Editor, The Smithfield Times:

President Biden has a choice to make: Does he want to establish his legacy as a president who fought for voting rights, or not?

In order to be remembered as a man who fought for voting rights, Biden must do more than ask the Senate to pass voting rights legislation. He knows as well as we do that bills like the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act won’t make it through the Senate unless we abolish the filibuster.

Biden must unequivocally support abolishing the filibuster to clear the way for these reforms. It’s time for Biden to be a leader and call to end the filibuster and protect our right to vote. We’re counting on him to do the right thing.

I am 85 years young. I was a young mother to two very young children living in Northern Virginia while my journalist husband covered The Hill in Washington, D.C., for the Houston Post, the U.S. capital beat for Texas. After Kennedy was killed, David decided he wanted to go home to Texas “to run for public office to try to be part of the solutions instead of just writing about problems.”

We did. He served as a state representative in the Texas House from 1967-80. Why am I sharing this? Because, if that voting rights bill is not passed to protect the right to vote in a democratic republic, the people will no longer pick their leaders. The moneyed leaders will pick the only voters who will keep them in power for selfish reasons.

Those public offices should not be for sale. Those seats of power belong to the people who deserve to be represented by all the voters.

 

Patricia Allred

Williamsburg