Take It From a Hundred Year Old: Vote If You Don’t Want a Tyrant King

By Ida Cohen

The United States uniquely defied thousands of years of governments led by kings, by creating a country of laws. The cry of the times, “No taxation without representation!” The people’s will would be reflected by their votes. No kings for us!

How ironic, “All men are created equal…” when the fathers of our ‘free’ country, at that time, depended on slave labor. Not slaves as before in centuries past, when a conqueror, after winning, took the losers of war as slaves. No, we invented a new system that captured peaceful people and decided their kind would be slaves in perpetuity; We sent ships, insured, of course, and captured or bought people for the only purpose of securing free labor. They intended for these people, previously free people, to be slaves. And they were. They would be slaves, their children’s children would be slaves.

This was a culture that needed a civil war to correct, but correction did not occur. It took until 1965 when, at last, a law was passed that enabled all citizens to vote. That is our history. Now someone has come along, who disagrees with this. An autocrate, a despot. He is ignoring our form of government,the development of which has taken years, one step forward two steps back, to occur. Will enough men— and, of course, I mean women also.– realize what we lose if Trump wins? The next election will decide our governmental future. I hope reason will prevail.

While we have created a fairly good system of law, we haven’t yet figured out how to perfect it so that all people, no matter their condition, can live as they choose. While we don’t have a king, we have billionaires in both parties, who often wield their power unfairly. Right now they are winning.

This problem, so far, is in contention as never before. It is a very, very difficult problem. It defies human capabilities and desires. We all want to be billionaires, don’t we? Maybe this climate crisis will destroy us. Or maybe we will finally be able to create a government that will be forced to grant real equality for us all. This election could, at least, put us back on the right track, I hope! What I know is if we don’t want a tyrant king we all better vote!