Published in the Colorado Daily 10/25/91
REVOLVING DOOR by Evan Ravitz
Brilliant editing on page 11 of the Oct 18-20 Colorado Daily.
The juxtaposition of the ad for the National Alliance for the
Mentally Ill featuring Lincoln: "Abraham Lincoln saved our
Union while he endured mental illness" (he was depressive)
with the article "Slavery Thrives": "there are
more slaves now than ever before" really makes one think:
Who wouldn't be depressed being President while human bondage
was destroying the country? And isn't Honest Abe rolling in his
grave now with slavery thriving 125 years later? Even if it's
economic more than legal slavery.
I feel anyone aware of US events is now depressed or in denial.
The Thomas H-earings dramatize a country divided male against
female, black against white, and especially, the rulers against
the ruled.
As the stock market soars to record highs, banks and farms are
failing faster than anytime since The Depression. This happened
before- in 1929. As world population soars, the Bushmaster plots
a "policy" of drilling, mining and cutting out the remaining
resources of the country and using our position as the #1 military
power on the planet to "control" (enslave?) the world
None of this can last. There is comic relief in seeing our new
Justice as The Daily's Dr. Rock portrayed him, Long Dong Silver
"rocking back and forth, like someone on the back ward in
the state mental hospital." With folks like Orrin The Hatchet
Man, Alan The Simpson and Arlen the Specter of Death co-starring,
all versus Anita Hill, like a beautiful but damaged Mother Earth
herself. What a show! Good symbolism!
World change is accelerating. Yet our government is either paralyzed
or lurching toward Ollie North's Rex 84 plan for suspending the
Constitution, instituting martial law, and establishing concentration
camps for dissenters. This plan was revealed during the Iran-Contra
hearings, but hushed up by Senator Inouye for "National Security"
reasons.
We need a government that can change with the times. We need a
"government of the people, by the people and for the people"
that Lincoln spoke of. Not of, by and for just the rich and powerful.
We need citizen democracy, the means of which is at hand- regular
voting on the issues- the tool for which is the telephone.
That's why we started the Voting by Phone Foundation two years
ago, right here in Boulder, first reported in the Daily.
We planned to have on the City ballot this November an initiative
to legalize phone voting, but a lawyer helping us gratis didn't
come through.
There are other lawyers and elections. We have 70 volunteers ready
to pass petitions, enough for a City initiative. If we had 700,
we could instead do a State initiative, which would be better
for several reasons.
Students in Colorado, please help us start a network of volunteers
all over the state to do this. Our new brochure tells all.
If you're depressed it might make you manic! Not as funny as the
Hearings. But real. Call 444-3596 for a free copy. Watch for it
real soon on campus. With the picture of Lincoln on the cover.
Evan Ravitz is a Boulder resident and an advocate of Voting by Phone.