VA BILL Op-Ed

by Da'Quan Marcell Love

Governor McDonnell has a choice to make when it comes to voting rights.  With the stroke of his pen, he can either protect voter access to the ballot box or he can add unnecessary hardships to eligible citizens who seek to exercise their fundamental right to vote.

If the Governor chooses to sign Senate Bill 1, the state’s new Election Day voter identification requirement, over five million registered voters will experience unnecessary scrutiny and potential disenfranchisement in the upcoming elections. The law will have its greatest impact on the registered minority, rural, elderly, and impoverished communities. 

Proponents of the Virginia law point to small incidents of voter fraud convictions as evidence. A recent article in The Times-Dispatch cites only 38 people charged from 400 fraud allegations in 2008. Only 26 of those allegations are still being actively investigated. These fraudulent voting allegations are a fraction of the 3.7 million Virginians who voted in the 2008 elections.

Of the cases prosecuted in central Virginia, The Times-Dispatch reported that most fraudulent cases involved former offenders who are stripped of their voting rights at conviction. None of the cases involved identity fraud at the polls. Virginia’s election integrity will benefit more from disbanding felony disenfranchisement laws than implementing these new restrictions.

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The War on Women

by Evette Dionne

When the United States arrived in Europe to combat Adolf Hitler’s brutal regime during World War II, one of the most precious casualties of war were women. 400,000 thousand of us were used and mistreated in an effort to “comfort” Japanese soldiers. These comfort women were lured from their homes, kidnapped, and forced into unpaid prostitution. Some of the victims were held at gunpoint and brutally raped repeatedly while others were hogtied and tortured for pleasure. Even after the war ended and Japanese government apologized for this harsh mistreatment of women, the emotional and physical scars remained.

In 2012, women are still oppressed, though the method of suppression is much different. The war on women and our reproductive rights is thriving without a measurable solution in sight. Harmful legislative initiatives and policies are being proposed in the United States’ Congress. All of these tyrannical measures, including the defunding of Planned Parenthood and the redefinition of rape, are designed to inhibit women and suppress our freedoms.

According to Karen Teegarden, founder of UniteWomen.org, legislation that impacts women and our reproductive rights have been passed in the 112th United States Congress and in numerous states with Republican-controlled legislatures. In 2011, state legislatures enacted 135 provisions affecting women's reproductive rights.

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Circumventing the Student Loan Crisis

by Jason R. Scott

The road to higher education was once clearly paved, with college being an automatic next step after high school. This allowed many other choices to take precedence over how college would be paid for. School choices, majors, and even potential fraternities were often juggled in the minds of recent high school grads preparing for the biggest journey of their lives. This is simply not the case anymore.  Obtaining a student loan isn’t the simple process it once was and going to college now requires intense financial planning. When I went to college in 1999, things were much different.  My father provided the sole income in our home; therefore, the prospect of my parents footing the bill for my college education was bleak, at best. Fortunately, there was far less red tape to cut through back then.  Borrowing money for school was as simple as filling out a FAFSA and waiting on a check.  There was no credit check, no lengthy waiting lists, nor any participation needed on my parents’ behalf.  Though the process was much smoother then, the $40K bill that I sit on today is a mistake I could’ve avoided with proper planning.

Recently, student loans have become a nationwide hot topic. Economists say the student-loan burden now totals over a trillion dollars! Combined with stagnant job growth, students are being put into a major dilemma.  The issue has become so pressing it has even taken center stage as a major voting factor for the 2012 Election. Often recent grads are often forced into subpar jobs and are subsequently wedged between making rent or student loan payments. However, a hands-on approach to education by parents will make a crucial difference. For instance, there are tax-deductible programs such as 529 plans, which allow parents to stash money away for their children’s future education. There are also government programs such as: Upward Bound and Talent Search, and which expose high school students to career exploration. Spending years of college ‘discovering oneself’ may prove to be financially catastrophic.  Areas of talent and potential must be honed in on during high school—creating a clearer path into secondary education.  Additionally, maintaining higher GPAs will position students to receive scholarships as opposed to depending solely on loans.  With time comes change, and now students must take the initiative and spearhead their futures wisely and meticulously. Ten years from now, who’s to say what the process will be for financing college. However, we must make endless strides to educate our youth today to avoid the pitfalls of financial ruin in their tomorrow.

Reaching Across the Aisle and Finding Political Identity

by Troy Lilly

Here we are again, in the midst of a contentious election year. Not only is the president’s job up for grabs, but voters must elect governors in more than 10 states, along with members  to national, state and local legislative bodies. As with any campaign season, there is an opportunity for dreams to be realized or brushed aside.
Following the historic election of President Barack Obama in 2008, and for only the second time in recent memory, there is increasing speculation about the voting habits of young black Americans. Will they “rock the vote” as emphatically as they did just four years ago? For a group of virtually invisible black youth, there’s no question as to whether they will vote, but rather how they will vote.

While embracing their inalienable right to influence public policy, they discovered that their political views do not fall in line with the platform of just one party. Some have discovered that they are socially and fiscally conservative; that the ideas of “spreading the wealth” and expanding the role of government through social initiatives are irresponsible. A small but growing number of young black voters have abandoned both major parties altogether, choosing instead to fight the political establishment as independents.

I pose this question about these contemporary subgroups of African American voters: are they wrong? Many people believe they are.

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