i$) Minority & Small Business Week
Page A4
September 27. 2006
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views o f The Portland Observer
O pinion
Congress Impedes Our Right to Vote
BY JIIM.E
G reg
M athes
Government
ID puts up
obstacles
The House o f Representatives
passed a b ill that w ould require
voters to show a photo ID before
they are allowed to east their bal­
lots.
The b ill, known as the Federal
Election Integrity Aet is part o f the
governm ent's eraek down on ille ­
gal immigrants. However, hundreds
o f thousands o f American citizens
- the e ld e rly and ex-offenders
among them - could potentially be
denied their constitutional right to
vote i f this becomes law.
Though a Georgia judge recently
declared a sim ilar law unconstitu­
tional, Congress has decided to
move this b ill forw ard. I f this gov­
ernment is comm itted to ensuring
all Americans have a voice in the
political debate, then this issue has
to be tabled.. .for gixid.
According to a report sponsored
by the Justice Department, such a
requirement w ould disproportion­
ately affect Latinos and A frican-
Americans, the elderly, the home-
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Is this hill really about
voter integrity or is it a way
to make sure the conserv­
atives maintain power?
less, low-incom e people and mar­
ried women. Studies show these
groups are less like ly to carry a
photo ID.
Under the proposed law, voters
must prove citizenship w ith a photo
ID. Since most states don’ t require
citizenship to obtain a state ID or
d rive r's license, the only piece o f
identification on the approved list
that meets this requirement is a
passport, w hich can cost up to $ I (X).
Recent statistics indicate only 25-
percent o f voting age Americans
have a passport.
A few months ago. Congress
shocked many o f skeptics and re­
authorized the V oting Rights Act
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o f 1965, g iving all A m erican’ s free
and clear access to vote fo r the next
quarter century. Yet, here we are
once again debating who in America
should and should not vote.
The b ill's supporters contend
that this requirement w ould pre­
vent those ineligible to vote from
doing so. However, according to
the American C iv il Liberties Union,
a nonprofit organization dedicated
to preserving our constitutional
rights, less than 100 people have
been convicted o f election fraud in
the last four years.
K now ing this, we have to ask
ourselves: I f voter fraud is so un­
common, who are we trying to keep
people away from the polls? W ith
the stories o f voter intim idation that
came out o f Florida and O hio dur­
ing the 2(XX)and 2004 elections, we
have to wonder i f this b ill is an
attempt at legally keeping peopleof
co lo r - individuals most like ly to
vote progressive agendas - away
from the polls. Is this b ill really
about voter integrity or is it a way
to make sure the conservatives
maintain power?
Election reform is a serious issue
in this country. A nd it has to be
dealt w ith. But denying American
citizens the right to vote is not the
way to do it. By voting down this
b ill, the Senate can stand by the
com m itm ent it made to historically
disenfranchised people when it re­
authorized the V oting Rights Act.
Judge Greg Mathis is national
vice president o f Rainbow PUSH
and a national board member o f
the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference.
What the Pope
Should Have Said
in R osemary R aoeord R i ether
Pope Benedict X V I
aroused the fury o f the
Isla m ic w o rld w ith a
speech in w hich he as­
sailed the M uslim con­
cept o f holy war as a v io ­
lation o f G od's w ill and
nature. The Pope quoted
a 14th century Byzantine
e m p e ro r, M a n u e l II
Paleologus, w ho derided Islam and
its founder Muhammad fo r in tro ­
ducing “ things only inhuman and
e v il,” such as spreading the faith
by the sword. The Pope held up
C hristianity, by contrast, as a model
religion that promoted a "profound
encounter o f faith and reason.”
From many parts o f the Islam ic
w orld there were angry reactions to
the Pope's words, rem inding the
Pope o f the evil history o f Christian
crusades. A lth o u g h W e ste rn
Christians may think the crusades
are ancient history, these medieval
wars in w hich C hristian crusaders
slaughtered M uslim s and estab­
lished crusader states in Palestine
are v iv id memories fo r Muslim s.
Current Western threats against
Islam and invasions o f Islamic coun­
tries, such as Iraq, are seen as a
continuation o f the crusades. The
US and other Western nations who
and hatred between peoples. God
desires peace and love,
not war, he m ight have
said.
The Pope w ould then
turn to the history o f the
crusades and acknow l­
edge w ith sorrow that
C h ristia n ity has often
been w rongly used to
promote hatred and vio ­
lence against others, perhaps quot­
ing some pithy statements o f popes
who called fo r crusades against
Islam. He w ould then declare that
Christians must repent o f such re­
ligiously inspired war-making. He
would ask fo r forgiveness from "our
M uslim brothers and sisters” for
having wronged them in the past
by calling forcrusades against them.
He w ould end w ith a call fo r all
peoples to unite to overcome war
and violence, and to reject any use
o f religion to promote violence.
This speech, I suggest, w ould
have won the hearts o f M uslim s
around the w orld and w ould have
made the Pope welcome in Turkey
for his planned visit there on N o­
vember 28 o f this year rather than
putting this trip into jeopardy.
It w ould also have put C hris­
tians in the US and elsewhere on
notice that the language o f prom ot-
Current Western threats
against Islam and invasions of
Islamic countries, such as Iraq,
are seen as a continuation o f
the crusades.
Portland's Only Smooth Jazz Station
k ijz.c o m
promote such wars are regularly
referred to as “ crusaders" in the
M uslim press.
The Pope's words condemning
Islam and its founder fo r holy war,
w hile holding up C hristianity as
innocent o f any such w arlike ten­
dencies, has infuriated M uslim s
¡ng Western "a n ti-terro rist" wars
against the M u slim w orld in the
name o f a "crusade” (the term
George W. Bush actually proposed
fo r his wars against Afghanistan
and deeply damaged C a th o lic -
M uslim relations. In using a Byzan­
tine emperor to assail Islam, the
Pope also failed to reckon w ith the
fact that the Fourth Crusade (1201-
4 ),called by Pope Innocent III, was
diverted into an assault on the capi­
tal o f the B y z a n tin e e m p ire ,
Constantinople. The Cnisaders p il­
laged and occupied the city, lead­
ing to a weakening o f the Byzantine
w orld and its eventual fall to the
Muslims
I w ould like to suggest what the
Pope should have said about holy
war that would have won M uslim
good w ill and opened up new dia­
logue between these em battled
w o rld s. The Pope m ig h t have
opened w ith some generalities de­
ploring the current state o f war and
violence in the world. Then he would
remark that such tendencies to war
are deeply aggravated when re li­
gion and the name o f God are
w rongly used to foment violence
tion realized the volatile nature o f
this term and warned him against
his use o f it. But Christians need to
do more than not use the term "c ru ­
sade,” w hile continually the reality
o f such w ar and w arlike God-talk.
We need to confront the question­
able history o f such wars against
the M u slim w orld and the use o f
C hristianity to promote such wars.
Is it too late? Although my in flu ­
ence in Vatican circles is lim ited,
there is no reason why other C hris­
tian bodies. C atholic and Protes­
tant, m ight not come together to
p ublicly issue an apology to the
M uslim w orld fo r the crusades and
to call fo r a rejection o f m ilitarist
responses to terrorism and the use
o f religious language to ju s tify such
militarism.
and Iraq) are not acceptable.
Some more historically aware
advisors o f the Bush adm inistra­
Rosemary Radford Ruether is a
scholar, teacher and activist in the
Roman Catholic Church, and is
well known figure in Christian fem i­
nist theology.