A responsibility rests upon every Alabamian 18 years of age or older today. That duty lays on city and county residents, mothers, teachers, public officials and street cleaners. It is coiled around Dallas Counties and Selmians alike &045; the duty to vote.

Today polls open at 7 a.m. and won’t close for 12 hours. Employers are required to give their employees time off to go vote. Polling places exist around the city and county. There’s no reason not to vote and no excuse to stay away from our duty.

We are citizens of this country and we have a right, a privilege and a heavy onus to cast our vote no matter what view is held or position taken.

In the weeks leading up to the Sept. 9 vote we have been inundated with the pros and cons of Amendment One. Advocates of one side or another have spread their message on television, radio and newspapers.

But now the time for talk is past. The time for action is now.

On election days a story of what we have gone through to gain the right to vote has become clich, but that story is no less important. From a band of pilgrims seeking religious freedom to a nation of laws and from there to the suffrage movement of the 1920’s and the civil rights movement of the 1960’s &045; voting isn’t a task to be dreaded, but a right to be fought for and then used with pride.

We hope every citizen takes the time today to exercise the right we’ve fought to gain. We trust every citizen will approach his polling place with a sense of pride, duty and patriotism.

And we ask that Selma and Dallas County be filled with an ocean of white stickers stuck to every man and woman’s shirt which spell out the words, &uot;I Voted.&uot;