Letter: Things to consider before you vote
As we approach this next month and the import of the decision before each of us, some things feel notable:
1. A woman’s right to her own reproductive health privacy and decision making has been recognized and reiterated several times by the U.S. Supreme Court at the national level for more than 45 years.
2. The Affordable Care Act, with its protection for pre-existing conditions including COVID-19 will be honed. Just as Social Security and Medicare were so many years ago to make them the effective social safety net that they are today.
3. We need to insist on factual truth from our public officials. Obama was not born in Kenya. Hilary Clinton is not the leader of a child porn ring. Marauding armed troublemakers, such as Proud Boys, are not “security forces.” Ilhan Omar is an American citizen and was duly elected to one of our country’s most important deliberative bodies. It is wrong, really wrong, to encourage voter intimidation. Insisting that our country’s slaveholding history is covered in school curriculum is not hate speech, is not unpatriotic and, most certainly, is not cancel culture.
4. Federal income tax is not optional.
5. The Supreme Court is not the place for idealogues.
6. Wearing a mask, exercising, showing empathy for those less fortunate than ourselves and a healthy diet are admirable qualities.
7. There is only one political party in this country floating the idea of allowing their senators to vote remotely in order to conduct their business for the American people but in the same breath suggesting that the same American people only be allowed to vote in person. There is only one political party ramming a Supreme Court nominee through on an unprecedented fast track while in the same breath floating the idea that the election should be delayed.
8. A healthy and equitable economy requires far more than a big stock market number.
9. Millions upon millions of Americans are deeply religious while also believing in science.
10. The diversity of our country is a good thing.
Mary Walker
Clark
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