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> An Open Letter to Senator John Kerry on Irregularities, Fraud, and Conspiracies

29 December 2004, 13:14

Ohio is the focal point of this moment in history. Bob Fertig has done an incalculable service to help us focus our energy.

Late in the evening of November 2, that beast which Yeats described, slouching towards Bethlehem, passed through the city gates and began looking for your home and mine. The time to stop it in its tracks is now.

There has been little help from major news sources. Every day for weeks there has been Ohio recount news, but the pages of the NY Times, Washington Post, and LA Times have been blank. There has been no sign of fraud in the Washington governor’s race, but the past few days these same papers have carried stories taking seriously a Republican attack on the outcome. Evidently it takes courage these days simply to print the news. That is a news story worth telling in its own right.

A few weeks ago I replied to a thank-you note from the Democratic National Committee, asking the Party to throw itself into the Ohio vote scandal. I asked for a real answer — neither silence nor a form letter. After a long wait I received a reply that said nothing about the substance of my request. In short, first silence, then a form letter.

The Democratic Party received an unprecedent level of financial support and labor this year. It lost the presidency and congress. It has nothing left to lose. Since freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, the Party is free to do what’s right. All it takes is courage.

It is absolutely true that if John Kerry or the Democratic Party will lead this investigation it will add a great deal to its perceived moral authority. I hope that they do.

If they decide not to, let us not dissipate our energy in recriminations but do what we can ourselves. It begins with each person’s decision. We can’t know, now, what value our individual effort will have, but we can be clear about what it means to be a person who takes a stand.

Thank you, Bob.

Read the letter, John.

Let’s get to work.

Stephen Voss