 
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"SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!"
The Long Shadow of Jim Crow: Voter Intimidation and Suppression in America Today
A Report by PFAW Foundation and NAACP
In a nation where children are taught in grade school that every citizen has the right to vote, it would be comforting to think that the last vestiges of voter intimidation, oppression and suppression were swept away by the passage and subsequent enforcement of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965. It would be good to know that voters are no longer turned away from the polls based on their race, never knowingly misdirected, misinformed, deceived or threatened. Unfortunately, it would be a grave mistake to believe it.
In every national American election since Reconstruction, every election since the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, voters - particularly African American voters and other minorities - have faced calculated and determined efforts at intimidation and suppression. The bloody days of violence and retribution following the Civil War and Reconstruction are gone. The poll taxes, literacy tests and physical violence of the Jim Crow era have disappeared. Today, more subtle, cynical and creative tactics have taken their place. Here are a few examples of recent incidents in which groups of voters have been singled out on the basis of race...
READ IT ALL AT: http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oId=16368
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Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law.
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All copyrights belong to original publisher.
8:04:07 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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