Vote about it

27th January 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

With early payday loans that i can call voting already underway, New Orleanians are heading to the polls to cast ballots for the Feb. 1 municipal elections in this city.

Before casting a ballot, there is much to consider like which candidates possess the skills and attributes necessary to take on the myriad challenges that lie ahead and which candidates have demonstrated a commitment to justice, fairness, transparency and accountability.

Please don’t vote for a candidate you know absolutely nothing about because he or she has the right last name or is a member of the right political party or circle. Don’t cast a ballot for a candidate because he or she attended the same school as you or goes to the same church.

Take your time and weigh the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate. Does he or she play well with others? Has he or she demonstrated integrity, vision, competence, open-mindedness and a spirit of cooperation in his or her dealings with others? If he or she has represented your neighborhood in llc funds the past, has he or she been accessible and apt to address the needs and concerns of you and your neighbors?

If you’re tired of taxation without representation and unconstitutional policing, voter repression, drug-sentencing disparities, inferior schools, the lack of access to affordable, quality health care, gentrification and environmental injustice, vote about it.

Vote about the cradle-to-prison pipeline, local and federal prosecutorial misconduct and draconian laws that strip you of your constitutional rights.

If you’re tired of “Black misleaders” misrepresenting you and selling you out at City Hall, in the state legislature and on Capitol Hill, vote about it.

If you’re sick and tired of backroom political deals that undermine the democratic process and deprive you of the opportunity to weigh in and be heard by elected officials on issues of critical importance to your community, vote about it.

If you’re tired of watching your tax dollars being used to hire architects, engineers and contractors from surrounding parishes while 52 percent of New Orleans’ Black men payday loans lemmon valley are unemployed, vote about it.

If you’re tired of being told that you have to choose between paying more for water service and having the NOPD consent-decree reforms implemented, vote about it.

If you’re tired of struggling to pay your property taxes while a significant number of the city’s wealthiest residents use non-profits as tax shelters to avoid paying property taxes but still enjoy the lion’s share of city services, vote about it.

Don’t sit around thinking that there’s nothing you can do about the fact that the city’s poor and working class bear a far greater burden in city fees and property taxes than the city’s most affluent residents, vote about it.

Don’t just grumble about the widening wealth gap in this city or the fact that some of those with the greatest incomes consistently get away with paying the least in property taxes, vote abut it.

Step up and let your voice be heard. Do it for Marcus, Malcolm, Madiba, Martin, Medgar, Mama Betty Shabazz, Queen Mother Moore, Baba John Henrik Clarke, Martin Delany, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Kwame Toure, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Mary McCleod Bethune, Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, Denmark Vesey, Charles Deslondes, Nat Turner and all the others who fought, marched, organized, struggled, bled and died for your right to vote and your right to be.

Do it for your children and your children’s children.

Please remember that there are still those among us who are working tirelessly to take away the right to vote from communities of color and the lower economic classes and to determine who is deserving of equal protection under the law and the blessings of liberty.

Don’t just talk about it or complain about it — vote about it and follow up that vote with political engagement and activism.

Let your conscience, courage, principles and pursuit of justice and equal protection under the law be your guide.

This article originally published in the January 27, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.