Unheard Of
 
Your dedicated columnist asks an indulgence of readers. Have I not, in civil tone and sincerity, requested that the members of the United States congress focus on matters worthy of their august stations? Have I not fearlessly and in humility with gratitude made my prayer known that those whom the wise call fools concentrate on redeeming a government made absurd by amoral courting of values voters? Have not my entreaties been pled on a blog, a medium with stature and great currency, accessible to all the world? I ask you, my dozen or so faithful readers, how is it that our leaders in government have not yet taken up my assignment? Could I have possibly missed being heard? I assure all of you good friends, my intentions this week were just. To persecute Democrats or, maybe, journalists. And then, like a wave across a pond comes the news that House Republicans have rebelled against their leadership and any relic of sense to block the renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA.) The VRA was a crucial piece of civil rights legislation which made illegal nefarious obstructions to voting by African-Americans and called for the nine states with the most manifest history of discrimination against voters to file explanations of their voting rules with the federal government for review. The original legislation had a sunset clause meaning that it repeals itself after a period of time unless renewed. The previous renewal met little controversy. To be fair, the Republicans did not kill the renewal bill, just insure that for now it would not be heard. At the federal level, the Republican pattern is now clear: the corruption of politicians, the collapse of government and the interests of the American civilization have no currency. There is a war to be fought, the last one. The war to protect the Republican base from their illusions of victimization and rescue Republican votes from neglect or undue consideration. This war was won triumphantly in the past by the listlessness of the other party and the plausibility that the Republican leadership led. This election season, however, the choice the incumbents have made is that wisdom, strength, unity, morality, integrity, mercy, justice, security, purity, work, worship, people’s problems and business interests, foreign trade and internal strife, amity with a stranger’s wife, education, liberation, military operations, other nations and The Temptations all receive a deaf ear. What bears attention? Obstruction of the VRA, a southern strategy that fit the old south, better than the new. A strategy to win the last election not the present one. A rhetoric-only agenda at a time when America knows it’s government is failing. All leading to an unprovoked attack on a law that has served for forty years to insure that American citizens can be heard. The Prattler Wordbook ENFRANCHISE, v.t. To grant the self-evident to the invisible or bestow the inalienable on the alienated. FRACTION, n. The people. FRANCHISE, n. A freedom bequeathed in exchange for duty. FRANK, adj. Alone and asleep or artful and armed. FRANKLY, adv. In the manner of someone with no secret but their purpose. FRATERNAL, adj. Honoring the kinship of betters, strangers or thieves.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
From the collection of Richard Samuel West / Periodyssey.http://www.periodyssey.com/private/press.htmshapeimage_5_link_0