Ms. Miller-Perry publishes the Tennessee Tribune, a Nashville weekly with a largely African-American audience, and she's been using her newspaper to encourage her readers to vote -- specifically, to vote for Sen. Barack Obama. Now she's trying to embarrass them into voting.
In two recent editions, the Tribune has published the names and addresses of registered voters who didn't cast ballots in the 2004 election. Most live in predominantly African-American Nashville precincts expected to go heavily for Sen. Obama in 2008.The newspaper isn't violating anyone's privacy, because the information it's publishing is public record anyway, readily available through the local board of elections, and the Tribune is well within its rights under the First Amendment.
"We need to live up to the civil rights that have been given to us," Ms. Miller-Perry said in justifying her unconventional approach to boosting turnout. "Sometimes when you embarrass people they do the right thing."
I won't dispute that Ms. Miller-Perry and her newspaper are free to do what they're doing. I also won't hesitate to call their crusade crude, ignorant and misguided.
Low turnout, a sad tradition in this country, usually can be attributed to widespread apathy. Maybe some of the people on Tribune's list will be shamed into voting, but probably not in great numbers. Nor does Ms. Miller-Perry seem to be bothered that she's "embarrassing" otherwise responsible citizens who truly were unable to get to the polls in 2004. Lame excuses notwithstanding, it happens.
Of greatest concern to me, however, is that the Tribune's editorial bludgeon may "expose" citizens who exercised their fundamental freedom not to cast a ballot.
In my view, the deliberate choice to not vote is perfectly acceptable. I'll even take it a step further, asserting that it's the responsibility of every citizen to become informed about candidates and issues, and then to consider not casting a ballot as a viable option.
Listening carefully, I can hear the reedy voice of Canadian rocker Geddy Lee:
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."An American citizen can raise his voice by voting or, as I myself have done in the past, by rejecting all of the choices presented -- whether by casting a blank ballot or by staying home on Election Day. Just so there's no misunderstanding here, I'm talking about conscious, informed abstention, not laying down a smoke-screen for laziness.
The mere suggestion of choosing not to vote will strike some, including perhaps Ms. Miller-Perry, as outright heresy. "If you don't vote," they'll say, "you have no right to complain!" -- which is bullshit, of course.
Voting may be a sacred ritual of freedom, but it's not compulsory. Our free-speech rights are assured regardless of whether or not we vote -- or serve in the military, fly the flag, support the policies of our government and the like.
The same First Amendment granting us "the freedom of speech" also guarantees "the freedom...of the press," which brings me back to the Tennessee Tribune.
Do I agree with the newspaper's decision to "out" citizens who don't vote? No. Do I support its right to do so? Absolutely.
Late yesterday, I became engaged in a rhetorical tussle over the perception that the media have been unfair in their treatment of Samuel Joseph "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher. Without drilling into irrelevant detail, suffice it to say that the prevailing opinion was that Citizen Wurzelbacher had both a (constitutional) right to free speech and an (extra-constitutional) expectation of privacy -- but that the media were wrong to seek more information about Citizen Wurzelbacher and wrong to report what they learned.
Objecting to what the media report is one thing, suggesting that they somehow should be prevented from reporting it quite another. Fortunately, our Constitution allows the former and prohibits imposition of the latter.
I wouldn't have it any other way -- the prospect of an America without a free press is beyond my imagination.
Our Constitution, then, is the faithful lens through which I view the Tennessee Tribune's ill-conceived campaign to shame citizens into voting -- speaking out in opposition to the newspaper's actions, but respecting its right to act.
Embracing this simple, fundamental concept of freedom becomes difficult only in the absence of independent critical thought. Today, I’m sorry to say, that void runs wide and deep.
