I like Canada, it’s beautiful, clean, great air, good people all around.
So why don’t we just hop in our cars and drive over across the border in a few days and vote in their upcoming national election on September 20th?
I mean there shouldn’t be any problem with that, should there?
Oh, wait…. we are not really Canadian citizens, are we?
Let’s look at this more closely.
The basic fundamental responsibility of any citizen of any country that has a right to vote in their elections is to …what?
Vote!
But if drove to Canada or to Mexico and wanted to vote, just because we wanted to. Do you think they would let us do so?
Of course not. Any more than if were in France or Germany. If we tried to vote in any of those countries, and we were not a bonified legal citizen authorized to vote, I venture to say we would be arrested and face some serious charges.
Since that is the case, why is it so difficult for this concept to be causing us such an argument in our country?
Don’t we have a right to know who is electing our national and local leaders?
I know, I know all of the arguments about voter id being a problem. I don’t have to list all of the other places in our society where you have to prove who you are using some type of governmental identification.
So, we hear the mail in voter ballot will be suppressed if they are required to prove their citizenship.
Did we have voter hurdles to overcome in the past?
Poll taxes were certainly one of those. How could many of our people afford another tax, just to vote? Voting should always be and remain free to our citizens.
Property ownership? Another one that made no sense, nor was it fair.
Women unable to vote? Well, my grandmother certainly could not vote until she was 35 years old in this country.
Now we hear the lame argument that many of our citizens do not have a printer or transportation to a print shop to make copies of their identification documents.
How many people of voting age in this country DON’T have a cell phone? If not, the government will give them one. (Obamaphones?)
If we’re talking about old people, then answer me this: How many people in this country don’t go to a grocery store or to a doctor’s office?
I have never seen (in the past few years) any doctors office or grocery store that did not have a copy machine available, you mean to tell me that if you asked your doctor to make a copy of a driver’s license, he/she would refuse?
If so, then shame on them. Go somewhere else.
If need be, the counties, townships and schools should provide copies to folks in need….we pay enough in school tax for them to afford to help out every four years or so, I would think.
Elections should be held as sacred and very important to all of us. We do not want to deny anyone their right to vote in any election according to their convictions. But we should make certain they are eligible and legal to vote in all elections.
If we don’t have the infrastructure to make a copy of someone’s voter identification, then we should find a way to fix it….
Each year the federal budget department issues some guidelines to reduce the operating budget. These can be summed up as follows:
“Eliminating Duplicative Programs;• eliminating Programs with No Proper Federal role;• Putting an end to Improper Payments;• Conducting Oversight of Spending Categories; and • Stopping Improper end-of-Year Spending.”
These are added each and every year and are promptly ignored each and every year.
Then to rub salt in your wounds, they footnote this report with examples of spending that make no sense such as:
“According to data from the nonprofit group, Open the Books, of the $97 billion spent by 67 Federal agencies in a “Use It or Lose It” spending spree in the final two days of 2018, expenditures included: • china tableware ($53,004);• alcohol ($308,994);• golf carts ($673,471);• musical equipment, including pianos, tubas and trombones ($1.7 million);• lobster tails and crab ($4.6 million); and• workout and recreation equipment ($9.8 million)”
So tell me that we could not use some of this money to help people obtain copies of their identification cards in order to do the most important civic responsibility we all have in this country.
That is to vote.
Comments are very welcome….
See you next week…
Peary Perry
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