Marna C. Mobley
The year 2020 has been a very different year for the world I’m guessing. For us Brown folk, we have had to deal with some ups that came because of some low-DOWNS. We’re in the 10th month now and haven’t reached the top of the hill and that is a clear indication that 2021 has the potential to be that thrilling rollercoaster ride down. Surely there will be a glorious ride on the other side of our 2020 fights, cries and decisions — If I could place an emoji here, it would be the exclamated question mark.
I witnessed over the weekend a massive get out to vote( GOTV) initiative that was launched to encourage the men and women who are registered but have not participated in the process in a few elections. Hundreds of people have been hired to knock on the doors of these individuals. Their goal is to find out why they haven’t voted and find solutions that would get them voting in this election on November 3rd.
During the process I met a young lady who had registered to vote at her job years ago(2015) but never actually voted. Our conversation revealed that she had no real issues as to why she had not voted, she just did not vote. Didn’t feel like it mattered. It’s just one vote”, she said. DeSantis won his seat by less than 10,000 of the 14,065,627 available votes and Representative Anika Omphroy won her seat this past August by less than 500 votes….Your vote matters! Yes, I know the whole electoral college thing is difficult to grasp, but you should consider doing your part until you can either understand it better or just know you’re doing your part no matter what; either way you and your conscience wins! Plus, the local elections count more for you than anything else and on the local level, your vote is paramount! You’ve heard it a million times before but, “People bled and died so that we could have this right”…Don’t waste it.
Well this year, because of the individual in the Whitehouse currently, my new friend felt compelled to cast her vote but assumed that she would have to complete the entire process again and so she once again, decided that her voting thoughts would not be worth the effort of the complete process again. You pick your own emoji to go here; there are a few I could think of that would fit perfectly! I explained to the young lady that if she lives in the same home and has not had her voting rights taken because of crime, then she is a registered voter and can, in fact, cast a vote. We talked for a few more minutes about the importance of voting, especially on the local level and she went online immediately and ordered her mail-in ballot. She promised me that she would call me so that we could go down together and cast our ballots. I gladly gave her my contact number. She confirmed the number and then she said, “When you know better, you aught to do better, that’s what my granny used to say all the time. This is my chance.” I haven’t mentioned her name because she felt ashamed of her previous actions and did not want to be named. I didn’t understand it at first, but I spoke with my wise friend about it and was enlightened. Listen, being Green is relative; don’t judge me!
Whatever your reason is for not casting your vote, I encourage you to find something that will encourage you to do it anyway!
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