Essay | I found my great-grandfather’s voting card, which he received after he was freed from slavery – So I would happily vote now

I wrote to you previously on the part of the Texas electorate. I admit that I paint a dark picture of democracy in Texas and the United States: voting has been made difficult, there is a lot of questionable tactics in the elections, and the outcome, at least in Texas, is already clear before the elections.

This brings me back to the question: why even bother voting?

Read more: At the time of the last US election, I hoped for asylum in Finland, now I know I will stay in Texas

I could say it’s because of my family.

My paternal grandfather’s father Charles Smith was a slave brought to Texas by his Virginian owner during the Civil War. Seven years after his release, he was registered as a voter. It was 1872.

I didn’t know he voted until I found a copy of his registration card on an online family tree service about a year ago.

Seeing that, tears rolled down my cheeks and my heart swelled with pride.

It was only then that I understood the daily ritual of his grandson, my father, which included reading the newspaper. I understood why dad’s car radio always had a news station on. And why he and my mother always voted. In every election. They dressed each time to vote as if they were going to church.

It was precious and vital.

Right without a doubt, the right to vote has its own special place in my family and in the families of all Americans, regardless of color, throughout this great country of ours.

But as I now prepare to vote and squint as I read the 67-page voting instructions, I realize that this time I am not motivated by the warm glow of my ancestors.

No, this time it’s about something else. This time I was motivated by fear and its twin sister anger.

Right-wingers extremism and political violence are on the rise in the United States. The most significant of the acts in this series was the 6th of January 2021 “rebellion” in our nation’s capital. Many of the key players in the “occupation” of the Capitol are from my home state of Texas, and the tough ones came here as well judgments.

There are mentally unstable people in our country who consider themselves entitled to infiltrate the Speaker of our House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi house and attack her husband with a hammer.

I’m scared. We all should be.

I repeat the sentence of my previous post: for me, this is not a battle between Democrats and Republicans, but a battle between human dignity and one of its opposites.

A large part of the acts of violence have been committed by people who Donald Trump use the name “my people”.

That’s why it’s clear that the Republican Party is off the rails: it has policymakers who despise democracy, basic human dignity, and the principles of the rule of law. It gets my head spinning.

Do you know? name “Karen”? What kind of woman is “Karen”? Maybe you know.

Karen is a white woman who calls the police to report seeing black people engaging in “threatening” activities, such as bird watching in New York’s iconic Central Park.

Karen’s ancestor is “Miss Ann”. This term is known to have been first used by black people in the United States during slavery. It referred to the slave owner’s wife, whether her name was Ann or not.

Miss Ann is the ultimate embodiment of white privilege. At one time, he was well-off, pampered and particularly condescending. He would not have survived a day without black women cleaning his house, cooking his meals, and taking care of his children. But he had no human dignity.

Unlike Karen, Miss Ann did not call the police. He didn’t have to. Miss Ann was self law.

If I or my sisters didn’t do our responsibilities as children, my mother would say to us—whether it was me, my sister, or my brother: “Who do you think you are? Miss Ann huh?”

Now power-hungry people who imagine that they have the law.

Of course, there have been such MAGA-minded politicians in Texas long before Trump.

Their cruelty, especially towards children and women, is infuriating to me.

Earlier this year, laws regarding transgender children were passed in Texas. Now it is forbidden for a doctor to help the parents of a child of the opposite sex who ask for the necessary treatments for their child.

And that’s not all. The law promises a $10,000 tip reward to anyone who reports to authorities parents seeking such treatment for their child.

A similar incentive fee was approved to encourage citizens to report all women seeking abortions.

Think about it. $10,000 – for what good?

However, concerns about the sanctity of life do not apply to weapons, the instruments of death. In the same session of our state legislature, lawmakers approved lowering the age limit for purchasing semi-automatic weapons to 18.

A few months later, an 18-year-old armed with an AR-15 rifle murdered 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in South Texas. A large number of police watched the events from the sidelines, doing nothing, as they waited for orders.

This is complete madness and perhaps explains why Texas has become a slang word for “crazy” in Norway. (I know a little about the Nordic countries. I used to work for months in Denmark. I have visited Sweden and Finland.)

So I’m angry, but I’m not Texas, that is, crazy angry.

If most of my family wouldn’t live in Texas, I’d probably move to New Mexico. It is the blue neighboring state of red Texas.

I just got worried of a New Mexican judge who ordered The founder of Trump’s Cowboyt faction removed the county office holder on duty when he was convicted of involvement in the January 6 riot at the Capitol. I wonder if the judge has enough police to protect him. For revenge.

That’s how you know you’re deeply Texan and not New Mexican when such concern overwhelms your mind.

So later today I will be walking to my polling place in Austin, Texas to cast my vote. I know it probably won’t affect the outcome, but I do know I’ve registered my objection to this madness.

P.S I can’t help asking a rhetorical question about what constitutes a “political scandal” or “uproar”. Many such things have happened in my country – imagine if your House of Parliament or State Council Castle were invaded, or mass harassment, smearing or profiteering on social media was what it is in the United States.

Many Americans don’t really bother with what’s going on in the rest of the world. I got the idea that your prime minister Sanna Marini – from whom I almost asked for asylum – Dancing and partying one late summer night was a “scandal” in Finland.

Read more: Before the end of the election week, American professor Erna Smith already had time to draft a personal letter of request for help to the Prime Minister of Finland

I think a quote from the Trump family is suitable for describing such a scandal, Donald Trump Jr I said: “it’s a big, fat, nothing-burger”.

If the number one decision-maker of the kingdom is caught smiling and dancing with people who are known not to be involved in crimes and ugly train rides, where do our scandals rank on the scale of scandals?

I could see that your prime minister’s actions were a “healthy recovery from hard work”. Especially if it has just appeared to Vladimir Putin middle finger by handling NATO accession.

Finland and Sweden are indeed joining NATO, but I assure you that the Finnish prime minister’s liberated August dance was much much much bigger and more impressive news here behind the rapako. At least according to the traditional, reputable media outlets I read, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Translated by Jyri Raivio and Tuija Pallaste. Production: Tuija Pallaste / HS

Read more: At the time of the last US election, I hoped for asylum in Finland, now I know I will stay in Texas

Read more: Before the end of the election week, American professor Erna Smith already had time to draft a personal letter of request for help to the Prime Minister of Finland