NDG’s View, Editorial
It’s election time again. Time to cast your vote. An incessant barrage of political ads via television and radio commercials, billboards, and bumper stickers surrounds us. Each touting who is the best man or woman for the job. Who will it be, Obama or Romney? That is the question everyone is asking. That is the race everyone is focusing on.
But what about who is going to be the next city council member for Dallas, Garland, Irving, etc. Who is going to serve on the State Board of Education or the County Commissioner’s Court? All of these are key officials with a direct impact on the day-to-day lives of your family and the education of your children.
If you have a teenager who is out walking the streets or driving in a vehicle with their peers after midnight what are the repercussions? Are there zoning changes being implemented which will impact your neighborhood? These every day choices and rights from how often you can water your lawn, what textbooks your child will be using, or the local and state abortion related laws. They are put into office by your vote – if you vote.
It was the elected predominantly Republican Christian Texas Board of Education who in 2010 moved to change Social Studies textbooks, which basically whitewash slavery. That’s right. The good GOP Christians didn’t want the founding fathers being depicted as evil, abusive slave-owners but rather God fearing, patriotic bible toting Christians who merely sought to expose their Black slaves, who insignificantly were quite happy while picking cotton, to the way of Christ.
Conservative board member Cynthia Dunbar had the following to say about the decision. I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses. Whether we look to the first charter of Virginia, or the charter of New England, or the charter of Massachusetts Bay, or the fundamental orders of Connecticut, the same objective is present, a Christian land governed by Christian principles.
Well, images of White men lynching Black men and raping Black women would definitely contradict that assertion.
Christian values are always the alleged reason and motivation behind the GOP’s legislative agenda. Such is the claim for the passage of a state law in 2011, requiring women to undergo a sonogram while listening to the doctor’s medical description of the fetal image before an abortion can be performed.
This important sonogram legislation ensures that every Texas woman seeking an abortion has all the facts about the life she is carrying, stated Governor Rick Perry.
Perhaps we are cynical, but it is doubtful facts are the impetus behind the GOP’s push for the law. And for a group of people who are constantly screaming smaller government, this is quite an overreach of big brother’s arm into the personal lives of women.
That seems to be the case with much of the legislation the Republican Party is advocating these days. Probing into and stripping away the rights of the disenfranchised, specifically Blacks and Latinos, while turning a blind eye to corporate malfeasance. Imposing austerity on the middle class and poor while creating loopholes and tax breaks for the wealthiest.
This is why despite the first African-American holding the most senior office in the land; things have not significantly changed in the day-to-day lives of Blacks. Black unemployment remains the highest. The median wage for Blacks is still lagging behind their peers. More Black men are incarcerated and victims of police brutality and fatal killings. The life expectancy for Black men remains the lowest.
All of these startling realities are in no way an attempt to downplay the election of President Barack Obama or the significance of who sits in the oval office. But it has never been about one man.
Take the time to vote Saturday, May 12. Each community throughout DFW is hosting school board, justice of the peace, and city council elections. On May 29 the primary elections will be held to determine who will fight to represent you in Washington.
