- by Robin H. Rafaelidys, Mytilini

“Folks keep asking what we are going to do about the filibuster? I think they ought to ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, what are they going to do about voting rights? The question really is not where I stand on the filibuster. That's a Senate rule. The most fundamental question is where you stand on voting rights. We wouldn't have to have this debate about the filibuster at least on this issue if the folks on the other side would do the right thing and stand for voting rights.... I'm a member of the Senate. I respect its traditions. I'm honored to be there to represent the people of Georgia. But the issue of voting rights is about the democracy itself. It's much bigger than any Senate rule.” ~ Senator Raphael Warnock, D-GA

Book recommendations by Randall Warner, Thessaloniki Chapter Chair

Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, by John Lewis with Michael    D’Orso, Simon & Schuster Trade Paperback edition, 2012 ISBN 978-1-4767-9771-7

Later this year, the 117th Congress plans to reintroduce the bill referred to as H.R.4, named in honor of the late Georgia congressman. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act  restores key provisions of President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Voting Rights Act which  ensured that locations with a history of discrimination in voting must receive pre-  clearance from the federal government before changing voting procedures. These provisions were gutted by the Supreme Court decision of Shelby v. Holder in 2013. The bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL), said the House will hold hearings during  2021 to build the case defending the bill from the pandemic of court challenges it will inevitably face when enacted.

“Some battles are long and hard, and you have to have staying power. Firecrackers go off in a flash, then leave nothing but ashes. I prefer a pilot light. The flame is nothing flashy, but once it is lit, it doesn’t go out. It burns steadily, and it burns forever.” – John Lewis

This post was picked up and published by Insider Magazine in its March 2021 issue.

By Stacey Harris-Papaioannou

At 25, she was the educated aristocrat who became a passionate rebel. In war she fought like a man, in love she was betrayed like a woman and even her country deserted her after she used her entire fortune to bankroll the revolution.

In the political activism world, you lose some and you win some. In DAGR’s case, we’ve lost the services of one of our Communications volunteers, Barbara Euser, for the coming year. On the up side, Barbara and a friend, Kelly Gregory, are circumnavigating the world in her Bristol 34 sloop, “Islander.”

by Rebecca Lieb
7 March, 2021 - Tsangarada, GR

Last month, Greece passed what for many of us was long-overdue legislation permitting the country's legal residents who are ineligible for AMKA to obtain a temporary AMKA number in order to register for a COVID vaccine appointment.

The Pandemic’s Impact on Harassment and Violence Against Women

Democrats Abroad Greece Women’s Caucus will hold an online conversation on March 31 at 8 pm via Zoom, for the Women’s Web March: Sexual Harassment, Violence Against Women and the Pandemic

This event, now celebrating its 5^th anniversary, gives each attendee the opportunity to take action on the most pertinent female issues through the expertise of three women hailing from different fields: law, politics and the arts.

Article is coming.....

by Robin Rafaelidys, DAGR volunteer
Mar 09, 2021

In autumn 2020, Robin Rafaelydis went back to the US to fight the good fight where needed most. She decided on Kentucky and the effort to pitch Mitch.

Kentucky, to my surprise, boasts one hundred and twenty (120) counties.  California, which is almost four (4) times as large and has eight (8) times the population, has fifty-eight (58).  It's not the first thing one thinks about when contemplating the states UNLESS one is going to a chosen state one month before what one considers a life-and-death presidential election. Because for election purposes counties are king. And I wanted to depose a king, one self-proclaimed “Grim Reaper”.

by Vasilis Frangiskos
Mar 08, 2021

Vasilis Frangiskos spent a few years in Texas. Now back in Greece, he details one of the ‘strange’ things he noted while there, a tendency to shoot one’s self in foot.

by Rebecca Lieb
7 March, 2021 - Tsangarada, GR

On March 5, the Greek parliament finally ratified legislation granting foreign residents ineligible for AMKA (a Greek social security number) the right to obtain a temporary number, enabling them to get in line for the COVID vaccine. This law rectifies a grave and dangerous oversight that affected tens - if not hundreds - of thousands of legal residents.