Delivery of petition on PA's voter ID law

Email from Steve Singer on delivering a petition about stopping Penbsylvania's voter-suppressing voter ID law:

Dear ,

I thought you might like to read a description of our petition delivery
today:

Eyes were opened as 15 of the more than 2,200 of you who signed our
petition against Pennsylvania's new voter I.D. law delivered it to the
Allegheny County Elections Bureau - in person.

On Tuesday, Aug. 14, we met at the county court house in downtown
Pittsburgh. I made signs and had two printed copies of the petition with
me. It was a busy street with scores of business people returning from
their lunch breaks. When they saw the slogans on our signs, eyes widened,
jaws dropped and foot traffic slowed so pedestrians could get a peak at
who these strange people were. Some slogans in red, white and blue were:
"Just Say No!", "Count Every Vote!", "Civil Rights First!", "No Fraud = No
Need for Voter I.D.", "Poll Tax, Literacy Test, Voter I.D.?" and "Voting
is a Right Not a Privilege!"

Two African American gentlemen stopped us to ask what we were protesting.
When we told them, they asked to join us - one of them loudly chanting
from the sign I gave him, "Civil Rights First!"

As the media started to converge on us, I gathered the assemblage to
instruct them on what we were going to do. We also practiced chanting a
call-and-response of "Just Say - NO!", "Count Every - VOTE!" and "Civil
Rights - FIRST!" A police officer asked us to please not block the
sidewalk, but he was very friendly, knew we were within our rights to be
there and we made a special effort to follow his instructions. After doing
a few brief interviews with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, and some
others, we marched a street over to the county office building - home of
the election bureau.

The plan had been for a small delegation of us to enter the building but
the overwhelming majority wanted to come inside so we entered en mass. It
took two elevators for the entire group to get to the 6th floor but we
made it. Once on the right floor, we encountered two senior citizen
African American ladies leaving the election bureau. They had been trying
to get information on the voter I.D. law. When they saw us and we
explained why we were there, they, too, joined us.

We entered the office, and the man behind the counter seemed stunned. The
entire group could barely fit in the room. I politely asked him if Mark
Wolosik, Division Head was there. He said Wolosik would not be in for the
next few days. I had been prepared for this because I had talked to
Wolosik on Monday when he told me he would not be in but that we could
drop off the petition. I explained to the secretary why we were here. He
accepted the copy and gave us a stamp showing that it had been received.

We then returned to street level. We chanted a few times and four or five
of us shared stories about how the voter I.D. was affecting us,
personally. A journalist from radio station 90.5 recorded the testimonies and interviewed me afterwards. At that point I thanked everyone for coming
and they thanked me for organizing the event. We parted after only half an
hour, but a half hour very well spent.

One of our group, Barry Specter, video taped the entire outing and will
edit it and post it to youtube. I had already given an interview to
WTAE-TV earlier in the day and gave one after the event to
TalkingPointsMemo.com.

To everyone who attended the petition delivery today at Allegheny County
Elections Bureau, thank you so much for coming. I think we had a pretty
good turn out, and we sure got a lot of media coverage. Below are links to
just some of it. Be on the lookout for possible articles in the Pittsburgh
Post Gazette and Tribune Review tomorrow or Thursday.

Some of our local news coverage can be found here:

WTAE-TV (ABC):
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?params=Y2xpcElkPTM1MzQwMDYmc2xpbT0xJnBvd2VyZWQ9MSZyZXBvcnQ9dHJ1ZSZoaWRlQ2xpcENvbnRyb2xzPTEmbm9oZWFkZXI9MSZub21lbnU9dHJ1ZSZhdXRvUGxheT0xJnBhcnRuZXJUb2tlbj04YTgwODM3OTM4NDliNWNlMDEzOTI3YzliYjNhNTNjYQ==
KDKA-TV (CBS)
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?params=Y2xpcElkPTM1MzQwMDcmc2xpbT0xJnBvd2VyZWQ9MSZyZXBvcnQ9dHJ1ZSZoaWRlQ2xpcENvbnRyb2xzPTEmbm9oZWFkZXI9MSZub21lbnU9dHJ1ZSZhdXRvUGxheT0xJnBhcnRuZXJUb2tlbj04YTgwODM3OTM4NDliNWNlMDEzOTI3YzliYjNhNTNjYQ==

WPXI-TV (NBC)
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?params=Y2xpcElkPTM1MzQwMDgmc2xpbT0xJnBvd2VyZWQ9MSZyZXBvcnQ9dHJ1ZSZoaWRlQ2xpcENvbnRyb2xzPTEmbm9oZWFkZXI9MSZub21lbnU9dHJ1ZSZhdXRvUGxheT0xJnBhcnRuZXJUb2tlbj04YTgwODM3OTM4NDliNWNlMDEzOTI3YzliYjNhNTNjYQ==

WESA-FM (NPR)
http://wesa.fm/2012/08/14/report-seniors-could-be-disenfranchised-voter-id-law

My artwork

http://twitpic.com/photos/panich52The link is to pix I have sent to Twitter. Among them are examples of my art (colored pencil, watercolor, & acrylic)

PA's REAL Voter Fraud Problem

The Rebublicans rammed through the voter ID bill while admitting there were unanswered questions and concerns. A prominent PA GOP member even recently announced that fraud, the supposed reason for the bill, was not a concern.

The US does its best, when given the chance, to insure that every elegible citizen of another country is afforded the opportunity to cast a ballot. So why does the GOP make it more difficult here?

House Speaker Turzai gleefully announced the true reason: gaming the system. Are Republicans so afraid of democracy that they feel they must assail its basic tenet?

Shame on the supposed "Grand" Old Party for doing their best to deny democratic basics to a substantial block of citizens. Maybe they should spend more time on decreasing the country's ills and increasing the quality of life instead of rigging the system. Then they could get votes the old fashioned way: earning them.

Civil rights are too important to ignore

Answer to Mr Priest on WV Education

(Answer to Mr Priest's op-ed, Charleston Gazette, Sat 8/11/12)
I find irony in Mr Priest's complaint about the state of science education in public schools when he cannot accept the reality, the fact, that evolution is the founding principle of all the biological sciences. For an explanation of part of public education's recent failures he need look no farther than attempts by religionists who have undermined curricula in not just science education but history and civics as well.
A well-informed public is necessary for democracy to work and that begins with school. It is, therefore, government's duty to insure a quality education for all. Eliminating public schools is counter to that mandate. Private schools do not have to accept students nor are they necessarily accountable for teaching misinformation. Money is better spent on making sure there are quality educators in schools open to all who value factual information instead of sectarian dogma.
While West Virginian schools may not have rankings worthy of a proud Mountaineer tradition, it seems obvious to me that Mr Priest's exit from teaching is a positive sign. Schools need dedicated teachers, not disinforming ideologues.