8:18 a.m.
Tuesday, June 10, 2025 8:19 am

To the editor:

Military wars and legislative wars both use the same trojan horse strategy of deception. When considering the nature of H.R. 22, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, I think back to a story told by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, The Father of The Underground Church imprisoned by the Nazis and Soviets for 14 years. In 1967, he came to the U.S with his wife Sabina starting the Voice of the Martyrs. On the First Anniversary of the Bolsheviks Revolution, Lenin and his Bolshevik leaders were hunting, telling stories around the campfire. Lenin asked: "Tell me comrades: What is your greatest pleasure in the world?"

Trotsky replied "war," with Zinoviev it was women. Stalin was last to answer, "None of you know what real pleasure is. It is to hate someone for years, pretending you are his best friend, and when he lays his head trustingly on your chest, you plunge the knife into his back. There is no higher pleasure."

Stalin's evil nature grew to become one of histories greatest mass murderers. Thousands of years earlier, God's holy word in Jeremiah 17:9 pictured this evil nature: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" Unfortunately, this mental condition of "desperately sick" (our sin nature) makes us all vulnerable to such evil corruption. The minds and hearts of men in government being the particularly vulnerable as they seek absolute power. Competition along the journey climbing to the top to often casts Christian morals to the bottom, while Marxist morality, infecting all governments, fills the vacuum; when collective-base morals rule, liberty dies.

Comparing legislation so nicely named with such despotic evil intentions may seem extreme, but let us reason together and not be deceived. H.R. 22 might appear to be a logical response to voter fraud over the past several elections. It is not a solution, it just adds to the problem it is supposed to solve. Patrick Henry's wisdom concerning national security should be our guide: "Guard with jealous attention the public liberties. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel." Too often, the majority in Congress, because they don't know history, lack constitutional knowledge and are easily deceived. Instead of right or wrong, their parties moral code wins the day. SAVE is based on a tragic flawed interpretation of the 14th Amendment:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States they reside."

Voter integrity cannot be preserved with a federal one size fits all solution for every state. Because the states are not subsidiaries of Washington, and not to be administrative servants of a federal bureaucracy. We are co-equal partners in a federal compact. We must start acting like it and nullify federal abuse. The simple answers to control corruption at the polls are: same day voting, paper ballots with a paper trail, and punitive action taken against all fraudulent violators. Honesty in elections demands that we base them on the moral principal that : "Means are as important as ends." Jefferson's principle: " Have no confidence in men, but bind them down from mischief to the chains of the Constitution" is good advice.

A good place to start is support H.R. 55 to Repeal the National Voter Registration Act. Go to https://johnbirchsociety.cmail19.com/t/y-l-cihttkk-hytjhiddur-k/

- Russ Payne,

Merrimack