Seriously, this is really important to me. So beware of the 4th of July-type fireworks about to explode from my fingertips. It’s the only political ANYTHING I will talk about at all, in this blog, on Election Day.
Think about it, America:
…If you are a White Man of property – you’ve been voting here for 236 years.
…If you are an of birth or naturalized (male) citizen – you’ve been voting for 144 years.
…If you are of color, and of birth or are a naturalized (male) citizen – you’ve been voting for 142 years.
…If you are a woman – you’ve been voting for 92 years.
In this time, OUR VOTES have served to:
…Incorporate the Declaration of Independence (1776)
…Adopt the Constitution of the United States (1787)
…Elect our first President (1789)
…Incorporate the Federal Judiciary Act, building our Federal Court system (1789)
…Incorporate The Bill of Rights (1791)
…Pass The Pacific Railway Act, opening transcontinental travel (1862)
…Pass the Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
…Add the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery (1865)
…Incorporate The Civil Rights Act (1866)
…Add the 14th Amendment, ensuring equal protection under law (1868)
…Purchase Alaska from Russia (1868)
…Add the 15th Amendment, on equal voting rights (1870)
…Establish our first National Park, Yellowstone (1872)
…Elect our first female Mayor, Susanna Medora Salter (1887)
…Pass the Burke Act, granting citizenship to Native Americans (1906)
…Elect our first woman to Congress, Jeannette Rankin (1916)
…Incorporate the Child Labor Act (1916)
…Add the 19th Amendment, allowing women to vote (1920)
…Elect our first female Governors: Nellie Tayloe Ross, and Miriam A. Ferguson (1924)
…Elect our first female Senator, Hattie Wyatt Caraway (1932)
…Pass the National Labor Relations Act, allowing the working of Unions in public and private sectors (1934)
…Repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act, allowing their eligibility of citizenship (1943)
…Pass the GI Bill (1944)
…Establish the United Nations Charter (1945)
…Enact Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948)
…Pass Brown vs. Board of Education, ending education segregation (1954)
…Elect our first South Asian, Dalip Singh Saund, to Congress (1956)
…Incorporate the National Interstate and Defense Highway Act (1956)
…Elect our first person of Chinese descent, Hiram Fong, to Senate (1959)
…Establish The Peace Corp. (1961)
…Pass the Test Ban Treaty (1963)
…Pass the Civil Rights Act (1964)
…Pass the Voting Rights Act (1965)
…Pass the Social Security Act Amendment (1965)
…Elect our first African American Mayor, Carl Stokes, of a major city (Ohio) (1967)
…Elect our first African American woman, Shirley Chisholm, to Congress (1968)
…Elect our first Puerto Rican, Herman Badillo, to Congress (1970)
…Add the 26th Amendment, lowering the voting age to 18 (1971)
…Pass the Americas With Disabilities Act, requiring full access to voting facilities (1990)
…Elect our first African American female, Carol Moseley Braun, as Senator (1992)
…Elect our first African American President (2008)
And for those who say, “I’m just one vote, why should it matter?” I’ll tell you:
* One vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England (1645)
* One vote gave America the English language instead of German (1776)
* One vote saved President Andrew Jackson from impeachment (1868)
* One Vote made Texas (1845), California (1850), Oregon (1859), Washington (1889) and Idaho (1890), U.S. States.
* One vote changed France from a monarchy to a republic (1875)
* One vote gave Rutherford B. Hayes the Presidency of the United States (1876)
* One vote gave Adolf Hitler leadership of the Nazi Party (1923)
* One vote saved the Selective Service – just weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked (1941)
It’s your job to go out there and make History happen! It’s your right, to fight for what you believe in.
YOUR VOTE MATTERS!
Tell me what you want, America…and we’ll get it done together!
~D
