Today I will be mailing in my voting ballot. There is no time to waste and I wish to be sure my vote is counted. Women have had the right to vote for only one hundred years. It took seventy two years (from 1848 to 1920) for their efforts to finally pass the 19th Amendment. Those women who marched and picketed for women’s rights, endured beatings, persecution, and arrests; but they persisted in the face of incredible opposition. Black men were granted the right to vote by the passing of the 15th Amendment in 1870, a full fifty years before women were granted the same right. And black women were not accorded voting rights until as recently as 1965.
For more than a century, our ancestors have fought to procure our rights. We have the right to vote – as women, as women of color, or even regardless of our sexual preference – thanks to those who have gone before us and endured so much to make it possible. This is no time for apathy. If you are a woman, I urge, plead, beg you, to please vote. Do not argue that your vote will not make a difference because it is all of us together, united in common goals, that will enable the healing of our country. If those people who finally succeeded in passing the 19th Amendment had given up, we would not have this right today! We have the right and we need to exercise that right.
Do not wait until the last minute. Vote early. Vote by mail. The world is depending on us to vote for the candidate who will fight for our planet and help us confront climate change – not one who denies what is all around us. Vote for the one who will fight for us (women) to protect our rights, our right to choose, and our right to equal pay – not for the one who does not honor your difficult choices and wants to repeal your right to choose. Vote for the one whose agenda is to work for you, the citizens of this country – not the one who has his own agenda to become dictator through his continual abuse of power. Vote for the one who has integrity, empathy, and an open mind – not the one who is driven by racism, bigotry, and deceit. Let’s keep our momentum going for women and for people of color, to bring equality and justice to all, by voting for Joe Biden.
