The right to vote is the bedrock of American democracy - a right earned through many struggles in the past that is deserving of utmost vigilance as we face another important voting cycle.

     In this context, it is important to keep in mind the protections guaranteed by the clear language of our Constitution. Every person born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen (14th Amendment, 1868) with a right to vote that must not be "denied or abridged" either by the United States or by any state on account of race (15th Amendment, 1870) or sex (19th Amendment, 1920).

     The bottom line is this: every citizen who is at least eighteen years of age (26th Amendment, 1971), male or female, regardless of race, no matter in what state he or she resides, has the Constitutional right to vote - a right that neither the U.S. nor any state can Constitutionally thwart.

     However, as history records, states have found many ways to keep voters from exercising their Constitutional right to vote through poll taxes, literacy tests, registration purges, gerrymandering, closing of polling places, manipulation of absentee ballots - all devices used by officials and parties who are in power to stay in power.

     In 1965, Congress, recognizing that many efforts to limit access to the ballot were race-based, enacted the Voting Rights Act - "an act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States." The Voting Rights Act was a significant deterrent to voter suppression. Some of its most important provisions were time-limited, but Congress renewed them several times.

     Those renewals ended in 2013, when the Supreme Court, in Shelby County v. Holder, effectively gutted the Act, determining that major provisions were no longer necessary because they had been so successful. As Justice Ginsburg wrote in her dissent that was "akin to throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you aren't getting wet."

     Since then, states have found new and effective ways to limit ballot access of citizens considered likely to vote against the party in power in that state. This is voter suppression. None the less, the right to vote, regardless of race or sex, remains unchanged because it is enshrined in the Constitution.

      ·  Laws can be changed by Congress or gutted by the courts.

      · Neither Congress nor the courts can invalidate the Constitution.

     We must be vigilant to protect all citizens' Constitutional rights and to resist voter suppression in its many pernicious forms.                                -- Marilyn Klawiter

     This month I'm recommending two books to you. The first is Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch by Dan O'Brien. I am grateful to Marilyn Klawiter for handing me this book. Had I read Buffalo for the Broken Heart when I was 20 years old or so, I'd like to think my life would have unfolded in the Dakotas converting land back to natural grasses and raising buffalo. It's fun to imagine!

     The second book is The Overstory by Richard Powers, which is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. The lives of nine main characters intertwine through the love of nature -- trees, in particular. These characters are brought together to use their knowledge of artificial intelligence, botany, chemistry, engineering, etc., to address the destruction of the forests. I'm less than halfway through the book, and already know that I will be sending it to my children/grandchildren. So good!!

     I'm off to Puerto Vallarta again in a few weeks. Last year I discovered that many restaurants had stopped offering straws with drinks; if a patron asked for a straw, a paper or recyclable straw was presented. I am hoping to see more evidence of concern for the environment and all the beings who inhabit our earth.

     Happy New Year!                                  -- C hris Zilike