April 13, 2005

Robert Koehler of Tribune Media Services writes : "The Silent Scream of Numbers"

Article by Robert C. Koehler of Tribune Media Services, "The Silent Scream of Numbers":

"As they slowly hack democracy to death, we’re as alone — we citizens — as we’ve ever been, protected only by the dust-covered cliches of the nation’s founding: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

"It’s time to blow off the dust and start paying the price.

"The media are not on our side. The politicians are not on our side. It’s just us, connecting the dots, fitting the fragments together, crunching the numbers, wanting to know why there were so many irregularities in the last election and why these glitches and dirty tricks and wacko numbers had not just an anti-Kerry but a racist tinge. This is not about partisan politics. It’s more like: “Oh no, this can’t be true.”

"I just got back from what was officially called the National Election Reform Conference, in Nashville, Tenn., an extraordinary pulling together of disparate voting-rights activists — 30 states were represented, 15 red and 15 blue — sponsored by a Nashville group called Gathering To Save Our Democracy. It had the feel of 1775: citizen patriots taking matters into their own hands to reclaim the republic. This was the level of its urgency.

Complete article

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