Max Stites
9/6/2024
RtB Writers Group
I was born in 1942. Yes, I am old. As others in my generation, I have seen and experienced much in my lifetime. I vividly remember my grandparent’s and parent’s stories of the Great Depression. I remember my dad coming home after World War II. The memories flood back of the Cold War and the fears of nuclear war, the struggle for Civil Rights, the murders of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy, Vietnam, the resignation of Nixon, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the election of a peanut farmer from Georgia, the terrible day of 9/11, and the election of the first black man to the highest office of the land. There are so many more memories of events and people.
The numbers of years I have lived teaches lessons I want to leave as a legacy to my children and grandchildren. The most essential part of that legacy is wanting them to continue to have the basic freedoms and rights I have enjoyed and that so many over the years have sacrificed to protect and expand. Our rights and freedoms, of course, are protected by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and our sacred right to vote. There is no more important right. Voting is the building block of democracy. For the last several years, the integrity of our elections have been questioned, in some cases election officials vilified, and even speculation that the upcoming election will be fraudulent. A study by the Brennan Center for Justice, found of 1,000 election workers surveyed this year, one out of three said they had personally experienced threats, harassment, or abuse. Some 70% of those indicated the threats have increased since the repeated lies that the 2020 election was stolen.
The legendary Mark Twain once said “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story”. Now days that might read, “Never let the truth (facts) get in the way of the Big Lie”. The truth/facts are absolutely incontrovertible. The 2020 election was one of the most secure in our history. Some 60 court cases where judges, appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents, heard the evidence in many of these cases and said there was not widespread fraud. Facts that fly in the face of our emotional attachment to a candidate or ideology, are hard to accept for many. But we ignore facts at our own peril. Truth must prevail for if it doesn’t we are on that slippery slope of rule by man rather rule by law. History is replete with the degradation, inhumanity, and horrors that occur in countries where cults of personality and the rule of man exists.
Our first president, George Washington, could have easily perhaps been President for life. However, he decided two terms was enough and gave up the office and returned to his beloved Mount Vernon. Washington had led the army during the American Revolution. He and his troops fought against Britain led by the rule of one man, the king. Washington’s voluntary giving up of power astounded European monarchs. He established a legacy of peaceful transition of power and faith in a system of rule by law. It is up to us to honor that legacy in this upcoming election and those of the future. May the pursuit of the truth guide our voting decisions.
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