I recently found myself re-reading a New York Times op-ed letter written by Captain Chesney “Sully” Sullenberger. Published in January of this year, he took aim at the cruelty of Tribe Trump by talking about his own experience as a child with a severe stutter. Captain Sully called out Lara Trump’s snide remarks about Joe Biden’s occasional stammers this way:
“Those [painful] feelings came rushing back, when I heard Lara Trump mocking former Vice President Joe Biden at a Trump campaign event, with the very words that caused my childhood agony. ‘Joe, can you get it out?’ Ms. Trump was seen saying onstage, as a few giggles are heard from an otherwise silent audience. ‘Let’s get the words out, Joe’.”
Sullenberger went on to say:
“This culture of cruelty is what drives decent people from public service, and what makes millions of Americans recoil from politics, and even from participating in our democracy. Vice President Biden has spoken openly — and courageously, in my view — about the pain of his severe childhood stutter. He takes time to reach out to children who have suffered as he did.”
A speech disorder is a lot easier to treat than a character defect.
Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger, comparing Joe Biden to Donald Trump
This election, more than most, is about character. Dislike their policies and poses as I do, I will grant that the likes of Reagan and Romney were at least adults who were generally respectful of their political opponents and their supporters. (Remember John McCain correcting a Republican woman who shouted out that Barack Obama was an Arab?)
For today’s Republican voters who do still believe in treating others with courtesy and respect, the bullying and name-calling Donald Trump must be a very bitter pill to swallow in order to gain… whatever it is they wanted to gain. (I suppose conservative judges and tax cuts for the rich and the degradation of health coverage for the poor. I can’t imagine what else there is left in the Republican party platform to support.)
Here are early voting options in mid-October
| Oct. 12 | Georgia |
| Oct. 13 | Texas |
| Oct. 14 | Kansas and Tennessee |
| Oct. 15 | North Carolina |
| Oct. 16 | Washington |
| Oct. 17 | Massachusetts, Nevada and New Mexico |
| Oct. 19 | Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho and North Dakota |
| Oct. 20 | Louisiana, Utah and Wisconsin |
| Oct. 21 | West Virginia |
| Oct. 24 | Florida and New York |
| Oct. 26 | Maryland |
And these are your deadlines by which to request an absentee ballot.
| Oct. 13 | Rhode Island |
| Oct. 20 | Maryland and New Mexico |
| Oct. 21 | Missouri |
| Oct. 22 | Indiana |
| Oct. 23 | Arizona, Idaho, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia |
| Oct. 24 | Alaska, Florida and Iowa |
These links come from a calendar of early voting access, state by state, published by The New York Times. For which a huge thank you! Don’t forget to check out NPR’s article Mail-in Voting Rules by State.
Make a plan to vote
All of which brings me to Michelle Obama, whose character I admire very much. Her initiative, When We All Vote, exhorts new or inexperienced voters, whether young and old, to get their act together and vote in 2020. The website digs into voting rights, and how some states might try to thwart your efforts to vote.
Then, on October 6, she released a video (viewable here on Joe Biden’s Twitter feed) talking about why the nation’s voters must give President Trump the boot and elect Joe Biden.
As Politico noted, “In making her case for Biden, Obama described the former vice president as “a leader who has the character and the experience to put an end to this chaos, start solving these problems and help lighten the load for families all across the country.” [emphasis added]
Anything else I should do between now and Election Day?
In addition to voting yourself, see if you can help someone else vote — maybe by driving them to the polling station (wear your masks!). Offer to help register under-represented citizens. Volunteer to be a poll worker if you’re young and healthy enough to do so. Work with those working to eliminate gerrymandering. Join a campaign in your state for permanent mail-ballot voting, as we do here in Washington, or perhaps making Election Day a national holiday.
This week’s Vote Now photographs…
Top: French Quarter shop window, New Orleans, Louisiana (L. J. Cameron)
Bottom: Barn in rural Lewisburg, West Virginia (T. J. Sagosz)