On January 30th of this year, 2005, the people who chose to do so, voted for the first time in fifty years in Iraq. Even though they were discouraged to vote because of death threats, as many as 60-70% of registered voters actually dared to vote. This was a huge turn out when you consider that 50% turn out in the USA is spectacular. Many Americans are so lazy that all it would take would be a rain cloud to appear in the sky for them to decide not to vote.What caught my curiosity was the fact that it had been 50 years since the last free vote in Iraq. What appears to have happened back then was the growing threat of communism. It was the "cold war" and a free vote would almost certainly have gone to the communists. To squelch such a reality, the British installed a monarchy in Iraq---at the same time the Shah was handed power in neighboring Iran. It would take the Americans to reinstate a democratic government 50 years later.
It was reported that when the polls opened on that monumental January morning, people generally milled around outside the designated voting buildings. Murdering Muslim fanatics had threatened violence. Bombs, snipers, rockets and mortar fire were promised by the evil-doers to discourage participation in this historic vote.
Now, as the local residents assessed their predicament, something American happened........A women broke from the crowd and walked straight to the polling site. Courage, and conviction are as American as Apple Pie. This woman was probably thinking, "Nobody is going to scare me and tell me what I can and cannot do. Not anymore! Never again, Allah willing." The crowd must of been dumbfounded by this woman's daring assault of her right to vote. It is said that when the woman reappeared from the building, she held up a purple stained finger, a gesture to be repeated thousands of times this day. The stained finger signified that she had voted, it was used to deter multiple voting, because the ink was impossible to remove immediately. The purple finger signifies honor, courage, and above all, freedom.
Two more Iraqis separated from the crowd and approached the voting site, then three, then ten. If a mortar round hit the building, so be it. They were going to vote, nothing would stop them. So went the rest of the day, a massive turn out under any standards. When the Iraqis saw their friends and neighbors with purple fingers they couldn't be out done, so they went and received one too. The basic keeping up with the Mohhamed's.
Did you vote last election? If not, Why? Are you afraid?
[photo/Reuters]
A Stranger by the Gulf (1953)
