October 31, 2012
11,1 ^Jortlanh (Dbseruer
Page 13
Our Faith, Our Vote and God’s World
Join me in voting
by R ev . J ames M oos
r
I vote because I am
.acitizen. Yes, la m a
citizen of the United
States and I take civic
responsibilities seri
ously.
More importantly,
however, I am a citizen of G od’s
realm; as such 1 am called to live out
my faith in the public arena. This
means casting my vote not out of
economic self-interest, but for the
sake of all of God’s people and all of
creation, and especially on behalf of
the vulnerable and powerless.
I vote because of a little Palestin
ian girl named Siham in East Jerusa
lem who my wife and I sponsor
through Global Ministries’ Child
Sponsorship program. Siham’s
future and the prospects for
peace in the Middle East will be
deeply impacted by U.S. foreign
policy. Siham cannot hold our
nation’s leadership account
able, but we can.
I vote because I live in Cleve
land, Ohio, a city where 44 out of
every 100 adults over the age of 16
lack basic literacy skills. They can
not read a bus schedule, or write a
letter explaining a credit card billing
error. Through elections we both
demand better educational systems
and we support them.
I vote because 15 percent of
households in the wealthiest coun
try on earth lack food security. At
some point in the past year, they
had insufficient nutritional food to
lead healthy, active lives. While
private generosity is good and nec
essary in addressing these needs,
the structural inequities that under
lie them are matters of public policy.
I vote because, as a former mili
tary chaplain, I know all too well the
grief and trauma inflicted upon the
innocent and suffered by veterans
and their families during unjust and
seemingly never-ending wars. On
Nov. 6, we will choose the next Com-
mander-in-Chief.
I vote because the first eight
months of 2012 were the hottest on
record. South Pacific islanders are
being swamped by rising sea levels
due to global warming. The legisla
tors we choose will decide on
whether we take bold action, or con
tinue on the path of environmental
catastrophe.
I vote because nearly 50 million
Americans lack health insurance,
some of them are close friends and
family members. Access to quality
health care is not a privilege, it is a
human right. The future of that ac
cess will be determined on Election
Day.
1 vote because I affirm marriage
equality. In the land where the con
stitution guarantees equal protec
tion to all citizens, same gender lov
ing people are entitled to all the
rights and responsibilities of mar
riage. Elected officials and ballot
measures are keys to attaining and
maintaining marriage equality.
I vote because, while faith is in
tensely personal, it is never purely
private.
In his Letter from Birmingham
Jail, Martin Luther King chastised
his contemporaries who were “. . .
more cautious than courageous and
have remained silent behind the
anesthetizing security of stained
glass windows.”
Faith that is nurtured in the
church must be boldly lived out in
the world. In a democracy, the ballot
box is one place for us to live out that
faith. Please join me in voting.
Rev. James Moos is executive
minister o f Wider Church M inis
tries fo r the United Church o f Christ.
Supremely High Stakes in This Election
M arge B aker
The rig h ts o f
working fam ilies
acro ss A m erica
hang in the balance
this Election Day.
The future of laws protecting work
ing people— our right to safe work
ing conditions, to organize, and to
sue employers who have discrimi
nated against us — will depend on
who we elect.
But when it comes to workers'
rights, some of the most influential
government officials we’ll be vot
ing for are ones whose names don’t
actually appear on the ballot. Either
Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will
nominate Supreme Court justices
— as many as three — over the next
four years.
Those men and women, serving
lifetime appointments, have a pro
found impact on our nation’s laws
for a generation. Ronald Reagan's
by
administration ended a quarter cen
tury ago, but two of the Supreme
C ourt ju s tic e s he n o m in ated ,
A n to n in S c a lia and A nthony
Kennedy, continue to form the core
of a 5-4 majority that consistently
twists the law to favor big corpora
tions over the rights of individuals.
That 5-4 majority could be re
versed if Obama has a chance to
name our next Supreme Court jus
tices. H e’s already put Sonia
Sotomayor and Elena Kagan on the
Court, and they are exactly the kind
of judges we need on the nation’s
highest court. Both of them have a
clear commitment to our rights un
der the Constitution and a deep
understanding of the impact of the
law on the daily lives of Americans.
In contrast, Mitt Romney has
said he would nominate justices like
Scalia and his fellow pro-corporate
justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Tho
mas, and John Roberts. In case after
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case, they have confounded logic, all those years of discrimination.
ignored or overruled precedent, and These are the same justices who
ignored the plain meaning of laws in tossed out a nationwide class-ac
order to rule in favor of the powerful tion discrimination lawsuit on be
and against ordinary Americans, half of 1.5 million women employees
especially workers.
of Walmart who had shown they
It was Romney’s model justices were victims of systemic illegal dis
who notoriously told Lilly Ledbetter crimination.
They misinterpreted language in
Either Barack
the Age Discrimination in Employ
ment Act of 1967 to make it harder
Obama or Mitt
for victims of discrimination to win
Romney will nominate in court, giving it a different mean
ing from identical language in the
Supreme Court
1964 Civil Rights Act.
justices — as many as
But perhaps the most astonish
of their 5-4 rulings against work
three — over the next ing
ing people came earlier this year, in
four years.
a case called Knox v. SEIU.
Romney ’ s model justices made up a
— and every other woman who dis rule that makes it much harder for
covered her employer had for years public sector unions to raise the
been illegally paying her less than dues they need to effectively advo
her male counterparts — that they cate on behalf of workers — and
couldn’t sue for compensation for they did so even though neither
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party in the case even asked them to
consider the issue.
Every American deserves their
day in court. That is part of the
American ideal of justice, and it is
embedded in our Constitution. But
that “day in court” becomes noth
ing more than a charade if the judge
rules against you on the basis of
something you never even had a
chance to argue.
Over the next 20-30 years, the
Supreme Court will decide numer
ous cases involving the rights of
workers. These cases will affect
working Americans all over the coun
try. If Mitt Romney has a chance to
put his stamp on the Court, it will be
bad news for working people long
after he leaves office.
Marge Baker is the executive
vice president o f People For the
American Way. PFAW.org. Distrib
u te d
via
O th erW o rd s.
OtherWords. org.
THE LAW OFFICES OF
Patrick John Sweeney, PC.
Patrick John Sweeney
Attorney at Law
1549 SE Ladd
Portland, Oregon
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(503) 244-2081
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