In response to Stephen Hicks’ article, “Voting rights for felons in Virginia” (Sept. 14, p. 20), I think a serious history lesson is in order here. The Voting Rights Act did remove the many barriers put in place to prevent people other than white men from voting, but the current system in place in Virginia that does not allow felons to vote or hold office hardly falls under discrimination, nor does it violate this act.
People tend to want to stretch discrimination in ways like this when they simply aren’t getting what they want. Anyone familiar with the Virginia legal system is well aware that in order to hold a felony conviction in this state, your crime has to be something fairly nasty for the state not to offer you a plea down to a misdemeanor. So forgive me if I don’t want a convicted rapist, drug dealer or child molester either voting for or running for office themselves.
The fact that anyone would support a notion like this is absurd, and I applaud Virginia and any other state with these laws in place. I suppose the next move will be to claim felons are being discriminated against in Virginia because they can no longer possess firearms either. The point of the matter here is that it is not the laws that prevent people from voting, holding office or owning firearms. It is their own stupidity that gets in their way.
As a nation bent on blaming everyone else for our own mistakes, the fact that convicted felons are now whining about being discriminated against because they are no longer allowed to vote doesn’t surprise me. But if you aren’t willing to accept the consequences that come with a crime, then think before you commit one. Don’t expect the laws to change just because you’re breaking them.
– Kadie Puffenbarger