Blanco Historic Cemetery Association Denies Members Voting Rights

Dear Editor,

I am writing you this letter to address the concern of how the Blanco Historic Cemetery Association (BHCA) denied its members their voting rights by not accepting proxy voting at the special meeting on February 25, 2012. I was informed that my proxy vote would not be accepted at this special meeting so I traveled over 450 miles to attend the special meeting of the BHCA that was called for the purpose of ratifying the revision of the Constitution dated December 5, 2011, and the introduction of the newly created Bylaws. It was apparent at the beginning of the meeting that the President had no intention of letting outsiders have the right to discuss the proposed revisions by creating a meeting agenda that was filled with at least eight topics that were not associated with the call of this special meeting. The proposed Constitution and Bylaws instituted a new policy to deny proxy voting to its members thereby violating their civil right to vote. Today many of the younger generation may not know or understand the strife that the black community, people of other nationalities, minorities, and women have had to endure prior to the Civil Rights Movement. In short, one key victory of the Civil Rights Movement was that it ended the restriction of racial minorities to a form of second-class citizenship by allowing them voting rights. Let us also not forget the Fifteenth Amendment and Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution that proclaims the rights of citizens to vote and shall not be denied this right on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, and sex. The proposed Constitution and Bylaws that were approved at this meeting were done so in direct violation of the Constitution dated March 2010 by a vote that denied any proxy voting of its over 600 outsider membership yet allowed non-members in attendance to cast a vote.

Sincerely,

Marshall Bayless

League City, TX