Archive Ferguson II

 

Mid-Term Elections — the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

 

Local politicians sneak into control during the Mid-Term elections because those elections seem to bypass most people, according to FareVote.org, a site to inform people about voting issues.

 

The local leaders that are off the radar to most Presidential watchers are the decision makers who determine how funds from the Federal and State level build businesses or homes in neighborhoods.  

 

This distribution directly influences the quality of life for each individual. State and city laws are created, upheld, and enforced by local politicians. A case could be made that such policies become more important than the national agenda. 

 

What are the real implications of a low turnout for Mid-Term elections? What are the long term consequences?

 

Ferguson’s example of an elite dictating policies to residents acts as an example of a loss of electoral competitiveness. People have to be shown that while issues on the national level affect them, district issues demand democracy in the electoral process.

 

The FareVote site mentioned that larger national or state level elections significantly pull a higher turnout. The site also states that many cities suffer from mayors who have been elected with a single digit turnout.

 

Voting laws dealing with cutting registration or early voting opportunities have helped to make the voting process difficult for low income voters to turnout.

 

The FareVote site points out that demographics of age, gender, and socio-economic play a role in the turnout. Mobilization can happen when activists support key issues like youth-training clubs, fairness in pay for women, or raising the minimum wage. 

 

No politician gets elected without the necessary money, according to Mike Rhodes’ article, “The Influence of Money in Local elections.” 

 

To attract voters, candidates have to be strategic in their use of the campaign funds. In Fresno County, California, the key to getting elected became obtaining paid volunteers to coordinate events, make phone calls, walk throughout the precincts, and put up signs. With enough money, consultants could target specific groups of voters based on their past voting records to leverage the messages.   

 

Builders, developers, and other financial people have figured out how to work the system in Fresno County for separate agendas. Each empowers a group to vote for an agenda while discourages other groups they oppose. Money greatly impacts the outcome.

 

 

What Hinders Queens’ Midterm Voter Turnout

 

Too many “ifs” stand in the way of people voting during the upcoming midterm in Southeast Queens, New York City.

        

Senior citizens, young adults, and residents appeared disheartened by inaction and political corruption, according to several local people in the area.

        

One way to stimulate midterm voting maybe to motivate Black & Hispanics to volunteer in greater numbers and different ways, according to Sasha Issenberg in a blog post for Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball.

 

The key word was “maybe” and that sense of “if” was highlighted by polls during this midterm Campaign.

 

Voters who selected President Obama are coming back at a rate of 77.5 percent.

 

Those who chose Romney are returning at an 81.1 percent, according to an article in The New York Times, “Democrats are Having More Trouble Keeping 2012 Voters,” by Nate Cohn.

 

Well, what does that really mean? The House Democrats will be less likely to sustain their positions and the House Republicans would be more likely to gain positions. 

        

This November, two vacancies in the State Senate exist, with 11 vacancies in the State Assembly, New York Supreme Court Judicial Districts, and the New York City Civil Courts.         

        

“Seniors have the most consistent voting records in Southeast Queens, yet more needs to be done to get the younger voters out.  Our community is as good we make it,” said Yvonne Reddick, District Manager of Queens’ Community Board 12.

        

“If you taught the school children the importance of voting,“ said Betty Leon ESQ, a member of Queens Community Board 14, “and provided more education on the way politics works, those same children would bug their parents to vote.”  

        

The answer points out that when the community is aware of the issues, people are more likely to turn out to vote. The community needs visible leadership from their elected officials all year long.

        

One of the problems impacting a lower voter turnout is the high number of undocumented individuals in our community, according to Billy Mitchell, past president of chapter Zeta Zeta Lambda of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity located in Southeast Queens.

        

Historically, the number of politicians being investigated and indicted tends to turn people off from the voting process. 

        

“It would be nice if non profits created a coalition to identify areas and street crews to register people in the community,” he said.

        

Until all the “ifs” are answered, questions of raising the amount of people voting during midterm elections becomes a barrier to democracy, not only for Ferguson, but also for Queens, New York. 

 

My Fiction’s Example of Motivating New Voters

 

Lessons from fiction? My alternative history novel explores how characters could have changed voting by using nonviolent resistance and community power.

 

In my upcoming novel, The Violence of Cotton, a key character named Moses changed the voting status of people in Egypt.

 

As a Freeman businessman in the 1830‘s, with a background in finance, Moses had traveled to Egypt for his banking interests. However, his real goal was to take seeds from America’s cotton to strengthen the cotton crop in Egypt.

 

His vision aimed to flood the cotton market to derail the economy of the plantation system in America.

 

In reality, the era of the 1830s witnessed the beginnings of a cotton power in Egypt. 

However, the position of the Pasha Ali government to threaten the Ottoman Empire made Egypt a potential enemy to the English and Russians. The Ali government dominated the Egyptian growers by denying them any rights and the average worker failed to find recognition to change the country’s policy. By 1837, Ali’s extra expenses placed his country in the debt of European banks.  

 

Moses, in a twist of decision making from the real world, prompted marches to protest the lack of rights the growers had as their cotton crops increased. The workers set up small coops where savings started to build up. When Ali began to have problems with expenses, he found help from Moses rather than the European bankers. 

 

When London leaders saw that the British banks could not be used to control Egypt, they allowed Moses to paint Ali as the buffer the English wanted instead of the Ottoman Empire.

 

With the power, he obtained from that act, Moses forced Ali to grant more rights to workers and growers. In the new direction, the increased rights become voting rights, the ability to form councils, and eventually to take over government to make Egypt a Workers State to represent the common people.

 

Moses model relied on several steps: 

[1 He protested to organize people. He needed some group that represented a specific goal.  

 

[2 He set up coops that built an economic base, although small, that could be used either to support the people in the group, or to establish some power that would influence others.

 

[3 He used outside power structures to gain support for a regional problem.

 

[4 Each step acted as part of the goal to gain more representation in the overall political process.

 

Ferguson Language Can Fight for Human Rights

 

Dr. Martin Luther King argued that America failed to hear many things, according to Kellie Carter Jackson, an assistant professor of history at Hunter College-CUNY.

In speaking about the power of language, she cites a couple of quotes from mainstream America. “No one can know the whole truth,” or, “we may never have the full story.” 

Statements like that take the listener away from the hearing the truth or understanding legitimate rage and grief. According to Jackson, that subtle language prompts people to forget or another look way to view justice.

Communication to change minds rarely works when the target is the obvious oppressor. However, communication can change the minds of people those between your side and the opposition.

 

Many people rely on misinformation, or code words used in the corporate media because they haven’t time to delve into the facts. Or they have not been exposed to another’s shoes. 

 

• Find the coded word that triggers misinformation.

 

With Ferguson, one term might be, “They were rioting.”

 

• Start by reframing the term without explaining any distortion.

 

Rioting or standing for human rights?

 

• Move to explain the reframed word.

 

Crowds fought for human rights that were denied by a small elite

 

• Give a quick history by focusing on a key term.

 

The residents have suffered from police forces who 

[USE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES]

 

hit neighbors with batons

 

Or who ignored crime leads brought by neighbors —

 

Or who gave exorbitant traffic fines that led to arrests.

 

 

Messages can target a group of people to change their minds

following the use of this model —

 

[1 Locate the coded word

[2 Reframe the word or term to another term

[3 Use specific examples in the reframing

 

Messages need to be direct, quick and in a straight line of thought.

 

Messages can be ignored, appreciated, or lie dormant. But the proactive way of understanding the terms do influence people and our language can help to change minds.