Bittersweet History

Jail in Baker County Georgia consisted of a black metal cage, 20x20x8, divided into four equal sections and placed within a square, concrete block building with openings for windows, but no windows. It was the usual Georgia summer, hot and thick with bugs, especially June bugs.

Bittersweet history. Amendment XV to the US Constitution (1870) “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The Voting Rights Act (1965). No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.” Across the South these laws were ignored.

In the summer of 1965, I was one of a handful of SNCC (Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee) workers in Baker County GA knocking on doors, going to church meetings, teaching people how to read and talking to people about why it was worth it to register to vote. It wasn’t that people didn’t want to vote. It was that they weren’t allowed to register and, if they insisted, what they got was trouble, sometimes terrible trouble. You see, Baker County had a sheriff named L. Warren Johnson. Sheriff Johnson used to boast about the number of people he’d killed.

A generous and kind, black farming family were my hosts. As the first white civil rights worker in the county, I was news. One morning I overheard the youngest child in the family talking to his grandmother, excitedly telling her that I’d made my own bed. I gave a silent thank you to the summer camp where, along with fun stuff – swimming, canoeing, and campfire building, we’d been taught how to make hospital corners for a neatly made bed.

The day we went to jail started pretty much the same as the others. Most of the family went out to the fields at dawn to farm. Someone always stayed in the house with me, as protecting a guest was both a political act and a moral commitment. I was waiting and worrying about this day. Some civil rights workers and about 14 local people were on our way to the Courthouse to try to register to vote. We knew we were on our way to jail.

Today there are 1073 registered African-American voters in Baker County. On November 4th, 1674 people voted in Baker County. Obama won in Baker County.

What Say You: Voting Day

November 4 2008: USA. News reports coming from every state confirm long lines of peaceful and patient voters. As I write this, we don’t know the results. As you read this, we will. You can bet the world is watching. They want to know who our next president will be as much as we do. The first winner of this day will be democracy herself and that win comes from our turning out to vote in impressive numbers.

Dateline: Santa Monica. Our own Santa Monica elections are down ballot. At the Santa Monica Shores, just as at polling places around the country, neighbors and friends greeted each other. Poll workers remembered many voters from previous elections. There was a young woman who was voting for the first time. She was excited and wanted to make sure she marked her ballot correctly. She wanted her vote to count.

Prop T is definitely down ballot. And, no, the world is not watching. But it is important to Santa Monica. Now the proponents said a vote for T was a vote against traffic and the opponents said a vote for T was a vote against schools and housing. After reading the arguments, it seemed clear to me that Prop T didn’t solve our traffic problems and didn’t hurt our school children or our renters. So what gives?

Here’s where it gets interesting. We’re a small town of 80,000 some people. Our population grows everyday because of the people who come here to work, to play, to shop, to eat. On hot summer Sundays we can have as many as 500,000 people at the beach. So, yes, traffic is a huge problem. And that, I think, is why Prop T got on the ballot and, if it wins, why it won.

We can’t make traffic congestion go away by arbitrarily slowing development. But there are ways to make big decreases in traffic problems. Our elected and appointed officials and City staff and our wonderfully active and involved citizens need to work together to implement smart and fun and easy ways to get around town. It's possible. We know how to do it. Let’s do it. Let’s show that democracy works down ballot and up ballot.

I hope Senator Obama becomes President-elect Obama with a double-digit win and I hope that, by next summer, those 500,000 people at the beach will have great things to say about getting around Santa Monica as well as having a great day at the beach.