Dare We NOT Vote?

There is a spirit of malaise and fatigue amongst Americans, too many of whom are struggling to survive in this economy, but with the upcoming mid-term elections coming up, I have to urge you: vote.
Vote if you’re tired. Vote if you’re angry. Vote if you’re skeptical. Vote. Why?
Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, as African Americans, too many of our people gave up their lives and suffered great pain and injustice to get for us the right to vote. I wish you would all read Taylor Branch’s books on the work of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The work Dr. King and the Civil Rights workers did, the obstacles they faced, the murders of innocent people which went unmentioned, unknown, or glossed over, is hard to digest. Most of us have no idea. We are like people sitting in a concert. We see an hour or two of a performance and have no idea how many days, hours, months and years it took to get to that point. We are enjoying the work of our ancestors and predecessors. They could not vote. It was illegal for them to vote. They were kept powerless while they were made to pay taxes and fight for this country …They knew that phase one of them becoming real citizens of this country was securing the right to vote. They did it for us. We owe it to them to take the gift they gave us.
The second reason to vote is because NOT voting will help usher in, perhaps, people and policies which do not help us. It is foolhardy to believe that years of reckless spending done by the previous administration could be or would be corrected in two years! There have been policies set in place that will help this country and this world get out of the hole we are in now. But to stay home, pouting, mad because “change you can believe in” didn’t come soon enough, deciding not to vote, will not bode well for the majority of people in this nation.
By this time, I am not sure if Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, political titles that we throw around, make much difference, but I am sure that we who believe in justice have, really, only one tool to help make sure that justice flows like an everlasting stream …and that is to vote. Most of you have received absentee ballots. Use them. Fill them out and send them in. Encourage your friends and family to do the same. Help be a part of a groundswell of quiet determination that we WILL be heard, and we will NOT let anyone or any party be the boss of us.
Our predecessors and ancestors died …and suffered …and struggled …for such a time as this. I would hope that we would honor their work and their love for us by making sure we use this most precious gift they gave us, a gift this nation promised to all but kept from so many for too long.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith