Friday digest-open thread 2/22/08

So far, this has been a presidential election season of historic turnouts and inspiring moments, but something happened in Waller County, Texas, this week that recalled the glory days of the women's suffrage and civil rights movements. More than a thousand students from Prairie View A & M University marched seven miles to the county seat of Hempstead, the nearest early voting location for Texans' March 4 primary, to mark their ballots and protest the fact that there wasn't a closer polling place to campus.

Prairie View A & M is a historically black university in a rural county near Houston, and state Rep. Sylvester Turner told reporters that Waller County has a history of thwarting its students' attempts to vote. From the Houston Chronicle (full story here):

Freshman Brittney Veasey, who was voting for the first time, said she took the 2 1/2 -hour journey because she believes her vote will make a difference.

"I feel like we're making history today," she said. "Instead of making it inconvenient, students should be encouraged to vote."

Last week, under pressure from federal authorities, Waller County officials added three temporary polling places for early voting, ditching plans to open only one voting site in advance of the March 4 primary.

The Justice Department questioned the county's original decision to cut early-voting sites from a half dozen throughout the county to one in Hempstead. Officials said the county could not afford equipment or staff to operate the additional sites.

Score one for democracy.

Or maybe not: Reflecting on the strong interest in this year's elections, Michelle Obama told a Milwaukee rally on Monday that, "For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change." Conservative commentators pounced on what many perceived as a lack of patriotism, but Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly soon found himself nationally reviled for this statement on his radio show (audio here):

"I don’t want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there’s evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that’s how she really feels — that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever — then that’s legit. We’ll track it down."

Ironically, O'Reilly's comment came just a week after President George W. Bush condemned noose displays and jokes about lynching. "The noose is not a symbol of prairie justice, but of gross injustice,'' the president said at a Black History Month event at the White House. "Displaying one is not a harmless prank. Lynching is not a word to be mentioned in jest.'' Then again, this week's news also brought more commentary on the recent news that Bush's family held slaves in Maryland.

As we reported last week, Conversation Cafe is looking for questions to spark discussion at its Conversation Week 2008 one month from now. More than 600 questions have been narrowed to 50, and voting is now open for the Top 10 finalist questions. Watch this video at QuantumShift.tv, then click here to rate the finalists.

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Comments

[Carrie]

Wow, it's inspiring to see so many young people turning out to vote in the primaries. Maybe it will be the youth vote that decides the Texas primary!

[Julie Fanselow]

I'll say, Carrie! And not just turning out but volunteering and - in this case - marching to make a point about how our society could become **much** more accommodating to voting and other acts of citizenship.

Peter Levine of CIRCLE has been doing some good analysis lately on the youth turnout and broader youth civic engagement. Click my name for his latest post from a week ago.