May 19, 2026: Election Primary Day and Hindsight Film Festival

We tried something new on Voices of Resistance--breaking the show up into two segments.  During the first hour, Chatham County Board of Elections member Tricia Brown, joined us to talk about today's Primary Election Day, the last opportunity for Georgians to vote in the state primary for local, state and national elections in 2026.  

We talked about voter turnout, which Trish attributed to voter fatigue and lack of voter information and discernment regarding the process and the candidates.   If you were tuned in via television (or electronic devices) and you felt bombarded by candidate appeals that spoke not of their credentials, but of the evils of their opponents, information that may or may not have based upon fact but was definitely based upon the candidates' abilities to raise funds and buy ads.  Kudos belongs to GA for expanding voter access via early voting and no excuse absentee ballots, requiring candidates receive at least 50% of votes cast or go to a run-off election, and to voting machines that now produce a paper trail and can be audited.  We also talked about reforms that could change the voting system and access to information of substance about the candidates, such as enhanced ballot access for alternative parties, rank-choice voting, automatic/same day registration, recall to force a new vote for candidates that do not fulfill campaign promises and campaign finance reform to prevent money from buying victory.  Thank you Trish.

In the second hour, Hindsight Festival Director Pat Longstreth joined us to reflect on the 2026 festival (the first) and the future--2027 and beyond.  We all agreed that the 2026 festival was amazing, especially having Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, in attendance for the screening of Steal This Story Please, which will be shown on Thursday, May 21, at 7 pm at the Cultural Arts Center.  I am proud that WRUU was a sponsor and to learn that Amy got her start on community radio and offers her show to NPR and other stations, such as WRUU, at no cost, surviving on donations to keep her and her crew reporting on situations around the country and the world.

Next week we will talk about Cuba, now in the USA crosshairs after its 60+ years of a blockade that has devastated the country and now taking out Venezuela, the only country to provide Cuba with oil.  While babies die in incubators for lack of power to keep the oxygen flowing to their lungs, we watch what will come next from this country obsessed with the unspeakable--declaring its independence from USA control and nationalizing its resources from the USA oligarchs in control since 1959, including the family of USA Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Please let us know what you think at info@voicesofresistance.fm.  Thanks.