Reply #27: Open Letter To Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer

[dzika]

January 01, 2005


Open Letter To Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer


Dear Senator Clinton and Senator Schumer,

I am writing both of you to ask that you join with the Maxine Waters and John Conyers and the other Representatives who will object to the Electoral College votes of one or more states on January 6, 2005. By now, you have received Representative Conyers' letter, and numerous communications from American citizens, acquainting you with the alarming irregularities and violations that occurred in the 2004 presidential election. I won't rehearse the facts here.

Instead, I am going to make a moral appeal to you, based on the merits of my father, whose name was Paul Greenberg. Both my parents are New Yorkers, children or grandchildren of Jewish immigrants for whom New York City held all the promises of the great American democratic ideal. My father passed away in 1997. If he were still alive, he would be one of your constituents, and he for sure would be writing you this letter. I live in Boston now, but it is up to me to tell you his stake in your actions as Senators on January 6, 2005.

My father devoted his entire working life to the betterment of New York City and New York State. In the 40s and 50s he was an organizer for a number of unions and eventually Assistant President of the United Furniture Workers. In the mid to late 60s, he was Executive Director and Legislative Representative for the Liberal Party of New York. In 1967 he was Executive Staff for the New York State Constitutional Convention.

Perhaps one of his most notable contributions was to the New York City School Board election system. From 1969 to 1973 my father oversaw the change of the NYC School Board elections to a proportional representation system. He was Executive Director of the Proportional Representation Committee to change the electoral system. And in 1973 he was Director of Special Unit For School Board Elections to supervise the first election under the new system. My father did this enormous task because he believed it would lead to a more truly democratic process that would be more inclusive for the minority communities who are served by the New York City Schools.

My father's beliefs about democracy were deeply influenced by his work for a previous employer in the early 1960s. In 1962 and 1963, he was Special Assistant to the President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. My father worked for Dr. King in the New York City office of the SCLC, raising money and performing other administrative functions. He also worked in Birmingham in 1963, in the midst of the famously intense and dangerous struggles that went on in that year. Like many other participants in the Civil Rights Movement, my father worked incredibly hard, many times risking his life, because of his conviction that the values of American democracy should apply to all Americans.

Though your experiences have not been the same as my father's, I am certain that you share his conviction that American democracy ought to be a democracy for all. I am also certain that if you were to spend just thirty minutes getting acquainted with the known irregularities and violations in the 2004 Presidential election in Ohio, and with the sham recount that is now "complete," you would be persuaded that we have no way to tell what the result was in that state. If you spend more than thirty minutes, if you spend a fraction of the time citizens devoted to preserving American democracy have spent in the months surrounding the election, you will know that what is at stake is not the result of this election but the very life of our democracy.

My father devoted his life to strengthening American democracy. I think he died believing he had been to the mountain and seen the promised land where his children and grandchildren would reside. From where I stand today the mountain is very far. In just a few months we will celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Yet if my 23 month old son were to ask me today if I will get to the mountain and see what his grandfather saw, I think I would have to hang my head and say I just don't know.

I am doing my part, working with Coalition Against Election Fraud. And there are dozens of organizations and thousands of individuals who also want to make the journey. As United States Senators both of you have a unique opportunity, with your colleagues from the House of Representatives, to lead the way. Objecting to the Electoral College votes of Ohio, New Mexico and Florida may be a political risk. It is also your sacred duty. Our democracy hangs in the balance.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Greenberg
Coalition Against Election Fraud (http://caef.us)
No Stolen Democracy (http://nostolendemocracy.typepad.com)


Link:
http://nostolendemocracy.typepad.com/blog/2005/01/open_letter_to__1.html