VOTE: Democracy is in Peril

Today is election day. VOTE! Our democracy depends on your voice through the election process. Our country is in crisis and the outcome of this election will determine our future, as well as the world's. The Bush Republicans MUST be thrown out of power.

The above quilt is in the Quilts of Gee's Bend exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. It was made by Irene Williams in the 1960s and includes ribbons with the word "VOTE" that were distributed in Alabama to encourage blacks to overturn the apartheid regime that had kept them oppressed since the Civil War. The campaign, which involved thousands of civil rights workers from the north, some of whom were martyred, was successful.

Our government has been hijacked by militarists, religious fundamentalists and global corporate pirates. Innocents in wars around the world are being slaughtered with weapons made in America, the life support systems of the planet are dying because of corporate greed and government inaction, and precious human rights, and moral laws like habeus corpus, are being overturned and rolled back by militant right-wing Christians whose authoritarian agenda strays far from the gentle truths taught by Jesus.

The Republicans' "October Surprise" turned out to be not the invasion of Iran or the nuking of North Korea, but the conviction of Saddam Hussein for a 20-year-old crime, the undoubtedly horrible killing of innocent Kurds. But if the U.S. used military force to capture and try criminal heads of state, we would become bogged down in hundreds of such escapades, toppling the leaders we had previously held hands with before. Our foreign policy is, and perhaps always has been, hypocritical. Others might call it pragmatic. Except now. Saddam, like Tito before him, was able to create a viable state composed of bitter enemies. Without him (and Tito in the Balkans), the former citizens have turned into murderous antagonists. The Iraqis are well aware that life was better under Saddam's reign, however tyrannical he may have been. Remember that the Iraqi state was created by Europeans after World War One; it is not a natural entity. So now Saddam is going to the gallows. Would that George Bush might follow him for his own war crimes!

George Bush and the Republican Party is responsible for this disaster in Iraqi and in this country, and, although this isn't a presidential election, control of Congress hinges on the outcome at ballot boxes all across America. VOTE the bastards out!

Two current movies give dire warnings about out future if the Republican regime remains in power. "Jesus Camp," a true documentary about a Christian youth summer camp in North Dakota led by a minister with the fervor of a Mussolini, shows pre-teens being trained to become militant shock troops who will grow up to impose abortion laws and put prayer back in the schools through force. Be afraid, be very afraid. The other film, "Catch a Fire," shows what happened in apartheid South Africa when a white government used terrorism as an excuse for torture. If you think Guantanamo has no place for you, think again.

If we let democracy slip out of our hands by leaving control of Congress in the hands of Bush Republicans, God help us. As Thomas Jefferson said:

Every generation needs a new revolution.