It’s Memorial Day.  A day when we honor those who fought and died on behalf of our nation to preserve its ideals and values, and our freedom.  A day when we honor them and their sacrifice.  Their families’ sacrifice. 

Bearing that in mind, this might seem like an odd post, but bear with me.  It is relevant and does those things, just not in the way you typically see it done.

Many hate politics and don’t want to hear about it.  I understand.  I really do.  But if you’ve been conscious of the impact of politics on your daily life only during this virus shut down, you have discovered (or rediscovered) the importance of not sitting on the sidelines but of engaging and exercising your rights, including the right to vote.

I am referencing national level politics but also state and local level politics.  During this national emergency, state and local leaders have deemed which businesses are essential and non-essential.  Some state and local leaders have determined liquor stores and abortion clinics essential and churches non-essential.  This “choosing” relates the direct impact on you and on me in very real and critical ways.

Ask yourself these questions:  When do most people turn to God and plead for help, for divine intervention?  When do those who rarely pray reach out to others to request prayer?  When do most people grasp that we are three-dimension human beings—physical, emotional and spiritual—and for balance, we must nurture and tend to all three?

In crises. 

Yet, religious leaders were prohibited from tending the spiritual needs of those in crisis.  Those who were not prohibited were substantially hindered.  We’ve all heard the reports of them being arrested for presiding at funerals.  For holding drive-in services.  For daring to open their church doors, so that those who wished to attend worship services could exercise their right to attend. 

Attacks on Christianity and some other religions have become all too commonplace, but this non-essential classification took the battle for the soul of the country and its citizens souls soaring to new heights.  People of faith have been left gape-jawed, and many have reacted with defiance.

Fortunately, our President stepped in and deemed churches essential.  He insisted that houses of worship be safely reopened immediately, or he would override the states’ orders.  While there is dispute among scholars on his authority to do so—we are a republic, and states’ rights not assigned in the Constitution are retained by the states—nothing, certainly not a virus—negates or overrides the rights of citizens set forth in the Constitution, which includes its amendments.  Namely, the Bill of Rights, which specifically cites the freedoms of religion, expression, assembly, and speech.  According to legal experts, in an honest court of law, fighting on behalf of the people, the president wins.

In an honest court.  Those who fought and died to retain rights for all Americans clearly understood that electing honest leaders and jurists was essential to retain rights and preserve freedom.

Initially, I heard many Christians complain that President Trump was a flawed man. For that reason, they would not vote.  But it serves us well to recall we are all flawed, and men like Moses and so many others from the Bible, were also flawed.  To remember that God chooses flawed men to fulfill His objectives. 

These days, from people of faith, I hear a lot of positive comments about our President and few complaints.  He has been steadfast in supporting faith and freedom.  Biblically, we know God works with His chosen, as He does with us all, to infuse the individuals He selects with what is needed when it is needed to fulfill his purposes.  The individuals chosen grow into those purposes. Those watching have seen this transition in the president take place.  It’s been a long time since I’ve heard anyone doubt that he has been a relentless warrior for faith.

Throughout our nation’s history, those who made the ultimate sacrifice grew into and understood the value of self-governance.  The benefits and the responsibilities, for one cannot be exercised without the other.  Which means they took very seriously the sanctity of the vote, recognizing it as one of the most serious responsibilities of every citizen and one of citizenship’s greatest privileges. 

Even today, most people in the world do not have a voice.  In this country, every citizen does, and that is due to those who sacrificed to see to it.  Our warriors knew that to have a voice—to vote—was important enough to forfeit their lives to protect.  To assure each citizen had a voice in the laws by which we collectively function as a society was worth fighting and dying for—literally.

Recently, there has been a big push for mail-in ballots for the upcoming election and for ballot harvesting.  A couple of states already have voting by mail-in ballots as their only way of voting.  And, while some say voter fraud is not an issue, it is.  For evidence of that, look to Judicial Watch and the legal cases it has been fighting for decades.

In a legal settlement in the State of California, over a million people were removed from the voter rolls—something politicians are very reluctant to do for obvious reasons.  Why?  Because the rolls were loaded with people who had moved out of state, voters who had died, or persons ineligible to vote.  

Nationwide, there were voters registered to addresses of residence that were empty lots, non-existent addresses, and also an abundant number of counties and precincts across the nation where in prior elections more votes were recorded than there were registered voters who resided in those counties and precincts.

Recently, there was a report that in California 445,000 people refused to serve on jury duty because they were not citizens—but they were registered to vote.  This report has been deemed false by one fact-checker of mixed reputation, however there have been a multitude of firsthand reports by those who are not citizens but have received jury-duty summons. 

In California, jury-duty summons are issued using two sources:  voter rolls and driver’s licenses.  Last election, videos taken at multiple polls on election day surfaced.  In some, identification was not being required to cast votes.  In others, driver’s licenses were being accepted as identification.  While a driver’s license is deemed acceptable ID in many places, can it be accepted in places where it does not authenticate citizenship?    

Think about that authentication, the jury-duty summons for non-citizens, in practical application terms.  Now, recognizing that every illegal vote dilutes every legal vote, imagine these challenges on a national scale.  Makes a case for supporting Voter ID, doesn’t it?

It also makes the vulnerability of citizens’ rights stark.  Some claim requiring Voter ID results in voter suppression.  Considering the things we do on a daily basis that require an ID, I don’t see the logic in that.  Go to a book-signing for a national figure, you must produce your ID.  Cash a check, check out a library book, sign up for assistance—all require an ID.  The list goes on and on.  It seems sensible, to preserve the integrity of the vote, we’d insist on Voter ID.

Some say these things don’t matter.  That there is little to no voter fraud.  That’s simply not true.  More voted in my county than are eligible to vote in my county.  Judicial Watch investigated and reported it.  In another county, we have watched the legal battle play out against the supervisor of elections.  She had a group of staff in her office behind closed doors create ballots for specific candidates.  Ballots found in trunks of cars.  In storerooms.  Suddenly manifest during recounts.  There are far too many instances like these across the land.

Right now, mail-in voting is a hot topic.  Specific to it:

In 2016, due to a medical issue, a dear friend requested a mail-in ballot.  She never received it, so on election day, she went to the polls to vote.  She was told she had already voted.  When she insisted she had not, that the requested ballot had never been received, she was permitted to vote a “provisional” ballot. 

Which ballot—the fraudulent one or the provisional ballot—was actually counted in the official report?  Who knows?  In the news, surfaced reports of mail-in ballots being stolen from mailboxes.  That sent a strong and clear message on mail-in ballots and the ease with which those votes can be manipulated.

That strong and clear message is amplified by glimpses we find in reports mostly about the upcoming election.  Take a look at the following:

• US Post Office finds “three tubs” of absentee ballots for Wisconsin election in Chicago. (Chicago is in Illinois.) Source.
• Voter fraud and its impact.  Source.
• South Carolina. “election ballots reportedly found in Maryland this week.”
• Democrats paid Pennsylvania Election Officials to Stuff Ballot Box. Source.
• Nevada.  “Troves of ballots are lying around Nevada apartment complex…Postal workers are finding thousands of them just sitting in crates.” Source:

And lest you think this only happens in the US:

• United Kingdom.  Man finds 83 ballots shipped to a single address in his apartment building. Source.

Every abuse of the vote is a slap in the face to all who have fought and died to protect it. To protect us.  Some say, cheating is the way it is. It has always been that way.  I say, we owe it to all those on whose shoulders we stand to develop a zero-tolerance for dishonesty and it’s time for us to change the way it’s always been.  People tend to perform at the standard expected.  Elevate the standard.  Insist on honest elections.

I am so sorry for the length of this, but I hope it provides some insight.  This nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and it has been the responsibility of each successive generation to maintain them.  We cannot meet our responsibility or honor those who sacrificed, if we do not engage. 

Those we memorialize today stood and met their fates for all of us.  They knew that freedom isn’t free and paid the ultimate price.  And they warned us explicitly that we are always only one generation away from losing it.

We best honor them by acknowledging all that has happened and not happened.  By receiving the wisdom they sacrificed to convey, for those we memorialize today have proven ignorance is not bliss.

With God’s help, may we never forget.

 c2020, Vicki Hinze