Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Patriotism should be as high at election time as it is in wartime

Friday, April 18, 2003 | 3:28 a.m.

Nobody can challenge the strong feelings the people of Henderson have displayed in support of the troops serving in the Middle East. The city has always had a strong patriotic theme that runs through everything it does. It was built to support the nation in its battles to win World War II. Then, and in every war since then, the young people of Henderson have entered the military service to fight and, if necessary, to die for this country. Their families, friends and everybody else in the city have always supported them.

So what has been one of the goals of almost every war we have fought? Freedom and the right for Americans and the other people in the world to select their leaders in free elections. This has always been on the minds of Americans ever since they defeated the tyranny of a king who ruled without their approval.

So what's this about a 14.37 percent turnout of eligible voters at the polls during the city election in Henderson last week? North Las Vegas didn't do much better with 16 percent turnouts; nor did Las Vegas, with 18 percent. Sure doesn't sound much like a people who have sacrificed lives, money and property to ensure the rights of others to vote. President Bush has been telling the world that we are taking Iraq away from Saddam Hussein and giving it back to the people of that nation. He has pointed to the opportunity the Iraqis will have to select their own leaders.

All of this brings back good memories of some voters who had lost their right to vote and then, because of Americans, got the power returned in the form of free elections.

In 1990, I wrote the following from Nicaragua: About 15 minutes before the voting place was scheduled to close, a Miskito asked my United Nations partner if the driver could take our jeep up the road to pick up his wife. "She had a baby this morning and can't walk all the way down here," he told us. He went with the vehicle, and as darkness settled over the land, his wife was brought back to cast her ballot. The local people and the Sandinista soldiers in line stepped aside to let her vote quickly and return home to the baby. It brought back the memory of the mother with the baby registering to vote on the other side of Nicaragua.

A couple of years later, in 1992, I was impressed by the thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq who turned out to vote despite threats from Saddam Hussein. The women in veils and dark clothing stood in the hot sun for hours waiting to cast their ballots. The men stood in separate lines to vote and, because of the large number of male Kurds killed by Saddam, there were fewer men then women.

From Dahok, Iraq, I wrote the following: A couple of weeks ago, this city was rather tense when a bomb was detonated downtown near election headquarters. Then Sunday night, in nearby Zakho, the power was interrupted twice by the government in Baghdad. Shortly after midnight Tuesday, another car with dynamite was intercepted in Zakho and the driver arrested. But there was nothing going to stop the Kurds from voting for a president and an assembly to speak for them with one voice in northern Iraq.

In 2003, I ask if we Americans have to lose our opportunity to vote before we will again treasure it as both a right and a duty?