"One Voice, One Vote" - Something to inspire you

[Amaryllis]

One Voice, One Vote (An Ode to the Struggle)
By Pamela Haengel,President, Voting Integrity Alliance, Tampa Bay

May 06, 2006
We've already covered this.

Nearly a century now gone...

Since women stood with
Raw, aching knuckles

throbbing, swollen ankles
long sweltering days,

freezing cold and icy rain.
Speaking truth in embroidery

that fluttered on a bitter wind.
Suffering torture

at the hands of hypocrites,
Suffering ridicule

at the hands of men,
who preferred them

to just birth babies.
They risked it all and stood nonetheless.

We've already covered this.


Fifty years more
and here is Selma
and Rosa and Martin and

Oh!
How they walked

and walked and walked and walked.
Left those buses empty

and useless as a womb
that can only abort.

And they walked
their feet speaking truth

and made men of power
angry so angry,

as they turned
the other cheek

for another glancing blow.
But they risked it all and walked nonetheless.

We've already covered this.


Another half-century gone and here is Madness

come 'round again, this time
with invisible votes and slick machines,

a diabolical diamond
scintillating

with a million evil facets
designed to confound.

DREs and TSXs and VVPATs
(Oh my!)

Electronics and glitches
and interpreters and code

And a whole lotta
smokescreen

and dirty money
Oh God of Technology

and no one responsible
in this house of mirrors,

every finger pointing
in circles at another.

So continues this American Struggle

that is
the very heartbeat of our nation.

And so continues
the hope and the fight

and the labor pains
for the dream

that was.
And shall be again.

For we walk,
and stand,

and follow
in mighty footsteps.

One voice.
One vote.
We've already covered this.

--Pamela Haengel, May 6, 2006

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1263&Itemid=27

[mmarcus]

1. thanks

good post.