Not voting isn’t an option for those of us whose ancestors did not always have the right to vote. Or for people whose family came to the United States of America to escape terrible governments, war or poverty.
Because life comes with unimaginable plot twists.
Voting in this election is about protecting the rights you already have. You can’t gain more and better rights if you don’t vote. We need to keep and improve the peaceful, if not perfect, system many of us have enjoyed for decades.
Remember this: Even in America, one day you have rights; the next you don’t. My family is one example of this.
New York City: Voting up north
As a teenager, my grandmother immigrated with her parents to the United States right before the Great Depression. In 1941 my Grandma, by virtue of where she lived could vote. However, the North wasn’t immune to the voter suppression tactics used in the South.
New York still required Grandma to take a literacy test before she could vote. Bilingual and formally educated in Panama, she graduated from high school in New York City. Clearly she was literate. Yet, the state still required her to pass a test to vote. It’s probably why my mother always voted.
Atlanta: Voting down south
In only took just over 10 years to be stripped of the right to vote completely in the south.
In contrast to Grandma, my Big Mama could not vote at all in 1941. She was born and raised in Georgia and lived in Atlanta. Black people in Georgia had lost the right to vote after enjoying it during the Reconstruction Era (1865 until 1877). Some of my family members were shown in voter lists as Freedmen who could vote back then. This loss of rights impacted by Big Mama who was born free, but without the right to vote out politicians who implemented Jim Crow laws.
USA: A personal reflection
When I was in second grade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the United States Constitution protects the right to have an abortion. Abortion has been legal for the majority of my life. I never expected that to change.
Yet in 2022, the Supreme Court overruled this decision, ending the constitutional right to abortion. All it took was for one of the 11 presidents in my lifetime to appoint justices to the court who intended to end this right.
On the state level, a voter suppression tactic has returned to my state — requiring an ID when voting. Even though there has been no voter fraud.
If you choose not to decide, you still make a choice
For people who refuse to vote, you’re choosing not to protect your own freedom to choose.
And for those who vote for candidates who don’t believe we all deserve equality, equity and autonomy, remember this: perceived proximity to power won’t save you. You’ll lose your rights right along with the people you believe should not have the same ones as you.
So find your polling place and know your rights.
Let’s take back our power from the pollsters, pundits and politicians. Let’s all use our votes to return power to the people.
Pinkpodster Ponders 