I usually write this post on Election Day, but I will be busy. I go to work at 5:30 a.m. and leave, hopefully, at 8 p.m. It might work later — a lot of other people will do so, until the wee hours of the morning. Elections take a lot of person-power.

You hear that you should vote for veterans. Don’t get me wrong, I fully support our veterans. I think they need to be treated with respect and given what they need to be successful in the field and when they come home.

But veterans didn’t fight for our right to vote. They fought to keep our country safe, true, but a lot of other people been harassed, tortured, and even killed so that all the people of this great country — not just white men — could have a say in how we are governed.

So…tomorrow, when you cast your vote, you should honor…

Belva Lockwood and Victoria Woodhull.

Harry Burn and his mother.

Alice Paul and the women of the Occaquan workhouse.

Fanny Lou Hamer, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

Medgar Evers.

James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.

Every woman (and man) who marched for “Votes for Women!”

Every man and woman who risked life and livelihood in the dangerous communities of the Deep South fighting against poll taxes and literacy tests, and registering their friends and neighbors.

Every man and woman who works to bring democracy to all of us.

And, finally….

Every legislator who supported the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-Sixth Amendments to the Constitution.

Honor all of them, or none. Your choice. But whatever you do…

Vote.

x