Last week I went swimming in water as cool and clean and sweet as I remembered from my girlhood. For the first time in many generations of our New England family’s history, people from across the lake (pictured right), who’ve joined together (pictured below) to save the lake, paddled over to say ‘hello” and celebrate the most peaceful summer in years. We've made a difference there, and won that peace, and together beat back the building of a hotel on our shores (see www.saveourlakenh.com) at least for now.

It gives me hope that we can save our elections and find justice in Ohio!

We can change the way we have been cheated out of our democracy and bloody well take it back.  But it takes the passion that author and journalist Naomi Kein challenges us to rekindle:

“…we lack the strength of our convictions, the guts to back up our ideas with enough muscle to scare our elites. We are missing movement power. That’s what we’re missing. “The best lacked all convictions,” Yeats wrote, “while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Think about it. Do you want to tackle climate change as much as Dick Cheney wants Kazakhstan’s oil? Do you? Do you want universal healthcare as much as Paris Hilton wants to be the next new face of Estee Lauder? If not, why not? What is wrong with us? Where is our passionate intensity?”

See, hear or read Naomi Klein's interview with Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!

Those who know what happened in Ohio in 2004, and know the crimes that were committed there, those who experienced the theft, literally, seeing the damn screen flip the vote in front of you, or spiritually, through the loss of hope for the future of this country…

Investigate!
The good news is, the part of the election system that is uncorrupted is us. The voters.  And there are millions of us. And some of them really care, and they’re working their asses off.

My pal, whom I call "Citizen Paddy", the salt of the earth art teacher from my home town in Ohio, has never stopped demanding that the truth be unearthed and revealed about what happened in Ohio in 2004. She’s seen the evidence.

Of course, Paddy (pictured right, photographing ballots) is not the only election investigator and activist left in Ohio. She’s the one I talk to, almost every day. She’s the reason I went to Ohio, after Kerry conceded, and she’s the reason why I’ve stayed keenly interested/disgusted/enraged.

Incarcerate!
To get a feel for what Paddy Shaffer has voluntarily done to rescue our democracy, please read her open letter to Ohio Secretary of State Brunner and Attorney General Marc Dann:

“I have done everything a citizen can do to help her country… I have personally investigated election crimes, when no law enforcement did the job.  I have tried through the former Attorney General Jim Petro and County Prosecutors to get our election laws and public record laws enforced.  I have paid for records requests, hundreds of dollars of them, paid my expenses, gasoline, long distance phone calls, and more to investigate these crimes, when no law enforcement would do their job. I pay for this with my grocery money.  I have participated in radio call shows, and press conferences, and supplied the media with crime information, which they generally ignore.  I have endured name calling by the media and others, but also the love, appreciation and support of real patriots from across this country…”

Donate!
Help Paddy to get the Ohio Election Justice Campaign going. Right now, she needs money, and organizers.  If you buy a copy of  CHEATED! we’ll donate the money for you. Email Paddy and offer to lend a hand, in some way.  If you can’t send money, send words of support. I’m serious. Help her, to help our country. Contact her today at paddy@columbus.rr.com.

Let us, the entire country, focus NOW on what crimes can be brought to justice in Ohio.  It’s the only way we can prevent it from happening again.

Onward,

Sheri Leigh Myers

Oh, yes. I’m researching the orchestrated take-over of our democracy by the vendors.  Soon, I’ll start posting a couple of the webs we’re discovering, that are going into our next book, PRINCIPLES (CRIMES IN THE NAME) OF DEMOCRACY.  My co-author, Joy Cobler, (the brilliant mistress of this site) my researcher, Tim Howard, and I, are designing a Power Point to share with y’all very soon.