Even since the passage of the Civil Rights Act in the '60s, the fight to be a visible part of society has been an on-going struggle. The fight over votes is no less a part of that battle to make our lives count in America. But the failure of the U.S. Supreme Court and the courts in Florida to enable a manual recount does not bode well for minorities, or the country as a whole. The national attention span has been reached. There's a cry to end it all.
Democracy waits for no one.
The caterers are more worried about the hors d'oeuvre count at the inaugural. The acceptance of an imperfect democracy only widens the tolerance for exclusion in an imperfect America. We understand this more than ever in California, especially after last week. As the courts were weighing in on the recount issue in D.C. and Tallahassee, the high court in San Francisco was singing a related tune. For the first time, the California Supremes interpreted voter intent of the infamous Proposition 209, the ballot measure approved in 1996 that banned affirmative action in the name of race and gender in public education and hiring.