Its not all boating all the time.

Tucked up in the quiet corner of Connecticut is a a few hundred homes centered around a shallow man-made lake. Its a pretty area just off the I-84 corridor known only for its remoteness and the fact that we are home to what used to be called the Ashford Motel, a seedy little flop house on the way to Boston. The homes are modest, the roads unpaved and the politics strait out of the Jim-Crow South.

In charge of this little shangra-la is a volunteer board of elected officials some of whom were raised here while others implanted unknowingly. The Board is responsible for maintaining the roads and lake, keeping up the community hall and levying property taxes to pay for it. There was some discussion over whether it was a private association or a taxing district for some time, but since the elected board was set forth by an act of the Connecticut General Assembly and the board has the ability to issue Sheriff's liens against the properties in the Association, it is my estimation, validated by the ACLU representative I spoke to last month, that it is a public entity and therefore accountable to the people of the United States.

That is why I blew my stack last night when I got off the phone with my neighbor Sandy. She attended the General meeting of the association held yesterday. I was first miffed that the meeting was held with no proper notice being issued, agenda put forward, or slate of candidates announced. But that't the way its done in the back woods of Connecticut. What really frosted my cookies was that despite fair warning that they could not restrict voting rights based on property ownership or the status of ones property taxes, they excluded residents just the same from voting in the election.

I knew they would try to do it, that is what they always did. But what bugs me the most is I asked for help from the ACLU knowing that this practice has gone on since the 1950's when the State assembly created the organization and was told that yes its illegal what the board is doing, but no one cares enough to stop it.

Not the State, not the Courts, Not the people and certainly not the Board. Voting rights are our most basic right but they are infringed constantly for personal gain and for political purpose in Florida, Ohio and yes even the NIMBY-obsessed hills of jolly old CT.

I have yet another battle to fight for justice and this one is open and shut. The only question is, will anyone wake up to realize that it is not the symptoms of injustice that are the problem, but the pervasive nature of those symptoms in the system from shores to forests, to Cities to villages to little taxing districts in the back woods hills of Connecticut- its everywhere and its been this way for a VERY long time because we have let it happen. Its time to change.