I get so angry when I think of the millions of people who didn't bother to get up and go vote yesterday. As I listened to the news and watched the polls report in last night, my mind drifted back to the two young people who sit across from me at work. When I enthusiastically asked them whether or not they were going to vote tonight in the election, the young lady responded with a resounding "I'm not registered". Her answer to me seemed to echo ignorance to the tenth power. As I looked at this young, black sister who was a single mother who catches the bus to work everyday to work a part time job, I felt such a sense of sadness in my belly. I immediately thought of all the black women and black men who had given their lives, their time and their heart to the cause of civil rights. I dare not forget about the countless other men and women of other races and creeds who bravely stood with our freedom fighters, as they crossed lines of discrimination and prejudice accompanied with Jim Crow. How could she be so casual about the right to vote? The importance of exercising your voice to power. Truth to power.
How sad it is to live in ignorance. Ignorance to the conditions and social injustices around you that you can have a part in changing when you become involved with the process of change. One voice can make a difference.
If Martin had never answered his call to lead, to speak truth to power, where would the civil rights struggle have been? One voice makes a difference.
What about 21 year old James Chaney of Mississippi who was killed along with Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner for daring to speak truth to power. Even the intense, volatile climate of the tumultuous 60's and Jim Crow couldn't stop these brave young men from getting involved in the democratic process. To use their voice, and death, to make a difference.
It is your duty to vote. You owe it to the many people who have come before you who paid their dues with their sweat and blood, so that you can even have the luxury to sit, wherever you want to sit, on the bus. You owe it to them!
The struggle continues people and we must never forget that a price was paid for all of us. Bro. Martin said 'injustice anywhere, is injustice everywhere'. For you and I that simply means we can't sit idly by and hope that good people will do what's right by and for us. We must be involved. Regardless of your flavor of politics, the indifference with even making a decision and demonstrating it with your vote, is the loudest cry you can make. It speaks volumes about what you believe, and the amount of appreciation and respect you have for the movement of people who have given so much, to receive back so little.
Make a difference.
Until yesterday, I don't believe I've ever felt as strongly about getting the vote out before. I guess since I'd never really had a conversation with an individual who so utterly opposed the right to vote, I had become somewhat removed from the idea that so many people are not involved. Ever since I was of the legal age to vote, I've participated in the electoral process. It was something I was taught to do. My parents voted, theirs did too. My siblings do as well. We believe in the process. So, when I talked with my co-workers yesterday and listened to them express their indifference to the right of every citizen exercising his right to vote, I became saddened.
If you grew up in the 70's like I did, you might remember the commercial that used to come on where they showed a Native American riding around on a horse looking at how the land and the rivers and agriculture had been destroyed? It was a poignant, humbling reflection of how America(ans)had destroyed the land once reverenced and kept, and honored, by the Native Americans. Iron Eyes Cody shed a tear at the end of the commercial as he saw the outcome and result of what had become of the land so many of his people had died fighting for.
In my own way, I identified with him. My heart felt remorse and it ached as I wished I could incite in these people the importance in using your voice to power.
It is my opinion, that the younger people don't find the history of our day to be as important as some of us older ones who can still remember some things from the former years. I remember hearing James Brown sing/scream "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud". As a young girl, that playing on WJMO helped to mobilize and instill in me an affirmation that I am somebody. The blowouts and afro's. Yeah, I remember them. They symbolized an attitude and helped to represent an attitude to a movement of a people. A people who were saying "I'm here. I am not going to not be heard". The Black Panther Party, The Black Muslims, The NAACP, etc. They were all very prevalent in my younger years growing up, so I have a surge in my spirit that is in alignment with the cause, the movement and the struggle to uplift, educate and liberate the people.
Strong people formed these organizations. People with a desire to see changes in our communities and our laws and more opportunities for our children and families.
It is my strong desire to become an active participant in helping to get out the vote in the next election. To remind young people of why it is important to vote and to not forget those who have paved the way, that you might have the right to vote.
It's that simple-never forget. Never become complacent. It's not over....yet.
Make a difference and speak truth to power
How sad it is to live in ignorance. Ignorance to the conditions and social injustices around you that you can have a part in changing when you become involved with the process of change. One voice can make a difference.
If Martin had never answered his call to lead, to speak truth to power, where would the civil rights struggle have been? One voice makes a difference.
What about 21 year old James Chaney of Mississippi who was killed along with Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner for daring to speak truth to power. Even the intense, volatile climate of the tumultuous 60's and Jim Crow couldn't stop these brave young men from getting involved in the democratic process. To use their voice, and death, to make a difference.
It is your duty to vote. You owe it to the many people who have come before you who paid their dues with their sweat and blood, so that you can even have the luxury to sit, wherever you want to sit, on the bus. You owe it to them!
The struggle continues people and we must never forget that a price was paid for all of us. Bro. Martin said 'injustice anywhere, is injustice everywhere'. For you and I that simply means we can't sit idly by and hope that good people will do what's right by and for us. We must be involved. Regardless of your flavor of politics, the indifference with even making a decision and demonstrating it with your vote, is the loudest cry you can make. It speaks volumes about what you believe, and the amount of appreciation and respect you have for the movement of people who have given so much, to receive back so little.
Make a difference.
Until yesterday, I don't believe I've ever felt as strongly about getting the vote out before. I guess since I'd never really had a conversation with an individual who so utterly opposed the right to vote, I had become somewhat removed from the idea that so many people are not involved. Ever since I was of the legal age to vote, I've participated in the electoral process. It was something I was taught to do. My parents voted, theirs did too. My siblings do as well. We believe in the process. So, when I talked with my co-workers yesterday and listened to them express their indifference to the right of every citizen exercising his right to vote, I became saddened.
If you grew up in the 70's like I did, you might remember the commercial that used to come on where they showed a Native American riding around on a horse looking at how the land and the rivers and agriculture had been destroyed? It was a poignant, humbling reflection of how America(ans)had destroyed the land once reverenced and kept, and honored, by the Native Americans. Iron Eyes Cody shed a tear at the end of the commercial as he saw the outcome and result of what had become of the land so many of his people had died fighting for.
In my own way, I identified with him. My heart felt remorse and it ached as I wished I could incite in these people the importance in using your voice to power.
It is my opinion, that the younger people don't find the history of our day to be as important as some of us older ones who can still remember some things from the former years. I remember hearing James Brown sing/scream "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud". As a young girl, that playing on WJMO helped to mobilize and instill in me an affirmation that I am somebody. The blowouts and afro's. Yeah, I remember them. They symbolized an attitude and helped to represent an attitude to a movement of a people. A people who were saying "I'm here. I am not going to not be heard". The Black Panther Party, The Black Muslims, The NAACP, etc. They were all very prevalent in my younger years growing up, so I have a surge in my spirit that is in alignment with the cause, the movement and the struggle to uplift, educate and liberate the people.
Strong people formed these organizations. People with a desire to see changes in our communities and our laws and more opportunities for our children and families.
It is my strong desire to become an active participant in helping to get out the vote in the next election. To remind young people of why it is important to vote and to not forget those who have paved the way, that you might have the right to vote.
It's that simple-never forget. Never become complacent. It's not over....yet.
Make a difference and speak truth to power
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