To Vote, or Not to Vote, that is NOT the Question.

We are in the midst of political campaigns and debates as Election Day approaches. Actually, we have been living in the midst of campaigns for the entire year! I feel fatigued by it and am looking forward to the end of it on November 6th. Regardless, I recognize how important casting one’s vote is and how important it is to be a well informed voter.

I did not always feel this way. Before my emigration to this country, my voting or not voting was totally irrelevant. Why?

Well, imagine yourself living behind the iron curtain in so called Communist Poland where you would have to vote for the list of candidates preselected by the Communist Party.

On Voting Day, which was always a Sunday, you would go to the voting place, pick up your ballot, glance at it quickly, and promptly insert it into the slot of the voting box. Most likely that box would be positioned in front of a rectangular table decorated with flowers and flags. At that table you would see the faces of several Party officials, sitting there and watching you carefully.

Oh yes! There would be available one booth with a black or green curtain. You could enter that booth to pencil out a couple of names on the ballot. But why would you bother? Living there at that time you would understand that “your patriotic duty is to trust the Party,” so even entering that booth would be a sign of your distrust. You would also know that those watchful comrades at the decorated table would make a note of it, and sooner or later you would be questioned about it. After all, the Communist Party had ultimate power over your life—like having a job, a place to live, permission to move to another city or to travel abroad.

Coming to this country changed my perspective on voting dramatically. So today when someone tells me, “I will not vote because it does not make any difference,” I get upset and argue, “It does matter a great deal!”

Romney-Obama and Biden-Ryan debates

I do admit that living in this country for many years has dimmed the rosy picture of Democracy which I had at first. Still, I believe in our democracy. Learning about the Civil Rights Movement in this country contributed greatly to that belief. It preserved my optimism and hope for change in spite of some cynicism creeping into my heart.

Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, is known today as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement. It is the place where a quiet action by Rosa Parks sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. Ten years later, another spark ignited the fire of the Voting Rights Movement — the famous, bloody march from Selma to Montgomery.

Last year I took the opportunity to visit Selma and Montgomery to “touch” the reality of those places.

Selma, Alabama

Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma

The Edmund Pettus Bridge is the landmark in Selma that “witnessed” three attempts by the Voting Rights Movement to march peacefully to Montgomery. The first attempt on March 7, 1965 was bloody and ended at the bridge with the marchers being brutally beaten by Alabama State Troopers and forced to turn back. The last one on March 21 was successful — it took 4 days for protesters to walk to their destination, the state Capitol — this time with armed protection enforced by a U.S. District Court order. These marches led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act on July 9, 1965.

Cover of exhibit guide

Marchers on Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma.
Click on photo to watch the video “Faces in the Water.”

Entrance to The National Voting Rights Museum, Selma

At the desk of the Museum

Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery

Mementos from the Civil Rights Memorial Center

I experienced the women’s movement in this country during the 1970s and was strongly influenced by it. However, the women’s struggle for their voting rights had taken place much earlier in most countries including the United States. Somehow I did not take any special interest in the history of women’s suffrage until now.

It is amazing that women, half the population of this proudly democratic country, did not have the right to vote for over a century. Women had to take that issue into their hands and fight for that basic political right. Many dedicated their lives to it.

Women’s suffrage march in Washington, D.C., 1913

While I simply hated the unlimited power of the Communist Party in Poland, today I dislike and distrust the power of “Big Money” (corporate and individual) trying to influence and distort the democratic process in this country. That is why I believe in the importance of being an informed voter.

In my opinion the act of not voting is a form of betrayal of those who in the past suffered, and in some cases died, for the right to vote.

November 6th is Election Day — be sure to VOTE!

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Photo of exhibit guide from Southern Poverty Law Center. Photo of marchers from “Faces in the Water” video. Women’s suffrage photos source unknown. Photo of men and flag from back cover of Bridges published by Imani Press. Text and other photos copyright © 2012 by Alicja Mann.

Havel’s Star

Bright stars of the night… a strange idea was planted in my imagination a long time ago (in my childhood, I guess) that when a star is falling across the sky, it is a sign that someone is dying in a faraway place. It was a sad image and after some thought I decided to believe in a contrary concept—that when a person dies, their spirit goes up into the sky and… a star is born. So that’s why there are so many stars in the sky!

With a great sorrow I learned last Sunday that Václav Havel had died. My thoughts traveled immediately to beautiful Prague, to the starry sky above that city he loved. Although he died in his country house away from Prague, it is Prague that contains memories of Havel as a playwright, an intellectual, and as a leading dissident against the Communist system which consequently forced him to five years “residency” in prison.

Years later, after the Berlin wall fell—as the result of a hard won peaceful revolution by Eastern Europeans—Prague gained memories of Havel’s 14 years “residency” in a very different place, a presidential palace. He first became President of Czechoslovakia and later President of the Czech Republic.

Prague wrapped in the red power of Communism & Prague, a durable beauty of yesterday and tomorrow.

I am writing this today because I have been greatly influenced by Václav Havel’s writings — not so much as the playwright, but as the political activist and thinker. Coming from the same corner of the world, dealing with the same political and social issues, I have a special respect and adoration for the political activists and writers like Havel and Adam Michnik (of Poland) — for their vision, their passion and their intellectual leadership.

The only comfort one might have after Havel’s death is that his spirit is captured in his writings. So I spent an entire night re-reading pages and pages of Havel’s words.

Although I like Letters to Olga very much — it is a collection of Havel’s letters from prison to his first wife Olga Splichalova — I opted for some quotes from The Art of the Impossible, which is my favorite book by Havel. In this collection of speeches from the time of his presidency, Havel shares his views on today’s social and political issues.

Here I have the privilege to quote the words that resonate with me the most.

About Communism

Communism was not defeated by military force, but by life, by the human spirit….It was defeated by a revolt of color, authenticity, history in all its variety, and human individuality against imprisonment within a uniform ideology.

The totalitarian system of the communist type, as established in the former Soviet Union and subsequently imposed on all countries in the Soviet sphere of influence, not only destroyed political pluralism and the prospects of real political opposition, but annihilated politics itself as a field of practical human activity.

About politics

Despite the political distress I face every day, I am still deeply convinced that politics is not an essentially disreputable business; and to the extent that it is, it is only disreputable people who make it so….But it is simply that a politician must lie or intrigue. That is an utter nonsense, put about by people who—for whatever reasons—want to discourage others from taking an interest in public affairs.

When I look around the world today I feel strongly that contemporary politics needs a new impulse, one that would add a badly needed spiritual dimension. Perhaps this impulse will come from some place other than the postcommunist countries. Yet it seems to me that come it must.

The modern era has reached a point of culmination, and if we are not to perish of our modernness we have to rehabilitate the human dimension of citizenship as well as of politics. This is what I consider to be the principal challenge of our time, a challenge for the third millennium.

About democracy

Democracy is an open system, and thus is capable of improvement. Among other things, freedom provides room for responsibility. If that room is not sufficiently used, the fault does not lie with democracy, but it does present democracy with a challenge. Dictatorship offers no room for responsibility, and thus it can generate no genuine authority.

About power

It is obvious that those who have the greatest power and influence also bear the greatest responsibility. Like it or not, the United States of America now bears the greatest responsibility for the direction our world will take. The United States, therefore, should reflect most deeply on this responsibility.

About death

With a little exaggeration we might say that death, or the awareness of death—this most extraordinary dimension of man’s stay on this earth, inspiring dread, fear, and awe—is at the same time a key to the fulfillment of human life in the best sense of the word….Death gives us a chance to overcome it—not by refusing to recognize its existence, but through our ability to look beyond it, or to defy it by purposeful action.

Knowing that Havel liked jazz, I chose Jan Garbarek’s composition titled We are the Stars to honor him. I am pretty sure that he would like it and I hope you will like it too. Click on the title above to hear the music and here are the words.

For we are the stars. For we sing.
For we sing with our light.
For we are birds made of fire.
For we spread our wings over the sky.
Our light is a voice.
We cut a road for the soul
for its journey through death.

Have a peaceful Holiday — Alicja

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Text copyright © 2011 by Alicja Mann.
Photos of the book covers: first- Prague Time Life Books © 1980, second- Prazsky Hrad by Karel Plicka © 1962.