EDITORIAL by Dhiren Shah
Hello Readers,
On Jan. 11, there were 2.84 million new cases and 8,265 deaths related to COVID-19 in the world. In the United States, there were 672,872 new cases and 2,173 deaths. The World population is 7,953,952,567 at the beginning of 2022 and 332,403,650 in the US. That means that despite the US population being 4.1 percent of the world’s total, 23.4 percent of the cases that day were from the US alone. Why is this the case? We’ve spent the most money in the world on health. However, the way the government works is to mainly benefit the rich and powerful.
Senator Booker, Senator Bob Menendez, Congressman Donald Payne Jr., Congressman Albio Sires in our area and 8 other Democratic congresspersons and 2 republican congresspersons were elected to the serve people of New Jersey. When they all voting down the party line all the time in the Senate or Congress, they are voting for their party and not for the people in my opinion. They might have objected to things in the committees, but they do not dare go against the party bosses. In my opinion, they all are elected by the people, not by the party, and they must serve the people and not the party. When there’s an open voting system, they follow their party bosses or lobbyists.
I suggest there should be blind voting, where no one can find out who voted what. Lobbyists cannot do anything and cannot control the lawmakers. We have elected representatives who we have trusted to work on our behalf. So, they all will vote with their conscience and hopefully, the right resolutions/bills may pass for the benefit of the people.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Atlanta, Georgia to stump for voting rights legislation. Biden wants to change the voting rights law, which has been in effect since 1939. The law protects against any president or politicians taking advantage of the system to change the laws and become a powerful dictating party. Our forefathers made a solid constitution to protect us, which has been operative since 1789 (over 332 years ago). We must stop Biden and the Democratic Party from change to this law.
Since the past couple of decades, more and more illegal immigrants are coming to the United States. In 1978, when I came to the US, our population was about 222 million and after 43 years, our population is over 333 million. The majority of the original population has one or two children. In 2020, the population under age 18 is about 22.1% and it has declined slowly over the years. New millennials do not want any children or limit themselves to one or two children.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday to launch a campaign for voting rights legislation. The Democrats want to change the voting rights law, which could very likely result in more illegal immigrants being able to vote. Usually, all newcomers to the US favor the Democratic Party, and over the years they may change their status to Independent or Republican Party. Biden used his visit to Georgia on Jan. 11 as a springboard to stump for national voting rights legislation.
With the Filibuster rule, any one senator can extend debate on a bill to block or delay action on the bill. The longest speech known was by Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes. By this lengthy and not so important speech, other senators will go away, and it will stop the resolution or a bill most of the time. This prolonged speech can be stopped by 60 to 40 votes only. That is why 60 votes are very important.
Another important issue is the Hatch Act. I will talk to you about that next week.
Have a wonderful week.
I’ll talk to you next week.
