How Important Is It To Prove Who You Are?
Dale Carnegie once said the sweetest sound to any person is the sound of his or her own name. If your name was Joe and I continued to call you Steve you would probably correct me.
I remember working with someone whose name was Robert. You would make the mistake of calling him Bob only once.
Our Name Is Who We Are
Without some form of identifier we would all be just moving bodies with no real feeling of individuality. While we do conform in some areas to fit in we still have a style all our own.
If there were no names how would you greet someone — “Hey, You?” Even George Lucas felt the need for R2D2 and C3PO to have identifying monikers.
How Many Minorities Can We Insult?
One of our political parties is up in arms that some states are establishing requirements that voters show one of several choices of ID before being permitted to both register and vote at their polling place.
The bone of contention seems to be that this places a hardship on those who vote heavily for one party over the other. Even though the rules apply equally to both parties.
There are poor, black, Hispanic, handicapped and elderly Republicans just as there are poor, black, Hispanic, disabled and elderly Democrats that both want to exercise their political franchise and vote.
It would seem that those who require and ID to vote for one party are being demeaned by their own party.
The poor, black, elderly, Hispanic, disabled Republican voters seem to have no beef in obtaining or showing some kind of ID to both register and vote.
Yet the other party seems to feel that unless it is made easier for all their demographic groups there is massive voter abuse.
Why are poor, black, Hispanic, handicapped, Republicans able to obtain the necessary documents while their poor, black, Hispanic, handicapped, Democrat voters somehow are not?
Why would Republicans ever want to consider loosing even one single vote from any demographic groups? Is the possibility of crossover a problem for them?
Most states allow you to register by mail. You don’t have to leave your home even to vote by absentee ballot.
It would seem that the removal of the very identity that makes us, us is being removed and our vote is now generic and no longer “our vote.”
Getting all races and colors to the polls equally is the goal. But some feel the playing field is uneven.
It would not be uneven if the same requirements applied to all.
And they do.
Color, Race, Creed, Sex, Country of Origin, height, weight, income, and physical ability is the same for all. A poor black Republican may have exactly the same challenges as a poor black Democrat.
Only totally blocking one over the other would be unfair and discrimination.
Some Final Thoughts
It’s easy to make a powerful emotional case for almost any topic. There is always an area of unfairness. People under 55 can’t order off the senior menu at Perkin’s.
But anyone of any color or physical ability can just by being the correct age.
Is that age discrimination to the under 55 crowd?
Are they being saddled with some kind of monetary hardship?
No process is fair to everyone. You have to have the grades to be admitted to many colleges. Many jobs require a degree in the chosen discipline.
Looking at this issue from all sides it would seem that Shakespeare had it right. We are making much “ado about nothing.”
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