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Bad Times

By David Mark Greaves

Bad Times

There are two psychotic world leaders armed with nuclear weapons yelling at each other in evermore threatening rhetoric, such as attack by “fire and fury like the world has never seen before” is one such bellicose phrase. One of these is the president of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, from whom such words are not unusual and over the years have approached comedy, but coming from the mouth of the president of the United States, delivered with arms held tightly across his chest as though in a straightjacket, which unfortunately was not in use at the time, they are bone-chilling and enough to make the military, the Congress and the people hit pause for a moment and think.

The military has to look in the mirror and say they will not obey an unlawful order. The Congress has to confirm to the military and make public to the world that only they can authorize a war and any use of military force must be approved and nuclear weapons are off the table.   The Congress then has to admit that the world can’t wait until 2020 to remove this man from office.

There are 10 million people in Seoul, South Korea and another 160,000 in Guam whose fate are in the hands of someone under criminal investigation and who may place his own family, fortune and vanity above their lives. Fortunately, any military order has to go through the chain of command and would have to go through the Secretary of Defense. However, it does not help that his nickname is “Mad Dog”.

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The people have to continue to have their voices heard nationally and as the great abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass said, “Organize, organize, organize,” all to demanding the president’s removal.

Voting

This is a dangerous time for local candidates in the countywide civil court elections. A low voter turnout in our area makes it easy for candidates to garner votes across the borough and move our people out. This next election is particularly unsettled because of the high-profile District Attorney’s race that will bring out voters and a small increase can make a big difference.

In the last election, the vote total of 19,290 represented only 17% of the 109,159 active voters in the 35th.

Once they get in office there is a veneer of inevitability that covers the fact that we have the representatives we do by a thread. As Marlon Rice reminds us in his Thinker’s Notebook, Robert Cornegy won by only 94 votes. And with the neighborhoods changing the way they are, a low voter turnout by African-Americans could cause a sudden change in leadership.

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Nationally, the Republican Party and white supremacists are aggressively and nakedly using voter suppression tactics to keep nonwhite people from voting wherever they can. The Department of Justice, under the leadership of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, is carrying out that agenda with a laser-like focus, and as more and more judges are appointed, recourse will become even harder to find.

It would be a shame to do their work for them by not having the time to vote for the judges you’re most likely to face or council people who will see that your block gets plowed. Walking past the petition carriers and not having time for community meetings warms the heart of the white supremacist, knowing that in that vacuum their nature can come in quietly and smiling, coiffed and dangerous.

If you don’t come out and vote, we will lose Black representation in the legislatures and in the courts.

Come out and vote! It does not matter who you vote for or even if you know any of the candidates. You will be listed as an Active Voter and in the next election you can be sure all of the candidates will seek out and want to know you.

 

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