Our Servicemen and Women Deserve To Have Their Ballots On Time

As America moves into a larger world leadership role it is logical our military will become more important for all of us, and along with this we will give our soldiers and sailors and airmen greater respect. This country got in a nasty habit in the 1960's of demonizing anything that had to do with the military, and for a long time it was a basic tenet of liberal thought that the American military was low on our ladder of respect. In recent years, thank goodness, we have come to realize that Vietnam veterans were some of American history's greatest heroes. And during the Gulf War we learned just what special people our servicemen and servicewomen are. Now, especially after Afghanistan, the world knows this nation has the power, if it chooses, to enforce world peace.

But every once in a while we drift back to the Hippie attitude of the `60's. Give you an example. Remember when all the Bush-Gore voting bruhaha was going on in Florida. In Democrat-leaning counties they were counting chads and every news organization in America was right there with their number one commentators. At the same time in some Republican-leaning counties it came out that a sizeable number of servicemen's votes had not been allowed ... and practically no news organization saw fit to cover that.

Well, the other day here in Georgia, a small news item came out noting our state had missed the deadline for issuing absentee ballots. Georgia's Secretary of State said the reason was because of the complications caused by redistricting, and that is about all we have heard about it. But the fact is most early absentee ballots are issued to people who are residents of Georgia and happen to be located temporarily in other parts of the world ... and who do you think the majority of those people are? They are the men and women who are serving their country overseas ... most of them in the military. It strikes me the fact Georgia was late getting its absentee ballots ready runs the risk of disenfranchising a lot of our military people at a time when they have earned better treatment than that.

This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.