If my mother and father had lived in the early days of this Republic, neither of them would have been allowed to vote.

My mother would have been disenfranchised since WOMEN were not allowed the vote until after ratification of the Amendment XIX to the Constitution in 1919.

My father would have been disenfranchised because men WITHOUT PROPERTY did not receive the vote until the xxth Amendment in 18xx.

African-Americans, of course, were disenfranchised until the Amendment XIII (1863), abolishing Slavery, and the Amendment XIV (1868), which gave them full citizen rights, so the males could vote.

(Ironically, it was this last Amendement which was interpreted by the United States Supreme Court as allowing rights to corporations, so that they became legal. Yeah! Did you realize that the poor corporations were also "disinfranchised".

Another group of people -- "white" -- who suffered slave-like conditions and disinfranchizement were the indentured servants. Poor white British men and women, who couldn't pay ship's passage to "The New World", signed a seven-year contract to work off the cost of their passage. Piracy became a great problem in the Caribbean area, fed by abused indentured servants who escaped and preyed upon the ethnics of their abusers.

Young men, under 21 could be drafted into Miliitary Service in the years following World War II, but were disinfranchised until Amendment XXVI (1971) gave the vote to those 18 years of age or older.

Many or most of the African-Americans in the South were disinfranchised until passage by Congress of The Civil Rights Act in 1961.

During "Election 2000", we became aware of how many African-Americans and other minorities are still disinfranchised in Florida -- turned away at the polls, confused by misleading ballots not used in predominantly white counties, their votes not counted by faulty machines not used in predominantly white counties, etc.

Since 1789, this has been THE REPUBLIC OF THE FRANCHISED AND DISENFRANCHISED! Do we care? Shall we do something about it?