As a word junky, and most writers are, every day I receive the Dictionary.com word of the day via email. Occasionally the words pile up and sit waiting for review, or like yesterday, they strike a chord in me worthy of shared reflection.
Sempiternal (sem-pih-TUR-nuhl), yesterday’s word of the day, is an adjective meaning “of never ending duration; having beginning but no end; everlasting; endless.”
For example: The continual attack by Bush and his cronies upon our civil liberties is sempiternal, in other words, a never-ending nightmare.
Case in Point: “Photo ID Hassle Puts One Mom’s Vote on Ice” also caught my eye yesterday. Published in Monday’s Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC), it is an expose of how the new Georgia voter ID laws disenfranchise voters using the author’s mother as an example.
To quote author Ed Newbaum, from Marietta, GA:
Until I read her opinion column, I didn’t know Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel was looking for a voter harmed by the photo ID requirement (” ‘Partisan bullying’ unfounded in state photo ID requirement).
My 73-year-old mother is one.
After moving to Georgia from Florida, we attempted to obtain a Georgia ID. Based on the then-published requirements on the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) web site, we gathered proof of her new address (bank statement), birth certificate and valid Florida driver’s license.
At the DMV, we where told that as of May, the secretary of state required her marriage certificate because the name on her birth certificate did not match her driver’s license. They would accept a passport with her married name, something she has never applied for.The harm:
Tracking down and paying $40 for a copy of her marriage certificate.
Two trips to the DMV, time and gas.
Missing the July 15 primary.Fortunately, Mom was savvy enough to track down the marriage certificate and had an extra $40. It is interesting to consider that the requirements for obtaining a U.S. passport are not as stringent for married women as the Georgia requirements for a photo ID.
So, based on Handel’s column in the AJC, I know she will want to mitigate the harm done to my mother and me. Why doesn’t she drop a check in the mail for the cost of the marriage certificate (the process really does seem to discriminate against married women) and the time and gas I spent for the extra trip to the DMV.
I think $75 should cover everything.
Thanks so much. Apologies accepted.
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/con…
In the original AJC commentary to which Newbaum was responding, Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel said,
The tirade cannot obscure one undeniable fact: Opponents of photo ID have failed to produce even one voter who has been harmed by the requirement, despite nearly three years of scouring the state in search of such an individual. Further, our state’s photo ID law allows voters who arrive at the polls without ID an extra 48 hours to obtain a free photo ID card, and return to their county registrar’s office to have their vote counted. Voters can also choose to cast an absentee ballot by mail without a photo ID.
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2008/07/18/handeled.html
Handel went on to note that…
Even U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who dissented in the recent decision upholding Indiana’s photo ID law, hailed these positive differences in the Georgia law.
Positive Differences?
I don’t think so! Instead, we are confronted with the sempiternal truth that there is a concerted effort across the country to systematically and endlessly demolish voting rights, and this effort is being aided and abetted by the Republican appointed and controlled US Supreme Court. The same court that erroneously installed GW Bush as president in 2000.
Be on guard. We in turn must be sempiternally vigilant in our protection of the Bill of Rights and US Constitution.
Finally, as I mull over these challenges to our very freedoms, I remain thankful for Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz’s continual efforts to protect and expand the voting rights of all Vermonters.
According to the dictionary, voting and the right to vote represent the true meaning of democracy:
Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives
.
The words in our constitution and the words in law are not static, and as such require action.
Get out and vote, or you may no longer have the right to do so.