Everything right now in the press is about the infrastructure bill. This legislation is long overdue and the whole country will benefit from it. As much as I would like to see the legislation pass I really do think that there is a more pressing issue than the Infrastructure bill. That issue would be voter suppression. There is not a single law that can’t be undone with a stroke of a pen by a Republican controlled Legislature and Executive branches of the government. They already own the Supreme Court so it would be a clean sweep.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Act right now seems to be taking a back seat to a lot of other stuff. My personal feeling is it takes priority over everything else. I have constantly stated that I believe that the 2021 election may be the most important election in the history of our democracy. Everyone seems to think that 2024 election for the President is the most important but I disagree. Just look how many Republicans did not vote to certify this last election and they were in a minority. What happens if they are in a majority? Would they even have certified the last election? I am not so sure. Trump was impeached not once but twice. In both incidents there was actual proof that he had betrayed his office. Both times he was not removed from office because the Republicans did not care what he did. They did not care the damage and division to this country that he had done and is continuing to do. Never in my life have I ever witnessed anything close to what I am seeing now from the Republican Party. I remember the disappointment that I felt when George H W Bush lost to Bill Clinton. I did not hear anything close from that man that I am hearing now from the Republican Party. He was just pure class. So was John McCain when he lost. Even with all the trouble that we had in 2000 with the Bush, Gore election in the end we saw a lot of class. People from both parties have always put our country and democracy above their personal feeling and political party. We have gone from class to absolutely no class and it is the Republican Party’s fault. We have gone from putting our democracy first to putting our democracy last. We went from truth, justice and the American way to the Big Lie.

I was 12 years old I think when Johnson signed the civil rights act that finally gave Blacks the right to vote. It took our country one hundred years to act on something that was wrong in the first place. I will always remember the confusion I felt at all the violence and rioting of the 60s. I understood the cause but never understood the rioting. The same today, I understand the cause I just don’t understand the rioting. Then I witnessed January 6^th. We really have not come very far. The people that condemned the black rioters were just as bad if not worse. The people that screamed “I back the blue” used their flags to beat the police. I remember the church standing up for the rights of the minorities and marching with Martin Luther King. I remember the feeling of hope that we had as a nation thinking that we could put race behind us. Now much of the church is into suppression of those same minorities.

We need the Federal Government to act if our democracy is going to survive. We need to get the money out of politics. It is just bribery. A vote that is bought is not usually in the best interest of the people. We need to make voting easier. 40 years ago I was able to register to vote and the polls and then vote. In today’s digital age I know we can and are protecting the legitimacy of our elections. We need to make it easy for the elderly to vote. We need to make Election Day a national holiday. We need to bring back fairness in the media. We need to limit the campaign time because it just causes too much division. This campaigning that starts right after the last elections ends is just too exhausting. We also need to demand the truth from our elected officials. If they are to make and accusation like Jewish lasers causing forest fires they must have some sort of proof or face some sort of punishment. We need to bring back the truth in our government. It is ok for people to disagree but when one side is just lying it is awfully hard to find muddle ground with a lie.

Our elected officials have to remember that they are elected to look out for the interest of the people. They are elected citizens not ordained rulers.