Be Prepared At Your Polling Place
By Vince Leibowitz on Nov 6, 2006 in 2006 Texas Elections
Barbara Radnofsky’s U.S. Senate Campaign has done a great service by putting a couple of documents online that any voter and any poll watcher or candidate should print out and keep handy on election day:
An Open Letter to Texans,
I have had the good fortune to live in14 different states in my 53 years and in 1993, I finally settled in the most wonderful of all of these United States, Texas.
I have come to love and adore everything about Texas and I am proud to now call myself a Texan. I can’t begin to express how much pride I have to reside in a state that was once its’ own Republic.
We have the same problems that are experienced by other states, but Texans have an innate understanding that we are different. There is that wisdom that comes from independence and just plain old horse sense that there’s nothing we can’t be better at or that there isn’t any problem or issue we can’t overcome. It is a sense of pride that citizens from the other states sometimes call arrogance and conceit. We know it’s just jealousy.
Yet, in the last few years, we have allowed the mediocrity that is so commonplace in the rest of the country, to become prevalent in our state.
I remember a time when being a Texan meant that our children were better educated and we were proud of it. I remember when the ownership of land was sacred and inviolate and we were proud of it. I remember a time when we were proud of the accomplishments of the State and Federal politicians who represented us. I actually remember a time when the needs of the people were more important to our State Representatives, State Senators, U.S. Congressmen, and U.S. Senators, than their holding office.
I see our U.S. Congressmen and Senators working less than 100 days a year and I see the spending ungodly amounts of money to stay in office.
The only thing constructive I’ve seen our U.S. representatives’ do lately is pass an amendment that would allow us lower airfares. That should have been a no-brainer! Yet they acted like it was a major accomplishment.
Our Governor, why did it take 6 years to address the needs of our teachers and the overall state of our education system? Shouldn’t we be teaching our children reading, writing, math, music and science, not how to take a test?
Why should we be forced to breathe coal emissions?
Just imagine your land would be taken away under the laws of “Eminent Domainâ€. Why doesn’t he care?
We now are faced with 21st century issues. Internationally, war. Nationally, immigration and safety from terrorist acts. Locally, the future of our children, clean air, and rights of property owners. Yet I now see Texans more concerned about defending their party affiliation and the actions of their party, than expressing concern about what is fundamentally right or wrong.
This election tomorrow, and every election, represents the only way that we can be heard as Texans. Forget being a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or an Independent. I would ask of each and every one of you to pause before you vote and ask yourselves some very important questions.
What have they really done for Texans? Do they make you proud to be a Texan? Is it time to make a change?
We have the comfort of knowing one thing for sure. If we vote to throw them out on their butts because we’re fed up with their inept representation, laziness, and corruption and the candidate we elected to replace them with is as bad or worse………there will be plenty of room on the sidewalk for them, as well.
Don’t you think it’s time for us to honor Texas?