Friday, August 20, 2021

Integrity

 

Do you want your vote to matter?

Integrity, noun; firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values-Incorruptibility, an unimpaired condition-Soundness, the quality or state of being complete or undivided-Completeness.

Election integrity legislation, particularly those laws proposed in red states, are under fire. To the left, these proposed laws are decried as “voter suppression” that harken back to the Jim Crow laws of the south. What do these voter integrity laws hope to accomplish and are they really discriminatory. For the sake of brevity, let’s consider the Wisconsin legislation recently vetoed by Governor Tony Evers, what was proposed in the bills and what issues were intended to be remedied by those bills.

Registered voters must submit an absentee ballot sealed in a separate envelope, signed with valid addresses by both the voter and a witness. Additionally, the application requires the voter to certify eligibility to vote in said election. Why? The Wisconsin Elections Commission issued unlawful guidelines to County Clerks, advising them to “cure” absentee ballots that were not submitted with the required signatures or addresses rather than following the law and contacting the individual voter to correct the ballot.

Indefinitely confined voters, overseas voters, and all other voters, other than military voters, will no longer automatically receive an absentee ballot. Those voters will be sent absentee ballot applications and will need to reapply for each election. Active-duty service members are exempted. Why? County Clerks in Dane and Milwaukee Counties advised voters to register as indefinitely confined, due to the covid pandemic, to circumvent the requirement to provide identification. An additional 200,000 ballots were requested by “indefinitely confined” voters, including able bodied elected State legislators, for the November 3rd, 2020 election. Under current law, all those voters would automatically receive an absentee ballot for all future elections.

Municipal or county clerks are prohibited from sending or transmitting an absentee ballot application or an absentee ballot to a voter for purposes of voting in an election unless the voter applies for the application or ballot as provided by law. Why? Mailing absentee ballot applications and absentee ballots without a voter request, substantially increases the chances that a ballot is not sent to the appropriate voter, due to address changes.

Once the canvassing of absentee ballots begins, the municipal clerk must hourly post, at his or her office and on the Internet, a statement showing the number of absentee ballots that the clerk has mailed or transmitted to voters, the number of absentee ballots that have been returned to the clerk, the number of absentee ballots counted, and the number of absentee ballots remaining to be counted. Why? Any charges of “ballot dumping” will be eliminated as the number of outstanding absentee ballots will be known and published.

Election observers should have equal access to all parts of the election process and forbids observers from interfering with electors or election officials. Appropriate areas would be designated for election observers, no more than 3 feet away where ballots are being examined or processed. Why? Because of the ongoing Covid pandemic, rules were ignored and poll watchers were denied access by election officials in some districts.

Local governments would be prohibited from accepting funding from and/or abdicating their Statutory required election administration responsibilities by contracting with outside groups to administer their elections. Why? This would prevent municipalities from accepting funding from organizations as an incentive to run their elections according to the grantors, or to surrender the election administration, such as what occurred in Green Bay. Those funds would still be allowable, but any elections grant must go through the Wisconsin Elections Commission before being distributed per-capita to all municipalities statewide.

Employees of long-term care facilities would be prohibited from coercing a resident right to vote, and would have required them to admit Special Voting Deputies to assist in the election process, unless there is a declared federal or state health emergency. The bill would have required long-term care facilities to have employees trained like Special Voting Deputies in case the Deputies are not allowed to visit for public health reasons. Why? Public testimony at State hearings revealed that this abuse did occur.

Only family members, legal guardians, or designated people would be allowed to return a person’s absentee ballot. The bill would have prohibited anyone from being paid to return absentee ballots. Any event where a voter may return their absentee ballot in-person must comply with existing early voting requirements. Why? Chain of custody is necessary in order to assure that only legally cast ballots are counted.

When one reads the bills and understands their intent, the accusation of voter suppression rings hollow and Evers’ vetoes wholly partisan. These bills would have corrected a number of issues that plagued the 2020 Presidential election and would increase voter confidence in a fair and impartial election process.  

 

Sunday, August 8, 2021

The Truth Shall set you Free

 

History is what it is and we must learn from it.

If a lie is repeated enough, does it then become the truth? Or will people ultimately overcome the obfuscation and realize the lie that it is? History needs to be taught truthfully, in all of its’ magnitude and with all of its’ blemishes, openly and honestly. Even though our nation has done more to advance society and freedom, we also need to learn from our own inadequacies and failures. That being said, we cannot dwell on those injustices and demand retribution in an effort to somehow right those wrongs. It is also essential that we make certain that those mistakes never happen again. It is essential that we never forget how so many were harmed and who was responsible for those offenses against our fellow man. It is also essential that we learn to forgive one another if we ever hope to unite society. Jesus Christ himself said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Apparently, there are some of us that believe they are without blemish themselves. They can look beyond their own sin and cast aspersions upon others simply based upon their skin color. Sounds an awful lot like they are becoming that which they so openly despise.

In order to teach our historical inequities, such as the horrors of slavery, the 1921 Tulsa massacre and all the evils of segregation, is it required to incorporate the tenets of Critical Race Theory and cast blame upon those that share the skin color of those who perpetrated these atrocities? Is it necessary to teach children as young as 5 years old, that race is a social construct, made specifically to oppress persons of color and they should be personally held responsible for other’s actions? Is it necessary to place all of society under a lens of racial equity when we should strive for equality of opportunity? God created all men and women as equals. History is a record of events, persons and places and the facts are what they are. We will learn nothing from history if we teach a revisionist form of that history. Omission of historical facts as well as the alteration of facts to fit a narrative only serves to prevent any restoration of real justice.

Heal, transitive verb; to restore to health. To restore to original purity or integrity. There are those who have no intention of mending fences or fixing problems. If politicians actually solved problems, there would be no need of them. There are also those who have a more malevolent goal. The left uses language that would have you believe that they bring a restorative justice by means of reconciling past wrongs and punishing those responsible. They want nothing but to destroy capitalism and transform this nation into a Marxist “Utopia”.  

Rome’s fall eerily coincides with some of the same dilemmas facing our nation today; they were beset by a severe financial crisis, government corruption was rampant, political instability reigned and there was a loss of traditional values. Rome became infatuated with itself and imploded from within. Today, wild spending on human “infrastructure” has our national debt set to rise to $30 Trillion, a level that cannot ever be repaid. Partisanship reigns in Washington DC where the party in power will do whatever it takes to remain there. Democrats openly support Black Lives Matter and Antifa as they cause political strife and instability in our cities. Democrat policies promote the abandonment of the nuclear family, replacing the father with government subsidies. Democrats support and defend abortion, or simply put, the murder of unborn children. President Biden’s open border policy is bringing in all kinds of people, including those with criminal records and those who are unvaccinated or are COVID-19 positive. Then they are released throughout the country. Wonder why there has been a spike in COVID-19 cases?

So, why is there this headlong rush to infiltrate our school’s curriculum with Marxist ideology under the cover of wokeness? If impressionable youth are indoctrinated into believing that the United States is inherently racist and all who are white are responsible for repressing persons of color, they will learn to embrace Marxism. Any debate will be moot as those who are taught and believe this divisive ideology grow into adulthood. Think our nation tilts irrevocably left today, just wait until CRT and its’ ilk permeates society. No more free enterprise. No more reaching to be all that you can be. No more of President John Kennedy’s approach to patriotism, it will be, ask what your country can do for you, and you be compelled to act as the government commands. We will sink into the abyss of Marxism, then socialism, then to the fall of our nation.

If we do not intend to follow in the footsteps of the fallen Roman Empire, we need to change our ways and change them soon. If you are looking for others to take up the mantle of leadership, you need to take a look in the mirror. Our government is littered with those whose only aim is to enrich themselves at your expense. If we do not take back our government, beginning at the local level, we will continue down this path of ruin. Don’t find yourself regretting not getting involved when our nation, as we know it, comes to an end. The old WWII poster of Uncle Sam captioned, “I want you!” has never been more pertinent than today. Good people are needed to stand in the way of leftists aiming to undermine everything that you hold dear. Now is the time. Get involved. Run for office. Make a difference, or you and your family will be the one’s steamrolled by the left.