January 2025 – Quick Abacus

January 26, 2025 Culture and Religion

Uuuhm, like, you know, literally, so … The Gradual Decay of our Speaking Culture

Let’s start with ‘Uuuhhm’. When watching TV or listening to talk radio, I often hear sentences like this: “I – uuuhm – have come to believe that – uuuhm – mmm – uuuhm – most people – uuuhm – do not – uuuhm – eat the right food.”

Clearly, a person speaking like this does not really know what he or she wants to say. When we speak, we can think ahead to develop a concept in our mind what we want to say next and how we want to say it. But rarely do we have a word-for-word text ready to be spoken, unless we have learned our statements by heart or speak from a teleprompter, which is not possible when we are in an unrehearsed conversation or discussion.

January 15, 2025 Culture and Religion

Should Picture Voter IDs be a Requirement?

I have never heard anybody complain that the requirement of a picture ID for any of the above-mentioned activities disadvantages Black Americans.

Arguably, none of these activities is anywhere close as important as voting in our Federal elections. The USA is a democratic Republic. We are a republic, because we have separation of powers, because the people are the ultimate sovereign, because we have a constitution, and because we have a federal structure in which much of the power belongs to the States, to local governments, and to individual citizens. Our republic is democratic because the transition of power is not accomplished by civil war, inheritance, or coup d’etat but by general, equal, free, and secret elections. If we allow the democratic election process to be compromised or corrupted by allowing people to vote who are not legal citizens of this country, we are essentially destroying self-governance and our national sovereignty.