Letter to the Editor

  • October 19, 2011
  • 370
Letter to the Editor
                        
The Place of Lost Footsteps My father always said, mother, we must vote. It is the only right we have. This was in the 1930s in Chillicothe, Ohio. I was in a wheelchair and a leg brace. Mother would ask a neighbor to sit with me while they voted. Dad insisted. He was adamant, even with very little food in the house, that we had to spend the time to vote. We were poor, living in New York Railroad housing at the time. Dad brought home $17 dollars a month. We were rich compared to others. The people on our street voted. Voting has been played with by the political parties from day one of the Constitution. Voting has been possible if you owned property; slaves were property at that time. Voting was not allowed for women until 1921. Many states attempted to stop voting by using a literacy test. When they took the test, they were graded in private, so the people were allowed to vote or not by the whim of how the test was graded. In 1991, I was asked to speak at the Democratic National Convention regarding education. The room was jammed with convention delegates. They asked questions. Ted Kennedy was there. I know this because by accident, I placed my cane on his toe and he yelled. Later, I was asked to speak at a Republican convention. A few people listened. I came home saying, “Republicans think they know business and do not know people. Democrats think they know people and do not know business.” After attending two political caucus meetings, I came away with ‘one is owned by business and the other owned by people.’ Neither is 100 percent true, but both are near the truth. We have prospered and failed under both systems. Since around the 1870s, the Progressive Republican Party (I am not positive this is today’s Republican Party) and others in power have passed regulations to stop people from voting. Generally handicapped, people without transportation and other categories have been blocked by many different excuses. Democrats have attempted to make voting wide open to all. Voting regulations have been built to be so legal, people could not understand how to vote and also, to lose everybody who could vote. The real problem is people who have given up on life; the poor, the handicapped, the elderly do not vote. One party had made it easy for people to vote, yet people don‘t. I was told that in Wooster, only 20 percent voted last year. It is horrible that we have given up and not used our right to vote. It is the only way to let politicians know how you feel. Do not give up, please vote as you feel. If you cannot understand the legalese, ask your friends how to vote. The legal system can make yes a no or a no a yes. November is close and there are very important items on the ballot. I will vote no on Issue 2. This is my opinion. You need to vote your opinion, but the most important item in the politics is VOTE. Let the city, the county and the state hear what you think. Lets hope for over 50 percent this November. Let’s find the ‘lost footsteps’ in our voting system. Harry Featherstone Wooster


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