"No" is a powerful word

Today was election day and around the country voters said a loud and ringing "No!" to a lot of pet Republican initiatives.

The vote which gives me personally the most satisfaction is the one in my birthplace of Mississippi which rejected the Republican proposition that a fertilized egg is a person deserving of all the rights and protections of personhood.  They had previously tried to sneak this abomination of a law by the voters of Colorado - twice! - and been rejected.  Now the voters of Mississippi have rejected them, too, and if they can't get approval for this idea in the ultra-conservative state of Mississippi, it is unlikely that they can get it passed anywhere.  That won't stop them from trying though.  They are already trying to get the initiative on the ballots in several states for next year.

In Ohio, the voters rejected the idea that public employees do not have any collective bargaining rights and they did so by a very unambiguous margin.  Good for the voters of Ohio!

And let us not forget Maine where the Republicans were trying to overturn four decades of voting practices by doing away with the right of citizens to register and vote on the same day.  The reason that they gave for doing this was to stop voter fraud, even though there was zero evidence of voter fraud in Maine.  The voters of Maine told the Republicans that they like being able to register and vote on the same day and so they will keep their voting laws just the way they have been.  Good for the voters of Maine!

Sometimes it seems that an epidemic of common sense sweeps across the nation and voters act more rationally than we've had any right to expect.  It's always a surprise when that happens.  A very happy surprise.  There's a lot to be happy about on this election day.  

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 13, 2011 at 10:16 AM

    I too felt a surge of hope upon hearing these results!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dorothy/The Nature of ThingsNovember 13, 2011 at 12:06 PM

    Let us hope that this epidemic of common sense can be sustained through the 2012 election, Anonymous.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no
Read more

The Investigator by John Sandford: A review

Image
  I have read a few of John Sandford's books in the Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport. This book is a literal offspring of that series. It's the first in a series featuring Davenport's adopted daughter Letty Davenport. Letty is in her mid-20s and a graduate of Stanford. She works for a U.S. senator named Christopher Colles in a desk job but she's bored with her assignments. Then the senator offers her a chance to go into the field as a liaison between his office and the Department of Homeland Security.  In her first assignment in that position, she is sent to Texas along with DHS investigator John Kaiser to try to find out what is happening in regard to thefts of crude oil. The senator is not so concerned about the lost oil but wants to know where the money from its sale is going. Who is selling the oil and what they are doing with the profits? The suspicion is that a particularly nasty militia group led by a woman is involved. Letty and Kaiser head out to Texas, de
Read more

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try.
Read more