Voting is powerful. It’s the difference in being spoken for by others and speaking for ourselves. It’s the difference between being half a citizen and being a whole citizen. It’s the difference between being recognized as fully human as opposed to being a little less than human. Voting is that powerful.

When I reached 21 years of age, I could not vote in Alabama. My mother could not vote even though she had been grown for years and had given birth to 13 children and raised 12. My father could not vote either and he was older than she was and had raised as many children. Not being able to vote somehow said we were not intelligent enough, not worthy enough, not capable enough.

Today, most of us in the USA take voting for granted. Some of us take it for granted so much we don’t bother to vote. Our inaction diminishes that which is so valuable. It is up to us to recognize the value of voting and embrace it firmly.

People in Egypt are rising up and insisting on the full right to vote. The same is true in Iran, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, and other places. They have taken to the streets by the hundreds of thousands. They just want to vote; to speak for themselves rather than being spoken for; to be whole citizens rather than half citizens; to be accepted as whole human rather than partial human. I understand their needs. I understand their actions. I been there!

Last week I was in Washington, D. C. fighting to keep our vote meaningful here in Alabama. I, along with others, met at the U. S. Department of Justice to challenge a scheme to diminish the vote of African Americans in Alabama. No, they did not shout, “You Can’t vote.” Their scheme just diminishes our ability to organize our votes in meaningful ways. We must forever be vigilant for such schemes. They are always being hatched and raised.

This scheme was coated in the veneer of ethics. It sounded so good in the media. We are all for ethics but it must be more than skin deep. And it must never be a cover for vote diminishing schemes. We must forever be vigilant.

I can never forget that I stand on the shoulders of those that went before me. If I reach a little higher, it’s not because I am taller. If I see a little farther, it’s not because I have better eyes.

It’s only because I stand on those shoulders.

And I am not the only one standing on such shoulders.

Yes, voting is powerful. It is so powerful that it makes us full citizens. That’s why I’m celebrating it with everything I have. I hope you celebrate with me.

EPILOGUE – It is easy for us to clearly see a wrong when it’s 10,000 miles away. It is so much harder to see wrong when it springs from our institutions and is upon us. We must see against all diminishment of the right to vote, not just that in Egypt and Iran.wwvw