This month, this week, this very moment, many of us are wondering what we can do, what impact we can have on the fiery mix of situations our country is still facing. How we can support change and tear down injustice, as just one person. What do we do when our cities are burning and there's so much to say. When there's murder. Incitement and provocation and the fallout.
Maybe you wear a cool shirt, or support your causes with bumper stickers. Maybe you rally and march and protest. Maybe you just have an aching heart and quietly wonder what to do.
Once upon a time in a PoliSci Club, on a campus nearby, my friends and I held a voter registration drive for the budding college voters - and this was our slogan:
Decisions are made by those who show up.
Because you can do all the things mentioned above, and you can have the fiercest heart that beats for change - but the most important thing you can do is to show up at the polls. The value of your name punched into that machine or on that absentee ballot? Your golden ticket. Stop thinking it doesn't matter. Stop thinking your vote in your local elections and precincts isn't a thing. Those votes lead to our city officials, our police chiefs and on from there to the cities that run our daily lives. We have got to do better at connecting the dots from the decisions we make at the polls, to the appointed officials, to the actions that shock and anger us in our communities.
There are so many things in our lives that get in the way of this simple action - from inconvenient poll locations to knowing the dates for local elections, to babies that won't nap or are having a bad day. I feel that pain, I have been the mom waiting in a voting line with twins in a double stroller and a baby sling carrying an ornery Phoenix. And on the other side of that exercise in patience was the small voice of my 7 year old when it was all said and done: "Mom, Martin would be very happy." (because aren't all kids on a first-name basis with MLK Jr?!) We can do better.
Don't let the frustration of what is about to fall on us dissuade you. The ugly words and propaganda. Don't let cynicism win. Show up. Maybe stop being so nice and hoping that the good guys will win. I know I will.
