Chicken Little is right, the sky is falling with the California recall election looming in the near future

Chicken Little is right, the sky is falling with the California recall election looming in the near future

To the Editor:

Oh, dear, oh dear, the sky is falling, Chicken Little is right. The whiner-babies are out and crying in full force now about the coming recall election in California. It's too confusing and too chaotic, they say. The August 1, 2003 headline on the Contra Costa Times screamed, "Recall chaos." Really, now, it just a case of democracy breaking from our traditional dollarcracy, in which the political establishment hand-picked the candidates, framed the issues and controlled the media. Real democracy is very scary to our political establishment.

Actually, the coming recall election on October 7, which will decide if Gray Davis is to remain the Governor of California or is to be replaced, is simplicity itself. The ballot is in two parts. In the first part, one votes "yes" or "no" on the proposed recall of Governor Davis. In the second part, one picks one replacement candidate from the list of many.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) thinks that this election, which is over two months away, should be delayed until November. "Having voters educated to participate is a citizen's right in this country," said Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP. Educated, brain-washed or propagandized by corporate media, who knows? The NAACP seems to be saying that black voters are too dumb to actually read their sample ballot packet, find their polling place and too dumb to understand this two-part recall ballot. This sounds like racism to me.

Of course, one can easily request an absentee ballot and simply vote at home and mail in the ballot before election day. But that would require filling out the absentee ballot application form and spending thirty-seven cents on postage.

Actually, there may be a silver-lining to this wide open recall election. After the election, the State of California can sell sample copies of the recall election ballot on eBay for ten dollars each. What a unique souvenir of this election with hundreds of candidates listed. People from around the country and around the world will be happy to pay to get this unique electoral memento, a veritable keepsake. The state can probably pay off a part of its record deficit with these sales.

Yours truly,

James K. Sayre

1 August 2003