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Another Hunger Strike

 


Recently I wrote here about Joe Madison, a radio host with a show on Sirius XM Urban View, announced Nov. 8 that he will not eat solid food until, as he put it, “Congress passes, and President Biden signs,  the Freedom to Vote Act or the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.”

Madison is still at it. He has been fasting for a month. Now he has some company. Twenty-two students are various Arizona colleges are fasting until such time as Senator Kyrsten Sinema agrees to support not only the Freedom to Vote Act but a filibuster carve-out for it. 

Sinema is one of Arizona's two Senators. The other, Mark Kelly, is like her a Democrat but, unlike her, is a reliable vote supporting the initiatives of the leadership of the party, on voting rights and other matters. Sinema has been the Jo Manchin of the West, which is presumably why she has been targeted by this effort. 

Joe Madison, like a certain kneeling quarterback in ancient days, might have started something big. 


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  1. HenryDecember 15, 2021 at 12:45 PM

    In my November 25 comment on your post about Joe Madison's hunger strike, I wrote that it was "pointless and stupid" because, instead of making a case for the legislation, he was attempting to blackmail Congress into passing it, and an opponent of the legislation could also go on a hunger strike to blackmail Congress into rejecting it. Now I'm having second thoughts. Sinema might rightfully object to being blackmailed, but Madison and the 22 students are saying, if they are serious about their hunger strikes, that the legislation is worth dying for. They could not credibly say that if the legislation were not strongly on the side of an important good. If an opponent of the legislation were to go on a hunger strike to promote an evil, namely the end of democracy in the United States, which is clearly not worth dying for, then he or she would be seen by many people as mentally ill, not as courageously self-sacrificing. I realize now that it makes a difference which side you are on.

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  2. HenryDecember 17, 2021 at 3:41 PM

    An article on the students' hunger strike: https://www.salon.com/2021/12/17/why-the-students-on-a-hunger-strike-for-voting-rights-remain-hopeful-about-kyrsten-sinema/

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