Use your vote or lose it
20th March 2017 · 0 Comments
Quiet as it’s kept, there are a number of important things worth voting for this weekend.
That is, if you haven’t completely given up on the election process in the wake of the election of President Donald Trump, haven’t become complacent because of the dismal state of conditions in communities of color despite Black and Brown people having the right to vote or simply don’t care.
Hopefully, you aren’t planning to spend the entire day sleeping, tweeting, shopping, getting caught up in March Madness as the NCAA men’s basketball tournament heats up or gorging on mudbugs at a crawfish boil.
With lines expected to be very short at the voting polls this weekend, you should be able to get in and out before your former classmates or friends post any new photos on Facebook or before Uncle Earl has finished boiling the first batch of crawdads, There will still be lots of time to hit the mall, get your garden into top shape or transform yourself into a couch potato.
With two judicial seats up for grabs and a growing need for the people of New Orleans to identify and elect judges who take seriously their roles as stewards of justice and fairness. There is too much at stake for any of us to simply blow off this election.
If we learned anything at all from the shameful and shocking election of President Donald Trump, we should have learned how very much every vote counts and how important and powerful the vote is. We can’t simply refuse to vote because we are unhappy with the choices before us or because we are unhappy about the way a certain campaign has taken shape. As bad as things look before an election, we need to constantly remind ourselves that things can always get worse.
Local, statewide and national elected officials have already proven that they care very little abut the U.S. Constitution, transparency, accountability. Playing by the rules or representing the interests of those who voted for them.
Imagine how much bolder elected officials would get if they lost all fear of being booted out of office by angry constituents. Fear of losing the political perks, power and status they have grown accustomed to is sometimes the only thing that keeps some of our public servants from going completely off the rails.
We’re down right now but not out of the game. We need to use the vote and everything else at our disposal to fight, scratch and claw our way back into a powerful seat at the table. That requires us to choose our leaders and political representatives wisely, assess and gather our resources, establish clear goals and devise a short- and long-term strategy for accomplishing those goals.
Good habits, like bad ones, are hard to break and we need to get into the habit of voting on a regular basis so that no one who is elected to office and is supposed to be representing us in the judicial system, in local government, state legislature or on Capitol Hill will start to believe that there will be no repercussions for not fulfilling his or her campaign promises.
We need to make it very clear to elected officials, especially those who seem more committed to bolstering their political careers and creating economic opportunities for themselves and their loved ones that we brought them into the political process to represent our interests and have no problem taking them out of the equation.
There may be nothing that better motivates an elected official than being booted out by voters and cast back into the real world where there are no political perks or opportunities to line their pockets with back room deals.
If you’re tired of watching elected officials jump from one seat in the legislature or in local government to another without doing anything for those who need help the most in New Orleans, let your vote be your voice. If you’re tired of watching elected officials act like they can no longer see systemic racism, unconstitutional policing, economic injustice, mass incarceration, unconstitutional jailing or educational apartheid once they get elected, send them a message with your vote. When you see elected officials acting like they could care less what their constituents think or feel hit them with a barrage of phone calls, emails and text messages and show up and show out wherever they are. If you are tired of the arrogance of elected officials who made it possible for the larger society to do things like take over the city’s public school system or tax Black residents out of the city but refuse to acknowledge or apologize for what they did, use your vote to give them a crisp pink slip when it is re-election time.
If you’re weary of seeing the business community and white political establishment hand-picking Negroes to run for mayor of New Orleans who have demonstrated no commitment to securing justice, equity or a chance at a better life for the masses, get together with your friends, neighbors, former classmates, co-workers and loved ones to identify and support candidates who will represent you once they are elected.
Doing absolutely nothing or suffering in silence are not options for a people committed to securing justice, equal opportunity, self-determination and recognition as free and equal human beings in this society.
Standing still or repeating the mistakes of the past are also not options for a people who are serious about moving forward.
It’s time to get free or die trying.
Giving up the vote, something many of our ancestors marched, fought, bled and died for, is not an option. We just need to remember that voting is a means to an end, not the end itself.
We need to vote like the ballot is precious to us and like our children and our children’s children are depending on us to turn this thing around.
As those who came before me who wrote for and published The Louisiana Weekly used to say, “If you don’t vote, don’t squawk.”
Enough said.
This article originally published in the March 20, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
