Time for it to go. Period. I remember when Hilary Clinton first became a senator she said, when asked about it, that if it no longer served the purpose, it should go. The idea however never went anywhere and it cost her the election of 2016, and lead to where we are today. Someone explain the reason why it should remain and I’ll listen. Last election the certifying of the electoral college results gave Trump the opening to cause a riot.
It's time perhaps a class like civics comes back. The electoral system does confuse me ( I am in Australia) and the history of it is terrible esp the 3/5 part. I am 61 and Australian aborigines only got the vote in 1962 so my lifetime. As a country we are only waking up to the truths of our history with massacres and plans to wipe out the population of first nation peoples. It hasn't been taught in school and covered up. I am enjoying this discussion and learning a lot from your readings and comments. I hope you are feeling well. Marian 🌼
I am currently writing an article that (hopefully) will explain how American elections are run… complicated but I’m hoping that I can explain in an easier fashion.
Thank you Marion for inquiring about my health because as a matter of fact, I’m not feeling too well. Am trying to complete the August 2024 tarot readings but may not be able to finish them. I feel as though I am coming down with a cold…which is very strange for me. In all my years (50+) I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had a cold.
I blame my daughter Hannah. She works in a medical clinic for small kids and you know small kids are nothing but little disease-carriers.🥺☹️🤧😷
Here goes, Tara : ) The Massacre of Peterloo, Manchester 1819, was one of the events that eventually led to the Great Reform Act of 1832, which essentially created the modern British democracy, initially meaning enfranchisement of all adults. One man one vote. Women got the vote later and as we know, that was a whole other story. Poor people had no vote before this time. More than 60 000 people had gathered in St Peters Fields to listen to Henry Hunt, a famous radical speaker, demanding parliamentary reform. The magistrates were worried it would turn into a riot, and they ordered the local Yeomanry (amateur cavalry whose job was home defense and helping maintain public order) to disperse the crowd. The Yeomanry were followed by professional Hussars riding in with drawn swords, arresting Hunt, injuring hundreds and killing 18 people, including 4 women and a two year old boy, knocked out of his mothers arms. And afterwards, there was a crackdown, government censorship. Shelley wrote a poem about it, but that couldn't be published. It got nicknamed Peterloo in reference to the battle of Waterloo, 1815. But Waterloo was a battle, they said, and this was just outright murder.
Later it was poor cotton workers in Manchester, who answered Abraham Lincoln's call, 1862 during the blockades. please do not work with US cotton picked by slaves. These were poor people, no work no pay and 60 % of them laid themselves off, refusing to work with that cotton, and it cost them dearly. Lancashire (where I live) and its principal city Manchester had been the single largest importer of cotton grown on southern plantations, importing about three quarters of all that cotton. Lincoln wrote to the mill workers and the US sent relief ships to alleviate their financial distress.
I will always vote, even if it makes me want to tear my hair out.
Was watching a David Olusogo documentary, I think it was “Black and British. A Forgotten History”, and he told this story about how people in Manchester stood together with Black slaves over a cotton boycott. He even showed a barrel that was sent by Northern Americans that was filled with flour to help the people in Manchester through the boycott. It was the last surviving barrel, but seeing it was quite poignant because as you said, the people were very poor and made the sacrifice to help others.
He even showed the road the people of Manchester built in an effort to give the people work while they boycotted.
It was a very moving story and the telling of it was not lost on me.
I too, vote in every election, and like you, sometimes I want to pull my hair out!
Thank you for reminding me of this chapter in British life. It just goes to show that we’re not so different as human beings. 😊
It has to be admitted, not every one and not every city in the UK was equally sympathetic to Lincoln and the cause of the northern states. The Port of Liverpool was a great trade partner -and rival of Manchester -and tended more to support the confederacy. But, the call was answered by those with least to spare. Poignant indeed, and the statue of Lincoln in Manchester reads:
Abraham Lincoln / Born 12th February 1809 / Assassinated 15th April 1865 / President of the U.S.A. / 1861-65 / American Civil War 15th April 1861 to 9th April 1865.
Extract of a letter / To the working people of Manchester 19th January 1863 / I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working people of Manchester / and in all Europe are called to endure in this crisis. It has been often and studiously / represented that the attempt to overthrow this Government which was built on the / foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively / on the basis of slavery, was likely to obtain the favour of Europe. / Through the action of disloyal citizens the working people of Europe / have been subjected to a severe trial for the purpose of forcing their sanction / to that attempt. Under these circumstances I cannot but regard your decisive / utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has / not been surpassed in any age or in any country. It is indeed an energetic / and re-inspiring assurance of the inherent truth and of the ultimate and universal / triumph of justice, humanity and freedom ... I hail this interchange of sentiments / therefore, as an augury that whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune / may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exists / between the two nations will be as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual.
I know that the Port of Liverpool was “complicit” in breaking the rules of the cotton boycott, and even went so far as supplying the South with arms and money to keep the cotton coming.
Lincoln has a somewhat tainted and conflicting legacy - particularly among US Black Americans - as it relates to the Emancipation Proclamation (the document that freed the slaves (everywhere, except here in Texas. It took another two years for the word to reach Texas, hence the Juneteenth National holiday)
Emancipation Proclamation was not written for any altruistic reason, but was written to save the American economy from the ravages of the Civil War and the consequences of the South wanting to keep slaves.
The result of the Emancipation Proclamation was of Black people being freed but it still took another 100+ years for the document to have any real effect.
In what are known as the Civil War Amendments/Reconstruction Amendments:
13th Amendment - abolishing slavery; proposed in 1864, ratified in 1865.
14th Amendments - equal rights and protections of all citizens; proposed in 1886, ratified in 1868.
15th Amendment - prohibiting discrimination of voting rights based on the basis of race/color/previous condition of servitude; proposed in 1869, ratified in 1870.
These amendments went on to spur:
Brown v Board of Education, 1954 (unequal but separate (school segregation).
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965
But even now, the Proclamation still has not reached it’s full potential because the Supreme Court has significantly weakened a large part of the Voting Rights Act as recently as 2021.
When I say to you that America will not heal itself until it faces up to the legacy of slavery, this country will always be at war within itself.
I have an article coming where I will explain what are delegates and Superdelegates and what’s the difference between the two, soon!
Time for it to go. Period. I remember when Hilary Clinton first became a senator she said, when asked about it, that if it no longer served the purpose, it should go. The idea however never went anywhere and it cost her the election of 2016, and lead to where we are today. Someone explain the reason why it should remain and I’ll listen. Last election the certifying of the electoral college results gave Trump the opening to cause a riot.
Thanks, Tara.
Here we had the Massacre of Peterloo. Long ago , never to be forgotten. Thank you Tara. As shocking as it is instructive.
Oh do tell about this Massacre at Peterloo - a short version for your convenience.
PS: I have missed talking to you!❤️
It's time perhaps a class like civics comes back. The electoral system does confuse me ( I am in Australia) and the history of it is terrible esp the 3/5 part. I am 61 and Australian aborigines only got the vote in 1962 so my lifetime. As a country we are only waking up to the truths of our history with massacres and plans to wipe out the population of first nation peoples. It hasn't been taught in school and covered up. I am enjoying this discussion and learning a lot from your readings and comments. I hope you are feeling well. Marian 🌼
I am currently writing an article that (hopefully) will explain how American elections are run… complicated but I’m hoping that I can explain in an easier fashion.
Thank you Marion for inquiring about my health because as a matter of fact, I’m not feeling too well. Am trying to complete the August 2024 tarot readings but may not be able to finish them. I feel as though I am coming down with a cold…which is very strange for me. In all my years (50+) I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had a cold.
I blame my daughter Hannah. She works in a medical clinic for small kids and you know small kids are nothing but little disease-carriers.🥺☹️🤧😷
Thank you for the education, Tara.
wow thank you for the education, i love your emails amd i DO read all of them, i never knew that information, thank you
Thanks for explanation, Tara!
Here goes, Tara : ) The Massacre of Peterloo, Manchester 1819, was one of the events that eventually led to the Great Reform Act of 1832, which essentially created the modern British democracy, initially meaning enfranchisement of all adults. One man one vote. Women got the vote later and as we know, that was a whole other story. Poor people had no vote before this time. More than 60 000 people had gathered in St Peters Fields to listen to Henry Hunt, a famous radical speaker, demanding parliamentary reform. The magistrates were worried it would turn into a riot, and they ordered the local Yeomanry (amateur cavalry whose job was home defense and helping maintain public order) to disperse the crowd. The Yeomanry were followed by professional Hussars riding in with drawn swords, arresting Hunt, injuring hundreds and killing 18 people, including 4 women and a two year old boy, knocked out of his mothers arms. And afterwards, there was a crackdown, government censorship. Shelley wrote a poem about it, but that couldn't be published. It got nicknamed Peterloo in reference to the battle of Waterloo, 1815. But Waterloo was a battle, they said, and this was just outright murder.
Later it was poor cotton workers in Manchester, who answered Abraham Lincoln's call, 1862 during the blockades. please do not work with US cotton picked by slaves. These were poor people, no work no pay and 60 % of them laid themselves off, refusing to work with that cotton, and it cost them dearly. Lancashire (where I live) and its principal city Manchester had been the single largest importer of cotton grown on southern plantations, importing about three quarters of all that cotton. Lincoln wrote to the mill workers and the US sent relief ships to alleviate their financial distress.
I will always vote, even if it makes me want to tear my hair out.
Oh! I do know that story!!!
Was watching a David Olusogo documentary, I think it was “Black and British. A Forgotten History”, and he told this story about how people in Manchester stood together with Black slaves over a cotton boycott. He even showed a barrel that was sent by Northern Americans that was filled with flour to help the people in Manchester through the boycott. It was the last surviving barrel, but seeing it was quite poignant because as you said, the people were very poor and made the sacrifice to help others.
He even showed the road the people of Manchester built in an effort to give the people work while they boycotted.
It was a very moving story and the telling of it was not lost on me.
I too, vote in every election, and like you, sometimes I want to pull my hair out!
Thank you for reminding me of this chapter in British life. It just goes to show that we’re not so different as human beings. 😊
It has to be admitted, not every one and not every city in the UK was equally sympathetic to Lincoln and the cause of the northern states. The Port of Liverpool was a great trade partner -and rival of Manchester -and tended more to support the confederacy. But, the call was answered by those with least to spare. Poignant indeed, and the statue of Lincoln in Manchester reads:
Abraham Lincoln / Born 12th February 1809 / Assassinated 15th April 1865 / President of the U.S.A. / 1861-65 / American Civil War 15th April 1861 to 9th April 1865.
Extract of a letter / To the working people of Manchester 19th January 1863 / I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working people of Manchester / and in all Europe are called to endure in this crisis. It has been often and studiously / represented that the attempt to overthrow this Government which was built on the / foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively / on the basis of slavery, was likely to obtain the favour of Europe. / Through the action of disloyal citizens the working people of Europe / have been subjected to a severe trial for the purpose of forcing their sanction / to that attempt. Under these circumstances I cannot but regard your decisive / utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has / not been surpassed in any age or in any country. It is indeed an energetic / and re-inspiring assurance of the inherent truth and of the ultimate and universal / triumph of justice, humanity and freedom ... I hail this interchange of sentiments / therefore, as an augury that whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune / may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exists / between the two nations will be as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual.
I know that the Port of Liverpool was “complicit” in breaking the rules of the cotton boycott, and even went so far as supplying the South with arms and money to keep the cotton coming.
Lincoln has a somewhat tainted and conflicting legacy - particularly among US Black Americans - as it relates to the Emancipation Proclamation (the document that freed the slaves (everywhere, except here in Texas. It took another two years for the word to reach Texas, hence the Juneteenth National holiday)
Emancipation Proclamation was not written for any altruistic reason, but was written to save the American economy from the ravages of the Civil War and the consequences of the South wanting to keep slaves.
The result of the Emancipation Proclamation was of Black people being freed but it still took another 100+ years for the document to have any real effect.
In what are known as the Civil War Amendments/Reconstruction Amendments:
13th Amendment - abolishing slavery; proposed in 1864, ratified in 1865.
14th Amendments - equal rights and protections of all citizens; proposed in 1886, ratified in 1868.
15th Amendment - prohibiting discrimination of voting rights based on the basis of race/color/previous condition of servitude; proposed in 1869, ratified in 1870.
These amendments went on to spur:
Brown v Board of Education, 1954 (unequal but separate (school segregation).
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965
But even now, the Proclamation still has not reached it’s full potential because the Supreme Court has significantly weakened a large part of the Voting Rights Act as recently as 2021.
When I say to you that America will not heal itself until it faces up to the legacy of slavery, this country will always be at war within itself.
That was fascinating and so well told!