The Power We Hold
Hello dear readers!
Throughout the history of our country, struggle has been instrumental in moving us forward. Our early history of struggle beginning with the Revolutionary War, Post Civil War Reconstruction, the Labor movements, and the Women’s Suffrage movement laid the groundwork for building a national culture that relied on community organizing and mutual aid, active protest and at times civil disobedience to bring about systemic change. More recent examples of this are the movements for gender equality, LBGTQ rights and immigrant rights. When tyranny, inequality and injustice reached a tipping point, the People in previous generations and our own learned to find common cause and to trust in the power of raising their voices together.
As I pondered the significance of these periods of upheaval, sacrifice, courage, uncertainty and enormous change, two movements stood out in my mind: Civil Rights and Women’s Suffrage. With the stroke of a pen, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The former ended segregation and made it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of race, religion and country of national origin. It also protected civil rights workers and employment opportunity and gave the federal government more powers to enforce the provisions of the 14th Amendment. The latter aimed to stop practices that impeded African Americans' right to vote, granted nearly a century earlier under the 14th Amendment, but perilous, and almost impossible to use in some states. Likewise, President Woodrow Wilson’s support for women’s right to vote after WWI led to the ratification of the 19th Amendment. It was certified by his secretary of state in 1920. These movements were different because they resulted in enfranchisement, or removed barriers to voting for groups of hundreds of thousands of people. Though the implementation of these victories, especially for African-Americans, has been uneven and in some cases ignored by officials over the past 60 years, they finally provided these groups the opportunity to seek redress, and, very importantly, gave them not just the right to raise their voices but the right to make their voices count!
Our forefathers had a brilliant idea: The People should have the right to choose their own leaders and to vote them out if they fail to do the work of governing for the common good. While organized protest is essential to galvanize the People to flex their power, it is futile without having and using the right to vote. Protest says we’re here and we’re watching! Voting says, Change or risk losing your job! It is the most fundamental check on those in power who have run amok. Our ancestors understood that.
Today, with the President and his cabinet ignoring the common good, and with Congress and the Department of Justice failing to force them to change, I have been hearing the echoes of our ancestors calling us.
My friends, l ask you to hear them too! Listen for their wisdom to understand the power we have and the importance of our actions in this moment! Listen to them telling us to use what they fought for: our voices, and especially our ultimate voice, our vote! Listen to them reminding us that when we rise up together to demand the government we deserve, we prevail! Election Day is November 3rd. Let’s answer the call together!
by Kathy D
