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What happened to our vote?

My Thoughts

Dr. Bill Atwood

(Updated: Thursday, August 12, 2010, 12:02 PM)

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from a reader who suggested a column regarding the low voter turnout in the last election. I told him I would write one just prior to the next election to encourage people to express their opinions at the ballot box.

While asking a few folks why they hadn't bothered to vote, I heard the same refrain over and over again. "It doesn't matter any more" or "The judges just overturn what we vote in."

A couple of weeks ago a local man wrote a letter to the editor of the Fresno Bee regarding the legalization of Marijuana. The local man was in favor of it being legalized and one of the main arguments was that the people wanted to see it legalized. It was not an issue that the use of marijuana might be harmful or lead to other habits. This local writer stated that the people spoke at the ballot box to legalize the drug so that should have ended the issue.

I wonder if that same writer would be the corner with the folks who just watched a judge negate for the second time the voters preference on what the definition of marriage should be. I wonder if that same writer is upset that the courts have struck down death penalty laws as a matter of course.

The people of this state have been supportive of keeping the definition of marriage to mean a union between a man and a woman. The people of this state have stated at the ballot box that they want the death penalty carried out.

I do not want to discuss the positions of Prop. 8 or the death penalty but the issue of the activists judges that have usurped the Constitution and have taken away the right of the people to vote laws into or out of existence.

Study the history of California and you will see the concept from the early years of the last century of "Petition, Referendum and Recall" which allowed the voters to handle the business that the elected ones were ignoring.

There are many elections in which my favorite candidate has lost or the propositions I have supported went down to defeat. I don't like the fact that school bonds must pass with a 66.6% vote which allows every no vote to cancel out two yes votes. Many school bonds garner 50 to 60 % and yet fail to get that high level required. However, that is what the voters stated was the threshold so I must live with it. No court challenge, just live with it or place an initiative on the ballot and change the law.

These judges must be stopped from taking away our votes. Millions speak their mind and a few unhappy folks bring the lawsuit, find the sympathetic jurist and voila; the vote is cancelled.

Ask any immigrant who has become a citizen and many treasure the value of the ballot. They studied to gain that right that those born here got so easily.

Last July 4, the television stations broadcasted a ceremony of enlisted military folks in Iraq being made into our newest citizens. There they were a half a world away, wearing the uniform of our nation, and when they had awakened that morning were not citizens but after the ceremony they cheered and wept at their new role and all their newly acquired rights. One being the right to vote. Any from California might begin to wonder if his/her vote would matter to a Federal judge.

Judicial legislation is not granted in the Constitution of the United States to judges. When we vote for candidates we need to think about who they will appoint to the bench.

Remember that the issue isn't Prop. 8. The issue is that one individual in a robe behind the bench cancelled out the voted expressed will of the citizens of this state. He ruled it wrong because it was voted on a moral belief.

I'm sorry; laws are based on moral beliefs. Remember Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not bear false witness. Thou shall not steal. Oh that's right; he can't read those words because other judges banned the Ten Commandments from public buildings.

Shameful!