VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, early voting starts today

Early voting starts today, October 20. Get out there now and start voting.

Every election we hear this is the most important election ever, and every election it is true, especially for people of color. If we don’t exercise our right to vote each and every time we have the opportunity we are saying it’s okay to mistreat us, it’s okay to take our vote for granted, it’s okay to remain oppressed.

Important issues will be decided that affect our every day lives, at every level.

This is not just a race about the presidency. Every race is vital and every vote is essential.

We have just experienced eight years of the best president in my lifetime and yet he was vilified and he faced stiff opposition in everything he tried to accomplish. So, don’t think choosing the right presidential candidate is all you need.

We need to change Congress. We have an opportunity to at least change the representation in the Senate and possibly lessen the majority in the House.

Imagine if President Obama had a cooperative Congress or at least a Congress willing to compromise or negotiate instead of a Congress whose only job was to obstruct.

Here, in North Carolina, we have elected a state legislature that has done almost everything it could think of to undermine the rights of the poor, those of color, those who support women’s rights and gay rights and this legislature has made very effort to restrict voting rights.

Now we have to show the sitting ultra-conservative members of this State legislature that they are wrong. Now, we have to turn out to vote in greater numbers than ever. Now, we need to demonstrate to the North Carolina legislature that OUR LIVES MATTER, whether we’re Black, Brown, White, disabled, gay, male, female, we all should matter not just the few rich, White men who want to control our lives and our right to vote.

VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, and don’t just vote, get another person to vote. We all know people who won’t vote unless we prod them. Do it. Talk to that neighbor or cousin, drive them to the polling place, if necessary.

We do not want to say the day after the election count, “Oh, I should of…”

If you are reading this then you are probably smart enough to know that a lot of people scarificed an awful lot to get us the right to vote. Don’t let them down. Vote and get another person to vote. It matters.

Gabriel A. Fraire is the copy editor of the Carolina Peacemaker. He can be reached through his Web site: gabrielfraire.com