Where are you not speaking up? To whom are you not listening?

If the world is our mirror, then as a group, there must be a lot of us who don't feel we are worth being heard (see "Ohio hearings show massive GOP vote manipulation", posted below). If we all insisted on speaking up as a regular practice, then maybe we couldn't be stopped from voting.

Or maybe we're not listening too well, to allow others not to be heard, to feel that it is more important to have our way in the short run, with sullen cooperation, and underground or passive resistance in the long run, than to allow a real conversation to allow everyone to be heard, and to get to the truth. In my experience, when we all everyone to be heard, we come to some surprising conclusions, which generally turn out to be workable.

So even if you're not in Ohio or Florida or New Mexico, you can still help prevent vote fraud on the internal planes. Ask your self:

Where am I not speaking up?
Who am I not listening to?

Hollis

Harvey Wasserman of www.freepress.org wonders:

Ohio hearings show massive GOP vote manipulation, but where the hell are the Democrats
& John Kerry?

November 17, 2004

Columbus, Ohio---Hour after hour the testimonies are the same: angry Ohioans telling
of vicious Republican manipulation and de facto intimidation that disenfranchised
tens of thousands and probably cost the Democrats the election.

At an African-American church on Saturday and then at the Franklin County Courthouse
Monday night, more than 700 people came to testify and witness to tales of the atrocity
that was the November 2 election.

Organized by local ad hoc groups, the hearings had a court reporter and a team of
lawyers along with other appointed witnesses. At freepress.org we will be making
the testimonies available as they're transcribed and organized, and we will present
a fuller accounting of the hearings, along with a book that includes the transcripts.

But one thing was instantly and abundantly clear: the Republican Party turned Ohio
2004 into an updated version of the Jim Crow South.

The principle overt method of vote suppression was to short-change inner city precincts
of sufficient voting machines to allow a timely balloting. In precinct after precinct,
virtually all of them predominantly black, poor, young and Democratic, the lines
stretched for two, five, eight, even eleven hours. The elderly and infirm were forced
to stand in the rain while city officials threatened to tow their cars. No chairs
or shelter were provided. Crucial signage was mysteriously missing. Thousands came
to vote, saw the long lines and left.

How many thousands? Enough to turn the election? Almost definitely.

None of this was accidental. This was a well-planned GOP attack on the right to
vote, and on Democratic candidacies. Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell
was also co-chair of the Ohio campaign for Bush. A right-wing Republican was in
charge of the Franklin County Board of Elections.

They all said the election went "smoothly." By their standards they were
right. At least 68 voting machines sat in a warehouse while precinct managers called
desperately for help. Republican precinct judges and challengers harassed would-be
voters. The names of long-time activists mysteriously disappeared from registration
lists. The arsenal of dirty tricks was virtually endless.

With it the Bush/Rove team deprived countless Ohioans of their right to vote just
as surely as if they'd levied a poll tax or invoked the grandfather clause.

In the coming days we'll issue a more complete accounting of these devastating hearings.
No one who cares about democracy and fears the consequences of its destruction could
come away from them without being both infuriated and terrified.

But one thing also stood out---the complete lack of Democratic support for these
hearings or for the larger vote count movement. Nationally, it all stands in the
shadow of the complete disappearance of John Kerry, on whose nominal behalf this
was done.

A successful grassroots effort involving the Green and Libertarian Parties, among
others, has raised---in just four days---some $150,000 to force a recount of the
Ohio vote. (Ralph Nader has forced a similar recount in New Hampshire). But where
were the countless millions raised by the Democratic Party and Kerry campaign by
trusting American citizens who expected them to fight for democracy?

Right up to election day Kerry repeated his solemn vow to, in light of what happened
in Florida 2000, guarantee everyone's right to vote. But now that another highly
dubious election has occurred, where the hell is he?

Rumors are circulating that he is biding his time, waiting for the right time to
jump in. Or that the Democrats themselves have something to hide. Or that there's
a magic bullet just waiting to be fired.

Similar rumors spread about Al Gore four years ago. We're still waiting for that
fateful shot.

This election was not about apathy. Tens of thousands of smart, eager, fiercely
dedicated volunteers came out this year, desperate to rid this nation of the curse
of George W. Bush.

An escalating avalanche of evidence indicates a true vote count would have thrown
Bush out of the White House.

But once again, the Democrats have dissed the grassroots. Once again, a candidate
who promised democracy has disappeared with barely a whimper in the face of those
who would destroy it. His silence has allowed an orgy of media bloviation in homage
to a bigoted, war-crazed America that, if it won at all, took this election not
by national consensus, but by the Rovian staples of dirty tricks and voter suppression.

The upcoming Ohio recount is fraught with danger. The Republicans battled successfully
to prevent the state's voting machines from including paper trails that can be reasonably
recounted. These "black boxes" will require extreme sophistication to
be properly evaluated. Unless intensely supervised down to the last detail, the
Republicans who control these machines will turn this recount into a "proof"
that the election "went smoothly."

So a true recount will require serious additional financial resources and a very
aggressive, well-organized team. So far we hear not a peep from the mainstream Democrats.
So far, they seem utterly deaf to the cries of fury and despair from those who were
so wrongly deprived of their right to vote.

Democracy itself was lynched in Ohio on November 2, by both high and low tech means.
Our freedoms may be the ultimate victim. But where is the Democratic Party?

-------------------------
HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES is available through www.harveywasserman.com.
He is senior editor of www.freepress.org.