And now, a message from democracy

About a month and a half ago, I received a letter in the mail from the NJ Board of Elections. It was a note telling me that my name registered with the DMV was not in the voter rolls, and it urged me to register to vote. Enclosed was a pre-filled voter registration application and a return envelope.

I would have thought that this was wonderfully proactive from a usually bloated and unresponsive government, except for one thing: I am already registered to vote, and I have been for many years.

I looked more closely at the pre-filled application and saw that my maiden name was on there, as well as the driver’s license number that corresponded to my maiden name. Since I legally changed my name with the DMV in April 2007 after I got married, and I have voted at least twice since then, I know FOR A FACT that my married name is on the voter rolls, not my maiden name.

Shame on the NJ Board of Elections for using old DMV data. I tried to call the number listed on the letter, but couldn’t get through. I thought, “Well, I’ve voted with my married name before, and my license has a completely different number than this prefilled application. Thank goodness I’m honest and am not registering twice.”

But now, with allegations of fraudulent registration with ACORN (which are mostly bogus and trumped up by the GOP), I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have tried harder to say something. And then someone sent me a link to this Rolling Stone article about how some Republicans are trying to block the votes of Democrats and minorities in swing states (most notably in New Mexico, Colorado, and Michigan).

I’m still not TERRIBLY worried about my situation in particular. In the 6 years that I’ve lived in NJ, I’ve never had a problem voting. I’ve always received an example ballot in the mail before each election, there have never been any lines, and all the poll workers have been friendly and helpful. And despite the fact that the NJ Board of Elections tried to register me twice, I’m (mostly) confident that my married name will be on the rolls come November 4.
Steal Back Your Vote! from Greg Palast on Vimeo.

So what can we do to ensure that our vote counts?
If you or someone you know has been caged, purged, or challenged by election officials call Election Protection 1-866 -OUR-VOTE

  1. Don’t mail in your ballot. Go in person.
  2. Do not accept a provisional ballot. In many states anywhere between one in three to one half of all provisional ballots are discarded. Rules are extremely lax on whether or not these ballots need to be counted by election officials. If an election official tries to get you to vote on a provisional ballot, but you know that you are a registered voter,demanda call to the supervisor of elections.
  3. Vote early. Most states now have a period prior to November 4 when you can cast your vote. This gives you time to get re-registered if you’d been purged from the voter rolls. It also gives you time to go home and pick up your photo ID and bring it back your polling place, if you’ve been rejected for this reason (only some states require photo identification).
  4. Check online to see if you are still registered. Go to www.votersunite.org/info/RegInfo.asp.
  5. If you re-register, or register for the first time, pull out your driver’s license and make sure that you fill out your name on your voter registration form in the exact same way as it is spelled on your driver’s license. A number of states are purging voters from the rolls if their driver’s license and registration form are not an “exact match.” As crazy as it sounds, voters are being purged from the rolls if extremely minor variations exist between the two. For example: if your driver’s license says Karen Joy Miller, and your voter registration form lists your name as Karen J. Miller, you can be purged from the rolls.

Good luck, and happy voting!

High Holiness

Well, it happened again; I went back to singing for High Holy Days, although not in Deal this time.

Now that I have a Germanic last name, I figured I wouldn’t have to change it to something more Semitic this time, but one of the first things the cantor brought up with me was the “problem” some people might have with me being a gentile. I foolishly told the cantor about how they changed my name to Montebini in Deal, and I think it gave him ideas; he other day he asked if he could call me Miriam in front of other people.

I told him that he could call me that…but I might not answer.

Anyway, the whole situation has made me start thinking about the role music plays in religion. Obviously, music and religion have been inexorably linked since the beginning of either. But more pertinent to a person in my line of work: when did religions start hiring ringers to “improve” their services?

I know the Catholic church (and later, the Protestants) has always been a great sponsor of music. The first music conservatories were orphanages run by the church. And how many great, monumental works were commissioned by the church? So I’m very, very grateful to organized religion in general for being such a consistent sponsor of the arts throughout the centuries. But sorry, folks, I’m not going to buy into your way of thinking just because you sign my check.

Many religious pieces have been (and continue to be) written by believers, from Palestrina to MacMillan, but some really beautiful sacred music has been written by composers leading decidedly secular lives, like Mozart or Schumann. I personally don’t believe that a piece of music is only sacred when someone who believes what the listener believes writes it. So what is the big deal when someone who doesn’t believe performs it, as long as they perform it well?

Being a gentile in the middle of High Holy Days certainly made me feel very much an outsider, especially considering the fact that most of the services were conducted in Hebrew. And the fact that I had to hide my religious affiliation to the point of changing my name also rubbed me the wrong way. Are appearances so important that you have to make everyone believe that the 4 singers you hired to be there also are Jews? Because if it’s THAT important, then you should just never hire gentiles at all.

The irony really struck me while rehearsing for Kol Nidre, when the cantor explained that this service started back in the days of the Spanish Inquisition, when Jews went underground and had to pretend they were Christians. Kol nidre is the prayer that renounces all false oaths those Jews made to their oppressors. And yet I have to pretend to be Jewish.

And lest you think my frustration is only with the Jews, most churches require their choir members to bow or reverence the altar during procession to the choir stalls, and some higher forms of Episcopal and Catholic churches require you to bow to the cross on the altar whenever you pass by it. It’s a part of the ritual, and I do it out of respect for the people worshiping around me. But I don’t take communion, nor does anyone expect me to, since communion is reserved for baptized Christians only (for Catholics, it’s reserved only for Catholics).

The problem may lie with me. After all, if I didn’t want to do what the folks at the synagogue expected of me, I could have just not taken the job. And I’m sure some of you think that by running from synagogue to church in the same day I’m no better than a religious strumpet, stripping off my cotta and slipping on a kippah. And certainly there is a meretricious element to what I’m doing, because this particular gig, by its very nature, is deceptive.

I’m not sure there is an easy answer to this, at least not one where I don’t offend somebody. I am a working singer, and there are certain organizations of varying religions that feel they would benefit from my services. If somebody feels closer to God when they hear me sing, then that makes me happy, and it brings me closer to God(dess). Music is my church, and I am constantly worshiping there.