TX Dems Need Lesson in Real Sacrifice
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
July 19, 2021

I recently penned a column denouncing the calling of the wayward Texas Democrats “brave, courageous and making sacrifices.” They are and have done none of those things in abandoning their sworn duties as well as the constituents they are duty bound to represent.

These indolent Texas Democrats have made unconscionable claims that the bill to protect the rights of voters is racist, an attack on democracy, and even a return to the days of Jim Crow prior to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Those claims, many made  by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris should be viewed as an affront to all those men, women, and children who endured true struggle, made enormous sacrifices, some even the ultimate sacrifice of life and limb. Texas SB-7 pertaining to election integrity and security makes it easier to vote and harder to cheat by streamlining several aspects of the state’s voting laws. 

In order to ensure election integrity, voters are required to provide photo identification, exhibit signature verification, a chain of custody and a paper receipt will be provided to voters, voter rolls will be updated prior to every election, and partisan witnesses from the several parties will observe the vote count. There is nothing racist, discriminatory, or disenfranchising about SB-7. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made it perfectly clear that any Texas citizen of voting age would be given an ID - gratis - if unable to afford one.

No polling places are permitted in a tent or parking garage; drive-through voting is not curbside voting, which is allowed for those unable to enter their polling station. While curbside voting is limited ostensibly to the disabled, drive-through voting would require many more poll workers and poll watchers.

When requesting a ballot by mail, it must contain the voter’s signature and identification number. If the voter does not have a driver’s licence, the last four digits of the Social Security number will be just as acceptable. Mass mailing of ballots to entire populations is out - voters must request their own ballot. This absolutely will diminish fraudulent votes from being cast. Ballot harvesting is also not permitted and its ban will have similar results as individual ballot requests. It is also a felony to pay for votes.

Voting hours are expanded in the two week lead up to Election Day - mandated for 12 hours per day in counties with populations greater than 30,000 citizens, an improvement from those with more than 100,000 citizens. Polls can be open for any 12 consecutive hour period between 6 AM and 9 PM, and companies are required to allow workers early dismissal on Election Day. (Quite frankly, a uniform 6 AM to 8 PM for all polling locations should be the rule.)

Poll watchers cannot be kicked out of polling stations and poll workers must be able to see the actual vote counting. Cities with populations greater than 100,000 must provide live streaming of the vote counting in polling stations. Additionally, all votes must have a paper trail and an online tracker for mail-in ballots and applications. New machines with this capability will be installed by 2026.

Polling locales are based upon the numbers of registered voters in a given county. The counties set the locations, which are supposed to be convenient for the voters - such as on public transit routes and accessibility for the disabled. The Democrats complained about this particular item because they claim there are fewer polling stations in poor and minority communities. They should work harder to register more voters.

No legal voter is being denied their right to vote. No legal voter is being disenfranchised.

Did any of the runaway Democrats from Texas get their heads bashed in the way the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis was attacked? Or any other of the other hundreds of marchers on that “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965 who were attacked, beaten, and imprisoned? They were marching and fighting for real, genuine voting rights, a bill that would be enacted later that year upon the signature of President Lyndon Johnson.

And how obtuse is Biden, making outlandish claims that voter ID laws in places like Texas and Georgia are “literally like the Civil War.” Really? The bloodiest war ever fought on American soil, seeing the deaths of greater than 600,000 Americans - that is not as bad as asking legally registered voters to show identification proving they are who they say they are? In fact, the most recent claims of voter intimidation were during the 2016 presidential election in Philadelphia when the New Black Panther Party attempted to frighten white voters away from their polling stations.

Andersonville, Antietam, Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, Vicksburg. Were those bloodiest of battles less destructive, less painful in terms of loss, than the content of the voter integrity bill in Texas? How about the sacrifice made by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry - an all Black regiment? Led by white commanders who lost their lives alongside their own troops, the 54th lost 281 of its 600 men in battle at Fort Wagner, SC. This spurred more than 100,000 Black men to volunteer with the Union Army. Was their sacrifice of lesser significance than the voting rights bills in Texas and Georgia? 

“We are facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That’s not hyperbole,” Biden said during a speech on July 13 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Has Biden forgotten about the assassinations of presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John Kennedy? How about the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 or the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001? Does he even know the definition of hyperbole?

How Biden can have the unmitigated audacity to call the newly amended and improved voting laws in Texas and Georgia, “Jim Crow 2.0,” and “Jim Crow on steroids,” is the antithesis of sanity. He also said “The 21st Century Jim Crow assault is real,” at the same July 13 speech. Perhaps Biden, in his advancing senility, forgot what really occurred during the evil era of Jim Crow. Such as no Blacks voting in entire counties of the Deep South, or Blacks being given virtually impossible literacy tests - interpreting parts of a state’s constitution to the satisfaction of the county clerk or other official who denied those citizens their 15th Amendment right to vote on a racist whim; or being given the ridiculous task of counting the bubbles in a bar of soap or leaves on a tree. Not to mention the egregious poll taxes preventing Blacks from voting, which came to an end upon the ratification of the 24th Amendment on January 23, 1964. 

Some who don’t understand the history of the United States consider this country to be evil because change was not revolutionary, but instead evolutionary, and label the United States as perpetually and systemically racist. A systemically racist country does not elect and reelect a Black president, elect a woman of color vice president, have many Black men and women appointed to high governmental positions by white presidents both Democrat and Republican, and have Black athletes and entertainers revered by millions of white fans.

If anyone is attempting to dismantle the voting processes and system it is Biden, Harris, and their ilk in attempting to federalize all elections - a clear violation of the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution. 

By tightening some of the previously loose policies, less voter fraud should occur, it should be easier to vote, and harder to cheat. The Democrat legislators fleeing Texas and their elected responsibilities are not brave in the least. They are afraid they will lose power with better, more streamlined voting policies. This is not a GOP power grab as they are already in the majority in Texas. The Democrats are hypocrites for wanting to end the filibuster on the federal level, but on the state level they want to avoid their responsibilities while still being remunerated as they hide out in Washington, DC.

According to the Dallas Morning News of July 14, Texas legislators are paid $7,200 per year ($600 per month) as well as a per diem of $221 for each of the 140 days of the legislative session, held every other year, for a total of $38,140. The runaway Democrats should be required to return their salary and per diem for every day they remain absent from the ongoing legislative session. This most assuredly is not sacrifice. Genuine sacrifice was made by Black soldiers fighting one war overseas, then returning to fight another war at home. Real sacrifice was made by Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, and Clarence Thomas. As for the Texas Democrats, theirs is the act of spoiled obsequious weasels, cowards, and malcontents. The voters of Texas best remember this come next Election Day and send those Democrats packing for a permanent vacation away from Austin.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

September 11 - What Real Sacrifice Looks Like

September 11 - What Real Sacrifice Looks Like
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
September 9, 2018

September 11 falls, yet again, on a Tuesday, just as it had in 2001. The day started out as a picture-perfect peaceful, bucolic day - bright sunshine, puffy, innocent white clouds - only to be permeated by death, destruction, devastation, and terrorism.

While the pre-ordained intent of the 19 Islamic extremist terrorists became clear upon impact, and the loss of human life intentional - male and female, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim, the nearly 3,000 slaughtered became the first casualties of the current war on terrorism.

A brief timeline of the harrowing events of September 11, 2001:

Between 7:59 AM and 8:42 AM four flights take off from Boston’s Logan, Washington’s Dulles, and Newark airports, each headed for Los Angeles except the Newark flight, headed to San Francisco.

8:46 AM: American Airlines flight #11 is flown into #1 World Trade Center - the North Tower - by five Muslim extremist hijackers murdering the 11 crew, 76 passengers and hundreds inside the tower instantly. This is an example of unintended, yet real sacrifice.

9:03 AM: United Airlines flight #175 is flown into #2 World Trade Center - the South Tower - by five Muslim extremist hijackers murdering the nine crew, 51 passengers, and hundreds inside the tower instantly. This is an example of unintended, yet real sacrifice.

9:05 AM: President George W. Bush is alerted to what is now believed to be terrorist attacks. “Terrorism against our nation will not stand,” said Bush.

9:37 AM: American Airlines flight #77 is flown into the Pentagon in Arlington, VA by five Muslim extremist hijackers murdering the six crew, 53 passengers, as well as 125 military and civilian personnel on the ground. This is an example of unintended, yet real sacrifice.

9:59 AM: The South Tower collapses in 10 seconds after burning 56 minutes. More than 800 civilians and first responders are murdered. This is an example of unintended, yet real sacrifice.

10:03 AM: United Airlines flight #93 crashes into a field in Shanksville, PA when passengers and crew storm the cockpit. There are no survivors of the seven crew and 33 passengers due to the murderous plot by the four Muslim extremist hijackers. Flight #93 was 20 minutes from Washington, DC where the White House and/or the Capitol Building were the presumed targets. This is an example of intended sacrifice - heroism, in fact, knowingly sacrificing their lives in an effort to prevent thousands more from perishing should that plane had reached its intended target.

10:15 AM: The damaged section of the Pentagon E-Ring collapses.

10:28 AM: The North Tower collapses after burning 102 minutes. More than 1,600 civilians and first responders are murdered. This is an example of unintended, yet real sacrifice.

5:20 PM: World Trade Center #7 collapses. The 47 story building had already been evacuated and no fatalities are reported.

8:30 PM: President George W. Bush addresses the nation.

The sacrifices made by the nearly 3,000 victims, intended or unintended, are supreme - they are lost to us forever except in our memories and the memorials in New York City, Arlington, VA, and Shanksville, PA. Having grown up in the shadows of the original World Trade Center, it had been more than a decade since visiting, until this summer when my wife, daughter, and I finally made it to One World Trade Center to see the new tower and the memorials where we could pay respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice - family friends like Lee Adler.

While thousands of people were naturally fleeing the scenes of the terrorist attacks in efforts to save themselves, there were hundreds of first responders moving just as deftly toward the falling towers, toward the burning Pentagon attempting to rescue total strangers from all walks of life without asking about their backgrounds, religious beliefs, ethnic origins, or sexual orientation. These men and women also made the supreme sacrifice - many of whom never made it home to their families.

Additionally, there are multitudes of first responders who, 17 years later, are suffering from myriad cancers related to toxic dust from the terror sites in New York City and Arlington. For those still in these dire circumstances, they should visit the Victims Compensation Fund website: www.vcf.gov. 

When the stories of the suffering endured by the people who made genuine sacrifice are recalled, I find it more than just insulting that a football player should be made the face of a sneaker company with the tagline: “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.” 

This ballplayer has sacrificed nothing. He made a decision to grandstand by refusing to stand for the National Anthem of the United States in an effort to bring attention to an issue of concern to him. Most people remember him taking a knee, but not the reason for doing so, thus defeating the purpose. Had this player requested space in any newspaper in the country for the purposes of an editorial, it would have been granted.

I am a fervent supporter of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and that free speech is the bellwether of the success of this country. “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it,” credited to Evelyn Beatrice Hall (1868-1956), speaks volumes and I agree with it strongly. I think players who take a knee are wrong for doing it, and I don’t have to buy the products they endorse, but it is still their right, however misguided, to do so. However, let the consequences fall where they may. 

Opine before the media - give interviews, write editorials - attention will be paid, and agree or disagree, your rights will most certainly be defended. Taking a knee is a publicity stunt that is offensive to those who served and continue to serve - some of whom are unable to stand or take a knee because of the genuine sacrifices they have made.

Now, apparently, this particular player is suing his former league for collusion. Bottom line, if he were a quality player, he would be in uniform today. There are many players, unfortunately, who have committed felonies and are still playing pro ball. No, he has sacrificed nothing, and now he is being rewarded for his petulance.

In addition to remembering the sacrifices made by those who died on September 11, and in the subsequent battles, we must also maintain our faith. I offer a selection from Jewish liturgy as this year, September 11, is also the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

“Save us because of Your mercy. Shield us from enemies and pestilence, from starvation, sword, and sorrow. Remove the evil forces that surround us, shelter us in the shadow of Your wings. You O G-d, guard us and deliver us. You are a gracious and merciful King. Guard our coming and our going, grant us life and peace, now and always.”

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He grew up in northern New Jersey in the shadow of the Twin Towers. On September 11, 2001, he was writing for a newspaper in northern Virginia, 10 minutes from the Pentagon.