Get it Together!

   If you do not have the right to vote then your concerns will go unrepresented.  If you have the right to vote but do not have access to the voting booth, you will be unrepresented and your concerns will not be addressed.  If you exercise your right to vote and have access to education you will make smart decisions.  If you have the right to vote and exercise that right and are educated and have access to healthcare you will live a long, productive and fulfilling life that will support the country as a whole.

     Anyone who works to prevent you from voting, getting an education and staying healthy does not have your best interests at heart.  If they say otherwise they are lying.

                                    DO NOT VOTE FOR THEM!

     In the early 1700s the British Colonies, on the North American continent, grew tired of the British Parliament deciding how the colonies were to be taxed and what laws they were to be governed by.  The colonies felt that it was unfair for the rich, white, men in the Parliament to make these decisions when the people who were being affected had no representatives there to look out for what was important to them.

     Today women in the United States of America, as well as people of color, people for whom English is a second language, the poor and college students are all in a similar position even though they represent a majority of the electorate.  What’s wrong with this picture?  Why can’t these groups get together and vote as a block to effect change?

If you don’t think this is a problem just ask a poor, black woman in Texas, whose native language is something other than English and who is trying to go to school to better her life and the lives of her descendants!

     “… Congress needs to act to make sure every American has equal access to the polls. The Justice Department is eager to work with Congressional leaders of both parties, and with concerned citizens like you, to craft new legislation to fill the void left by the Court’s ruling and address voting rights discrimination. This is not a partisan issue. It is an issue about the most fundamental of all rights–the right to vote. It is about how we define our democracy.”  This is from a speech by Attorney General Eric Holder to a gathering of members of Delta Sigma Theta in July 2013 concerning the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voters Rights Act.

     Although I believe that access to voting privileges is the most important issue of our time I can’t see how it will help to gain voting privileges if the groups that are being disenfranchised by a rich, white, minority of men, don’t get together and do something as a cohesive voting block to see that their concerns are addressed.

     They don’t need to agree on which problem to tackle first but they do need to get together and elect representation that will vote for the solutions to their problems as they come up in the US congress and their state houses of representation.

     To be clear, I believe the national priorities for citizens as well as elected officials are, in this order, the right to vote, access to; voting places, education and healthcare, and advocating for as well as supporting the efforts for, a coalition of these people; people of color, people for whom English is a second language, the poor, students and women.  If this is accomplished these actions could make this country what it has the potential to be.