“After reading Senator Blaise Ingoglia’s bill: SB 1248 “The Ultimate Cancel Act”, I felt compelled to respond with a change of my own. I am prepared to file an amendment to the Senator’s bill. It would cancel any political party that has worked to suppress voting, thereby maintaining the last vestiges of slavery.
This comes as we reflect on Bloody Sunday – a violent and deadly attack on March 7th, 1965 where Black Americans were beaten, bloodied and killed for advocating for access to the polls in the century after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. 100 years later and African-Americans were still fighting for their right to vote. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said when he was arrested in Selma soon after: “This is Selma, Alabama. There are more negroes in jail with me than there are on the voting rolls.” Eventually, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 did pass.
But in recent years, we’ve seen continuous attacks on voting rights by the Republican Party. (Take a look here, here and here). Voters did not send us to Tallahassee to engage in sophomoric games. They do, however, want Legislators to protect their constitutional rights including the right to vote. The legislation filed by Senator Ingoglia does the opposite. It is in line with his and others wish to “own the libs” – not protect Floridians’ voices at the polls.
I must stress that Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation – and nobody owns me.”
