Vote and REMEMBER

Make NO mistake.  Democracy is a concept that only works if EVERYONE has the opportunity to give their input on the political process that governs our lives.

Don't just look at these black and white photos and disconnect.  These marches and movements were VERY real!  They did not arbitrarily occur.  Minorities were disenfranchised and made mute by the very government that was to protect and respect them.  Every vote, every law, every amendment was created without their input and they FOUGHT against being shut out.

As a result, we are VERY MUCH part of the process now.  If you neglect your right to vote, you are in essence disregarding, under valuing and marginalizing the efforts made by your fore mothers and fathers.

Interesting voting facts:

After the U.S. Civil War (1861-65), the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude.

On March 7, 1965, peaceful participants in a voting rights march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery were met by Alabama state troopers who attacked them with nightsticks, tear gas and whips after they refused to turn back. Some protesters were severely beaten, and others ran for their lives. The incident was captured on national television.

The voting rights bill was passed in the U.S. Senate by a 77-19 vote on May 26, 1965. After debating the bill for more than a month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 333-85 on July 9. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders present at the ceremony.

The act banned the use of literacy tests, provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the nonwhite population had not registered to vote, and authorized the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections (in 1964, the 24th Amendment made poll taxes illegal in federal elections; poll taxes in state elections were banned in 1966 by the U.S. Supreme Court).

Learn more HERE

So, please, I beg and implore you to go out today and exercise your RIGHT TO VOTE!  Our foreparents have secured this right for us.  Do not squander their contribution.  Do the right thing.

If you experience any trouble at the polls, please contact any of the following numbers:

1-866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683)
1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (en Español)
1-866-MYVOTE1 (866-698-6831)