This is an interesting letter!

Tamar Mag Raine
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IM: tamarmag48
Oakland Mayor's Commission on People with disabilities


> [Original Message]
> From: Edward Evans <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Edward Evans <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 10/21/2004 9:29:04 PM
> Subject: [berkeley-disabled] THE LAST STRAW
>
>
> THE LAST STRAW
> Carl F. Worden
>
>
> That's it, I've had it.
>
> I've been a registered Republican since I pulled my first lever in a
> voting booth, and I've voted as a loyal Republican for Republican
> candidates consistently every year.  I am 55 years of age.  I am
> considered a right-wing Christian conservative and strict constitutionist
>
> who knows the Framers of the Constitution expected strict adherence
>
> to that original document unless and until it is amended.
>
> You don't get much more conservative and constitutionally-minded than I
> am, and that is why I just cast my Oregon vote-by-mail ballot for
> Democrat John Kerry as the next president of the United States.  So did
> my wife -- and she's a very independent thinker.  I know there are
> thousands of lifelong Republican/Independent conservatives who are
> going to do the same thing on November 2nd, because they've written and
> told me so.
>
> The absolute last straw for me took place at the Bush rally, held in
> Central Point, Oregon on October 14th.  President Bush stayed in
> Jacksonville, Oregon overnight after the rally, and protesters and
> police clashed on the streets.  I sent out a photo of a Jackson County
> Sheriff's Deputy, all Nazi's up in black leather riot control gear and
> grinning evilly as he shoved a woman holding her 5 year-old daughter.
> It wasn't the finest hour for local law enforcement, but even that
> wasn't the last straw for me.  No, the last straw for me happened just
> before the Bush rally itself.
>
> Three local teachers got tickets to the Bush rally, passed all the
> security checkpoints and scrutiny and got in.  They never created or
> caused a disturbance, and they were perfectly peaceful members of the
> audience waiting to hear Bush speak.  But before they got to hear Bush,
> they were expelled from the rally by Bush rally staff who objected to
> the words printed on the T-shirts they were wearing.
>
> No, the words on the T-shirts the ladies were wearing did not disparage
> Bush, nor did they suggest support for Kerry or any other candidate.
> The words did not condemn or support the war in Iraq, nor did they slam
> any Administration policy.  No, the T-shirts the three women wore
> showed an American flag, and under it the words, "Protect Our Civil
> Liberties".  That was all -- I kid you not.
>
> That was it.  That was the last straw for me.  That was the defining
> moment I'll never forget.  That was my epiphany.
>
> Bryan Platt, Chairman of the Jackson County Republican Central
> Committee, said he stood 100 percent behind the person who made the
> decision to exclude the women, removing any doubt that one or two
> individuals exceeded their authority and blew it.  No, it was solid,
> Republican neo-conservative fascist policy on open display, and the
> Brown Shirts weren't about to apologize for it.  No way.
>
> I am now a man without a political party.  I will never again register
> as a Republican unless the party returns to what it was before the
> fascists took it over.  I'm certainly not a Democrat or a liberal, but
> I might just register as a Democrat to help them avoid mistakes in the
> next primary, like running another John Kerry for president.  Any
> moderate, pro-gun southern Democrat would have easily swept Bush aside
> this election.  As it is, the race is so close it could go either way
> at this point.
>
> My decision to vote for Kerry was a vote to get Bush and his
> administration out.  I could have voted for a third party candidate who
> couldn't possibly win, but that would have translated into a vote for
> Bush, and I just couldn't do that.  Too many kids in uniform have
> already been killed and maimed for nothing, and I see it as my primary
> duty to save as many of them as I can.  If my vote for a third party
> candidate means Bush wins and more kids come home dead and mutilated,
> then I have abrogated my duty as an American, as a Christian and as a
> decent human being.  I didn't know better during the Vietnam War, when
> I voted for Nixon twice, but I would be without excuse if I did it
> again now.
>
> This election is different:  In this election, we all have to answer
> the call to vote wisely.  Lives depend on it, and God is watching how
> we vote as well.  When an individual sins, God deals with him
> individually.  When a whole nation sins, God deals with the nation
> nationally.  It's right there in the Bible.
>
> The way I see it, the threat Bush presents is just too great.  I know
> what Bush did with his first four years on good behavior, and so do
> you.  What scares the bejeebers out of me is what Bush would do with
> four more years with nothing to lose -- and an assumed mandate from the
> people for what he did the first four.  At least a Kerry Administration
> would be strapped down by a Republican Congress, so I'm not too worried
> about major gun control bills being passed, and as far as abortion is
> concerned, it really doesn't matter what a president believes, because
> that issue is decided only by the Judiciary Branch now.
>
> Regardless of the proclaimed Bush position on abortion, he never issued
> an executive order banning any form of abortion because he knew such an
> order would be overturned by the courts.  Oh, and that phony Late-Term
> Abortion Ban Bush signed?  It's as good as dead -- and I have a
> niggling feeling it was intended to be killed even as they wrote it.
> The lower Federal Courts are already finding it unconstitutional, and
> why?, because the people who authored it left no possibility for a
> woman to use late term abortion to save her life, let alone to preserve
> her health.  In lieu of that provision, any first year law student knew
> the federal courts would overturn it, so why did seasoned
> lawyers/legislators write it that way?  Don't even try to convince me
> they overlooked something as obvious as that.
>
> I still believe this election is going to Kerry, no matter what the
> polls predict.  Last time, it was so close the Supreme Court had to
> decide the outcome.  This time, a huge number of former Bush
> Republicans like me have bolted to Kerry.  Unless a large number of
> former Gore supporters are going to vote for Bush this time, I don't
> see how Bush can get re-elected.  Add to that the massive numbers of
> young voters who are registered to vote for the first time under threat
> of a draft, and I see Bush being shown the door by more than a close
> vote.  But we'll see...
>
> What I do know is that any party that would find the words, "Protect
> Our Civil Liberties" offensive or even threatening, is a party I won't
> belong to anymore.
>
> That was the last straw.
>
> Carl F. Worden
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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