Vote (because you can)

Don't think your ballot counts? Here are six stories that may change your mind.

By JOCELYN WIENER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 5, 2002

Interviews by Jocelyn Wiener of the Times staff

Anthony Hy Hoang Wiles, 54
St. Petersburg

[Times photo: Lara Cerri] Anthony Hy-Hoang Wiles translates for some Vietnamese patients of Dr. Brian Burke, center.

I was valedictorian of my high school. I went to law school for two years, and then the Communists came and buried several thousand people alive in the Tet Offensive. I went to war and was shot three times on the battlefield. When South Vietnam lost to the Communists, they put me in prison from April 1975 to December 1979. They beat me up many times. They released me because I was seriously ill. I had hepatitis, and they didn't want to see me die in prison.

In Vietnam, we suffered from a dictatorship. We didn't have any votes; we only had one big guy, like Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Everybody had to vote for them. If anybody refused, they'd be tortured.

I joined 28 people from a fishing village and escaped in a little boat. We risked our lives in the Pacific Ocean. We hit a hurricane and almost sank. President Reagan had learned thousands of people were dying trying to escape from Vietnam. He sent airplanes to find people. I used a special survivor mirror to reflect sun rays. Nine hours later, we were rescued by a U.S. vessel.

I came to St. Petersburg in April 1981. I voted for the first time in 1987. After voting they gave me the little sticker that said, "I voted," and I put that sticker on my chest.

Mazen Marie, 35
Clearwater

[Times photo: Carrie Pratt]

As you might be aware, we Palestinians are under occupation. There is no election process and no democratic process to speak of. The Israeli army enforces the law over there. We do not vote. We only vote in internal affairs, like maybe a student government. The ones who get appointed to student government spend most of their term in Israeli jails because they are activists. In 1987, the first intifada started. My university was closed down by the military. In 1989, I came to the States to study civil engineering at USF.

The first time I voted was in 1997. It was very exciting. This is why I chose the United States to migrate to, because of the democracy system and all of the good things that come along with it.

As a person who originates from the Middle East, I would love to see the U.S government promote the same kind of democracy internationally as they have here. When they talk about democracy for the rest of the world, they are talking about installed governments. They back up almost every dictator in the Middle East.

Bob Gilder, 72
Tampa

[Times photo: Cherie Diez]

I came to Florida in the 1950s, when I was 25. I studied industrial science and political science at Florida A&M. Black folks were not allowed to sit anywhere except for the back three seats of a bus. If you sat anywhere else, you were subject to go to jail.

I started getting involved with the civil rights movement immediately. My house was shot up, and I was threatened in Tampa several times because I was registering people. But you know to outsmart them. You bring forward your intestinal fortitude.

I used to beg real well when I was a young man. I would get on the radio, get on TV, go door to door, cook potato pies and chitterlings and collard greens, and give them away to volunteers and get people to vote that way. I helped to register under some duress 36,000 people in this county. The Lord helped me help the people.

Elections were tough. The polls would sometimes close on you. They'd close them early and open them late. Deliberately. And sometimes black folks would go there and the machine would be broken.

I first registered a voter when I was about 25 or 30. The last person I registered was two years ago. I remember both of them as if they were sitting in front of me. Because both of them were very tough. People have to be convinced and talked into it, and sometimes you get cussed out. They say, "Go mind your own business; you ain't got something else to do?" You have to assure them that yes, you have something else to do, but nothing more important.

[Times photo: Michael Rondou] Marina Khavina and her mother-in-law Dora Khavina

Marina Khavina, 42
St. Petersburg

I was born in Siberia. I came to Belarus when I was 6 years old. There was only one party, only one candidate. We didn't have any choice. I believed in the Communist Party, in all its ideas. When perestroika came, I began to learn what was truly going on all those years. I was very upset that these people lied to me. I was brainwashed.

In 1991, my family came to St. Petersburg as refugees from anti-Semitism. I was 32. The first time I visited Belarus, the people were so happy. After perestroika, the elections in Belarus took place in the same manner as elections in any civilized country. We had several candidates, and you chose who you voted for. People believed the future would be better.

When I visited two years ago, they didn't have hope for democracy anymore. The president tries to stay in power by any means possible. He puts opponents in jail on false charges. People just disappear in Belarus.

We became American citizens three years ago. We had a big celebration at my work the morning I got my citizenship. My co-workers decorated the room with American flags, and we had a cake with an American flag on it.

The first time my husband and I voted, it was very hard for us, maybe because I was so nervous. This time, it was so easy. I did my homework on the Internet and put checkmarks by who I wanted. I felt so proud, I called all my friends and told them I voted.

[Times photo: Carrie Pratt] Adoum Moussa, right, Fatime Zogolo and their son, Daoud Moussa, 2.

Fatime Zogolo, 40
Adoum Moussa, 50
Clearwater

Moussa: In 1990, there was a coup in Chad. The president was a friend of mine. We fought together in the war against Libya. When he took over, he wanted me to be at his side. In his statement, he committed to making a multiple party system. He wasn't telling the truth. He wanted people to found political parties that would serve him. I told him, "I am sorry. Our country has a chance to form a democracy, and I can't agree with you."

In 1992, the president sent Sudanese mercenaries to my home at midnight in order to kill me. He had selected 15 of us to assassinate that night. But I was at a funeral for a relative they had killed two days earlier. Fatime was seven months pregnant. They kidnapped her instead. When I came home, I found the kids. But Fatime was gone. I called the U.S. Embassy, France, Germany, China and some journalists. Then I surrendered. After 18 days, they freed us because of international pressure.

In 1996, I ran for president. My people were beaten up at the ballot boxes. Three weeks later, the president announced the results. He had 120 percent of the votes. I told people how Chad fixed the elections. Again, the president was mad with me. He tried to kill me again.

We came here in 1999. The way the people handled the presidential election in Florida (in 2000) is very extraordinary. If we had something like that in Africa, people would say, "Let's fight, let's war." Over here people trust their institutions, know their laws. I would like to go back to Chad and help people, because over there we still need peace, democracy and solid institutions. Someday things are going to change in Chad. I'd like to be there to help.

[Times photo: John Pendygraft] Lesly Diaz, with pictures of daughter Leysel Diaz, 18, and son Leyner Diaz, 19.

Lesly Diaz, 56
Tampa

When I was 16 or 17, Fidel Castro held a demonstration in a plaza. He asked the people if they wanted elections. The people around him said they didn't want them, they were happy with Castro. To understand the Cuban process, you have to have lived it.

I tried to leave Cuba in 1965, when I was 19 years old. But the state wouldn't let me go. They said I had to be 27 years old and first give my military service. I was sent to a concentration camp for eight months. I was forced to work 14 or 15 hours a day, with one meal. When I returned home, I told my mother I had to go to the United States. They captured me and sent me to a punishment camp for six months.

In Cuba, they have one-party elections. I call it a race with one horse. Who wins? The horse. A person has to vote, because the fear is terrible. Not to vote in the elections in Cuba is like being from the CIA. For many years I voted because I had a family. But I got tired of it, and in recent years, we didn't vote anymore.

In 1999, I managed to come here with my wife and four children. I value the essence of democracy in the United States. They wanted to make George Washington emperor, but he refused. He said this country had to be a democracy. My family has refugee status, but we hope to get our citizenship. Of course I will vote then. I will vote for the best candidate.

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