For all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.

-Barack Obama

As the good people of District 42 prepare to vote in the Democratic primary on March 3, it is important to consider the state of our justice system as it pertains to us. Sadly, the checks and balances created by the founders to stop abuses and rampant power grabs are rapidly failing. The Department of Justice has become an extension of the Executive branch, bending to the will of Donald Trump, inserting itself into the judicial process throughout the country to circumvent fair and impartial judgment in order to allow the friends and associates of the President to escape punishment for crimes of which they have been convicted by juries of their peers.

This makes both a mockery and a sham out of the civic duty each and every citizen performs whenever they agree to take part in the arduous and time-consuming task of serving on a jury. The administration, in conjunction with the DOJ, has created a secret group of oversight personnel loyal to the President, whose sole job is to identify trials, charges and sentencing results, then insert themselves to adjust or even eliminate those results to satisfy one man, Trump. Is this democracy? Is this the way our Department of Justice should act? Would you or I be so fortunate if accused of a crime to have a powerful organization intervene to let us get away with it? Obviously not, but this is exactly what’s happening in America today and it is wrong, on every level.

We must address and correct this power grab and we do that by voting to elect representatives who will not allow those in power to continue to erode our basic rights. Over 1100 former and current legal employees of the DOJ have sent letters to William Barr asking for his resignation because they feel that he is not capable of running the department in an independent manner, choosing instead to act on behalf of a corrupt President’s desires. Republicans refuse to speak up and expose this practice because they are afraid to incur the wrath of one man. Regina Marston is a person who believes that our system of justice, while not perfect, is the best way to punish the guilty and acquit the innocent. Once elected, she will speak out to stop this gross abuse and restore the nation’s faith and trust once again in a system that operates honestly in its capacity to investigate and bring to justice all those who seek to use their connections to avoid punishment.

Remember, a vote for Regina Marston means that you are concerned with the current state of government, one which has, for far too long taken you for granted and treated you like a powerless being incapable of standing up and speaking out against injustice, corruption and greed. Those who have been in Washington for so long that they really have little or no connection to their districts or constituents any more should be replaced by those who are fresh, eager to serve and willing to fight for the needs of each and every one of you.

Don’t stay silent any longer. Your vote is your power. Use it wisely.

“To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men.”
― Ella Wheeler Wilcox