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Category Archives: Freedom
Everything President Trump has tweeted (and what it was about) – Los Angeles Times
Posted: July 2, 2017 at 9:09 am
President Trump promoted his appearanceat a "Celebrate Freedom" concert honoring veterans.
He was spending the pre-Independence Day weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., but traveled back to Washington for the event Saturday night.
The evangelical megachurch First Baptist Dallas and Salem Media Group sponsored the event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress was a strong backer of Trump during the 2016 campaign.
Overwhelming support from evangelical voters helped propel Trump to victory in 2016. Since he took office, Christian conservatives have been overjoyed by Trump's appointment of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and his executive order directing the IRS to ease up on a rarely enforced limit on partisan political activity by churches.
The event at times felt like one of Trump's signature campaign rallies, with the president promising an adoring crowd that America would "win again" and prompting cheers with attacks on the news media.
"The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, but I'm president and they're not," he said.
Besides speaking to the event's religious theme, Trump renewed his campaign promise to always take care of America's veterans.
"Not only has God bestowed on us the gift of freedom, he's also given us the gift of heroes willing to give their lives to defend that freedom," he said.
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Everything President Trump has tweeted (and what it was about) - Los Angeles Times
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Trump vows to support and defend religious freedom in US – ABC News
Posted: at 9:09 am
President Donald Trump vowed to support and defend religious liberty, telling a gathering of evangelical Christians that the threat of terrorism is "one of the most grave and dire threats to religious freedom in the world today."
"We cannot allow this terrorism and extremism to spread in our country, or to find sanctuary on our shores or in our cities," Trump said Saturday night at a "Celebrate Freedom" concert honoring veterans. "We want to make sure that anyone who seeks to join our country shares our values and has the capacity to love our people."
The evangelical megachurch First Baptist Dallas and Salem Media Group sponsored the event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress was a strong backer of Trump during the 2016 campaign.
The event at times felt like one of Trump's signature campaign rallies, with the president promising an adoring crowd that America would "win again" and prompting cheers with attacks on the news media.
"The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, but I'm president and they're not," he said.
Trump appeared on a stage decorated with a massive American flag. Choirs performed "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and other hymns and debuted a song with the lyrics "make America great again" Trump's campaign slogan.
Besides speaking to the event's religious theme, Trump renewed his campaign promise to always take care of America's veterans.
"Not only has God bestowed on us the gift of freedom, he's also given us the gift of heroes willing to give their lives to defend that freedom," he said.
Overwhelming support from evangelical voters helped propel Trump to victory in 2016. Since he took office, Christian conservatives have been overjoyed by Trump's appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and his executive order ordering the IRS to ease up on a rarely enforced limit on partisan political activity by churches.
Trump was spending the pre-Independence Day weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, but traveled back to Washington for the event.
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Trump vows to support and defend religious freedom in US - ABC News
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In our opinion: Religious freedom requires both legislative and judicial solutions – Deseret News
Posted: at 9:09 am
Steve Heap, AdobeStock
Facade of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
The Supreme Courts Trinity decision, in which it decided Trinity Lutheran Church in Missouri deserved equal treatment when it came to federal money for playground surfacing materials, was significant.
For one thing, it was a 7-2 decision, giving it a heft that goes beyond the courts normal 5-4 ideological shift. For another, new justice Neil Gorsuch used the words free exercise of religion in his response to the opinion, noting this as a key part of the First Amendment. It was refreshing to hear such language at a time when the establishment clause, which prohibits the government from establishing a religion, seems to take precedence over the freedom to actually act on ones beliefs.
But when it comes to expert guesses about what this portends for continuing religious-freedom decisions, such as the pending case involving a Colorado baker who refused to serve a gay couple for their wedding, one thing becomes clear: Many of these sorts of cutting-edge culture-war disputes might be more appropriately handled through legislative compromise.
Unfortunately, lawmakers in statehouses and in Washington seem skittish to even attempt such a thing. The result often is that a decision pleases only one side of the debate, leaving the other determined to continue the battle until a more sympathetic court is in place.
We often tout the so-called Utah Compromise, enacted two years ago, as the gold standard in such disputes. Thats because this remarkable effort brought together Republicans, Democrats, religious leaders and leaders of the LGBT community to find a workable balance between the need to preserve religious freedom and to protect people from discrimination. It was a significant step toward peace in the culture war.
No side in that effort got entirely what it wanted, but the agreement brought all sides together and has proved effective. As a result, Utah has largely escaped the kinds of contentious legal disputes that separate these factions elsewhere.
At the time the compromise was made law, we hoped it would serve as a template for other states to follow. Legislative compromises calm angry public rhetoric and can help keep Supreme Court justices from having to make all-or-nothing decisions or parse matters in less-than-perfect ways. Unfortunately, few states have followed this lead.
The Trinity decision weakened the so-called Blaine Amendment in Missouri. James G. Blaine was a prominent Republican lawmaker in the 19th century who tried to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting the use of public funds for parochial schools. His efforts were seen as targeting the Catholic Church and going along with anti-Catholic sentiments of the day.
He failed in Washington, but several states included such amendments in their own constitutions. Since then, these have come to be regarded by some as emblematic of the intent of the First Amendment, which is a mistake.
The courts Trinity decision was narrowly cast, so the broader effects on prohibitions against taxpayer support for religious schools is unclear. So, too, are guesses about how the court might rule in its next session in the Colorado wedding-cake case. Conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy is seen as a swing vote there, and he authored the decision legalizing gay marriage.
So the nation watches and waits; it prognosticates and wrings its collective hands. Think how much more effective it might be for states to actively settle such issues by brokering meaningful compromises that give each side a stake in the outcome and that protect the rights for all involved.
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In our opinion: Religious freedom requires both legislative and judicial solutions - Deseret News
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July 4, 2017: Some quotes on what freedom means – Atlanta Journal Constitution
Posted: at 9:09 am
On Tuesday, America will celebrate Independence Day.
In honor of July 4th, heres what some patriots, politicians and just plain people have to say about freedom.
The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mounts, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic - have always blown on free men. Franklin D. Roosevelt
We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls. Robert J. McCracken
"The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor, and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly." John F. Kennedy
"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." Malcolm X
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. George Bernard Shaw
You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. Erma Bombeck
My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy! Thomas Jefferson
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. Abraham Lincoln
"The essence of Americathat which really unites usis not ethnicity, or nationality, or religion. It is an ideaand what an idea it is: that you can come from humble circumstances and do great things. That it doesn't matter where you came from, but where you are going." Condoleezza Rice
Freedom is never free. Author Unknown
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. William J. Clinton
"Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country." Calvin Coolidge
My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing, Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims' pride, From every mountainside, Let freedom ring! Samuel Francis Smith
Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15. Ronald Reagan
"So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring." Martin Luther King Jr.
"Courage, then, my countrymen, our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty." Samuel Adams
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OUR VIEW: A spirit for freedom, liberty – Cullman Times Online
Posted: at 9:09 am
Thomas Jefferson is largely credited with writing the Declaration of Independence, agreed upon by the colonial Congress in signature and spirit.
As the Declaration circulated through the American colonies and arrived in Great Britain, the rogue American leaders became the most wanted men in the known world. War was already afoot, but this document captured the spirit and tenacity of the American Revolution.
There was no turning back. There was no king who would ever again rule over the Americans, even upon the threat of death.
The tone of speeches and articles penned by the inspirational leaders of the Revolution captured the emotions and deep feeling of many people in the colonies. At the same time, the blunt challenges to British rule were viewed as shocking insolence across the ocean.
As the worlds super power in that, age the British were confident they could crush the insurrection. But a ragtag gathering of farmers and townsfolk had other ideas at Lexington and Concord.
The war would be long, with the cause of freedom often in doubt.
America eventually gained its independence, with timely assistance from France. George Washington, the able leader of American troops, became president.
The celebrations that followed the British surrender were spirited affairs with fireworks and feasting.
While the early years of the United States were difficult, out of the debates and arguments came the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and a foundation for personal liberty and freedom that would eventually lead the nation to stand as a union, to overthrow the institution of slavery, and finally end most discriminatory practices in government and society.
The union has never been perfect, but its widely acclaimed around the world as better than anything that exists. As Americans, we have fought each other, stood up for others around the world who were persecuted, and brought an end to many tyrannical governments that oppressed and murdered millions of people.
Our strength remains in the determination and wisdom of our Founders who recognized that the Creator made all people in equal value, and that government should be for the people and by the people.
We still find the establishment and purpose of our nation an inspiring story that continues to play out. No one person has control over the lives of Americans because our direction and existence is a collective effort of the people. Its part of what makes the United States of America great.
Today, we hope everyone has a safe and meaningful Independence Day. Our nation remains a beacon of hope for the world and thats worth remembering and celebrating every day.
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OUR VIEW: A spirit for freedom, liberty - Cullman Times Online
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Freedom Festival takes to the skies with Balloon Fest – Daily Herald – Daily Herald
Posted: July 1, 2017 at 9:09 am
As Fridays first light spilled into Utah Valley from behind the peaks of the Wasatch Mountains, hot air balloons rose into the skies above Provo.
As the balloons ascended, they tested the skies for the Freedom Festivals Balloon Fest. The Balloon Fest will take place Saturday, Monday and Tuesday from 6 to 8 a.m. at Bulldog Field, which is located at 1100 N. Freedom Blvd. in Provo. The event attracts balloonists from throughout the western United States and beyond, and Fridays preliminary rides brought out 11 different hot air balloons.
For the Balloon Fests three days, that number is expected rise to about 25.
Visitors will be able to watch as the balloons inflate and drift through Provos skies. Hot air balloons typically fly about 5 to 10 miles in a radius from their takeoff point, but balloonists may keep closer to Bulldog Field to allow visitors to get a better view.
The Balloon Fest annually attracts about 25,000 visitors to Provo and provides fun for the whole family. Though, for balloonists, flying hot air balloons is also a family affair.
When you start seeing balloonists, youll see families, said Keith Evans, pilot of Smileys Dream, a hot air balloon.
Evans and his family had their first experience with Balloon Fest 21 years ago through an eagerness to lend a hand. We were on the field to spectate, and they said they needed crew, said Evans.
Hot air balloons require much more than just a pilot to fly it takes a crew. The crew aids in helping unpack, inflate, land, deflate, pack away and guide hot air balloons through the air from the ground. Where hot air balloons land can be a bit up in the air, so the crews continually keep contact with the pilots and follow the balloons to wherever they might land.
Evans and his family acted as crew members for 18 years, and began flying a balloon of their own in the festival three years ago. He explained that the Balloon Fest is a wonderful way to interact with the family of ballooning.
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Demonstrators clash during ‘Freedom March’ at Portland waterfront – kgw.com
Posted: at 9:09 am
Demonstrators clash on Portland waterfront
Christine Pitawanich , KGW 11:22 PM. PDT June 30, 2017
Demonstrators clash at the Portland Waterfront during the 'Freedom Rally' on June 30, 2017 (Photo: Christine Pitawanich)
PORTLAND, Ore. -- It was a moment that could have gone either way. Punches were thrown, insults flew, and mace shot through the air along Portlands waterfront.
Protesters from two sides showed up. One side was pro-President Trump. People in that group waved flags and wore red, white and blue. The other side was filled with people who were anti-Trump.
Trump is ruining America, yelled one woman.
Some anti-Trump protester wore black. Their faces were covered with masks. At one point, some people also burned flags and stomped on them.
Joey Gibson, who heads up a conservative group called Patriot Prayer, organized the Freedom March on Facebook. He said the event is about freedom in general and freedom of speech. More than 175 people indicated they were going on Facebook, and more than 300 said they were interested in attending the event.
As for Gibsons expectations regarding violence, We're always on high alert. We have a pretty good understanding of the opposition, he said.
Gibson also organized a rally in early June at Terry Schrunk Plaza. It drew hundreds of people to downtown Portland. On almost all sides of the plaza, there were groups who opposed Gibson and the people supporting him.
More:14 arrested during rally, counter-protests in downtown Portland
The Freedom March at the waterfront officially started at 6 p.m. at Salmon Street Springs. Then people began marching north. At one point, the march wound through a part of downtown.
You have the right as an American citizen. You are free. If they want to oppose us, it's their right too. But they can't silence us, said a pro-Trump demonstrator.
There were a lot of heated arguments and at times things briefly got out of hand. Some people decided to step in to de-escalate when they saw people starting to get physical again.
Why can't anybody talk to each other without trying to throw hands. Have a conversation. I'm disappointed in both sides and I want this to stop and that's why I stepped in, said the man.
Watch: Demonstrators clash during rally, counter-protest
Others with the group Patriot Prayer also tried to de-escalate.
I'm here because I'm trying to keep the peace between the left and right, said a man named John Beavers. We all have to get along. We have to talk. Weve gotta work this out or we're gonna tear ourselves apart, the right and the left. We've got to get along."
We tried multiple times to speak to people who opposed the march. They did not want to speak on camera.
One man who was a part of the Freedom March said after all the verbal and physical violence, he's done. He has a family and he's considering not participating in these types of rallies anymore.
Portland Police said they would monitor the situation. When the event began, police were present. But as the event proceeded, police maintained their distance.
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Demonstrators clash during 'Freedom March' at Portland waterfront - kgw.com
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Unions not corporations stand for freedom of American workers – The Hill (blog)
Posted: at 9:09 am
Freedom is one of the most cherished American principles. But freedom means more than the ability to speak your mind, practice your religion, or choose your own democratically elected leaders. Our freedoms dont end with the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Freedom is also the ability to enjoy economic security and stability. And that means more than making a decent living and having enough to pay the bills. Its about both financially supporting our families and having time to be there for them. Freedom is the ability to take your mom or dad to a doctors appointment, to attend a parent-teacher conference, and to retire with dignity.
At our union, we champion policies that benefit all Americans. We fight for affordable healthcare for all, especially now, as Congress is considering legislation which would inexplicably throw millions of people off the insurance rolls. Pat Waller, a union member who is a labor and delivery nurse at a rural hospital in southern Ohio, is speaking out against Medicaid cuts that threaten the health coverage of new mothers and babies.
We fight to improve the quality of public services. Union member Tyrone Wooten is an environmental technician at a medical facility in Flint, Michigan. He knows firsthand the devastating impact of the water supply contamination in his community. And he traveled 14 hours by bus last year to Washington, to protest the testimony of the Michigan governor, whose austerity policies led to the water crisis in Flint.
Were also on the front lines when it comes to retirement security. AFSCMEs nearly 250,000 retiree members, led by Gary Tavormina who began his public service career as a corrections officer in New York State in 1957 are active in protecting public pensions and safeguarding Social Security.
Its hard to believe anyone could be against pregnant women and infants having quality health services, families having clean drinking water, or retirees having rock-solid Social Security benefits. But many people actually are. The privileged and powerful CEOs, massive corporations, and the wealthiest 1 percent do not just oppose these freedoms. They rig the rules to undermine them and they spend billions of dollars lobbying against them.
And because unions fight for these freedoms, the moneyed interests have made us a target. They want to use the courts to chip away at the rights and protections unions have won for everyone. They have now petitioned the Supreme Court to take a case called Janus v. AFSCME, in which the plaintiffs seek to impose right-to-work as the law of the land in the public sector.
Right-to-work threatens the ability of working people to stand together in a strong union, drives down wages and weakens workplace protections, while redistributing wealth upward. Moreover, right-to-work has its roots in the Jim Crow south, where segregationists pushed it to restrict the labor rights of African Americans and keep them from finding common cause with their white coworkers. Right-to-work, in other words, was created to inhibit freedom.
Americans value their freedom, and they define it broadly. It is the ability to earn a decent paycheck without sacrificing family life. It is the opportunity to live in a safe community and send your kids to a decent school. It is the peace of mind of knowing that an injury or illness wont ruin you financially and that you can live in some modest comfort in your golden years.
The labor movement believes in and are the guardians of all of these freedoms. So, as the corporate special interests gear up for another well-funded attack, we will do everything in our power to protect and defend our freedom to join together in a union.
Lee Saunders is president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a labor union of 1.6 million American workers.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.
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Unions not corporations stand for freedom of American workers - The Hill (blog)
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Man released from jail after 23 years for crime he didn’t commit finds freedom surreal – Fox News
Posted: at 9:09 am
DeMarlo Antwin Berry no longer can recognize Las Vegas.
The 42-year-old Nevada man was freed from prison after 23 years behind bars for a crime he didnt commit. He felt a little overwhelmed by changes in the city where he was arrested when he was 19.
On Friday he sat flanked by his wife of seven years and lawyers who fought to get him exonerated and released from his sentence of life without parole. He looks forward to a steak-and-fries dinner and said he just wants to go to barber school and live a normal life.
It was a surreal moment, just taking it all in, Berry told reporters, noting the unfamiliar buildings, homes and freeways he saw.
He had with him only his release papers and a debit card for his prison commissary account. His lifelong girlfriend-turned-wife, Odilia, wasthere.
It means everything to me, said Odilia Berry, wearing a necklace bearing the word Amazin and offering her thanks to God that her husband was free.
The dismissal of Berrys conviction came after Steven Jackson, now 45 and serving life without parole in California for his conviction in a separate murder in 1996, confessed to Samantha Wilcox, a lawyer from Salt Lake City working on Berrys case for free with the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center.
Berrys legal team also found a former jailhouse informant, Richard Iden, who recanted his trial testimony that Berry told him hed killed Carls Jr. restaurant manager Charles Burkes.
They really did the job. They did the footwork. If theywerent as thorough as they were, we wouldnt be here, Berry said as he sat in a posh Las Vegas law office. Id just be another number in prison.
Nevada is one of 18 states in the nation that doesnt provide compensation funds for wrongfully convicted and newly released inmates, said Jensie Anderson, Rocky Mountain Innocence Center legal director. Sheestimated that 4 percent of the 13,500 inmates in Nevada prisons, or more than 500, may be wrongfully convicted.
DeMarlo Berry hugs his attorney Samantha Wilcox following a news conference after his exoneration held at the law office of Eglet Prince in downtown Las Vegas on Friday, June 30, 2017. The 42-year-old Nevada man freed from prison after 23 years behind bars for a crime he didnt commit said Friday he felt a little overwhelmed by changes in the city where he was arrested when he was 19. (Richard Brian/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP) (Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph)
DeMarlo Berry shed his shackles in what once was familiar territory. Before he was arrested in April 1994, he used to sell drugs and hangout at a bar several blocks away, according to testimony at his trial in 1995.That bar is gone now, closed as a nuisance by the City Council in 1996.
Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County doubled in population during Berrys time away. Downtown hotels like the Lady Luck closed; Fitzgeralds changed names; and a canopy was built over the Fremont Street corridor that most knew back then as Glitter Gulch.
Berry termed his feeling of freedom sensory overload. He said hed heard people describe his prison time as his entire adult life, but he said he still has a lot adult life in me.
Hell learn in coming days how to use a cellphone, a computer and the internet.
One thing hell keep from behind bars is work ethic, he said.
I figured that in order to be a better person than I was when I came in, you have to learn to do something different, Berry said, so I took it upon myself to learn a trade. Barbering.
Attorney Lynn Davies said it was too soon to say whether Berry would sue over his wrongful conviction and incarceration.
Berry said he wasnt angry.
Forgiving is, I guess, a large word, he said. I just want to continue with life. I have a second chance at life, and Ill take the opportunity.
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My Turn: Fight for freedom continues – Concord Monitor
Posted: at 9:09 am
I love the Fourth of July. I love the flags and fireworks, burgers and baseball, parades and pancake breakfasts.
But Independence Day means more than just the things we eat and see. It also means pausing from the daily grind to come together with family and friends and give thanks for the freedoms we enjoy. The right to vote and speak and petition the government for change are a few of my favorite freedoms.
How much freedom do you enjoy?
For Vinny, a computer programmer turned homeless person, the answer is not so much. When I sat down with Vinny in Concord a few years ago, he was preparing for a court date to challenge a peculiar fine concerning the right to lay down his head on public land.
As he relayed to me over lunch at the Friendly Kitchen, he and more than a hundred of his fellow homeless people had been given a days notice to leave their encampment on an overlooked stretch of land they had occupied without incident for years. When they refused, having nowhere else to go, they had their belongings confiscated and were handed fines.
The bureaucrats, politicians say its your choice to be homeless but you dont get to choose where you live, Vinny said, adding that he would never choose this life.
It was not the only fundamental freedom Vinny wished he had. When our conversation turned to politics, the fifty-something independent with close-cropped hair and a sturdy build relayed to me that he had lost the right to vote. I was taken aback.
In my months spent traveling through 30 states by Greyhound bus on a poverty research tour, I had met countless low-income people in homeless camps and shelters who had lost the right to vote but none in the first-in-the-nation primary state I called home.
Vinny explained that he had recently been released from state prison for possession of prescription opioids (illegally obtained by his girlfriend to feed her addiction) and was subject to voting and employment discrimination now that felon followed his name.
By our system of so-called democracy, if I want to go and vote for somebody I cant, Vinny said. Im an ex-felon. I have no voice whatsoever. So how can you bring change by the way the system is right now?
In point of fact, people in New Hampshire who finished serving time behind bars regain the right to vote. Not so in Florida, where Vinny used to live, and 33 other states, where people with felony convictions are disenfranchised long after they have completed their prison sentence. More than 6 million American citizens, most of them impoverished, are currently disenfranchised because of a conviction.
But that does not mean that New Hampshire makes it easy for people like Vinny to vote. In fact, if the recently approved Senate Bill 3 is signed by Gov. Chris Sununu, low-income people who lack a stable address, as well as New Hampshire students living in college dorms, will find it significantly more difficult to vote and will be subject to de facto literacy tests when registering at the polls.
If they are unable to prove their New Hampshire domicile with official documentation, they may even be visited by government agents following Election Day and subject to fines up to $5,000 on the presumption of voter fraud.
It is the first such law in the country to be adopted following President Donald Trumps unproven claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 elections claims made all the more outlandish by the mounting evidence that Russian hackers went to great lengths to intervene in our election on Trumps behalf.
Voting rights or no, Vinny did not lack for political opinions. He fervently believed that politics comes down to money and people like him lose out time and again. Like anything else, its big business, he said, adding I think the money thats in it is all big businesses (that) control the vote (and) get their bills passed.
To prove his point, he mentioned drug companies that spend millions in campaign donations and lobbying to grease the wheels and get powerful painkillers approved by the FDA, resulting in people like his girlfriend addicted and people like him behind bars.
His words are a sobering reminder that even in the Live free or die state of New Hampshire, freedom is not enjoyed equally by all. Our system of so-called democracy is falling short.
As lawmakers in Concord conclude this legislative session with a state budget that spends more on business tax cuts for the top 3 percent than homelessness or opioid addiction not to mention rolling back voting rights and rejecting campaign finance reform we would do well to consider that definition of American freedom put forward by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the eve of World War II: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear.
How free can a person be when voting laws or spending by special interests suppress his right to speak at the polls, when punitive drug policies exacerbate his want and fear?
This July 4th, lets celebrate the freedoms we enjoy and fight like Americans for those freedoms that have yet to be realized for all. Happy Independence Day!
(Dan Weeks is chairman of Open Democracy and author of Democracy in Poverty: A View From Below (PoorInDemocracy.org) published by the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard.)
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