>>Valley Patriot>>
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* E d i t o r i a l *
Election
Season
(10/04/07)
Election season is in full swing
here in the Valley with a special congressional election
in the 5th district this month and the general municipal
elections in November.
Few people, however, seem to care. During the Lawrence
primaries last month, only 12% of registered voters
bothered to brave the 80 degree weather and exercise
their right to vote. The numbers werent that much
better in either Methuen or Haverhill. In Lowell,
politicians decided that saving money was a little more
important than grass-roots democracy and didnt even
hold preliminary elections It was a sad day for
Lowells history, yet few seemed to notice.
This dangerous trend seems to be going unnoticed as fewer
people (and even fewer politicians) in the Valley show
any respect for our democracy or the mechanism by which
we safeguard it. We hope that the special congressional
election and the general municipal elections bring out
more voters on October 16th and November 6th
respectively.
Voting in the United States is not only a right, it is a
privilege. And it is the one way your voice can be heard
and make a real difference in your community.
You should not only vote but you should do so diligently.
Look at each candidate and where they stand on the
issues, make an educated decision as if you were
researching an applicant for a job opening at work.
Elections should not be popularity contests but a way for
voters to choose the best applicant for the job. Free and
open elections are a critical part of our democracy and
we will be in peril if we take them for granted.
In Iran most woman cannot vote , there are no religious
freedoms, due process rights, and homosexuals are
routinely executed, even publicly hung just for being
gay. Neither their president nor their culture values
freedom or democracy, yet last month Iranian president
Ahmadinejad had the nerve to come to this country because
the president of Columbia University invited and allowed
him to speak at the University.
Only in America do we naively give a voice and a platform
to a terrorist leader who routinely speaks of eliminating
Jews, and his hatred for Americans. Freedom of speech
does not mean that we must (or even should) allow leaders
from other countries that do not share those rights with
their own people to come here, lecture us on truth and
peddle their terrorist propaganda.
Instead of allowing Ahmadinejad to have an international
soapbox to spew more hatred toward Americans and Jews,
the president of Columbia should have been out on the New
York streets with the protesters demanding the Iranian
president stop his cruel treatment of his own people and
grant them the freedoms we foolishly granted to him.
So, when you (hopefully) go to the polls this election
season, we want you to think about the privileges you
have living here in the United States and how more than
2/3 of the world have no say at all over who will run
their government.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The October 2007 Edition
of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 15,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford, Amesbury, Newburyport
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Merrimack, Newburyport,
Westford, Acton, and Lowell.
Hampton & Salisbury Beach, (summers
only)
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